It’s windy and cold late at night, and the bonfire is blazing.
Some soldiers hunted two black muntjacs nearby. They disemboweled them in front of the mountain col, peeled them off and pierced them with a spear before roasting them on the fire.
Fang Jun's eyelids jumped...
In later generations, this thing would be considered an endangered animal at the international level. If you kill both of them, you may be sentenced to life. The most important thing is that there is no oil, no sauce, and the fire is so strong. Wouldn't it be a waste of natural resources to just roast it like this?
Quickly struggling to stand up, he carried a broken pine pole and beat the soldier far away. He ordered someone to bring the iron pot for the march, put the iron pot on a stand on the fire, and placed it on the mountain col in the shade.
The locals collected snow and melted it into water in a pot. The soldiers used a horizontal knife to chop the black muntjac which had cleaned its internal organs into cubes, blanch it in warm water, then poured out the water, and collected another pot of snow water.
, put the muntjac meat into the pot under cold water, use a horizontal knife to cut the pine wood pole in your hand into small pieces of about half a foot and throw them into the pot.
Watching the foreman take out a small bag of salt from his arms, pinch a handful of it with his fingertips and put it into the pot. Fang Jun couldn't help it anymore and stepped forward to give it to the foreman.
With a kick, he reached out and pulled out all the bags, big and small, in his arms.
I opened it and smelled it one by one, poured the salt, cinnamon powder, star anise powder, and pepper powder into the pot, clapped my hands, and limped back to the campfire to lie down...
The gang leader almost cried, rubbing his hands and looking at Dugu Mou pitifully...
The food in the army is very simple. Just get some random food and put it in a big pot with water to cook. Anyway, everything is boiled. At most, a little coarse salt is added when conditions permit. Dugu Mou is a child of aristocratic family and has always been pampered.
I'm used to being both a prince-in-law and a general, so naturally I have to have my own little stove.
The result was good, all the private goods of Dugu Mou in the hands of the gangtou soldiers were destroyed by Fang Jun. There were three taels of pepper in there, and the generals would use this to season the generals when they were marching in the field.
, the result is all gone...
Dugumou looked up at the sky, not looking at the sad expressions of his subordinates.
Let alone a small bag of pepper, even if it was a bag of gold sand played with by Fang Jun, Dugu Mou would not say a word...
One is that he doesn't dare. Who doesn't know Fang Erbangchui's temperament?
What's more, it's embarrassing. Fang Jun is one of the richest men in the world. He naturally has delicacies and fine clothes. If he can feel pain even with a small bag of pepper, wouldn't he be looked down upon by Fang Jun?
But how could his expression be hidden from Fang Jun's eyes?
Fang Jun said angrily: "Look at that potential! How can you still think that pepper can be used as gold as before? Let me tell you, the last time I went to sea, I discovered countless islands in the South China Sea, one of which is on
There are pepper trees all over the mountains and plains, and the tallest one is three feet high! The fleet has sent soldiers to garrison the island. From then on, a steady stream of pepper was transported back to the Tang Dynasty by sea, at least one million kilograms a year!
"
"really?"
Dugu Mou and Li Junxian’s eyes widened!
Not only the two of them, but even Changsun Wuji was horrified and moved!
This guy is not bragging, right?
One million kilograms of pepper...that must be worth hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gold!
In the Middle Ages, pepper was not only expensive in China, but was also called black gold in Europe. Since ancient Rome, spices have been synonymous with gold in many places, and pepper has been used as currency in Western countries for a long time. In other words, pepper
It can be used directly as money. For example, if you eat in a restaurant without any money and give the boss a few peppers, the boss will never hit you.
What's more, pepper also caused European countries to kill each other...
In the 5th century AD, in order to demand gold and pepper, the leader of the Visigoths, Alari, led his troops to surround the city of Rome and vowed to massacre the city if they did not give pepper and gold. In the end, the Romans had to pay 5,000 pounds of gold and 3,000 pounds of pepper. Pepper, this made Alari withdraw his troops.
In order to grab more pepper, Europeans opened new sea routes and eventually discovered and colonized America. Until the 17th century, Europeans were still killing for pepper.
It can be said that the history of medieval Europe is simply a history of pepper...
For Changsun Wuji, how could he not know the value of pepper?
Dugu Mou exclaimed: "Editian! That Erlang really deserves the saying that his wealth can rival his country!"
Fang Jun curled his lips: "You are so rich that you can't rival the country! Can that belong to a certain person? All the overseas earnings belong to the 'Eastern Datang Company', and there is not much left after being divided. Besides, things are rare and valuable. , it is precisely because pepper is scarce that it is more expensive than gold. If it were all over the mountain, it would be worthless... By the way, your Dugu family also has a share."
Dugumou's pupils have turned into the shape of copper coins. As for what Fang Jun said about rare things being more valuable, he didn't listen at all. In the minds of people in this era, even if pepper is everywhere in the mountains, it is still pepper! Just like gold, even if its price drops all the way, it is still the same as gold!
Simple values make people in this era rarely realize the subtle fluctuations in prices. Only when natural disasters and man-made disasters strike do they suddenly realize that their family's money can no longer buy a bucket of rice...
Changsun Wuji was in a daze.
The revenue that just one piece of pepper can bring is astonishing, but what about glass? What about bamboo paper? What about silk? What about porcelain? These things are far less valuable than pepper in the Central Plains, but they have always been the highest-end luxury goods overseas. The entire " How much profit will "Dong Datang Company" make in a year?
The eldest son's family has accumulated family property for generations, and it took hundreds of years to achieve the status of the first-class noble family in the world.
But Changsun Wuji suddenly discovered that perhaps just by relying on his family's share in the "Eastern Datang Company", he could easily earn far more than his ancestors had accumulated over a hundred years...
But the person in charge of the "East Datang Company" in the family is the eldest son Sun Huan, whose existence he has always ignored...
Thinking of this, Changsun Wuji was suddenly shocked.
Mother!
Could it be that Fang Jun, the little bastard, deliberately let Changsun Huan take over the control of the "Eastern Datang Company" in order to enhance Changsunhuan's status in the Changsun family and thereby create a crisis in the Changsun family?
Sun Wuji, the conspirator, has never been afraid to speculate on everyone, everything, and everything with the deepest malice...
"So, don't worry about using up your pepper. Maybe when you wake up tomorrow, you will find that pepper is already cheaper than rice... Take a longer-term view, be more open-minded, and don't always worry about the present. In this one-third of an acre, the world is huge and there is a lot of wealth. There are places where you can conquer cities and expand territories, and there are places where you can collect gold and copper and become the best in the world!"
Fang Jun kept bewitching.
Generals like Li Junxian and Dugu Mou who stay with His Majesty Li Er all day long are overqualified and should be released to harm the barbarians. The older generation of the Tang army such as Li Xiaogong, Li Jing, Li Ji, and Cheng Commanders and generals such as Yao Jin, Yu Chigong, and Li Daliang are gradually getting older. The new generation of famous generals such as Su Dingfang, Xue Rengui, Pei Xingjian, etc. are slowly rising. Xi Junmai, Cheng Wuting, etc. still need to be refined. Li Junxian, Dugu Once a general like Mou is released, he will be an instant fighting force. Even in a century-old war like the Eastern Conquest of Goguryeo, he can be the main force!
If you have the ability, don't do things at home. You have to go out and kill the generals, seize the flag, and attack the city!
As long as famous generals continue to emerge from generation to generation, the martial arts of the Tang Dynasty will not be cut off, and its crushing advantage over the surrounding foreign races will be maintained for a long time.
The imperial examination is a good system, which can make poor families gradually rise, noble families gradually wither, and talented people in the world can be promoted and re-employed regardless of their origins. This is the foundation for the long-term prosperity of the empire.
However, there are also disadvantages to the imperial examination. Once reading is raised to a lofty status, "everything is inferior but reading is high", then it is also a kind of tragedy. The situation of the noble and the military will inevitably take shape. Without the spirit of martial arts, the Han people will be weak.
If you are weak, your backbone will be gone. No matter how prosperous and beautiful your article may be, it will never be used as a sword!
Fang Jun never wanted Datang to experience the sorrow of the Ming Dynasty in advance...
The mountain wind blew the aroma of the meat far away, and Fang Jun personally used a soldier's horizontal knife to fork a piece of meat from the pot and handed it to Changsun Wuji.
Changsun Wuji hesitated slightly, and the entourage around him seemed to be facing a formidable enemy.
Changsun Wuji was not afraid of what Fang Jun would do to the meat, but eating meat in such a big way was definitely not in line with his status as a member of a high-ranking family, Zuo...
It's just that the smell of meat is really tempting, and I suddenly feel very hungry in my belly. Besides, there is no need to pay so much attention when marching outside at this moment. Didn't I follow His Majesty Li Er in the army, so how could I be so reserved and self-respecting?
After hesitating for a moment, I made up my mind to reach out, and the result...
Fang Jun retracted his hand with a smile, took the knife and brought the meat to his mouth and took a big bite. His mouth was full of oil after eating, and he said vaguely: "Since Zhao Guogong is worried that the food in the wild is unclean, then I will
I just have to eat it myself... Huhuhu, it's so hot... Huhu, if you don't eat it, I will eat it, it's so delicious..."
Changsun Wuji froze on the spot, his eyes widened, his face flushed, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood!