Xiong Jing looks like a man in terms of height and demeanor, and Sang Tunnel's time is enough to 'prove' that he can, but in fact, he can't do it. Concubine Zhao, who was born in the court of Zhao Kingdom, understood this very well, not only did she replace the palace maids serving in the main bed with ugly girls like no salt, but also ordered the women of the entire palace to prohibit the fox king.

Wei Jian thought about sending the girl from Sang Tunnel over to Xiong Jing as a concubine, which could be regarded as a low-standard marriage, Xiong Jing, who was not yet old, suddenly smiled bitterly, and rejected Wei Jian's kindness in a few words. But because of Wei Jian's reminder, on the way back to Yingdu, Xiong Jing thought of that Gongsun Yan from time to time, especially the eyes she looked at when she was about to execute her. Except for Mi Xuan, Princess Chu Guo, and Mi surnames, Xiong Jing has never been in contact with women with other surnames, and Gongsun Yan is the first.

"The King." Chang Jiang whispered in his ear, it was time to go to court.

"Yes." Xiong Jing retracted his thoughts, he thought of Mi Xuan again just now. He reminded himself to ask Zhibisi, when will the two honorable scholars sent to the Qin State have heard from them? Is it good to go north from Xianyang to cross the Great Wall of Qin to Henan (Hetao)?

In the bright morning, the courtiers in the main bed have all arrived, and they are discussing the Qin State and Zhao, and when they see the white-clothed Xiong Jing coming out of the gate, they immediately saluted and shouted: "The ministers have seen the king!" ”

The ministers saluted, Xiong Jing returned the salute, the monarchs and ministers all sat down, and the court discussion officially began. The Qin army failed to attack Zhao and Huimeng, and the first thing to be discussed now is how to deal with the current situation.

"Tell the king, the king of Qi has no faith, and he must not be ashamed. The minister thought that he should fight against Qin with the strength of Chu and Zhao with the strength of Zhao and Zhao. Lan Hao, one of the Zhu Ao, didn't expect to propose to Meng Zhao, and his words just started and the ministers shook their heads.

"Lan Ao's statement is ridiculous!" Patiently waited for him to finish speaking, and the impatient Peng Jian spoke out against it. "The year before last, I begged the Zhao people to send troops to attack Qin, and the Zhao people came out; That year, the first king Xinxue, the Qin army attacked me, I begged the Zhao people to send troops to rescue, and the Zhao people also came out. Only Chu people can save Zhao, but not Zhao people can save Chu, how to ally with Zhao Guo? ”

Peng Xuan's words were immediately echoed by everyone. Everyone knew what kind of virtue Zhao was and that not allied with Zhao after the Battle of Qingshui was not only the decision of the Yan Dynasty, but also the consensus of the Chu State.

"I heard that Zhao Ren once entered Lan Ao's mansion and gave Lan Ao a beautiful treasure jade, but is there such a thing?" After echoing the voice, Yiyang Hou Yifu even questioned the fairness of Lan Hao's proposal, suspecting that he was bought by Zhao Envoy.

"The king, Zhao envoy did enter the Lan Mansion and gave the beauty Baoyu, however," Lan Hao was not in a hurry, "The minister did not accept the Zhao beauty Baoyu." It is proposed to ally with Zhao, but for the state of Chu, not for the state of Zhao. Qin attacked Zhao, Zhao died, and Han Wei also died; Wei died, and Chu was in danger. Therefore, guarding Chu must guard Wei, and guarding Wei will save Zhao, so the ministers will discuss the alliance between Chu and Zhao, and work together to resist Qin. ”

Among the ministers, they still maintained the style of a gentleman, Lan Hao said that he did not accept the beautiful Baoyu of the Zhao people, and the ministers believed that he really did not accept it. After he finished speaking, Cai Wen said: "My Chu State fought with the Qin people for three years, 70,000 soldiers died in three years, and more than 20,000 people were sick due to injuries. If it weren't for the Marquis of Xiang to seize Qin's Ao Cang, he would get a year's corn, and the people would eat it.

Last year was a year off, the people were rarely hungry, but the high treasury accumulated millet was still small, and the Qian Mansion had not won the truth, and the newly opened land in Jiangdong was less than one stone, only eight buckets, Lan Ao thought that the Chu State was fighting? ”

"It's going to take another year to get started," someone added. "The spear formation of the Feng Lu armor warrior is not yet proficient."

"It will take six years to fight the boat." Red Mo shook his head. In addition to the 500 large wings, even with the current establishment of 200,000 people, there will be about 500 winged warships. Shipbuilding costs money, and it takes several years for the poor county to build its own warship.

"You can only take the Qin people Ao Cang once. If you want to fight the Qin people again, you have to have three years of accumulation. Nao said slyly. He is afraid of lack of food, and the war with Qin is not something you can end if you want to.

"Three years of accumulation, how easy is it to say?" Nao's view is very correct, but it is very unrealistic. "My Chu country only accumulates more than 10 million stones of millet a year, and if you want to accumulate three years of millet, it must be more than ten years."

"Ahem. Yi Yin thought that it would take a few years to accumulate three years of millet? Xiong Jing coughed and asked directly to Yin Sun Yu.

"Your lord, if you don't persuade farmers to grow more millet and plant wheat again, you will have to accumulate millet for three years for twelve years." Sun Yu replied.

"What you mean by persuading farmers to grow millet means planting less mulberry hemp?" Xiong Jing asked.

"Yes." Sun Yu nodded. "There are many mulberry growers in Chu country, and there are few hemp planters, if you can plant less mulberry hemp, a variety of corn, and soju wheat (winter wheat), you can accumulate three years of millet in seven years."

"Seven years ......" After Xiong Jing asked, Zheng Chao quieted down, and heard that Yin Yin said that the time of accumulation of three years of Su was counted, and everyone was comparing twelve years and seven years.

"My lord, the minister thinks it's inappropriate." The priest said. "Chu has more than 12 million stones of millet a year, if you plant less mulberry and hemp, and then plant wheat, there should be 30 million stones of surplus grain in a year. However, the people produce nearly 20 million stone of corn a year, so how can they buy it? ”

The "......" tax is not something that can be increased as soon as it wants, and foreign dynasties may not agree to it. If you pay money, unless you mint money on a large scale, it will be difficult to afford more than 90,000 gold corn a year at the price of more than 50 yuan of corn in Chu State. The last method is to force the common people to store grain, but there is no material incentive, even if the corn is their own, and it is difficult for the common people without vision to have motivation.

"The price of the armor is cheap." Shi Yan took the opportunity to say, complaining that everyone had pushed the price of the armor too low. "If a pair of armor costs half gold, and a treasure knife needs half gold, so that you can get 40 million stones; Eighty million stone corn can be obtained by multiplication. ”

"Ahem," Shi Yan's accusation embarrassed many courtiers, what they couldn't say was: no matter how high the price of the giant armor and blade is, it is also the office to make money, not the county profits, and there is nothing to regret about such a thing.

"Wheat can be planted, but wheat rice is difficult to eat." Someone quickly changed the topic, and everyone in the court once again agreed, but compared to the time just now, this time it was obviously pretended.

"Wheat rice is hard to eat...... "Wheat is cooked without being husked, and it is really difficult to swallow with the husk, of course it is unpalatable." It can be ground like cement. ”

"......" Xiong Jing said finely, and no one in the court spoke. In fact, there is also a key technology of pasta is fermentation, the carbon dioxide gas produced by fermentation makes the dough expand and soft, so that the pasta has a taste and is easy to digest.

The credible record of dough fermentation in Chinese history books is in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. And the situation of 'Emperor Ling's good Hu Cake, and the nobles and relatives of the Beijing Master all eat Hu Cake' is very likely to have been fermented Hu Cake, which replaced the 'strong and difficult to eliminate' dough cake made of dead noodles before, which made the emperor and magnates who ate all the delicious food in the world like to eat Hu Cake.

Xiong Jing, who did not know that dead dough could naturally ferment in the air, had already asked Hu Tanshaozhi to bring yeast when he came next time. It is said that the Egyptians first began to ferment the dough, and then spread it to Greece and then to Rome. The Greeks in Bactria also ate bread, and it was not difficult to get yeast.

Seeing the ministers speechless, Xiong Jing said again: "Wheat rice is difficult to eat, and it is difficult to eat when there is no food." There is only 20 million more stone corn wheat to buy, so how do you think this matter should be handled? ”

"Tell the king: The minister thinks that the best policy is to increase the price of the armor." Shi Yan is an expert, and after he complained that the seller of the Jujia Giant Blade was too low, he planned to have three strategies for this. "The middle strategy is to make money and buy each other, and the next policy is to increase the military endowment."

"The price of the armor has been set, and it is not appropriate to increase it, so please take the middle step." Cai Wen opposes the best policy, and he doesn't need to make a decision.

"The people have more new money, and they don't plant mulberry hemp, they must buy all the people's goods, and the Qi people exchange the new money for my gold, what if?" Shi Yan pointed out the fact that the nobles of all countries preferred gold to copper coins, which led to the formation of a spontaneous gold standard monetary system in various countries.

Previously, the ant-nose money of the Chu State weighed only two or three grams, and the Qin half-tael weighed eight grams, but the value of the ant-nose money in various countries was not much lower than that of the Qin half-tael, and the reason was that six hundred ant-nose coins could be exchanged for one tael of gold. If there is too much money to mint, there is not so much gold to exchange, and the purchasing power of antnose money will plummet. Copper is cheap and gold is rare, and there is too much gold outflow in deficit, which is not a good thing.

"Furthermore, the coins are all minted in Yingdu, who owns the coins minted?" Shi Yan asked the second question. This is also a question that has not been solved before, who owns the coinage.

"The minister thought that the copper could be sent to Yingdu from the counties, and the money minted belonged to the counties." Cai Wen replied.

"Good. As it should be. A group of people around him nodded. What is the most profitable thing to do? Mint coins, of course. The price of copper is only more than 30 yuan a catty, but a pound of copper can mint 100 yuan, and you can make a net profit of 50 or 60 yuan after subtracting all expenses. If it weren't for the fact that the state of Chu had changed its currency, it was no longer minting money but stamping out new money, and the counties would have minted their own money a long time ago.

"But how much money can be minted in each county?" Shi Yan smiled, "For example, Xia Cai, you can mint 100,000 coins, you can mint 100,000 coins, how to determine it?" ”

Cai Wen said dumbly, this is indeed a problem. If it is a unified national casting, of course, how much grain will be cast, and now that the counties are financially independent, it is impossible to determine who casts more and who casts less. And the counties and towns cast their own towns, and they do not have the right and ability to do so.

"So what?" Su Kai asked, he is one of the Yue people to the Central Plains.

"The best way to do it is to increase the price of the armor and the blade." Shi Yan went back to the price increase of Jutie in a word, seeing him so persistently safeguarding the interests of the office, opening his eyes to the ministers and talking nonsense, Xiong Jing wanted to laugh for some reason.

"The price of the armor has been set, how can it rise again?" There was a lot of opposition.

"The secretary will be selfish." Some people also said that this was to detect Shi Yan's intentions.

"The grain of each county is purchased by the Gaofu, and all the money used is minted by the Dafu." Xiong Jing was reluctant to make money on coinage, so he couldn't help but speak. "All counties can pay the copper price of Yingdu."

"The king......" The ministers were stunned when they heard this, and then shouted in unison: "The king is wise! ”

Shi Yan glanced at Xiong Jing, and had no choice but to say: "However, the counties should lose gold in Yingdu, if the Qi people come with new coins, there will be no gold to exchange." ”

"Yes. Each county needs to lose money to be deposited in Yingdu, and this gold is not owned by the bank. Xiong Jing agreed with Shi Yan's proposal.