Li Bai's "Chivalrous Journey" has a saying: Zhao Keman Hu Ying, Wu Hook Shuang Xueming. The silver saddle shines on the white horse, like a shooting star. Kill one person in ten steps, and don't stay for a thousand miles. Brushing off the clothes and going away, hiding deep with the name.

What a heroic man, a husband should be like this!

Here, the contemptible person wants to explain how far "one step" is. During the Warring States period, it was 23 centimeters into one foot, and six feet was a step, so one step was 138 centimeters.

It is rumored that South Korea is rich in crossbows, with a range of more than 600 steps, that is, 800 meters, and two miles away. It should be reminded that in ancient times, a mile of land was not 500 meters now, but 415.8 meters, and in this book, a mile of land is taken as 400 meters.

When we call a person very strong, we will say that he has the strength to carry a thousand pounds. In ancient times, how much did a thousand catties weigh! According to research, during the Warring States Period, Chu, Zhao, Yan and other countries were 16 taels per catty, equivalent to 250 grams.

To take the simplest example, Guan Erye's Qinglong Yanyue Knife weighs 82 kilograms, which is about more than 20 kilograms now. Even so, not many adult men can play tricks. So in many novels, we are surprised how ancient people had so much strength to carry heavy weapons and laugh on the battlefield. But in fact, we are not as good as the ancients physically, but we are by no means so exaggerated.

Speaking of the currency of the Warring States period, one of Qin Shi Huang's greatest contributions was the unification of weights and measures and the unification of currency. In terms of currency alone, there are sword coins popular in Zhao, Qi, and Yan; cloth coins popular in Zhao, Wei, and Korea; It is popular in the ring coins of Qin and Wei and the ant nose coins of Chu. The variety of currencies has brought great resistance to the circulation of goods.

A consulted source of information from various sources, but did not find an authoritative statement on the currency exchange rate and prices of various countries. Therefore, in this book, the "Qin Banliang" during the Qin Dynasty is used as the price benchmark, and the ratio between other currencies such as knife coins and cloth coins is assumed to be 1:1.

Regarding the issue of the different weights of the "Qin Half Liang" unearthed in later generations, considering the chaotic times at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the phenomenon of private coinage occurred from time to time, so I will not consider it in this book.

Speaking of capacity units, 1 Hu (hu) = 10 buckets = 100 liters. The unit "stone" is somewhat peculiar, and can be used both as a unit of capacity and as a unit of weight. When used as a unit of capacity, 1 stone = 1 hu, as a weight unit, 1 stone = 4 jun = 120 catties (which is the jin used now).

Speaking of prices, a bucket of rice is now 12 catties, how much is it worth? Answer: Three pieces of Qin and a half taels. The price of one stone millet is only forty Qin and a half taels. What is this concept? Today, the yield per mu of rice has reached 1,800 catties! At the end of the Warring States Period, a good year of one acre of fertile land was only three or four hundred catties. The yield per mu of thin land is even worse, generally only one hundred and fifty catties.

If the farmers are diligent and the wind and rain are smooth, the yield per mu is only a few dozen catties. Taxes and land rents are still required for this grain, and only three or four percent of the grain goes to the peasant households themselves. How much income can farmers make in this mu of land (200 catties per mu)? Answer: Twenty-four Qin and a half taels. Each family has 20 acres of land, and the whole family can only get 480 Qin and a half taels after a year's hard work.

In ancient times, two meals a day, a family of five only needed one Qin and a half taels of food and clothing per day, that is, one penny as often said in ancient texts. Su Qin traveled from Luoyang to Yan State, and the cost was only a hundred yuan. It can be seen that the price was still low at that time, and the money was expensive. It is also recorded that Xiao He sent two more Qin and a half taels to Liu Bang, and Liu Bang was so grateful that he later added a fief for Xiao He. This is a glimpse of this.

When a courtier has made great contributions, the superior often says, "Reward a thousand gold, seal ten thousand households". What is the concept of a daughter? Gold here is not gold, in ancient times, gold was quite difficult to mine, and the so-called gold refers to brass. Brass was also a hard currency in the Qin and Han dynasties, just like gold today.

How much is a thousand gold worth? Qianjin is 1000 taels of brass, please note that during the Qin Dynasty, one catty was 20 taels, and from the Han Dynasty to the Republic of China, one catty was 16 taels, which is also the origin of half a catty and eight taels.

What is the concept of a pound of gold in the Qin and Han dynasties, a pound of gold is converted into a Qin half tael for 10,000 Qin and a half taels, which is the income of 20 farmers (a family of five, with 20 acres of land) for a year. Here it is necessary to make it clear that the unit of gold in the Qin Dynasty was eridium, and one eridium was 1 catty and 20 taels. Qianjin is 50 Eridium, that is, the annual income of 1,000 farmers. From this point of view, it is really a lot.