big song poppi

Chapter 603 0600 [Expensive, there is a reason for it]

"Wow!"

Lin Cong clapped his hands in agreement and said, "I later went to Yidu to help Brother Han run Zhuo Lou. The chef in the store made braised meat every day, but I always felt that it was not as good as what Brother Han cooked."

Han Zhen shook his head and laughed, "How many times had you eaten meat before that? Not to mention meat, I'm afraid you haven't even had enough rice. Suddenly you have a wild boar and can eat as much as you want. Even if it's boiled in plain water, you will find it extremely delicious."

His cooking skills are not very good, but with the seasoning of time and memories, it becomes a delicacy.

The most delicious meals you have ever eaten in your life will only exist in your memory.

Gu Song advised: "Brother Sangou, don't go back this time when you come to Beijing, just stay here."

"Yes."

The monkey agreed, "Stay in the capital, and we brothers can get together often in the future."

"No."

Ma Sangou shook his head and said with emotion: "The capital is prosperous, but it is not suitable for me. After all these years in Songshanling, I have become accustomed to life there. Watching Songshanling grow from a small mountain village to the town it is today is like watching my own child grow up."

"Linzi is the ancestral home of Second Brother Han, so someone has to help guard it. Moreover, Second Brother Han has been doing a lot of construction in the past two years, building highways and canals, making it convenient for Linzi to travel to the capital. If I miss you later, I will come and get together with you."

Han Zhen nodded: "Alright. Everyone has their own way of living. Just make yourself comfortable in Linzi."

The five of them ate and drank while chatting and reminiscing about the past. It was really lively.

The banquet lasted until sunset, and many hot dishes were served during the meal.

Han Zhen took the hot towel handed to him by the palace maid and wiped his face.

At this moment, the monkey next to him took out a white jade rod from his arms. It was about three inches long and as thick as a little finger, with a small purple gold pot inlaid on the end.

hiss!
In an instant, Han Zhen sobered up.

How could he not recognize this thing? It was clearly a pipe.

Although the style is slightly different from that of later generations, it is basically the same.

Han Zhen asked calmly, "Monkey, what is this?"

"Brother Han said this jade pole?"

The monkey raised the pipe in his hand and explained drunkenly: "This thing is called a pipe, and it is used to smoke a kind of herb."

Do you have cigarettes now?

Han Zhen didn't know whether there was tobacco in the Central Plains. He only vaguely remembered that tobacco was brought back from America along with sweet potatoes, corn and other products.

If this is true, it means that someone had been to America and brought back tobacco seeds.

Thinking of this, Han Zhen was overjoyed and asked hurriedly, "Give me the herbs to see."

"Here."

Monkey was drunk at this time, and his reaction was obviously slow. He slowly took out a brocade bag from his arms and handed it over, saying with a smudge of tongue: "There is a fire on the boat this time. It is said that it has the effect of removing dampness and relieving pain when smoking this thing. These fires go to sea all year round. After a long time, they will suffer from a disease. When it rains, their bones will ache severely. After smoking this thing, the pain can be relieved. I thought it was interesting, so I asked for it to try."

"I was a little uncomfortable at first, but after I smoked more, I felt good about it. Especially after a meal, I smoked a cigarette, which made me feel relaxed and happy."

Han Zhen took the brocade bag, opened it, poured some liquid into his hands, and examined it carefully.

I saw some dark brown hay crumbs lying in the palm of my hand, which didn't seem to be tobacco leaves.

He put it close to his nose and sniffed it. As expected, there was no smell of tobacco, but a faint smell of traditional Chinese medicine. It smelled quite nice, similar to a kind of incense. Han Zhen couldn't put his name to it for a moment.

He was certain that it was not tobacco leaves, and he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

I was excited for nothing and it was all for nothing.

Han Zhen handed the brocade bag back and asked casually, "What kind of herb is this?"

"I asked the doctor on board, what is this citronella? It is indeed a Chinese herb, mostly grown in Guangdong, Guangxi, Dali and other places, and has the effect of removing dampness, relieving cough and relieving asthma. According to the doctor, there is a lot of miasma in Guangdong, Guangxi and Dali, and whenever miasma is rampant, burning this incense can dispel the poisonous miasma."

As the monkey spoke, he skillfully took out a handful of herbs and stuffed them into the copper pot. Then he took out a wind-milled copper fire starter and lit it.

hiss!
The monkey took a deep breath, took a puff, then opened his mouth slightly and exhaled a handful of light smoke, looking comfortable and enjoying himself.

The smoke is very light, not as strong as tobacco, and the smell is much better than tobacco.

Seeing him puffing out smoke, Gu Song beside him was eager to ask: "Monkey, what's that feeling?"

The monkey replied: "I can't really say, but it feels good anyway."

Gu Song suggested: "Let me try it too."

The monkey handed over the pipe in his hand without saying a word.

Han Zhen did not stop him. Compared with Gusu and Xiaochong, Monkey was the calmest. He dared to inhale, so he must have observed for a long time and consulted the doctor.

"Cough cough!"

As soon as he took a sip, Gu Song choked.

He handed the pipe back with a look of disgust on his face, and said with disgust: "This thing makes my throat hurt. What's the fun of smoking it?"

The monkey laughed and said, "You won't choke when you get used to it."

The five of them drank tea and chatted for a while before leaving the palace.

……

But after Zhao Ke left the palace, he was arranged by the eunuch to stay in the inn.

His original plan was to have a good time in the capital after leaving the palace and experience the prosperity of the Celestial Empire.

As a result, the words of the Emperor of Qi made him lose all interest in sightseeing and he became very uneasy.

garrison!

Once the superior country stations troops at the port, who has the final say over this port?

Even though there was only one Shenzhou warship fleet, he had witnessed the terrifying combat power of the Shenzhou with his own eyes. When the thunder sounded, the pirate ship a hundred feet away turned into pieces, like a punishment from heaven.

He had never seen such combat power before, not to mention had never heard of it. It was no longer something that could be made up for simply by numbers.

Besides, if His Majesty says one, then it means one?
If they stationed three or five troops, they could launch a surprise attack and wipe out his Bintonglong tribe overnight. But he didn't dare to refuse. If he angered His Majesty, he wouldn't even need to do anything. He could just sell some weapons to the Champa King, and the Champa King would be able to completely annex the Bintonglong tribe with force.

If this were true, the King of Champa would probably wake up laughing in his dreams.

After staying in the inn restlessly for a night, an official came the next morning accompanied by Zhu Da.

"Meet Mr. Zhu."

Zhao Ke bowed first, then asked, "May I ask your name, sir?"

"Your surname is Yang, and you work in the military."

The official cupped his hands, only gave his last name, and was vague about his official position.

This person is Yang Yizhong.

After returning to Beijing with Han Zhen a few months ago, he had been idle at home. He was only summoned to the palace yesterday and was given this task.

His vague words just now were not perfunctory, but he really had no assignment. He only had a seventh-rank honorary position as a martial arts doctor.

Military equipment is the foundation of a country, so it cannot be sold at will.

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Now that the national treasury is not short of money, Han Zhen has never thought of reselling the weapons in the arsenal.

However, the previously obsolete military equipment and the scraps seized from the Zhao Song and Jin dynasties could be sold.

These weapons are outdated in all aspects of performance, and the cost of modification is too high. It is rare to find a sucker willing to pay double the price for them, so it is better to sell them quickly than to keep them gathering dust in the arsenal.

The most typical one is the catapult, which has a short range and mediocre power. When attacking a city, if you want to successfully throw a huge stone, you often have to sacrifice the lives of seven or eight civilians and soldiers. It's pure garbage!

In addition, there are many iron armors, swords and spears made during the reign of Emperor Shenzong, as well as crossbows that cannot penetrate armor.

Zhao Ke bowed and said, "It turns out to be Mr. Yang."

After the greetings, Zhao Ke invited the two to sit in the living room and ordered a cup himself: "My skills are not very good, I hope you two husbands will not despise me."

After taking a sip of the tea, Zhu Da chuckled and said, "You two can talk slowly. You don't have to pay attention to me."

He was just acting as a middleman today and didn't even wear his official uniform.

Yang Yizhong didn't waste any words and got straight to the point: "Dato Zhao wants to buy military equipment?"

His eyes were a little red. He stayed up late last night to make the list, and sent it to the palace for His Majesty to review early in the morning. After the approval, he immediately took Zhu Da to the inn.

"good."

Zhao Ke nodded.

Yang Yizhong took out a booklet from his sleeve pocket and handed it over, saying, "This is the list of weapons for sale this time. The various weapons and prices are clearly marked. Please take a look, Dato Zhao."

Taking the booklet, Zhao Ke began to flip through it with great interest.

The quality of military equipment depends on the level of technology.

The technology during the Zhao Song period was ahead of the rest of the world. After all, they could even make things like the high-fire oil tank, which is a testament to their achievements.

To Champa, even the junk in Han Zhen’s eyes is definitely a fine product.

Since it was the first time that Yang Yizhong was assigned a task by His Majesty, he was particularly attentive and introduced the various military equipment in great detail.

Catapults, crossbows, iron armor, phoenix-eye knives, armor-piercing guns... and a kind of siege equipment, there are no less than a hundred of them, which made Zhao Ke dazzled and overjoyed.

But when he saw the prices behind these weapons, he couldn't help but be shocked: "Why... are they so expensive?"

"Dato Zhao thinks it's expensive?"

Yang Yizhong asked back.

Zhao Ke pointed at the ordnance book and said, "A hand crossbow costs twelve strings of cash. Isn't that expensive?"

Twelve strings of cash?
Zhu Da, who was drinking tea at the side, paused and glanced at Yang Yizhong secretly.

My goodness, this Yang Yi Zhong has thick eyebrows and big eyes, but I never thought he could be so cruel. He is even more cruel than me.

With the birth of assembly line workshops, the Shenbi crossbow was equipped on a large scale in the army, and new hand crossbows also began to be trial-installed.

This new type of hand crossbow imitates the crossbow mechanism of the Shenbi crossbow. It is more powerful, smaller and lighter, and can be strung with both hands on horseback.

As for the crossbows of the past, even dogs don’t use them.

Yang Yizhong asked again: "May I ask how much does the Champa crossbow cost?"

Zhao Ke replied: "Not enough."

The Champa Kingdom also used copper coins from the Central Plains, but the amount was slightly different from that of the Central Plains.

In fact, not only Champa, but also Dali, Jin Dynasty, Western Xia and even Goryeo used copper coins from the Central Plains.

Now you know why there is a money shortage in Central Plains?
Because it is not only used in the Central Plains, but also in neighboring countries.

Fan Chengda once worked in Jingjiang, Guangxi. In his "Guihai Yuhengzhi", he recorded that Jiaozhi "could not mint coins, and only used small Chinese copper coins."

In fact, these countries have also minted their own copper coins, but the circulation effect was not ideal because the people and the powerful did not recognize them and only recognized the copper coins from the Central Plains.

This is just like some small countries in later generations, whose own currencies are not as popular as the RMB and the US dollar.

Yang Yizhong asked calmly, "What is the range of the crossbow made by the Champa craftsmen? And how powerful is it?"

Zhao Ke was a little unconfident: "The range is less than 70 steps, and it can break leather armor within 30 steps."

Yang Yizhong said solemnly, "It is clearly written in the list that the crossbows sold in Qi have a range of up to 100 steps. Leather armor is invisible within 50 steps. Even a single layer of thin iron armor can be penetrated. Doesn't Datu Zhao know that when two armies are facing each other on a battlefield, a difference of 30 steps can determine the outcome?"

"This... of course I know that, but twelve strings of cash is too expensive. Can it be cheaper?" Zhao Ke's face froze and his tone was embarrassed.

Yang Yizhong lied, "From the time a soldier is conscripted to the time he goes into battle, the money and food he spends during this period is definitely more than twelve strings of cash. If he dies because of the range of a crossbow, wouldn't that be a huge loss? Datuk Zhao, you need to know that everything has a price, and there is a reason why it is expensive."

Zhao Ke nodded in agreement and said, "Mr. Yang is right."

Seeing this, Zhu Da's mouth twitched.

It is obvious that Zhao Ke has been fooled by Yang Yizhong.

(End of this chapter)