Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 587 Grand Protector~ You've wasted thirty years!

Upon entering the house again, Guo Xin respectfully invited Lin Dao to take a seat and personally served him tea.

The reason for such humility is not out of respect for Lin Dao's strength, but because the pressure from the Tibetans over the past thirty years has been too great.

The Tibetan Empire had a population of several million, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers in armor.

After severing ties with the Central Plains, various non-Han peoples in the Western Regions have shed their sheep's clothing and transformed into ravenous wolves, wreaking havoc.

For the past thirty years, Guo Xin has been exhausted from defending the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

Now, suddenly encountering a city-defense weapon, it is extremely useful in dealing with attacks from the Tibetans and other non-Tibetan groups.

Forget about being respectful, I'd even accept him as a godfather!

"This thing is extremely powerful."

Lin Dao glanced at the tea, which seemed to have been mixed with countless ingredients, then looked away and spoke frankly.

"Very expensive~"

Guo Xin paused slightly. "Khotan Town~"

"That's a gift," Lin Dao said frankly. "When I'm willing to give it away, it's free."

He didn't buy these grenades for free.

His well-connected friends obtained weapons export licenses for him, enabling him to export a large quantity of the stockpiled hand grenades.

Moreover, the entire process was monitored, and the goods were not allowed to be sent to a warehouse. They were shipped all the way to South Africa.

The transportation costs Lin Dao incurred were more expensive than these grenades, which were practically sold or given away for free.

After all, preserving these obsolete wooden-handled grenades also costs money.

Lin Dao had no intention of ripping off the Anxi army; he only wanted to recoup his losses.

"it is good."

Guo Xin did not hesitate and immediately replied, "How about one string of cash?"

"Copper coins?" Lin Dao shook his head. "I don't want copper coins."

"Is there gold?"

There is definitely gold, and quite a lot of it.

However, when converted to the price of one coin per piece, it's not cheap.

The two parties agreed to calculate the price of four hand grenades based on the value of one tael of gold.

When Lin Dao bought them, they were sold for half price and given away for less than ten yuan each.

One tael in the Tang Dynasty was approximately 41 grams. Today, the price of gold in the modern world has exceeded 1,000 yuan per gram, which is more than 40,000 yuan.

In total, a single hand grenade can fetch over ten thousand yuan.

More than a thousand times the profit!

If it were a capitalist, they wouldn't just sell the rope to hang themselves; with that profit margin, they'd sell their very souls.

In Guo Xin's view, this was a worthwhile deal.

After all, the value of gold was greatly reduced once trade routes were cut off.

It was very difficult to bribe either the Tibetans or the various nomadic tribes with gold.

It's not that they don't like gold, but when they can just grab it, why bother with trading?
Using it to exchange for a city-defense artifact at this time would undoubtedly be a profitable move.

Lin Dao, on the other hand, felt a little embarrassed.

After all, their original intention was to help the Anxi army, but now they have instead taken advantage of them, and they feel guilty about it.

This shows that he is indeed not cut out to be a capitalist.

"How about this."

Lin Dao thought about it carefully and said, "If you buy 100,000 of them, I will give you a few more flamethrowers as a gift."

"When the Tibetans swarm the city, spray this thing at an angle towards the city walls; it's incredibly effective."

One hundred thousand pieces, that's twenty-five thousand taels of gold.

Guo Xin immediately looked troubled, saying, "We don't have that much gold."

In the Tang Dynasty, although gold was a form of currency, it was not a circulating currency.

He does have quite a lot here, but definitely not as much as 25,000 taels.

"Other goods can be used to replace them."

Lin Dao immediately said, "I'll take silk, tea, yellow jade, and all sorts of other things."

Upon hearing this, Guo Xin immediately smiled.

"That's great. The Anxi army doesn't have much else, but it has plenty of goods left behind by the passing caravans."

"How about cattle, sheep, horses, camels, spices, medicinal herbs, coral, amber, glass, and orchids?"

"I don't want the Hu women," Lin Dao shook his head. "I don't want cattle, sheep, horses, or camels either."

"I don't want glass or crystal. As for spices, it depends on what kind of spices they are."

Upon arriving at the warehouse, Lin Dao began selecting items.

Frankincense, borneol, styrax, musk, and so on were all packed up.

The same applies to spices such as alfalfa pepper.

We also need wine and raisins; these can be sent to other timelines as military supplies.

Selecting goods, weighing them, checking their condition, calculating the total amount, delivering the goods, counting them, instructing users on how to use them, and inspecting and storing them.

After finishing all that, it was already dinnertime when we returned to the Grand Protectorate.

"Master Lin is benevolent and righteous."

The culture of dining at banquets has existed since ancient times, although it doesn't involve sitting together at a round table, but rather a separate seating system.

But the essence remains unchanged.

Guo Xin raised his glass to Lin Dao with a beaming smile, "Thank you for your help!"

Lin Dao gave them four thousand boxes of wooden-handled grenades, plus an extra twenty thousand.

In Guo Xin's view, this was not simply about saving money, but about ensuring the combat effectiveness of the Anxi Army!

Given the power this artifact has demonstrated, the extra 20,000 of them could probably wipe out 50,000 enemy troops!

Fifty thousand enemy troops!
In a face-to-face battle, even if the Anxi army were to fight to the death, they still wouldn't be able to kill so many.

Wine, roasted mutton, camel hump, and various other delicacies from the Western Regions were served one after another.

A local band from Kucha performed famous Kucha music live.

Two groups of veiled, slender-waisted orchids swayed their delicate waists as they entered to dance.

Her slender waist swayed to the rhythm of the Kucha music, and the various objects hanging on her body jingled, creating a very meaningful sound.

As for the dance, Lin Dao felt it was somewhat similar to a dance video of a certain female celebrity whose name starts with "Ha" that he had seen in the modern world.

It is said that the Western Regions are famous for their beauties, and it is indeed true.

Seeing that he was staring intently at Hu Ji, Guo Xin smiled and stroked his beard, "Immortal Lin, just say which one you fancy."

The Tang Dynasty itself actually had a system of slavery.

It was slavery, not a slave society.

Because the number of slaves recorded in history never exceeded one-fifth of the total population. However, these so-called records cannot be entirely trusted.

The laws of the Tang Dynasty recognized slavery.

The Tang Code established the distinction between good and bad social classes and prohibited intermarriage between them.

Slaves in this era were called slaves, and were divided into two types: official slaves and private slaves.

The official slaves were mainly prisoners of war. The Tang Dynasty was powerful for over a hundred years in its early period, and most of its battles ended in victory, and almost all of them were fought outside its own territory.

This is why many prisoners of war were captured and taken prisoner.

Turks, Gaochang, Goguryeo, and others were all primarily government slaves.

Especially Goguryeo, whose entire country was taken away after its destruction.

As for private slaves, they were mainly imported from outside.

This includes the very famous Kunlun slaves, the ones Lin Dao killed before.

Besides the genuine Blake people, there are also people from Southeast Asia and India.

Then there are the Silla maids, most of whom were imported through official Silla channels. They were skilled in etiquette, music, singing, and dancing, and their fame was no less than that of the Kunlun slaves.

There is another very famous one called Bodhisattva Man.

The name contains the character "蛮" (man), which indicates that the person comes from the south, as the people of the Central Plains have always referred to them as "Southern Barbarians."

These women from South Asia are known for their distinctive local dances and costumes.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with ordinary people; they are only enjoyed by powerful officials and wealthy people.

Ordinary people don't even have the right to hear the sound of something new, let alone try it out.

Moreover, the common people of the Tang Dynasty were also a significant source of slaves.

On the surface, the Tang Dynasty forbade ordinary people in the Central Plains from becoming slaves.

The initial implementation was relatively strict.

However, due to the large demand, this regulation gradually became a mere formality.

Ordinary people who commit crimes are punished by being made government slaves.

But what crime was committed, or even whether a crime was actually committed, was decided by the officials.

The number of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice among them is countless.

Slaves were miserable, but most of them were mainly engaged in labor, so at least they could survive and had a chance to escape their slave status.

Even worse were the private slaves.

The source of private slaves was the cooperation and exchange of interests between powerful families, Buddhist sects, and the government.

The specific methods are unnecessary to elaborate on; they have been the same old tricks with different names for thousands of years.

In short, the goal was to deprive ordinary people of the land and other property they had acquired under the equal-field system, leaving them completely bankrupt and burdened with enormous debts that they were unable to repay.

After that, wealthy servants from prominent families would step forward, accept the indenture, and become their private slaves.

To be precise, the historical records refer to them as tenant farmers, but in reality, they were serfs!

At this time, these Hu women were Guo Xin's private slaves.

With just a word from him, the ownership of the item could be transferred, and it could be given to Lin Dao as merchandise.

"Need not."

Lin Dao shook his head and picked up his wine glass.

It's just a foreign woman; it's not like he's never tried it before.

Actually, it's not that complicated.

Those who have danced before simply have more outstanding twisting postures.

You can unlock more~~~cough cough cough~
We had a few drinks, ate some roasted lamb leg with camel hump, and chatted for a while.

Lin Dao asked, "Grand Protector?"

"Since we can't replenish our population through the entrances to the Central Plains, why not consider expanding the local population?"

"It's been thirty years. If we expand at full capacity, there have been two generations."

"Without further ado, there are tens of thousands of Tang soldiers, each with six children, half of whom are boys, minus one-third who haven't grown up yet."

"After two generations, there should be tens of thousands of young and able-bodied men available."

Upon hearing this, Guo Xin sighed.

"Immortal, you may not know this, but it is not an easy matter."

"The Tibetans and various other nomadic tribes launched repeated attacks, leaving the soldiers exhausted from constant fighting and with little time to spare."

"Furthermore, we should try our best to maintain relationships with the locals."

For example, the Xuanwei Army in Yutian Town originally numbered about three thousand.

The entire Kingdom of Khotan had only a little over four thousand households.

If large-scale marriages were to take place, all the local women of marriageable age would be essentially wiped out.

The inevitable result was that the local men, in anger, joined the Tibetans as guides.

He added, "Besides, many soldiers in the Anxi army are married and have many descendants."

"Grand Protector, are you a Confucian scholar?"

Lin Dao took a breath and said, "Nonsense!"

"Surrounded by millions of barbarian tribes, we must spare no effort to expand ourselves."

"Local opposition?"

“We will conscript all the local men into battle and then take care of their wives and daughters once they are exhausted.”

“This is the right choice.”

"You're so focused on the local people's feelings, but haven't you thought about resolving the situation of the Anxi army first?"

"you."

Lin Dao pointed at Guo Xin and said, "You've wasted thirty years!"

These words were utterly merciless, leaving Guo Xin blushing with embarrassment.

She wanted to get angry, but she was worried about offending Lin Dao.

After all, this Immortal Lin possesses supernatural powers. If we anger him and he goes to help the Tibetans, the Anxi army will be annihilated in no time!
Lin Dao then changed the subject.

"But it's never too late to realize it."

"Start arranging marriages for all the soldiers now."

Guo Xin shook his head helplessly, "The soldiers are all getting old now, and they are willing but unable to do so."

The youngest soldier in the Anxi Army is probably in his forties or fifties.

At this age, it's highly likely that you'll only be shedding tears in vain.

"It doesn't matter."

Lin Dao jokingly said, "I have a miraculous medicine that can help boost my virility!"

(End of this chapter)