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

Chapter 593, War Song and the Prosperous Mediterranean Economic Circle.

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 those who hunted brown bears and tigers could cause everyone to exclaim. The whole camp became more and more lively.

A tall and strong general said, "Great Khan, I have hunted a brown bear for you, which can be made into a leather coat."

Yi Zhixie laughed heartily, took off the sword from his waist, threw it to the general and said, "Jin Xun, this sword is for you. I hope you can use it to achieve great things."

Jin Xun took the sword and said with a smile: "I will make this sword drink up the blood of the enemy."

Then others brought some tigers, cheetahs, wolves and other ferocious beasts, and Yizhixie also rewarded them with weapons such as rifles.

The soldiers butchered the prey like butchers. When the roast meat was ready, Yizhixie ordered his men to serve it to his subordinates, while clapping his hands.

The sound of "bang bang bang" war drums sounded rhythmically.

Dozens of ferocious-looking natives came up, wearing their own ethnic clothes, holding wooden shields and swords, and dancing war dances to the rhythm.

"Good! Good!" The Huns' generals clapped and cheered, and the scene was extremely lively.

Zhonghang said in surprise: "This is the war song of the Han Dynasty!"

When the Han Dynasty was founded thirty years ago, Xu Fan also imitated Li Er and created a Han war song. Most of the dancers were native leaders who came to Chang'an City to retire. They lived in Chang'an City by relying on these dances with certain sacrificial elements. They put down their swords 2000 years in advance and became good at singing and dancing.

Although Xu Fan did not understand things like tunes, he had heard too many war songs in later generations, such as the Kingdom of Heaven, the Ming War Song, etc. As long as he came up with the tune, there would naturally be specialized musicians to realize it for Xu Fan. The main tune of this Han War Song was based on what later generations called the "Ming War Song".

The Great Han War Song was officially circulated through the dissemination of the Han military because of its grand and inspiring melody. It was also widely circulated in the Xiongnu Kingdom. However, after the death of Laoshang Chanyu in battle, the song was banned.

Because Laoshang Chanyu died in battle, Yizhixie has been showing an irreconcilable attitude towards the Han Emperor. Now Zhonghang Shuo feels that Yizhixie's performance is mostly the result. Knowing this, Zhonghang Shuo feels a little relieved. He is most afraid that Yizhixie is a brainless and reckless man.

Yizhixie watched all this with a hearty laugh. Although Yizhixie hated the Han Emperor, he always took him as his role model. He thought that the Han War Song was a good thing, especially letting the enemy dance this dance, which could further inspire the pride of the soldiers.

After the dance, the generals were full of food and wine. Yizhixie ordered his men to take away the things and said, "We have now laid a foundation, but if the country wants to develop, we need to make a long-term plan. We can't rush around like a headless man. What do you think we should do next?"

Jin Xun said: "The Sarmatians are vulnerable, so our army will naturally continue to march north and completely conquer the Sarmatians in the northern border."

The other generals also nodded in approval of this proposal. The Huns were a blow to the natives. The Sarmatians barely entered the Bronze Age, but they had to face the Huns' muskets. The gap between them was like the Mayans encountering Spanish bandits. Such vulnerable enemies were naturally the favorites of the generals.

Yizhixie said calmly: "The Sarmatians are naturally vulnerable. Ben Han is still confident that he can completely conquer them within three years, but what should we do after conquering them?"

Generals like Jin Xun didn't know how to answer.

Zhong Xing said: "This land is vast enough, but what we lack is population. So far, the population we have is just over 100,000. Compared to the whole world, this is only the population size of a small city-state."

"Population?" Yizhixie.

Zhonghang said: "The Khan needs trusted confidants, such as the Xiongnu people, and technical talents, such as the Han people. To build a country, we need scholars, farmers, merchants, and artisans, and we need talents in 360 trades."

Yizhixie said: "There are many people in the Xiongnu country who are dissatisfied with the military officials. This Khan can recruit these people."

The Huns were essentially a militaristic state. Their rapid development over the past decade or so was based on constant expansion. Now the Han Dynasty would not allow them to expand westward, but a militaristic state needed to rely on the profits brought by constant expansion to satisfy internal distribution. Otherwise, the tyrannical Qin would be the fate of the Huns.

But their militaristic country happened to encounter an enemy that it could not defeat, so it had to stop. When there was no way to meet internal needs through external interests, problems arose. The Xiongnu Empire was full of complaints from top to bottom, blaming the military officials for being too cowardly.

This is also the reason why Junchen asked Yizhixie to conquer the world. In essence, he wanted to exile those who were dissatisfied in the Xiongnu country. Otherwise, Junchen might be punished by the Xiongnu soldiers.

Yizhixie hesitated and said, "But it's a bit difficult to get the Han people to come here."

Zhonghang said with a smile: "There is a kind of people who are willing to do anything for money. As long as we can bring them enough money, we will treat our Northern Border as one of our own countries. This is the era of great navigation. Without a port, it is equivalent to closing the country to the outside world. Our Northern Border must also have its own port city. The Han Dynasty must also find a way to conquer the Black Sea so that our Northern Border can also have a port."

After hearing what Zhonghang said, Yizhixie smiled and said, "I now understand what to do next."

June 38, 10rd year of the Han calendar.

A warship flying the Roman flag was heading for the port of Alexandria. The passenger on the warship was the new Roman senator Apatius.

After the promulgation of the Roman "Land Law", a large number of Roman civilians received official funding. Although they were burdened with high debts, the land gave them new hope, especially since they brought back potatoes from the Han Dynasty, a food that was not picky about the soil and fertility and had a high yield. Last year, Rome's farmland area increased by 20%, and grain production capacity increased by 30%. This year it increased by another 20%, which means that in a very short period of time, Rome's grain production capacity increased by half. Although there were certain weather factors that brought about this bumper harvest, Appatius' "Land Law" was the fundamental reason, so he was elected as a Roman senator.

After becoming a Roman senator, the Senate gave him a difficult problem, which was to find a way to balance the trade between the Han Dynasty and Rome. Previously, Rome could barely maintain the trade balance between the Han Dynasty and Rome by relying on the slave trade.

But after the Agricultural Revolution, Roman slave owners discovered that the money they could earn by keeping slaves to cultivate the land was several times more than selling the slaves all at once. This led to the Roman upper class being unwilling to sell slaves anymore.

But they encountered an embarrassing problem. If they did not sell slaves, they would have no money to buy luxury goods such as silk, tea and spices.

Well! Even if the Roman elders were all of high moral character (which was actually impossible), and did not buy these luxury goods for the country's foreign exchange, you must buy the farm tools you use for farming, the tools used by urban citizens, and even the expensive steam engines and tractors that the elders bought, which were only made by the Han people. If you don't buy them, you can't industrialize and create more wealth with these machines. It's like a paradox. If you want to make money, you have to spend a lot of money to buy machines, but you can't make money without machines. Through later history, we also know that if late-developing industrial countries want to complete industrialization, they must sell agricultural and sideline products cheaply and buy various industrial machinery. This is an extremely painful process of industrial harvesting agriculture, and the Roman State is not even in this process because they don't have the agricultural products that the Han people need.

Apatius went to the Consulate General of Daqinzhou in Ptolemy State to discuss with Zhang Pijiang that Yanzhou Governor's Office should buy grain from Rome. Apatius thought it was a bit absurd. Rome had always bought grain from other countries. Now they had to find a way to sell grain to the Han people. But there was no way. Grain was harvested once a year, and it took 18 years for slaves to grow up. Obviously, the Roman elders were still far-sighted.

The closer they got to the Ptolemaic State, the more ships they saw along the way, including quite a few large sea vessels of over 300 tons. It was obvious at first glance that these were second-hand merchant ships purchased from the Han Dynasty, and the main buyers of the goods transported by these merchant ships were the Yanzhou Governor's Office of the Han Dynasty.

The Yanzhou Governor's Office has 3 soldiers. Although they also planted some fields, it is obviously not enough to feed so many soldiers in a short time. It is impossible for the Han Dynasty to allocate food from its own territory and can only purchase it from various places in the Mediterranean. At the same time, the Han Dynasty hired more than 10 Ptolemy's people to dig the Suez Canal. The Han Dynasty treated the prisoners with three meals a day and 2 kilograms of food, not to mention these Ptolemy people.

The daily ration for these 10 Ptolomeans was 1 kilogram, and they also had various vegetables and fruits. The standard exceeded that of most Mediterranean countries, which was equivalent to creating the consumption power of more than citizens out of thin air.

In order to dig the Suez Canal, the Han Dynasty set a construction fee of 100 billion coins. Of this, the Han Dynasty only received orders for tools and clothing. Most of the logistical rice, flour, grain, oil, and the civilians' food, clothing, housing and transportation could only be purchased in Daqinzhou. This was an extremely huge market. In order to meet this market, the entire Mediterranean caravans flocked to the port of Alexandria, which is why Apatius saw everything.

However, Apatius's face soon turned ugly, because half of the merchant ships he saw belonged to Carthage, which was the mortal enemy of Rome. The large number of Carthaginian merchant ships meant that they gained great benefits from the Han people, which was not a good thing for Rome, especially in the past two years, there were rumors in the Mediterranean that the Carthaginians were the coachmen of the Han people. This was a derogatory term used by the Greek region to demean the Carthaginians by wanting to be servants of the Han people.

But at the same time, there was also envy. 1 billion yuan was equivalent to 1000 talents of gold. You have to know that the Carthaginians were almost destroyed by the Romans, and the compensation was only talents of gold. Carthage became the coachman of the Han people. How much money did it make? It is hard to imagine. Anyway, since the Han people came to the Mediterranean region, the number of Carthaginian merchant ships has increased. Apatius saw that the Carthaginians were about to be restored to vitality by the Han people.

"The Second Bruno War was fought in vain," Apatius sighed.

Alexandria.

Apatius went to the city and found that it was much more prosperous than Rome. There were even several gantry cranes dedicated to the Han people. He couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "The Ptolemy Kingdom has made a lot of money this time. No wonder the merchants in the Mediterranean now say that Alexandria is the number one port in the Mediterranean."

If the Carthaginians were Han people and were coachmen, then the Ptolemies were the Han people's stewards. Ever since the Han people came to the Mediterranean, the Ptolemaic State has taken advantage of the Han people, whether it was when they gave away tens of thousands of muskets and 100 cannons for free in order to build the Yanzhou Governor's Office, or when they later gave away tens of thousands of rifles for free when building the Suez Canal. They also bought tens of thousands of slaves and recruited tens of thousands of free people, and bought food from Ptolemy. The Ptolemaic State accounted for half of the Han people's food trade, but the money was used to feed its own people. I don't know how much money the Ptolemaic people made for nothing. If Rome had this money, a complete small-scale industrial system would have been established long ago.

Ten years ago, Alexandria was definitely not as wealthy as Rome, and he could even guarantee that five years ago. But with the changes in these five years, Alexandria has far surpassed Rome.

Of course, if the Romans were to choose, they would not want the Yanzhou Governor's Office to be on Roman soil. Their Roman nobles were not as shameless as the nobles of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, who actually stationed 30,000 foreign troops near the capital of a country. The life and death of the Ptolemaic people were now in the hands of the Han people. The Ptolemaic people were now just a dog kept by the Han people. Although this dog was rich, it had no independence and freedom. Although the Romans were poor, they were independent.

Thinking of this, Apatius became confident again.

Daqinzhou Consulate General, conference room.

"You are willing to sell wheat at a price 10% lower than that of Ptolemy?" Zhang Pijiang asked in surprise. It seems that the Roman land law was carried out very smoothly, turning them from a country that imported grain into a country that exported grain.

But Zhang Pijiang said: "Our country has already signed a grain contract with the Ptolemaic Empire. We do not need Rome's grain for the time being. Even though Rome's grain is cheap, we, the Han Dynasty, value contracts. I can only apologize."

Apatius did not expect Zhang Pijiang to refuse so decisively, and he didn't even have time to persuade him.

He said helplessly: "If that is the case, Rome can only ban the import of Han silk, spices, tea, porcelain and other goods. Now Rome loses a large amount of gold and silver every year, which has seriously affected the economic security of Rome. The current trade model is unfair to Rome."

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "We have indeed agreed to get grain from Ptolemy, but the Han Dynasty has a very high demand for milk powder, cheese, and butter. If Rome is willing, you can set up ranches in your country and raise cows to produce milk. If you can produce the above three products within 10 tons, the Han Dynasty will take as much as you can."

"Milk powder, cheese, butter?" Apatius was surprised. There were so many rich people in the Han Dynasty who actually needed to buy so many dairy products. In Rome, dairy products were one of the luxury goods. It was the first time he heard people buy them in tons.

In fact, not only he was puzzled, but Zhang Pijiang was also puzzled. The Han Dynasty occupied the entire desert, and there were more than tens of millions of livestock raised there, but it turned out that the Han Dynasty lacked dairy products.

But this is the fact. A few years ago, the Han Dynasty began to popularize pasteurized milk among primary school students. For this purpose, a large number of ranches were established within the Han Dynasty to provide milk. But even this was far from enough. Later, the Han court used a product called milk powder, which could directly convert milk from large ranches into milk powder and transport it to the Han Dynasty. Many primary school students in Jiangnan Shuzhong basically rely on milk powder to supplement their nutrition.

Last year, this policy began to be popularized among middle school students, and two cans of milk powder were also provided to people over 60 years old each month. The demand for milk powder more than doubled, and it also boosted the demand for dairy products among the people. Many wealthy families in the Han Dynasty, influenced by the Han court, believed that milk was a nutritional supplement and began to consume various dairy products in their daily lives. All of this led to a surge in the dairy product consumption market.

On the production side, there were no professional dairy cows in this era. If people wanted to produce milk, they could only snatch the rations from calves. The milk production efficiency of each cow was far lower than that of cows in later generations, so the entire desert could not meet the demand for Han dairy products.

Now India is opening ranches, and the Huns are also importing their dairy products to the Han Dynasty.

Now the Romans also wanted to balance trade with the Han Dynasty, so Zhang Pijiang simply let them build pastures and produce three dairy products: cheese, milk powder, and butter.

Apatius said: "But whether it is building a ranch or making dairy products, these are not only extremely expensive, but also take a very long time."

Zhang Pijiang said: "I can introduce you to the manager of Kaifa Money House. I can lend you money to build a ranch. When your ranch is built, you can use these dairy products to repay the debt."

After that, Zhang Pijiang took out a catalog and said, "This is the goods that my Han Dynasty needs right now. You in Rome can see what goods you can provide to my Han Dynasty based on the characteristics of your own region. My Han Dynasty also attaches great importance to the balance of trade."

"Wine, cotton, cocoa beans, palm oil, peanuts, sesame, alfalfa..." There are hundreds of agricultural products recorded here, but only a few of them can be produced by Rome.

Apatius asked, "What do you Han need so much agricultural products for?"

Zhang Pijiang said: "Eat, what else can agricultural products be used for besides eating? Take dairy products for example. If every citizen of our Han Dynasty consumes 50 kilograms of dairy products a year, we would need 250 million tons of dairy products, which is not a small number."

Apatius was speechless. The extravagance of the Han people once again exceeded his imagination.

(End of this chapter)