Guo Xiu, who was walking behind the crowd, said coldly: "Even though the Northern Expedition consumed all the hard-earned national strength and mental energy, Prime Minister Zhuge was not doing it for his own selfish desires, but for the great Han and Your Majesty!
But if we don’t go for the Northern Expedition, we will have to stay contentedly in the narrow land of Yizhou and wait for the puppet Wei Dynasty to attack. Whether we go for the Northern Expedition or not is a dilemma. But in the end, the advantages of the Northern Expedition outweigh the disadvantages.
It will allow the Kingdom of Shu to survive longer. If it follows Prime Minister Zhuge's pace, although the accumulated national power will be exhausted, it can still be barely sustained. The most important thing is to rely on the profits gained from these Shu brocade troops to support it.
"
Due to the guarantee of sufficient food and raw materials, coupled with the strong support of the Shu Han regime, the scale and output of Shu brocade achieved unprecedented development during the Three Kingdoms period.
Zuo Si's "Ode to the Capital of Shu" describes its prosperous situation as follows: "A hundred rooms are separated from each other, the machines are in harmony with each other, the shells and brocades are in full bloom, the river waves are bathed in color, the yellow and runny tubes are as thick as the tubes, and the gold is everywhere."
At that time, Shu brocade was not only a commodity for foreign trade, but also a major source of military expenditures.
"Taiping Yulan" quotes "The Collection of Zhuge Liang": "Today the people are poor and the country is weak, and the only way to defeat the enemy is to rely on brocade." It can be said that without Shu brocade, the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains would be nothing but empty words.
Throughout the Shu era, the output of Shu brocade and other silk fabrics has been relatively high, which not only added a lot of extra income to the Shu Han, but also gave the Shu Han enough funds to carry out five large-scale northern expeditions.
At the time of the fall of Shu, there were "200,000 pieces each of brocade, qi, cai, and silk" in stock.
Brocade and Qi are both precious and technically demanding silk fabrics. The fact that they can be produced in such large quantities fully demonstrates the prosperity and development of the Shu Han handicraft industry.
It also fully shows that the Shu Han regime attaches great importance to Shu brocade. "The prosperity of Shu brocade can only be traced back to the era of Shu Han"; "The prosperity of industry in Shu is indeed greater than that of other parts of the Central Plains." Shu brocade has become
The signboard of the Shu Han regime.
However, it is useless to have exquisite Sichuan brocade without convenient transportation and stable customers, and the Sichuan brocade cannot be circulated.
With materials as good as Shu brocade, not only the people of Shu themselves also used brocade to make clothes or luxury goods, but it also naturally attracted a large number of purchases from Soochow and Cao Wei.
Therefore, Shu brocade has a large trade volume every year, and using Shu brocade to increase the country's foreign exchange is also an important policy of the Shu Han.
However, because the terrain of Sichuan is a basin and is surrounded by high mountains, transportation is very inconvenient. "The road to Sichuan is difficult, and it is difficult to reach the sky" is not an empty saying.
In addition, the Shu Han had been in a state of hostility with the Cao Wei regime for a long time, and this relationship also made it difficult for Shu to export brocade.
The Shu Han population is relatively small. It is unrealistic to rely on the Shu Han population to consume a large amount of Shu brocade, and it is not conducive to the increase of Shu Han social wealth. Therefore, how to open roads and steadily increase customers is a topic that the Shu Han rulers must consider.
In order to further promote commercial development, Zhuge Liang attached great importance to transportation connections with the outside world. He ordered manpower to repair the plank roads on the Sichuan-Shaanxi border in the Qin Dynasty, cut mountains and stones to build mountain roads for business travelers, and also opened land transportation from Shu to Guizhou and Guangxi.
As transportation became more convenient, Shu's foreign trade situation took on a new look, and the market for Shu brocade became broader. It was even sold to countries in the Western Regions and further afield through southeastern waterways and land routes.
Shan Qianzhi said in "Danyang Ji": "There has not yet been brocade in the past dynasties, but Chengdu is uniquely called wonderful. Therefore, during the Three Kingdoms period, Wei and Wu both had capital in Western Shu, and it has existed since then."
Facing Cao Wei, a big buyer, although Shu Han could not sell Shu brocade directly to Cao Wei, Shu Han could sell Shu brocade to Cao Wei through smuggling and Soochow channels, because Shu brocade has clear patterns, rich colors, full patterns and exquisite craftsmanship.
Not only the royal family and nobles of Cao Wei like to use it, Shu brocade is also widely circulated among the people, but it is only limited to the families of noble families, and it is still difficult for ordinary people to afford it.
Because Cao Wei has been unable to get rid of the economic model of physical transactions, Shu brocade has even become the currency measurement unit of Cao Wei's country, and Shu brocade has become one of the most profitable commodities in Wei-Shu transactions.
Huge profits must lead to brave men, so many businessmen began to smuggle Shu brocade. The smuggled Shu brocade was not only welcomed by the nobles of Wei and Shu, but also made the Xianbei people outside the Great Wall flock to Shu brocade.
This phenomenon gave Cao Pi a headache, but because of his love for Shu brocade, he continued to send people to Western Shu to buy it in large quantities. Even the emperor used Shu brocade in large quantities, so the ban was a piece of waste paper.
In any case, it is impossible to cut off the exchanges of Shu brocade directly. It is better to acquiesce in the private trade of Shu brocade and turn a blind eye. After all, fight where the war should be fought and trade where the trade should be. Everyone is happy.
After the great development of Shu brocade during the Three Kingdoms period, it not only raised a huge amount of military expenditures for the Northern Expedition for the Shu Han regime, but also allowed itself to go out of Yizhou and become an exquisite gift that the world celebrated.
Wang Chen looked at a wine shop not far ahead with a smile and said: "Forget about this, how about I invite everyone to a wine shop for a drink? I have not drank even a drop of wine these days, but my alcohol addiction is somewhat uncontrollable.
Now." He didn't want to have too many discussions with Guo Xiu and others about Prime Minister Zhuge's Northern Expedition, so he found an excuse to go drink to distract them.
After all, when discussing Prime Minister Zhuge on the territory of the Shu Han Dynasty, if the merits and demerits are not well discussed, it is still very likely that someone with an intention will listen to it and report it to His Majesty, General, and General Wei, which would be very bad.
,
He couldn't say that everything he had just gained would have to be taken back. He didn't want that. Guo Xiumen's unbecoming behavior this afternoon almost affected them.
Chen Guangqin also smiled and said: "When Brother Chu Dao mentioned wine, I was a little greedy, but I had to find a shop that sells Shu brocade first and exchange all the Shu brocade in my hands for money before I could go to a wine shop to drink.
Ah, if not, we will go there empty-handed, and we might as well have to go to jail!"
Wang Shen said: "Look at my memory, how can I go there with nothing in my pocket when I want to drink? If I go like this, when it comes to paying the bill, the store owner will think that I am going to eat Bawang Dinner, so why not?"
The reporting officer will send us to the prison, which will be a huge shame. Let's go, let's go and exchange the Shu brocade that your majesty rewarded us first."
A total of eighty pieces of Shu brocade were on the carriage behind a few people. A eunuch from the palace was driving the carriage slowly, avoiding the passing crowd.
Wang Chen turned his head and clasped his fists and said, "I'd like you to drive the carriage a little further. I'm going to the shop that trades Sichuan brocade to exchange it for money for our daily expenses in Chengdu."
The eunuch nodded and said: "It's just a little effort. After all, there is a lot of Shu brocade in your majesty's treasury. After giving it to the courtiers, many people exchanged these Shu brocade for money for daily expenses at home." He understood their approach very well.