After meeting all the people sent by the chieftain, Liu Chengzong was finally sure of one thing.
Fourteen chieftains from Xining all came to see Cao Huachun, and they filled two small carts with things for Eunuch Cao.
A few of them brought him a small stone or something else.
However, after seeing the Lion Camp, the chieftains immediately sent people to run back and bring him more gifts than they gave Cao Huachun.
Liu Chengzong didn't want any of the gems from Uzang, the iron knives from the Western Regions, the antlers from Qinghai, and the best skins.
Only the lamb brought by Chen Shiwen was slaughtered.
As the only Han chieftain in Xining, more than ten generations ago, Chen Shiwen has always felt that he does not look like a Han person since he was a child.
When good things happen, the Han officials in Xining do not regard him as a Han, and the natives do not regard him as a native.
When something bad happens, the natives will remember that he is a Han, and the Han officials will also remember that he is a chieftain.
If you have been angry with the plywood for a long time, you will start to doubt that you are not Han, right? Otherwise, why would his father name him Chen Shiwen?
But seeing Liu Xiucai skillfully slaughtering sheep, bleeding them, skinning them and setting them up on the grill, looking more like a pirate than a pirate, Chen Shiwen felt relieved.
He is more Han than Han, very authentic.
Liu Chengzong smeared the sheep with salt and asked the guards to help clean them up. He took off his leather apron and put it aside. He washed his hands and wiped the knife. He invited Chen Shiwen to sit down with him and said, "Huangshui is really a good place. I haven't seen anything like this in a long time." It’s a green place, how far is it from Xining?”
"General, there are still one hundred and twenty miles."
Liu Chengzong nodded: "You don't know that I rebelled. I think those chieftains don't even know who I am."
"I know a little bit. The Xining Guards' newspaper reported it, but I didn't know that the general had so many soldiers." Chen Shiwen said, "It's too far. It takes two thousand miles to get there along the border wall."
Chen Shiwen asked: "The drought in Shaanxi is so severe that tens of thousands of people followed the general in rebellion?"
There is no drought in the Hehuang Valley. Since approaching Lanzhou, the situation here has been like the prosperous times. The locals and Han people are mixed and the people are happy. It is completely different from the hell-like scene in the east.
Northern Shaanxi was not a wealthy place in peacetime, and it suffered from severe drought and war. From there, they entered the Hehuang Valley. This feeling that it was normal everywhere made people feel a little at a loss.
Liu Chengzong nodded in agreement. Chen Shiwen couldn't help but clicked his tongue and suddenly realized: "I heard from someone who came back from King Qin of Lintao that there was a drought in Shaanxi and the soldiers in Yulin had no food to eat, but... I thought he was lying to me."
"Yes, when I came here I saw such good land, and there were actually pockmarks growing in it." Liu Chengzong had been surprised by this for a long time: "Do you have enough food to eat?"
"It's almost the same. We plant wheat, hemp and wheat beans in rotation. It won't work if we don't plant them. You can't sell other things. You can get money for the imperial government by pressing oil. You can also grow Haibei bananas. Rapeseed is grown there. The Hehuang Valley produces an annual output." It’s two to three hundred thousand jins of clear oil.”
Chen Shiwen said, frowning and smiling bitterly: "It's the same everywhere. Small people are so hungry that they abandon their fields, and big families annex their fields. Xining is just a good thing that the people can't live anymore and hide in the mountains to live as farmers. It's comfortable to be farmers these days."
"How comfortable is it?"
"When you are raw and cooked, there is a fixed number for the farmers and the horses for grazing. It is not as fixed as the distribution. If it doesn't work out, you can go to the pirate Xiao Lazun, and it only costs 10% of Timpa."
Liu Chengzong searched his memory and didn't know anything about these two words, so he asked: "Xiao, Xiao Lazun, Timba, what are those?"
"Little Lazun is the son of Huo Luochi, who became a monk. Does the general know Huo Luochi? Yes, his two children are now pirate leaders. Timba is the nama who collects food and silver. He only collects it once a year, and only 10% per time. .”
Liu Chengzong burst into laughter.
Ming Dynasty was supposed to be the one that collected the least taxes.
But in fact, the food paid to the leader of the Fan tribe was less than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the food paid to the pirate Tatars was even less than the leader of the Fan tribe.
The imperial court's local organizational capabilities were no longer sufficient to deal with complex tax collection and apportionment.
Chen Shiwen glanced at Liu Chengzong cautiously: "The general wants to rob Xining, right?"
Liu Chengzong's gang looked more like nomads than nomads, and they looked like they were in the robbery business.
"Why should I rob Xining?"
"Then...then why doesn't the general accept gifts from the chieftains?"
Liu Chengzong shook his head, pointed to the mutton being packed and said: "You don't know how many people I have, so you sent this sheep. What they later sent may not be what they wanted to send. You see, I seem to be missing something." What does it look like? It's you."
Liu Chengzong looked at Chen Shiwen and said, "You are more anxious than others. What do you want from me?"
"I didn't expect anything, but I did ask for help from the general. I have two younger brothers. The third brother, Chen Shili, has become a monk. The second brother, Chen Shifo, is at home. I want him to go to sea with the general."
Going to sea is okay.
Liu Chengzong asked in confusion: "Open the door? Did your second brother plan to become a monk when he was born?"
Chen Shiwen nodded and said: "Yes, the second son of the chieftain's family will become a monk. Opening the door means setting up another house to separate the family. For example, Dongbo's Mansion has opened thirteen doors."
"Our Chieftain Chen's family has a small business and has not opened the door yet. I don't want my second brother to open the door. I only have twenty-five soldiers in total. After dividing the family, there are only thirteen soldiers left."
Chen Shiwen said, bowing his head and saying: "So I would rather let him go to sea with the general and make other achievements."
Liu Chengzong really didn’t understand Tusi, let alone Xining and Qinghai.
But he understands himself and his needs.
"Let me bring your brother, no problem." Liu Chengzong nodded first, and then said: "But what can he bring to me? From the name, I'm afraid your family didn't train him as a warrior. I'm afraid one sheep is not enough. This It’s not enough for him.”
Chen Shiwen smiled easily when he heard this, and said confidently: "I was weak when I was a child. My parents were afraid that I would die young, so they regarded me as their heir. Later, they sent him to a temple. He knew that there were 220 temples in Xining to study in, and he knew all the local people. He is an official lama and has been to temples in Haibei and Haixi. He was not admitted as a scholar, but he can speak native and Mongolian languages."
In the end, this translation talent still made Liu Chengzong very excited, but the previous professional skills were a bit nonsense.
Liu Chengzong said: "He knows so many temples, what's the use?"
"Ah, I forgot, the general is not from Xining."
Chen Shiwen smiled very easily: "In Xining, every village has a temple. If there is no temple, it must be very close to the temple, because the temple fair is a market, especially in Qinghai."
"Each temple has different temple fair times. Pirates and fans will not fight and rob during the temple fair. In other words, my brother Shifo knows when not to fight."
Very important.
Liu Chengzong was very happy that Chen Shiwen sent his brother. He really didn't know this land, but he still had to ask others if they had thought it through before accepting it. He asked: "Do you know what it means to send your brother to me?"
Master Chen was always confident, but when asked by the lion, he also doubted himself: "I know... know part of it?"
Liu Chengzong smiled and asked, "How many people are there in Xining?"
"The general's problem is complicated. Xining has abundant land and abundant manpower. However, the loss of citizenship is serious. There are 6,000 to 7,000 registered military households and more than 50,000 civilians."
Liu Chengzong blinked: "I remember Eunuch Cao telling me that you Chieftain Li is in charge of 20,000 people."
Chen Shiwen quickly waved his hand: "We are natives, and neither Shengshengfanzi nor Shengshufanzi are registered as citizens. There are still three to four thousand deserters who are not registered as citizens, and there are thirty to fifty thousand common people who are not registered as citizens?"
Liu Chengzong thought that in terms of registered population alone, Xining had more people than Mizhi, but this place did not have a high sense of existence for him: "There are so many people in Xining? How about raw and cooked rice noodles and toast?"
"Then we can't count Xining. The raw and cooked rice and toast are distributed everywhere. We have to count the whole of Hehuang, Xining, Hezhou and Guide."
Liu Chengzong saw that he had come all the way and had a very good impression of the Hehuang Valley. It was a wealthy place, so he said, "Then you can do the math? Can you figure it out?"
"I guess so."
Chen Shiwen sat there and thought for a long time before he said: "The number of soldiers and civilians in Xining is more than 80,000, but less than 100,000. The same is true for the soldiers and civilians in Hezhou. The number of raw and cooked fans in Guide may be a little more than 100,000, and there are also native people. More than 100,000."
Nearly half a million?
"Are you telling the truth?"
Liu Chengzong never dreamed that there would be a population of 500,000 here. What is the concept of a population of 500,000?
With comfortable living conditions like the soldiers he has in hand, he can afford 20,000 yuan if he takes over the Hehuang Valley.
He stood up and sat down again, raising his hand to pat his thigh. Then he thought of a very important question: "What about the Han people? How many Han people are there, 500,000 people?"
"Did the general say he thought he was Han, or was he really Han?"
Liu Chengzong wondered if this was nonsense. As long as others wanted to, anyone could be Han: "The one at the back."
Chen Shiwen stood up and looked around, mentally appraising Liu Chengzong's troops and said, "Now there are 110,000."
Liu Chengzong was silent for a long time.
After a long time, the lamb was put on the grill, and blood slowly oozed out.
He then said: "I brought 17,000 people, but you told me there were only 110,000 Han people?"
Unexpectedly, Chen Shiwen was extremely surprised: "One, seventeen thousand? There are too many war horses. I thought there were thirty thousand people, but then there were only ninety-seven thousand."
Liu Chengzong finally understood why there were more than 200 temples in Xining.
And why, Chen Shiwen’s younger brother wants to enter the temple.
And why this little Han chieftain would run faster than anyone else to see him.
Recruiting 17,000 people to settle the hungry people into Qinghai may not mean much to others, but it is very important to Xining, the Han chieftain who is in charge of the natives.
He shook his head and asked: "Why are there so few Han people? It shouldn't be."
Chen Shiwen spread his hands and said, "Run away. The court taxes and apportionments, as well as the guards' hooks with the army, the people have no choice but to run away. Those who run to the mountains to the south will naturally be Fanzi, and those who run to the west will naturally be Tatars."
Can they still be so divided?
"That means there are Han people in the west, but they follow the Tatars or Fanzi?"
Chen Shiwen nodded: "There are quite a few, but I don't think the general should stick to whether he is Han, native, captive or Fan."
"Look at Duke Bingzhong of the Dongqi chieftain's family. He was an old official. He served the imperial court on the battlefield in Liaodong, but he was killed by the Han Sun Degong."
Liu Chengzong smiled and nodded.
What Chen Shiwen said is that on the one hand, there are good people and bad people everywhere, but what makes Liu Chengzong really happy is that the people can run away.
So why not go to his territory?
Thinking of this, he asked what he wanted to ask most: "Is it possible to farm west of Xining?"
"Haibei can be planted if you can, but it's a cold place with cold springs and early winters. There are a lot of farmers farming there, but the harvests aren't very good. It's better to farm in Hehuang, unless..."
Chen Shiwen was halfway through talking when he suddenly remembered something very important: "General, as the envoy of Xuanwei in Qinghai, what do you pay to the imperial court? Food, silver or horses?"
Liu Chengzong was stunned, raised his finger and pointed at Chen Shiwen, and nodded to him.
After pondering for a moment, he said: "You have to stop asking me."
Liu Chengzong didn't know how to tell this little chieftain that he didn't accept anything, and he never planned to accept it in the future.
But Chen Shiwen still considered Liu Chengzong: "The court hasn't said anything yet. When the general reclaims the land, he will have to talk to the court about the small harvest. If he doesn't accept too much, there will be people outside."
Liu Chengzong said seriously: "Then I think I won't be able to cultivate the land."
Chen Shiwen just thought he was joking and smiled and said: "But if the general wants to make some hard money, I have an idea."
"What's the idea?"
"The general can be a bulk carrier. Xining's team can't get out, and the pirate team can't get in. There is indeed some smuggling through small groups, but it's not big."
Chen Shiwen sounded like he had wanted to do this for a long time, but he was suffering from the fact that his power was too small: "If the general can freely enter and exit the pass, he can gain a foothold in the West Sea."
"Qinghai's salt, wool, leather, minerals, and mainland goods can all be handled with one hand, especially wool. My brother has been to temples outside."
Chen Shiwen said with a distressed look on his face: "He said that as we went deeper, the wool was either thrown away in the wilderness and left to rot, or it was mixed with sand and soaked in dung, and it was all wasted."
Liu Chengzong thought that this was wrong. The Mongolians would not throw away all these things: "They don't weave?"
"Weaving, a few weave brown felt, but who among the pirates is short of wool? Besides, it is all hand-woven and the quality is poor. They don't need to buy or sell it. They might as well soak it in manure or burn it to keep warm."
Chen Shiwen looked excited, raised two fingers and said: "General, just imagine, if Qinghai wool is reduced, the annual output is 500,000 jins, and the price is 20,000 taels per catty. This is a big business of 200,000 taels."
Liu Chengzong thought this was promising, but it was not just wool. He had a group of craftsmen from the mainland. Many of them used to serve the royal family in the Han Dynasty. It is not an exaggeration to say that their craftsmanship is among the best.
They can process all the raw materials in the pastoral areas and then sell them. They can not only sell the Han land, but also sell it back to the herdsmen. More importantly, they can bind some people through benefits.
Profits are more reliable than blood.
What's more, the Hehuang Valley has 500,000 people, which is a big market.
Liu Chengzong asked: "Since you have this idea, why don't you do it? Even a little bit will do, such as smuggling."
"I want to, too! But I don't have any equity."
Chen Shiwen shook his head and patted his thigh with a wry smile: "I only inherited the chieftain from my father, but not the money. Most of the benefactors of our temple will donate their property to the temple after their death. My father is one of them, and he donated it to Chieftain Li's family. In the temple."
"The general doesn't know that being a chieftain is not easy."
"We only have three sources of land. One is reserved by the previous dynasty, the other is a reward from the court, and the third is robbed...so my land is almost robbed."
Just when Liu Chengzong thought that Chen Shiwen came to see him early specifically to find investors to join him in smuggling, he saw Chen Shiwen sweep away his depression and open his hands for the first time, as if a better life was just around the corner.
"So I hope that when the general succeeds, he can build a big temple for my family, let my third brother be the temple master, invite the best Zen master in the snow mountain, and let everyone in Xining donate their property to our family when they die!"
This guy didn't want to get involved in the smuggling business at all. What he wanted was a big business that would last forever.
The lamb had been roasted until it was sizzling with oil. Liu Chengzong stepped forward and grabbed the lamb leg and released it. It was a bit hot to his hands. He put a clean cloth on it and cut the bones and flesh with one knife.
"Send your brother over. I don't want the gold, silver, or jewelry given to me, but if you bring me the lamb, I'll give you a leg of the lamb."
As he spoke, he untied a leg of lamb and handed it to Chen Shiwen. He swung the knife and pierced it on the tree stump. He pointed at the little toast and said with a smile: "But you will have the leg of lamb to eat in the future."
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Note:
Xining population reference "Research on Ethnic Population in Hehuang Area during the Ming and Qing Dynasties"
For the Tusi part, please refer to "Research on the Li Tusi Family System"
Qinghai commercial structure and discarded wool refer to "Research on Qinghai Shop Economy and Market System in Ming and Qing Dynasties"
