Chapter 44: The territory has expanded to enrich the country, and the military army is temporarily suspended for peace
The calendar has been turned over, and the Spring Festival of the second year of Yanhan and Xuanhuang is coming.
In the big square in front of the palace, Zhao Jin specially gathered the people from the Beijing camp to hold a military parade. Civilians and merchants from various countries in Seoul came to watch the grand event.
Businessmen seek profits and go wherever they have business. In Anhan City, there are various treasures accumulated by the Golden Horde over the past decades. There are many gold and silver. Zhao Jin took this as his capital and announced to businessmen from various countries that he would buy various commodities at preferential prices, and also sold extra materials from the Yanhan treasury. The news spread, and soon merchants from all directions flocked to Anhan. Zheng Wenchu, who is in charge of business, is quite capable and good at receiving businessmen from all over the world. Since then, Yanhan has gradually gained a reputation, and commercial activities have become more and more prosperous.
In the past, the commercial roads connecting the East and the West were separated into north and south roads by the Lihai Sea. Among them, the south road passing through Persia accounts for most of the trade volume. Now that Yanhan has risen, the trade on the North Road has become active; and the South Road has become less peaceful due to the hostility between the Haidu Khanate and the Illi Khanate, and merchants are more willing to switch to the North Road.
In addition to buying grain and military supplies, Zhao Jin also vigorously bought horses, tilled cattle, and even bought people!
The human trafficker is a special businessman active in Eurasia and Africa. As a modern person, Zhao Jin knows that population trade is not good, but in order to enhance the national strength of Yanhan, he still supports human traffickers from various countries to sell people to Yanhan!
In the Middle Ages, population trade prevailed. Historically, in a small place in Georgia alone, at least 2,000 to 3,000 boys are sold far away every year. Georgians were famous for plagiarism in ancient times. In modern times, Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, was a Georgian, and Georgian athletes often won world wrestling championships. Slave traders will raise children bought or stolen from Georgia and sell them to countries such as the Mamruq dynasty at a high price. Of course, slaves come from more than Georgia, and slaves are not just slaves for combat. The Mamliuq dynasty bought tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of slaves every year. Among them, ordinary female slaves only need a few gold coins, and ordinary working slaves only need about ten gold coins. The price of beautiful female slaves and strong fighting slaves is higher. For example, Galawin, a famous general of today's Mamliuq dynasty, was originally a slave. I don't know where his hometown is, but only know that he is Turkic. Galawin was sold by slave traders to Mamruq Sultan (i.e. the king) Beyce for as much as 1,000 gold dinars! Bei took Si himself as a slave and had a deep vision. The price he paid must not be given indiscriminately. Therefore, when the Mamlius fought against the crusaders, the crusader knights were curious to see what the slave worth a thousand gold coins looked like. Bei put Siling Gelavin in full gull and charged over, and the crusade knights who watched the hustle were killed in large pieces all of a sudden! The name of "Golden Slave" has shocked the nations since then! After the death of the old Sultan Bei, Galawin redeemed himself through his achievements and became a free man. As a great man, he will continue to work for the Mamruq dynasty and repel the Mongolian army and the crusaders many times, which can be regarded as the pillar of the Mamliuq dynasty!
Now, according to Zhao's consideration, he wants traffickers to sell more people to his country. Moreover, Zhao Jin's needs are different from those of the Mam Liuke Dynasty, which mainly needs female slaves rather than combat slaves. Because Yan Han's population was very unbalanced, at the beginning of the uprising, hundreds of thousands of men in the new city, but only tens of thousands of female slaves, and the family matching was not enough. Therefore, Zhao Jin sent a message to the traffickers to buy young female slaves at a high price, one of ten gold coins, which is equivalent to ordinary male slaves! In this way, because it is easier to abduct female slaves than male slaves, many human traffickers specialize in selling women in Yanhan. Through this New Year's event, Zhao Jin announced that the purchase price of female slaves will be increased by half, 15 gold coins! I have a special fund of 3 million gold coins, and I want to buy female slaves as soon as I run out!
Fifteen gold coins! It is several times the normal price, more than the price of male slaves! As a result, the number of human traffickers between Europe, Asia and Africa suddenly increased, and the number of women abducted by all ethnic groups in various countries suddenly increased!
King Zhao's move can be said to have contributed to the criminal slave trade, which should be condemned according to the moral standards of later generations. However, this intention is good to solve marriage problems for domestic men. All the female slaves who spent 3 million yuan were given as wives to single civilians for free. Moreover, Zhao Jin also gave each female slave five gold coins of dowry money to help them live a good life, and also enacted laws to protect women. This move is of great benefit to Yan Han. As for the scourge of other countries... there's nothing we can do! Since he is the king of Yan Han, of course, the priority is the problem of Yan Han's own people! You can't always talk about great benevolence and righteousness like the great scholars. If you don't wear the mask of hypocrisy, you will be criticized, so false benevolence and false righteousness prevails in the world. However, benevolence and righteousness are also limited, depending on the environment; in the wrong environment, we must pay attention to benevolence and righteousness, and the consequences will be misleading the country and the people! Zhao Zhencai doesn't care whether his behavior is benevolence or not. He doesn't want to be bound by benevolence and righteousness, hinders the development of the country, and can't even survive!
"I also know that the slave trade is not good. However, we must do everything possible to develop the country! Making the people live a good life and improving the national strength is the top priority! In a word, I now give priority to pragmatism, and stand aside for benevolence, righteousness and morality!" Zhao Jin thought so and thought, "Three million gold coins are just a cover. In addition to these three million special funds, I still have to raise more money so that all bachelors of all ethnic groups in China can marry wives, or even two! In this way, we can have a long-term foothold by breeding more and future generations.
Therefore, on the one hand, Zhao Jin is committed to exchanging goods and striving to improve the commercial role of Anhan, Lianzhou, Tazhou and other cities, and wants them to play a role as transit stations for East-West trade, so that the service industry can also be developed and taxes will increase; on the other hand, various labor technologies will be used to develop productivity.
Based on the advanced production technology of ancient China and some modern scientific and technological knowledge brought by Zhao Jin himself, he improved production tools and vigorously developed production machinery. Under this*, Yanhan then organized people to carry out large-scale land reclamation, using the originally deserted areas for agriculture and animal husbandry; fishing in rivers and lakes that were previously uninhabited; used agricultural leisure time to vigorously plant trees as compensation for deforestation; especially in saline and arid areas, planting a large number of sea buckthorns!
Sea buckthorn is a drought-tolerant and saline-tolerant plant between trees and shrubs. The fruit yield can reach hundreds of catties and is rich in vitamin A and fatty acids. What's the point of this? It turns out that vitamin A and fatty acids are exactly the nutrients that can improve vision at night! Why cats like to eat mice and fish is because cats are active at night. Vitamin A and fatty acids are important, and mice and fish contain a lot of vitamin A and fatty acids.
It is recorded in the "Moon King Yaozhen" and "Four Medical Codes" of the Tang Dynasty that sea buckthorn can brighten the eyes, relieve fatigue, and treat falls and injuries. Zhao Jin saw the records of ancient books and remembered that he had also seen reports that sea buckthorn was widely cultivated for greening and edible in modern desertification and salinization areas. He was greatly inspired, so he ordered the soldiers and civilians of Yan and Han to have a variety of sea buckthorns as soon as they were free. This has three meanings: First, as food and forage. In the ripe season, soldiers can eat fresh sea buckthorn fruit, dry it as dried fruit, boil sauce as seasoning, and sea buckthorn seeds can also be squeezed into oil, which can replace part of the grain consumption. In addition, sea buckthorn leaves are the first-class feed for horses! II. Improve the combat capability of the army. The Yanhan army is committed to using clever military tactics to flexibly attack the enemy, and Zhao Yu attaches great importance to the night battle that can be exchanged for great results at a small cost. Sea buckthorn can not only ensure the vision of the Yanhan army at night, but also eliminate fatigue and treat falls. What better than this? III. Greening and environmental protection. There are large areas of saline land and desert along the coast of thera Sea, which can't be used to grow crops. It is profitable to grow sea buckthorn. It not only earns food and forage, but also maintains water and soil, resists storms and improves the environment.
Therefore, Zhao Jin followed the example of "Nanniwan", organized the army to grow sea buckthorn, and also mobilized herdsmen from all over the world to participate. The extensive cultivation of sea buckthorn has become a unique trick for Yan Han to strengthen its national strength.
For another example, a great way to make money - the mercury mirror, was also discovered for Zhao Jin! Originally, mercury mirrors were not available until the 16th century. Before that, there were only copper mirrors with limited smoothness. After the mercury mirror came out, it suddenly became popular all over the world, and nobles from all over the world rushed to buy it for dressing up and satisfying narcissism. Then, Zhao Jin used the simple method he remembered from reading extracurricular books - pasting tin foil on the glass and then plating a layer of mercury on the tin foil. After about a month, mercury merged with tin and tightly combined it on the glass, and the beautiful mercury mirror came out! Such a craft is unique in this era. It is definitely a sharp weapon for making money. Zhao Jin will only wait for gold coins in the future!
Of course, there was a glass problem before that. In the 13th century, glass manufacturing was one of the pillar industries of the Republic of Venice. However, because of King Zhao, Yan Han actually developed a mass production method of glass - in fact, it is very simple to add some natural alkali to quartz stone and even ordinary rocks and sand, and burn it at enough high temperature.
But burning glass in this way will inevitably cause some twists and turns - because Zhao Jin only remembers the simplest glass burning formula of "stone + alkali". When he burns it out, the glass is not transparent enough to make a mirror!
Therefore, Yanhan's craftsmen have been doing experiments in the spring of the first year of Xuanhuang, that is, when Zhao Jin just came back from the north. After more than half a year of tackling the problems and experimenting countless times, under the continuous inspiration and encouragement of Zhao Jin, he finally found that when burning glass, a mineral powder can be added to burn transparent glass!
This mineral powder turned out to be manganese dioxide, but people in this era can't do chemical analysis and don't understand the principle. It doesn't matter, as long as you can achieve your goal. Manganese, a metal, was not discovered until the 18th century, but before that, Venetian craftsmen experimented with a method of using manganese dioxide to make transparent glass in 1317. In this world, Yanhan craftsmen, under the wise guidance of Zhao Jin, invented the transparent glass manufacturing method decades before the Venetians! Decades are enough. Make it! Let the Venetians be depressed!
Mercury mirrors are easy to make money, and glass is also easy to make money. These new products, which are popular with consumers from all over the world, have effectively promoted Yanhan's commercial development.
"Now the superior bronze mirror requires dozens of gold coins on one side." Zhao Jin calculated: "The price of my mercury mirror is not greedy, no slaughter, just 100 gold coins. If you sell it 10,000 copies a year, that is the entry of one million gold coins! Ah ha ha! It's hard for me not to get rich!" Think again: "No, it's not precious enough to sell 100 at the beginning. It's like selling cabbage. It's not good enough to make nobles of all countries proud. You should sell it at a high price first, and gradually reduce the price later... In short, I should think of some wonderful marketing strategies! Well, production technology is very important, and marketing strategy is also very important!"
In this way, Zhao Jin, as a modern person, has a much more flexible brain than the ancients, and his unique tricks are constantly created. It has a significant effect on the development of Yan Han's productivity and enriching the country and the people!
(to be continued 45 times: Fang's brother Si Le Tu, Marco Polo returns to his hometown)
Note:
Additional to sea buckthorn: sea buckthorn is widely divided in Asia and Europe. The ancient Spartans began to eat it and found its effect of eliminating fatigue. Sea buckthorn leaves are rich in crude protein and crude fat, and have high nutritional value, which is very suitable for feeding horses. The Latin name of sea buckthorn is "the tree that makes horses shine". There is a detailed record of sea buckthorn in the Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty. It is believed that the uses are: "activating blood circulation and dissipate blood stasis, dissolving phlegm and widening the chest, tonifying the spleen and strengthening the stomach; treating falls and injuries, bruises, coughing and phlegm, dyspnea, and indigestion." In modern times, sea buckthorn has been found to have a good effect on lowering cholesterol and treating heart disease.