Chapter 869: The North Slave Problem

"According to the preliminary understanding of the end, the chaos in the north this time is probably due to our own negligence." Meng Tian was using a long report to inform King Qin who was far away in Xianyang about some things he didn't understand.

"According to the explanations of the slave prisoners of war and my local people. The leaders of the slave riots are usually the Huns and Hu people. They were originally locals and were familiar with everything on the grasslands. The advantages of the locals suddenly changed on the grasslands. It’s so important."

"The slaves rioted because they were able to organize an army of slaves to resist within an extreme period of time, but our people were unable to detain these slaves."

"...The number of slaves in the entire North exceeds one million, but the number of our two states remains at a low level, less than 400,000. Two-thirds of them are gathered in some towns. The number of people on the grassland is much lower than the number of slaves. The worst thing is. The number of slaves grows by 200,000 per year, while our population grows slowly. Because it is an extremely cold zone. There are very few people here. Will take the initiative to settle down on the grassland, and people still like urban life."

"······Our defense system also has serious loopholes. That is, the main force of the entire army is deployed along the border line. And our militias are spread out sparsely with the border line as the depth. This way. We are on the border line. The strength of the country is considered to have concentrated a certain advantage, but the rear of our two states has caused a serious emptiness."

"Not only that, we lack more power to control this huge army of slaves. Normally, we are slaves who need to take care of nearly a thousand people. In this way, we have to rely on the locals. The Huns. Or Hu people. These nomadic tribes know more about us. In the future riots, they have a certain degree of initiative, which is not a good thing for us."

"·····Although our country has already promulgated a law to stipulate that local slaves shall not be used locally. But what is the use? The transportation situation in the north is very tense. The finished industrial products in Guanzhong need to be fully filled. Only one train can depart from Xianyang. After arriving in the north. Herds of cattle, sheep, leather, and various mineral resources in the north crammed the train's wagons. On the highways and highways. There are full of goods everywhere. Vehicles. But there is no slave situation on it... "Meng Tian just got a preliminary understanding of the potential factors of slave riots. This factor has been described intuitively by Meng Tian's telegram.

The slaves used in the north of the Qin Kingdom turned out to be natives, the Huns and the Hu people. Their knowledge of the grassland was much better than that of the Qin people, even though the Qin people had advanced management methods. But they are sparsely populated. Facing the vast grassland, they urgently need a lot of manpower. And these Huns and Hu people are accustomed to the practice methods on the grassland. Therefore, they naturally became an important helper for the Qin people in managing the grassland. Moreover, the Qin people have gradually relied on such helpers. think about it. On the huge grassland. There are more than hundreds of acres of grassland that needs to be managed. Some are as high as thousands of acres or more. It is difficult to manage such a large pasture without a certain amount of help.

But Qin State couldn't produce so much. There are many places in Qin State that need immigrants, and the number of immigrants from the Western Regions newly occupied has exceeded Qin's expectations. And the whole north is a mess. The population is too sparse. The slave population far exceeds the total population of the Qin people in the north. Such a gap is very dangerous from the beginning.

The traffic situation in Qin State is also an important restrictive factor. Although Qin State has built a lot of roads, the road conditions are still tense. Even with such convenient and fast transportation methods as railways, Qin State still has great transportation difficulties.

The industrial bases around Guyang in the north have a large number of industrial products and semi-industrial products that need to be transported, in addition to more mineral resources. For example, some rare earth mines, these things are needed in a very large amount in the metallurgical industry of Qin State. In the Guanzhong area, more than half of Qin's industrial products are gathered. These industrial products need to be delivered in large quantities. Railway transportation has undoubtedly become their first choice. In this case. Slaves are much cheaper than industrial products. This also caused a large number of prisoners of war captured in the north to stay in the north instead of going south. Although Qin State clearly stipulated that local prisoners of war were not allowed to be used as slaves by law, this rule clearly could no longer be enforced in the north.

"The number of slaves in the north has far exceeded our expectations. Can our 30,000 people suppress them?" A minister in the Xianyang Palace said anxiously. The people present were all circulating this telegram. From this telegram, Qin's ministers were analyzing the reasons behind Qin's slave riot in the north.

"Although there are millions of slaves, they are scattered in various places, and it is difficult to form a whole. As long as our army concentrates on the use of troops, slave riots cannot become a big climate. Moreover, the grasslands are wide and millions of people are scattered on the grasslands. It is difficult to form a large army that poses a threat to our army." Wang Jian calmly analyzed at this time.

"Furthermore, our army is well equipped. Training and preparation are adequate. These are incomparable to those slaves. Therefore, although our army has only 30,000, it is difficult for the opponent to pose a threat even if it is a million people." Wang Jian I am very confident about this. This is indeed the case. The equipment training of the soldiers of the Qin army has far surpassed the weapons and equipment of several generations of the Huns. The reason why the Qin army was able to maintain the strength of a division for defense in the north was because of its sophisticated weapons and equipment. Although the number is small, it is elite. The threat posed by a company of more than one hundred people to the Huns usually requires the Huns to pay thousands of people to complete the attack on the Qin army. It can be seen that the equipment and training of the Qin army are better than the Xiongnu.

"En. General Wang is right." King Qin nodded at this moment in agreement with Wang Jian's analysis. However, Wang Jian bowed his hand to express his respect for King Qin and agree with him.

"But the slave problem must be resolved, otherwise such things will still happen in the north." King Qin went on to explain the source of the problem.

"My lord. The slave problem is hard to solve." Meng Yi said at this time.

"Although the Prime Minister said that the idea of ​​slave exchange is very good. However, my Qin State actually has many difficulties in operation." Meng Yi continued.

"Oh." At this time, King Qin just nodded. Didn't say anything.

"Please look at the king. This is a map of the territory of my Qin State. In the south of my Qin State. Slaves here are difficult to obtain. The South is underdeveloped. Not only is the traffic poor, but most importantly, the agriculture here lacks sufficient A lot of labor. Although our country, Qin, has encouraged a large number of hired armed forces to enter the south to capture slaves. However, the gap is so large that it is difficult to complete in a short time." Meng Yi said directly. Half of Meng Yi's work is clamoring with the economy. No one can refute Meng Yi's rhetoric on economic issues.

King Qin looked at the map seriously.

"So, where do our southern slaves mainly come from?" King Qin asked.

"Chu. It comes from Chu. Chu can get more people across the Yangtze River. But we can't. Going south is the mountain. The terrain is complicated and it's hard to catch more people," Meng Yi said.

"En." King Qin nodded.

"It's not just that there are fewer slaves. The most important thing is that transportation is very tight." Meng Yi said.

\"The important mineral resources in the north have already accounted for more than half of the railway transportation volume. Together with passenger transportation and various cargo transportation, the northern railway transportation has reached saturation. If temporary troops are transported, then Qin will stop. More than half of the passenger and freight transportation will be deployed to transport troops. If large-scale troop transportation is carried out, then our railway system will completely stop the transportation of mineral resources in the north." Meng Yi said this issue seriously.

"There is only one railway in the north, right?" King Qin said with his back to the minister, looking at the huge map hung up.

"Yes, Majesty, there is only one railway in the north. This railway is an important lifeline for us to maintain the entire northern traffic." Wei Liao suggested at this time.

"Huh." King Qin answered nothing. But just exhaled heavily. Then nothing said. The railway network of Qin State is under construction. In some places, one railway is already considered very good. In some places, there is no railway. But the situation of the railway worries King Qin very much, in some important places. Qin had only one railway to maintain this situation. This made him feel a sense of crisis.

There is also a sense of crisis in Shangwen in Yandu.

"A large-scale slave riot broke out in the north." Shang Wen looked at the long telegram sent by Meng Tian. Shang Wen didn't pay attention to Yandu's affairs for the time being. When the assistant handed him the report, he showed only surprise. He was really surprised. A riot broke out in the north at this time. Qin State is already messy enough. There are so many things happening at this time. Shang Wen felt a headache. But he resisted reading all the reports.

"This matter is very tricky. What we can do now is to suggest that the king should mobilize troops from the Guanzhong area to suppress it. As for other methods, we have no other way." Shang Wen said helplessly.

"Boom." Just when Shangwen spoke to his assistant. The door rang at this time.

"Come in." Shang Wen said.

Entering is a Lieutenant Zhao Jun.

"What's the matter?" Shang Wen asked.

"This is a letter from our battalion commander who asked me to personally give you to the prime minister." The lieutenant said respectfully.

"Oh. Take it over and let me have a look." Shang Wen stretched out his hand and said.