On the official road, a large number of cavalry escorted several carriages northward, and on one of the carriages, Yuwen Wen was talking to his brother Yu Wenming, and what he said was not suitable for talking about in public. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Although the steel filling method is good, it is just that how to smelt steel from Daye Iron Mine still has to be explored, and it will take some time for the output of Su Iron Knife to go up."

"It's okay, the iron armor and knives are already good, and when you go to the battlefield, no matter how good the knife is, there will be a lot of cuts."

"Brother, will the imperial court use soldiers this year?"

"I don't know, my father said that the court is still considering." Yu Wenming said this, glanced at Yu Wenwen and said with a smile: "Even if you fight, it won't be Erlang's turn to fight, right?" ”

"Sui Guo can't take his turn, but Chen Guo may not."

"The imperial court must deal with the Sui State first, take Luoyang and drive the Sui army to the west of Tongguan, it is best to take the Bingzhou and other places west of Taihang Mountain, lest the Sui army come out of the Taihang Eight Mountains one day."

"Leave the south side alone? It's not good to take Huainan Chen Jun so seriously, right? ”

Yu Wenwen began to complain, although Chen Jun was a little more belly, but he still had some skills to stab in the back.

"Chen Guoshou has more than enough attack, and the strength is not comparable to the Sui State, to be honest, I think the idea of the imperial court is good, if you attack Chen State first, even if you take Jiankang, to prevent rebellion in all parts of Jiangnan, you need to scatter a lot of soldiers and horses to defend it, once the Sui army advances eastward, it is too risky."

This is Yu Wenming's view, Yu Wenwen is noncommittal, what he is currently concerned about is how to "cultivate internal force", that is, to greatly improve the strength of the Huangzhou Governor's Mansion, and the first problem he faces is to digest Ezhou.

Ezhou is the original Yingzhou of Chen State, and now it is under the jurisdiction of the Huangzhou Governor's Office, and it is also the only state and county of Zhou State south of the Yangtze River, which directly cuts off the waterway connection between the east and west ends of Chen State.

According to common sense, Chen Guo fought hard to get back Yingzhou, but now Chen Guo has no time to care about Yingzhou's life and death in order to keep Huainan County, which he finally obtained.

Therefore, Yuwenwen has to race against time, and before Chen Guo eases up, he can manage Ezhou well, so that he can fight against the Chen Guoba and Hunan armies in the upstream, and can withstand the Chen army in Jiangzhou downstream.

Easier said than done, it was Yuwenwen's strategy back then, tossing Yingzhou to the point that he had no harvest for several years, and now it's time to pay off his debts.

is still the strength of the pot, appointing Zhou Fashang as the assassin of Ezhou, and this Erlang will do it, and Yuwen Erlang will be the unscrupulous "big leader": Ezhou is well governed, and the general manager is well led, and if the governance is not good, borrow your head to use it!

This kind of unscrupulous words means that Yu Wenwen is still very powerful as the governor of Huangzhou, and Zhou Fashang is the assassin of Ezhou appointed by him, so he has to support it no matter what, and the first problem to be solved is people.

The original people of Ezhou (Yingzhou) were all moved to Jiangbei back then, and the land was abandoned in a large area, and if you want to restore agriculture, you must first have people.

If there is no one, there is no way to farm, and if there is no harvest, Ezhou itself will not be able to raise the garrison, and it needs blood transfusion elsewhere, Yingzhou became the ulcer of Chen State back then, and if it is not handled well, then Ezhou will become the ulcer of Zhou State.

Most of the people who moved north had already had land in their current places of residence, and after several years of reclamation, the harvest had come up, and many people missed their hometowns, but they were even more reluctant to return to these fields, so they would rather not return to their homeland in the south of the Yangtze River, but also guard the hard-won land.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and no one will confiscate it, but this problem is also easy to solve.

Since a few years ago, the government has begun to move the people of Jingzhou south to Hanchu and other areas to reclaim wasteland, so it is no problem to continue to move south to Ezhou, Jiangnan.

People, Yuwen Wen got it for Zhou Fashang, and he also mobilized the power of the states under the jurisdiction of Huangzhou to transport the corresponding materials, if this Erlang finally messed up, he really dared to borrow someone's head.

The convoy came to Wuchang and entered the city smoothly, Yuwen Wen and Yu Wenming changed into civilian clothes and went to a thriving market in Wuchang to visit.

There are many markets in the world, no matter how big or small, there are only three kinds of people in the market: buyers, sellers, and passers-by, and this market is no exception, but the slightly different from most markets is the goods.

Slaves were sold here.

The slave trade, a life full of blood and tears, paving the way to ascension for another group of people with the accumulated bones of one group, was a heinous crime in later generations, but it was common in this era.

There were many wooden cages in the bazaar, and all kinds of people were kept in them, but all of them were men, regardless of age, and this was the most direct labor market, and the slaves for sale were male barbarians captured from the mountains to serve as labor.

Labor is needed everywhere, first of all, miners, more than half of the miners in Daye's mines are slaves, and quarries and lime kilns all over Huangzhou also need a large number of slaves, these people do not need wages, which is the guarantee of maximizing the profits of the owners.

The development of the wasteland in the Han Cha region requires the construction of water conservancy facilities, and a large number of these slaves are needed, and the market in front of you is a "bulk" market open to the people.

All kinds of buyers are selecting "goods", just like choosing chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep, many "goods" are taken out of the wooden cage and escorted to the north dock of the city after the buyers have paid, Yu Wenming frowned and asked: "Erlang, is this what you said about the slave trade?" ”

"Yes, to be honest, it's unsightly."

Yu Wenming was a little uncomfortable with this kind of scene, and after watching it for a while, he retracted his gaze and sat in front of the desk, Yu Wenwen closed the window and began to accept the "question".

"These slaves were all taken from the mountains?"

"Yes, the mountains south of Ezhou are continuous, just like the mountains of the north of the Yangtze River, inhabited by countless mountain barbarians, they form villages and stand on their own, of course, they do not listen to any official sends."

"And how did these slaves get them?" Yu Wenming continued to ask.

"The owners of the villages on each hill will do it themselves, the big fish will eat the small fish, and the small fish will eat the dried shrimp, as long as the owners of the village know that the slaves can be exchanged for salt, cloth and even iron tools, it will be enough, and the market will not be short of supply."

"So, it's still the same as the story of the Great Bieshan Mountain in the north of the Yangtze River?"

"Exactly, this is their cannibalism, and the government basically doesn't have to do it." Yu Wenwen added when he said this: "Of course, if any village owner dares to entangle others to fight against this kind of business, it must be cleared." ”

"Does it really work? What if these people raided the state and county and plundered the people as slave trade? ”

"It's not impossible, so we have to make rules, first of all, people who can speak Chinese, no matter how they come from, are not allowed to buy and sell, and secondly, dare to attack the stockades of the state and county, and the whole village will not be left behind!"

"What if you deliberately make people dumb?"

"There is a reward for reporting, and more than half of the confiscated property belongs to the whistleblower."

"Isn't the person who reported it afraid of retaliation afterwards?"

"Who dares to kill the whole family in revenge!"

Yu Wenming was speechless, Yu Wenwen's response was simple, rough and bloody, but it was also the most deterrent, it was time to ask, and the topic turned to what he was most concerned about: "Ezhou, how many slaves can you capture?" ”

"Brother, the development of wasteland in the Han Dynasty is actually filled with human lives, and the people under the rule of the government can't be so bad, so they need slaves, as long as the government is clear that large-scale development requires labor and is willing to pay the appropriate 'labor fee', then there will naturally be 'sellers' who deliver goods to their doors."

The Huguang area was not developed on a large scale until the Tang Dynasty, and it was not formed until the Song and Song dynasties.

If you want to control the water, you have to build river embankments and ditches, and build water conservancy in places such as reeds and barren beaches where schistosomes are densely packed, and the embankments will be abandoned before they are repaired, and a large number of mosquitoes will breed in places where there is a lot of stagnant water, and once malaria or plague breaks out, the reclamation group will be completely wiped out.

The people under the rule of the government pay rent, and they have to serve in the military and forced labor, and everyone is very precious, so those barbarians in the mountains can't stand it! (To be continued.) )