Chapter 1087 Shangtun

Chapter 1087 Shangtun

Chapter 1087 Shangtun
On March 26, Yu Bin left Luoyang with more than ten guests and headed south to Jingzhou.

After leaving Pyeongchang Gate, vehicles began to gather one after another.

Yu Bin sent his guests to negotiate with them, but he himself did not show up. He just rode a yellow horse and walked and watched.

Years of war had been extremely costly. The emperor had planned to build a city wall outside the inner city of Luoyang, forming a three-layer wall system of outer city, inner city and palace city. However, it now seemed that progress was slow due to insufficient funds.

But these are all minor matters. When the world is unified in the future, there will be plenty of time to repair it.

While walking, Yu Bin was also observing the people brought by the merchants. There were really a lot of them!
The smaller merchants brought dozens of families, while the larger ones brought one or two hundred families. When asked, they all turned out to be their own slaves.

If you ask where this servant came from, they will look at you with clear eyes.

Putting aside other things, have you forgotten the three consecutive years of heavy floods?

Did we forget about the floods and the epidemics? An epidemic can also plunge a family into an abyss from which there is no recovery.

Is it difficult to collect slaves at this time? The children born by slaves are still slaves. As long as they can be supported, the number will increase. This is how local tyrants and wealthy businessmen came into being. Now that the land is measured everywhere, many people can no longer keep these slaves and land, and can only find other ways out.

From this perspective, those who come to ask for favors are not necessarily all businessmen. In fact, there are many small wealthy people as well.

They actually have a difficult life, and it’s a bit pathetic.

For generations, they had been servants and slaves, living with their masters and obeying their masters' orders, which had almost become instinct. Even the newcomers who were gathered in the year of the great disaster actually accepted this set of order and instinctively thought it was natural.

But maybe we can't blame them.

From the end of the Han Dynasty to the present, it is really not peaceful. Even when the Three Kingdoms were stable, there were still many thieves in the local area. The main function of the forts, earthen walls, and manors was not to defend the court, but to defend against thieves and bandits.

Many people laugh at the Taikang era of prosperity, but those ten years were truly the most stable, with the fewest bandits and the fastest development since the end of the Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, with the Wannian Rebellion in Guanzhong Qi, everything came to nothing and the world became chaotic again.

Can you blame them? No.

Working as a slave or farmhand for the manor owner, at least you can survive, and even get a wife and carry on the family line.

To truly break this vicious circle, only a man of great talent and strategy can emerge to unify the world and re-establish order.

Only when there is a truly stable order will people find that self-cultivating farmers are better than farmhands, otherwise it will be the other way around.

Thinking of this, Yu Bin also laughed at himself. He was really crazy. His family was also a noble family and was on the road to becoming a top wealthy family. Why was he thinking about these things? So he just watched the scenery with peace of mind.

On the 28th, their huge team stopped at Yiquekou.

They encountered another group of returning Hu soldiers, about three thousand people.

The Hu people seemed to have mixed feelings.

Those who did not bring horses to the battle received rewards, survived, and were very happy.

The man who took a horse to war and brought one back was also happy, but if the horse died, he was not so happy.

There are also those who have lost relatives or friends and remain silent, as if they are harboring unhappiness.

It's complicated, but that's war.

Some Hu people even targeted the servants of the local tyrants who were resting in tents on the roadside. However, these servants had weapons in their hands and were not the kind of people who would collapse at the first sign of trouble. They had already been on guard against them.

Yique was also the headquarters of the Right Cavalry Guard. They dispatched more than a thousand cavalrymen, each armed with a spear or a halberd, to keep a close eye on this group of barbarians to prevent them from causing trouble.

In the end, nothing serious happened.

The miscellaneous Hu people are ignorant, but their leader is sensible. How many heads do you have to chop off? How dare you cause trouble near Luoyang?
Yu Bin looked at the figure of the barbarian going away and sighed, "Where is this barbarian from? He might cause trouble when he returns."

"It should be a part of the Xiongnu from Beidi County." A guest replied.

"Excuse me, it turns out it's not a mixed Hu, but a pure Hu." Yu Bin said with a smile.

The guest also laughed and said, "There were originally quite a few Xiongnu in the north, but later a group of them were taken away by Jin Zhun and his brothers and went to the west. It's considered a lot if there are three to five thousand tents left. Jin Zheng has always ordered them around, and this time he is going to march south again, so I don't think there are many of them. If they start a rebellion, the outcome could be horrible. Jin Zheng is not a merciful person, and many Hu people have died at his hands over the years."

Yu Bin smiled but said nothing.

Jin Zheng was indeed cruel, but such a cruel person had been firmly seated on the throne of General Zhenxi and had his government in Chang'an for many years. Isn't it strange? That was because the emperor trusted him, very much.

There were originally 10,000 hereditary soldiers in Yongzhou, and in October last year, another 5,000 hereditary soldiers were allowed to be stationed in Qinzhou, totaling 15,000 infantry and cavalry. They were allocated land and mainly distributed near Chang'an and Tianshui.

There were some nobles and chieftains in Tianshui who were dissatisfied with the occupation of their land. Jin Zheng rushed over and killed them. Would it be useful if they reported it to the emperor? It was useless.

In the end, it was only because the governor Wen Qiao endured the toothache and ran around to mediate that the situation was barely suppressed.

Some people saw Jin Zheng’s “arrogance” in it, but Yu Bin only saw “the emperor’s favor”.

Besides, Jin Zheng is really good at fighting. Since the second half of last year, he has mobilized troops to attack Yang Nandi and defeated him again.

Nandi asked for surrender, but Jin Zheng and Yao Yi Zhong refused. The two of them tried their best to deal with him. They were really disgusted by this guy.

This month, when they heard that Jin and Yao had gathered more than 30,000 troops to attack Yang Nandi, all the chieftains of Qiuchi Qiang complained and wanted to kill Yang Nandi and surrender. Nandi was cornered and was about to be destroyed.

If this thief is eliminated, the favor of the King Jong-un will be even greater. ******
After resting for a night in Yique, this team of up to 6,000 people drove large and small carts south again, passing through Liangxian, Xiangcheng, and Nanyang, and arrived in Xiangyang in early April.

At that time, Shao Xun was about to lead his troops to leave and return to the capital. After hearing that Yu Bin had arrived, he met him in Caizhou.

"Daoxie, if you hadn't gotten married so early, I would have wanted you to marry the princess." Under the warm spring sun, Shao Xun joked, "The strategy you proposed is very much in line with my wishes. This matter is approved. The 6,000 new people can go to the commercial settlements in Huarong and Jingling counties. You can take as much grain as you can sell, and the court can buy it with cloth. How about that?"

"They probably want it more than they can chew." Yu Bin replied.

The practice of military reclamation has existed since ancient times.

Immigrants who settled on the border were called "mintun", soldiers who cultivated the land were called "juntun", but this was the first time Yu Bin heard the term "shangtun", and he felt it was very fresh and appropriate.

Shao Xun looked at the group of people who were making a fire and cooking on the other side of Caizhou Island and asked, "Is the food you brought enough to eat?"

"It won't last until the autumn harvest. Besides, it's a little late. We still have to clean up the fields and reclaim weeds. We can only grow some grains this year, and most of the time we have to buy food," said Yu Bin.

"This is not easy to buy." Shao Xun shook his head and said, "Well, I will give some benefits to the first batch of merchants and civilians. Tong Qianjin!"

"I am here." Tong Qianjin responded loudly.

"How much food does Caizhou have?"

"There are still more than 39,000 hu."

"Load it onto a ship and transport it to Yangkou, and give it to the people of Shangtun."

"Yes, sir." Tong Qianjin immediately went forward to pass on the order.

Shao Xun looked at Yu Bin and said, "Dao Xie, you must explain it clearly to them. I can send you these 39,000 bushels of millet and wheat, but there is one thing. If the bandits reach Yangkou or Huarong, you can take refuge in the city fortress, but you cannot run away. If you can hold out until the reinforcements arrive, I will give you another reward."

Yu Bin nodded solemnly.

It's not easy to get this food. But since you are here to set up a merchant settlement, you should have anticipated this risk, right?

"The book 'Fengtu Diseases' is very important. You can ask the garrison chiefs to come and copy a copy." Shao Xun added: "If we follow the instructions in the book, there may not be no deaths, but there will definitely be fewer deaths."

"I obey your command." Yu Bin replied.

Shao Xun walked back and forth with his hands behind his back. He seemed very happy and pleased to see the flourishing development of Shangtun.

He had previously planned to trick a group of businessmen into building a manor, but now it seems that a commercial settlement is a better option.

Business is business, and you are responsible for your own profits and losses. This is much better than forcing others to develop wasteland.

Of course, judging from the group of people Yu Bin brought with him, the local tycoons probably didn’t want to make any money from the grain trade, right?
In such a place, it would be good if one could support oneself in three years. In other words, it would take three years before there would be surplus food to sell and one could start making money, and this did not include the loss of life in the process - there would definitely be people who died in the process of land reclamation, it was just a matter of how many people died.

These merchant settlement owners must persist in Jiangxia and Nanjun for at least seven or eight years before they can make a profit.

This transaction is quite risky. Without supporting measures such as granting land in return and assessing family background, I am afraid no one would be willing to come.

In addition, the larger context of northern farming cannot be ignored.

Precisely because they needed to measure the land, these local tyrants with no background could not keep the land and population they had obtained during the chaos, so they thought of taking a gamble.

Without the strong pressure from the north, these adventurous people would not move south. Everything is complementary.

Shao Xun hopes that more people will join the business cause.

He was willing to pay a price, not only for grain at three times the market price, but also for land, official positions, and the possibility of the village owner's family becoming an official in the future.

These are not "money", but in the eyes of the village owner, these are probably the real "money".

"You can manage Caizhouyuan." Shao Xun pointed to Caizhou Island and said, "The Cai family mansion should be cleaned regularly. You can choose some of the houses to be converted into government offices, granaries, and arsenals."

"Yes."

"Don't drink raw water. Fill up dead ponds as much as possible." Shao Xun patted Yu Bin on the shoulder and said, "I have lived on the island for a while. The wind on the river is strong. It may not be so hot and humid in summer. You - take good care of yourself. If anything happens, how can I explain to your aunt?"

Yu Bin's heart warmed when he heard this. This was the feeling of being treated as one of his own, and he enjoyed it very much.

He will manage Caizhouyuan well, and he will also take the initiative to pay attention to the Shangtun. He will also find ways to mobilize the power of the Yu family to provide certain conveniences and assistance to the village owners.

My uncle's great cause cannot go wrong.

Shao Xun didn't notice what the young man was thinking. He only saw Tong Qianjin walking quickly towards him and reporting in a low voice: "Your Majesty, there's a fight in Badong."

He nodded, indicating that he understood.

Li Cheng's appetite is quite big and the timing he chose is also very appropriate. Li Xiong is quite capable.

"Send a message to Weixing County, select capable soldiers and wait for an opportunity to attack Cheng State." Shao Xun gave the order.

(End of this chapter)