The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 684 The Gap Between the Rich and the Poor
Chen Gong once calculated that the cost for the Great Qi to recruit a soldier to fight for the Kushan Empire was about three times that of the Seven Kings.

Even so, the issue of duty rotation still needs to be addressed, since not many soldiers would be willing to be stationed in such a distant place for a long time, no matter how high the salary is.

Relocating people would be far more costly.

Tian Ze also noticed Chen Gong and Zhang Zhao's helplessness.

They have successively supplied the Seven Kings with no fewer than six million able-bodied men.

What is this concept?
Nearly one-fifteenth of the population, and one-fifth of the young and middle-aged!
These people are basically the poorest, which has significantly increased the average wealth of Daqi.

It can be said that the migration of people has made an indelible contribution to Daqi in solving the problem of poverty and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.

But now, most of the young and strong who wanted to go out and make a living, and who were too poor to stay put, have already been cut off.

This kind of thing is like water in a sponge; you can always squeeze some out, but the more you squeeze, the harder it becomes.

The difficulty of obtaining 1.5 million today is several times greater than obtaining 4 million in the past.

Ministers Chen Gong and Zhang Zhao remained silent, unable to come up with a solution.

But not changing it is impossible.

Most of the more than six million people who were exchanged earlier ended up in the bellies of the three kings in the south, while the four kings in the north only got a sip of soup.

The majority of those who need to exchange population are the Four Northern Kings. If we refuse, it would be unfair to the Four Northern Kings and also extremely unreasonable in terms of the overall power distribution of the Seven Kings.

Jia Xu clearly realized this and said quietly, "According to my intelligence, before the Kushan Empire was conquered, the population of the seven kings and the Han population differed quite a bit."

"The largest population was in Liu Fan, with a total of more than seven million people, of which nearly three million were Han Chinese."

"Secondly, there is Sun Ce, whose population is about five million, of which about two and a half million are Han Chinese."

"Liu Bei and Lü Bu each had a population of about four million, with about two million being Han Chinese."

“Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Gongsun Zan each had a population of about three million, with about one and a half million Han Chinese.”

Even Jia Xu couldn't help but feel a little helpless at this point.

The Sindhu region was such a lucrative prize that the three kings of the south were practically drooling over it.

Although they intended to suppress the Four Northern Kings, this was not the way to do it; the population figures on paper were far too different.

Even if Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were combined, they wouldn't be as wealthy as Liu Fan, a single warlord. Jia Xu felt sorry for them.

During the Central Plains War, they were among the most severely defeated and the first to lose. In the end, they fared worse than Liu Fan and Lü Bu before them, and worse than Liu Bei and Sun Ce later on.

"If this population exchange is successful, the four kings in the north will each receive about 300,000 more Han Chinese able-bodied men than the three kings in the south, and the gap between them will be narrowed."

In Jia Xu's eyes, the foreign population was all fictitious; they were all foreign women responsible for childbirth and protecting their families.

The actual population depends on how many Han Chinese and young, able-bodied Han Chinese were under the command of the seven kings.

In this respect, the three southern kings have a greater advantage, after all, the population they exchanged later were all young and strong, and the proportion of young and strong among the Han people was much higher than that of the four northern kings.

As Tian Ze listened to the others, he tapped his fingertips on the table, making a rhythmic sound that was particularly clear in the silent hall.

"These people must be exchanged."

After pondering for a long time, Tian Zexian made a decision.

The seven kings' military prowess was fully demonstrated in the Kushan Wars, far exceeding Tianze's expectations, therefore they must continue to be supported. Otherwise, future campaigns against Parthia and Rome would remain mere dreams.

Dealing with an unprepared and crippled Kushan Empire was already so costly; dealing with the remaining two great empires would only be more difficult.

“Your Majesty is absolutely right,” Xun You affirmed.

"Now that we have conquered the Kushan Empire, even if Rome and Parthia are slow to react, they will become wary and may temporarily cease hostilities to resist us."

"Leaving aside other matters for now, taking Parthia will be extremely difficult."

“Parthia has a population of nearly ten million, a vast territory, and is mainly composed of cavalry. It is several times more difficult to deal with than the Northern Xiongnu. It is impossible to take them down in a short time. It will inevitably lead to a long-term stalemate and attrition.”

"This places extremely high demands on the number of able-bodied men in the Seven Kings, and we must provide our full support."

Following Xun You's words, everyone present fell silent once again.

The Kushan campaign went so smoothly, yet the costs remained so high; they simply couldn't imagine what it would be like to fight Parthia afterward.

If it weren't for Tian Ze's insistence, they would have given up on this "wishful thinking" long ago.

They were all aware of the situation in Parthia; the difficulties Xun You mentioned were only part of the problem.

Parthian rule was based on a feudal system, which, despite its significant flaws, was remarkably well-suited to the nomadic-like methods of warfare it employed.

Winning is not difficult, but finding the enemy, keeping the enemy in place, and annihilating a large number of the enemy is extremely difficult.

Moreover, its core area is nearly 5,000 miles away from the Kushan Empire, and the route is mostly desert and barren areas, making it difficult to supply food and water.

The Hindu Kush Mountains, which need to be traversed, are rugged and difficult to cross, no less challenging than the mountains in the northern Kushan region.

The local environment is hot and dry in summer and cold in winter, requiring visiting troops to adapt over a long period of time.

It has a vast territory, with a huge buffer zone to the east and many other forces that might intervene to the west.

Even Rome at its peak couldn't conquer this empire; they were thousands of miles away, and the thought of taking it down was utterly hopeless.

As Xun You said, without the seven kings, they would have no hope at all.

Even with the Seven Kings, it would still be possible to succeed only if we could seize the right time, place, and people, make good use of strategic diplomacy, and receive the full support of the Great Qi.

Moreover, Parthia is not the end; their ultimate goal is that vast empire in the far west.

Upon hearing this, Chen Gong and Zhang Zhao sighed deeply and cupped their hands, saying, "Your Majesty, rest assured, we will do our utmost."

What other options are there in this situation? Just go all out and do it.

We need to further improve the benefits and mobilize our minds to do more; we should try to get as much as possible.

And those foreign tribes and barbarians hiding in the mountains, they tried their best to deceive them.

Anyway, life won't be bad there. When the Seven Kings succeed, their future will be even brighter. Let's send them over first.

At this moment, the two suddenly felt a little regretful, realizing that they shouldn't have devoted themselves so diligently to people's livelihood work in the first place.

Now that people's lives are gradually improving, it's really hard to find people who are too poor, making population migration increasingly difficult.

Let alone moving them to the rule of the Seven Kings, they would also have a headache over how to move them to India and Kushan.

(End of this chapter)