From Chief to Ball

This jingling copper coin became the hard currency of the cities within four hundred miles of Yucheng, and could buy all kinds of things that could be purchased.

This is why Red Fish is one step ahead. She wants to buy food, labor, hire slaves to transport food, and prepare food before the army goes out.

Of course, half a box of copper coins is not enough, it is just a gift sent along the way.

But Redfish has the seal in hand.

The seal of Yucheng Supply and Marketing Department.

Chapter 66 Supplies along the way

Facing the rapid rise of Yucheng, these small cities adopted the most sensible principle of affairs in order to protect themselves.

The only time when the small town was shaken was during the few months when Chen Jian led the army to march eastward, but as the good news continued to spread, the only wavering disappeared.

At the banquet, the leaders and relatives first congratulated Ji Xia for his great achievements in defeating Dongyi, and then praised Red Fish for his hard work in keeping the city in order before the Eastern Expedition, and toasted frequently.

"Ji Xia returned to the east, the city has already prepared gifts to give to his relatives, but the city is not as poor as Yu Xia, gifts are light on things, please don't blame Ji Xia."

Red Fish toasted with a smile, raised his arms slightly and said, "Ji Xia just followed the guidance of his ancestors, how dare he take credit for it? If you want to be grateful, it is the best gratitude not to forget the ancestors and the oneness of the kin, how dare you ask for extravagance?" What about presents?"

"Ji Xia sent me here this time just to discuss something with you guys. It's the time to ask your relatives."

The relatives and nobles in the city expressed that they would definitely do what they could, but secretly worried that Chen Jian would force them to swear an oath with Yucheng.I was afraid that they would be forced to completely side with Chen Jian, in case they would compete with Su Cheng for the dominance of the clan alliance in the future.

It is necessary to stand in line, but now is not the time. Nowadays, with the spread of iron tools, cities are also developing rapidly, and they don't like fighting at this time.

Fortunately, what Red Fish said later made them heave a sigh of relief.

"Your relatives also know that in May of this year, there was civil strife in Xia City, and the city was divided into two parts. The people in Xia City were like drowning in ice and burning like fire. They are looking forward to Ji Xia's acting army to put down the rebellion. Ji Xiaye can't sleep or eat. He should have returned early To quell the rebellion, unexpectedly the Dongyi people invaded and plundered their relatives and destroyed the city. Ji Xia reluctantly went out to fight, and personally led a large army to venture into the hinterland of Dongyi. She was protected by her ancestors, broke three cities, plundered [-] people, and forced the Yi chief Qiongxi to plead guilty for three years Don't dare look east."

"Now that we have returned from a great victory, we are about to return to Xia City to put down the rebellion. Jixia has more than ten thousand men in armor and armed with hundreds of chariots, and they will definitely be able to go down with one drum. But...it is the beginning of winter, and the wind is blowing from the west The water flows to the east, and it is not easy to transfer grain and grass along the river, so I hope to buy grain and grass with copper coins and iron utensils, and transfer grain to slaves."

"Now that the land is frozen and difficult to cultivate, and the slaves are idle, it is just a matter of time to exchange some copper coins, iron guns and gunpowder. It will be of great benefit to both of you. Please help me."

The leader secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and he didn't know whether it was true or not, but as long as these people were not here to attack him, there was no need to worry.

At this time, there was no story about the extermination of the country by false means as a lesson. The leader confirmed that he was only buying grain, so of course he had to agree, anyway, it would have to be replaced sooner or later.

"We may need thousands of slaves. There is still a lot of food in the warehouse of the Supply and Marketing Department. We only need to buy a part of it. Copper coins are inconvenient to carry. What Jixia means is for you and me to write the numbers on the cloth and pay them back before next autumn." , or repay in kind such as ironware.”

"All the way along the river bank, every [-] to [-] miles, let the slaves transport some grain, firewood, hay, beans, etc. There will be riders who will notify in advance, as long as they find some female slaves to cook at that time. The slaves in this city Population, there should be no problem within a hundred miles of the city, this is two or three hundred miles."

Red Fish took out a piece of cloth, on which was calculated the amount of food needed, which had already been calculated.According to the amount of [-]% wasted, it was a lot more. This was considered as a kickback for the clan relatives who supervised the slave labor or to deal with unexpected situations.

Supplies along the way are the most serious problem for the army. At this time, there are basically no people outside the cities, and even if there are some poor and wild villages, it is difficult to get any supplies.

Nowadays, the manpower of the Xiayu system is more expensive than that of other cities, so the logistics of this kind of auxiliary troops are basically done with the help of slaves from other cities.

It is necessary to ensure that 4000 people go against the current, against the wind, and go north in autumn and winter. At least 5000 people are responsible for transshipment of grain and grass.

Many cities in the northwest of Yucheng were affected by the Xiacheng system.It is close to Yucheng in the southeast and Caohe in the northwest.The cities at both ends are the simplest, and the currency has gradually circulated here to become a common currency.

The impact of the blank area in the middle is not so far-reaching, and they cannot be closely connected. Therefore, the Supply and Marketing Department and the Transportation Department have cultivated a group of new nobles who are attached to the Xiayu system in the name of warehouses or wine shops, and in the actual semi-colonial comprador method. ——It is very simple to do. The supply and marketing department does not directly buy and sell in intermediate cities, but sells some new tools, ironware, weapons, etc. to the cities through those new nobles. The new noble compradors earn the difference and gradually strengthen themselves The strength of the new aristocracy—most of the new nobles are non-chief parents of children who go to school in Yucheng.

It is precisely by relying on various secret tricks for more than two years that it is possible rather than fantasy to send troops to the north this winter and hold a city council meeting in Xiacheng in the spring of the 36th year of the Chinese calendar. The city remains divided until at least next summer.

Red Fish's mission in advance is to build a supply station for hundreds of miles and thirty miles along the way, all the way to the confluence of Caohe River and Dahe River.Further up the Wei and E cities, there are others to persuade them in order to ask their attitudes, such as Wei Xi'e strider and others.

With the development of Yucheng workshops and the acceptance of copper coins in nearby cities, Xiacheng's copper coins surpassed the value given by copper and labor, and could really be regarded as a currency rather than a token.

So when Red Fish wrote the currency number on the cloth, the leader and those relatives immediately agreed to the number that made their hearts thump.

The amount is huge, and you can buy a lot of things. Similarly, this cannot be accomplished by relying on public property alone—it’s not that the public property of the city does not have such capabilities, but that the interests and attitudes of those new nobles must be considered, and a part of the profits should be given to them. .

These may not all need to be done by slaves, as the lower-level people can do it in a state of idleness in winter, but nobles and city leaders will not give this opportunity to those people.

So Red Fish came to the nobles and leaders first, which made the people at the banquet very happy. In fact, with the reputation of the Xiacheng Warehouse in the past two years, they can completely mobilize those low-level Chinese people to do such things, as long as they pay enough money.

Going to the leader first at least meant that Chen Jian didn't overstep something and gave the other leader enough respect.

This is an internal split, and has nothing to do with Red Fish. Red Fish quickly got a reply, drew up a contract with both parties, printed the seal of Yucheng Supply and Marketing Department, and roughly allocated the locations of supply stations along the way.

Then he politely gave some spoils brought back from the Eastern Expedition as gifts, and even gave the leader a jade article worn by Mou Hu, the leader of Mou City, which was extremely expensive.

When everyone was rejoicing, the nobles of several cities suddenly stood up and asked: "Now Xia Yu is becoming stronger and stronger under the leadership of Ji Xia, and the transactions with our cities are gradually increasing. But we don't know the characters of Xia City. Well, these children must have learned a lot from Jixia as their teacher in Yucheng, and although they never returned home, they also heard about their performance during the Eastern Expedition to Qiongxi."

"And we still have a lot of children. I don't know if Jixia is willing to accept more children? Of course, as before, we should treat our husband like we treat our parents, and we will take care of everything."

Red Fish thought about it for a while, then nodded and said, "I think Jixia will agree. But Jixia doesn't have the skills to do it all by himself, and besides, he can't teach so many people well by himself."

"Let's study with the son of the Xiacheng people... You may not like some things."

Speaking of this, both parties were a little embarrassed, and the relatives and nobles in those cities certainly knew what Red Fish meant.

They are unwilling and impossible to let their children receive the national education and ideological education of the Xiacheng system, and from the experience learned by the relatives and nobles in other cities, the education of those gentlemen, villains and nobles is more suitable for them Children—the essence is the same real, bloody, naked, and dirty interests, but the content of learning is different with different buttocks. With the same book on rebellion, some people learn how to rebel, and some people learn how to shock Press rebellion.

The best way is to teach the essence of rebellion to those who need to suppress the rebellion, so that those who need to rebel cannot learn it, but obviously Xiacheng's education system does not do this, so Red Fish's words let these Make it difficult for some people.

In a dilemma, someone tried to suggest: "My third son is in Yucheng School, and during Chinese New Year last year, I heard him talk about some Yucheng's... er, yes, textbooks. The textbooks after enlightenment are very good, but after enlightenment The textbooks are a little...hehe."

Laughed awkwardly, and then said: "For example, a counting question is asked about the leader of a certain city who attacked the barbarians and plundered a large number of slaves. How many slaves were captured, how much was distributed to the leader..."

"In fact, this textbook can be completely changed. For example, a handful of corn is divided into two halves, and the half is arranged in a few rows to ask how many grains. In fact, the number is the same, and the effect is the same. Why do you have to let the leader keep half? In the textbook Why do you have to add these things that have nothing to do with arithmetic?"

Red Fish laughed loudly, shook his head and said, "This is beyond my control. This is something that the Department of Education has to manage. Ji Xia has released a lot of power, and the matter of money and food is left to Yu Qianer and me, but the Department of Education He military power is never let go, and he is the secretary of various ministries and alliances, he has the right to arbitrarily decide some things, and also has the obligation to educate the people, how can I talk to him about this?"

"Furthermore, copying textbooks is not easy. Ji Xia has limited time, and spends her brains thinking about these textbooks every day and night. He is certainly the leader of the city, and he is also my man. How can I let him write new textbooks and get tired Unbearable?"

Several people sighed. Writing and copying wooden slips is not easy. It is indeed a difficult problem. Just when he thought this problem was difficult to solve, Hongyu suddenly said: "By the way, this is not something that cannot be changed."

Chapter 67 Neocolonialism Drives Development

Everyone immediately put down their wine cups and looked at Hongyu together. Hongyu subconsciously tapped the wine in the cup with chopsticks, watching his reflection with a sly smile like a fox turning into blurred ripples in the cup.

"That's right, Jixia may have to build several new workshops. It is said that they will make some wooden slips that are more convenient to write on. They are similar to silk but cheaper than silk. It is said that they will use an easier method to copy books." .Once it works, some things are much easier to change.”

"As a reward for passing by this time, and for the common prosperity of all relatives to have money to spend, Jixia wants all relatives to send someone to help build a few workshops in your city. The income you can get Half and half."

"As for the children of your relatives who want to go to a school, it's not impossible. Build a few more schools in Yucheng, specializing in teaching books that are different from those of the people of Xiacheng. But the money for building the school, the money for training the master... you guys I also know that everyone in Xiacheng is a part of the city and has to work, so it is difficult to spare people."

As soon as the voice fell, why didn't the leader understand what it meant?

Obviously this is the benefit of the previous workshop sharing half of the profit. This workshop is definitely not as profitable as the iron smelting furnace in Yucheng, otherwise it would be impossible to give up.But compared to the poor artisan workshops in the city, it must still make money.

"Of course we will pay the money."

Red Fish toasted, and said: "Since this is the case, the cities will be like a family after a long time. In fact, apart from those few workshops, there are many ways to make relatives rich, but it is difficult for Xia City to have so many. manpower."