Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 535 Bull Nose Ring
Gao Ming remembered that the bull nose ring should have existed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, because according to the unearthed bronze wares, those bronze bull statues all had a ring on the bull nose.

But in the Tang Dynasty, this thing did not seem to be inherited, which led to the situation that although Li Shimin had conquered the grasslands in the north, the Tang Dynasty still lacked cattle.

For this reason, the imperial court also promulgated a law, strictly prohibiting anyone from slaughtering cattle without permission, or even failing to protect the cattle, causing accidental injury or death of the cattle, and the owner of the cattle will be severely punished.

It can be seen from this that Datang is short of cattle.

It can be said that farming cattle in Datang are not domestic animals, but similar to protected animals, so when Gao Ming said that just a nose ring can turn beef cattle on the grassland into farming cattle, Li Shimin was all excited.

"Tell me quickly, what exactly is this nose ring!"

There was a reason why Li Shimin was so excited. At the beginning, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug the Grand Canal and conquered Goguryeo, so a large number of men either died of exhaustion or died in battle, or became slaves in Goguryeo.

After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, in order to unify the country, the Li family and his sons began a civil war for nearly ten years with more than a dozen warlords such as Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande. Although the world was unified, the consumption of men was also a very large number.

Today's Tang Dynasty has more men than women, and the ratio is extremely unbalanced. In order to save this situation, Datang even promulgated laws such as "Widows and widows do not need to be widowed, they can remarry", in order to restore the power of the people and let the population grow rapidly .

But despite this, it will take a long time to restore people's strength. Right now, the number of males in Datang is still small, and many villages even have only a few adult males.

If the labor force is insufficient, there will be less fields to plant, and if there are few fields to plant, the food produced will naturally be less, and if the food produced is small, the people will go hungry. This is a vicious circle.

The only labor force that can replace men in plowing the fields is cattle. In a village that is seriously short of labor, it is no exaggeration to say that one cattle is the life of the whole village!
Of course Li Shimin knew about this, that's why he promulgated the law to protect the cattle, and it was precisely because he knew this that he felt so urgent.

Seeing his anxious expression, Gao Ming no longer kept his secrets, and nodded immediately.

"It's like this, there are many nerves in the nose of a cow, so as long as a ring is pierced on its nose like piercing an ear, then no matter how stubborn the cow is, as long as someone pulls the ring, under the impetus of pain, You can also make it plow the fields!"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Shimin's eyes lit up immediately, but soon his face darkened again.

"The method you mentioned is indeed very good, but I'm afraid there will be some objections... oh..."

Looking at Li Shimin who suddenly sighed, Gao Ming's face was full of doubts.

"Someone objected? Isn't my Tang Dynasty very short of farm cattle? This time we got more than 2 cattle. As long as we use nose rings, there is a great possibility that half of them will be converted into farm cattle, which is so beneficial to the country." Why would anyone object to benefiting the people?"

"This one……"

As soon as Gao Ming finished speaking, a trace of confusion flashed across Li Shimin's face, and then he shook his head helplessly.

"Why don't I know what you said? But my Tang Dynasty ruled the country by virtue. If there is a ring on the nose of a bull, I am afraid it will attract criticism and say that I am not benevolent."

"what?"

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Gao Ming was immediately dumbfounded, and it took him a while to come back to his senses, and then frowned at Li Shimin.

"Inhumanity? What does putting a nose ring on a cow have to do with inhumanity?"

Seeing Gao Ming's completely incomprehensible expression, Li Shimin immediately glanced at him from the corner of his eye.

"Would you be happy if someone put a ring on your nose?"

"Nonsense, of course I'm not happy, I...uh..."

Speaking of this, Gao Ming suddenly understood what Li Shimin meant, and he nodded in a sudden realization.

"Well, I think I see what you mean, you mean, if we put nose rings on the noses of cows, then the scumbags will take the moral high ground and attack us, right?"

Seeing that Gao Ming finally understood what he meant, Li Shimin took a deep breath this time, and then nodded.

"Right, that is it!"

"..."

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Gao Ming didn't know what to say for a while, and fell silent immediately.

Now Gao Ming finally understood why the Ox-nosed ring appeared in the Warring States period but not in the Tang Dynasty. It turned out to be lost in the long river of history, or discarded by some extreme Confucianists.

Thinking of this, Gao Ming couldn't help but sighed immediately.

"Sigh... do we just kill these cattle for meat? Although I really like eating beef, it doesn't feel good if I do this. These cattle can obviously be turned into farming cattle."

"Yes!"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Shimin also nodded.

"If, as you said, [-] of the cows can be turned into farm cattle, then according to the distribution method of one cow per village, the people in at least ten states and counties can live comfortably!"

Li Shimin's mood at this time is very complicated. On the one hand, he hopes that Gao Ming can use this bull nose ring to turn the grassland cattle into Datang's farm cattle, so as to alleviate the severe shortage of Datang's farm cattle.

But on the other hand, he still needs these Confucian officials to help him govern the country, so he dare not easily break with these Confucian scholars.

Gao Ming didn't expect that a cow nose ring would involve so many things. After Li Shimin told him his worries, Gao Ming immediately let out a long sigh.

"Oh, this man, it's a very simple thing, but he insisted on making it so complicated."

"Yes!"

Li Shimin deeply sympathized with Gao Ming's words, so as soon as Gao Ming's words fell, he nodded with emotion.

"So, let's forget about it. Anyway, in two years, Datang should be able to produce [-] more cattle."

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Gao Ming frowned immediately.

"Forget it? Just because those poor and rotten scholars will object, so forget it?"

Speaking of this, Gao Ming's face suddenly became sullen.

"Forget it is just a sentence, but those people are likely to starve because of our word 'forget it'! So it can't be forgotten!"

Seeing Gao Ming's agitated look, a strange color flashed across Li Shimin's face, and he looked at Gao Ming in surprise.

"What are you going to do?"

"Cold salad! Alright, I'm leaving first!"

Having said that, Gao Ming bowed his hands to Li Shimin with a displeased face, then turned and walked out.

When he was walking through the door, he suddenly turned around and looked at Li Shimin expressionlessly.

"I'll go to Lu Guogong and the others to do this matter together, so you have the right to pretend that you don't know. Wait until I finish the matter, and then argue with those poor and rotten scholars!"

After speaking, Gao Ming left without looking back.

Seeing his figure gradually disappearing outside the door, a gratified smile appeared on Li Shimin's face.

"Being decisive and unscrupulous, this kid Gao Ming is really more and more like me when I was young!"

(End of this chapter)