The Dnieper River Basin on the north coast of the Black Sea is one of the four largest black soil distribution areas in the world.
It was precisely because of this Feng Shui treasure that Ukraine became the granary of the former Soviet Union.
Now, Li Ning is officially preparing to take over this land to alleviate the contradiction between man and land on Fujian Road.
In Fujian, which has eight mountains, one water, and one farmland, the scarcity of arable land resources has severely restricted the development of the population, which has also restricted the development of productivity. Although the rich mountain and forest resources provide unique advantages for their shipbuilding industry, if they can Who would risk embarking on sea trade if their family had enough to eat?
However, the Fujian Road of the Song Dynasty may have been the best era in the past 3,000 years.
It has a sufficient productivity base to develop maritime shipping and a certain population advantage to develop agricultural production.
You may not have noticed that Vietnam in the 11th century, which was then called Jiaozhi, was already filled with all kinds of Fujian immigrants.
What kind of place is Vietnam? Located in Southeast Asia, the climate is humid, hot and rainy, which is very conducive to the growth of crops. The Fujian people who were suffering from hunger finally found a place that could give them a better feeling than their hometown.
Since then, going overseas to seek development has gradually become more and more popular. Until modern times, this trend of going to Southeast Asia was still a way to seek livelihood.
But if they are given a piece of land that will not lose to Vietnam. I believe the Fujian people will happily go there to cultivate the land.
Although this land does not have three crops a year like Vietnam, it is not troubled by various tropical diseases.
Although the winter is indeed colder, and may even make some northerners in the Song Dynasty unbearable, the fertile black soil will quickly give them hope of survival.
That's why Li Ning came up with this bold immigration plan, which was named after the biggest difficulty he faced, which was the vastness of the Black Sea.
This seems to be a passionate description, but in fact, the Black Sea cannot stop the progress of the Fujian people at all. After all, they couldn't even stop the Greeks who only owned triremes. The Fujianese, who had the Arabian Ruan sail technology 1,300 years before them, could not be challenged by the Black Sea.
So, is this plan going to be smooth sailing?
No, not really.
Because after landing on the northern shore of the Black Sea, they faced another difficult situation.
Scythian.
It’s a name that even a low-level history buff wouldn’t necessarily notice.
For example, before the author wrote this chapter, he didn't even know that the so-called Scythians, tmd, were Scythians.
The European-centered view of history has always believed that the Scythians were the ancestors of all nomadic tribes, or people who had this habit, or at least the ancestors.
But in fact, the stupid Western Europeans were only the first to come into contact with this nomadic tribe. Nomadic tribes that existed earlier than them must have existed widely in the world.
For example, it is difficult to prove that the Aryans unearthed in Yinxu did not come to the Central Plains on horseback.
But even if they are not necessarily the earliest, they must be the most impressive, because at that time their activities were so wide that they almost covered the vast Eastern European plains including the Caspian Sea and the northern coast of the Black Sea.
As a branch of the Iranians, they have a tough character. Year-round travel has accumulated a wealth of combat experience and plundering space for them. Therefore, they once extended their claws to the Asia Minor Peninsula on the southern coast of the Black Sea, as well as the Caucasus. The Babylonian region on the south side of the mountains.
The two river basins have always been negative, so their spoils must be quite abundant. However, it should be noted that nomadic tribes entering the Central Plains will generally lose their nomadic habits very quickly, because the rich products and superior geographical conditions will The ways for them to obtain food will be greatly enriched, so they do not need to fight with others and can feed themselves through simple planting. So nomadic and predatory may become an alternative.
Under such circumstances, the drivers who rushed into the two river basins quickly split into small tribes and quickly disappeared in the long river of history. However, the group of people active in the Dnieper River Basin did not seem to be like this. develop.
Logically speaking, the Dnieper River Basin is not incapable of raising people. The rich black soil resources will make agricultural production here get twice the result with half the effort.
But after all, the Scythians were not Han Chinese who were good at farming. Even if they get off their horses, they will not be immediately familiar with the use of various agricultural tools. As for the agricultural planting skills and related experience passed down from generation to generation, they are extremely lacking among their shortcomings. Therefore, in this country without an agricultural foundation, , it is impossible for them to master appropriate agricultural farming skills in a short period of time.
If there must be any change, then the arrival of the Greeks may be a hope, but the Greeks were only interested in seaside trade, so most city-states were established in coastal areas and rarely went deep into the hinterland of the valley, so they The help brought to the Scythians was actually very limited.
At this point, the Scythians in Ukraine have completely fallen into the existing nomadic life. The only improvement is that the vast black land has given them more fertile grasslands.
But it would be a pity if only grass grew on this vast land. Therefore, Li Ning was determined to fight against these Scythians who had been too boastful in Western history.
If Rang could drive them away, then this vast plain would become an important and wealthy land in the Song Dynasty.
And this may not be difficult for the people of the Song Dynasty. At least it's possible to try.
As a result, ships were urgently built, and various fishing boats that were originally active along the coast of Fujian were also urgently recruited. They gathered in groups near the light curtain, passed through the city walls being built layer by layer, and quickly appeared in the light. the other side of the curtain.
During this period, countless people began to lament the importance the court attached to the light curtain. Because the surrounding defense facilities are enough to have five floors, which far exceeds the three floors originally designed by Li Ning. Of course, the other two floors are built purely to protect the surrounding commercial facilities. Even the The expenses were also donated by many well-known merchants. But in any case, its strength is even comparable to that of the 10.47-meter-tall Beijing city. As for Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, I am afraid it can no longer be compared with it.
However, the cautious Song Dynasty businessmen were still reluctant to say such an overstep. As for the fishermen who had never seen the world, they simply did not know how to compare because they did not understand the specific figures at all.
But there is one thing they know. The vast Black Sea may not be scary to them, because when they wandered along the Granikas River to the coastal area, they were soon surprised to find that here The sea here is much calmer than that at home.
For an ocean surrounded by land on all sides, with only a few straits connected to the outside world, the only way to make it unstable is to blow. Although the north wind can indeed do this, the north wind can make the whole world unstable. All the world's oceans have become rough, but here its power has to be discounted, so the fishermen seem more relieved.
The only thing they worried about was that they did not have suitable navigation charts in their hands, because they had long heard that this was an unknown sea, but the Arabs quickly brought them the latest star-finding data.
The Black Sea is no stranger to Arabs.
Although the Arabs in the 11th century had not yet captured the military city of Tantino, so they were unable to obtain certain navigation data on the east coast of the Sea of Marmara, the development of maritime trade had already enabled them to do this. Even if they did If not, they can also choose the east coast of the Black Sea, which is even less strange to them.
After all, places like Armenia were originally areas that were fiercely contested by multiple civilizations.
Therefore, they have also become a place where civilizations meet. Even if they are adjacent to them, many useful things can be learned from them.
And they live on the east coast of the Mediterranean. All civilizations’ understanding of the east coast of the Mediterranean may be passed down to them, and may also be passed on to more people through them. Therefore, the Arabs’ understanding of the east coast of the Mediterranean cannot be attributed to their experience in the Caucasus. Mountains are obstructed and ignored.
Moreover, their navigation technology has also experienced rapid development in the Golden Age, so there is no big problem in surveying and mapping relevant data. At least the Greeks in this time and space cannot do this.
Since the Greeks couldn't do that, they could only watch their wonderful performance, so they transported ship after ship of soldiers and farmers to the northern shore of the Black Sea. Many of them even migrated from the north. Of course, this The migration of species was strictly organized by the imperial court, although local officials everywhere were unwilling to give up the lower population easily. After all, whether the population increases is also very important to their political performance.
But there are always a small number of people in almost every state and county who are landless farmers. Therefore, watching their family businesses decline is a huge conscience condemnation for conscientious officials. They would rather live in Officials in Conscience Condemnation are dangerous, so if an official does not hand over some landless peasants, his ambition may not be as bright as it appears on the surface. None of the officials who take the exam for the company are fools, so, Any official who still has some brains must act honestly.
From this, regardless of whether one has a conscience or has no conscience, Li Ning will always gain a lot, so he and Pang Ji will do their best when organizing transportation capabilities.
Pang Ji was a very good parent official, and his knowledge of current affairs was far better than that of Fan Zhongyan. Unfortunately, he was not a scholar like Fan Zhongyan, so although he had outstanding political achievements, his reputation among scholars was not as high as Fan Zhongyan's.
But the eyes of the masses are sharp, and the folks on Fujian Road are actually full of love for the great transshipment envoy for his current management.
Therefore, when he called everyone to transport farmers who had lost their land to distant places, many people agreed without any worries.
They didn't even know that there was actually a reward for this transportation.
Although these rewards were a bit heartfelt, for Pang Xianggong, they were still in compliance with the laws of the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty was not a slave country in the strict sense, the indentured slavery system he implemented only had humanistic care. The phenomenon of slave trade was not completely eliminated.
What's more, when several military states next door are carrying out large-scale talent recruitment, all kinds of indentured servants have become hot commodities in the market.
Therefore, as early as Shi Yuan and Sun Dongzheng, officials of the Song Dynasty noticed that Greece was actually a military plundering group and a slave trading country that violated moral conscience.
Whether it was Athens, which previously dominated the sea, or Macedonia, which is now rampant on land, or the legendary Sparta, which has declined, what they did is the same. The changes between the rise and fall are nothing more than changing the predators. Just a name.
This was actually something that the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty found difficult to accept, although they were not taught that Greece was the so-called cradle of civilization like later intellectuals.
But this unethical behavior also challenges their existing moral conscience.
In a country that has begun to gradually abolish slavery, it is impossible not to feel disgusted in the core of its civilization when seeing this backward and disgusting, barbaric and cruel system.
But if they do not participate in this kind of trade, in this time and space where products are scarce, what can bring benefits to their behavior?
Is it minerals that require manpower to mine, land that requires manpower to cultivate, shipping that requires manpower to sell, or manpower to sell... Is there any business that can be carried out without relying on manpower? If not, then well, slavery is an option that cannot be bypassed, it is a trade-off that must be made!
Pang Ji and his staff made a resolute choice, and his subordinates, including Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen, also gave them full support and affirmation.
In the manor economy of the Song Dynasty, especially in the manor economy of the south, the use of Kunlun slaves, that is, black slaves in Southeast Asia, had actually appeared for a long time. In the process of training slaves, a variety of violent and cruel methods were used Passed down from family to family.
Since the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty who were knowledgeable and well-remembered were able to write down the rumors they heard into notebooks and novels, it was natural that they would not know these things, which were the most likely to arouse the audience's amazement. Therefore, their adaptation to all this far exceeded that of later generations of humanities. ists’ scope of concern.
So when some people proposed plundering slaves near Asia Minor, almost everyone agreed.
But agreeing does not mean the end of the matter for them. Although the slave trade has brought benefits to the Transportation Department, Economic Strategy Department and Light Curtain Department, the people of the Song Dynasty may have long forgotten some aspects of plundering slaves. Necessary means, and at the same time, their benevolent hearts deeply influenced by culture also brought huge difficulties to themselves in the process of selling slaves.
There have even been cases where the common people who were responsible for watching the situation let the slaves run away privately because they couldn't bear the pain they endured. However, these common people were not held accountable because their superiors, like them, were I grew up immersed in the humanistic culture of the Imperial Song Dynasty.
Of course, the biggest problem is the problem of trying to live in the later period. Since most slaves were plundered during the war, they had a high sense of resistance, which usually brought a lot of trouble to the relatively peaceful people of the Song Dynasty. trouble.
Therefore, after purchasing the slaves they provided, many employers and people were troubled in this regard, and some were even killed by the slaves, which caused a series of social problems.
Therefore, officials at all levels on the Fujian Road also knew that this kind of slave trade could not last long, because their sales were always limited. The Song Empire was already facing the problem of overpopulation, otherwise the handicraft industry would not be able to survive. How could it become so developed? Therefore, if this kind of immigration action is continued, other financial support plans must be found. However, the imperial court’s Zuozang treasury did not prepare sufficient copper coins for their plan, so what they can do There is only one thing left.
The four words "increase revenue and reduce expenditure" are the first solutions that come to mind next time for many financial problems. However, when these four words are transformed into specific action plans, many people are stumped by them. The only good thing is that a similar situation may not occur on Fujian Road. Because of the existence of light curtains, there are more and more ways for them to make money.
There is no shortage of minerals along the Mediterranean coast, which is also one of the important pillars of the Greek economy. After acquiring several territories, the officials related to them quickly organized and prepared to go mining.
Nowadays, several small copper mines can bring them a certain amount of output, but to maintain the subsequent immigration plan, these copper mines alone are not enough.
Smelting technology and planting capabilities were also technical means that they originally thought could be a barrier.
The smelting capabilities that are 1,300 years ahead should be able to bring enough revenue for them to produce weapons. After all, this is a place with constant wars. Even in occupied areas, there are constant fights between landlords and slaves. Betrayal and ambiguity, and even more chaotic things, such as the games and fights between the old local aristocrats and the new aristocrats, and the attacks and plunders between the new aristocrats and the old rich, are all areas where these weapons can be used. reasons.
But the idea of selling weapons was quickly stopped by Li Ning. He even made a condition that if he was really short of money, he could only sell the weapons to slaves. But the slaves had no money to buy such good weapons. In the precious metal era, inflation People in the Song Dynasty believed that the amount of bronze worth such a weapon was far beyond what the Greeks with backward productivity could provide.
But if these weapons were sold to rich people, it would undoubtedly cause trouble for their own rule, so the idea of arms trafficking had to be terminated in the end.
As for the traditional strength of agricultural technology, due to the long time period, I am afraid that it will not be able to relieve their financial pressure in a short period of time. After all, this thing has a large demand for labor, but it has no universal economic value, unless cash crops are grown, but Such basic food cannot be guaranteed, so this thing can only be used to make a living, not to make a fortune.
What can be used to make a fortune? It's gold, silver, and slaves, and those people of the Song Dynasty were the most shameful.
So the people of the Song Dynasty had no choice but to turn their attention back to those luxury goods, the crazy export of silk, porcelain, and tea, which became the thing they had the most hope for.
However, the fragility of porcelain had no basis for survival in war-torn Asia Minor. What they need is a steel knife and a strong shield. What can this thing do? Did you smash it into pieces and cut your wrists with the pieces to commit suicide? Oh, that's fine.
As for silk, it is indeed a good thing, most suitable for showing off wealth, so it has become the only commodity in short supply.
As for tea, its fate has been seriously divided due to consumer tastes.
Some nomadic tribes need such drinks to flush their intestines because their food is greasy all year round, so their demand for tea is relatively high.
And they happened to become an important source for the people of the Song Dynasty to exchange for war horses. For the Song Dynasty, which lacked horses, such a transaction was undoubtedly the most attractive. Unfortunately, the journey to transport these war horses to the north was too long. The fatality rate was so high that the entire Song Dynasty court was more inclined to foster them in Asia Minor for 1,300 years.
However, the number of horses cannot be directly converted into the combat effectiveness of the cavalry, and their allies rely on the famous Macedonian infantry phalanx as their specialty. Therefore, the ability to help them in cavalry operations is really lacking. Therefore, the training of cavalry still needs to be carried out by themselves.
This process even forced the Song Dynasty court to move some northern troops to places outside the light curtain for training. What they valued was horses and simple warfare.
But the growth of the army is also a slow process, and even if they can grow up, it is difficult to say whether they will be the opponents of the Scythians.
Although the Scythians did not have stirrups or anything like that, their equestrian skills definitely surpassed some of the cavalry that only started training after adulthood. Therefore, their maneuverability during combat far exceeds that of the so-called Celestial Kingdom.
Moreover, the group of Scythians north of the Black Sea, known as the Scythians, had formed a relatively independent kingdom at this time. Now that a political power has been born, there must be a military organization to defend it. It seems that it is not as simple as imagined to destroy it in one fell swoop.
In the Black Sea Project. Li Ning divided this process into three stages. The first is to enter the city-states established by the Greeks, conduct commercial trade with them, and purchase and cultivate the land around them.
The second step is to use the Greek city as the rear support to launch an attack on the Driver Taiyoumu tribe in the core area. Until they are all expelled from their original scope of activities, large-scale agricultural production can begin again. After all, the farmers in their hands are the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven, and they are important resources that cannot be squandered easily. Just as they had to make initial preparations before launching a military operation, they were not prepared to waste the lives of every young soldier, and the farmers who were following them now also received the same treatment.
The third process is relatively simple. Once a town is established in a farming river basin, it should be quickly developed into a city and interact with the people along the coast until the culture of the Song Dynasty is completely engraved on this land.
However, this is another task that takes time to be implemented slowly. As for economic support, none of the above can bring immediate results. In the end, they still have to face the original choice of construction or plunder. This is a huge problem. The problem.
However, when they reached the northern shore of the Black Sea, some problems began to be solved.
What kind of place is the northern coast of the Black Sea? It was a place where the atmosphere was as peaceful and peaceful as the Song Dynasty, far away from the war.
Merchant ships from Athens and other Greek city-states brought them simple crafts and slaves from the southern coast of the Black Sea or the more distant Aegean Sea, and they sold the grain and other livestock here, so that the Black Sea has now become It became an important trading area for Greece, a colonial country.
But life here is not entirely in order. Just as the Song Empire is always facing the danger of the northern barbarians, the competition with the Scythians takes place almost every year, so arms are extremely important to them. .
The arrival of the Song Dynasty people brought them a general sense of security, because there were many soldiers among the Song Dynasty people, as well as many farmers who could work, which would increase their food production and stabilize their military morale.
At the same time, the people of the Song Dynasty, as allies of the Kingdom of Macedonia, have shown good fighting qualities and cooperative qualities, so the Greeks here are also more assured of them, and even actively carried out commercial cooperation with them almost from the beginning. .
Since people in the Song Dynasty had not yet started to purchase land and plant crops, food had to be purchased from these people. Therefore, they offered a very reasonable price in the hope of getting support from the other party. As a result, the other party saw the benefits of cooperation between the two parties. Not only did he generously lower the price, he also discussed with them the possibility of this and other transactions.
There is no shortage of tea leaves here, because Ma Ying-jeou can exchange horses with them in the north, and silk is easy to sell. This is the same everywhere, and porcelain also has a pretty good market in this relatively safe place. This is It is not easy to see in other places.
Although they are not the richest Greek city-state, and are not even as good as those former colonies on the southern coast of the Black Sea, their geopolitical advantages are so obvious that many goods still flow into their pockets smoothly.
Although in terms of overall quantity, these goods are only an insignificant part. After all, the people here have limited wealth and cannot swallow too many goods. However, as Greeks, they believe that they have an advantage in sales. Therefore, when When Guo Musi of the Song Dynasty began to recruit people on the north coast of the Black Sea, many local people volunteered to join. After all, the monthly salary offered by the Celestial Empire was so generous that it was more than what they had earned after half a year of hard work. More.
The various financial pressures faced by this Black Sea operation were completely resolved because they successfully reached the northern shore of the Black Sea. Although the resolution was very limited, they seemed to see another possibility of solution.
This is called the road before the car reaches the mountain.
At the same time, this is something that many people, including Li Ning, could not think of before. What is very interesting is that Li Ning spent several days racking his brains to find strategies for the difficulties they faced, and finally decided on the strategy. Although it is very ingenious and full of wisdom, it seems that it may not be of use now.
However, he still exchanged letters with Guangmus officials and prepared to quietly carry out the plan in the coming period.
As for the specific content of this plan, it is quite confusing to talk about it.
This plan is divided into two parts. One part is called tourism. They have already established a passport and visa system, so several industries closely related to it can be referred to. International trade is naturally one of them, and cross-border tourism seems to be one of them. That's right, so the tourist visa examination system was quietly determined not long ago. However, all literati who want to travel to Asia Minor need to pay a part of the fees to Pastor Guang to hire tour guides and Soldiers who protect them.
This is also extremely beneficial for accelerating the people of the Song Dynasty to understand the areas beyond the light curtain. It is in line with the spirit that Li Ning has always advocated, and may also bring him unexpected talent gains.
The other plan sounds a bit ridiculous.
Li Ning plans to copy the previous enrollment plan and open a lecture hall similar to that of Brato students in the Greek area where the learning atmosphere is also very strong.
The scale of this reduction cannot yet be determined. If possible, he is willing to recruit three to five thousand people. Of course, only 1,000 of them will be exempted from tuition fees because of their excellent admission scores. The other 4,000 people will have to pay tuition fees.
Unlike the rush at home, the culture of the Song Dynasty is not so attractive here. Therefore, he needs to show off his abilities in the Greek area first.
And this process in Greece, which is relatively academically democratic, will probably cause heated discussions, and it may not be able to bring him inevitable results in a short while. Even if there is any one-sided tendency, he is worried that the current situation will change - The chaotic Greek society could not guarantee the safety of those scholars.
Scholars are now the greatest wealth of the Light Curtain Division, and no mistakes are allowed.
But if the Black Sea operation does require sufficient funds, then this risk can be taken, but since there is no such need now, then placing the school in Byzantium may be a very good choice.
The hated Greek mainland was not a good location for the Kingdom of Macedonia. Therefore, Alexander actually agreed to place this future academic center in Byzantium.
