Chapter 87 What King Yan Wants
King Yan said: "Those of my captives, don't even think about it. Have you forgotten the advice you gave me before? These people are the foundation of my Yan country, and they cannot be given to you no matter what. Besides those Tatars, you can herd, but how can you do such a job? Just give up."
When King Yan cares, he will be in chaos.
He Xi actually didn't want King Yan to send the prisoners here. It was precisely because he knew how much King Yan valued these people. Even if some people immigrate from the mainland in the future. They still need to adapt, but the aborigines in Mobei won't have that much trouble.
But when He Xi saw that King Yan had such a misunderstanding, he pretended to sigh and said, "Okay then."
It looked like a pity.
When King Yan saw He Xi's appearance, he knew in his heart that he had just made a mistake in his judgment. After all, King Yan really valued his small team too much. That's when I made this stupid mistake. In fact, King Yan was also worried about population problems.
To be fair, grasslands are different from farming areas. There is no gentry group. There can be no gentry group.
Because of the thin economic environment on the grassland, it is impossible to add an additional class in the middle. Even officials cannot support it, let alone the gentry. The number of people must be in the hands of the prince, that is, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the hands of King Yan. These hundreds of thousands of people belong to King Yan. Not anyone else's. No one can break out the great combat effectiveness and mobilization capabilities if they are divided into layers.
This is why the Ming Dynasty only had more than 3 million troops with a population of 670 million, while Mongolia had hundreds of thousands and was able to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.
If the population under King Yan's command exceeds one million, King Yan will not hesitate to fight with Wala without fear.
Therefore, the population problem is also the first major plan that King Yan thinks about, and this problem of King Yan is more difficult to solve than He Xi's population gap.
That's why King Yan was so sensitive to this issue.
King Yan simply got to the point and said, "Brother He, I have seen Brother He's methods today. It's indescribable that he can turn stone into gold. It's like a city rises in the blink of an eye. It's a magical method."
He Xi's heart suddenly shivered. He had dealt with many politicians and understood some of the rules of these people. For example, like King Yan, suddenly praising someone without any reason was not a good sign. It was most likely that he had ulterior motives. .
He Xi hurriedly said: "What your Highness said--"
He Xi has not said her refusal yet. King Yan’s words have already come. King Yan said: "You are the husband-in-law of my sister Anqing and my younger brother. We are all our own people. It was you who gave me the plan to seal the country in Mobei. I don't hide some things from you. You just When I came back from Mobei, I was so disappointed with the situation in Mobei. Look," King Yan rolled up his sleeves, revealing a lot of red chilblains on his arms. Although they have improved a lot, they are still not completely healed.
It looked shocking.
King Yan said: "This Mobei is not a place for humans at all. It's hard for my brother."
He Xi looked at King Yan and knew that there were some things that he couldn't escape. Although King Yan didn't say it directly, he said every word, you have to help.
He Xi said: "Your Highness, just tell me what you have to say. I will definitely help you if I can."
King Yan was waiting for He Xi's words and said, "This is what you said." Then he took out an envelope from his body, handed it to He Xi, and said, "Brother, I really have no choice. What else can I ask for?" Brother, please help me.”
He Xi was mentally prepared, but the moment she opened the envelope, she was still startled by the wide mouth of King Yan's lion.
King Yan did not directly ask for silver, because in Mobei, silver was useless. The loot captured from Mobei this time included more than one million taels of gold and silver, which was a huge sum of money. But it's of no use.
The reason is simple, money is only useful if it is spent.
Under the strict defense of the Ming Dynasty, it was too difficult for the Tatar royal court to buy things with silver. Moreover, Emperor Tianyuan wanted to use this money as capital and did not dare to spend it randomly, so he kept so much.
King Yan also knew that even if the Liao-Song Canal was opened, any supplies from the Central Plains coming to Mobei would be two to three times the price of the Central Plains. It couldn't be any less. If you want money, a few million taels won't be enough. Might as well ask for supplies.
On the contrary, it seems that, but even so, in He Xi's view, it is unacceptable.
Salt, iron, and wood are all acceptable. But cotton, cloth, grain, etc., this is completely unacceptable. Cotton and grain are particularly unacceptable because they grow from the ground, and technological reforms have hardly changed them. Moreover, He Xi's move to transform textile machines has greatly increased the price of cotton. This is determined by the relationship between supply and demand. After all, as the efficiency of cotton spinning increases, more cotton is needed. As the amount of cotton on the cotton market decreases, the price of cotton increases. This is It is natural for the market to fluctuate, even today, cotton cultivation has been promoted in Liaodong. But it still cannot keep up with market demand.
He Xi feels that the price of cotton will not be low in the next few decades.
Without him, the Chinese people in this era actually had no freedom of dressing at all. A few decades later in history, Emperor Yongle, who was the one in front of him, took the good sage Sun Emperor Xuande to visit farmers on the edge of the canal. I saw that there were only a few clothes in the house, which were worn by whoever went out, and the female family members hid in the straw and did not dare to see anyone.
The reason for this is that the Jingnan War certainly affected local economic development. But it also shows that this situation was widespread in Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, for a long time, the clothing needs of the people of Ming Dynasty could not be met. The amount of cotton consumed by each person will definitely increase. Cotton cannot be saturated as easily as wood.
It is not without reason that cotton, food, clothing, housing and transportation became the first bulk commodity of capitalism.
And food is even more difficult to deal with.
It can be said that the areas affected by He Xi's jurisdiction are not considered the grain-producing areas of the Ming Dynasty. Even though the grain production in Liaodong is increasing day by day, it is just more self-sufficient, and it is still not enough to provide a large amount of grain to Mobei.
It will probably take a few more years.
King Yan also knew that this was not easy to handle. It's a bit difficult, but this is something that King Yan must do. Without him, the north is too cold, and Mobei is too cold. If you want to gain a foothold in Mobei, whether you can eat enough is not the key issue, but whether you can wear warm clothes is.
If you don't eat for a day, you won't starve to death; if you don't dress well for a day, you will freeze to death.
Even in the Northeast in later generations, there were still many drunk people who fell asleep in the wild, and after one night, they turned into ice cubes. In this day and age, even more so.
King Yan must solve this problem, which is related to King Yan's life and death in Mobei. King Yan originally thought that there was some solution for the Mobei herdsmen to live in Mobei all year round. Unexpectedly, the solution for the herdsmen in Mobei is to wear sheepskin coats. A simple sheepskin coat will not work, so they must be crowded together with the animals.
In winter, sheep huddle together to keep each other warm. Herdsmen huddle with these sheep to escape the brutal winter.
The only thing left is to rely on your own physique. If you can resist it, you will survive. If you can't, you will die. The Mobei area during the Han and Tang Dynasties had millions of people. There was a reason why there were only so many people in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
This is why when Han people talk about Mongolians, they smell like sheep, and it’s not just about the sheepskin coats they wear.
King Yan must solve this problem, otherwise, many people will freeze to death every year, and the Mongolians will take it for granted. However, King Yan couldn't bear it. This does not mean that King Yan has any benevolence. After all, population is strength. It is the power of King Yan.
He didn't want to lose too much. It's also part of his plan to win over people.
So other things can be said, but cotton and grain, one for clothing and one for food, are absolutely indispensable.
He Xi said: "Your Highness, it's not that I don't want to help you, it's really not that I don't. Even if I do, I don't have the authority to give you so much. Otherwise, you can have a good talk with His Majesty when you get to Nanjing."
"Okay." King Yan said, "It's a deal. As long as my father agrees, you will definitely handle it for me."
