Traveling through Chenghan Xiandi, fortunately I have a simulator

Chapter 171

For Zhang Ming, it was not as easy as imagined to open the channel between Shu and Chang'an. Even with Liu Yan's participation, the transportation of sericulture along the way was still a big problem.

From Shudi to Chang'an, the road is long and the transportation is inconvenient, so if you want to transport the silkworms from Shudi, road construction is inevitable.

Driven by interests, the roads in Shu finally began to be built. They said that they were building roads, but in fact they were just flattening and widening. Difficulty.

Liu Yan naturally handed over the matter of road construction to Zhuo Yun. As a member of the imperial court, Zhuo Yun also has a talent bonus for road construction. After all, it is Zhuo Yun's business in name, but it is actually the court's business, so The progress of road construction is a little faster than expected.

However, while the roads in Shu are being repaired, the transportation of sericulture has been in progress.

A whole month has passed since Zhuo Yun received the imperial order to when the first batch of sericulture arrived in Chang'an.

Within this month, the textile factory built by Pu Yuandu was also completed, and then the textile factory was officially sold to Zhuo Yun.

Some things must be done clearly, such as the cooperation between the imperial court and Zhuo Yun. Although this turned a purely market transaction into a political transaction, in the Han Dynasty, business could not escape the influence of politics, so Zhuo Yun With such a big business, it is very unreasonable for the court not to intervene.

What is now manifested on the surface is that Zhuo Yun obtained the approval of the imperial court in Chang'an to set up a textile factory, employ local female workers in Chang'an, purchase edge looms and Hualou looms produced by the imperial court, and then sell Shu brocade through the textile factory. The imperial court extracts a certain amount of tax from Zhuo Yun, which is also a common commercial tax.

Zhuo Yun's left hand is the power of Yizhou, and his right hand is the power of the imperial court. Although Liu Yan is somewhat dissatisfied with the joining of the imperial court, he also clearly knows that since Zhuo Yun's business is in Chang'an, it is impossible to bypass the imperial court, so he is relieved. After all, the money you earn is real.

For Liu Yan, instead of allowing the original Yizhou family to earn the money, it is better for him and the Wu family and other newly joined families in Shu to obtain the money. This can also strengthen his power in Shu. After all, Liu Yan is in Yizhou The state is just an outsider.

At the end of May, Li Ru finally arrived at Daying in Wen County, where Lu Bu was located. Lu Bu welcomed Li Ru's arrival very much, after all, Li Ru was also regarded as his bole.

"Brother Wen You, Bu is really honored that His Majesty sent you to me." Lu Bu said politely.

"Wen Hou, you are really too polite. My current official position is under yours. How can I need to work hard?" Li Ru said politely, and then sat down. After staying in Chang'an for a long time, I am more used to sitting now .

"Brother Wen You, what are you talking about, you are a popular person around His Majesty, how can I, a general who is out, compare to you, but Bu wants to know, what is it that His Majesty actually sent you over? " Lu Bu asked curiously.

"Your Majesty intends to unite with the Royal Court of the Southern Huns to attack Zhang Yang after a while, and General Lu may be required to send troops at that time." Li Ru said slowly.

"We're going to attack Zhang Yang again. Is Your Majesty going to kill Zhang Yang? But I have a question to ask Brother Wen You, does the current imperial court have the strength to kill Zhang Yang?" Lu Bu asked puzzled.

Today's imperial court is actually stronger than Zhang Yang in terms of military strength, there is no doubt about it, but it is impossible to annex Zhang Yang.

"Yes, of course His Majesty knows, so His Majesty did not intend to annex Zhang Yang. His Majesty's purpose is to let the Southern Huns Royal Court fight Zhang Yang to the death, and finally turn back and annex the Southern Huns Royal Court." Li Ru said lightly. Said.

"Your Majesty's target is actually the court of the Southern Huns, which is completely beyond my imagination, but is it true that His Majesty does this without considering the consequences? If this is the case, who will dare to cooperate with the imperial court in the future?" Lu Bu asked curiously.

For the imperial court, reputation is very important. It is normal for princes to jump back and forth with each other, but the imperial court is different. The imperial court needs to pay attention to righteousness, at least in name, it needs a sufficient reason.

If the imperial court took the Southern Huns royal court as an abandoned child, it would indeed be easy to annex the Southern Huns royal court through the strategy of driving away wolves and tigers. The princes and forces that are friendly to the imperial court are all born with fear.

This means that the first battle to destroy the royal court of the Southern Huns cannot be started by the court, but can only be handed over to Zhang Yang. However, if Zhang Yang wants to develop such hatred, the court must pour some oil on the fire.

This is also the reason why Zhang Ming sent Li Ru to the front line. He was worried that Lu Bu would not come according to the plan, which would cause the imperial court to annex the Southern Huns royal court, but it would not be conducive to the future of the imperial court.

This battle must be done with caution, at least in the eyes of outsiders, it is not easy to pick out faults, so every step must be taken steadily.

In Guanzhong in May, there has not been a single rain, and the drought has come without any concealment.

In Guanzhong in early June, although there was a light rain, how could such a little rain be able to irrigate the fertile fields in Guanzhong, so this year's drought cannot be avoided after all.

Of course, apart from Guanzhong, the situation in other areas is not much better. The closed terrain of Shu has little influence. not simple.

There were severe droughts in Guanzhong, moderate droughts in Liangzhou, moderate droughts in Bingzhou, moderate droughts in Yanzhou, moderate droughts in Jizhou, and minor droughts in Jingzhou. The entire northern region, from the Qinling Mountains to the Huaihe River in the south, and the Great Wall in the north, experienced droughts of varying degrees.

Fortunately, the canals built by the imperial court will be completed in mid-June. At that time, with the help of irrigation canals, at least the grain production of most of the farmland in Guanzhong can be maintained.

Although Hedong County has adopted the strategy of garrisoning fields, when it encounters drought, it can only rely on the villagers to divert water for irrigation. For the villagers, it is really tiring, but at least there are keel waterwheels provided by the imperial court. When the villagers thought that they would get [-]% of the food in the farmland in the future, their tired bodies woke up again.

For Zhang Ming, he was aware of the drought situation very early, so the imperial court began to prepare for this year's drought in March. Production and the construction of canals have all effectively alleviated the impact of the drought.

But the situation in places outside of Zhang Ming's rule is terrible. Those places are just as before, leaving the people in dire straits.

Every time there is a disaster year, whether it is a flood or a drought, it is a complete disaster for the common people, but for the aristocratic family, it is the beginning of a round of huge profits.

Although people from all over the world will organize disaster relief spontaneously, how fragile manpower is in the face of natural disasters. There are keel waterwheels in Guanzhong, which can at least reduce the physical strength of farmers, while in other places, they can only irrigate the farmland in the primitive way of carrying water on their shoulders. In this way, even if you carry a pole for a day, the water you draw will not be able to irrigate half an acre of square fields.

Under drought, more than one irrigation is required during the period from planting to maturity. Therefore, for the vast majority of farmers, even if they can divert water for irrigation, they often cannot irrigate a few acres.

Farmland in the Han Dynasty was a small-mu system, and the grain output value per mu was not high, so even self-cultivating farmers often needed to plant more than [-] mu of land to meet the grain needs of a household.

But when the people are already in such a difficult situation, the aristocratic families just watched quietly, they are still waiting, when the people can't stand it, then is the best time for them to make a move.

Generally speaking, if there are self-cultivators who have stored grain, they can still survive a disaster year. However, most self-cultivated farmers have some grain in stock, but not enough. Therefore, when encountering a disaster year, they either choose to sell their fields at a low price or sell their land. Sons sell daughters, in short, life is king.

This kind of phenomenon will probably appear frequently for a while. After all, it is only the beginning of June, and the people are still a little lucky. If there is no more rain in July, today's harvest is almost useless.

For farmers, if they sell their fields earlier, they may still be able to sell at a good price. If they are later, the entire market will become a buyer's market. At that time, even if farmers want to sell their fields, they will get very little money. , Since then, the owner farmers have either become sharecroppers or refugees.

Therefore, every food problem will become a good opportunity for land mergers, not only natural disasters, but also man-made disasters. For example, the land mergers in Hedong County were mostly caused by man-made disasters.

However, the people in the Guanzhong area have expectations for the future, even though they know that this year is a disaster year, but with various measures taken by the imperial court, they believe that they can survive, so it is impossible to sell the land.

As for areas outside Guanzhong, if the common people needed to sell land, the imperial court would ask the county magistrate to pay for it. Of course, the price of selling land would be fixed within a certain range according to the market, at least more than the money paid by the local wealthy families.

The local wealthy family wanted to fight for financial resources with the court. Unless they could join forces, the price offered by the court would be higher than them, which would be capricious. Anyway, Zhang Ming had already found a way to make money.

These are all things that are put on the bright side. After the incident in Hedong County, Zhang Ming has already understood that sometimes, local wealthy families can be suppressed through legitimate channels. Local snakes, they oppress the people, they only rely on the fields, and if they can't take over the fields, they will cut off their way of retreat.

Zhang Ming’s current attitude towards the local wealthy family is that if the wealthy family annexes land, he also annexes the land, and the price he pays is higher than that of the local wealthy family. If the wealthy family sells grain at a high price, he also sells grain, but the price will be lower. The local wealthy families directly engaged in commercial struggles.

If there is no way to make money from the brocade of Shu, the imperial court would have killed themselves in this way of playing. After all, no matter how rich the imperial court is, it is comparable to all the local wealthy families.

But it is different now. The business of Shu brocade will eventually reach all over the country, and there is only one high-quality Shu brocade. Even if it is the birthplace of Shu brocade, they cannot produce high-quality Shu brocade without the help of Hualou looms. This kind of high-quality Shu brocade is a top-selling product no matter which market it is in.

The customers of fine Shu brocade are often aristocratic families from all over the world. These aristocratic families used their money to buy the fine Shu brocade produced by Zhuo Yun. Zhuo Yun returned [-]% of the profits to the imperial court, and the imperial court took the money from these aristocratic families. Fight for financial resources with aristocratic families.

If it weren't for the fact that the output of the high-quality brocade has been controlled intentionally or unintentionally by the imperial court, the money the imperial court makes from selling the fine brocade to various places can directly kill the local nobles of the Sili Xiaowei Department, but Zhang Ming knows that the high-quality brocade is a top luxury. High-quality products, which must be kept after all, are produced too much in a short period of time, which will only reduce them to low-end products.

The royal family's existing clothing is uniformly made of high-quality Shu brocade, including the Yanju suit that Zhang Ming is wearing now, which is also made of high-quality Shu brocade. It can be said that the emperor of the Han Dynasty is the best spokesperson for the high-quality Shu brocade.

Therefore, there is a rumor in the market that 'only the clothes made of the top Shu brocade are really luxurious'.

For the current royal family of the Han Dynasty, the profit of salt and iron is far less than that of Shu brocade. Now Zhang Ming finally understands why Zhuge Liang relied on Shu brocade to support the capital needs of the Northern Expedition in history.

Zhang Ming has more ways to make money, but there is no need to worry now, just the Shu brocade is a way to make money, so that the big man no longer has to worry about financial resources in a short time.

Of course, as the raw material of sericulture, the economic situation of Shu land has also been greatly improved. Even the Shu road that Zhuo Yun is expanding is becoming more and more optimistic.

It is true that Zhang Ming has no idea about the Shu land for the time being.

Liu Yan is not a very easy person to deal with, Zhuo Yun can help him make money today, Liu Yan will naturally help Zhuo Yun develop business, but one day in the future, if the imperial court wants to deal with Liu Yan, Liu Yan will also be able to immediately let go of the immediate interests, Become an enemy of the court.

What's more, the current imperial court has not settled down in the east, west, north, south, so why bother to provoke a Liu Yan who lives in Shu, although he has great ambitions, but his life is not long.

Although Liu Yan has a rebellious heart and so-called treasonous behavior, it is just his wishful thinking. Shu is closed, and it is difficult for outside news to get in, and it is also difficult for Shu to get out, so even if Liu Yan No matter how you do it, the impact on the outside world will be minimal.

Besides, in order to prevent the Shu region from cutting off the raw material silkworms, Zhang Ming would ask Zhuo Yun to transport more silkworms every time, and then make these silkworms into silk and put them in the warehouse.

Silkworm silk has been preserved for a long time, and this is the backhand left by the imperial court, and this backhand is defending against Liu Yan.

Poor Liu Yan, he thought that he had grasped the lifeblood of Zhuo Yun by mastering sericulture, but he didn't understand business, he didn't know that a mature producer had the strength to crush raw materials, and he didn't know that sericulture itself was worthless. The most valuable is the top Shu brocade, which is cost control.

(End of this chapter)