Overlord!

Chapter 211 Jiankang and Prosperity
When Gu Yong arrived in Jiankang from Wuxing, it was almost November.

In two months, he only traveled through two counties.According to the past, when Wuxing belonged to Kuaiji County, it took him two months to get from this county to the neighboring county.

It's not that he delayed deliberately, but that in this era, Southeast is just as efficient.

Many places are wilderness and there is not even an official road.

And even if there is an official channel, there is no inn.There is a shortage of horses in the southeast, and it is impossible to set up a post station thirty miles away.

Even a messenger would have to travel seventy or eighty miles in one day, and the horse wouldn't be able to bear it any further.

Therefore, Sun Ce has been thinking about laying a post road in Jiangdong recently.This is very necessary. Nowadays, documents are sent between counties. Many messengers carry bags on their backs, carry swords on foot, and travel dozens of miles a day to deliver them to various places.

There may only be a few draft horses and draft horses in a county.

In this Northern Expedition to Huainan, although Sun Ce finally won a great victory, his losses were also very heavy.The war horses can still stay in the military camp to escape the summer heat, next to the horse herding stream, while the pack horses have to transport grain and grass all day long. Every time hundreds of carts of grain are transported, death and injury are inevitable.

The war lasted for half a year, and more than [-] packhorses were killed or injured.

After three years of war, the emperor was unable to possess a military chariot, and the generals or ministers rode in ox-carts. This was by no means a lie.

In a county, even if there is a horse-drawn carriage, this is a treatment that can only be received by a wealthy family, and only the head of the Gongqing family can have it.

Even in a powerful family, even a few households may not be able to have a rogue horse.So they can only ride in bullock carts.

Therefore, Sun Ce opened the post station not only to deliver government affairs and documents to the country, but also to make a profit.

In fact, government-run inns also charge a fee. After all, the government cannot be expected to provide free food, clothing, rooms, feed, etc. to people other than officials.

It's just that this profit can easily breed corruption, be appropriated by gentry and powerful people, and rely on public expropriation.Carrying a piece of official documents that were spam, he said that he had official duties and asked the post station to provide free food, clothing, housing and transportation services.

Anything involving horses is too easy to lead to corruption.

But even so, Sun Ce still had to build a post station and strengthen his control over various states and counties.

Rather than canceling the world's post system like Chongzhen did.Without the inn, how could he control such a vast territory and extend imperial power to local counties?Others have imperial power and do not go to the countryside. He has imperial power and does not go to the counties.It would be unjustifiable for him not to be the king of the country.

Another advantage of the current promotion of post stations in Jiangdong is that there are a large number of refugees and Shangyue in Jiangdong. They have no land to cultivate and have abundant arms. The poor and scoundrels can travel by water, land, boat and carriage to support themselves.

The eleven counties in Jiangdong all set up post stations, and maintained the post roads with boats, carriages and horses. Those who relied on them as post soldiers could accommodate [-] to [-] refugees and Shanyue.

The entire Shanyue, especially the Shanyue in Danyang and Kuaiji, was harvested by Sun Ce every year. Today he will cut five cities, and tomorrow he will cut ten cities. There may only be 7 to [-] people left in the Shanyue in the mountains.

After another 3 to 3 people were resettled, the remaining [-] to [-] people were distributed in two counties and nearly thirty counties. One of their tribes launched a rebellion, and the young and strong might not even be able to defeat the local Xia tycoons.

After all, the powerful men of this era are not the frail scholars from the south of the Yangtze River in later generations who would gather thousands of people at every turn. There were also young knights in the countryside, leading gangs and groups.

Just setting up a post road is not an easy task. First of all, local counties must have sufficient granary reserves.

After all, there are several or even dozens of horses in a station, and they need to consume a lot of food and grass every month.Several post stations in a county may consume more than [-] shi of beans and [-] to [-] shi of bran every year. The postmen also consume hundreds of shi of corn and rice, plus food materials, fodder, firewood, carriages and sedans. The volume of goods coming and going is very large, and these things need to be stored. Therefore, warehouses are also indispensable in the inn.

To provide a steady supply of supply to these post warehouses, the warehouses in each county also need to be enriched.

So just a few days after Gu Yong arrived in Jiankang, Sun Ce took him out of the government office and went to various counties to investigate the storage conditions of grain and grass.

To the north of Jiankang City is Xuanwu Lake and the Yangtze River. To inspect the counties, Sun Ce and Gu Yong could only go to the south of the city and go down the Qinhuai River.

In the south of Jiankang City, where the Qinhuai River merges into the moat, the prosperity of Jiankang has begun to take shape.

Sun Ce and Gu Yong stood by the official road under construction in the south of the city and looked at the large number of buildings built next to the riverside shops for a while.

Although it is already November, and the temperature in Jiangnan has dropped to about six or seven degrees, the sun is shining brightly on the construction site, and the craftsmen are full of enthusiasm and enthusiasm.

They shuttled between hundreds of tall mansions, transported a large amount of wood and stone, and built a huge store with numerous buildings lined up in rows.

Sun Ce was in a good mood and asked: "There is a lot of construction here, is it built by the government to facilitate the market?"

Yang Xiao, who was following Sun Ce, spoke proactively and said excitedly, "I know this place. I heard it is the place where the largest female concubine in Jiankang is located. After it is completed, thousands of women will be welcomed and sent off here." Past."

Yang Xiao has been following Sun Ce for more than four years. From a refugee who almost died in a ravine, he started in the army with bravery. Now he has served as the captain of the embroidered clothing guard, and together with Sun Ce's clan brother Sun Fu, controls two thousand embroidered clothing. Wei, under the control of Zhao Yun, the general of Zhonglang.

In the past few years, he has also successfully established a career in Jiangdong. Not only has he been promoted along the way, but he has also managed his family's fortune.

In the Battle of Shouchun alone, after capturing Shouchun City, Sun Ce opened his treasury and rewarded the soldiers. He obtained one of Yuan Shu's concubines, more than a hundred pieces of silk, and a large number of rare and rare treasures.

Sun Ce heard that he had married a daughter of the Shi family of a large Danyang family. Her father had served as a censor and was considered a descendant of a famous family.

Then he took in two or three more concubines, and now he has five or six wives and concubines, and three or four children.

There are more than ten people living in one household, which can barely be considered a large household.

But this is not too outrageous. Nowadays, there are frequent wars in the world, and wars are everywhere. After a big war, tens of thousands of young people can be killed or injured.

It was Sun Ce who attacked Huainan. In Jiujiang, he destroyed nearly 2 Qiao Rui's troops in one battle, and Lü Meng defeated Huang Yi's troops, which numbered tens of thousands.In the battle with Lu Bu, he even used iron cavalry to attack, and the formation kill was more than [-] levels.

This resulted in a large number of young men numbering in the hundreds of thousands, causing casualties in batches.

More women than men is a common phenomenon everywhere.

Therefore, capable young men will marry more than one wife, and it often happens that a man marries two or three sisters from another household.

But even so, there are still a large number of women who are helpless and unable to make a living.

Listening to Yang Xiao's words, outside Jiankang City, on the Qinhuai River, smoked willows, painted boats, and brothels with hooked railings are likely to flourish in advance.

Sun Ce suddenly felt familiar with this matter, and asked in surprise: "The magistrate of Jiankang County...can't be Shao Zhuo, right?" Gu Yong raised his hand and said, "General Mingjian, it is indeed Lord Shao County. The Lord of Shao County had previously served as the magistrate of Liyang, and there were tens of thousands of refugees and refugees in the area. Now that Huainan is owned by the general, the Lord of Shao County has been in charge of Liyang for several years, so he naturally needs to be promoted."

"The long history believes that the qualifications of the king of Shao County are slightly insufficient to govern one county, and that his merits in governing one county are not enough. There are only two counties that can promote him, either to Jiankang Order or to Wu County. make."

Obviously, Shao Zhuo's talents are not suitable for serving as the magistrate of Wu County.

Although Wuxian is the most prosperous city in the southeast, Wuxian is located on the Taihu Plain. It is a vast plain with thousands of miles of fertile fields. It is also a land of fish and rice and a garden of mulberry trees.

This is the most important agricultural and mulberry county. It needs a traditional agriculture minister to serve as the county magistrate to develop mulberry farming and produce grain.

Jiankang City, on the other hand, is surrounded by a wilderness. At the foot of Zhongshan Mountain and beside Xuanwu Lake, there is still a large amount of wasteland, covered with weeds and barren mountains. Under this situation, the development of Jiankang City obviously cannot be based on farmland. It needs to rely on industry and commerce to support it. Jiankang City provides livelihoods for nearly 20 people.

Sun Ce praised: "Chang Shi is indeed a talented person who can manage the country, and he can make the officials show their talents. Shao Zhuo has a genius in industry and commerce, so he is indeed suitable to serve as the Jiankang Order to facilitate the market."

Even his style is too obvious, and he never forgets to develop his daughter-in-law wherever he goes.

Gu Yong didn't care about the female concubine. This might be a major feature of Jiankang City, attracting powerful people and aristocratic families from all over the country to come to Jiankang to travel and enjoy the scenery.

You must know that nowadays, ordinary people are not short of women. As long as they work hard and farm, they will be able to have a family and start a business.

Only those scholars and powerful people with a sense of freshness went to Jiankang City to look for flowers and willows.

Guan Zhong enriched the treasury of Qi State with his daughter Lu, and became King Wen's hegemony.

Jiankang will therefore become an important support for Jiangdong's hegemony.The administrative seat of Jiangdong was in Jiankang. Most of the time, the core of a dynasty's ability to collect taxes was in its capital.

Jiankang City is prosperous and prosperous, and even rouge, gouache and brothel hooks will provide a steady stream of taxes.

The brothels and boats on the Qinhuai River, where merchants and aristocratic families spend huge sums of money, will become one of the mainstays of national taxation, no matter how high-ranking officials and dignitaries live and die.

Of course, although things like brothel girls are a temporary feature, compared with the national industry and commerce, it is still far from enough to be worth mentioning.

What can support this prosperous Jiangnan and rouge gouache must be the rich and developed industry and commerce. Without sufficient money, food and utensils, no matter how beautiful the most beautiful woman is, she is nothing more than a skinny pink skeleton.

Gu Yong pointed to both sides of the market under construction and said to Sun Ce: "When I first entered Jiankang and bought my food and clothing, I heard from my wife that the Lord of Shao County was opening a market in Jiankang, not counting the city. Only Qinhuai Along the line, there are eighty large markets and more than thirty small markets.”

"There are also white porcelain and brocade, which are produced on-site. The workshops stretch for miles and there are hundreds of chimneys. People in the city can go directly to the workshops to buy them, and the price is more than [-]% cheaper than the market price."

Zhao Yun asked in surprise: "There are more than a hundred large and small shops? How many granaries are needed to supply these traders and lackeys?"

After all, if you do some calculations, you can see that there are probably more than 50 to [-] people engaged in industry and commerce in so many shops. If a person consumes ten dan of food a year, then this shop alone consumes more than [-] dan of food.

Every year, no less than 500 million shi of grain and grass must be transferred to Jiankang.

Gu Yong pointed to the palace under construction in the distance and said: "Zilong, look over there. It is the Jiankang Qinhuai warehouse. When it is completed, it will be more than twenty miles away and store 600 million shi of grain. Only in this way can we ensure the supply of Jiankang." No worries, the price of grain in Danyang is stable. There is also a Hanjiacang in the north of the city, which is especially larger than the Qinhuai Granary. It is mainly transported by water and is transported from Wujun. It can store tens of millions of grains in case Wujun has a good year, and the grain It hurts the peasants."

Tens of millions of stones of food!

If this refers to the transportation of cattle and horses, it would require 40 round trips.

Jiangdong's packhorse ran out and broke more than a dozen pairs of horseshoes.

But if we use water transportation, one ship can carry [-] shi of grain, and a thousand water ships will be able to transport it six or seven times.

The establishment of the capital Jiankang really highlighted the benefits of Jiangnan.It not only has developed and convenient water transportation, but also has abundant and extremely abundant output in a land of plenty.

Among the princes in the world today, probably only Sun Ce and Cao Cao can raise tens of millions of stones of food and grass.

Yuan Shao had so much grain in Jizhou, but not all of it was concentrated near Yecheng, so transportation was relatively difficult.Unlike Cao Cao, the field was located near the administrative center.

Gu Yong continued to point to the east bank and said: "There are more than [-] pastures in the east of the city. Every winter month, the villages collect grass, and the roads are filled with ox carts, and the number of the carts is tens of millions. .There are piles of stuff in the field to provide what is needed.”

Gu Yong is still used to saying the word "na".

But in fact, Jiangdong did not collect exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes from the people, such as custard tax and cow hide tax.

Sun Ce told the people at the beginning that he would not impose excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and he really did it.

When people pay taxes in October, they usually go to the city to pay land taxes, that is, Jiangdong Tongbao.

Of course, there are still many families who do not have Tongbao at home.

Therefore, during the winter months, when paying taxes, people carried two-stone cloth bags on their shoulders and went to Chang Ping Granary or the market to sell grain in the city. There were many people carrying the burdens on their shoulders.

The receipt of culled straw is also one of the most important incomes for the people. The government controls the seigniorage, so the treasury is abundant, and the culled straw is bought in Tongbao market in the pasture.

So the people carried dozens of bunches of cud in their cars and sold them to pastures to supplement their household income.On this occasion, there is an endless stream of bullock carts and carts, and mountains of straw are piled up in the pasture.

Now that the south of the Yangtze River is gradually flattening, there are no tigers, leopards or wolves on the road. People from several counties near Jiankang have added cars and rushed all the way to Jiankang to sell some items.

Although Jiankang City is still under construction, the scale of its shops and its prosperous industry and commerce have already become the largest in the Southeast.

However, only one developed city obviously cannot support the entire Jiangnan. Especially for the construction of post stations, it is necessary to ensure that all counties along the road have sufficient warehouses to be finally completed.

Sun Ce watched for a while and said to Gu Yong: "Master Gu Fu, let's go down along the Qinhuai River to see how the conditions are in each county."

Gu Yong immediately raised his hands and said, "Dare you disobey me?"

Then Gu Yong said: "Since Jiankang went south, the nearest one was Moling. Jiankang was originally subordinate to Moling, and the two places were separated by water. People in Moling who had food and grains all went to Jiankang. If you look at the Moling treasury, you can get a glimpse of the various places in the east of the Yangtze River. One or two from the county treasury.”

(End of this chapter)