Chapter 6719 Capture alive

Chapter 6719 Capture alive
"I've been calculating the expenses of the Shaofu recently. It seems that there are quite a lot of them. I may have to hold a small meeting with Your Highness to discuss whether to allocate funds from the inner treasury. However, if funds are allocated from the inner treasury, the price will also be reviewed, so it should be cheaper." Chen Xi only glanced at Si Niang and knew what she was thinking. With the idea of ​​strengthening Si Niang when there was nothing to do, Chen Xi chuckled.

When Liu Bei heard this, he glanced at Chen Xi. He didn't understand all this, but he was very familiar with Chen Xi. Just by hearing this, he knew that Chen Xi was teasing Concubine Xian again.

"Here, these are for you." Si Niang directly opened the drawers of other food boxes, which contained all kinds of food. She looked like she was trying to shut Chen Xi up. How should I put it? At certain times, Si Niang was still very smart.

"Okay, stop teasing the concubines." Liu Bei said to Chen Xi in a bad mood. Normally, court officials should stay away from concubines, but these days, this aspect is not very strict. In addition, Liu Tong's harem only has Si Niang, so many restrictions are no longer restrictions for Si Niang.

"It's just a joke. I said it all those years ago that the Shaofu will take care of it. As for whether it's expensive or not, that's not a problem." Chen Xi said to Si Niang with a smile, "Also, try not to go out shopping. If you need anything, just find the Shaofu Cheng, and he will solve it for you."

"The Minister of the Imperial Household believes that humans cannot eat thirty meals of mutton for ten consecutive days. I think I can." Si Niang said seriously.

This statement made Chen Xi silent. After a long while, Chen Xi shook his head and said, "I think what the Minister of the Imperial Household is right. Humans really can't be like this."

Liu Bei didn't want to respond at this time. It was impossible for a normal human being to have such a situation. No wonder Si Niang went out of the palace to buy things for herself. The Shaofu was also afraid that the concubine would have problems with the food. Si Niang was not an immortal at all. After Chen Xi realized this, he asked Hua Tuo and Ji Xiang to come for a special diagnosis. In the end, it was confirmed that all the functions of Si Niang's body were functioning. In other words, she was a living person.

As for why Si Niang, as a living person, has so many strange skills, well, this may be Si Niang's own problem, but no matter what, Si Niang is a living person, so the palace kitchen must provide her with a regular and fixed amount of food.

For example, the Marquis of Huaiyin and the Lord of Wu'an are orthodox immortals, so there is no such thing as eating badly, so they can be treated as they please. But Si Niang is a living person and a concubine, so she should be managed with the same management as concubines. She eats mutton every day and gets prickly heat. Can the chef be held responsible?

That's not funny, so after confirming Si Niang's condition, the things she ate became closer to Liu Tong's. Although the restrictions were relaxed, no matter how relaxed they were, it was impossible for Si Niang to eat mutton for ten days in a row. After all, she was a concubine of the Han Dynasty, not Yanshi of the Xiongnu.

Even the Xiongnu's Lady Yanshi should not eat mutton for ten consecutive days. Something is wrong with the process. Is she getting carried away?

"Forget it, this is not the problem of the Minister of the Imperial Household." Chen Xi was silent for a while and then said, "Even if you like a certain food, you can't eat it like this, because if something goes wrong, the Minister of the Imperial Household and the Kitchen will be in trouble."

Even if Chen Xi took the responsibility, if something went wrong with Si Niang's food, the people in charge of the Shaofu and the kitchen would be very troubled, and might even be attacked by the outer court.

"Si Niang!" At this moment Liu Tong appeared from behind the screen wall with a team of guards and palace maids, and greeted Si Niang.

After Si Niang destroyed the snacks and ran away, Liu Tong knew where she had gone. However, the food Si Niang brought back would be given to him, so Liu Tong didn't care. As a result, Si Niang ran away for half an hour and didn't come back. Liu Tong thought Si Niang was lost again.

It sounds outrageous, but this kind of thing really happened several times in Shanglin Garden. She was beaten by Di Lu, taken away by the adult golden tabby sent by Stina, pecked by the elephant bird sent by the Wu family, and so on. In short, embarrassing things happened to Si Niang more than once. So when Si Niang was teleported away and did not teleport back for half an hour, Liu Tong came to find her with the palace maids.

There was no other way. As the only concubine of the Han Empire, she could not walk when going out but had to rely on teleportation, so she usually had neither palace maids nor guards around her.

"Greetings, Her Royal Highness the Princess." Chen Xi and Liu Bei both bowed and saluted, and Liu Tong also returned the salute.

"Si Niang, I was wondering if you were lost somewhere again." Liu Tong came over and pulled Si Niang's bun and said with a smile.

"I'm just learning new knowledge from Lord Chen." Si Niang quickly explained after Liu Tong grabbed her vitals, "I learned some new things today."

"What is it?" Liu Tong asked curiously.

Si Niang quickly told Liu Tong what she had learned today, and Liu Tong frowned as he listened. After listening, he looked at Chen Xi, blinked, and almost said, "Chen Zichuan, do you have any fun lying to a fool?"

Chen Xi laughed dryly. He could fool most people with some things, but it was difficult to fool Liu Bei and Liu Tong. Liu Bei did so because he had worked with Chen Xi for many years, while Liu Tong simply did not believe Chen Xi's nonsense. Eight thousand coins for a sheep? Liu Tong would still believe what others said, talking about flavor and taste, but when Chen Xi talked about this, it was completely nonsense.

For such words, Liu Tong would usually cut the price down, from 8,000 wen to 800 wen. Sometimes Liu Tong even doubted whether this thing was worth 800 wen. However, he had no evidence and could not say it too directly. However, this did not prevent Liu Tong from expressing his doubts about Chen Xi in this regard.

Chen Xi laughed dryly upon seeing this. Although Liu Tong did not have certain cognitions, he had a strong intuition and could call upon Chen Xi's thinking logic. In addition, many people actually had doubts about Chen Xi's Shaofu Special Tribute and Royal Selection methods. However, the flavor and taste were indeed very different from other mutton, so much so that everyone who ate it felt that this thing must have a premium, but not too exaggerated.

There's no other way. I've already spent eight thousand coins to buy this stuff, so of course I have to find a top chef to prepare it. Even if it's a home-grown chef, when he gets this so-called top-grade ingredient, he will use all his skills to prepare it.

The quality of the food itself has an advantage of about 10%, and it is processed even better. The cooks are more skilled and more willing to put in the effort, so the final product tastes much better than anything you have eaten before. This is normal.

If you take into account the style of Shaofu Special Contribution and Royal Selection, and change to an environment where you can eat "high-end ingredients", there are indeed many people willing to accept this price. After all, this is not something you eat every day, and most people are willing to accept an occasional luxury. After all, if you can get this level, it is indeed much more delicious than what you can eat in ordinary places and most other places.

This is also the key to why this gameplay is not only playable but also sustainable, because after all this trouble, the things that come out are really delicious. Although the advantage brought by the ingredients is really only 10%, the rest depends on the later stage. If you are really willing to work hard, ordinary ingredients can also achieve more than 90% of this level of flavor, but how many people will put in this kind of effort on ordinary ingredients.

There’s a saying that goes, a restaurant that can make its signature dishes out of home-cooked meals is a real talent, while top-notch dishes that are made by piling up ingredients are just so-so, because the former requires real skills, while the latter is something that can be mastered with practice.

After all, the quality of ingredients has a great impact on the final output. Most high-end ingredients can get quite good reviews if they are cooked a little bit and retain their original flavor. However, if ordinary ingredients are to be cooked to the same level as high-end ingredients, the requirements for chefs are extremely high.

"Generally speaking, the ingredients produced by the Shaofu are indeed of better quality than others." Liu Bei said relatively fairly. There is nothing wrong with this matter. The quality is indeed good, but it would be too much to say that this quality is worth ten times the price.

"Right, just tell me if it's delicious?" Chen Xi said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Liu Tong glanced at Chen Xi and said nothing. He tugged at Si Niang and motioned for her to follow him back. Over the years, Liu Tong had almost realized that in terms of economy, all of them combined were still quite far away from Chen Xi, so there was no need to dwell on this aspect.

Before leaving, Si Niang took away a few of Cookie's melons. This is why Cookie thought that there were too many pests in Shanglinyuan and there was no way to clean them up.

Regarding these pests today, what kind of pesticide do you think we should use?

"Zichuan's economic performance is indeed shocking." Liu Bei said with some emotion. He didn't understand this, but the top leaders were really willing to pay attention to whether the lives of the people under their rule were good or bad. In fact, they knew it very well in their hearts. It was obvious that the situation of the Han Dynasty was getting better every year.

"It's nothing. It's just about breaking away from land output and freeing some people from heavy agricultural production to join the handicraft industry that can provide higher output. In fact, most of these things nowadays are just barely separated from the handicraft workshops." Chen Xi said with some emotion. However, the terrifying part is that just by barely breaking away from the handicraft workshops, the profits created have crushed agricultural output.

Even if Chen Xi had not bought back as much grain as possible, manufactured other products, and maintained grain prices, ordinary people, that is, farmers who accounted for more than 90% of this era, would probably have been forced to leave their hometowns and enter handicraft workshops because of the excessively low grain prices.

This is actually the dilemma that Chen Xi mentioned before. If the grain is not repurchased and the grain price is not stabilized, and the grain price continues to fall to four cents per dou of rice, the interests of farmers cannot be guaranteed. The agricultural population will inevitably be forced to develop handicrafts, and then the development of the Han Dynasty's industrial system will be accelerated, creating more profits, and then further squeezing the living space of the agricultural population.

In the end, the agricultural population accounted for the largest number and suffered the greatest loss. They could have enough food to eat, but could not think about anything else. It was indeed a prosperous era, but compared with the handicraft industry, it had no future. They could only hold on to that little piece of land and earn from the meager output of the land.

Theoretically, if Chen Xi takes this path, he can accumulate wealth in a short period of time that the Han Dynasty has not accumulated in 400 years. Even with the development of just over a decade, he can directly surpass the accumulation of thousands of years in the feudal era. But if this pattern is formed, the road ahead will be determined, and even the sleepers under the rolling wheels of industry can be said to be prepared in advance.

As for repurchase, that is what Chen Xi is doing now, repurchasing land output and continuously subsidizing agriculture with the basic industrial system. The end result is that local people can live well by farming, and there will not be a large number of people to supplement and strengthen the industrial system.

Although in this situation, people with lofty ideals and knowledge will continue to invest in this basic industrial system to allow it to continue to develop, it is basically impossible to rapidly surpass the accumulation of thousands of years of feudalism like the former.

The basic logic behind the so-called Industrial Revolution in one year surpassing two thousand years of feudalism is that the bloodiness of industrialization before its outbreak was not much less than that of two thousand years of feudalism. Some things, some future, can only be achieved through sacrifice.

Chen Xi's current situation is that he really relies on the Han Dynasty as a first-mover empire, with sufficient resources and territory, and the ability to restrain itself. Otherwise, the industry would have eaten people alive long ago.

To put it bluntly, didn't the Han family see that the price of wool was higher than that of mutton? Didn't they know that the simplest solution at this time was to destroy the northern people's homes and families, and then let the ranch receive these exiled people for transformation, and then promote wool spinning on a large scale?
Apart from other things, they pushed forward batch by batch, county by county. After a few years, millions of refugees were squeezed out from the north. It was definitely not a problem not to cause unrest. But why didn't it happen? Was it because the Han family was kind? Was it because the Han family didn't think of it? None of them. They didn't dare!

When wool spinning first came out, the northern noble family who realized the potential of this thing was eliminated by Li You before even the Yuanfeng year arrived.

Chen Xi drew the line and told all the families clearly that when I am moving in a certain direction, you can exert force in other directions, but you cannot go against my direction. If I say go east, you can go northeast, southeast, or even directly south or north, but if you go west, you will die!

Chen Xi still controls the entire industrial system and economic framework today. This is because if the current level is handed over to Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang may not be able to withstand the impact of the major families. He can only hand it over to Zhuge Liang bit by bit, allowing him to verify, recognize, and understand it.

Because this thing is not as benevolent as the Confucians said in the Three Kings era, nor is it as clear-cut as the Legalists said, nor is it a magic weapon to bring peace and prosperity to the world. In essence, this thing came to the world more to allow some people to eat humans in a more efficient way!
In other words, this thing has a big problem at its root, it just works properly when used properly. Chen Xi's cautious operation is only to avoid backlash one day.

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere." After leaving Weiyang Palace, Liu Bei grabbed Chen Xi and prepared to take Chen Xi to somewhere outside the city.

"Where should we go? Why not go to General Guan? I remember that General Guan has been recuperating in Chang'an these days and has been barbecuing every day?" Chen Xi said casually. Having said that, Chen Xi still followed the direction of Liu Bei's effort and headed in the opposite direction of Guan Yu's residence.

"Yun Chang is organizing a barbecue party tonight. We are still preparing now, so you can't eat there." Liu Bei said casually, "Let me go to a place to check it out first, and then come back to eat barbecue in the evening."

"Really?" Chen Xi was quite surprised when he heard this. He hadn't received the invitation letter yet, so how did Liu Bei know about it?

"Yunchang has already sent people to notify each family. Do you still need an invitation letter?" Liu Bei said unhappily. With this distance and this relationship, why do you need an invitation letter? You are just looking for trouble, right? When the time comes, Guan Yu will come to notify you. You don't have anything to do, so just take the baby over.

"Is there anything magical here?" Following Liu Bei, he got on a long carriage with five pairs of wheels, and then drove at super high speed towards Lantian County. At this speed, Chen Xi estimated that it would only take more than an hour to reach Lantian County.

As for why it was a long carriage with five pairs of wheels, it was because with the establishment of standard tracks, the advantages of long-carriage four-wheeled carriages in terms of load and comfort were too obvious, and they quickly surpassed the previous two-wheeled carriages. Then, as horses developed more obviously under the stimulation of the essence of heaven and earth, carriages with more wheels, larger carriages, and heavier loads appeared.

The one Liu Bei is currently using is almost as good as the rear compartment of later vans. Naturally, it far outclasses the previous two-wheeled carriages in terms of comfort and safety. To put it bluntly, if Qin Shihuang had ridden this thing, he would have been hit by Zhang Liang's sledgehammer and nothing would have happened. The material of the lining of this thing is the same as that used by shield guards.

Although Liu Bei felt that it was unnecessary, Li You still persuaded Liu Bei not to seek death by saying that a son of a wealthy family should not sit in the hall. If he was unlucky enough to encounter a spy from the Kushan Empire lurking in the Han Dynasty, and the spy suddenly attacked him without any plan, it would be a big disaster.

Liu Bei thought about it and it was true. He had some habits of a knight-errant. Although Xu Chu was his bodyguard, he would sometimes run away on his own on a whim without taking Xu Chu with him. Considering that that unlucky kid Zhou Yu was killed on the spot by the unplanned and accidental assassination by the Kushan veteran, Liu Bei finally remembered that he had such a thing during his travels during this period.

"I'll take you to Lantian and let you see it." Liu Bei said happily.

"Are there any strange things in Lantian again?" Chen Xi asked curiously. Liu Bei smiled and did not answer directly. He just asked the driver to speed up and drove all the way to Lantian.

Galloping all the way to Lantian County, and before entering the urban area, Chen Xi saw the eighty-year-old new chief elder of the Yuan family, Yuan Sui, the seventy-something second elder, Yuan Tao, and a group of old guys from the Yuan family besieging Kong Rong. Chen Xi was stunned and turned to look at Liu Bei, who was also stunned.

"Lord Xuande, you are not so bored, are you? You have been running for almost an hour just to see the Yuan family and the Yang family surround Kong Changshi?" Chen Xi said to Liu Bei helplessly. Although this could be considered interesting, it was really too much to run nearly a hundred miles to see this.

"Well, I'm not that bored. I originally wanted to take you to see the new way of universal education in Lantian County. To some extent, it has indeed achieved what you thought back then. But before I took you there, you encountered this." Liu Bei said somewhat embarrassedly. He was not such a boring person. How could he run hundreds of miles to watch the elders of a big family fighting in a group? For such a thing, people like him would run a few miles at most, not hundreds of miles.

"Kong Wenju, hand over those people you took away, otherwise don't blame us, the Yuan family, for being too ruthless!" Yang Chang pulled Kong Rong's sleeve and shouted loudly. Things had come to this point, of course the Yuan family had to take the blame. Besides, there were many Yuan family members present, so as long as they were careful, the Yang family would most likely not reveal that they had beaten Kong Rong, the university president.

"The people have been sent overseas long ago!" Kong Rong was very tough even though he was held by Yuan Yang. If it weren't for the grand court meeting at the end of the year, Kong Rong would have gone to New Zealand to live out his fantasy pastoral life. Now you're asking him for people? No one! You want my life? I'm right here, let's see if you can kill me!

"Overseas? Not a single ship can enter the sea in Southeast Asia! What the hell are you sending me to overseas!" Yuan Sui said angrily. Their Yuan family had been keeping an eye on the technical staff in the animal husbandry industry from a long time ago, but in the blink of an eye, all the people were gone, including the principal. Damn it, our Yuan family has connections everywhere, but we can still let you go to sea!

"Jiangdong, right? You have strong connections, right? We don't have strong connections, right?" Kong Rong said very firmly, but this was not empty talk. The Yuan family did have strong connections in Jiangdong. After all, Sun Ce was half of Yuan Shu's son, so his connections were terrifying. But so what? My Kong family has no connections? If we can't find Sun Ce, we can't find the Jiangdong family either. What a low-level bureaucrat in a confidential position can do is no less than what you, a big shot, can do.

"This world still belongs to Confucianism!" Kong Rong said unconvinced.

"Stop talking nonsense, take him back. Where is our newly elected Patriarch of the Kong Family?" Yang Chang called out to Yuan Sui, "Principal, you can't be so ruthless, right? It doesn't matter, we have the Patriarch of the Kong Family!"

Chen Xi leaned out and looked at the group of people pushing and shoving each other, cursing and angrily. It was a good show. However, it was a bit outrageous that the Yang family was so underhanded that they even found a new head of the Kong family. This was really beastly. But when you think about it, there were indeed many people in the Kong family who were dissatisfied with Kong Rong. The factions of Confucianism were reflected in the Kong family itself. Toppling Kong Rong and electing a new head of the Kong family seemed to be a solution.

"Don't you want to take care of it?" Liu Bei asked Chen Xi who was retreating.

"What do I care?" Chen Xi replied casually.

Seeing a large group of arrogant guys getting on the cart nearby, they were so focused that they didn't even notice him. Among them, Yuan Yang's clan elder Kong Rong stood in the middle, looking straight ahead, and couldn't help but teasing, "It's okay if the noble families are fighting and don't disturb the people."

Please vote for the monthly ticket at the beginning of the month. I will watch something more in the afternoon. Sigh