Chapter 697: The unexpected development of the South

The working class of the Zhao State believes that it is necessary to elect a highly respected person to serve as their representative. And it is better for this representative to have some influence. Especially in terms of force. Can show their loyalty to the country.

In the state of Zhao, the spirit of martial arts has always been the most respected by Zhao people. So this also determines that they have to choose a soldier as their representative. At the beginning, they fixed this kind of representation on several military governors, but the prime minister’s election was at the central level, which is the central system of the country. Several local military chiefs obviously do not have such prestige. For this reason, they chose the most prestigious general in the Zhao country, Li Mu.

So the working class began to look for opportunities to contact Li Mu. And Li Mu didn't care about the election of the prime minister. In his eyes, this was another new trick Qin State made. It's better not to get in touch with this new trick prematurely.

Li Mu agrees with advanced technology. After all, his view on weapons has changed his initial understanding of technology. Technology can raise warfare to a new level. However, if new things are used rashly, there is still a certain impropriety. . This is Li Mu's view.

Li Mu is obviously somewhat insensitive to politics. But regarding Zhao Guo’s interests, he believes that Qin’s so-called democratic politics is a big problem. But where is the specific problem? He doesn't know either. After all, Qin has not had any major affair, and South Korea, which is dependent on Qin, has not adopted this so-called democratic politics. In short, it is better not to touch this so-called democratic politics.

The working class of Zhao State has regarded Li Mu as their only spokesperson. For this reason, they began to actively go to Handan to petition Li Mu as the elector of the new prime minister. But Li Mu was in Xianyang of Qin Dynasty at this time. Not in Handan. He still doesn't know about it.

However, Zhao's prime minister election made the other six countries feel a little excited. Especially the Jixia Academy in Qi State. At the end of the Warring States period, people of all genres felt that they could take this opportunity to develop their careers. They all learned about the previous elections of the State of Qin, and when they learned the news, the State of Qin had already completed the election, and it was a young man they had never heard of before.

However, they didn't care much about the development of the Qin State. What they cared about was their own fame and the reputation of their own genre. For a country, this kind of utilitarianism still has a somewhat negative impact.

Since the Qin State’s election has not caught up, Zhao State is holding an election. They decided to try Zhao State. Maybe there will be a Zhao State Zhongxing, and the rise of Central Plains will check and balance the situation of Qin State’s dominance. This kind of feat can be done. Leave a strong mark in history.

Regarding Zhao's election, other countries are not very concerned about it. Especially Chu and Yan, Yan was busy with war, and Chu was as chaotic as Qin. The upper-class nobles are divided into several factions. There are conspiring rebels, saying they are conspiring, but this is close to publicity, but no one has reported publicly. This is a little weird to say, which makes the conspiracy a bit confusing. The king of Chu is not of royal blood, but the son of Jun Shenjun. This kind of rumors spread widely among the people, but people just regarded him as a talker and didn't take him seriously, while the conspirators regarded him as a reason for overthrowing the king of Chu. And preparations have already begun.

Other Chu aristocrats are busy stepping up their efforts to develop to the south of the Yangtze River. In particular, they rediscovered another way to make a fortune. That is the evil slave trade.

The Qin State had a strong demand for slaves, especially in the Bazhong area, which had completed large-scale land mergers and newly cultivated land development. Because of the small population, there are a lot of land resources, especially arable land. Coupled with the large-scale promotion of new crops, especially rice and wheat. In the traditional strategy of the Qin State, Bazhong has always been the reserve granary of the Qin Empire. Therefore, the Bazhong area is another important grain production area in Qin State after Guanzhong and the northern Hetao, and it is also the most important commercial grain area in Qin State.

However, after the merger of the land in this area, the grain output has dropped sharply, especially the disproportionate proportion of the sowing and harvesting of grain. This situation is mainly due to insufficient labor input. Due to the blockage of the entire Qinling Mountains, some large agricultural machinery and equipment of the Qin State could not be transferred to the southern Bashu area. In the Guanzhong of Qin State, agricultural mechanization has been realized, and there are a large number of slaves transported by rail in the northern Hetao area. However, the Bashu area is difficult to reach due to inconvenient transportation, especially for slaves from the north. In addition, the demand for the use of slaves in Qin is extremely strong.

Almost all railway lines in the western part of the Qin State were built by Western Regions. Without these Westerners as prisoners of war, I am afraid that Qin will not be able to complete such a huge amount of railway construction in just a few months.

In this way, the demand for railway construction consumes most of the slave supply. However, the southern Bashu region is facing a situation where there are no slaves available. However, the Qin people still have their own way. That is, use force to obtain it nearby.

The local people in the Bashu area are mainly Ba people. These Ba people are naturally short, but most of these Ba people surrender to the Qin State, and the Qin people cannot attack these areas. But Qin urgently needed a large number of slaves to meet the needs of agricultural production. For this reason, the people of Qin went south again. In Xiangnan, they were also a country that surrendered to Qin on the surface. This country was Yelang, but the Qin was against Yelang. The jurisdiction of the government seemed very loose, and in fact it was the same. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Yelang Kingdom quickly got rid of the control of the Qin Dynasty, and did not return to the jurisdiction of the central government until the Han Dynasty.

It was such a country where the mercenaries of Qin, especially those who seized slaves, chose Yelang as an important source of slaves. However, the southern population is relatively sparse, and Yelang is close to some mountainous areas, which makes the cost of capturing slaves higher. The demand for slaves in the Bashu region is far greater than the supply. This supply is slowly conveyed to the north of the Qin State in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. port.

More and more merchant ships in Chu State are anchored at Qin State Wharf. Qinguo Wharf not only has fast loading and unloading speed, but also has very convenient berthing services and commercial trade. Especially in terms of information exchange, it is faster than that of Shouyang, the capital of Chu State. What the Qin State lacks, Chu merchants will soon know. Because they have to do business with Qin people in order to obtain commercial benefits.

Soon, the information about the lack of a large number of slaves in the upper reaches of the Bashu area reached the dock. In particular, the newspaper reported this incident, but the Qin government paid no attention to it. But the merchants of Chu State keenly saw business opportunities.

There are many Yue people in the southern part of Chu State. The number of more people is also higher. It's just that the special climate and geographical environment in the south is not very suitable for combat. This is something that Chu merchants don't want to see.

"Qin people need a large number of slaves in Bashu. At least this number." As he spoke, a Chu businessman stretched out five fingers.

"Fifty thousand?" another thin Chu State businessman called.

"Can it be 50,000?" The Chu businessman said disdainfully.

"Could it be..." the thin Chu State businessman exclaimed in surprise.

"Above 500,000." Chu businessman said.

"So much!" other Chu businessmen said in surprise.

"Yes, think about it, Qin has already developed in the south. I heard that arresting people there is particularly unsatisfactory. And how many more people are in the south of Chu country. These more people are natives, how ignorant. We might as well be the Qin people. Same, anyway, we also have weapons in our hands." The Chu businessman said excitedly.

"This" merchants began to hesitate.

"Think about it. The Qin people can defeat the Huns in the north. Why can't we Chu people do that?" The Chu businessman said excitedly.

"Besides, I have all thoughts about it." This Chu businessman obviously came here with preparations.

"This is a map of the State of Qin," he said, the businessman took out a map of the entire China drawn by the State of Qin. This kind of map was drawn according to the huge sand table of the General Staff of the State of Qin. Moreover, as long as this area is occupied by the Qin State, there are more detailed latitude and longitude coordinates. In the areas not controlled by the Qin State, there are only rough and crude drawings, but this drawing has expanded people’s sights because people still don’t know that the southern regions can be reached through the ocean, especially the further south. And connecting these south is the ocean.

"Give me a place, this map clearly indicates that there are large tracts of land in our Wuyue area to the south, and these land, if you go from the land, are some poor mountains and bad waters." After that, all the merchants Nodded in agreement.

"But these areas, especially in the east, are all sea. What do we rely on for food? We rely on boats. Our boats can travel on the Yangtze River, so why not go from the sea to the southern lands." Chu merchants shouted. Said. At this time, all the merchants were relieved.

"Yes, we can bypass these mountains and land from the sea, then we catch people nearby, and then transport people to Bashu area through the Yangtze River, and then we transport the rice from Bashu back to Chu, or come to Jiangbei Port. , Bring these industrial products from the Qin State back. This is several times more profitable." A businessman said excitedly.

"I said, more than that, think about it, everyone."

"In addition to these, there are also many things in the South. Qin’s newspaper said that there are any spices in the South. This thing is in great demand by the ladies of Chu. Not only can they be bought for those women, but the women of Qin also particularly like it. How expensive are those Qin State perfumes." A businessman stood up and said.

"Not only spices, but also land, where tea can be grown and salt can be dried."