As a group of thieves, Ding Jin has no definite number of soldiers and horses under his command. This time he came to Luoyang, Xijing. According to him, he brought three thousand soldiers with him. In fact, according to the observations of Jie Linong and others, there are only more than a thousand people at most, and definitely less than two thousand.
Most of the thieves gathered by Zongze in Kaifeng Mansion, Tokyo, had this characteristic. The number of soldiers and horses under his command is wide open, but there is no definite number. With only two or three thousand men in hand, we dare say that there are tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of troops. Anyway, the imperial court did not pay them any food and salary, so they were allowed to talk nonsense. Just like Ding Jin, he also boasted that he had hundreds of thousands of troops and inspected the capital of Kaifeng. How could there actually be so many? Thousands of people would be amazing.
This incident made Wang Xiaolie feel confused and a little at a loss.
Based on the knowledge of his previous life, Zongze guarded Kaifeng Mansion and worked hard. He had millions of rebels under his command and their morale was as high as a rainbow. If Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou were not afraid of death and did not dare to return to Kaifeng, the war against the Jin army would never have been as passive as in history. When I came to this era, I should go to Kaifeng Mansion to help Zongze defend Kaifeng. As long as millions of rebels have been reorganized, the Jin Army has nothing to worry about!
But reality told Wang Xiaolie that this was not the case.
One million rebels, that was the number reported by the group of thieves who gathered together according to Zong Ze. There are really so many people. Where can Kaifeng Mansion get the food and grass to feed them? I'm afraid no one can tell how many people there really are. Even the rebel leader himself didn't know. How many soldiers are these people equivalent to? It's also unclear. But according to Wang Xiaolie's estimate, even if they were all reorganized, it would be great to have 30,000 to 50,000 combat-ready soldiers.
The Jin army invaded the south in three directions, attacking Jingdong Road in the east, Shaanxi Road in the west, and Jingxi Road in the middle, obviously leaving Kaifeng Prefecture in the middle empty. What Zongze faced was not the main force of the Jin Army. Zhengzhou and Huazhou, which have been fighting back and forth, are just partial divisions of the Jin army. How many people are there in the partial division? According to the Jin army's habit of invading, more than 5,000 people are worthy of being the main force. The Jin army faced by Kaifeng Mansion was probably only two to three thousand strong. These two or three thousand people fought fiercely with Zongze, and Zhengzhou and Huazhou both won and lost.
The millions of rebels in the capital are just talk and cannot be taken seriously.
According to historical memory, we should go to Kaifeng Mansion. But in fact, guarding Kaifeng Mansion is of little use. At least it would be of little use to someone like Wang Xiaolie. What is useful is that Zhao Gou goes to guard Kaifeng Mansion. He really made up his mind to fight the Jin army to the death with the power of one country. If others go, Kaifeng Mansion will definitely not be able to hold it, and it doesn't make much sense.
In fact, the Jin army's southern invasion at this time had no intention of occupying land. The Jin army went south mainly to rob property and people. Of course, there is another purpose, which is to capture the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, the Jin army did not know where Zhao Gou was at this time and did not deploy accordingly.
Kaifeng Mansion has been robbed, the city is in ruins, and there is no profit in the eyes of the Jin army. The three routes of invasion from the south just avoided Kaifeng Mansion. To be precise, it was not that Zongze defended Kaifeng effectively this time, but that the Jin Army did not set that as its goal at all.
The gap between historical knowledge and reality made Wang Xiaolie a little overwhelmed.
Going down the hillside, there is a small village. Ding Jin's troops camped around the village, looking a bit disorganized.
Wang Xiaolie entered the village, but no guards came to ask, and they were allowed to walk towards the village. When they arrived at the village, Wang Xiaolie felt something was wrong and said to Shao Ling: "We have never been here before, and we don't know where Ding Duxun lives. Find a soldier and ask, don't find the wrong place."
Shao Ling promised. Seeing a few soldiers basking in the sun under a tree by the roadside, he stepped forward to sing a promise and asked them where to stay. Several people looked up at Wang Xiaolie and Cao Zhiyan, then raised their fingers to point to the courtyard in the middle of the village.
The three of them followed the dirt road in the village and arrived at the courtyard in the middle of the village. I saw a guard guarding the door. Wang Xiaolie stepped forward to sing the promise. He said: "Wang Xiaolie, the leader of the rebel army on the lower mountain, came to see Ding Duxun. Duxun has given orders, please inform me."
A guard entered the courtyard. After a while, he came out and crossed his hands and said, "You are all here to discuss matters with the generals. You go in."
The three of them entered the courtyard. In the middle of the main room, there were several men sitting inside, making a lot of noise. After entering, Wang Xiaolie crossed his hands and said, "Wang Xiaolie, the leader of the rebel army on the lower mountain, has been patrolling to give orders to come to meet and discuss matters."
The man in the middle has a thick build and a dark complexion. After hearing this, he looked up at Wang Xiaolie and said loudly: "Xiao Sheren has been sleeping for many days and has not been able to see each other. When I woke up today, I didn't expect to be such a good man!"
Wang Xiaolie's figure has grown, but he is so slender that you can't tell when he is lying down. When he stood up, he could see that he was not thin. These days, Ding Jin and others have not thought highly of Wang Xiaolie, so when they met today, they all praised him as a good man.
Taking their seats at the end, Cao Zhiyan and Shao Ling stood behind them. Ding Jin introduced the leaders present. In addition to Yu Huan, there were also Ma Xi, Peng Tan and Shi Jian, most of whom were Ding Jin's companions when he raised his army.
Instructing the soldiers to pour wine for Wang Xiaoxue, Ding Jin said: "It's good luck today. We found a cow and killed it for a meal. There has been no mutton in our mouths for many days, and a bird has appeared! Xiaosheren came just in time. .”
Wang Xiaolie hurriedly thanked him.
The most common meat at this time is mutton, followed by pork, chicken, etc. Unlike later generations, general game meat is not very popular because of its low meat and bland taste. In addition, things are rare and valuable, and game is not difficult to hunt at this time, so of course it is not taken seriously. Unless it is something that is particularly rare and tastes good, it is valuable.
Of course, there is also beef. But most of them are sold in rural stores to poor families with no money. People with a little status will not eat it.
In Wang Xiaolie's memory, there were many stories about people in the Song Dynasty who loved to eat mutton. Only when he came to this era did he realize that this was not the case. For example, people in the Song Dynasty valued mutton but despised pork, and regarded pork as debased meat. Later generations found many reasons, such as poor breeding of pigs and the smell of meat. Or pigs are raised in pens and are unclean compared to sheep, so people of high status do not eat them. In fact, it is just a statement based on the situation of later generations. This era does not exist. Of course, pigs are gelding, and their meat is not cheap compared to mutton, and it varies from place to place. In some places, mutton is more expensive than pork, in other places the prices are about the same, and there are even places where pork is more expensive than mutton. Just like today's Kaifeng Mansion, after the plunder by the Jin soldiers, prices have skyrocketed. Mutton costs 8,000 yuan per catty, and pork costs 6,000 yuan. There is not much difference. At this time, logistics is inconvenient, and the price difference between mutton and pork depends on the supply and demand situation in various places.
Not just pork and mutton, the legend of beef is even more outrageous. China, an agricultural society, banned the slaughter of farm cattle. Later generations misunderstood that the ancients did not eat beef, and many explanations were given. Just like in the novel "Water Margin", when the heroes come to the store, they often ask for several kilograms of beef. Some clever literati took advantage of this and said that the government was not allowed to eat beef. This was written in the book to illustrate the rebellious spirit of the heroes. When he heard it in his previous life, Wang Xiaolie thought this statement was very reasonable, as he was a well-educated person. Only at this time did I realize that it was completely fabricated.
China only bans the slaughter of farm cattle, but does not ban the eating of beef. If the cow is not slaughtered, won’t it die? It’s just beef that’s eaten from sick and dead cows, and it just doesn’t taste good. At this time, the price of general beef was limited by the government, which was twenty cents per pound. Mutton and pork usually cost 100 yuan per pound, or even more, and beef is much cheaper. The heroes sat down in the hotel and asked for pounds of beef, just because they were poor. Beef is the cheapest meat in this era. It tastes bad no matter how you cook it, so rich people don’t eat it.
The government's price limit of twenty cents per pound was targeted at sick and dead cattle. In other words, the slaughtered cattle must also be sold at this price, and it is an official sale, in line with the policy of banning the slaughter of farm cattle. That's why some people secretly slaughter farm cattle and earn a hundred cents per catty, making a lot of profit.
There are so many stories. The main reason should be that in the Song Dynasty and before, there were not many records on commodity prices and the information was incomplete. And due to inconvenient transportation, prices vary greatly from place to place. In addition, some literati like to make up stories to show how knowledgeable they are.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, detailed statistical yearbooks were available, and the prices of pork, beef, and mutton could be clearly seen. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the slaughter of farm cattle was prohibited. The cheapest meat was beef, followed by mutton, and the most expensive was pork. With the development of agriculture and the acceleration of industrialization, the price of pork, which is relatively more suitable for industrial breeding, has dropped. Later, there were vegetable cattle that specialized in meat. The price of beef increased and was basically the same as that of mutton. By about 1978, due to the development of agriculture and the breeding of new pig varieties, the price of beef and mutton gradually exceeded the price of pork.
In later generations, the price of pork was much lower than that of beef and mutton. In an industrial society, pork was more suitable for industrialized breeding. In fact, beef and mutton are still cheap in many places in other countries. In the society before the founding of New China, pork was not much cheaper than beef and mutton. It’s just that the regions vary greatly and the situation in each place is different. Since the slaughter of farm cattle is prohibited and there are no vegetable cattle specialized for meat, beef must be the cheapest.
As Ding Jin, the price of freshly slaughtered beef today is the same as that of mutton. At this time when the Jingxi Road was almost completely white after being plundered by the Jin soldiers, it was indeed a blessing for Wang Xiaolie to have a hearty meal of beef.
After taking a sip of wine with everyone else, I felt that the wine tasted bland. Wang Xiaolie slowly sipped the wine and looked at the others to assess the situation.
Putting down the wine bowl, Ding Jin said loudly: "A few days ago, Taiwei Zhai attacked the Jin camp, leaked the news, and lost the battle. He sent a message that he will lead us to fight the Jin army again in the next two days, and let us move quickly. But there is not enough food and grass. , I can’t do it, I just arrived in Yong’an County today. I don’t know how the war in Luoyang City is going.”
Peng Tanweng said: "I heard that the Jin army took the treasures and the population and went north, leaving Wu Shi to cut off the queen. The Jin soldiers are fierce, how can they be easy to fight? Why not wait a few more days, maybe Wu Shi will lead his troops to the north. . At that time, our army will march into Luoyang, wouldn’t it be happy!”
