Chapter 303 Do you know I'm chasing you?

After a moment of stopping, Qi Ce sighed: "That is...it's too wasteful wood. In order to build the city wall and build enough houses before winter, we have built more than 110 brick factories. Poor Hejian has few people inhabited for thousands of years. It can be said that ancient trees are lush and flowers are blooming. But because of the operation of these more than 100 brick kiln factories, the forests in Linjiang have been cut off."

Zhao Wu seemed indifferent to Qi Ce's feelings: "Anyway, we left an ancient forest in the center of Hejian... By the way, how many local natives have we captured?"

Qi Ce replied: "There are about a thousand people... the local people are not physically strong, and they cannot eat salt here all year round. They cannot afford the salt from Qi. The salt from Jin State - there are few people here and the market capacity is small, so I, Jin State merchants are rarely willing to come here. Because the local people cannot eat salt for many years, they are short and weak.

After we landed, the natives fled into the jungle to hide. These days, due to lack of food, they secretly walked out of the forest. After the local lord took them in, they found that these people were not working materials and had no strength on their arms. They could not count on physical work with a little emphasis, but technical work... they could not count on them.

Therefore, the lords lost interest in capturing local natives. If they were willing to escape, they would run away. Anyway, as the main road was built, the only way-knowing function of the natives would also disappear."

Zhao Wu said oh, continuing the topic just now: "Brick kiln factory, firing ceramics - in the past, we rarely got involved in the pottery industry for Fan's sake, but we actually have ceramic technology that surpasses Fan's. Don't worry, just open the kilns locally..."

Zhao Wu did not know that this land was once one of the four major kaolin production areas in China, and kaolin was an important raw material for the ceramic industry. The famous Ding Kiln in the Song Dynasty was about this land. However, Zhao Wu remembered that the land in Dai Kingdom also had an important production - iron ore. In my memory, the Qian'an and Chengde areas were one of the four major iron ore belts in China.

With a memory look, Zhao Wu slowly said: "I seem to have heard from Dai people that their place also produces stones that can burn in production - that is, what we Jin people often call coal. In addition, there should be iron ore storage in the mountains here. After we occupy the entire Dai country, we will search for coal and iron ore sites. Then there will be sufficient fuel in the local area and we can develop the pottery and iron smelting industry.

When these two major industries develop, Daiguo, a place that is located in Daiguo, may become our important resource base."

Qi Ce looked at the sky - at this time, Chaoge City was snowy, and there was no snow in Ji City, but it was also biting cold. Qi Ce's eyes slowly slid across the ice-filled river surface and replied: "The water source in Dai Country is sufficient. If this place is fully developed, it may become the granary of our Jin Country - it's a pity that this place is cold and can only be cultivated in the fields for half a year."

Qi Ce paused for a moment and immediately added: "If the local ceramic industry can be developed, then those who develop land in advance will have profits. Ceramics are nothing more than digging soil and barbecuing. Using this income, they can level the land into farmland. Although they inevitably have to cut down trees, the cut wood is just used to fire ceramics..."

Zhao Wu tightened his clothes and reminded him: "Let's go, it's time for me to leave... This forest has huge trees, which are really good materials for shipbuilding - I should remind them that when firing ceramics, try to use untidy wood. When we find coal, let them use charcoal to burn ceramics as much as possible. The charcoal has sufficient firepower, and it is not wasteful to burn ceramics."

As he was speaking, Zhao Dan staggered up from the steps under the city wall. Zhao Dan, who was favored since childhood, was inevitably more nutritious. He was the only fat man in the Zhao family. A teenage child with a round figure, wearing a small armor, holding a small sword that was not much longer than a dagger. He called Zhao Wu childishly: "Father, the carriage and horse are ready."

Zhao Wu nodded: "Ce, stay in Jicheng to help me take charge of local affairs. Please give me everything."

Qi Ce personally sent Zhao Wu down to the city: "Don't worry, Lord, yesterday I received a report: Huanjiang Avenue leading to the East China Sea in Hejian has been built. Lord follow this path to the beach, so as to patrol the work of Hejian Mansion along the way."

Hou Jin took over the topic: "My warship stops at the mouth of the river. When the master arrives at the mouth of the river, he can transfer to my sea boat and cross the river to Dongjin."

At this moment, the king of Ju was rushing all the way in the wind and snow.

God seemed to be deliberately making things difficult for this poor unlucky guy. The wet and cold air always floated above the head of the king of Ju State - in a common saying, "Where the king of Ju State goes, there will be a blizzard wherever he goes."

The heavy snow kept following the journey of the king of Ju and drifted to Qi Ce's territory.

In the early years, the bridge built by Qi Ce is now prosperous. When the king of Ju arrived, teams of Qi people were carrying simple luggage by the river, waiting in line to cross the bridge. These people were full of hope and were ready to go to the river to earn enough pocket money this year, at least to prevent themselves from hunger this winter.

There were many ice paddles floating on the riverside. Countless merchants used this simple boat to transport a large amount of meat from the East Sea with the help of the southern tributary of the Yellow River that was frozen a little later, and prepared to transport it to Hejian through this bridge. And their peers, the merchants who had just heard about the news of making money from Hejian and rushed from their hometown, took various specialties from their hometown with them, stood in the queue by the bridge, waiting for their turn to cross the bridge and look for opportunities to make money in Hejian.

News of the Zhao family's land reclamation in Hejian is fermenting. All countries know that the Zhao family is rich, so this time the Zhao family hired 100,000 Qi workers in one go. At present, the number of people serving the 100,000 Qi workers alone has exceeded 200,000 to 300,000. The merchants from all over the country who are coming all plan to go to Hejian to find some food to fill their hunger during this winter free time.

Zhao was rich and paid a lot of salary when hiring Qi's laborers. In addition, the task of Hejian development was presided over by Qi Ce, who was a conspirator himself and could not afford to worry about 100,000 Qi's laborers. Therefore, under his arrangement, most Qi's laborers enjoyed far more treatment in Hejian than they did in China - even warriors.

The Zhao family's strong transportation capacity is that the Zhao family has the ability to provide sufficient food and sufficient salary. After paying a monthly salary, the Qi workers who were full of three meals were very loose, so the 100,000 Qi workers with strong purchasing power formed a large market, and they could almost swallow all the goods.

The merchants of Qi who entered Hejian Mansion to do business in advance made enough money. They sold the goods they carried with them and immediately returned to their hometown to prepare more sufficient goods, brought more sufficient personnel, and turned around and rushed towards Hejian. The news of these merchants getting rich was first learned by their hometown people, and then more merchants rushed to Hejian Mansion. Regardless of whether they had been or not, they now knew to bring two or three needles and a little cloth head to Hejian for sale... As a result, there was a lot of noise at the Hejian Bridge.

The female Qi first stabilized the king of Ju, and then took her own command and rushed to the bridge to negotiate with the soldiers guarding the bridge. The king of Ju stood among a group of Qi in a cold sweat, listening to the surrounding Qi's words.

"I heard that local workers have started to pay snow salt instead of salary. A businessman from my hometown exchanged the snow salt from the laborer for goods, and transported it back to the countryside for ten times the interest, which is very profitable..."

"Yes, I heard about this news. I heard that Zhao hired too many people, so I didn't have enough coins on hand, so I started to use snow salt, ceramics and other products to offset some of the wages. In some places, the lords have begun to distribute wooden products - all of them are finely processed in Zhao's factory. Although they are not painted, they can be sold at a good price after purchasing them...but the wooden objects are too large and difficult to transport."

Another Qi businessman in a contemptuous tone, "Are you stupid? Although the wooden tools are huge, if the river surface is frozen and transported by ship, one ship can transport hundreds of wooden tools. The cargo ship sails along the seaside and can transport them to Chu. There is no need to worry about damage along the way. Well, the gold coins of Chu are good things..."

Another voice interrupted the clever man's statement: "Does Chu still have land in the sea now? I heard that Wu and Chu fought very fiercely, and Chu was defeated again recently, so the Chu people have sent envoys to ask for an alliance with the Jin people as soon as possible so as to free up their hands to deal with the Wu."

The smart businessman just now argued: "The State of Wu is also very prosperous. You can reach the estuary of the Yangtze River when you arrive in Wu and sail along the Yangtze River to Chu. Wu and Chu have been fighting fiercely on the river surface recently and cannot intercept merchant ships at all..."

The king of Ju was fascinated by the hearing and forgot to be afraid. At this time, the female Qi led several officers of Jin back and reported to the king of Ju: "Your Majesty, we have informed the soldiers guarding the bridge. Please come with me. They will free up the bridge deck for you and let us pass first."

After crossing the bridge with trembling fear, the king of Ju turned around and looked at the bridge, unable to help but sighed: "It's so majestic. Is this bridge built by manpower?"

The female Qi replied casually: "This bridge has been built for five years. Earlier, Wu Zi didn't know the situation opposite the bridge, and fantasized about using this bridge to communicate with Jin State. The local lord Qi Ce may know the situation opposite the river, but he would not say it.

Halfway through the bridge construction, Zhao Wu knew that the other side of the bridge was a desolate and uninhabited land. His heart became cold. Then, the construction of the bridge was delayed. It was not until the last two years that Qi Ce started to speed up the construction project and completed the bridge.

However, because the construction of this bridge has been full of twists and turns, the second half of the bridge is far less refined than the first half."

What Nu Qi said is not completely correct.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, most people had no geographical concept. At that time, Qi Ce only knew that this river was the Yellow River, and after crossing the river, it was the north bank of the Yellow River. Although the north bank was relatively desolate, for the people of Jin, what was the situation of the north bank? What was the difference between the Hejian area and the northern tributary of the Yellow River? They did not know very well. They only knew that they were very desolate, with only a few small countries scattered with barbarians.

It was under this situation that Zhao Wu and Qi Ce started to build the bridge. In addition to communicating with Jin, the purpose of building this bridge was to shock Qi, so that the people of Qi could see the unimaginable creativity of the Jin people, and thus surrender to the feet of the Jin people. Therefore, the south bank of the bridge, adjacent to Qi, was built very exquisitely and majestic: for example, the huge tower fortress on the riverside, which was used to fix bridge cables on the one hand, and to guard the bridge on the other hand.

When building this round stone fort, Zhao Wu spared no effort to transport granite from Mount Tai. He used many modern technologies to pour huge granite pieces into concrete. In order to make the stone fort open more intimidatingly, Zhao Wu also imitated the scene in the magic movie and used huge stones to pile up two stone statues, one left and one right, thickly covering the stone beams that fixed the bridge cables.

These two stone statues are in the shape of a famous samurai. He stood with a sword, with his back against the river, and facing the Qi Kingdom, making the giant stone castle look majestic and even more magical, and it is completely different from what human technology can build.

The river surging, walking on the shaking bridge board, listening to the river water under your feet in a thrilling and worried state of mind. When a person stepped on the river bank, he could not help but feel a sudden feeling of ease. Under this extreme feeling of ease, the view along the way was magnified. Looking back at the majestic towers on the other side of the river, he was naturally conquered by this bridge - this is the effect Zhao Wu wanted to achieve.

But in fact, the north bank of the bridge is very simple. At the end of the process, Zhao Wu had already removed the family's financial support for the construction of the bridge. It seemed very difficult to build the bridge by relying on Qi Ce's own strength. The original design draft was also a corresponding stone fort and stone statue on the north bank. However, due to lack of financial resources, it was greatly reduced. Since then, all architectural structures have been mainly practical, and they can save as much as possible and reduce as much as possible: the stone fort is still there, but it only has a height and thickness, but there is no corresponding house, so the soldiers cannot be stationed. The stone statues are simply cancelled, resulting in the suspension cables of the bridge being able to be fixed on the bare stone beams.

Compared with the south bank of the bridge, you will feel that the buildings on the north bank are very simple. Especially after just experiencing a shock in your heart, and then looking at the buildings on the north bank, you will feel that your heart is particularly disturbed, which makes people want to get angry.

When the bridge started construction, Zhao Wu once made an argument, using buildings to conquer people's hearts and intimidate people. Now, Han Qi, deputy general of Jin, is leading the most outstanding craftsmen of Jin to build a towering swearing platform near the capital of Chu. This project is still a strategy of Zhao Wu. As a diplomat, Nu Qi knew that Zhao Wu's theory - whether this theory is in line with reality, it is a argument for Jin's rule. Nu Qi must maintain it. So he patiently explained the situation on the north bank of the river to the king of Ju, trying to eliminate the feeling of disturbance in the hearts of the king of Ju.

In fact, judging from the experience of Nu Qi crossing the river, it seems that Zhao Wu's theory of conquering people's hearts is a bit trivial. For example, when he crossed the river himself, he felt that strong spiritual shock. Just as the uncle Sun Bao beside him, the guy's face was also very abnormal. After so long, he couldn't speak.

OK, these are all off-topic...

When Nu Qi struggled to cross the newly built road in Hejian and arrived at Jicheng, he received news that Zhao Wu had rushed to Dongjin... Nu Qi looked at the wind and snow all over the sky and couldn't help but want to curse. Nu Qi's main mission was to go to Lu, tell Duke Xiang of Lu, and ask the latter to help Qi build the city wall. He accompanied the king of Ju to Hejian all the way, but just looked at Zhao Wu along the way and expressed his concern for the rule. Nu Qi himself was a strict self-disciplined person. He walked here with clear public and private affairs and could no longer accompany the king of Ju to continue walking. He had to return to Lu and supervise the king of Lu to start the construction of Qi's wall.

"So that's the end, lord, I have accompanied you to Hejian. This place is already a military-controlled area, and the rule is in this area, you..."

The pale uncle Sun Bao interrupted and explained: "Qi Ce is here. If you ask Qi Ce to receive it, the task of the doctor (female Qi) will be completed. And I... the doctor is going to Lu to hire a widow (visit) the widow, so I have to accompany the doctor."

So, in the next trip, the king of Ju State had to continue walking east alone in the wind and snow. The so-called "alone" here refers to "alone nobleman alone". There were many servants around the king of Ju State, and Qi Ce specially added guards to him. With these guards accompanying him, the important thing is that he stepped on the land of Jin State, which made the king of Ju State very at ease. Only then did he feel at ease to appreciate the scenery. Therefore, the heavy wind and snow along the way were no longer a suffering for him, but rather a unique travel experience.

Of course, only "noble people" have this kind of feeling. In order to serve the king of Ju, the servants who kept rushing in the wind and snow were not in the mood to sigh at the whiteness of the heavy snow.

The white earth is indeed the case - Zhao Wu was standing on the salt fields in Dongjin at this time, and countless giant salt ponds were introduced into the sea water, and then used windmills to send high-concentration brine to the filtration pool, drying pool, etc. The highest point on the coast is the crystal pond that winds for dozens of miles. Standing by the embankment of the crystal pond, looking over, the whiteness under his feet.

"I heard that it was snowing heavily in the eastern area. In order to prevent the snow from melting the salt in the salt pond, is it time to collect salt here?" Zhao Wu looked at the white salt grains around him with satisfaction and asked Hou Jin who was accompanying him.

Under the salt and iron monopoly method, salt is a luxury product that can be exchanged for coins. Zhao Wu's development of Hejian recently lacked the "money supply" and had to pay wages with salt and finished products... Of course, tens of thousands of workers, one copper plate per person, is 100,000. Not to mention how heavy a 100,000 copper plate is, just preparing and counting these 100,000 copper plates is a big project. In the Spring and Autumn Period, how many coins are there in the annual amount? No matter how rich the Zhao family is, he asked him to pay 100,000 copper plates per month, for several consecutive months, no one could bear it.

Therefore, the common barter transactions in the Spring and Autumn Period also appeared in the Zhao family. This phenomenon was the first time since Zhao Wu took over the family business. Zhao Wu had to use products to pay workers' salaries like the "evil" factory owner. But... perhaps out of compensation, or out of the aristocratic mentality of the Spring and Autumn Period, when Zhao Wu converted the product price, he did not convert the product at the sale price, but at the wholesale price of 20% off.

As a result, the workers he hired were very satisfied with the salt price converted by Zhao Wu. The salt from Dongjin was sent to Hejian by ship. The large amount of demand made Hou Jin's warehouse empty, and production had to be accelerated to meet the demand.
Chapter completed!