Nine hundred and seventy-eighth chapter preparing for war (1)
After walking out of Qingliang Hall, Liu Che looked up and saw two jujube trees planted in the garden in front of the hall.
At this time, the jujube trees were already covered with small green fruits.
In two months, they will be mature.
"How are the fruits of the jujube trees in Shanglinyuan this year?" Liu Che turned around and asked Ji An, who was following behind him.
"Reporting to Your Majesty..." Ji An replied seriously: "According to the report of the supervisor of Shanglin Garden, the jujube trees in Shanglin Garden are expected to have a bumper harvest this year. There are tens of thousands of jujube trees bearing fruit, which should produce thousands of stones of jujube!"
After hearing this, Liu Che immediately put his heart back in his stomach.
Maybe, someone is surprised.
Why would a majestic king of a country have such free time to care about and understand the fruiting conditions of jujube trees?
In fact, this is easy to understand.
Just think of jujube trees as oil fields in the Middle East in later generations.
Today, there are four kinds of goods that can never be sold.
First, of course, is food.
No matter what time of year, food can always be sold for money.
The second is cloth. Even to this day, cloth is one of the hard currencies and equivalents of the Han Dynasty.
From the state down to the common people, everyone is willing to accept cloth and recognize that cloth can be used as currency to participate in the circulation of the commodity economy.
Therefore, now, there are so many weaving households and weaving workshops in Guanzhong.
The third is salt and iron.
Salt and iron trade and profits are even the second largest source of fiscal and tax revenue for the Han Dynasty.
And the fourth is jujube that many people can’t even imagine...
Last year, relying on the sale of dates, Shanglinyuan turned in two million yuan to the inner treasury!
Please note that this is the net profit after deducting the expenses of Mo Yuan, the huge group of workshops in Shanglin Garden and other miscellaneous expenses.
Although, Shanglinyuan’s income sources are very diversified.
The profits from fake land taxes and coinage add up to tens of millions.
However, its maintenance costs are also extremely huge.
Even if the investment of the people living in the garden and the water conservancy facilities are deducted, the hundreds of thousands of Shaofu craftsmen and the thousands of officials and generals up and down the Shangli Garden, their own expenses are enough.
People were stunned.
In the five years since Liu Che took the throne, Shanglinyuan has suffered losses every year.
Liu Che needs to pay for the subsidy out of his own pocket every year.
But last year, Shanglinyuan achieved an unprecedented profit, although it was only two million!
And this is all thanks to the current Shaofu Prime Minister Sima An, who is Ji An's cousin.
Sima An worked as a garden supervisor in Shanglin Garden for almost four years. In the first three years, in addition to obeying Liu Che's orders and performing various tasks in Shanglin Garden, he only did one thing: planting jujube trees!
He planted all the barren hills and sandy land in Shanglin Garden with jujube trees.
At the same time, many experienced farmers were invited from the private sector to graft the jujube trees that already existed in Shanglinyuan.
The result is that since last year, the jujube trees in Shanglinyuan have been bearing more and more fruits. By August, in some places, almost all the mountains and fields are covered with jujubes.
These dates, when picked or sold fresh, are extremely expensive, selling for twenty yuan per kilogram!
Two or three kilograms of dates can weigh as much as one stone of corn!
Moreover, some of the best and larger dates can even be sold for 500 or 600 yuan per pound!
Other jujube fruits are dried and processed.
Then it was sold to the Sanhe and Qilu areas of Kanto.
A pound of dried dates is priced at 100 yuan at Yantie Yamen!
As a result, demand exceeds supply!
Merchants, nobles, scholar-bureaucrats, and even the middle class all over the world rushed to buy it!
This surprised Liu Che and he also noticed and observed jujube, the most important economic crop in the Han Dynasty that he had always ignored.
People of later generations cannot understand the admiration and pursuit of jujube by the aristocrats and officials of the Han Dynasty.
Since the Spring and Autumn Period, dates have been associated with gods and immortality.
As early as the Warring States Period, dates have become an extremely important economic crop.
When the Warring States Policy enumerated the resources of the Yan land, he said: There are also benefits from jujube and chestnuts. Although the people do not have to cultivate the fields, the jujubes and chestnuts are enough for the people to eat.
"Han Feizi" also records that during the period of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, there was a famine in the Qin State, and King Zhaoxiang was advised to distribute jujubes from the Five Gardens to the people as disaster relief materials.
It can be seen that jujube was already very important during the Warring States Period.
At least, it is an important fruit that can be sold for money.
This is inevitable due to the traditional etiquette and eating habits of the Xia people.
Since the Spring and Autumn Period, there has been an important link in the marriage etiquette of scholar-bureaucrats and nobles in the Xia Dynasty, called zhi.
Zhi, literally understood, means holding a treasure and paying homage to the elders.
It is the etiquette for younger generations, especially brides, to visit their parents-in-law and aunts.
Since it is a gift, it needs a gift.
Jujube and chestnut are the treasures that Zhi Li holds dear.
In addition, dates are also an important raw material for condiments.
As we all know, China has been short of sugar since ancient times.
Any sweet dessert will be sought after by the nobles and nobles.
The best dessert during the Warring States Period, and the must-have dessert for nobles after meals, '痗', was a dessert made of boiled rice and wheat and adding dates.
Therefore, the Book of Rites says: Date chestnuts are filled with honey to make them sweet.
By the time of the Han Dynasty, the status of jujubes had become increasingly high due to decades of historical evolution and human promotion.
This is also the blind spot caused by Liu Che himself not believing in any elixir of life, so he doesn't pay attention to these gossips at all.
In fact, since Qin Shihuang, jujube has been closely related to gods and immortality.
The great deceiver of the Han family in history, Li Shaojun, who brought in alchemists and sorcerers to offer elixirs or techniques of immortality, once deceived Emperor Wu and said: I tried to swim on the sea and saw An Qisheng, and An Qisheng gave birth to jujube, which is as big as
Gua. Immortals born in the An period are connected to Penglai. If they are in harmony, they will see people. If they are not in harmony, they will be hidden.
Even immortals love to eat jujubes and can be bribed by jujubes!
As for among the people...
It is thanks to the decades of unremitting rhythmic work of the Trophic Warlocks.
Jujube has been deified in its place and at this time.
At this time, the most commonly used inscriptions on bronze mirrors by the scholar-officials, nobles and princes all over the world were: The mirror made by Shang Fang is really good, and there are immortals on it who don’t know how to grow old. If you are thirsty and drink from the sweet spring, if you are hungry and eat dates, you can float around the world...
A group of deceived princes, princes, wealthy businessmen and landlords eat dates every day.
The result was diarrhea.
However, this actually encouraged the pursuit of jujube by aristocrats, wealthy merchants and landowners.
They all thought that if they continued to eat, they would be able to live without food...
In addition, jujube has a very high status among traditional classics and works, especially in Confucian classics.
Legend from the left: The peach arcs the thorn arrow to eliminate the disaster.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the thorns of peach and jujube trees were regarded as warding off evil spirits.
Alchemists and magicians often use peach wood as bows and jujube thorns as arrows to drive away evil spirits and ghosts.
In the eyes of the general public, eating dates can not only bring people closer to immortals and maybe become immortals, but also ward off evil spirits.
Therefore, jujube had a special economic status in the Han Dynasty.
So much so that in history, there once appeared a story.
Sima Xiangru's good gay friend Wang Ji still plays the leading role.
The name of this story is that there is a tree in the owner's house, Wang Yang's wife goes away, the dates are finished in the owner's house, and the wife comes back after leaving.
For a jujube tree, Wang Ji, who is said to be able to turn stones into gold, became jealous! The jealousy was so serious that he wanted to divorce his wife, and forced his neighbors to cut down the tree under the threat of divorce!
This story tells people that if they travel to the Western Han Dynasty and want to make a fortune, the best way is to plant jujube trees!
According to historical records and biographies of Huo Zhi, the owner of a mountain forest who owns a thousand jujube trees has wealth comparable to that of a "thousand-year-old family".
Therefore, a year ago, after Liu Che learned that selling jujube could actually sell such a large area, he decided to plant jujube trees as a strategy for Shanglin Garden.
To this day, the entire Shanglin Garden has nearly 10,000 fruit-bearing jujube trees and tens of thousands of seedlings!
Plus deerskin, cattle and sheep breeding and leasing.
Today, Shanglinyuan earns tens of millions per year by planting trees and breeding!
Therefore, it became a reality that the people did not benefit from the wealth, but the world used the wealth!
This year’s jujube harvest is particularly important.
Liu Che needed such a considerable and stable income to enrich his treasury and reward and motivate the army.
Without this income, Liu Che would probably have to increase the rent tax on Shanglinyuan's fake land.
It is precisely because of such a predictable and very stable income.
Even if we now have to plan a war of unprecedented scale, it can even be said to be unprecedented.
Liu Che doesn’t need to raise taxes either.
It is very important in China to not raise taxes when fighting a war.
If the war requires a tax increase, then the farmers whose burden has been increased will not support the war so much.
And what if there is no need to raise taxes?
The general public's view on war is of course supportive!
Of course, this does not mean that the income from selling dates can support a war of this scale.
In fact, this year's jujubes from Shanglinyuan could be sold for tens of millions, which would make Liu Che laugh to death.
However, it is precisely because of this stable and reliable income of tens of millions that Liu Che and the Han family's treasury have the confidence to spend money hard!
One year, tens of millions, ten years is tens of millions!
As for the entire Hetao strategy, the Prime Minister and the Shaofu estimated that the total cost was only 200,000,000!
This includes the military pay of the army, the loss of weapons and equipment, and post-war rewards.
In addition to growing jujubes, Liu Che also discovered that at this time, another economic crop also had huge potential. Its market was not as big as jujubes, but its benefits were higher than jujubes.
This thing is melon seeds.
The favorite snack of princes and princes.
In the tombs unearthed in later generations, melon seeds were the most common snacks buried with princes and princes.
However, this kind of thing seemed a little funny to Liu Che.
"Take jujube pills, people who eat melon...tsk, tsk, tsk..." Liu Che smiled slightly and walked forward.
How many people would know that the sarcastic remarks made two thousand years later were the daily life of nobles and literati in this era before the Christian era?
Keep walking forward.
Not far away, Liu She, the young minister, was already waiting at the side of the corridor with his six prime ministers.
"How are the preparations for the sauce and vinegar cloth required by the army?" Liu Che asked Liu She who was kneeling on the ground respectfully.
Now, the preliminary preparations for the Gaoque Battle have entered a climax.
Every day, more than 50,000 shi of grain and hay, as well as a large amount of weapons and equipment, arrived at Beidi County and Longyou County behind the Great Wall.
However, in terms of Xinhua, all dried fish and dried meat have been transferred.
It was transported to Qinhuangdao in western Liaoning using a fleet of large-scale ships, and then transported to Yunzhong County via Chidao.
However, when the army is dispatched, it is not only the food, grass and equipment that must be ensured.
Condiments such as sauces and vinegar cloth also need to be in constant supply.
Since the Qin Dynasty, the Chinese army has been unified by the central government to ration sauces and vinegar cloth.
Moreover, the consumption of sauces and vinegar cloth is very large in the army.
How big is it?
For every two husks of rice, give two measures of soybean paste.
This is the Qin system! (recorded on Qin bamboo slips in Sleeping Tiger Land)
In the Han Dynasty, such sauce rationing became more detailed.
Taking the Habayashi Guards as an example, a soldier's standard supply for each meal is: half a dou of rice, half a catty of beef, a quarter of a liter of sauce, two liang of dried fish, a piece of bacon, and leeks.
Although Xiliu Camp is not as luxurious as Yulin Guard.
But the standard meal is also half a bucket of rice, four taels of meat and fish, and a quarter of a liter of sauce...
Other main field legions have different standards.
However, half a bucket of rice and a quarter of a liter of sauce is an iron rule.
Mi, it’s easy to understand. If you don’t eat, you won’t have strength.
But the sauce is of the same grade as rice, which can vividly illustrate that the chariots of the Han Empire are inseparable from the sauce from home.
Let the soldiers eat delicious and safe sauces.
This is a major matter concerning military morale and morale!
There are many kinds of sauces, especially those from Qin and Han Dynasties.
However, they are basically made from soybeans and served with fish and meat.
Depending on local customs and habits, tastes vary.
Therefore, the shelf life of this kind of sauce is only two to three years at most.
Therefore, before each Han army goes on an expedition, the Shaofu will prepare various sauces to supply the army.
This is a big deal!
The emperor should also care and inquire personally.
This is also the tradition of Zhuxia.
As early as the Shang Dynasty, the king was very concerned about the supply of sauce for his army.
Zhou Shu said: Yi Yin was ordered to serve Tang and was given the sauce on the side of Fen.
On the side, it is a kind of sauce made from fish.
"Reporting to your Majesty, I have sent envoys to the prefectures and states to bring peace of mind!" Liu She knelt down and said, "As for the affairs of the soldiers from Guanzhong, I have already supervised the eunuchs, Tang officials, and eunuchs.
Commanders and chiefs, camp day and night to ensure the supply of the army!"
Liu Che nodded after hearing this.
Many of the soldiers of the Han army came from prefectures and counties all over the world.
The tastes in these places are different from those in Guanzhong.
It was normal for the Shaofu to send people to local counties and Pingjia to buy local sauces as military supplies.
It is not surprising that the palace maids and eunuchs were involved in military production.
This has been the case since Taizong.
"Before September, the sauce and vinegar cloth must be properly prepared and returned to the warehouse!" Liu Che ordered: "The young master must not make any mistakes in this matter!"
"No!" Liu She and Shaofu Liu Cheng both bowed deeply.
They know the seriousness of this matter.
If you fail, you will lose your head!
He even wants to kill his whole family!
But at the same time, Liu Che's words also let them know that the Han-Hungarian war would not be fought this year. (To be continued.)
