From Chief to Ball

The first thing made the emissary a little puzzled, scratching his head and said: "Ji Xia... There was no such thing before. They are in their own city, so it is possible to go to Xia City. But such a long distance, let them come to Yu City...would it make them feel unhappy?"

Nominal alliances are equal, and this kind of convening has never happened before. Chen Jian nodded and said, "So let the secretary prepare enough gifts, and I will also bring some gifts to them from here. Let's say I am in I'm too busy here to leave, please come here, let Sihuo apologize first."

After clapping their hands, people from outside came in with a few gifts, which were made with great effort, and were divided into several sets according to the number of Caohe cities.

A batch of iron plowshares, a batch of iron shovels, a few iron pots... very heavy and cumbersome. Although there were no iron pots before, it is obvious that if these things are transported to the grassland, they can be exchanged for hundreds of clay pots. sheep and horse.Moreover, this iron pot is pig iron, and it is impossible for the grassland tribes to smelt it into weapons, and they don't know how to anneal, let alone reach such a high temperature.

In addition, there are a bunch of iron three-edged arrowheads, which are melted and cast by sand casting method, that is, the real objects are first made, and then covered with two layers of plastic sand to take out the real objects and leave gaps for casting. The foundry can also be recycled.

"Bring these gifts to several leaders, just say...these things will bring a lot of changes, and say that I hope they come here to discuss it together. Tell the rest, don't say anything, if they want to come Come; if you don’t want to come, don’t force it.”

They come thousands of miles apart, according to the previous stories, there are only two situations.Surrender, or sacrifice together.

Chen Jian is not the common leader of all tribes in Dahe, and he is not yet qualified to invite them to sacrifice together, so Chen Jian's subtext is very clear. I hope these leaders will seriously consider the alliance relationship: it is no longer equal in the past, but there needs to be an alliance. center.

This center will not use violent plunder as a means, because it is relatively inefficient, and digging three feet in those towns may not be able to match the total output value of Yucheng Workshop for half a year.

The Grass River Alliance has a large potential population, but is bound by the slave system and can only produce poor output. This situation must change, and the first step in the change is to find a way for them to accept a large number of iron farm tools .

The price of normal trade is too high for them to afford, and when Xiacheng is self-sufficient in food, there is almost nothing to trade except silk and black pottery. Chen Jian doesn't want to have a workshop without a market.

Therefore, wool, population, mining, new spinning technology, promotion of cattle farming, etc., must be learned by these cities, so that they can come and go and be inseparable from Xiacheng at the same time.Weaving, smelting, wool spinning, and dyeing technologies Chen Jian will not spread to the outside world for the time being. In such a big world, Xiacheng is the only place to buy mineral wool yarn, and it will bring them more benefits. They should have no reason reject.

Relying solely on Xiacheng's own domestic sales capabilities, the workshop group can only support a year and a half at most if they start working at full strength, and there will inevitably be excess production capacity after one and a half years.

It's not that the other cities don't want it, it's that they can't afford it. This time is the real headache for Chen Jian. Chen Jian really doesn't know what he can exchange with the other cities when Yucheng's farms are self-sufficient next year.

Just relying on farming for at most two or three years, Yucheng Workshop will use scissors to wipe out the wealth accumulated in the nearby cities for decades, and Xia Chengkong has a lot of capital and production capacity but loses the market, and it will also be depressed. I am afraid that what will be triggered is not a war against the barbarians, but a war within the Great River Alliance, after all, it is closer.

Faced with this situation, we can only use a form of secret manipulation to drive the development of other cities through Yucheng, a group of workshops, to ensure sufficient production capacity and make Xiacheng profitable.Including helping the city of Caohe to establish new manors and breeding farms, and even subsidizing them to mine and build roads, secretly manipulating the cultivation agents in the form of technical shares, and driving their development with paid assistance, and even using advanced resources if necessary. The way of payment after trade.

At that time, Chen Jian can promote Xiacheng's currency: first lend metal currency to those towns, stipulate that all Xiacheng handicraft products can only be purchased with currency, and Xiacheng acquisition will also be purchased in the form of currency. Binding, forced promotion.

……

On the third day after the year, the messenger returned to Xia City with various gifts.

Half a month later, in the meeting hall of Xia City, Yu Qian'er looked at the gifts curiously, and said in surprise, "Has Yu City developed into this now?"

"Yes, the waterways are criss-crossed, and the boats come and go. Every day is foggy and black smoke, and the whistle sounds from morning to night."

Yu Qian'er squinted her eyes, imagining such a scene, with a sweet smile on her lips.

"What else did my brother say?"

"It is said that all the children in the school will go to Yucheng this year, and half of all the officials above the Lisi in Xiacheng will stay, and the other half will also go to Yucheng, and half of the members of the council will also go, and there will be a number of new troops. We also need to expand, Ji Xia said that if we can afford it now, then there will be 200 more people. All those who have fiefs, please tell us about the fiefs, and they will also go to Yucheng in March."

Hearing this, Yu Qian'er snorted and said, "Did he tell me to stay and wait until they come back? He promised that I could go to Yucheng in spring, why did he lie to me again?"

The messenger smiled helplessly, and suddenly thought of something, he slapped his head and said, "Oh yes! Your brother asked me to bring you something."

The courier carefully took out a nice-looking small clay pot from his pocket. It was very small, with a thin layer of skin on it, and there was a sweet smell when it was opened.

"food?"

Yu Qian'er was playing with the small pot, quite curious, it looked a bit like the goat's milk fat from the prairie.

"No, this stuff is hard to come by. Jixia put butter in boiling water, added some other things I don't know and stirred it for a day before I got a little bit. I mixed some sweet water left over from making soap and messy It’s made of something. It’s said to be rubbed on the face, summer city is very windy, he, as an older brother, runs in such a warm place in Yucheng, it makes you feel uncomfortable here, and it’s not easy to get chapped face after wiping this stuff.”

Yu Qian'er curled her lips, thinking that you must have guessed that I was going to be angry, otherwise you wouldn't spend a day stirring butter.

Angry in his heart, he still took a little finger and rubbed it on his face, and the milky white stuff quickly seeped into the skin.Like white snowflakes falling on the skin and disappearing, leaving only the watery skin.

"Well, since you gave me this, it's telling me that I have to go to another city in the cold and windy weather. It's really thoughtful, hum. Pack it up, bring a gift, and I'll go to E City."

Carefully put this box of snowflake-like things in her wooden box. Inside is a bronze mirror. On the lower layer are leather gloves, peas, nettle vines, jade hairpins, and small stones that Chen Jian gave her a long time ago. , a flower rope, a small windmill, and a dried and blackened hawthorn fruit—it was a candied hawthorn a long, long time ago.

I stared blankly for a long time, not knowing what to think, until there were bursts of horse neighing outside.

"Sihuo Ji, the sledge is ready, shall we go now?"

"Well. Let's go."

He closed the wooden box, stretched himself, wrapped himself in a thick fur and sat on the sledge. Just as he was about to leave, he remembered something, jumped off the sledge and returned to the house, picked up a brush and wrote a line on the wooden slip.

"Brother, I miss you. You lied to me again."

Volume [-] Bizarre

Chapter 1 Two Roads

In the first month of the 34th year of the Chinese calendar, E City is still the same as last year, but the imprint of being influenced by Xia City has become deeper and deeper.

For example, there are more slaves raising silkworms and pottery burners, and the number of sheep is also larger than before, because food can no longer be exchanged from Xiacheng for what they want.

At the end of the month, Yu Qian'er had already left for the Acropolis.

The gifts brought by Yuqianer were placed in the government hall of E City. E Yue's complexion was not very good, and he let out a long sigh.

"I knew that Xia Cheng would become very strong one day, but I didn't expect this day to be so fast."

The people of the same clan were still a little angry about Yu Qian'er's previous proposal. Seeing the leader's expression sour, they couldn't help but say, "Jixia is a little too late. Even if Xiacheng is stronger, we can't let the leader go to a place thousands of miles away. See you in Yucheng."

E Yue asked with a smile: "You all think this is an insult?"

A group of people nodded, and E Yue couldn't help saying: "Stupid! Look at this plowshare, this iron arrowhead, and this iron pot! Do you want it? What did Yuqianer say? She said that these gifts are only for us in Caohe There are only nearby cities, but not other cities. I sigh not because I feel that this is an insult, but because I am old, and I am afraid that our E city will look south and look at Xia city in the future!"

"What do you want in exchange for these things? Black pottery? Silk? Besides this? The people of Xiacheng have no shortage of food, and they have plowshares, oxen and horses. Believe it or not, the food they produce alone is ten times more than ours." How many slaves are there?"

"And the longer the time passes, the richer and stronger they become. Two years ago we were able to choke Xiacheng in the bud and kill half of our clansmen; what about now? Even if we unite the Acropolis, we are no match for Xiacheng at all. Who of you thinks you have the ability to fight those new army chariot riders in the wild? Who has the ability to capture the inner city of Xia City with a gunpowder moat?"

E Yue sighed heavily, recalling the first time he saw Chen Jian, several years passed, as if the day when Chen Jian came to borrow food was just yesterday.

He rubbed his head, and said slowly: "The past is over, don't mention it. Can you guess what Ji Xia asked me to discuss?"

Someone pouted and said, "It's nothing more than he wants to be the leader of the Caohe cities."

E Yue shook his head and said, "He... doesn't like this thing, he's not Su Yue. Jiu'er, tell me what he wants to do?"

With a smile on his face, Shu Jiu was not impatient at all, and said slowly: "He wants to sell us the iron arrowhead iron pot, but we can't afford it. He wants us to become rich together."

The clansmen were puzzled and said: "The priest's words are wrong. How can he have such a good heart? Now he still hides the gunpowder workshop, just let us share it with others, but he doesn't know what those things are at all."

Shujiu sighed, and explained with some helplessness: "If everyone becomes rich, his iron can be sold, and Xiacheng will be richer. For him, he is for Xiacheng; for us, we become richer." Wouldn't it be a good thing to get richer?"

"It's just... hey!"

In the end, he sighed heavily again. E Yue had never seen his wife so melancholy, and he knew that his wife was more exposed to these new things. I was afraid that I couldn't figure it out, so I asked, "Since everyone has become rich, you sigh again." what?"