On the vast grassland, King Chu, Mao Lun and others were happily hunting on horseback.
After Addis Ababa was captured, the King of Chu also directly declared that Ethiopia belonged to the Chu Kingdom, and everyone in the territory must be loyal to the King of Chu. At the same time, he also sent people to take over various places in Ethiopia and asked tribal leaders from various places to go to Addis Ababa.
Ba came to see him.
"Hey~"
With a sound, an antelope fell down, and soon a soldier carrying the antelope came to the side of King Chu and Mao Lun.
"General Mao, your archery skills are so good. One arrow penetrated the head. It was a perfect hit. You have already hunted dozens of prey."
The King of Chu looked at the antelope in the soldier's hands, and his eyes widened slightly.
Since the Ming Dynasty's army reformed its military system, its combat effectiveness has skyrocketed. This can be seen from Mao Lun's archery skills. He can shoot arrows with a bow while riding on a horse, with frightening accuracy.
"Haha, just average, average. There are many people in the army who are better at archery than me."
Mao Lun smiled and said modestly.
He did not tell lies. The Ming Dynasty now implements a compulsory military service system. The soldiers have nothing to do but carry out various trainings after being fed every day. The training is very intense. Riding and shooting is a must-training event for every soldier.
, I have to contact archery for at least half an hour every day.
Mao Lun has been in the army for some years, and his archery skills have been developed day by day. He is not born with archery skills. Of course, there is talent in it.
"King Chu, you have occupied such a large land at once. As the saying goes, it is easy to conquer a country, but it is difficult to sit on a country. As far as I know, there are less than 50,000 Han people in the Chu country. If you want to rule such a vast territory,
It’s not an easy thing.”
Mao Lun pointed at the vast grassland in front of him.
This is an Ethiopian alpine grassland. Although it is located in the tropics, the climate here is very cool because of the high altitude. Coupled with abundant rainfall, the grassland here is also extremely fertile and very suitable for grazing.
"General Mao hit the nail on the head. I'm worried now too."
"Although our Ming Dynasty has many colonies and vassal states overseas, the Han people in each of the vassal states and colonies are too few. Even in Ning, the most populous country, there are only a few hundred thousand Han people."
"To rule a huge territory for a long time requires a lot of wisdom."
King Chu nodded and said.
He was very clear about the situation of the vassal state. The biggest problem was to confirm that there was a lack of Han people. As for everything else, it was not a problem.
"In this plateau, although we have killed their king and destroyed their army, these local Kunlun slaves may not obey my king's rule."
"Even if they obey my king's rule, these Kunlun slaves have no hope. They are really unable to hold up the wall."
"How do you say this, Your Majesty?"
When Mao Lun heard this, he was slightly surprised. He had only been in Africa for a short time and his understanding was not deep enough.
"General, you have only been here for a short time, and I'm afraid you don't know enough about this place."
"General, look at the land in front of you. This land is very fertile. It is not only suitable for pasture, but it is also very suitable for farming."
The King of Chu turned over, pulled out the sword of the guard beside him, dug up the turf, dug out the soil, and said: "General, please see, the land here is deep, loose, and very fertile. Coupled with the precipitation and sunlight here, in fact, this land is very fertile."
The land is extremely fertile."
"If this kind of land were placed in our Ming Dynasty, it would have been fertile and wild for thousands of miles. I don't know how many people it could support."
"But here, it is a deserted land. No one cultivates it or grazes it. It is just such a wasteland."
King Chu shook his head as he spoke.
After coming to Africa, he realized what it means to waste natural resources.
Except for desert areas, most areas in Africa are very fertile land. Coupled with abundant light, heat and rain, it is actually a very suitable area for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry.
However, on this ancient and fertile land, no decent country was established, and no decent civilization was developed.
Except for the Ethiopian and Adal Sultanate areas in East Africa, due to the influence of the Arabs, Arabs immigrated here and established several so-so countries with the mixed descendants of the local Kunlun slaves.
It's pitch black and they're all in a very primitive tribal stage.
This puzzled the Ming people who immigrated to Africa for the first time.
The land here is obviously very fertile, and the pastures here are very fertile. Why don't people here farm or breed?
Mao Lun also turned over and dismounted. As a result, he continued to dig dirt on the ground with the sword handed to him, nodding his head while digging.
"It is indeed a good land. It is better than the land in my hometown in Shanxi."
“It’s a waste of resources to leave such fertile fields deserted like this!”
Mao Lun was also born as a farmer. He worked as a farmer at home until he was eighteen years old. Later, the imperial court implemented a compulsory military service system, and he was drafted into the army and received royal food.
He also has deep feelings for the land.
If it were in the past, before the Ming Dynasty began to expand and immigrate to the outside world, everyone would still be fighting for even the smallest nook and corner in their hometown in Shanxi, rushing to plant wheat, vegetables, and so on.
In rural areas, let alone a piece of land, even if the field edge is moved slightly, two families will have a fight and the quarrel will be huge.
All the things that happened in my hometown came to mind. Then I looked at the endless prairie in front of me. When I looked up, I couldn't see any human habitation at all. Then I looked at the soil dug out in my hands.
What a waste of resources!
"Why are they leaving this land uncultivated?"
Mao Lun was very puzzled. If the old farmers of the Ming Dynasty saw such a fertile field, they would probably want to bury their bones in it.
"These local Kunlun slaves are really too lazy."
"As far as the Kunlun slaves I have seen, as long as they have food today, they will never worry about tomorrow and can lazily bask in the sun."
"There is a vassal state to the south of our Chu State. It was the Tang State established by the King of Tang. Because the King of Tang really could not recruit many Han people, there were only less than 20,000 Han people in the entire Tang State, and they were basically concentrated in the Tang capital."
"In order to run the Tang Dynasty, the King of Tang distributed corn, wheat, and sweet potato seeds to the local Kunlun slaves and asked them to cultivate them. As a result, these local Kunlun slaves scattered the seeds directly into the ground without caring.
Just do whatever you want."
"It made Prince Tang so angry that he vomited blood."
King Chu shook his head and said.
"Is there such a thing?"
Mao Lun's eyes widened slightly. In the eyes of Ming farmers, seeds were more important than lifeblood. Sometimes, even if the children starved to death, they would not take them out to eat.
The farmers of the Ming Dynasty also paid the most attention to their own bankers.
In Mao Lun's memory, fights between farmers over irrigation were commonplace.
When we got here, these Kunlun slaves left the fertile fields uncultivated and ignored the seeds. It was simply unbelievable.
“It’s not fake at all~”
"The Kunlun slaves in our Chu country are all the same, too lazy to die."
King Chu nodded.
"Then what do they eat? What do they drink?"
Mao Lun thought for a while and asked again.
"Eat whatever you can find. If you hunt animals, you will eat them. Sometimes you can fill your stomach by picking fruits on the roadside."
"It is sparsely populated, the population is very small, the natural conditions here are very good, and there is a lot to eat."
"If it's just at the tribal stage, there won't be any problem."
"But if you want to develop, this is totally impossible."
"Our Chu country occupies these places and these local indigenous people, I don't think it can make any waves. But if our Chu country wants to be strong and develop, it is completely impossible to rely on these Kunlun slaves."
The King of Chu began to think deeply and began to think about the future of Chu State.
There were too few Han people, and the local Kunlun slaves could not be counted on, which was really a headache.
Originally, the population of the Ming Dynasty was quite large, with a population of over 100 million. In the past, if we had such fertile fields and given some land, we would not know how many people could be attracted here.
But over the years, the Ming Dynasty continued to expand and immigrate, and it acquired too much land. Not to mention other things, the Golden Continent and Australia alone were enough to accommodate an unknown number of people.
The attractiveness of land to the people of Ming Dynasty has dropped to the extreme. It is difficult to attract immigrants to Chu State by relying on land.
"Your Majesty, as far as I know, Ningguo uses a large number of white slaves and Tianzhu slaves. Hundreds of slave ships pass through the Red Sea every month. It is said that there are millions of slaves in Ningguo.
"
Mao Lun looked at King Chu who was deep in thought, thought about it and put forward his own suggestions.
"I also want to use Bai Nu and Tianzhu Nu."
"But the price of slaves is very expensive. Even if a slave is wholesaled from the Mediterranean, it costs almost twenty taels of silver."
"I spent all my money to come overseas, how could I still have the money to buy a large number of slaves?"
After hearing this, the King of Chu shook his head slightly and said: "At first I was interested in the frankincense and myrrh here in Chu State, but these two things cannot support the huge expenditure of a country."
"As a result, the annual tax revenue of Chu State is less than 300,000 taels of silver. Apart from various expenses, there is not much left, and nothing can be done."
"Your Majesty, you can actually learn from the Golden Continent. Although not many Han people have immigrated to the Golden Continent, there are a large number of concubines. There are millions of Han children in the Golden Continent. After more than ten years,
, when they grow up, do they still have to worry about having no one?"