Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 430: Quite wealthy
Hai'an County, Liankou.

More than ten large ships were slowly docking on the sea not far from the county town.

These ships are huge in size, some are even much larger than the warships of the Han Dynasty, and they all look strong and muscular.

In an open space not far from the pier, people were busy. Some were building fences, some were building houses, and they all looked extremely busy.

Yao Xiong, along with a few soldiers, walked through the crowd, looking at the people around him with some confusion in his eyes.

The trade with the southerners is about to begin.

The emperor personally issued an edict, placing Yao Xiong in charge of public security, and stated that if a merchant was robbed by bandits or killed by pirates under Yao Xiong's rule, Yao Xiong would be held accountable as the local general.

Yao Xiong did not dare to be negligent at all. He sent out troops to clear out the bandits in Haizhou and the surrounding mountains and forests over and over again.

He then contacted Wang Lin and dispatched the navy to clean up the islands near the estuary.

He was sure that there were no thieves in his area or the surrounding area.

Today is the first day of the official opening of the market, and Yao Xiong came here in person to inspect the place. He arranged soldiers in many places, and some elite soldiers even wore ordinary people's clothes and mingled among them.

As long as the situation stabilizes in the first few days, Yao Xiong can gradually withdraw his actions.

The soldiers following Yao Xiong also looked helpless at this moment.

They were all warriors who had fought on the battlefield, but now they were doing some errands, taking charge of market security? ? Is this what they should do?
"General, can't we just send a few patrol officers to do this? Why do we have to do it ourselves?"

"Yes, even you are here with me."

Yao Xiong glared at them, "What do you know?!"

"Brother's edict has hit me in the face, and I still dare to send only a patrol?"

"I'm telling you, no one is allowed to be careless. If something goes wrong, I won't be able to report to my brother. I'll punish you with a flogging, not to mention the death penalty. My brother is always fair. He rewards those who have done good and punishes those who have done wrong, regardless of your relationship with him."

"Cui Gang was almost dismissed from his post and fined a year's salary because of three minor errors in the records of the Censorate! The promotion he had planned for was also lost. We can't be careless!"

The soldiers all said yes.

Many people have begun to gather here, most of them are merchants who have rushed here after hearing the news.

During the Qi Dynasty, commerce south of the river was more developed, with a large number of merchants. After a long period of war, the so-called wealthy and powerful families had all lowered their status. If a child of a wealthy and powerful family went into business during the Han Dynasty, he would definitely be ridiculed. Apart from Confucian classics, everything else was considered lowly, including mechanical engineering, medicine, and commerce. Even poetry and prose could only be considered minor hobbies. Anyone who concentrated on their minor hobbies and ignored Confucian classics would still be ridiculed.

However, hundreds of years of war changed this value system. Scholars generally no longer had a lofty sense of personal mission, and no longer felt that these hobbies were shameful. Starting from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, everyone threw themselves into these small hobbies. This also led to many children from wealthy families starting to engage in medicine, mathematics, mechanics and other subjects that were not mainstream in the past. The status of poetry and prose also continued to rise. As for doing business, it was no longer a shameful thing for the rich families.

These Han Chinese tycoons south of the river generally have their own businesses. The landlords employ a large number of tenants and grow some cash crops to make profits.

Famous families also got involved and tried their best to make money.

Yao Xiong ignored these merchants and continued walking around.

When the big ships in the distance docked, we saw many guys with big bellies quickly getting off the ships.

You can tell at first glance that these people are not from the north.

Their clothes were too bright, which was different from the northerners' attire. They wore gold and silver, as if they wanted to have the word "rich" engraved on their faces. If anyone dared to go out dressed like this in the north, the thieves would shout "New Year's Day".

The nobles in the North are too rude. Even if they are rich and powerful, they dare not show off too much, because they will always meet someone stronger and more shameless than you.

The group of people came ashore chattering and began to look around curiously.

In the past, the two sides did not trade with each other, so merchants from the South had to be careful. At least only those who had connections and were willing to invest time could come to Gwangju to do business with people from the North. But now it is different, everyone can come.

These people were obviously here for the first time, and they showed great curiosity about everything around them.

What they were most curious about were the soldiers guarding the surrounding area.

They looked at the soldier who was standing straight, wearing armor, holding a spear, and had a fierce look in his eyes, and they kept muttering to themselves.

"Hu Qi!"

"What a Huqi!"

"I heard that among the Hu people there are soldiers such as the Mandrill, the Cangtou, the Rhinoceros Horn, and the Strong. I wonder which kind of soldiers these Hu cavalry are?"

"He's big and strong, so he must be very strong, right?"

"Do you think he can speak Chinese?"

The soldier just listened to them talking in broken classical language, cursed under his breath, and then turned away.

Yao Xiong ordered the soldiers to keep an eye on the place and left first because he didn't like these people.

These people looked around, talked as they walked, and finally, they officially arrived at the city where merchants gathered.

The merchants here had no intention of looking down on the southerners. They looked at the southerners in front of them, each of them like a treasure shining with golden light, and came forward to sell their goods.

These merchants were also smart. They knew that the first group of people to arrive would definitely be wealthy people, so the items they sold were mainly luxury goods, such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, paper, good clothes, accessories, and fast horses.

These things are things that can arouse the interest of southern people.

They soon dispersed. Some bought northern clothes, put them on, and smiled happily.

Some go to buy jewelry or something like that.

But most people go to buy fast horses.

Horses are a rare commodity in the south and are extremely expensive. The nobles love them very much and like to compare them. If a family can get four fast horses of the same color, their tails will be lifted up to the sky.

But it is more common in the north, where several horse dealers took them to visit BMW.

The Han Dynasty did not prohibit the horse trade. War horses and ordinary horses were two completely different concepts. The government's stables raised war horses, but there were many herdsmen among the people. The horses these people raised were normal horses, whose main function was for travel and transportation, not for combat.

The horse dealer tricked a few southerners over and started to show off the good horses he had tied up in advance.

"Look at this horse. It has a physique like this. Even in the North, there are only a few of them. These are all good candidates for becoming war horses!"

"Look at these teeth, these bristles"

Nan Shang had a bulging belly and her eyes were shining.

"Is there any horse of the same color as this one, with this physique? I want fifty of them!!"

The horse dealer's hands began to tremble. "I can find it! I can find it! If you buy more, I can give you a discount."

"The price doesn't matter! I just want a good horse, the best kind!"

For a moment, the originally slightly quiet city suddenly became noisy, with voices of people everywhere, as if it had suddenly come alive, and the soldiers were stunned.

After the first batch of nobles, merchants from the South came in an endless stream. These merchants were not all big guys who came to purchase goods. Merchants who came to sell southern products began to appear. A large amount of goods and money poured into Hai'an. That narrow and dilapidated city became more lively than the county town next door. People heard that there were southern merchants here, so they came to watch. Some were just curious, and some came to buy things.

Previous wars had caused commodity shortages and soaring prices in areas south of the river, making daily life very inconvenient for the people, but merchants were able to solve these problems.

At first it was just Hai'an, and then it began to spread to the surrounding areas, from Haizhou to Chuzhou, and then continued up the coast to the richest Guangzhou. Even merchants began to appear in Hebei, and came to Youzhou, Yingzhou and other places, wanting to purchase horses, cavalry and the like directly from here.

Because of Zu Ting's policy of trade with Nan, domestic commercial activities suddenly became frequent, and commercial taxes were no longer in a sluggish state, but saw a huge increase. These active merchants enriched the local market, and the lifeless Henan region showed signs of recovery.

Several newly appointed provincial governors in Henan kept sending documents to inform the local authorities of various matters.

Even from the north came good news. The expensive herbs grown by Governor Yuan of Yingzhou finally found a buyer. The government and people of Yingzhou made a fortune and the state was on the verge of losing its reputation as the poorest state in the Han Dynasty, although Governor Yuan did not want to do so.

Yecheng.

Wei Shou was sitting next to Liu Taozi at the moment, presenting the document and describing the results of his negotiation with the Chen people. Even those people in the country who hated Wei Shou the most had to praise him for doing an excellent job.

In the negotiations on mutual trade, Wei Shou played the greatest role, correctly making all terms more favorable to the Han State. For example, on the issues of currency, prices, and taxes, he got the best promises.

Liu Taozi looked at the densely packed trade documents in his hand and for the first time showed an approving look towards Wei Shou.

For a person whose mind is always occupied with money, he is very thorough in handling money issues and knows what is the key.

He began to praise: "Duke Wei did a good job this time. You have made a great contribution."

Wei Shou quickly bowed his head and replied: "I have no merit, it is all your majesty's merit. The Han Dynasty is strong and the Lord of Chen is afraid, so he dares not disobey my proposal."

Listening to Lao Wei's words, Liu Taozi did not interrupt him and let him finish flattering him.

"I heard that the people of Chen sent many gifts to Duke Wei. These are all things that Duke Wei has always wanted to get. Where are they placed?"

Wei Shou immediately replied, "Your Majesty, those people from Chen gave me gifts. I had to accept them for important matters. However, as an envoy, I cannot really bring them back, otherwise I cannot explain clearly. So I left them in Haizhou and gave them to General Wang for the navy. General Wang has always been honest and will not use them for anything else."

Liu Taozi nodded and looked at the warrior beside him, "Go and get that thing."

A moment later, a warrior came in quickly with a wooden box and handed it to Liu Taozi.

Liu Taozi handed the wooden box back to Wei Shou.

"I gave this to you."

Wei Shou gently opened the wooden box, which contained a large jade in the shape of a Pegasus. The jade was as big as two fists and was extremely black in color, with some green faintly visible in it.

"Your Majesty! This."

"This is what they found when they raided Gao Yuanhai's house. They didn't dare to keep it, so they sent it to me."

"It was only when I moved to Yecheng that I discovered I still had this thing, so I gave it to you."

Wei Shou was shocked and didn't know what to say.

"Your Majesty, minister."

"Take it. You obviously have talent, why do you taint it for money? This thing is worth a lot of money. Don't take bribes anymore. Just do your work."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Wei Shou walked out of the hall with a face full of emotion and almost bumped into Zu Ting who was about to come in. Zu Ting just tilted his head and looked at him coldly, then looked at the wooden box in his hand, snorted coldly, and then strode in.

After Zu Ting came in, he first bowed to Liu Taozi, and then asked directly: "Just now when I came in, I saw Wei Shou pretending to be serious, holding a wooden box in his hand, with a greedy look in his eyes. Did he trick His Majesty into giving him some reward?"

Liu Taozi was speechless for a long time.

Zu Ting did not mention it again, but just smiled and said: "Your Majesty, I have completed the plan."

"This trade policy has already shown results. The precious land of Henan will recover faster in the future. I think the day when we can pacify the Pseudo-Zhou will not be far away."

Although everyone was praising Wei Shou at the moment, Zu Ting firmly believed that all this was his own credit.

With the start of trade, progress will only get faster and faster.

Zu Ting has now begun to study the opponents of unification.

Liu Taozi was very calm, "Don't worry, settle the domestic affairs first, then talk about other things."

Zu Ting put aside his other thoughts for the time being and took out several of his own memorials again.

The strategies and national policies of the entire Han Dynasty were basically planned by the ancestor alone. With the great success of his several strategic strategies, the ministers in the country became increasingly unable to compete with him. Even Gao Yu and Lu Qubing could not be compared with Zu Ting in this general direction.

He now came up with a few more ideas, mainly aimed at solving the drawbacks of past government affairs.

At first, the Han State had monopolized the sale of agricultural tools in order to popularize them among the people. Considering the influx of people from the Chen State, he advocated the abolition of some iron tool monopolies.

Zu Ting felt that he could not be stingy with the Chen people, whether in terms of war horses or ironware.

If the people of Chen want to buy, just sell it to them.

Now the three kingdoms are competing in terms of development speed. Whoever integrates the domestic mess first will be the first to win. The only flaw of the Han Kingdom is the problem in the south. As long as they can exchange for a large amount of food and other supplies to solve the plight of the south, a small number of horses and ironware are nothing and may not even have any impact on the current situation. Can the southerners sweep the north with war horses and iron?
You, Chen Xu, should first take care of those garbage who are frantically annexing land. These people can’t even be controlled, and you still want to raise war horses?
A horse farm was opened here, and these privileges were used to drive cars there.

Among the Three Kingdoms, Chen State seemed to be too rich and poor, but in fact, it had the most problems, the most acute land annexation, and other contradictions. The imperial examination system they formulated themselves could not be used by themselves. Chen Xu was different from Yuwen Yong and Liu Taozi. He had no ability to innovate, and there were no ministers under his command who could support him in completing the innovation. Liu Taozi had many talents, and Yuwen Yong was even more so. Who did Chen Xu have under his command? Did he have to rely on Yuan Xian and Mao Xi to carry out the innovation? ?
What Wei Shou said to Chen Xu was not false. Zu Ting really looked down on southerners.

He felt that the battle for the world was between Zhou and Han, and the people of Chen were just spoils of war, waiting for the winner to come and reap the spoils.

Zu Ting was very proud at the moment. He stroked his beard and said cunningly, "Yuwen Yong thought he got the upper hand, but he never thought that we have already made up for it!"

"Now that Chen and Han have formed an alliance and are sharing what they have, I'm afraid Yuwen Yong will never be able to sleep again!"

At this moment, another warrior walked in quickly and handed Liu Taozi an urgent report.

Zu Ting hurriedly stopped and stared at the urgent music.

Liu Taozi looked at it for a moment with some confusion in her eyes.

Then he handed the memorial to Zu Ting.

This urgent report came from Yingzhou and was sent by Governor Yuan. Its content was extremely simple.

Governor Yuan said that the Xi, Khitan, Goguryeo and others sent envoys to Yingzhou, hoping to submit and become a vassal.

During these years, Liu Taozi only fought with the Turkic Khan in the north. The two sides fought for many years, going back and forth. The Turkic Khan was also quite perseverant. He would come to fight every autumn, as if he regarded this as his own military training activity.

As for the Xi, Khitan, Goguryeo and other tribes in the northeast, Liu Han had no dealings with them. The two sides could not be said to have any hatred, nor could they be said to have any friendship.

Liu Taozi looked at Zu Ting.

"Grandfather, what's the reason?"

"This is all because of me."

"Oh? My grandfather is in Ye. How can this matter thousands of miles away have anything to do with you?"

Zu Ting put down the memorial, his face becoming proud again, "Trade."

"I don't know about Goguryeo, but the Xi people and Khitan used to survive by trading with Yingzhou and other places. Although the weather has warmed up in various places, outside Yingzhou, it is still ice and snow all year round. These people live in poverty. Although they know how to farm, there are not many places where they can grow food, and the yield is also the same. However, they have mines."

"Especially the Khitans. They have a lot of iron ore in their territory. They even know how to smelt it, and the things they make are pretty good."

"In the past, the eight Khitan tribes often invaded Goguryeo and bullied the Xi people. They were quite powerful. Later, Gao Yang came to power and led his troops to attack. He defeated two of the eight Khitan tribes and killed more than 100,000 people. The Khitan were forced to migrate."

"These days, they and the Xi people rely on trade with border states and counties to make a living."

"My trade policy has given the border states new trading partners. Merchants have all gone to do business with the southerners, and even the government officials have done the same."

"And the Turks always wanted to get their iron, and often sent people to attack them, which made the situation worse."

"Of course they just sent envoys to the Central Plains to seek a way to survive."

"How many of them are there?"

"Why, Your Majesty, do you intend to expand the territory at the border and show off your military prowess?"

"I am not Gao Yang."

ps: I went out and bought some things as usual, I will make up for it tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)