Chapter 751: After the war, there will be bad years
Zhao Kuo and Ashande chatted for a while and exchanged some special remarks.
Due to fear of each other's strength, both parties were very restrained, behaved very politely, and had a happy conversation.
After all, in addition to competition in terms of strength, Zhao and the Maurya Dynasty were complementary in many aspects. The Maurya Dynasty greatly needed Zhao's silk, porcelain, paper, etc.
Zhao also needed food and cotton from the Mauryan Dynasty.
As for spices, jade, etc., Zhao Kuo actually doesn't like them. One of these two things is because they are rare and valuable, and the other is essentially a stone, which is held up because of its beauty. The other is because of IQ.
Tax. The real value is not much, let alone compared with grain and cotton.
However, everyone was willing to pay a high price to buy it, and Zhao Kuo was also happy to see the results. Anyway, the court could make money from it and would not lose anything.
"I heard that there was a country called the Seleucid Empire to the west of the Maurya Dynasty? Can the envoy tell me about it?" Zhao Kuo asked.
When Ashande heard this, he suddenly became wary. In the past two years, the Mauryan Dynasty had made a lot of money by reselling silk from Zhao to the Seleucid Empire. This was because the trade route from Zhao to the Mauryan Dynasty had just been developed and had not really taken shape.
scale, otherwise Maurya could still make more money.
If Zhao bypassed the Mauryan Dynasty and sold silk directly to the Seleucid Empire, the Mauryan Dynasty would make a lot less money.
"Reporting to King Zhao, the Seleucid Empire is indeed in the west of our Mauryan Dynasty, but the people there are not as friendly as the people of our Mauryan Dynasty. Bandits and thieves are everywhere, and they like to plunder other people's property. For a long time, our country has
They both refused to associate with each other," Ashande said.
Zhao Kuo smiled. He didn't know what the Seleucid Empire was like, but he knew that Ashande's words should not be taken lightly.
However, it is not necessary to go through the Mauryan Empire from Zhao to the Seleucid Empire. Whether it is land or sea, you can go around it. However, the trade route has just been opened, and Zhao is not familiar with the environment there and has no troops stationed there.
Letting the Maurya Dynasty make more money is also a kind of protection for Zhao's businessmen.
"Our country Zhao plans to establish long-term and stable trade relations with the Maurya Dynasty. What does the envoy think?" Zhao Kuo said.
"This is my Maurya honour." Ashand said.
According to tradition, the court meeting is followed by a banquet.
Ashande is looking forward to this very much. The dishes cooked by Zhao Guolian's street restaurants are so delicious. You can imagine the delicacies cooked by the royal chef in the palace.
However, Ashande is from a noble family after all, and he represents the entire Maurya Dynasty. It is impossible to be impatient in this matter. Instead, he imitates the Zhao people and eats slowly, but Ashande does not know how to use chopsticks.
, using a spoon and fork.
Everyone had almost eaten when a beautiful dancer walked in from outside the palace. Whether she was from Zhao or the Maurya Dynasty, she was very good at singing and dancing. Many ministers got up one after another and danced in the center of the hall. The envoy of the Maurya Dynasty
Seeing this, he started to participate, and the scene was very lively and cheerful.
The banquet lasted until evening, and after everyone had enjoyed themselves, the envoy of the Maurya Dynasty was sent back to the official residence.
The next step was a formal negotiation between Zhao and the Maurya Dynasty regarding trade exchanges between the two parties. Because Zhao Mu knew the Maurya Dynasty best, he served as the chief envoy and Lu Zhonglian served as the deputy envoy.
Because it was the first time for both parties and they had little experience, the negotiation lasted for three days before both parties finalized all the details.
However, since the grain and cotton that Zhao needed most could not be transported by land in large quantities, they had to wait until Yuan Hua opened the Maritime Silk Road.
While the State of Zhao was establishing commercial relations with the Maurya Dynasty, the State of Qin was not willing to be lonely. It sent people to contact the King of Chu and proposed a marriage with the State of Chu and marry its daughter to the King of Chu.
At the same time, King Zhu of Qin also sent people to propose marriage to South Korea, asking the King of South Korea to marry his daughter to the prince, hoping to use marriage to break up the alliance between the three Jin Dynasties.
But God does not seem to favor Qin.
In April, King Zhu of Qin, who had been King of Qin for only a few months, passed away and was given the posthumous title King Xiaowen of Qin.
Prince Chu succeeded to the throne.
Due to the death of the monarch, Qin Wangzhu could not get married, so the marriage could only be suspended.
The Qin State suffered successive defeats and lost two monarchs in a row. God seemed to be warning the Qin State that it was going to decline. The atmosphere in the court was gloomy and the courtiers could not cheer up.
Although Zichu succeeded in becoming the King of Qin, he could not be happy no matter what. The war indemnity left by his grandfather had not yet been paid off. The war that lasted for many years left Qin full of holes, and the people dared not be angry.
As a result, the prestige of the imperial court was greatly reduced, administrative efficiency was reduced, and people fled in many places.
At this time, the Qin State was suffering from internal and external troubles. If he could not solve this mess, the Qin State would be in danger of being destroyed.
"Your Majesty, the Qin State has fought successive wars and increased taxes and corvees many times, making the people miserable. I believe that our Qin State should now reduce taxes and reduce labor to reduce the burden on the people of the country." Lu Buwei said with his fists clasped.
After Fan Ju's death, he also successfully became the Prime Minister of Qin.
However, Qin Wangzhu and Qin Prince Chu did not trust him as before, but became a little alienated. Zi Chu also did not share Qin with him as promised in Zhao.
Later, Lu Buwei learned that some people in the harem of Qin Wangzhu and Zichu said bad things about him.
That is to say, Lu Buwei is powerful enough that Qin Wangzhu and Zi Chu cannot do without his help. But if it were someone else, it might not be as simple as alienation.
"The Prime Minister said it lightly, tax reductions and exemptions, the pressure on the people of the country has indeed been relieved. What can we use to compensate Zhao and Qi for the two million shi of food every year? What can we use to pay salaries to officials, and what can we use to train the army? No training.
Army, when Zhao comes to attack again, what will Qin do to resist it?" Wang Jian said in a deep voice.
Since the Longxi Cavalry was nearly wiped out last time, it has not yet completed its recruitment.
Longxi County, the source of troops for the Longxi Cavalry, has fallen into the hands of the State of Zhao. The only place that can replenish troops is Beidi County. However, Beidi County has a sparse population and even fewer soldiers who meet the requirements of the Longxi Cavalry.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! At the same time, war horses are also a problem. When Longxi County and Hexi Corridor were in hand, Qin did not need to worry about war horses, but now only Beidi County and war horses are left.
It became a big problem.
In addition, raising so many war horses and soldiers was also a huge pressure on Qin.
Qin's territory shrank significantly. After excluding the annual taxes and compensation to Zhao and Qi, there was not much left, and every penny had to be broken in half and spent.
The salary that was supposed to be paid out at the beginning of the year has not been paid out until now.
The ministers in the court didn't say anything, but many local officials were already complaining.
Those high-ranking officials have a lot of land and are not short of this salary, but they, the grassroots officials, are just waiting for this little rice to be used.
If the imperial court does not distribute salaries, how will they support their family?
The current situation of the imperial court is obvious to all, and Wang Jian also knows that the imperial court is having a difficult time, but even if it is difficult, he cannot delay the army.
Without a large army, there is no question of whether we will live well or not.
It is a question of national subjugation.
Then there was another quarrel in the court, but in the end no one could convince anyone.
Prince Chu of Qin waved his hand helplessly and announced the dismissal of the court.
He has seen this scene many times.
May is supposed to be the joy of a good harvest. However, I don’t know whether it is because of the inevitable disaster after the war. The harvests in various places in the Central Plains this year are not very good.
Wei, South Korea, and the Huaibei region of Chu all suffered from drought, as did the southern part of Zhao, and the situation was slightly better than that of Wei.
However, the Hetao and Yandi have achieved a rare bumper harvest. After five years of reclamation, the Hetao has been transformed into 100,000 hectares of fertile farmland. Traffic is everywhere, chickens and dogs can hear each other, and rivers and canals are crisscrossing the Central Plains.
Everyone is full of pride. They have built this fertile land from scratch, and every place is a reflection of their hard work.
The five-year tax reduction and exemption has ended. Without waiting for the officials to collect taxes from the government, everyone has already carried the grain they were prepared to pay to the ground, waiting for the officials to come and collect it.
The clerk discussed the harvest with everyone and calculated taxes for everyone. After recording, he took out two slips of paper and wrote down the name of the household head, how many people in the family, how many acres of land, how much paddy field, how much dry field, how much upper field, and how much middle field.
, how much is farmed, how much tax should be collected, and how much tax is actually collected.
The head of the household will sign the note after verifying that there are no problems. If he cannot write, he will fingerprint it and make two copies.
If the household head conceals the report and is found out by the government, he will be fined or even have his land confiscated.
If a petty official overcharges or undercharges, he may be suspended from his job, or his home may be ransacked.
If the head of the household discovers a problem, he can report it to the government. If the government does not respond, he will report it to the township school, which will directly report it to Zhao Sheng. The township school will not care, and he can also report it to the Taiwei from the army through soldiers from the same village.
In the end, if no one really cares about it, they will beat the drum. Generally speaking, at this level, at least the entire county will be thoroughly investigated, and if there is any problem, no one can escape.
Although it is impossible to completely prevent things like dripping and kicking dendrobium from happening, under the current conditions, Zhao State has minimized the possibility of arbitrary tax collection.
After a good harvest, the land of Yan quickly recovered its vitality, and the acres of land had been re-counted. Zhao Guo didn't care whether you were powerful or not, all the land had to be measured and registered.
Zhao State built several ports and salted fish processing plants in Liaodong and Western Liaoning, as well as shipyards, salt farms, other seafood processing plants, etc. and recruited local people to work.
For nobles who did not go against Zhao, the court would also sell them boats and let them fish.
Zhao Kuo had no hatred towards the nobles, but only if they abide by Zhao's laws.
After the busy farming season, everyone goes to dig rivers and build roads, or go to work in factories. The wages for road construction have increased from ten yuan to fifteen yuan, and the construction site manager has a lunch.
Zheng Guo also implemented an incentive policy. For prisoners who performed well, their prison time was reduced by up to half, that is, they could go home in two and a half years.
This is undoubtedly good news worth being excited about for the captives.
With everyone's joint efforts, the development speed of the Liaohe Plain has increased significantly, almost every day.
According to Zheng Guo's estimation, if this continues, the transformation of the Liaohe Plain can be completed in at most ten years. This is because the prisoners can only work for five years, otherwise the time can be shortened a bit.
Of course, ten years is a very short time for a country.
The drought in the southern part of Zhao State continues, and everyone is trying to find ways to irrigate. Many canals have no water. The silt of Niushou Water outside Handan City is exposed, and the bottom of the river can be seen clearly, and the flow may stop at any time.
The water levels of Fu River and Zhang River also dropped sharply, and the people looked sad.
Zhao Kuo ordered various places to stabilize commodity prices, prohibit price increases of grain, salt and other necessities, and prohibit the flow of a grain of grain from the Zhao border.
At the same time, people were organized to dig and dredge rivers. In the past, dredging rivers was very troublesome. They had to wait until autumn and winter when the water was clear to dredge the rivers. At this time, the weather was already cold and it could not last too long.
Nowadays, due to drought, there is no water in various rivers, so it is a good time to dredge them.
The situation in the State of Zhao was relatively good, but the drought in Korea, Wei, and the northern part of Chu State became more severe. The kings of the Three Kingdoms publicly offered sacrifices to heaven and earth many times to pray for rain, but to no avail.
Zhao Kuo also led the people of Zhao State to use Jiuding as a ritual vessel to worship heaven and earth outside Handan City. However, this time there was no strange phenomenon of heaven and earth. Not to mention rain, there was no wind.
"I know this thing is unreliable." Zhao Kuo patted Jiuding and said dissatisfiedly.
Regardless of the factors of time and cultural heritage, they are just ordinary bronze wares. Even if you use spiritual power to detect them, there is nothing magical about them.
However, during the last sacrifice, the Jiuding did shine. And everyone said that King Qin Wu was the one who suffered the backlash while holding the tripod and died.
Zhao Kuo did not dare to be too presumptuous. He only dared to say what he had to say in his heart.
"There isn't even a cloud in the sky, even artificial rainfall can't do it." Lin Xiangru sighed. The prerequisite for counselors to use mental power to rain is that there is water vapor. There is no water vapor in the sky now. Even if all the counselors of Zhao State are put together,
Don't even think about a drop of rain.
"Your Zhao country is not as good as our Mauryan Dynasty in this aspect. Although we also have deserts, most areas have sufficient rain and fertile soil. There will never be drought. You can harvest just as many seeds as you want. You can plant two crops every year.
A few areas can be planted in three seasons."
Ashande returned to China, but left a deputy envoy stationed in Handan. After Yuan Hua returned to China, he followed Yuan Hua back to the Maurya Dynasty by sea.
During this period, as the deputy envoy got to know Zhao State more deeply, he became even more surprised. Zhao State seemed to be stronger than the Mauryan Dynasty in every aspect.
But now, he finally discovered where Zhao was inferior to the Mauryan Dynasty: this land was not good!
boom!
Terrible mental pressure burst out from Xunzi's body, sweeping around like a violent storm. Xunzi's face no longer had the gentleness of the past, and two rays of light shot out from his eyes. He tried to lower his voice: "Is what the messenger said true?
"
"Of course." The Maurya envoy said with a high face, "Our country has never worried about food."
"Isn't anyone in your country starving to death?" Xunzi asked.
"Of course there are, but they are all Sudras and untouchables. It doesn't matter if they die." The messenger said nonchalantly. To them, the lower classes of the caste system are not considered human beings at all.
When the envoy left, Xunzi's face suddenly darkened. He walked up to Zhao Kuo and said solemnly: "Your Majesty, the land that is harvested three times a year must be conquered even if it requires all the efforts of the whole country. If it is not conquered, it will be destroyed in the future.