Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 995 Old routines of predecessors

  Although Fei Qian said to prepare for the march, the march cannot be fully prepared within a day or two. After all, a large army still needs a lot of things. Among these equipment, the most important thing is the ordnance.

  In Pingyang today, in addition to the large number of Hu people’s commodities, the other two types of commodities have also risen rapidly, even surpassing the amount of Hu people’s cattle and sheep trade to a certain extent.

  Many people have some misunderstandings, saying that there has been a tendency to suppress merchants since ancient times. These are actually caused by a smattering of knowledge. In fact, this is not the case, at least not too obvious in the Han Dynasty.

  The Shang Dynasty in ancient China was actually derived from the Shang tribe. In the middle of the Xia Dynasty, Qi's sixth grandson, Wang Hai, gradually strengthened the power of Shang through commercial trade. After the fourth generation grandson, Tang, used "Shang" as the name of the country after destroying Xia, he established the Shang Dynasty.

   It can be said that the foundation of the Shang Dynasty was trade. Because of the wheel technology derived from trade, and because of the communication and promotion of cultural development, etc., it is ahead of the Xia Dynasty.

  Shang in Jin Wenzhuan script is actually a person pushing a flatbed cart with horns of ox and sheep standing on it, as a sign of trade, a word for mutual communication and negotiation...

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the understanding of merchants was not very strong, or the suppression of merchants was not too strong, but because of the Lu family and the Tian family, the princes began to be vigilant and control the merchants, but in fact, the exchange of goods It is an inevitable product after the society has developed to a certain stage, and it is impossible to restrain it. Even for a while, there is no way to control it for a lifetime. After all, even some rare things that the emperor wants, many of them are obtained from the hands of merchants. of.

  Since the former Qin Dynasty, the taxation of merchants has been very heavy. The vehicle and vessel tax, a classic tax that has been extended to later generations, was actually first established for these businessmen who needed transportation by vehicle and vessel.

The control of merchants in the Han Dynasty was not as strict as that of later generations. The main reason was that these merchants were often the gentry themselves, or offshoots of the gentry. Suppressing these merchants was tantamount to suppressing the gentry themselves. , and didn't last long, so he let go.

  For the sake of the so-called propriety, Confucianism in later generations has become desperate to criticize Aduwu on the surface, but behind the scenes, it is scraping the ground to make money.

  Fei Qian knows very well that war is actually a huge consumption, so the commerce and trade in Pingyang is largely for blood supply to Fei Qian's war system.

  One is the literary system of the Academy. Now there are books with different prices from books to Qinglun, and these books are basically expensive.

For the gentry in the Han Dynasty, there were also star-chasers, but these people were chasing celebrities. These gentry were very happy about the speeches and books of celebrities. It's as if you can't hold your head up in front of the children of the gentry, so the sales of these books have always been good. If it weren't for controlling the scarcity of the market, Fei Qian would sometimes want to sell more books of this type.

  In addition, ironware, including all kinds of simple weapons, is gradually occupying a place in Pingyang. Because of the propelled hydraulic forging machine in Fei's potential Pingyang workshop, the cost of high-quality steel after 20 or 30 smelting has been reduced a lot, so it can meet certain needs in terms of quantity and quality.

Originally, Fei Qian also had the idea of ​​setting up a so-called craftsman school, but it was quickly cancelled, not because of the identity of a craftsman or anything else, but because of the special profession of a craftsman. Only one craft can have a bowl of food, and although some of these crafts are relatively simple, but the so-called insiders watch the way, and laymen watch the fun, if you haven't learned it by yourself, you may not be able to understand it.

  Large equipment, such as trebuchets, ballistas, etc., it is impossible for Feiqian to teach them, but for small daily necessities, after teaching the apprentices, the master will starve to death.

Once a school is set up for these things, processes, and skills, it will inevitably be taught widely. For small-scale peasant economies like the Han Dynasty, on the one hand, there is no awareness of intellectual property protection. Cut off the livelihood of the artisans who originally relied on these for a living.

   It’s not that artisan schools can’t be established, but that when Fei Qian can’t guarantee nationwide control, the side effects of these things can’t be eliminated, and rash actions will cause many unpredictable bad results.

Many things are the same as the craftsman system at the current stage. Although it is unreasonable, it is not something that the traveler can change as he wants. The consequences of taking it for granted are generally very bad. After all, the craftsman system at the current stage is accumulated over hundreds of years. And formed, how can you just change it?

Fei Qian felt that the current artisan apprentice teaching system in the Han Dynasty, coupled with the interests of family blood and so on, was already a relatively complete structure. After all, ordinary people in the Han Dynasty did not have a high level of knowledge. How many things can be learned in class, and how many things can be understood?

   It is better to follow the master and teach hand in hand more efficiently.

At the same time, although blood kinship restricts the spread of artisan technology, it also protects the original technical knowledge to a certain extent. What's more, from another perspective, is the technology that Fei Qian understands the same as the ancestors? A little bit of accumulation, and rashly taking it out and teaching it widely, isn't it also sorry for those ancestors who were thinking hard?

  So Feiqian simply gave up the idea of ​​setting up a craftsman school in Pingyang. Even if it is to be established in the future, it will be more appropriate to build a nationwide school with certain standards than to open it casually now. Of course, as a substitute, Fei Qian improved the treatment of craftsmen, and proposed many reward standards to encourage craftsmen to make innovations and inventions.

  Anyway, in the face of highly attractive material incentives, these craftsmen will naturally voluntarily drive the technology forward and develop continuously.

It's like the gun head that was originally sold to Yuan Shao. Although the price is cheap, it is indeed of poor quality. After some opinions, the craftsman improved the process and adopted the method of half-clad steel, that is, at the position of the cutting edge. Use better materials, and most of the rest are still not so good wrought iron.

In this way, although the process has increased some complexity, it is equivalent to only adding a better steel material to the cutting edge, and the cost has not increased much, so the price is still very advantageous. Bought a lot again...

  Even Cao Cao of Yanzhou sent someone to come to his door. On the one hand, he talked about the old debt he had promised to give, and on the other hand, he also wanted to purchase some more weapons. As for the matter of promising to give Cao Cao some resources before, Fei Qian has almost completely forgotten about it. Now that someone is looking for him, he can barely gather some gun heads and arrows that are of similar quality to Yuan Shao's. As for the horse, don't even think about it, it still won't be given, after all, the horse is a strategic weapon.

  Fei Qian was flipping through the output and benefits of the studio during the period of time in the side hall. Huang Cheng came outside the hall with a simple smile on his face.

   Fei Qian raised his head and saw Huang Cheng's face, so he couldn't help laughing, and beckoned Huang Cheng to come in.

  Huang Cheng entered the hall, saluted, and was about to speak when Fei Qian stopped him with a word.

   "Let's talk about it first, about the topic of the martial arts hall, Shuye Mo come to me..."

   It's not that Fei Qian has any opinions on Huang Cheng, but the topic left in the martial arts hall is to let these generals develop their ideas and gain more experience on the battlefield. Naturally, it is impossible to give Huang Cheng water. Because if the standard is relaxed for Huang Cheng, it is actually equivalent to harming Huang Cheng.

Huang Cheng chuckled twice, swallowed the idea of ​​asking Fei Qian for help, then shook his hand and said, "Junhou, I didn't come here to give lectures on the homework of the martial arts hall, but...Junhou, you Look, should we recruit more soldiers in the Guards Battalion now..."

General Zhengxi, normally the commander-in-chief should be more than 10,000 people, so it would be more reasonable for half of them to be directly commanded by Fei Qian, that is to say, there should be about 5,000 people. The number of guards camp is only about 2,000 people.

   "Soldiers are good but not many," Fei Qian said, "But it is not impossible to increase now, but in comparison, there are not many well-trained soldiers who have experienced life and death on the battlefield, and they need to practice more..."

  Although increasing soldiers can increase combat power in most cases, it becomes a bit useless after a certain amount is exceeded.

Because on the frontal battlefield, there are always a small number of people who are directly facing each other. It does not mean that there will be a large enough battlefield to allow everyone to fight one-on-one. .

   Sometimes having too many pig teammates is not a good thing. Before the battle, the pig teammate will shout loudly, I will support you, and then when it is really time to fight, when you look back, you can only see the swaying coquettish buttocks of the pig teammate...

  So for soldiers, Fei Qian's choice is a certain amount of quality assurance.

   What's more, for the area of ​​Bingbei, the infantry seems to be half short forever. If possible, Fei Qian even wants to replace all of them with cavalry.

  Huang Cheng nodded and didn't say anything, but Fei Qian could see some disagreement. It's not that Huang Cheng has any rebellious thoughts towards Fei Qian, but in this era, most people don't quite understand the concept of the so-called elite soldiers...

In other words, in most people's minds, if they are arranged according to the level of martial arts from high to low, the first one is naturally the general's personal trilogy, then the commander's personal guard battalion, followed by the general veteran battalion, Ordinary recruits, the last ones are auxiliary soldiers and civilian husbands.

Strong and strong soldiers, or the concept of one enemy against ten exists, but it is only aimed at the general's personal steps. For ordinary recruits, they are only required to be able to go to battle and obey orders when facing the enemy. Running away is enough.

   Fei Qian said: "The soldiers and horses have not moved, "The soldiers and horses have not moved, and the food and grass go first. On weekdays, the soldiers have six liters of rice per day, which is doubled during wartime. If necessary, a certain amount of blood food must be provided. Three thousand six hundred shi..."

Of course, this is an ideal state. Fei Qian knows that there may be a few companies that can afford this value at this stage, but with the continuation of the war, the destruction of the social farming structure, and the shortage of food and grass, this standard is also It was lowered again and again. In the late Three Kingdoms period, not to mention six liters of daily supply, a daily supply of two or three liters was already very remarkable.

Therefore, under such conditions, the physical strength and combat effectiveness of the soldiers can be roughly guessed. It is precisely because of this that there are battles of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people. , and in such a battle, the soy sauce players accounted for the majority.

"That... Don't blame Junhou, I don't mean anything in particular... I just have a doubt, and I ask Junhou for advice..." Huang Cheng scratched his head and said hesitantly, "If... lower the standard, wouldn't it be possible to raise more children? Soldiers? I heard that even the Forbidden Army in Kyoto is only offering four liters a day..."

Because Huang Cheng was also training soldiers in the Pingyang school ground during this period, knowing how attractive the six liters of daily supply is at this stage, recruiting soldiers is not difficult at all, even if it is four liters, there are still a lot of people who will come , and in this way, and then converted, you can use the same consumption, and half more soldiers can come out.

   Fei Qian put down the wooden tablet in his hand, and sighed slightly. The destruction of the Guanzhong area gradually showed its power. The Forbidden Army, which was supposed to be the strongest army of the Han Dynasty, is now gradually declining.

Fei Qian pondered for a while, and then said: "Shuye, you are right. It is true that if we lower the supply standard of food and grass, we can indeed accommodate more soldiers... But you have to consider a problem, if our current Soldiers, lack of food, lack of strength, etc., training has also been weakened accordingly... What do you think will happen if they go to the battlefield? Not to mention, the amount of battle damage must be higher than it is now Bar?"

  Huang Cheng thought for a while, then nodded silently.

"Then what?" Fei Qian said, "The veterans suffered high losses in battle, the amount of training was insufficient, the recruits were not strong enough, and they lost again on the battlefield, and then used the next wave of worse soldiers to enter the battlefield... At that time, the competition will not be good. The combat power of soldiers is to compete with the population reserve...and once the population reserve is exhausted, even if you don't lose, you will lose..."

  Three Kingdoms is like bad money driving out good money in the end. When only bad money is left to compete with each other, there will be no winners in the market. Everything Fei Qian is doing now is just not wanting to follow this old path.

   What's more, Fei Qian didn't have the background to follow the original path of Cao Liusun, after all, the situations between them are different...

  (end of this chapter)