Chapter 120 The main mission begins (please vote for more updates!)
As Ma Su's relationship with the Qiang girls deepened,
Zhuge Liang was worrying about how to develop the Shu Han economy.
Especially after the Shu Han Dynasty changed its strategic goal from proactive northern expedition to steady development, developing people's livelihood became the top priority of the court.
Therefore, the candlelight in the study room of the Prime Minister's Mansion stayed on all night long.
Any time-consuming and protracted war requires the support of a strong economy. Without sufficient economic backing, it is almost impossible to win the war.
Since Shuhan is the poorest of the three countries, people's livelihood has always been extremely difficult. Central Sichuan is not only short of money, food, horses, but also people, etc.
Among these urgently needed materials, the most scarce item is undoubtedly food.
Usually, half of the Shu Han's food sources are self-sufficient, usually through imports, and rely on the Shu brocade trade to import food.
Even Zhuge Liang said: "Today the people are poor and the country is weak, and the only way to defeat the enemy is to rely on Jin Er."
It is no exaggeration to say that the Shu brocade trade supported the Shu Han's Northern Expeditions. Shu brocade is not only the foundation of people's livelihood in Sichuan, but also a pillar industry.
In Chengdu alone, there are tens of thousands of weavers engaged in this industry. Even Zhuge Liang's home has 800 mulberry trees planted.
Zhuge Liang exported Shu brocade to Wei and Wu in exchange for food and other war supplies, thus maintaining the needs of more than 100,000 troops, and then went on to conquer Cao Wei in the north.
However, that is all in the old lunar calendar. Since the 19th year of Jian'an (214), when the three-legged confrontation was formed, the Sichuan brocade business has not been easy to do.
Even though Shu brocade is a unique good thing in the world and a necessity for dignitaries and upper-class people, it has always been subject to the highest level of trade sanctions from the Wei State.
Unlike Shu Han who has Shu brocade and Wu State who has Jiangnan silk, Wei State does not produce silk. Under this situation, if Wei State wants to check and balance the economies of Shu and Wu, it can only use a trade war, and the trade war must be based on
In order to accurately hit the target, Shu brocade also took the opportunity to hit the Wu silk.
Therefore, Wei officials have always banned luxury and fashion consumption, in order to reduce the demand for Shu brocade and Wu silk.
In the early days, Cao Cao himself practiced it and advocated "elegance and frugality, no luxury, and no embroidery in the harem." Cao Zhi's wife was punished and died for violating the embroidery regulations.
During the period of Cao Pi, Cao Cao's sanction policy was continued. Only in the later period of Cao Rui (after 235 years) was Shu Brocade able to enter the Wei Kingdom openly and become popular among the middle and upper classes of rulers.
In terms of suppressing the consumption of Shu brocade, Wei State did a relatively good job in the early stage.
This makes Zhuge Liang hate it every time, but he has no good solution.
Therefore, Shu Brocade could only be sold to the upper class of Wu Kingdom.
However, Wu itself had a small population and had Jiangnan silk in reserve, so the demand for Shu brocade was not large.
Helpless, Zhuge Liang had no choice but to develop other alternative specialties in an attempt to reverse the financial poverty of the Shu Han Dynasty.
At first, Zhuge Liang chose well salt, but after trying it, he found that it was difficult to sell well salt to Shu. Because Wei State had lake salt and Wu State had sea salt, neither country needed well salt.
Later, Zhuge Liang set his sights on Yunnan horses, which have excellent endurance. However, Yunnan horses are short in stature and have short legs. They are only suitable for camel transportation and are not suitable as war horses. Moreover, Yunnan horses are produced from the southern barbarian tribes, and the supply of Yunnan horses has always been unstable.
In addition, the Wei State has three major horse-producing areas and has all kinds of excellent war horses, and it does not look down on Yunnan horses at all. The Wu State occasionally buys some Yunnan horses, but the Wu State usually purchases them directly from the Nanman rather than letting the Shu Han
Exploited by the second hand.
Others, such as wood and Chinese herbal medicines, were not in short supply in the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, which were still in the agricultural society.
As for Zhuge Liannu and Mu Niu Liuma, they must be on Shu's arms embargo list and cannot be exported to Wei and Wu.
Then the only thing left that could be exported to Wei was Shu knives. However, due to various objective reasons such as imperfect iron ore mining techniques, the output of Shu knives was very small, and very little foreign exchange could be created.
After going around in a big circle, the problem finally returned to Shu brocade.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang is worried about this now.
Originally, this problem could be partially solved through the Northern Expedition. In order to solve the food problem, Shu State had always relied on plundering Wei State's food to supplement its logistics.
Every year during the autumn harvest, Zhuge Liang would organize a grain-grabbing team to go to the land of Wei and enthusiastically help the people of Wei "harvest grain."
Then it was transported back to Shuhan for his own use.
Occasionally, they would plunder a few more people and come back.
The State of Wei had no choice but to move its people inward or impose more stringent trade sanctions, creating a vicious cycle in the relationship between the two countries.
After coming to this era for a year, Ma Su has a deep understanding of this.
War is never a matter of simply arranging troops and horses to determine the outcome. Economic sanctions can also strangle the life of a weak country.
Among the three countries, Shu is the poorest and weakest, with the fewest resources, so it is the most afraid of sanctions.
Wu State is the least afraid of being sanctioned. Wu State has sea salt, silk and satin, prosperous shipping, and developed shipbuilding industry. Wu State is backed by the East China Sea and borders Southeast Asia. Wu State’s foreign trade business has always been the best among the three countries.
Even Cao Pi once exchanged war horses with Sun Quan for foreign treasures such as night pearls, peacock feathers, and rhinoceros horns.
In addition, human trafficking and robbery are also another pillar industry of Wu State. Soochow ships often cruise around Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay, and often go ashore to rob. Sun Quan also occasionally sends troops to overseas expeditions such as Yizhou and Ryukyu Islands to plunder.
population.
As the country with the largest population and resources, Wei is in a dominant position, so when it comes to imposing sanctions on Shu, Wu and Wu never relent.
Wei State usually starts from three aspects.
The first is to restrict the two countries’ key products, such as Shu brocade and Wu silk.
The second is the embargo of strategic materials. The Wei State has many strategic materials, the two most important ones being food and war horses.
Not to mention food, Wei will definitely not sell it to Shu and Wu.
Talking about war horses alone, the Wei State not only produces war horses in Guanxi Hetao, but also the Liaodong, Xianbei, Xiongnu, and Qiang that border Wei State are rich in war horses. Since war horses are rare and rare, and neither Shu nor Wu have them, the Wei State can control war horses, and control
The size of the cavalry in both countries.
Shu and Wu did not have large-scale cavalry, so they could not fundamentally threaten Wei, which had large cavalry.
As soon as they enter the northern plains, they will be killed by the Wei cavalry and lose their armor.
Therefore, this is also the foundation of Wei's undefeated state.
Merely controlling the war horses was enough to make the Wei State sit back and relax.
The third is cultural export, which is also the softest method of the Wei State. For example, the poems and songs of the Seven Sons of Jian'an, the calligraphy of Zhong Yao, and the conversations of famous people in the Wei Dynasty. The scholars of Wu and Shu must regard the northern culture as authentic and as a weathervane, and they will influence it imperceptibly.
Indirectly influenced by the ideas and culture of the Central Plains.
The two countries of Shu and Wu had nothing to do against this kind of invasion that resembled peaceful evolution.
Due to the huge difference in size, the two countries are not even qualified to fight a trade war with Wei.
Precisely because it realized that the advantages possessed by the Wei State were irreversible to the Shu State, the Wei State never regarded the Shu State as a real opponent. Instead, it regarded the Wu State as its lifelong enemy and repeatedly marched southward.
Because the Kingdom of Wu had nothing but war horses. Moreover, the waterways in the Kingdom of Wu were crisscrossed, so the war horses themselves were of little use.
The most important thing is that Wu State has ships.
Having a boat is enough to protect yourself.
While Zhuge Liang was working hard to improve people's livelihood, Ma Di opened the system in the governor's office of Yongzhou.
After returning to Chengdu, the main and side missions started.
As the light screen flashed, nine icons expanded one after another.
[Roulette draw], [Scan other character attributes], [Copy experience], [Main mission], [Weather forecast], [Side mission], [System mall], [My journey], [Personal attributes].
At this point, all options are available.
Ma Su raised his hand and clicked on the main thread, then looked up.
There is only one main task, which is "Kuang Fu Han Room", and there are four sub-tasks.
"Expedition to the north of Cao Wei", "conquest of Sun Quan in the east", "pacification of the armies in the west", "development of people's livelihood".
Ma Su clicked on the task line with his backhand and looked at it intently.
