Chapter 6707 Making Money

Chapter 6707 Making Money
In Chen Xi's opinion, the period when Zhou Yu was half dead was actually an opportunity. Although Chen Xi was not very optimistic about the plan Zhou Yu made at that time, after all, it was essentially making up for it, but Chen Xi admitted one thing, that is, if Meng Kangbu really attacked, it would indeed be a good opportunity for Gan Ning, who was devoted to the country.

In the past few years, Gan Ning has been in the front line in all kinds of wind and rain. Although he has gained a lot of merits thanks to Zhou Yu's performance, this is completely inconsistent with Gan Ning's position as the head of the navy. To put it bluntly, these days, how many people still remember that Gan Ning is the unrivaled boss of the navy, and Zhou Yu is actually just the governor-general of the four seas.

Therefore, Chen Xi believed that this was also an opportunity. If everything really went as Zhou Yu had estimated, Gan Ning might be able to seize the opportunity and soar to the sky. Now, the opportunity had come.

After all, Gan Ning captured Ceylon Island, the strategic fulcrum of the Kushan Navy, which was a great achievement worthy of being awarded a title of nobility. As Gan Ning's adviser in this battle, Lu Xun got some credit from it. If his title is raised first, things will be much easier later on.

What's more, after Gan Ning's operation this time, Ceylon was taken and Malacca was still in the hands of Jiangdong. So there was a foundation for forming another navy based on Ceylon. As the chief of the navy, Gan Ning helped Lu Xun to take the throne, which was really a natural thing.

"Now Zhou Gongjin can be considered to have escaped from the pillar of shame." Fa Zheng said in a teasing tone, "However, I have to admit that he did fight very well. Even if it was just to make up for it, it is really surprising to get such a result."

"The main thing is that it can fly, which is really amazing." Jia Xu said with admiration, and then looked at Chen Xi. Chen Xi was also developing an air force, and had achieved some results. However, Zhou Yu's efficiency was even more exaggerated. He had actually developed an air force by now.

"Indeed, that guy still has some cards up his sleeve." Chen Xi nodded. "Let's wait for the accurate battle report later. Now we have only won, and the spoils have not been counted yet. We can talk about rewards after the count. Speaking of which, the number of aristocratic families in Chang'an has increased a bit outrageously recently."

Chen Xi estimated that Zhou Yu's gains this time would be exaggerated. After all, Montcomb's flagship was destroyed. In those days, except for the captains of each warship, the backbone of a navy would basically be concentrated on the flagship so that the flagship could exert its maximum combat effectiveness. As a result, the flagship was completely destroyed. To use the description in Zhou Yu's letter, it was completely blown up.

In this situation, very few people could survive. It is possible that only Montcomb, who was on the deck at the time, escaped the disaster, and everyone else was killed.

According to the previous configuration of Kushan, Chen Xi estimated that Meng Kangbu would kill two or three naval backbones of Gan Ning's level. In other words, this gain alone would be enough for other people in Jiangdong to benefit from it. However, Zhou Yu probably doesn't have the face to ask for this reward this time. When the time comes, they will just need to make an exchange of interests and give Zhou Yu a way out. Don't even think about getting more.

As a top leader in his own territory, he was assassinated by others. Chen Xi was speechless. It seems that our Han Dynasty is always having fun, right?

"There's nothing we can do. Although Central Asia has obtained considerable resources, the food is still not enough. The major families have driven some people back first. After all, there is no shortage of food in the Central Plains." Jia Xu said calmly. In his opinion, the noble families in Central Asia did nothing wrong in this matter. If there is no food to eat, then go find a place to eat. That's good.

"Oh, what's the overall situation in Central Asia now?" Chen Xi asked Jia Xu casually while looking through the intelligence on Central Asia. After all, Jia Xu had just been to Xinzhou and had just returned, so he must have a good understanding of the situation in Central Asia.

"Not very good. There is still a shortage of food, but the major families have managed to hold on." Jia Xu said with a sigh, "Local people in Parthia died a lot. There is still unrest now, but it can no longer cause much impact. The worst period has passed. Now it can only be said that it is the aftermath of cannibalism. It is not as serious as before."

Chen Xi shuddered when he heard this, and there was some reluctance in his eyes, but he still didn't say anything. It had been almost ten years since An Xi died, and it was hard to say what the composition of the Parthian survivors who had not yet been naturalized was. Humanitarian aid also had its limits. Chen Xi could not save the millions of Parthian survivors, and could only let the Han family solve it themselves. There was really no good way to deal with this matter.

"And the situation of the three families in the Persian Gulf is not very good." Jia Xu added. Chen Xi was silent for a while and said nothing. He knew very early on that the situation of these three families would not be good. After all, that area could grow sugarcane, and sugarcane could produce sugar. Not to mention the third century, in fact, in later generations, sugar was also an important strategic resource and commodity.

"Being blackmailed?" Chen Xi thought about it and asked.

"Not really. It's just that after they revealed that they can grow sugarcane and produce sugar, many people are watching them in this situation." Fa Zheng answered on behalf of Jia Xu, "The situation in the sugar industry is very complicated now, and the profits in the sugar industry are also very high."

"No need to explain this, I know it very well." Chen Xi curled his lips and said, no one knew the potential of the sugar industry better than him. Moreover, during the famine years, sugar really could save lives. Although drinking sugar water could not supplement other trace elements, it could really make you live longer.

"Rome is also eyeing it, but Rome is in a lot of trouble right now, so we can only put this matter aside for now. However, they may take action in two years at the latest." Jia Xu made his own judgment with a serious expression.

Rome did not intend to attack Cao Cao because Cao Cao was far away, while the three Persian Gulf states were next to the Persian Gulf. It was true that Rome was short-sighted, but by relying on small sampans to sail downstream along the coast, it was not a problem to hold the Persian Gulf in its hands.

What's more, in addition to bringing happiness, sugar is also a strategic resource. Moreover, these days, sugar water can cure most common diseases. Although this thing is a placebo in many cases, this placebo is really powerful and can really suppress many diseases.

In ancient times, sugar was called a panacea for a long time. The only problem was that the production of this thing was not enough.

It's not that the official production is sufficient and then deliberately curbed, but that it is actually not enough. Chen Xi has let Mi Zhu engage in the sugar industry since the Xuzhou period. Up to now, Jiaozhou grows sugarcane, Yangzhou grows sugarcane, Jingzhou grows sugarcane, and there are hundreds of large sugarcane plantations, but there is still a long way to go.

Chen Xi had no good solution to this problem. This thing was just like the steel output of the Han Dynasty. No matter how much you produced, they would consume it. Especially after the popularization of such a miraculous thing as the iron pot, Chen Xi's steel gap was getting bigger and bigger.

As I said, the military's steel consumption is nothing. The real bulk of the steel is for civilian use. Multiplying any small number by the population of nearly 100 million will produce an incredible scale. Things like steel and sugar belong to this type of thing. No matter how much you make, it will never be enough.

"We'll talk about it when the time comes. If not, let the three Persian Gulf families work for Rome and occupy the land first." Chen Xi waved his hand and said. What he had to do now was to quickly kill the Kushans in the next third five-year plan.

To be honest, if Chen Xi fails to kill the Kushans, it will be very difficult for him to do so.

Just as Zhu Helai and others judged, the Han Dynasty had actually had enough by now. It was actually Chen Xi's will that pushed it to continue fighting the Kushans, and Liu Bei also agreed with this. In addition, the Han Dynasty was thriving and there were no major problems, so it could continue to push forward.

But if they cannot defeat the enemy for a long time, the Han Dynasty will get tired. By then, they will be relieved and it will be very difficult to pick it up again later. Therefore, the third five-year plan must be implemented to kill the Kushans and complete the plan of enfeoffment.

Therefore, during this period of time, Chen Xi could make certain compromises with Rome. As long as Rome did not go too far, the Han Dynasty would still be willing to give it some way out. If Rome went too far, after the three million troops had defeated Kushan, Chen Xi would not mind taking out 200,000 from them to set an example for Rome.

Anyway, the most important task at this stage is to deal with the Kushans, and everything else can be put aside for the time being.

This is also the reason why Chen Xi was very satisfied with the performance of Zhou Yu and Gan Ning this time. This victory completely solved the problem of Chen Xi's food route being attacked when he transferred troops to the Ganges.

In fact, Chen Xi wanted to send troops to the Ganges, and the scale was as estimated before. The amount of food and grass to be mobilized from the rear was also very large. In this case, once the food supply route was attacked by the Kushans, the plan of three million troops to capture the Ganges would be ruined.

Therefore, according to Chen Xi's plan, the flag that Moncomb has planted on Ceylon must be removed by the end of next year, or no later than the middle of the year after next. Otherwise, Chen Xi's final plan would be basically impossible to achieve. After all, as long as Moncomb is still hiding on Ceylon, if Chen Xi's logistics pass through the Bay of Bengal, he will have to face the possibility that Moncomb will explode at all costs to cut off the food supply.

From a certain perspective, if Meng Kangbu was prepared to die and cut off the food supply, the Han Dynasty would have no chance of holding on to the Bay of Bengal. After all, that place is navigable during the rainy season. However, Meng Kangbu was prepared to die together with his friends, and even Zhou Yu could not stop him.

Therefore, for Chen Xi, knocking down Ceylon at this point would reduce one strategic obstacle. The only subsequent troubles would be tactical ones. There were still more than two years to solve the tactical problems, so he could just knock them down one by one.

"Speaking of which, how much is our sugar gap?" After Chen Xi spoke, Li You asked Zhuge Liang with some curiosity.

"Three hundred thousand tons." This time, Zhuge Liang didn't even bother to look up. He directly reported a number to Li You and continued to deal with his work.

"Ah, why is the gap getting bigger and bigger?" Guo Jia was confused. If he remembered correctly, there was no such gap a few years ago? When the gap appeared the year before last, it was only a few hundred tons. Why is the gap so huge this year?
Everyone looked at Chen Xi, who was helpless. There was nothing he could do. It was not that there was no gap before. It was just that they did not consider this issue before. They just did whatever they wanted, so there was no gap. Now that it has been included in the strategic reserve, it is natural to calculate the per capita demand, and then there is a gap of 300,000 tons.

To be honest, Chen Xi did not exaggerate the sugar intake of the Han people. He just calculated it based on ten kilograms per person per year. Not counting other demands and external sales, etc., this alone would require more than 350,000 tons.

Is this a lot? It's not much. The problem is that even if it's not much, Chen Xi can't make it, and the current price of white sugar is still quite outrageous. The price of a pound of sugar is basically the same as the price of a stone of rice. This is still Chen Xi's official price stabilization, otherwise the price of sugar will rise on its own.

Anyway, the rock sugar that Rome received from the Han Dynasty was all priced at over three hundred coins per pound. The problem was that even at this price, Rome would buy unlimited amounts of it. This was why the sugar factories in Kandahar were considered cash cows. After Rome inspected the sugar factories and confirmed the sugar production, it was completely acceptable for people to pay first and get the sugar later. In short, this stuff was selling like crazy all over the world.

The result of the crazy killing was that the gap in the Han Dynasty became larger and larger, so large that Chen Xi had to give up at the moment, because he had no other choice. With such a large demand, before the industrial age, only a few European countries with plantations all over the world could barely meet it.

As for the Han Dynasty, it might be possible to create it in the future, but don't count on it now. Just the area of ​​the sugarcane plantation needed to produce sugar on this scale, and the manpower needed for a sugarcane plantation of this scale, even if Chen Xi relied on those master craftsmen to successfully evolve from agricultural tools 1.0 to the level of human-powered agricultural tools 1.5 to 2.0, a plantation of this scale would still require the participation of millions of people.

This will still require the participation of at least millions of people, and this is just the planting stage. The subsequent stages will also require considerable manpower!

Although there is no problem with this operation from the perspective of output, social stability and employment, now is not the time to do this. The whole Han Dynasty is full of people who are crying out for candy and waiting to eat candy. Many people who have eaten candy for the first time are wondering what they have been doing in the first half of their lives. Eating candy is not determined by human will, but by human genes, so there is no way to resist it.

"What is the plan for sugarcane plantations in the third five-year plan?" Li You asked Chen Xi. Even though Li You would mock Yuan Shu for drinking honey water whenever he saw him, Li You also drank it himself. Among the people in the Executive Yuan, Li You's demand for sugar was at the top. After all, Li You had a group of kids and he needed to give them sugar.

"The plan is to add another 150 plantations in Jingnan, to absorb the population while restoring the local people's livelihood." Chen Xi said expressionlessly. This plan was not made by Chen Xi, but reported by Liao Li as the governor of Jingzhou. Because of the disaster caused by the aristocratic families who migrated south, there were actually not many people left in Jingnan. When Chen Xi and Liu Bei passed by, they almost reduced Jingnan to a county.

Fortunately, these unscrupulous Jingnan bureaucrats successfully used various means to get a group of people out of the mountains, and then barely maintained their status.

The problem is that these people dug out from the mountains are basically uncivilized species. In fact, they are not even Han people. It's just that these days, because these people are all in the local area, they don't care too much. The iron fist of the feudal bureaucrats, the angry hammering of the chiefs of the slave tribes, and the severe population explosion are also progress from a certain perspective.

Relying on this trick, the four counties in southern Jingzhou had no idea what outrageous method they used, but in short, they really emerged with nearly 100,000 men from the valleys in southern Jingzhou and the ravines in southern Yizhou. From a certain perspective, this is indeed an amazing ability.

On the other hand, the Han Dynasty's penetration ability was still not enough. At least there were still some unnaturalized savages in the mountains in the south. However, Chen Xi had no good solution for this. Not to mention the Han Dynasty, even in the 20th century, when the People's Republic of China came into being, there were still some people in the mountainous areas in the north and south living in the way of the third century.

Things like going down the mountain with a stick, knocking the girl you liked unconscious, and then carrying her back up the mountain to marry her were still happening until the late 1990s.

As for why they don't care much, it's because the emperor is far away and as long as there is no riot, the bureaucrats don't bother to care. It's enough to maintain it. Why put energy on this if it won't produce any gold coins?

The same goes for the Jingnan bureaucrats of the Han Dynasty. If Chen Xi and Liu Bei had not threatened them with their official hats, or even directly stated that if they couldn't even get 20,000 people, they would downsize Jingnan and compress the counties of Jingnan into a county-level organization. Damn, what a stimulus this is for the bureaucrats, and their subjective initiative is maximized.

Then, they really did recruit 100,000 people during the second five-year plan. In other words, these bureaucrats knew that there were people in the mountains before, but they completely ignored these outsiders. Now that their official hats might be damaged, they hurriedly brought these outsiders back to fill the population gap.

Chen Xi did not make any direct comments on this. Isn't that how bureaucrats work? They make as few mistakes as possible and will only make efforts if they have made contributions. If they have no contributions, then what's the point of making efforts? Just let it go.

After this effort, the population of the four southern Jing counties was successfully restored to a small half, but a new problem arose. The customs and habits of these mountain people were very different from those of the Han Dynasty. Conflicts easily occurred between the locals and the mountain people. The local governance was extremely poor, and armed conflicts often occurred.

This is simply infuriating. The bureaucrats in southern Jing hate this but don't have any good solution. In the past, they didn't arrest these people to fill the population because if they were arrested, fights would break out between them and the locals. Now they have to arrest them, because even if they are arrested, there will still be fights. They want to die, really.

Fortunately, Liao Li gave some advice: make money and take them to make money!

I left, I couldn't get up in the morning.