The reason why the price of horses has risen so high is that Zhao Guo must bear at least 90% of the blame. He first used cavalry to seduce South Korea and Wei, and helped the two countries train cavalry.
Then they blocked roads and city gates, prohibited war horses from going south, and secretly purchased war horses to raise horse prices. Otherwise, the countries in the Central Plains would not be so short of horses.
However, the State of Zhao is still very conscientious. It only raised the price of horses and did not raise the price of grain and salt. It harmed the interests of the Central Plains countries and nobles. It did not have a great impact on ordinary Guizhou civilians. After all, these people could not buy them. Get up.
Of course, it would be another matter if countries raise taxes, increase the burden on civilians, and shift conflicts.
As for capitalizing on enemies, Zhao Guo was not worried. Not to mention that all the horses sold are geldings, even stallions. Although these horses are extremely majestic and the quality of the foals they give birth to is relatively good, the quality begins to plummet after two or three generations, and finally they are lost to all horses. .
If countries want to maintain the strength of their cavalry, they can only continue to buy horses from Zhao and transfuse blood for Zhao.
Wei Guo doesn't know that Zhao Guo has so many horses that they can't sell them all. Otherwise, he would definitely not be in a hurry and choose to talk to Zhao Guo slowly. Even if it takes a month or two, it won't be a problem.
To be honest, Zhao Guo is actually quite anxious now. After there are too many horses, the death rate has increased significantly. Whether it is due to poor management or disease, the death rate has increased significantly. The number of people dying every day is ten to twenty thousand per horse.
Selling earlier can not only make more money, but also reduce the death rate.
But Wei Guo didn't know this now, and he immediately became anxious when he heard Lu Zhonglian's words.
But no one dared to make the decision on such a big matter. Everyone looked at King Wei, but King Wei turned to look at Fan Zuo.
Fan Zuo sighed. At this time, if he did not object, he agreed. However, King Wei himself did not speak and let him speak.
Pretend not to see it and offend King Wei. He nodded in agreement and offended the Wei bureaucrats.
Hey, aren't ministers the ones who take the blame for the monarch?
"Sir, I must have estimated the benefits of the chasm. Ten years is too long. The maximum time that Wei State can accept is five years." Fan Zuo said.
"If you only count the benefits, it will indeed be long, but Tutor, please don't forget that Zhao State will take certain risks with this move, and Wei State will be able to gain benefits in the future." Lu Zhonglian said.
Fan Zuo glanced at King Wei and saw that he still had no intention of speaking. He neither expressed agreement nor objection. There were a few more wrinkles on his face, like the bark of an old pine tree.
"We, the State of Wei, can agree, but the handover procedures are a bit troublesome. How about officially handing over the jurisdiction over Chasm to Zhao State from the first month of next year?" Fan Zuo said helplessly.
"Yes, after signing, I, Zhao Guo, will immediately arrange personnel to send the war horses to Wei next month." Lu Zhonglian nodded.
"Thank you." Fan Zuo said with cupped hands.
"Win-win cooperation, come on, let's drink from this cup." Seeing that the conversation was almost over, Zhao Kuo stood up at the right time and said loudly while holding the wine glass.
Everyone stood up. The difference was that Zhao Guowen, Wen and Wu all drank the wine in one gulp with a smile on their faces. Wei Guo Wenwu's face was a bit unsightly, even the wine seemed bitter, and the joy of just escaping the disaster disappeared.
For the State of Zhao, the State of Wei both loved and hated it.
I love it because the Zhao State is indeed helping the Wei State without any perfunctory. If only compared with itself, the current national power of the Wei State is definitely much greater than that of the Wei State two years ago.
I hate it because every time Zhao helps Wei, it cuts off a piece of flesh from Wei. Wei's strength is indeed increasing, but the gap with Zhao is getting wider and wider.
Zhao Kuo glanced at the King of Wei. In fact, he had planned to sell some cattle to Wei before, as well as sheep, salted fish, etc. if possible. However, it seems that Wei really can't squeeze anything out.
We can't let Wei use minerals to pay off debts. Although it's not impossible, mining mines requires a lot of people. Those captives can barely be managed in Zhao, but in Wei, it will be a bit more difficult.
Moreover, Zhao State does not lack minerals, it only lacks finished products.
"It's better to find a way to sell it to Qi, Chu and Han after we go back." Zhao Guo thought in his mind.
The Three Kingdoms did not experience a major war this year. The Three Kingdoms' attacks on Qin, Chu and South Korea were just outside. Later, they were defeated by Qin. The losses were not much. The situation was far better than that of Wei.
In particular, Chu and Qi were both large grain producers. With their help, Zhao would have enough food to feed hundreds of thousands of captives.
It was impossible to make the prisoners work without giving them food.
Even if the Zhao State increased its food production and reclaimed wasteland, it would still be difficult to feed hundreds of thousands of captives, not to mention that there were still hundreds of thousands of retired soldiers, and the food and grass they had accumulated before were completely insufficient.
Although Lifu asked some of the captives to reclaim wasteland and grow food, it would have to wait until at least the third year before they could barely break even. The harvested food could feed all the captives, and the deficit during this period had to be filled by Zhao Guo.
This pit is quite big, after all, there are a lot of people. But the benefits are also huge. The benefits created by hundreds of thousands of people are not limited to this small amount of food.
This is also the reason why the ministers of Zhao State did not object, otherwise they would have beheaded and built the Beijing Temple according to the previous habit.
After this incident, most of the people's interest in drinking was gone. It didn't take long for the banquet to be over.
Back at his residence, Zhao Kuo called Le Cheng and Ju Xin to find out what happened during this period.
"How much has our army lost?" Zhao Kuo asked Ju Xin first.
"Your Majesty, our army has almost never fought with the Qin army. We just encountered the Qin army's Sima Geng not long ago and lost hundreds of soldiers." Ju Xin said with his hand in hand.
The three thousand Zhao army is not a military spirit army. It cannot be said to be useless on a battlefield of hundreds of thousands of people. It can also be said that it is almost useless at all. If the entire army is accidentally wiped out, it will also affect the relationship between Zhao and Wei.
Therefore, Jin Bi and Mang Mao never sent Ju Xin to fight from beginning to end. It was not until recently that they went to meet the Zhao army and were blocked by Sima Gong, so they lost some people.
To put it bluntly, Ju Xin and Sanqian Zhaojun have been doing nothing in the past few months, just eating and drinking.
"Tell the soldiers that although they cannot be knighted this time, rewards will be indispensable when they return." Zhao Kuo said.
Although these three thousand soldiers killed the enemy, they still had merit. Moreover, Zhao Guo has money now, so he doesn’t need to dig around.
"General, thank you so much, Your Majesty." Ju Xin said, cupping his fists.
Zhao Kuo looked at Le Cheng, who started talking about his arrival in Wei.
Zhao Kuo couldn't help but laugh loudly when he heard Le Cheng say that the Wei people were unwilling to wear Hu clothes, and after a battle with the Qin army, they changed into Hu clothes without any hesitation.
Although the people of Wei adhere to etiquette and law, there are still only a few who put etiquette and law before life.
