From Chief to Ball

"For example, mining requires a lot of manpower. There are iron ore and coal mines in Yucheng, but there are not many mines such as copper and gold. Now that your city has obtained a lot of money, the iron tools you exchanged can be cultivated by slaves. Save a lot of manpower to mine. Yuxia has rich experience in how to find ore, mine, excavate, and transport. Xiacheng will pay for ore prospecting, opening roads, transportation, and nearby smelting, and you will pay for things like mining. People are still half of one person.”

"Xiacheng is not here to invade the mines of the relatives, but to help the relatives to cultivate some people who can mine. After 20 years, when you can mine alone, Xiacheng will naturally leave and let go of those interests. At that time, it will be the children. Our world, we are all old, so we can leave some wealth to our children. And if those minerals are hidden in the ground, what are they worth?"

Most of the aid between cities or countries is well-spoken, but not everyone knows what it is for.

Fine smelting or iron smelting cannot be completed in these cities, and even if there is iron ore, it will not be or is not allowed to be found, but precious metals such as copper, gold, and silver can be found and primary smelting is required if possible. .

Xiacheng has money and technology, but what it lacks is the production capacity of cheap labor and low-grade products.Since the annual growth target of the city is to be achieved, foreign investment has become a feasible method to control the city in the form of economic colonization.

Furthermore, with the expansion of Xiacheng's influence, the development of productivity, and the abundance of surplus products, the demand for currency surged.

A large amount of bronze is needed to melt and cast guns and cannons. A gun that is not powerful enough to penetrate six or seven rows of phalanx soldiers, let alone one or two thousand catties or even hundreds of catties, will take up a lot of copper. It's not a good thing.

This can be regarded as a good thing for everyone. With the guarantee of force, there is no need to worry about these cities taking the workshops and mines controlled by Xia Cheng into the city's public ownership. Dare they just have an excuse for war.

The Xiacheng system has abnormal overcapacity, especially weapons, copper and iron, and the city itself does not have such a large consumer market.

But if you want to ensure the living standards of the Chinese people in Xia City, you can't rely on steel and gunpowder.And with the emergence of the possible cotton textile industry, picking cotton bolls, peeling cotton seeds, and plucking cotton are all elementary manual labor that requires a lot of manpower.

If other cities are not mobilized, it will be difficult to sell Xiacheng's products, and it will be difficult to secure enough manpower for some planned workshops.

Relying on the natural accumulation of other cities, it will take about ten years to become a dumping ground for Xiacheng, and to popularize the taxation system based on self-cultivating farmers, so that everyone can become a potential consumer of products, instead of only relatives like now. Expensive to afford.

This time, the mission led by Red Fish is not a big deal to prepare a supply station for the army. What is more important is to find a way to lure the rest of the cities to tie up with Xia City.

Red Fish thought about what Chen Jian told her, and said, "Ji Xia said that the Cao River runs from north to south, and the big river runs from west to east. This is a natural road bestowed by our ancestors that does not require repair. Just like a tree, the water absorbed by the roots runs to the leaves, so that the tree can grow tall and lush."

"These two rivers are the pathways for water to flow. The area along the river supports each other, and those who are rich first will be driven by those who are rich, and those who are rich will be driven by the establishment of workshops before they are established, until a prosperous road stretching hundreds of miles from Xiacheng to Yucheng is formed. road."

"Since one family is like a family, there must be weaving, planting, hunting, and breeding in a family. The same is true within the tribes of Dahe, but the brothers and sisters in the family are cities and towns. Some cities grow food, some mine minerals, some smelt minerals, and some educate relatives... Divide the work, only in this way can the whole of the rivers develop better."

"I don't know what you guys think?"

Chengyi rubbed his hands for a while, nodded and said: "This is a very good way, and it makes sense. If you can really become rich all the way along the river, I think your ancestors will be happy too."

"That's right. So Jixia looks forward to meeting you in Yucheng in April next year to discuss some major issues related to the mutual aid and development of the city."

The leader panicked when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "I don't know if this prosperous road refers to the whole river? Or is it from Xiacheng to Yucheng? Jixia wants to invite the leaders of those cities to come Where are you going?"

The leader wanted to know what this method of mutual assistance meant?Are you going to stand in line now?Or is it just for the prosperity of the city?

This must be clarified, if Chen Jian is forcing them to form an alliance with Xiacheng to fight against the cities headed by Suyue, this needs to be carefully considered, and it cannot be agreed immediately.

Even though Chen Jian had just returned from Dongyi's great victory, he seemed to be the savior of the entire Dahe tribe, but in fact it was because Suyue's army was out that Qiongxi took advantage of the loophole.

If there are many people who support Xiacheng, of course they can stand in a team, but Xiacheng's background is too weak and it is not obvious that there is an absolute advantage now, so it is unwise to stand in a team at this time.

Xiacheng is far in the northwest, and Yucheng is in Dayeze. It is extremely difficult for the enemy to capture these two cities, but their own city may not be able to hold it.

Red Fish had already guessed the other party's reaction, and quickly explained: "For the time being, it's only between Xiacheng and Yucheng. Those cities to the east, Jixia, have intentions but are a little powerless. It's hard for Xiacheng to have such financial resources and population now. .”

"There are not many cities to invite, maybe six or seven, but not only the leaders, relatives with a large number of slaves can go."

"Jixia's meaning is just to discuss together for the prosperity of the cities, not to make an oath, and it has nothing to do with sending troops or fighting. It is definitely not a clan alliance. It is only about money, not about war. Even if you don't participate It will affect the transactions between Xiacheng and your relatives, and it will not affect the previously promised development of each city. It's just that Ji Xia thinks that everyone can discuss it together, and we can always do better."

She solemnly took out a piece of cloth from her bosom, unfolded it and said, "This is the 'basic rules for the mutual aid and development of relative cities along the coast of Xiayu' proposed by Jixia. You can listen to it before making a decision."

After asking for everyone's opinions, they put down their bowls, chopsticks and wine cups, listened attentively, and finally let go of their hearts.

In general, there are no constraints other than economics, and it does not involve agreements such as alliances sending troops.Basically, the Xia city system assists several cities between Xia and Yu to develop together by means of loans or technical support, and roughly draws up some plans, which sound very tempting.

Such as providing farm tools to help establish new slave manors, develop mines, sign contracts for the purchase of low-level products such as agricultural products from upstream cities or wood and charcoal, help establish standardized breeding and pastures, provide new textile technology, and jointly mint coins. Any product in Xiacheng is preferred Mutual aid cities and Xiacheng are obliged to embargo the hostile cities of mutual aid cities and so on.

Looking at it as a whole, it is very beautiful. In detail, except for Xiacheng, the development of the rest of the cities is mainly based on the lowest level of minerals, agricultural and animal husbandry products, and low-level textiles that only spin threads and do not dye cloth.

It is a good thing for all the cities to jointly mint coins, but the amount of coins issued is controlled by Xia Cheng, and the pricing power of ironware, dyed cloth, weapons, etc. is in Xia Cheng's hands.

In fact, Xiacheng is sucking the blood of the cities along the river to ensure the welfare and living standards of the citizens of Xiacheng. However, in the case of extremely low productivity, more nutrients must be fed when sucking blood to ensure that people can survive. Keep smoking, these cities are getting fatter and fatter within ten years.

In the past, only one catty of blood was taken away by Xia Cheng for eight taels a year, but in the future, it may be eight catties of ten catties of blood taken by Xia Cheng. It is really a win-win situation.

There is no appearance of a military covenant, but it has the essence of a military treaty.The most upstream and final downstream of this economic mutual aid system are Xiacheng.Once Xiacheng collapses, the upstream cities in this planned city economic mutual aid organization will also collapse, and they will have to stand by Xiacheng at that time.

A covenant is just a piece of cloth, while economic interests are shackles cast in steel.The former can be torn, and the latter is an unbreakable stone in the sky in the eyes of today's cities.

It is best if the leader agrees, and if he disagrees, he will support compradors or agents. There will always be people who forget the sacred clan and stand firmly under the dirty interests.

The reality was simpler than Chen Jian expected. The leader didn't think too much about the hidden things behind it at all. He readily accepted the proposal and said that he would definitely go to Yucheng next year to discuss with Chen Jian, and he hoped generously to provide these The copper coins exchanged for food slaves can be directly exchanged for what the city needs when discussing next year.

This is a very cruel reality, whoever gets closer to Xia Cheng in the city will be richer, so there will be more people, and more rights.

The leader not only wants to go, but also has to sink deeper than other relatives to ensure his own rights.

It can only be said, to hell with the natural and sacred clan blood, to hell with the morality left over from the clan era, to hell with the rules of the old era.

The leaders and relatives feel that they will usher in a bright future, but they are vaguely unpredictable.

In fact, the future they vaguely feel is a future that the few rule the many and cater to the new moral system where the few rule the many.

The divine itself will still exist, but the divine changes quietly.

The sacred loyalty still exists, but the object of loyalty is no longer the blood of the huge clan, but the direct family of the individual.

The holy accusation still exists, but the object of the accusation is no longer the leader who is elected by the people and responsible for the development of the city, but the individual's lack of effort and stupidity.

The sacred morality still exists, but the highest morality is no longer the old system of cultivating the public land, safeguarding the highest interests of the clan city, and helping each other and working together; A new morality derived from the natural inequality of property-determined status, and the immorality of resistance.

This is good, a step forward.It's just that some people miss the beauty under the old morality and ignore the improvement of the material level of the new moral foundation.

This thing is not a plowshare, which can be used tomorrow if it is produced today, but it takes a long time to transition, swinging between the old and the new, until one day the new completely replaces the old and possesses natural sanctity, and at that time the new Again there will be competition for this natural sanctity.

Few things have preserved their natural moral sanctity all the way from time immemorial.

It is not without reason that people's hearts are not old. People's hearts are not old because the times are not old.Whether the world is up or down is based on the sacred things of which era?

At least as far as these cities are concerned, the group of people who betrayed the old sacred morality first became the first rich in the city. They are the people who least believe in the words of equality and mutual assistance left over from the clan era. So live better.

The success of Red Fish's mission this time is also thanks to the people's hearts, otherwise, how could there be so many potential cheap labor to make Xiacheng suck blood.

Amidst the farewell sounds of the relatives and nobles in the city looking forward to the future, Hongyu led the tribe to continue northward, paving the way for the army to enter Xiacheng.

Further north, Wei Xi'e Strider and the others also met their parents, wanting to know their attitude towards Xia Yu.

In fact, there was no need for them to go, but Chen Jian didn't want to keep a single hostage, so he simply sent them all back.

Chapter 68 The Beginning of Change

In November, the Caohe River was about to freeze, and bright ice crystals appeared in the puddles along the river.