"Oops, hurry up, lift the anchor quickly!" An Taishun paused and said: "What, there are still people in the water? Don't worry about it, lift the anchor quickly, lift the anchor quickly!"
"Don't worry!" Cao Sengnu grabbed An Taishun's arm: "Their boat is fast. Our boat is loaded with so many copper ingots that we can't escape. Even if we escape, the people in the water will be caught by the government. They will definitely turn you in, what will you do then?"
"Then, what should we do?" An Taishun was anxious when he heard this. He had a large business and rich family assets. He was also famous in Yangzhou City, but he was a Sogdian Hu businessman. He was not a famous local family and was not well-known in the local area. Without much power, he was just a piece of fat in the eyes of the government. If you are involved, you will lose a lot of money even if you don't destroy your family.
"Brother An, don't be anxious. Just follow my arrangements. I'll keep you safe!" Cao Sengnu patted An Taishun's shoulder twice and patted his palm twice. A short, sturdy man stepped forward and bowed. : "What are your orders, Mr. Lang?"
"You ask the entourage to get ready. If I open and close the folding fan later and clap my palms twice, you will do the same thing as usual. Do you understand?"
"I understand!" The man responded and retreated. An Taishun heard something was wrong and asked, "Brother Cao, what do you mean by doing things as usual?"
"Haha!" Cao Sengnu laughed twice: "Brother An, don't you want to know who is behind me? You will know later!"
"No wonder Brother Cao is so sure!" An Taishun breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, then I will let Brother Cao arrange everything!"
"Stop the boat, stop the boat! We are an official patrol boat!"
Liu Ze stood at the bow of the ship. Under his feet, the bow cut through the gray water, the oars slapped the water, and the flag fluttered in the wind. The round-headed merchant ship not far ahead was busy putting away the anchor. There was chaos on the deck. These little thieves, Liu Ze thought scornfully, have come to salvage the goods that fell into the water, but they have not prepared for the worst! Thinking of this, he couldn't help but reach out and touch the handle of the knife at his waist.
"Give me the bow and arrows!" Liu Ze took the horn bow from his subordinates, filled it with force, pointed it at the mast of the merchant ship in panic, and shot an arrow. The arrow missed the mast, but missed slightly and fell. On the deck at the stern of the ship, there was a sudden cry of exclamation.
"Tell them to put down their hands and stop shouting. I can spare their lives!"
Liu Ze's threats had an effect, and the deck of the merchant ship opposite calmed down. He waved his hand with satisfaction and asked his ship to come closer. He put down the gangplank and was the first to walk over. He said loudly: "Tell me, who fell into the river." How much copper did you fish out?"
An Taishun glanced at Cao Sengnu carefully, noticed that the other party nodded slightly, and then stepped forward and said: "Is it Captain Liu? Can you take a step to speak? It's all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"
"What misunderstanding? Blue-eyed dog, don't try to fool me!" Liu Ze scolded angrily: "I have already tortured you clearly, you are the one behind all this! Tell me, where did these coppers come from? There are other things. , don’t worry about the pain if you don’t say it now and go to the government when the time comes!”
An Taishun was speechless by Liu Ze's aggressive scolding. He opened his mouth wide and subconsciously turned to Cao Sengnu with a pleading look. Liu Ze also noticed this and said with a smile: "You are the one who can make the decision if you dare. Do you have anything to say?"
"Alas!" Cao Sennu sighed, unfolded the folding fan in his hand, shook it twice, and sighed: "Actually, it obviously doesn't have to be like this, so why are you doing this?" After that, he put away the folding fan, He patted his palms twice.
"Why bother? You guy-" Liu Ze laughed when he heard this, and when he was about to step forward, there was a soft sound, and an arrow suddenly hit his throat, choking his laughter in his throat.
"Evil thief!"
"How dare you!"
The soldiers who boarded the boat with Liu Ze were stunned at first, and then became furious. They drew their swords and stepped forward. What greeted them was the man in white, with cold iron in his hand, and his eyes were silent. As soon as the two sides exchanged blows, the patrol soldiers fell to the ground. , they were horrified to find that these mysterious enemies were actually covered in iron armor, including scale armor, bright light armor, and two levels of armor, but at least each of them had an iron armor.
"Who are you, who dare to hide armor privately?" If it was surprise just now, it is fear now. There were few guard posts in the south of the Tang Dynasty, and their armaments were lax. For the sake of convenience and comfort, these patrolling soldiers only wore leather armor at most. Most of them simply wore common clothes. They were the opponents of the opponent's strong armor and powerful soldiers. Some people knelt down and begged for mercy, some wanted to escape back to the mother ship, and some simply jumped into the river because there was only one springboard and they couldn't get a way out. And this group of mysterious armored warriors stepped on the springboard and killed them. They would not spare those who jumped into the river to escape. They would shoot them when they came out of the water to breathe. They would not spare those who knelt down to beg for mercy. They would not spare those who had only half a meal. In a short time, all the people on the patrol boat were killed, leaving no grass behind!
"How could this happen? How could this happen?" An Taishun, who was standing aside, could no longer speak in full and could only keep mumbling. He has been in business for so many years, what kind of storm has he never seen? Naturally, they are not good men and women. It is not uncommon to maintain private soldiers for self-defense, attack competitors, and even kill people and set fires. But preparing your own armor like this and openly attacking a government patrol boat on the river are completely different things - just by hiding the armor privately, as long as word spreads, it will not be enough to lose a few heads!
"Mr. Lang!" The short and sturdy man just now came back with a head in his hands. He raised his hand to Cao Sengnu: "Just now, I was ordered to kill the leader of the thieves and the rest of the people on the ship, a total of forty-seven people. This It’s the head of Liu Ze, the leader of the thieves. I’d like to ask Mr. Lang to check. There are also four men tied up in the bilge of the ship. I’ve already asked someone to bring them up!”
"leader!"
"Boss He!"
As soon as the four people came out, Gou'er, Mao'er and An Tai exclaimed in unison. It turned out that the one in front of the four was Boss He.
"Mr. An, dogs and cats, why are they you?" Boss He couldn't help being shocked when he saw the blood and corpses dripping on the deck. His body suddenly trembled and he was speechless.
"Now is not the time to talk about our farewell!" Cao Sengnu said: "Just clean up the boat quickly and leave as soon as possible!"
After what happened just now, Cao Sengnu unknowingly had all the right to speak. Everyone docilely returned to their own boats. After a while, the short and sturdy man came back with his men, and everyone saw the government patrol boat slowly sinking into the river. On the way back, everyone subconsciously remained silent, fear gnawing at everyone's hearts.
In the next few days, An Taishun was always frightened. He shuddered when he thought about the dozens of people on the government patrol boat who were chopped into vegetables and melons on the river that day at the command of Cao Sengnu. Those rumors may not be false, this Cao Sheer is no longer the young man he was before.
"Brother An! Brother An!"
"Oh, oh!" An Taishun came back to his senses, and then noticed that Cao Sengnu was sitting opposite, with an impatient look on his face, and sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead: "Brother Cao, please forgive me, I was distracted below. , where are you talking about?"
"It's about purchasing the necessary supplies in Yangzhou! Especially silk and satin, and also introducing a few Acibo, Shendu (the ancient Chinese name for India), and Annan merchants."
"Yes, yes!" An Taishun nodded repeatedly: "A Cibo, Shendu, and Annan merchants, right? I have heard of merchants from these countries in Yangzhou, but they usually go with the ship, and there are few in Yangzhou. I’m afraid you may not be able to find those who have settled down!”
"This is what the higher-ups have ordered, just do it!"
"Yes, yes!" An Taishun didn't dare to ask any more questions. He responded a few times and hurriedly left. Looking at the background of An Taishun's departure, Cao Sengnu breathed a sigh of relief. His trip was not just to open up shipping routes. In addition, he also had a secret mission, which was to find rice and cotton plants.
Generally speaking, the northern border line of the ancient Central Plains dynasty coincides with the 400 mm rainfall line. The reason is simple. Unless it is oasis agriculture relying on melted water from snow mountains, 400 millimeters of rainfall per year was the life and death line for ancient agricultural production. Ancient Chinese civilization was based on agricultural production. Without normal agricultural production as the economic foundation, the country, civilization and other superstructures would naturally be gone without the skin.
But the ancient Northeast region was an exception. It had fertile land, abundant rain and snow, and rich minerals. It has become an important grain-producing area in my country in modern times. But in most of the ancient times, the Central Plains dynasty could only control a very small part of the Northeast, and sometimes even a small part could not be controlled. Why is this? A very important reason is that cotton became my country's main fiber crop very late.
Generally speaking, the sources of clothing materials for the ancient Chinese people can be divided into two stages - before the Yuan Dynasty and after the Yuan Dynasty. Before the Yuan Dynasty, the clothing materials of the ancient Chinese people were generally divided into two categories: silk and magnolia. The rich wore silk. , poor people wear linen and kebab. Although cotton cultivation has a long history in China, large-scale planting and use did not occur until the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Especially in the Yuan Dynasty, cotton textile technology spread from the south to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and quickly became a staple of most people in society. Clothing material of choice.
Cotton's victory is not accidental. Compared with silk, linen, kabu, and even wool, cotton's advantages are obvious: cotton has a much higher output per unit area than silk and consumes less labor; it is warmer and easier to process than linen and kabu. ; Compared with wool, cotton requires much less land and does not need to occupy large areas of land. The rapid popularization of cotton and the improvement of cotton textile technology have rapidly reduced the cost of keeping warm for the middle and lower class people in ancient China. As a result, the cost of developing Northeast China, which has a cold climate but fertile land and sufficient rainfall, has also been rapidly reduced. Therefore, the Ming and Qing Dynasties It is not accidental that the population and cultivated land area in Northeast China increased rapidly during the 19th century.
For Wang Wenzuo, the next step is to develop the Northeast region, which is inseparable from sufficient warm clothing. Unlike modern society where living materials are extremely cheap, ancient textiles were a very expensive material. The emperors of the Tang and Song Dynasties gave special summer gifts and winter gifts to soldiers. The original meaning was to give the soldiers clothing and fabrics for winter and summer. Even in the Ming and Qing Dynasties when the cotton textile industry was greatly popularized and clothing materials became much cheaper, a cotton jacket, A quilt is also a treasure for ordinary families. In many literary works, there are plots of poor families sending quilts and cotton-padded jackets to pawn shops to exchange for money to tide over difficulties. Even in the first thirty years after the founding of the Republic, urban families Housewives have to work hard to dress everyone in the family neatly and warmly with limited fabrics and cotton.
If we can obtain cotton seedlings from India in advance, promote their planting on a large scale in Jiangnan and Japan, and then plant soybeans on a large scale in the Northeast, and use soybean cakes and soybean oil to trade with them, this will not only be beneficial to both parties, but also deepen the The economic ties between the Northeast region and the hinterland are of great benefit to the formation of a unified multi-ethnic country.
The second is the cultivation of rice. The difference from modern times is that the most highly developed area in the Northeast at that time was the southern Liaoning area with more hills and mountains, rather than the flat areas such as the Liaohe Plain and the Sanjiang Plain today. The reason is that in the Tang Dynasty, these plain areas were still undeveloped and were still large swamps and wetlands. On the contrary, relatively large-scale agricultural settlements have formed in the hills and valleys of southern Liaoning, and there is not much room for development.
If you want to take action in the southern Liaoning region, you will conflict with the aboriginal people. And from the perspective of agricultural development potential, the hilly valleys cannot be compared with the Liaodong region with fertile land, abundant rainfall, and flat terrain. Therefore, Wang Wenzuo’s main agricultural development focus in the future is to focus on the Liaohe Plain area, which has historically been a famous rice planting area. Both the soil quality and water flow are very suitable for growing rice. Considering that the unit yield of rice is much higher than that of wheat, Traditional crops such as sorghum are much higher. If cattle plowing, iron plowing, water conservancy, and paddy fields are used in a multi-pronged manner, we will be able to achieve harvests that far exceed those in history.
Of course, the cultivation, improvement, promotion, and planting of improved varieties of cotton or rice are not accomplished in a day, but once successful, the achievements will be made in the present generation and will benefit the future. Without the continuous improvement of agricultural products, his plan to develop the Far East and even cross the Bering Strait to the Americas was empty talk. After all, Hokkaido's seal skins, whale oil, dried salmon, Sado's gold mountains, and Iwami's silver mountains cost little but gain much, but they are things that can be eaten up by two or three generations. Only these can last.
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Cui Zhai, Qingzhou.
"So, Wang Changshi asked Twelve Lang to propose marriage to my family?" Cui Bian asked, stroking his beard under his chin.
"Yes, my nephew came here just for this matter!" Cui Hongdu carefully looked at Cui Bian's face. Cui Bian is the long branch of Qingzhou Fang of Cui family in Qinghe, and Cui Hongdu is the branch of Wushui family of Cui family in Qinghe. , in terms of seniority, he is still Cui Bian's peer, but when he was ordered to propose marriage this time, he only dared to regard himself as a junior.
(End of chapter)
