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

Chapter 592: Daqinzhou in the process of reform and the ambitious Yizhixie
On May 36, the 5th year of the Han calendar, Alexandria, Consulate General of Daqinzhou.

Zhang Pijiang received news that the Roman Senate had passed the "Land Law". According to this law, Roman civilians could apply to the state for 50 acres of wasteland (readers who know the area units during the Roman Republic period can tell me about it). The state provided paid assistance of oxen and farm tools, and the civilians who received assistance used food to repay the debt.

Even Roman slaves could be redeemed by the state, allowing them to farm as civilians and then use grain to repay the debt.

This was the first decree in the entire Great Qin State to abolish slavery. Although it was not perfect, it was a historic leap forward.

Faced with the vast Han Empire, the Romans also felt that their hundreds of thousands of citizens might not be enough, and playing gladiator games was just a waste of their country's few slaves.

In fact, Appatius also wanted to make a decree to ban the slave trade. Slaves in Rome could still be kept, but they could not be sold abroad. Because Appatius seemed to be selling slaves to the Han people, weakening Rome's strength and strengthening the Han people's power.

Unfortunately, it was killed during the discussion. Now, a young and strong slave sold to a Han merchant costs at least 3 Han coins, and the more expensive ones even exceed 10 Han coins. Almost half of the Roman senators are engaged in this lucrative slave trade, and this has become one of Rome's main fiscal revenues. Without the slave trade, Rome has no way to balance trade with the Han. The Roman senators have no money to make. Apatius knows that if he passes this decree forcefully, even his own family may not be able to protect him. He may be shot with eight swords and commit suicide after his death.

Appatius was a relatively pragmatic reformer. Faced with this impossible task, he decisively abandoned this decree and devoted all his efforts to promoting the "Land Law".

"Even in foreign countries there are talented people," Zhang Pijiang exclaimed.

Even though he knew that this policy of Rome would increase the country's strength and was not a good thing for the Han Dynasty, he still liked these Roman reformers more and preferred a progressive country like Rome, which allowed him to see a kind of striving power, rather than the Ptolemaic Empire, where he could only see the arrogant and lustful nobles and the corruption that was a sign of national destruction. Even though the Ptolemaic Empire was an ally of the Han Dynasty, he still didn't like it.

Then he looked at the intelligence sent back by the consulates of other countries and found that the countries in Daqinzhou had more or less started land reform. Even Rome was not the first to start, but the Seleucid Empire, which had the greatest sense of crisis.

The regulations and measures they formulated were similar to those of Rome. The Seleucid Empire had a larger territory than Rome and owned more wasteland. At the same time, they faced greater military pressure. After all, the huge Hun Empire was right in front of their country.

Although the Han Empire severely defeated the Xiongnu Kingdom and restricted its westward advance, King Seleucus did not pin the country's safety entirely on the Han Empire. Instead, he tried to strengthen himself in order to protect himself.

They directly copied the equal-field system of the Han Dynasty, and copied it directly from the original book brought from the Han Dynasty. Each civilian household in the Seleucid Empire could occupy 100 acres of wasteland in the wild, and then the state would set up a land registration for them. However, the people who obtained these lands had to bear the military obligations of the Seleucid Empire. The equal-field system allowed the Seleucid Empire to have tens of thousands more soldiers.

In the entire Daqin Continent, only Carthage did not carry out land reform, but this was caused by many factors. After being brought to Rome, their overseas colonies were lost completely. They wanted to carry out land reform, but there was no land. It was the arrival of the Age of Discovery that made Carthage's caravans active again. They now mainly engage in re-export trade to the Han Dynasty at sea, because the Han Dynasty has too much goods. Most of the men in this country have become sailors, and no one cares about these few acres of land.

However, on the whole, Daqinzhou began to transform from slavery to feudalism. As the saying goes, productivity determines production relations. The Daqinzhou civilization was at the beginning of the iron civilization. Although they could produce iron tools, the quantity was small and the price was expensive. Most of them were invested in the military field, and not much was used in agriculture.

From this perspective, the agricultural technology of Daqinzhou was extremely backward and inefficient, but their production efficiency exceeded that of the slave age when bronze tools were used.

This leads to a mismatch between productivity and production relations. For these countries, agricultural production efficiency does not require so many slaves to farm.

Historically, Rome's method of dealing with excess slaves was simple and crude, which was to use cruel gladiators to consume these excess populations. This was also a common problem in various civilizations during the slave era. Their land could not support too many people, so at the turn of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Chinese civilization eliminated excess population through cruel human sacrifices. The civilizations of the New World, because they could not enter the Bronze Age, their bloody sacrifices accompanied the entire civilization.

Now, because of the presence of the outsider Han, slaves have become valuable, and the number of slaves used for gladiatorial combat in the entire Qin Continent has decreased.

After all, it would cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of coins to watch a gladiatorial show. Which slave owner could afford such expensive ticket fees? In addition, the luxury goods from the Han Dynasty also greatly drained the money of these slave owners. More slave owners would rather let their slaves generate some economic value rather than performance value.

In addition, the large-scale introduction of iron tools into Daqinzhou also greatly changed the production efficiency of Daqinzhou. The original slaves could only use knives and fire, and the grain production capacity was extremely low. The big slave owners could only collect from the public and increase the planting area to increase production capacity, so naturally the number of slaves required would not be too many.

However, various advanced agricultural tools such as the curved plow, eight-ox plow, harrow, and even tractors were introduced to Daqinzhou. With these advanced tools, the land could be cultivated intensively, and the grain production capacity could be increased by increasing the input of labor.

In recent years, all countries in Daqinzhou have had bumper harvests every year. This is precisely because of the harvests brought about by advanced productivity. This has also led to a shortage of labor for many large landowners. A large number of slaves have been lost, and because of intensive farming, a field that originally required 100 slaves to cultivate now requires 300 slaves.

Due to the shortage of labor, the treatment of cattle and horses naturally became higher. In the past, it didn't matter if they were casually consumed, but now they are very precious. If one is accidentally consumed, the owner will cry for three days. The price of fake cattle and horses is even higher than that of real ones. At least the owner is willing to pay a few handfuls of concentrated feed.

Economic interests are the strongest driving force. Now there are many voices in the academic circles of Daqinzhou criticizing gladiatorial performances, believing that gladiator performances are bloody and brutal, and are something that only occurs in barbaric civilizations. This wave of movement has supporters in all major countries, not because they are kind-hearted, but because slaves are really valuable.

"The current Great Qin Continent is equivalent to the Warring States Period of my Great Han Dynasty, but I don't know who is King Wen of Wei and who is Duke Xiao of Qin."

Zhang Pijiang had a deep understanding of this period of history. At that time, all countries carried out reforms in order to increase their national strength, even small countries like South Korea. Unfortunately, South Korea's reforms were not thorough, and it remained a weak country for hundreds of years during the Warring States Period.

Later, when Zhang Pijiang saw the intelligence about the Xiongnu Kingdom, he learned from experience that the second Xiongnu prince Yizhixie led tens of thousands of Xiongnu people to sweep thousands of miles to the north of the Xiongnu Kingdom, annihilating dozens of captured tribes. The local indigenous Sarmatians had already supported Yizhixie as their king.

"The north of the Mesopotamian Basin?" This was Zhang Pijiang's blind spot in knowledge. He knew about some countries and forces in the Mesopotamian Basin, but he was completely in the dark about what countries and forces were in the north. The most he knew was that there were many primitive tribes there, most of which were mainly engaged in fishing and hunting.

"The Xiongnu were smart. Since the imperial court didn't allow them to move westward, they expanded northward. Yizhixie became the king of the local indigenous people, which was equivalent to cutting off ties with the Xiongnu. The imperial court couldn't say anything. Judging from the situation in the desert, the north of the Mesopotamian Basin wouldn't be a wealthy place, so it would be very difficult for it to develop."

Zhang Pijiang thought about it, recorded the news, and reported it to the Han court, asking the court to pay more attention to Yizhixie's movements.

June 36, the 6th year of the Han calendar, the northern border of the Mesopotamian region.

This is a place with little influence from civilization, with lush trees and lush grasslands. Wild bears are chasing fat grass carps, elks are leisurely nibbling on tender grass, and various wild animals are both competing and living in harmony in this wilderness.

Suddenly, there was a violent shaking on the grassland. All the animals looked into the distance vigilantly. When the sound became more and more intense, the animals fled in terror.

But at this time, two cavalry teams divided into the left and right routes to surround these animals, and long arrows were shot at these animals like raindrops.

The brown bear, with thick skin and flesh, was shot by five long arrows. The intense pain made him go crazy, and he turned around and ran directly towards the enemies who attacked him. "Bang!" With a violent gunshot, the brown bear's face was smashed and his huge body fell down.

A young scholar blew into his gun barrel, then took out an iron bar to clean the gunpowder residue and paper fragments inside the barrel. While cleaning, he said calmly: "Khan, this is the era of firearms. Horseback archery is an obsolete tactic. You can just go hunting to cultivate your emotions. If you want to use this method to train soldiers, you will be laughed at."

When the Xiongnu Kingdom was first established, there were hundreds of tribes, and many tribes were wild. They were farmers and herdsmen during the day, and bandits and horse thieves at night. Not to mention that in such a wild place, there were many beasts that could kill people. The prerequisite for civilizing the natives was to have the force to protect themselves and suppress them.

Therefore, contemporary Confucian scholars are full of martial virtues. They used to use sabers and crossbows, but in recent years they prefer to use muskets. One shot can kill you instantly, no matter how heroic you are. The environment creates talents, and many Confucian scholars are sharpshooters who never miss a shot.

The Han Dynasty even developed Confucian spears specifically for these Confucian scholars to help them educate the natives.

This type of musket can be equipped with 6 bullets at a time, which is in line with the Confucian six arts: rites, music, calligraphy, mathematics, riding and archery.

With such a Confucian spear in hand, a Confucian scholar is able to suppress a small tribe of dozens to hundreds of people, letting these natives know what it means to be full of martial virtues and be willing to listen to Confucius' teachings.

Confucian scholars also like this kind of Confucian spear. They usually have two of them. If they fire at close range without any protective gear, they can quickly defeat an army of a hundred people. It is truly a magical tool for education.

Therefore, contemporary Confucian scholars never put down their guns. In fact, when the brown bear rushed towards them, Yizhixie had already put the arrow on the bow and was about to shoot the brown bear to death with one arrow, but he did not expect that he would be killed by a single shot from his trusted adviser.

Yi Zhixie said: "You always say such discouraging things. If you replace the bow and arrow with a carbine, the cavalry archery tactic can still be used."

Although he was a little angry inside, he did not use a blaming tone.

Zhonghang Shuo smiled calmly and said, "The tactics of muskets require strict formation and strict discipline. Even if the enemy's muskets are right in front of you, you must obey orders and move forward. Do you think these cavalry can do this? Even if they change to carbines, the cavalry cannot defeat the prepared musket team. The Khan has encountered many cavalry teams along the way, and now their leaders have become good at singing and dancing."

Zhonghang Shuo could be considered the first traitor in history, but his situation was much better with Xu Fan's sudden appearance in history. At least he no longer had to bear the reputation of a traitor.

However, his treatment was similar to that in history. The Zhonghang family was one of the six nobles of the Jin State, the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, they could not compete with the Zhao, Wei, and Han families, and the family began to decline. However, they were still considered an official family during the Warring States Period. But during the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, their family was unlucky enough to surrender to Zang Tu, and were defeated by the Han army. Their family was completely ruined and was exiled to Liaodong, becoming an ordinary farmer.

But their family was of aristocratic origin after all, and they had some cultural background. When Confucianism took root in Liaodong, the policy of teaching without distinction was implemented. Therefore, Zhonghang Shuo had the opportunity to read when he was young. He was also gifted in reading, being able to remember everything he saw and draw inferences from one instance.

He soon became an elite disciple of Confucianism. When Xu Fan completely occupied the desert, the young Zhonghang Shuo was assigned to the desert to educate the herdsmen. Later, he followed Ouyang Xun to New Qufu to educate the local natives. Relying on his abilities, he was able to thrive in the Xiongnu Kingdom.

Because of his experiences in his early years, he had been wandering on the borders of the Han Dynasty. He only settled down after coming to the new Qufu of the Xiongnu. In his heart, he envied the prosperous life and did not like the remote and wild life.

But even this world still played a big joke on him. He liked prosperity, but Junchen assigned Zhonghang to his younger brother's pioneering team.

Zhonghang Shuo, who was influenced by Confucianism, did not say to Junchen, "If you let me go to the northern border, I will make your Xiongnu country uneasy." However, he was determined in his heart that it is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge, and he must take revenge on Junchen severely.

Zhonghang Shuo's idea was naturally soon noticed by Yizhixie, who hated his brother, and was taken as a trusted adviser, because Yizhixie also wanted to fight back against the Xiongnu.

Zhonghang said: "These natives are brave but lack discipline. The Khan should teach them more about military formations. Only when these people are trained to be fearless and able to face muskets, will we have a chance to return to the Xiongnu Kingdom."

"Junchen!" He was full of resentment when talking about his brother Yizhixie.

Last year, Junchen started preparing logistical supplies for his younger brother. Since the beginning of spring this year, he would ask him when he would go to expand the territory almost every few days.

Yizhixie was forced into a corner and had no choice but to march north in March with 1 troops, over 5 soldiers' families, and supplies to the northern border of the Xiongnu.

But just as Zhonghang said, the rules of the world have changed. It is no longer an era of horseback riding and archery, but an era of muskets.

After Yizhixie's 1-strong army left the Xiongnu Kingdom, they swept across thousands of miles, defeated more than a dozen large tribal alliances, captured to prisoners, and conquered a relatively large territory in the northern border area. They also established Longcheng as their capital in a place with abundant grass and fertile land.

From the name of this capital, we can see that Yizhixie was very ambitious and he also thought that he was the orthodox Xiongnu. He wanted his subordinates to call him Chanyu, but was stopped by Zhonghang Shuo. Calling their capital Longcheng could be said to be a commemoration of the Xiongnu, but calling him Chanyu meant breaking off all ties with his brother. At the moment, Yizhixie's power was obviously not enough to be an enemy of his brother.

But he was not qualified to be called emperor, and it would also arouse the wrath of the Han court. The war two years before caused Yizhixie to lose his father, which increased his hatred for the Han emperor, but also made him extremely frightened. His father, who was like a god, died so easily at the hands of the Han emperor. His fear of the Han emperor was at its peak. Naturally, he did not dare to offend the Han Dynasty because of such a title.

But Yizhixie himself was not happy about being made king.

In today's world, only the current Emperor of the Han Dynasty can be called emperor, and only one's elder brother can be called Chanyu, but there are many who can be called kings. There are hundreds of kings in the Qin State, and many of them have only one city, which is equivalent to the tribal leaders of the Xiongnu Kingdom. Moreover, the number of kings killed by the Xiongnu Kingdom since its founding is incalculable. At that time, the Xiongnu people killed these kings like killing chickens.

This led to Yizhixie looking down on the title of king. He also wanted a unique title that belonged to him alone, so that all his enemies would tremble in fear when they heard this name.

Later, Zhonghang said that after thinking about it, he simply gave Yizhixie the title of Great Khan, which meant the king of the plain. Only then was Yizhixie satisfied.

The hunting team returned to a camp, the stoker lit a bonfire and began to dissect the prey. The barbecue grill was quickly set up and various game began to be cooked. With the addition of spices, the camp was filled with fragrance.

At this time, Yizhixie's subordinates returned one after another. There were too many wild animals here, and each team was almost fully loaded. Wolves, sika deer, hares and other game were everywhere. Only when brown bears and tigers were hunted could everyone exclaim.

(End of this chapter)