At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 531: Cao State Dilemma

The 29th year of the Han calendar, May 10th, Yinzhou continent, Cao State.

In May, the temperature in the New World began to become suitable. Liu Ruyi led several cavalrymen into the territory of Cao State.

The first thing that caught their eyes was the bumpy silver mountain. Even from a distance, they could see its densely packed mines. Miners were coming in and out all around the mines. These miners were either dragging mine carts to the silver blast furnace or dragging mine carts into the mine. The square of the mine was covered with densely packed tracks, like a spider web, and finally converged at the blast furnace area. Although Liu Ruyi and his friends did not see the blast furnace, they could see the black smoke coming out not far away, especially in this underdeveloped area. The black smoke looked extremely tall. If it were taken as a photo, it would look a bit like Mordor.

The cavalrymen following behind Liu Ruyi were excited when they saw the silver mountain. This was the famous silver mountain that could produce hundreds of thousands of kilograms of silver a year. According to legend, one could kick out silver by kicking a stone here.

It can even be said that this is not a legend. There are many miners in the Starting City who have picked up dog-head silver. This natural silver is more sought after by everyone. Many wealthy people think it is a symbol of blessing, and specialize in purchasing such dog-head silver. The price is comparable to that of gold, and one piece of dog-head silver can make hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the Starting City, there are four such lucky people who made their fortunes with such a piece of dog-head silver, and then bought servants, reclaimed land, and became local landlords. Moreover, these people are also stars in the tavern, and people around them always listen to the story of how he picked up this piece of dog-head silver over and over again without getting tired of it.

"Marshal, how about we go to the Silver Mountain and try our luck? Maybe we can find a piece of dog-head silver." The cavalry sergeant said excitedly.

Liu Ruyi said unhappily, "Do you want me to let you take off this military uniform and become a miner?"

The cavalry suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Although there were a few lucky miners, their overall treatment was definitely not as good as that of the soldiers. After retiring, as long as they were willing to stay in the New World Governor's Office, they would be given 500 acres of reclaimed land. If they were willing to return to the Han Dynasty, the court would also find them a good job with a salary of at least 5000 coins. Compared with the miners who risked their lives, these soldiers were obviously treated more generously. Anyone who was not a fool knew how to choose.

Liu Ruyi continued, "Don't you see how many years this silver mountain has been mined? If there really was silver nuggets, it would have been taken away by others long ago. Stop talking nonsense and keep moving forward."

"Yes!" said the cavalrymen.

As more and more gold and silver mines were discovered in the New World, the Cao Qiu and Ye Zhao families who stayed here had too many people to share the money, and the court took half of it. It was not cost-effective for more than a dozen princes to squeeze together, not to mention that they all knew that the silver mines would be mined out one day. If a princely state wanted to develop for a long time, it would need more land, more arable land, and feed more people. More than a dozen families squeezed together would only make everyone have no future.

Therefore, Cao Qiu and Ye Zhao promised the other 10 princes that they would share half of the silver mined within 10 years and ensure that they would not suffer any loss. In addition, there was indeed no room for development for more than a dozen princely states gathered together, so they could make money for free for ten years. Moreover, gold and silver mines could be found in other places. Therefore, these princes also gave up the locations of the silver mountains and went to other good places to establish princely states.

After the other ten vassal states left, Cao and Ye had room for development. Caoqiu was established as its capital in a valley surrounded by mountains and rivers and a huge plain, just a dozen miles away from the silver mine.

As far as Liu Ruyi was concerned, the current Cao State was not even as good as the border counties of the Han Dynasty. There were some sparsely distributed farmlands and villages, and the villages were built with thatch and tree houses. A few houses were built with adobe bricks, which could already be considered wealthy families.

Only the capital of Cao State was slightly better, with a city wall ten feet high and houses made of blue bricks and tiles or small buildings inside, looking a bit like a small county town in the Han Dynasty.

This was the core of Cao State's rule, where Cao State's citizens and naturalized citizens lived. They were not only the rulers and managers of the State, but also the richest people in the State, helping Cao Qiu manage this small mining country.

The place where Cao Qiu lived was a large courtyard covering an area of ​​more than two acres. It was not only where Cao Qiu lived, but also the core of the entire Cao State's rule.

Cao Qiu was a little excited about Liu Ruyi's arrival, so he personally entertained him. The two families were old friends and often played together when they were in Chang'an City. It should be Cao Qiu who took Liu Ruyi to play.

Cao Qiu made Liu Ruyi a cup of tea and said, "Why do you have time to come to my rural area instead of hunting buffalo?"

At the beginning, Liu Ruyi wanted to make achievements and establish his career. Liu Bang looked at the military environment around the Han Dynasty and found that only in the New World was there a possibility of making achievements and establish his career. So he arranged for Liu Ruyi to be the head of a village in the Northern Yinzhou Governor's Office. Because the New World has weighting when calculating merits, Liu Ruyi was promoted from head of a village to a military marquis this year. He is considered a promising young man among the second generation. After another 5 years, he can be promoted to a military Sima. If he can become a military Sima and a captain before the age of 30, it is almost certain that he will become a military Sima. Of course, this is basically the limit of Liu Bang's ability. If he wants to be promoted further, he needs luck, opportunity, and ability.

Liu Ruyi said, "I just came back from Yinzhou Grassland, but the Maya King went to complain again. The governor asked you not to go too far. After all, he was also granted a fief by the emperor. If you really destroy the Maya Kingdom, the emperor will lose face. This time the governor intends to mediate this issue and asks you to go to Qishi City in July to discuss a peaceful solution to the dispute."

Cao Qiu shook his head and said, "I really don't know what the emperor was thinking at the time. These natives have such poor fighting ability that they can't even make bronze ware. Why give them the identity of descendants of the Shang Dynasty? It makes it difficult for me to do many things. The so-called Mayan Kingdom is just a group of natives living on the plateau. I can destroy the so-called Mayan Kingdom with 3,000 soldiers."

It's no wonder Cao Qiu thought so. The last time the allied forces fought against the Maya army, they could have destroyed the Maya in one battle. It was only because of Xu Aimin's restrictions that they left five cities in the Maya Kingdom. But it was also that battle that made Cao Qiu and his people see that the Maya Kingdom was vulnerable. Although it looked like it had a population of millions, it was actually a mess and could not withstand any attack.

After learning about the true face of Maya's weakness, it became a big fat pig for the vassal states of the Han Dynasty. The rapid development of these vassal states was thanks to the blood bag of Maya.

But there is an old saying that goes, great kindness turns into hatred. 8% to 9% of the population of these vassal states are Mayans. The Mayan country is a bit of an eyesore. Without the Mayans, their vassal states can absorb the local indigenous people and claim that the territories under their vassal states have belonged to them since ancient times.

Liu Ruyi naturally didn't understand the emperor's idea. He asked curiously, "Brother, aren't you planning to reduce the production capacity of the silver mine? Why are you arresting people?"

Cao Qiu said: "The price of silver has dropped too fast, and the expenses of the Cao State are too high. I plan to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. On the one hand, I will open up more land in the Cao State to grow food to reduce expenses, and grow tobacco to increase revenue. These also need people to farm, so I found a way to recruit a group of Mayans."

Cao Qiu increasingly felt that mining silver was just working for others. Half of the silver he earned had to be handed over to the court, and the remaining half had to be given to the other five princes. Less than 30% of the silver remained in his hands. The court did not collect such a huge amount of taxes, but such a large sum was actually outside. He felt like a bulldozer being exploited. Damn it! He, Cao Qiu, had never suffered such a big loss in his life. The extreme exploitation made him quit.

At the same time, the prices in Yinzhou were unacceptable to Cao Qiu. Potatoes and corn were okay, basically 400 coins per stone, which was still considered cheap. However, wheat and rice were 10 coins, times more expensive than that of the Han Dynasty.

For a prince like him, corn and potatoes are okay for a taste, but he can't get used to eating them all the time. So he usually eats wheat and rice as his staple food. The same is true for the people of Cao State. They are his retainers and private soldiers, so of course they should be given clothes and food. If the treatment is a little worse, these people will simply quit and go directly to the starting city. After all, that is the real big city, and Cao State is just a combination of urban and rural areas.

So Cao Qiu also had to pay for the food expenses of these people. But when tens of thousands of people eat wheat and rice, this is a considerable expense. In the past, when silver was valuable, such expenses were not worth mentioning in his eyes, but now that income has dropped sharply, the price of wheat and rice, which is ten times higher, makes him feel that he has been cheated.

Cao Qiu thought about it and felt that it would be better for him to earn the money himself instead of letting the Starting City make it. So he put the focus of Cao State's development on farming this year. He planned to reclaim 2 acres of land this year to grow wheat and rice, and reclaim 10 acres of land within three years, completely solving Cao State's food problem and saving tens of millions of dollars a year.

The reason for growing tobacco was that in recent years tobacco from Yinzhou began to be introduced into the Han Dynasty, and the price was very high. The price of one stone of tobacco exceeded thousands of coins, making it a relatively profitable economic crop. Therefore, he planned to make tobacco the second financial pillar of the Cao State.

Speaking of planting, Cao Qiu said, "Ruyi, you often go to the Yinzhou grassland to catch Yinzhou cattle. Give me 100 of them. It's a problem if there are too many oxen to plow the land." Liu Ruyi nodded and said, "I'll leave it to you. Your decision is right. The silver mines will eventually run out. Only by reclaiming the land and retaining the people can a vassal state be founded."

"You should have a plan for the development of Cao State. The villages are sparsely developed, and the land reclamation is not concentrated, which makes it difficult to take advantage of the scale. As a result, the income from the silver mine has caused the development of Cao State to hit a bottleneck."

Cao Qiu sighed and said, "Who knew the price of silver would fall so fast? You know, decades ago, the price of silver was not as high as gold, but it was not much different. But now the same amount of gold is ten times more expensive than silver. What's going on? Isn't this bullying me? Knowing that I have a silver mine, they are trying their best to lower the price of silver. Why don't they see the court lowering the price of gold as well? Isn't this bullying an honest man like me?"

Liu Ruyi said, "Since there is more silver discovered in the New World and less gold, I think the ratio may drop to 15 to 20 based on the current amount of silver. This has happened many times in the Han Dynasty, from sugar in the beginning, to spices later, and finally to silver now. The price has plummeted after the amount increased. Brother, you are lucky. Silver only drops by half a year. It's not like sugar and spices, whose prices drop several times a year, from the price of gold to the price of copper."

The five-zhu coins of the Han Dynasty were worth about 100 coins per catty, and because of production and transportation costs, the prices of sugar and spices also dropped to 100 coins per catty, which was exactly the same price as copper.

Cao Qiu stared at Liu Ruyi blankly. Was he trying to comfort himself or to intimidate himself? Judging from what he said, the price of silver would still fall. If it increased to the same price as copper, then he would not be able to mine at all.

Cao Qiu said dejectedly: "The words of our ancestors are still true. Gold and silver cannot be eaten when hungry, nor can they be drunk when thirsty. Land is the foundation."

Liu Ruyi thought for a moment and said, "If you really want to make up for the shortfall, I have a suggestion."

Cao Qiu asked, "What suggestions?"

Liu Ruyi said, "Brother, you also took your guards to the grassland to catch bison. A live bison costs 15000 coins. A calf is even more expensive, about 1000 coins. If you catch 1 bison, you'll get tens of millions of coins. If you catch , you'll get hundreds of millions of coins. Isn't this a living gold mine?"

Cao Qiu was surprised and said, "There are so many bison on the Indian grasslands. Are the local natives stupid? Why don't they pick up so much money on the ground?"

The Maya were a primitive working nation, but they had no cattle. You know, farming with cattle and farming without cattle are two completely different things.

Liu Ruyi said: "I don't know how many bison there are on the Yinzhou grassland, but I only know that every time I go to the grassland, there are endless bison. The Governor's Office has killed 4 bison, but there is still no sign of a decrease in the number of bison on the grassland."

This is an unsolved mystery of Yinzhou. There were many wild cattle on the plains of Yinzhou. According to the information currently known by the Han people, there were millions of them. However, the Mayans never thought of taming these wild cattle for farming. You should know that the nearest place of these wild cattle is only a few hundred miles away from Maya, but they never thought of this.

What's even more bizarre is that the indigenous people to the north of the Maya never thought of domesticating these wild buffaloes and using them as a source of food. These northern indigenous peoples could not even be considered nomadic people, because the prerequisite for nomadism is to have livestock, and wild buffaloes were the only large livestock on this continent, but they just didn't want to domesticate this kind of livestock. The northern indigenous peoples could only be considered fishing and hunting people.

The real nomadic people were the Huns in Qishi Town. You should know that every time Liu Ruyi took the Huns to catch bison, they cheered. Although there were bison in the desert, it was impossible for such a large herd of bison to appear. For them, every time they went hunting, they were just picking up money.

Cao Qiu thought for a moment and said, "Then I will take a private army to the north to see the situation."

Cao Qiu kept Ruyi for one day. On the second day, he went to Ye State next to Cao State to inform the Governor's Office of the order, and then headed north to Chu State.

Their cavalry happened to encounter a group of people. Liu Ruyi took a closer look and found that it was Duke Zhou Zhang of Chu. He immediately bowed and said, "Liu Ruyi, the military marquis of the Northern Yinzhou Military Governor's Office, has seen the Prime Minister."

Zhou Zhang looked at Liu Ruyi and said with a smile: "You are Liu Ji's son, right?"

Liu Ruyi said: "I am the third son."

Zhou Zhang said, "They look exactly the same. Your father is a cool and bold man. I envy him very much. Where is he now?"

Liu Ruyi said: "Half a year ago, my brother sent a letter home saying that my father went to a place called Parthia."

Zhou Zhang was surprised and asked, "But your father traveled a long way to the Parthian Empire, west of the Xiongnu Kingdom. Could he bear it?"

You have to know that after traveling around the world, for the Han civilization, the entire earth online is equivalent to opening the full map. Although the Han does not know much about the internal conditions of the continents, it still knows the general situation. For example, there are no strong countries in Yanzhou, only some tribes, and there are many strong countries in Qinzhou, and the civilization is only one level lower than that of the Han Dynasty. The local strong countries can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to fight. To the west of Shenzhou, there are powerful countries, including the Seleucid Empire, the Parthian Empire, the Kushan Empire, and the Xiongnu Empire, which is somewhat like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of the Han Dynasty.

To be honest, Xu Fan discovered many things that surprised him from the information provided by Liu Bi and Xu Lu. One was that the current Roman Empire was not as domineering as in later generations and had not become a Mediterranean empire.

He learned from Liu Bi that Rome had fought a war with a country called Carthage a few years before his uprising, with both sides dispatching hundreds of thousands of troops. These two countries could be said to be relatively powerful countries besides the Han civilization.

This news surprised Xu Fan greatly. He knew more than Liu Bi. He also knew that Hannibal, the famous general of Carthage, almost destroyed Rome and was the most dangerous enemy in Roman history.

Xu Fan thought this period of history was a very interesting story. He roughly remembered that Hannibal won three battles and reached the gates of Rome, but the Romans resisted and later destroyed Carthage. However, he never expected that the era he lived in was actually the same as Hannibal's, and Hannibal was even still alive. Of course, Xu Fan did not intend to meet this famous general, he was just surprised.

But Liu Bang was very interested in the world outside the Han Dynasty. When he learned that there was a powerful country called Parthia to the west of the Xiongnu Kingdom, he actually took a ship across India to the Parthia Kingdom, wanting to see the civilization outside the Han Dynasty.

Liu Ruyi smiled bitterly and said, "Although father has always been in good health, he is old after all. My brothers and I have been persuading him to return to Chang'an City to retire, but he has been wandering further and further away. He was still wandering in Tianzhu two years ago, but now he has fled to Yanzhou Continent."

(End of this chapter)