Tiger Guards

Chapter 335 On Iron Tools
Daling County, smelting site.

Zhao Ji inspected this place, and the person in charge of managing it was Wang Qi, the Commandant of the Treasury.

As the oldest among the original 800 Tiger Warriors, Zhao Ji transferred him to the position of Commandant of Gold after the withdrawal from Changshan, and he left the Tiger Warrior system with the two bars and four stars on his armband.

Even so, Wang Qi still had embroidered emblems on both arms of his official robes.

The two bars and four stars are in a different color than the current Tiger team's color scheme.

His career had always been smooth. He was first transferred to Xu Huang's military commander position. When Xu Huang plundered Shangdang, he was assigned to the Northern Cavalry and the Righteous Cavalry. Wang Qi was promoted to commander of the army.

He then served as the Commandant of Metal, in charge of Taiyuan's largest smelting and forging production base.

With proper rewards and punishments, this place can be considered a production line.

During the autumn and winter seasons, they did nothing but produce farm tools.

Zhao Ji focused on inspecting the curved plow, while Wang Qi and other important figures from the shogunate watched as the officials and soldiers practiced using the curved plow.

One person and one ox are enough to cultivate the soil, which is not only efficient but also makes turning around easy.

Previously, the popular type of plow was the long, straight plow, which was heavy and usually required two oxen to lift it. It was difficult to turn and was not easy for one person to operate.

Now, the curved plow is efficient, flexible, and easy to use.

The only downside is that the plow blade was made of pig iron, which was the biggest production cost.

Seeing the single officer guiding the plow turning the plow, while the oxen seemed unaffected by the exertion, Zhuge Xuan, the Western Cao official, turned to Zhao Ji with a clasped hand, saying with excitement, "Congratulations, Grand Marshal! With the curved plow you created, how could the traitorous Yuan clan not be defeated?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji looked at Zhuge Xuan and smiled, saying, "The common people suffer from farming; what does that have to do with the Yuan family?"

Chief Secretary Zhang Chang also said, "Grand Marshal, this curved plow is very different from the long straight plow. Agriculture is the foundation of the country, and this is by no means a trivial matter. It has far-reaching implications."

"I understand. I will draft a memorial later, and I will present the curved plow to the Emperor to promote agriculture in the country."

Zhao Ji understood that this was an attempt to attack Yuan Shikai in terms of public opinion.

The new, highly efficient plow was named after its shape and was called the curved-shaft plow. You, Yuan family, can steal it if you want, just don't mind the name.

How could the Yuan family develop smoothly if they were subjected to such treatment?
When attacking the enemy, one should act from a strategic perspective, meaning to wage a comprehensive war and attack from all sides.

With this year's reserves, it will only be enough to satisfy the official lands in various places, roughly limited to Taiyuan and Hedong counties, as well as Hongnong and Heluo areas; it will be possible to expand to Xihe, Yanmen, Dai, Shangdang, and Henan next year.

By the year after next, it is estimated that it will have spread to the areas of Ruying, Chenliu, Nanyang, and Xiangyang.

Even if Yuan Shao and Cao Cao knew about it, they wouldn't suddenly promote it on a large scale.

Besides machinery, animal power also limited farming.

Only Zhao Ji was able to purchase oxen from the Xiongnu tribes.

Not all cattle are the same, but the Xiongnu had the custom of farming before their migration into the interior, so they would naturally breed draft cattle.

In addition to cattle, horses can also be used as draft animals during spring plowing.

Therefore, the curved plow was also distributed to various Xiongnu tribes and the Qiang people in Zhenqiang City.

Obtaining cattle and horses from the Xiongnu was a rather delicate task.

They needed to acquire cattle and horses, but they couldn't provoke too much resistance.

Taxation was one method, exempting the Xiongnu from poll tax and corvée labor, which were converted into cattle and horses.

By apportioning the tax to the various Xiongnu tribes, they could obtain this tax, which was calculated in the form of animal power.

Another approach is through economic means, such as exchanging iron tools for animal power from various Xiongnu tribes. However, the specifics of this exchange still require detailed discussion.

Both the curved-shaft plow and the seed drill are for production.

Wooden farm implements are easy to produce as long as they do not involve iron parts, and manpower can be organized to produce them during the off-season.

In addition, the construction of various civilian wheelbarrows, waterwheels, and irrigation canals and weirs also requires a continuous investment of manpower.

So much so that Zhao Ji was somewhat satisfied with his current territory and wanted to spend a year cultivating it further.

In particular, among the various Xiongnu tribes within the territory, only the Qubei region has been divided into six large tribes at the thousand-household level; Zhao Ji very much wants to extend the thousand-household system to all Xiongnu people under his rule.

The Xiongnu were largely dismantled, with each household consisting of several thousand people. A typical Xiongnu household was called a "ruo" (辭), which usually had twenty or thirty people of varying sizes. A more developed "ruo" could have fifty or sixty people.

Especially in settlements where the head of household is old and several sons are adults and in the process of dividing the family property, the population size is even larger.

Even a newly formed settlement that has just split up can have ten people, two or three of whom are young and strong.

But this year is really not a good time to attack the Xiongnu. It's not that we lack authority or strength, but that the Xiongnu haven't had a good life yet.

When the technology was promoted, the productivity of the Xiongnu increased throughout the country, and they were able to live a more prosperous life than they had in the past two or three years.

Then the resistance to internal conflict among the Xiongnu will be significantly reduced. At that time, they can start to split the majority into several thousand-household units, combine medium-sized tribes into thousand-household units, and also incorporate the smaller tribes they have absorbed into their own directly subordinate thousand-household units.

The thousand-household system was gradually replaced by the mature and powerful families of the Xiongnu, so that the shogunate could vertically manage the Xiongnu through the thousand-household system.

Therefore, it will take some time to understand the leaders and nobles of the various Xiongnu tribes and to grasp information about the internal conflicts within each tribe. This will also allow the Xiongnu people to understand that the division of the tribes is not a direct annexation, but rather an enhanced version of the "Decree of Grace".

Every famous Xiongnu king must have uncles, brothers, cousins, or adult sons. Most of them were removed, and the close relatives who were close to the government were appointed as commanders of a thousand households.

After the implementation of the thousand-household system, the mobilization capacity and obedience of the Xiongnu people will be significantly improved... and tax collection will also be more convenient.

They could either pay a tax in the form of animal power, which was called protection money, or accept military service and become a member of the shogunate.

After inspecting the curved plow, Zhao Ji and his group checked the farm tools in the warehouse.

Zhao Ji was much relieved. These farm tools were essential to ensure the recovery of production in Taiyuan and Hedong this year.

He didn't understand economics very well and had never done any big business, but he knew the importance of distribution.

Flipping through the inventory ledgers, Zhao Ji asked, "Currently, it's inconvenient to distribute armor and weapons to the Yicong and Xiongnu nobles, but there aren't many hidden dangers in distributing and rewarding these farm tools. What I'm wondering now is whether we should open up the trade of farm tools."

The farm tools in the warehouse will definitely be distributed directly to the county governments and soldiers' families, and then the county governments will rent them out to tenant farmers.

As for the households in each county, they could only buy them with money, since many people made a lot of money selling locusts anyway.

Although the purchase of grain caused a lot of money to flow back into the hands of the government, the private currency reserves are currently sufficient.

Only when the market provides the goods that people urgently need does the money in their hands have meaning.

Therefore, if farmers want to replenish or upgrade their farm tools, they have no choice but to spend money to buy them; only by spending money can they have the motivation to earn money.

The families of Xiongnu loyal knights... even those loyal knights who served under Lü Bu were, in principle, responding to Zhao Ji's conscription and were entitled to be allocated farm tools.

The Xiongnu nobles needed to be won over by rewarding them with agricultural tools to improve production efficiency within their territories. This would also make the nobles more dependent on the shogunate.

Therefore, there are only two things to consider: first, whether to grant the Xiongnu the right to purchase agricultural tools; and second, whether to grant allied powers the right to buy and sell agricultural tools.

For example, in Zhangyang, Hanoi had long been destroyed, and Chenliu was even more lacking in iron.

After Zhang Yang learns about the advantages of the curved plow after next autumn's harvest, he will probably be very eager to get his hands on it because the country doesn't produce iron.

Zhang Yan, on the other hand, had an even more urgent need for a curved plow.

However, iron can be smelted in the mountains, and after Zhang Yan sent the curved plow here this year, he will be able to produce it on his own.

Zhao Ji is asking about farm tools, but what he's really asking about is the potential danger of ironware flowing out to the Xianbei.

It is true that the Xiongnu and Xianbei are old enemies, but if the Xiongnu can buy iron farm tools from Zhao Ji and then sell them to the Xianbei for a good price, the Xiongnu will naturally be happy to act as middlemen.

Two sheep could be exchanged for a sickle, and the Xiongnu dared to use the sickle to trade with the Xianbei for two or three horses!

In response to Zhao Ji's question, everyone suppressed their joy and fell into deep thought.

Finally, Zhang Chang spoke first: "Grand Marshal, if we allow the common people to purchase farming tools but forbid the Xiongnu from doing so, it will hurt the Xiongnu's loyalty and will be ineffective."

"Yes, if the people can make a profit, they will naturally resell the government-run farm tools to the Xiongnu people in order to gain profits."

Seeing that the others were not very enthusiastic, Zhao Ji said, "However, the reserves of agricultural tools are not sufficient. This year, only the common people are allowed to buy them, and the rest will have to wait until next year. From February next year, there will be no more restrictions on buying and selling. This matter can also be informed to the Xianbei. I intend to issue a customs clearance document to the Xianbei king, so that he can send an envoy to Jinyang to trade with us."

Before Zhang Chang could speak, Zhao Rui, the Eastern Cao, immediately said, "Grand Marshal, the Xianbei are like wolves and tigers. How can we trade with them? What they lack is ironware. We must not trade with them. If Guanzhong and Longxi are pacified and Ma Teng and Han Sui submit, our army will have no internal threats. Then it will not be too late to trade with the Xianbei."

Perhaps feeling that his tone was a bit too strong, Zhao Rui changed his mind and added a precondition.

He lived in Changshan for generations, which was not far from the Xianbei, so he had personal experience of their suffering.

Zhao Ji was merely testing the waters; seeing that Zhang Chang and Zhuge Xuan lacked sensitivity in this area, he nodded in agreement.

Only after reorganizing the various Xiongnu tribes into thousand-household units will he lift the restrictions on the sale of agricultural tools by the Xiongnu.

During this period, the officials and common people under his jurisdiction were allowed to act as middlemen, earning some animal herds from the Xiongnu.

Strict restrictions are not difficult to implement; it simply involves marking agricultural tools and metal objects.

Similar to QR code identity information, one is plaintext and the other is encrypted.

The inscription restricts the circulation of the agricultural tool... If it is found by the authorities outside this range, it can be confiscated.

There's no need for that now; we'll wait and gradually patch and tighten this policy.

There was a limit to the supply of tools and ironware in various regions, so even if the Xiongnu smuggled them, they couldn't take away much.

Compared to the smuggling of agricultural tools and ironware, the smuggling of military equipment was the real culprit.

Zhao Ji felt it was a pity that such ill-gotten gains were transferred to the Xiongnu or powerful families in Yanmen, Daijun, and Xihe.

Of course, the solution is to arrange for people to carry out an official smuggling operation.

Even weapons discarded by the army were treasures to the Xianbei people.

This was determined by the Xianbei people's productivity; they were in dire need of weapons.

(End of this chapter)