Just when Shen Bing was worried about the cavalry, Fatty Tun walked in.
When he saw Shen Bing and others discussing things, he didn't dare to speak. Instead, Shen Bing asked:
"Is there something important?"
Fatty Tun hurriedly stepped forward and responded:
"General, the people who are farming in the west of the city are asking to move to the east for weaving..."
Shen Bing answered without thinking:
"No!"
Fatty Tun responded. He was about to withdraw but hesitated, then turned around and asked:
"General, there is something unclear about this subordinate. I don't know..."
Shen Bing said "Yeah" and nodded.
When the development of the cavalry encountered a dead end and there was no rush, Shen Bing put it aside for the time being.
Fatty Tun said:
"My subordinates have calculated it."
"If the profit of a textile workshop in one month exceeds the annual tax revenue of Yanmen County, why don't we convert all the fields to the west into textile workshops?"
"Textile land is tight in the east of the city, but there are large fields in the west used to grow ramie and five vegetables."
"Even if it is used for farming crops next year, it will still be far less than the income from weaving."
"That's why the people don't want to farm."
Shen Bing did not expect this problem to arise.
But think about it, if the worker's wages are high, twenty dollars a day is quite stable... Working in a textile workshop means you can work in both hot and cold weather, which means you have wages all year round.
Calculated in this way, the money that workers can earn is several times that of farmers farming. Of course, farmers are not willing to farm anymore and hope to work in textile workshops.
This is also a problem faced by modern industrialization: farmers have moved to cities to work, leaving large tracts of land in the countryside uncultivated.
Shen Bing only asked:
"If we don't cultivate the fields, how can we keep our bellies covered?"
Fatty Tun replied:
"My subordinates thought that we could exchange cloth for food, just like what Yunzhong County did now."
"With the same labor force, the output of textiles is more than twice that of farming!"
Shen Bing asked again:
"What if one day the Xiongnu cuts off Yunzhong County's grain road or even besieges Yunzhong County?"
Fatty Tun immediately lost his voice.
Shen Bing explained:
"Food is the first priority for the people, and food is the basis of Yunzhong County's survival. We must never give up farming at any time."
"Tell the people that all grain grown in Yunzhong County is tax-free!"
This is actually another way to subsidize farmers, and there is no reason for farmers to be unwilling.
Fatty Tun responded and retreated.
Fusu sighed:
"The general's move was extremely far-sighted."
"And when people get this benefit, they will come in droves!"
What Shen Bing did not explain is that his move was not actually to prevent the Huns: Yunzhong County was backed by Yanmen County, and the threat of being cut off by the Huns was not great.
What Shen Bing is really guarding against is that one day he may become an enemy of the Qin army...At that time, farming will be important.
Wang Ben said with some worry:
"Yunzhong County can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people at its limit."
"It is said that the country of Dai will be destroyed by our army. By then... at least one hundred thousand people will move in."
Shen Bing couldn't help but feel a headache. It wouldn't matter if there were fewer people, or if there were too many people.
Zhao Wangjia moved out from the Northland only the people from the front and back areas, at least 300,000 people.
Some of them are lost over and over again, and if they return to 200,000, they will all be counted as less.
How can a small Yunzhong County accommodate 200,000 people?
Shen Bing didn't think much and immediately ordered:
"Train the new recruits and continue to prepare for the outer areas."
Wang Ben responded enthusiastically and passed on the order.
This was Shen Bing's established strategy at the time, which was to expand in the direction of the Xiongnu in a step-by-step manner, so that he would always be on defense and would not need to consider cavalry operations for the time being.
There is nothing wrong with Shen Bing's plan, as long as it slowly develops and expands proportionally.
But Ying Zheng seemed to be unable to wait any longer.
To be precise, it wasn't that Ying Zheng couldn't wait, but that Li Si was behind the scenes.
After all, Li Si is the Prime Minister of the Qin State. His scheming ability to survive today is beyond the reach of ordinary people. At the beginning, he even killed his junior brother Han Fei for the sake of power. How could Shen Bing have an easy time now?
After thinking about it, he saw that he could not restrict the development of Yunzhong County, so he changed his approach.
On this day, Li Si entered the palace privately and said to Ying Zheng:
"Your Majesty, this is the time of harvest in the Central Plains, and most of the Xiongnu are scattered to various places to plunder."
"If another country wipes out 200,000 people, they will not be able to move all of them into Yunzhong County."
"Why don't we take Jiuyuan to wait?"
Ying Zheng hesitated and said:
"But General Beidi only has more than 10,000 troops at his disposal. I'm afraid..."
Li Si replied:
"The Great King Mingjian."
"In the last battle at Yunzhong City, the Northern General defeated tens of thousands of Huns with only a few thousand men."
"Now there are 100,000 people in Yunzhong County."
"If the general from the north recruits troops from the common people and uses them to defend the city, and then uses his elite to raid the Nine Plains..."
"It is not difficult to recover Jiuyuan."
Of course Zhao Gao understood Li Si's thoughts and also echoed:
"Your Majesty, it is said that the Xiongnu are good at cavalry fighting outside the city but not good at offense and defense, but the generals of the North are good at both offense and defense."
"And our army has mature crops and sufficient food and grass in various places. If we take Jiuyuan at this time, we will be able to win."
"If Jiuyuan falls, the Xiongnu will lose the foundation to move southward, and Yanmen County will no longer be troubled by the Xiongnu."
This is correct. If Jiuyuan was included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty, the Huns' base would have to be pushed north and west. It would be hundreds of miles away from Yanmen County, so it would be much more difficult to plunder them.
Ying Zheng thought it was right.
Furthermore, upon further investigation, we found that the number of Xiongnu stationed in Jiuyuan was only over 3,000. More importantly, the Xiongnu did not repair the damaged city walls and city gates... The city gates were burned down by Shen Bing when they withdrew from Jiuyuan.
Ying Zheng didn't know the Xiongnu's tactics at all, and took it for granted that all the countries in the Central Plains were thinking about defending cities and fighting. So he thought what Li Si and Zhao Gao said was reasonable, and immediately sent an order to Shen Bing.
Shen Bing was stunned when he saw the order to send troops to Jiuyuan.
Yunzhong County is two hundred kilometers away from Jiuyuan. This distance cannot be reached by "step by step"!
But Ying Zheng's orders had to be obeyed, so all plans were disrupted.
What's more serious is...the Huns only have 3,000 people in Jiuyuan County.
There may indeed be only three thousand people in Jiuyuan County, but the Huns cavalry are running around and looting. Once they find that the Qin army is marching towards Jiuyuan, they will come from all directions for reinforcements.
As a result, the number of enemies will soon increase to thirty thousand or more.
Shen Bing immediately summoned Wang Bi, Wei Wei and others to discuss countermeasures.
But after much discussion, nothing could be done.
The difficulty does not come from defending the city, nor does it come from the strength of the troops.
During this period, Yunzhong County recruited 5,000 new soldiers and trained them day and night. If they train for a period of time, they will be able to defend the city... After all, the Huns cavalry are also novices in siege. Even if the Huns defend the city with ordinary people, they may not be able to do so. Take it.
The difficulty is that if the Northern Army leaves the city to attack Jiuyuan, it will inevitably expose the supply line to the Huns cavalry.
Two hundred kilometers...
If the cavalry is strong enough, then using cavalry to protect this supply line will be no problem.
The problem is that the Shenwu Army is not strong enough at this time.