Steel Dynasty - Chapter 410

[Chapter 410 The timing of brewing wine]

There was silence in the Governor’s Mansion.

Yue Yun’s question made everyone turn their attention to Xiao Ming. After the Northern Expedition, will Qingzhou be involved in a new war? And what is the purpose of this war?

“Yes, the navy wants to fight for sea power!”

Xiao Ming’s words were resounding. He understood that many generals now have no concept of maritime rights and interests, and this is the fundamental reason why China is lagging behind in the navy in modern times.

After all, land power dominated the development of civilization at that time, and foreign enemies also came from the north. It would take at least hundreds of years for Western artillery and giant ships to blast open the country before anyone woke up, but by then it was too late.

“Hai Quan?” Pang Yukun, Niu Ben and others looked confused when they heard this. Niu Ben said: “Your Highness, the enemies of Dayu State were the barbarians. We should continue the Northern Expedition until the barbarians surrender.”

“Niu Ben “

What the general said makes sense, I hope His Highness will think twice,” Pang Yukun agreed.

When Xiao Ming was preparing this plan, he had already anticipated that it might attract opposition from everyone, but he was still prepared to implement the plan because without ocean trade, Qingzhou would not be able to accumulate wealth quickly.

“The war is about money. Without food and bullets for guns and cannons, what can we do to continue the Northern Expedition? Don’t forget that the soldiers and horses lost in the last failure of the barbarians were nothing more than fur. Now going deep into the territory of the barbarians is tantamount to Fighting with an egg against a stone, and we have lost troops and generals in two battles with the barbarians in the past two years, which has seriously affected the development of Qingzhou, but this battle for sea power is to open up the southward trade route to facilitate the development of Qingzhou,” Xiao Ming said loudly. .

At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty attacked the Huns from the north and finally won, but the treasury was exhausted.

Similarly, even if the Chongqing State uses all the wealth of the country to fight the barbarians, both sides will lose in the end, let alone with his current wealth.

After defeating the barbarians again, the army was a little impetuous, and he was taking this opportunity to cool down the impetuous atmosphere.

When Qian Pang Yukun and Niu Ben were mentioned, they began to stop talking. They naturally knew that the Qingzhou Army was now built with money, and they could not do anything without money.

Zhan Xingchang thought for a while and agreed with Xiao Ming’s idea, “I think His Highness’s words are correct. Now the Emperor has no determination for the Northern Expedition, and the other vassal princes will not cooperate with the Northern Expedition. It is unwise for us to go deep into the grassland alone. At this stage, we should focus on defense against the barbarians. It will not be too late to start the northern expedition after accumulating enough sophisticated troops and money.”

Everyone nodded after hearing this, and Pang Yukun and Niu Ben also came to their senses at this time. It turned out that everything was going to be done now. Make way for development.

Yue Yun was a little dissatisfied with Zhan Xingchang and Niu Ben’s opposition. He said: “Your current vision is too narrow. Do you really think that Great Chongqing is still the center of the world? It is extremely ridiculous. Now there are things running rampant around the ocean of Great Chongqing. Foreign warships, you only care about the land on land, but we have lost our vast ocean territory, and without ocean trade, how will potatoes come, how will peppers come, and how will corn come? “

The Governor’s Mansion became increasingly quiet, and Yue Yun’s words made him angry. Everyone began to reflect. In the past, they had only seen the barbarians in the north, but now they all knew that there were many countries in the world.

Seeing everyone’s thoughtful expressions, Xiao Ming nodded secretly. He wanted to make these people change their old ideas. After all, the future belonged to a maritime power. And when he had a lot of capital and upgraded his weapons, the barbarians in the north would only Can wait to be beaten.

Setting the tone of strengthening the navy and developing it, Xiao Ming asked Bowen Academy if there had been any changes during this period.

According to Lin Wentao, Bowen College has now recruited a group of students to expand the number of students in each department, and he and Lu Tong have also formulated a set of techniques to break through one by one.

“Your Highness, let’s list all these technologies, and then we are going to conduct experimental research according to this list.” Lin Wentao handed a piece of paper to Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming glanced at the list handed over by Lin Wentao and was very pleased. This list listed the research order of future scientific items. Both of them had prepared well. These items were all from simple to difficult, and they all belonged to basic industries. thing.

“Very good. Let’s make full use of the laboratory and conduct research boldly. The government will guarantee the supply of your research expenses. If someone performs well, you can even apply for personal research expenses from the government separately.”

Lin Wentao and Lu Tong both said With smiles on their faces, they wrote down Xiao Ming’s words and prepared to go back and announce the good news to the students.

After the incident at the college, Xiao Ming began to ask about Qingzhou’s government affairs.

Pang Yukun said: “Now the official has selected some officials to go to Youzhou. Now the government office of Youzhou has been established. The pastures assigned to Cao Zhengyang, Ding Wu and Dai Zixing by His Highness last time were also handed over to three people. Now the three People are buying foals to prepare for herding, and the Chamber of Commerce has also sent troops to the pasture to operate with them.”

After a pause, Pang Yukun took out an account book and said, “In addition, although the output of grain harvested by the private sector has decreased in the two seasons this year, the amount of food harvested by ordinary people has been reduced. There is still a lot of surplus grain, so the state governments purchased a total of 2 million shi of wheat in the past two seasons. However, due to the abundance of grain, the price of grain is now low in Qingzhou

. The food that was left uneaten was sold out, Xiao Ming said.

Pang Yukun sighed and said: “However, your highness, the low price of grain hurts farmers. There are pros and cons to this matter. Although many people want to sell grain to the government, the current number of granaries cannot keep up. This year, each state has prepared 200 grain granaries.” Wanshi’s food supply has reached its limit.”

Xiao Ming chuckled, “Don’t worry, this is indeed a good thing for me. In the past, I didn’t have enough food to eat and I didn’t dare to brew wine. This time, since there is so much food left, Take the opportunity to purchase wine, and then sell the wine to China, Korea, Japan, and even Nanyang.

“This is a wonderful idea.” Pang Yukun laughed.

Yue Yun rolled his eyes at this time and said, “It’s just that pirates are running rampant on the sea. This business is not easy.”

“Then we have to rely on you navy to clear up these troubles on the sea.” As soon as Pang Yukun finished speaking, he suddenly felt that he had been cheated. , Yue Yun was tricked emotionally, and he was dissatisfied with his opposition to the navy’s foreign expeditions just now.

Seeing Pang Yukun’s deflated expression, Yue Yun burst into laughter.

Xiao Ming smiled helplessly and continued: “And the barbarians love drinking. When I was in Chang’an, I heard that Shanxi merchants purchased the wine from the Chamber of Commerce and sold it to the barbarians at a high price. This advantage cannot be taken advantage of by Shanxi merchants. Taking advantage of this opportunity, We can exchange wine for furs, and maybe we can sew leather boots for every Qingzhou Army soldier.”

(End of Chapter)