The world is still peaceful, with no cries of war, no stench of blood, only the smell of fireworks that penetrates thousands of households, and the constant rush of cars, horses and pedestrians on the road.
For a time, the Central Plains actually had some pretense of a prosperous age.
The official roads of various countries have been laid, and the Qin State has also opened up its suppression of merchants, and commerce has rapidly prospered at a barbaric rate.
Commodities from all over the world were transported to every corner of the world under the promotion of merchants.
With the planning and completion of Zhao Guo's grassland pasture, dairy products and leather products processing plants have also been put into production, Zhao Guo's business has ushered in a second spring.
A steady stream of milk wine and leather were transported from Monan, Hetao and other places to the noble houses in Handan, and even sold to Qi, Wei and South Korea through official roads and water transportation.
This milky wine conquered everyone's taste buds as soon as it came on the market, attracting nobles from all over the world to rush to buy it, and it instantly became a luxury wine.
Businessmen from various countries discovered business opportunities and flocked to Zhao State one after another, starting a business of reselling milk wine and leather. Some even chose to settle in Zhao State, bringing a lot of wealth to Zhao State.
"I didn't expect that the grassland that no one had noticed before could bring such huge benefits to our country of Zhao." Lin Xiangru said excitedly, holding a list.
The list shows that Zhao's commercial tax in the third quarter increased by a full 20% compared to the second quarter.
The State of Zhao is not a country like the State of Qin where commercial taxes can be simply ignored. The State of Zhao is well connected in all directions and business has always been prosperous. After the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce, business has become more prosperous than before, ranking among the best in the world.
Even so, it still increased by a full 20%.
This is only a commercial tax, and does not include other benefits brought by the influx of merchants into Zhao.
Moreover, these milk wine factories and leather factories are all owned by the Zhao State, and the business income directly belongs to the Zhao State's treasury.
"The cost of raising these animals in the Central Plains is very high. Countries spend a lot of money to raise war horses and cattle just for use in military and agriculture. Therefore, sheep that cannot be used in military and agriculture are rarely raised. But on the grasslands, these animals
The cost of raising livestock is so low that it can be ignored," Zhao Bao said with a smile.
These properties were all arranged by him and Zhao Mu together. This was the first time he knew that raising horses was so cheap.
He knew how much the Zhao State spent every year on raising horses. Even so, almost all of the horses raised were slave horses, which could only be used to pull carts and not ride.
Later, King Wuling of Zhao conquered Loufan and Linhu, obtained a large number of high-quality war horses, and built his own horse farm in Daijun.
Now that Zhao State has conquered half of the grassland, the racecourses it has opened are much larger than Daijun's dilapidated racecourses, and the cost is much lower.
"The main thing is that the smooth roads solve the transportation problem. The production of milk wine solves the shelf life problem. Otherwise, even if we get the grassland, we will only raise cattle and horses, and it will be difficult to obtain higher economic benefits." Zhao Kuo said.
Milk wine was not invented by the State of Zhao, but was obtained from the Huns after they conquered it.
In addition to the Xiongnu, tribes such as the Donghu, Loufan, and Linhu all make milk wine. At most, some are relatively clear and have no smell of mutton, while some are turbid and have a smell of mutton.
As for who invented it, there is no way to know.
But now Zhao Guo has been fulfilled.
The shelf life of milk is only a few days, and it is impossible to transport it from northern Xinjiang to Handan.
But milk wine is different. After it is made, the shelf life can be as short as a few months or as long as one year, which is enough to be transported to anywhere in the Central Plains.
However, those businessmen in the Central Plains who make a living by making wine and selling wine may want to scold Zhao Guo to death.
The price of milk wine is not more expensive than other wines, but it has an extra milky flavor. In addition, Zhao Guo has spent a lot of effort on publicity to package milk wine to be extremely nutritious.
In just a few months, other grain and alcoholic beverages have been suppressed to the point where they can no longer hold their heads up.
As for the transportation problem of fresh beef and fresh mutton, the cold chain still does not exist.
In the middle of summer, the shelf life is only one day, so it is completely unplayable.
Winter can solve the problem of shelf life. Anyway, Zhao is in the north, but it is easy to encounter ice and snow road closures in winter, making transportation difficult.
Major ranches are already building underground icehouses to cut river ice in the winter and store it for use in the summer. However, the ice stored in the icehouses is limited and can only meet the large-volume transportation of meat once or twice a year.
Now in Zhao State, after slaughtering the animals, they directly salt them, then cut them into slices and hang them in the yard to dry. After they are dried, they are sent to Handan and the military camp.
The soldiers didn't have any objections. It didn't make any difference to them whether it was meat or dried meat. They could just eat some.
To be honest, they were surprised to have dried meat to eat. Most of them could barely eat enough five years ago. As for eating meat, it was impossible, let alone beef, which even the nobles could not eat.
It's a high-end product.
However, Zhao Guo's pasture has just got on the right track and cannot yet provide meat stably.
The only thing that can satisfy all soldiers is fish. Even the craftsmen in workshops and road construction workers can take home one or two pounds of salted fish every few days. It has even begun to flow into the homes of ordinary people recently, becoming a
The most popular meat dish in Zhao State.
Now the price of fish and meat in Zhao is ridiculously low, only slightly more expensive than millet and rice.
It is said that Zhao Miao is still expanding his fishing fleet...
"By the way, Dai Jun came to report yesterday and found that there were businessmen trading with the Donghu people, and some people even raised war horses, cattle and sheep in the Donghu land." Liu Ping said.
"Dividing land in Donghu, hiring Donghu people to raise war horses? Didn't the Donghu people attack them?" Zhao Kuo laughed.
This is a talent, running to the enemy's territory to encircle it.
"Donghu still has no king. Although no large-scale war broke out, small wars continued. Some small tribes could not support themselves and could only be annexed by other tribes. Then this businessman named Fan Tong found a businessman who was about to be unable to support him.
The tribe that goes down, tell the tribe leader that if you give him three months, he can bring the tribe back to life, but the tribe leader needs to let him do it for these three months, and he will need to be paid a lot of money afterwards."
"Because all members of the tribe are direct descendants of the leader, even if the leader's position is given to Fan Tong, the tribe will still belong to him. Moreover, the tribe is now in danger, and Fan Tong finally said that he needs compensation, which made the old leader think that Fan Tong
It was just for money, so I gave up the position of leader to Fan Tong without hesitation."
"For more than two months after that, Fan Tong relied on his superb mind to help the tribe avert danger, and took the old leader and other members of the tribe to many places, making other tribes around him think he was the new leader of the tribe, and the old leader also helped
He proved it.”
"When the time came, Fan Tong used this tribe as a mortgage to borrow 3,000 troops from a large tribe, and then used these 3,000 troops to participate in a tribal battle and seize a piece of pasture." Liu Ping said slowly.
Everyone was stunned. This was the first time they had seen such an operation.
"You are a white wolf with nothing!" Zhou Zi said, even more ruthless than Tian Shi who bought all the money.