latelenovela Chapter 292
Chapter 292
Chapter 292: Enemy? That’s all good labor!.
In the era of farming, one percent of the population of a country’s capital was actually porters! This in itself has to be said to be a miracle!
Only when the Song Dynasty had a developed economy and frequent commercial activities would raise tens of thousands of porters in the capital.
And these are only porters who depend on loading and unloading goods for a living, and the rest of the textile workers, paper workers, carpenters and bricklayers, shop keepers, cooks, and street vendors are even more numerous.
If you count all of this, there are hundreds of thousands of people in Bianliang City who make a living by working.
Not to mention, in the Great Zhou Dynasty, with the conscious development of industry and commerce by Chai Hao, the crosser, the industry and commerce and economy of the Great Zhou were much more prosperous than in the Zhao and Song dynasties.
So much so that for a time it led to many new workshops, and there was a shortage of workers. As for why the larger number of peasants in the Central Plains did not work?
The answer is very simple, although the national policy of Da Zhou develops industry and commerce, it has not forgotten that agriculture is the foundation of the country!
Chai Hao’s development of industry and commerce, as well as the imperial merchants and the official merchants set up by the imperial court, obtained a lot of profits and taxes in a reasonable way. Then they took the money and bought from the peasants surplus grain that had been paid taxes and deducted from rations.
In this way, the surplus grain in the hands of the peasants was replaced by heavy copper money, and at the same time, it also ensured that the rations of their own families were not worse than those of work.
What’s more, as Chai Hao destroyed the Jin Kingdom and swept through the old land of the Liao Kingdom, he also obtained a large number of horses, cattle and sheep.
Among them, the pack horses and cattle, which were not suitable as war horses, were sold or leased to the people by Chai Hao ordering the Great Zhou court.
This is not a small amount, hundreds of thousands of horses and hundreds of thousands of cattle, almost a million farmers in Dazhou, have large livestock that can cultivate more land.
Coupled with those earnest farmers who originally had cattle at home, the hard work of the farmers of the Great Zhou Dynasty in farming was greatly reduced, and the surplus grain could be sold to the imperial court, and the imperial court also gave a fair price for Tong Suo.
As a result, the peasant days of the Great Zhou rose sharply for the better than when Zhao and Song were in power. Therefore, most farmers who are accustomed to farming are also reluctant to work.
Of course, it does not mean that the work is harder than farming, but in today’s Dazhou, both of them are similar for the people, and they can make their lives better.
This is why there are many new industries and businesses in Dazhou, but there is a shortage of workers. But this is nothing to Chai Hao.
Because in front of his eyes, there are hundreds of thousands of laborers in plain sight!
Yes, the 300,000 combined army of various tribes led by Xiao Gan is, in Chai Hao’s eyes, 300,000 strong laborers!
And the horses, cattle and sheep owned by these tribes together were enough for the Great Zhou to allow almost all peasant households, each of which had a ploughing cow or horse!
As for those flocks, they can provide countless meat to the people of Dazhou and improve their lives.
Wool is also a good thing, which can be made into woolen clothes to keep the people warm, and even wool coats and other light luxuries that dignitaries and ladies like.
Therefore, Chai Hao wants to move the combined forces of these tribes, together with people and cattle and horses, to Dazhou!
Cows and horses can be sold or leased to people who have not yet cultivated cattle, or they can be rented and sold at a higher price to some industrial and commercial workshops to pull and rotate manual machines.
As for those laborers, they can be used as porters and coal diggers, building rivers and canals, and so on.
There is a precedent for this, and the defeated and captured Jurchens and the Bohai servants and traitors were all sent by Chai Hao to dig coal on Hedong Road.
If we add these 300,000 laborers, many new projects in Dazhou can be built at a very low cost. After all, for these enemies, there is no need to worry about squeezing their labor.
But for his own people, if they were allowed to serve the heavy labor conscription, Chai Hao would be distressed.
First, Chai Hao loves the people like a son, and second, since ancient times, the demise of a country has come either from external enemies or from within. Sometimes, foreign enemies cannot destroy the Central Plains Dynasty, but the common people cannot survive, so they will turn into flames of resistance and burn the decaying dynasty.
What Chai Hao had to do was to treat the people kindly, be considerate of the people, curb mergers and develop industry and commerce, and open up the territory so that there would be no internal contradictions, and bind the interests of every common person in the Great Zhou to the state of the Great Zhou.
In this way, how can the hearts of all the people under the world not stand on the side of the Great Zhou Imperial Court?
Moreover, with these prisoner of war labor, the people of the Great Zhou could be exempted from conscription, and they were also willing to pay taxes to the imperial court as money for exemption from conscription.
The imperial court was also able to obtain substantial taxes.
In this way, a good economic cycle was established, making the national strength of the Great Zhou stronger and stronger, and the people’s life getting better and better. It’s just that those former enemies have a harder time.
But even so, it was Chai Hao and Da Zhou’s gift to them.
Because they had taken the initiative to invade the Great Zhou, if Chai Hao did not want to capture them as labor, as long as he gave an order, the Great Zhou Iron Horse was enough to trample them into meat mud in one day.
Therefore, the alliance armies of these grassland tribes should thank Zhou Emperor Chai Hao, because Chai Hao did not kill them, but only wanted 763 to atone for his sins as hard labor, which was already the greatest mercy to them.
You must know that the once invincible Jurchens of the Jin Kingdom, most of the Ding Zhuang were destroyed by Chai Hao, and only a few Qingzhuang were exempted from beheading, but were punished as mine slaves and worked until death.
Although he will die sooner or later, he will at least live a little longer than if he was killed at that time.
For these people, they can live a little longer, even if they are hard labor, they can’t finish the work every day, and sometimes they face the danger of collapsing and dying, but if they can live one more day, it is also a day.
At the same time, it can also create a lot of value for Dazhou. So, it’s also waste.
What’s more, since ancient times, killing prisoners has been ominous and undermines the prestige of the emperor, but punishing prisoners as hard labor has both the reputation of a benevolent prince and the practical benefits, so why not?
Therefore, in Chai Hao’s eyes, isn’t the 300,000 coalition troops on the opposite side 300,000 laborers?
However, before that, it is also necessary to screen out those who are unruly and unambitious among the coalition forces.
He had just sent a message to Xiao Gan, making Xiao Gan kneel and march forward, humiliating Xiao Gan and the 300,000 allied troops of the Xi Kingdom, just to test the leaders of these tribes and influential aristocratic generals.
Their attitude determines whether Chai Hao destroys these people or stays….