A few days later, Zhao Kuo received two messages again: The Qin State, with Wang Lu as its commander, commanded 50,000 troops to attack Yiyang, South Korea. The Qin State, with Zhang Tang as its commander, commanded 30,000 troops to attack Chu's E County.
"A bloody storm is about to take place in the Central Plains again." Zhao Kuo handed the information to Liu Ping and sighed.
It is almost inevitable that a fierce war will break out after a short period of peace, and no one can stay out of it.
"Are we going back to Handan?" An Ning said a little disappointed, she hadn't gone to the big pasture in the north yet.
"No, I will go back after the inspection." Zhao Kuo shook his head, "Qin is attacking South Korea, not Zhao."
Although the three Jin Dynasties are allies, it is impossible for Zhao to take the initiative to send troops to support without South Korea asking for help.
South Korea took the initiative to ask for help, and Zhao Guocai offered the conditions conveniently. After that, South Korea still owed Zhao Guo a favor.
Zhao Guo's initiative to support is not the case. Not only is it impossible to provide conditions, but it may even offend South Korea.
You sent troops here without me inviting you, do you have any thoughts about me?
An Ning breathed a sigh of relief and asked with a smile: "Then where should we go next?"
"There is a large cattle and sheep processing factory in Jiuyuan. Let's go and take a look." Zhao Kuo said.
This is the largest cattle and sheep processing plant in Zhao. It produces all processed products related to cattle and sheep, including beef and mutton, leather, cattle wool, cow and goat milk, milk wine, beef tendon, including cow and sheep excrement, which must also be composted and sent to the country.
farmland.
There are also some spin-off factories nearby, including shoe factories, clothing and hat factories, writing brush factories, textile factories, carpet factories, milk wine factories, horn comb factories, etc.
Zhao Guo started making woolen sweaters and trousers a few years ago. There is no technical difficulty in spinning wool into threads. The difficulty lies in how to degrease it. However, it can be worn without degreasing, but it is easy to become stiff and has a sheep smell and greasiness.
, just like the smell of barbarians.
After being around cattle and sheep for a long time, there is this smell that cannot be removed no matter how hard you go.
The nobles in the Central Plains would naturally look down upon the fine silks they had, but the nobles and common people in the northern Xinjiang could not care about so much. They only need to keep warm, but why should they care so much?
Therefore, woolen sweaters and woolen trousers are still very popular in northern Xinjiang and the middle and lower classes.
However, the problem of wool degreasing was solved by a disciple of Gongshujia a month ago. By the way, the problem of down degreasing was also solved.
Well, these two questions are actually one.
Now this public loser disciple is leading a large group of people to make improvements. After all, being able to remove fat and being able to be commercialized and popularized are two different things. If the cost is too high, it is better not to do it.
Wool is not valuable in the first place, so don’t make it unaffordable for everyone because of an additional procedure.
"The price of meat and milk here is really cheap." Qing He whispered.
She saw that the meat here was half cheaper than that in Handan, especially beef, because various countries had banned the consumption of beef for a long time. Even if the Zhao State relaxed it now, most nobles were still reluctant to eat beef, but Hetao had no such scruples at all, even some ordinary people
The common people can also afford to eat beef and mutton.
The milk was even more outrageous. Qing He saw buckets of milk being poured into the river with his own eyes. If this scene was publicized by someone who was interested, Zhao Kuo would definitely be swept into the ranks of the ignorant king.
"On a first come first served basis near the water, just as it is always more convenient for people along the coast to eat fish, it is natural that the price of meat in Hetao and Monan is cheap. If even the people in Hetao cannot afford meat, then there is nothing else to eat.
I have hope." Zhao Kuo said.
His goal was simple: to allow all the people of Zhao State to eat meat during the holidays.
This goal may seem difficult to achieve, but it is actually not difficult.
Zhao State has a total population of just over five million. As long as five million cattle and sheep can be raised on the grasslands, one for each person on average, not only will everyone be able to eat meat during the holidays, but there will also be a surplus.
And this is without counting poultry and fish such as chickens, ducks, geese, etc.
Even if the world were to be unified, there would only be a population of over 20 million. It would not be impossible to destroy Donghu, merge the other half of the grasslands, and plan several large pastures with hard work.
Moreover, large pastures do not have to be built in the north. They can also be built in the south. South of the Yangtze River in Chu State, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and large tracts of wasteland are uncultivated. It is suitable for raising cattle and sheep.
If Chu State knew that Zhao Kuo had planned to build a ranch in Chu State at this time, I don’t know how he would feel...
"As for the milk being dumped, there is no way to transport it out." Zhao Kuo sighed.
Although milk can be made into milk wine, it is too slow. The milk needs to be put into a sheepskin bag and stirred continuously. Good milk wine needs to be stirred for nearly ten days, which is time-consuming and laborious, and all processes require manual labor.
How many people are there in total in Hetao and Monan? Not to mention that most people are busy clearing land, so how can they have time to stir milk wine?
Only when some elderly people and children are fine and want to make some money to support their families will they bother.
The cattle and sheep factory distributes a bucket of milk every few days, and when the time is up, just hand over a fixed portion of milk wine. You pay and deliver the goods.
Anyway, the milk cannot be transported out, and we are not afraid of people drinking it secretly. The cattle and sheep factory will give you a lot more every time, so you can drink it as you like. If you pay more milk wine, you will also be given more wages.
The money that Zhao Guo loses every year on cow and goat milk is calculated in billions. It is said that Zhao Kuo tried to make milk powder before, and then he discovered that... the milk after drying was not milk powder, and the shelf life was not long.
Of course, it will definitely last longer than fresh milk.
If you want to increase the shelf life, you still need to make it into milk powder or cheese. However, this cannot be achieved overnight and can only be studied slowly.
"Actually still losing money?" An Ning said in surprise.
"What do you think is losing money? If you don't make money that you can make, it's called losing money." Zhao Kuo said.
"..." Everyone was speechless. It was the first time they heard of losing money like this.
"I discovered that the people in Hetao can actually live a good life just raising cattle and sheep even if they don't farm." Feng Quji said excitedly. He is the magistrate of this county.
"Although raising cattle and sheep is okay, farming can still make people feel at ease," Liu Ping said.
"Yes, I feel more at ease after having a piece of land." Feng Quji nodded. Even he, after arriving in Hetao, opened a small plot of land in the yard of the county government to grow vegetables.
After learning about it, many people praised Magistrate Xiao Feng for being diligent and frugal, but in fact he didn't feel that way at all.
This is just a habit for him. He feels uncomfortable when he sees a piece of land lying idle and does not plant anything. It has nothing to do with whether he is diligent or thrifty, or whether he serves the people or not.
Of course, the people don't think so. In their opinion, as a county magistrate, growing your own vegetables is a good official.
Feng Quji was happy to be praised. He was not cheap, so of course he was happy to be praised.
"The county ahead of us is Huang Shigong, right?" Zhao Kuo pointed to the front and said with a smile.
After he demoted Li Si, Han Fei, Huang Shigong, and Feng Quji to Hetao, he did not arrange for a specific county to serve as magistrate, but handed them over to Li Fu.
Lifu is also weird. Instead of separating the four people, he arranged the four people together and gave them four counties with similar area and population for them to govern.
Four young people of about the same age were in the prime of their youth. Even though Li Fu didn't say anything, the four of them felt suffocated in their hearts and were determined to leave the other three behind.
But all four of them are talented. Except for Feng Quji, who suffers from his young age and lack of experience, there is not much difference in strength among the other three.