Chapter 580: It's too hard for me (please vote and subscribe)
The nomadic tribes soon decided to donate land to the Han tribe. The final area was four times larger, about ten kilometers long and wide. It sounds big, but it's nothing for the vast grassland.
But the final location has not been determined. It has to wait for specific exploration and measurement before it can be determined. Now the two sides are only discussing the area.
It means that no matter where your Han tribe occupies in the future, you can only choose the area near the lake, and the area can only be ten kilometers long and wide. It won't work if it's larger.
Of course, this was proposed by Youfu, and the reason was: We Han tribes can take any land, it doesn't matter. The main purpose of this land is to build docks and warehouses, so we have to find a location that is most suitable for building docks, otherwise it will be useless to just mark a piece of land.
The nomadic leaders, led by Su Ritu, took the initiative to ask for more territory for the Han tribe. The first reason was to show goodwill to the Han tribe and win them over. The second reason was to facilitate future transactions. After all, most of the livestock that the nomadic tribe could exchange were livestock. After exchanging these livestock with the Han tribe, the Han tribe could not take them away immediately. They would need a pasture to temporarily settle them, right? So they did this.
Youfu was not afraid of this. Wouldn't it be good to have more land? The Han tribe didn't mind having more land. With land, there would be output, and with output, there would be money. Who would mind having too much money?
After the agreement was reached, all the leaders participating in the negotiation, including Youfu, led by Su Ritu, planned to kill cattle and swear an oath in the way of the grassland.
On the morning of the third day after arriving at the grassland, it was unknown where these leaders found a pure white heifer. According to their nomadic tribe, white cows are the most sacred and can communicate with the gods. Only by offering white cows as sacrifices can the gods hear their vows.
So, on the grassland in the clear autumn, several shamans in "gorgeous clothes" presided over the ceremony, and then set up the altar. Surrounded by a group of leaders, the heifer's head was chopped off to offer sacrifice to the gods. Then, all the leaders, including Youfu, wiped their foreheads with cow blood, and then put their hands on the cow's head and swore in turn. The nomadic tribe must abide by the oath to provide territory to the Han tribe, and the Han tribe must guarantee fair trade with them. Whoever violates the oath will bear the punishment of God.
Finally, the wizards chopped off the two horns of the cow, and then Youfu and Suritu each held a horn as proof of the oath.
Although Youfu completed the entire blood alliance ceremony with them, he was still not very interested in it. Just two horns, without a single word written on them, could this thing be used as a certificate?
Moreover, the punishment for violating the oath was placed on the illusory gods, but there was no third party to guarantee it. How binding the treaty was would depend on how superstitious the person who swore the oath was.
In three days, except for the supplies for the return trip, all the other things on the ship were replaced with animal skins, horns, tendons and other things with Su Ritu and others, and Youfu led the fleet to return.
The three sailboats lined up in a column and headed east in a straight line. This huge freshwater lake was the same as the autumn of the Han tribe in previous years. The water was filled with countless sea fish that migrated from the sea to spawn. This important news was also recorded in the navigation log by Youfu.
There is a big lake to the east of the grassland, called Sunrise Sea. There are many fish in the lake, and countless water birds fly over it. There are many tapirs, rhinoceroses, elephants, tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves in the water and marshes near the lake. They can all be used as the early food source for the soldiers and civilians who build the city. Our Dahan grassland mall is expected to be built.
Luo Chong looked at the letter sent by You Fu from the eagle in his hand, and was secretly happy. At the same time, he also agreed with his words.
The ancients said: Those with their backs facing
the sky are all eaten by me. This is so true. As long as it is a creature with its back facing up, there is nothing that our Great Foodie Empire dare not eat. Even if it is the Hu Jian people with their backs facing backwards, we dare to try
it. You Fu briefly reported what happened recently in the letter, from leaving the coal mine of the Deer Tribe to encountering the Barbarian Tribe later. He wanted to trade with them but was suddenly attacked by the other side, resulting in the loss of several people in the fleet, and then went to the sandbar, encountered crocodiles entrenched in the water, and the raccoon tribe on the shore, and successfully tricked the raccoon tribe and their raccoon slaves onto the ship.
Then, they found the Jiang clan downstream and invited the other leader to come to the Han tribe. They also emphasized that the leader Xuan of the Jiang clan was extremely difficult to deal with, and this matter has not been determined yet.
Finally, they found the waterway leading to the grassland lake through a tributary and successfully reached the grassland. There were also changes in the grassland in the past six months, and the agreement between Youfu and Suritu and the group of leaders on donating land to the Han tribe.
At the end of the letter, it was emphasized that if the leader agreed to build a city, the necessary materials and manpower should be arranged as soon as possible, as well as more ships.
Luo Chong was very happy after reading this letter. It was a good thing that the Han tribe had the opportunity to develop, but the Han tribe developed too fast, resulting in the need for manpower everywhere. Materials and other things were easy to say, but the labor problem was too difficult and had to be solved.
Fortunately, the basic construction of the newly established counties and prefectures this year has been almost completed, so the cannibal slaves can be freed up, but Luo Chong certainly would not let them sit idle and retire. It just so happened that there was a new construction project now, so wouldn't it be great to send them all there?
And that barbarian tribe, they dared to kill the people of my Han tribe, they really deserved to die, but considering that God has the virtue of loving life, I, Luo Chong, am not a bloodthirsty person, so why not give them a chance for labor reform, and arrest them all to work for the Han tribe to atone for their sins.
But just thinking of this, Luo Chong was worried again. It is easy to say to arrest people, but who can be asked to arrest them? You can't catch slaves yourself, so you have to form an army, which still requires talents.
Well, after going around in circles, I am back to the starting point, still lacking people.
How difficult is it to build a new empire? Luo Chong just wants to say: It's too difficult for me.
In the past, the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the Qin Dynasty's unification of the six kingdoms, and the Ming Dynasty's war to expel the Mongols, the armies involved in these wars were more than a million. Where did they get so many troops? Is their productivity higher than that of the current Han tribe? No, the Han tribe's technology in some aspects is even better than theirs.
So why does the Han tribe have no soldiers? It's not because of the system and background.
Think about the seven major powers in the Warring States period. Any of them could mobilize at least 200,000 troops. Why? Because they had food in stock, and because they used the compulsory conscription system. What is the compulsory conscription system? It means that soldiers are not given military pay, clothes and shoes. If they can survive the battle, they may have made contributions, but if they die, they will not even get a pension.
Moreover, this compulsory military service system must ensure that only sons are not conscripted. A family must have two or more brothers before one can be conscripted to serve as a soldier, because the remaining person must stay at home to farm, and production in the rear cannot be delayed because of the war.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was even more crazy. At the peak of the military power, the number of organized troops was nearly 3 million. How many soldiers are there in modern China with a population of more than one billion? In the Ming Dynasty, there were only tens of millions of people, but there were so many troops. How could Zhu Yuanzhang afford so many troops? It was because of the military household system.
All the guards were set up on the spot to cultivate land, and the soldiers cultivated the land to support themselves. How great it was. The state only had to be responsible for the weapons and armor. There was no military pay, no food, and it was the cheapest army. After all, the Ming Dynasty was really poor at the beginning of its establishment. Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice.
Didn't Luo Chong understand this? Isn't the compulsory military service system good? Isn't it cheap enough to cultivate land in the guards? He also wanted to learn, but unfortunately the Han tribe didn't give him this opportunity.
Most of the people in the counties of the Han tribe are immigrants who have just settled down. They are all young people in their families. Basically, young couples live with their two or three-year-old children. There is no such thing as a young man going out to serve in the army and leaving a brother to farm at home. Therefore, once forced conscription is implemented, it will definitely affect the production in the rear. This is an inevitable phenomenon.
The culprit for all this is Luo Chong himself.
The population composition of the Han tribe is basically dominated by foreign population. The oldest children born in the Han tribe are only five years old, so the backbone of the tribe is still those foreign populations.
In order to maintain his ruling position, Luo Chong forcefully implemented the system of household registration. All adult men must set up their own families and set up their own households. The first purpose is naturally to promote the speed of population growth. The second purpose, which is also the most important one, is to divide the clan power, or the power of clans and small tribes.
Aren't you of the same clan? Aren't you the clan leader? Then I will split up all your people and relocate them to various places. What capital do you have to challenge me?
Luo Chong often rewards some of the tribesmen who have made contributions. What kind of reward? Let's talk about it first. You were originally from the Hu clan. OK, I will change your surname to Li now. You will be the ancestor of the old Li family in the future. In this way, you and the original clan will become two families. What clan power can you use to challenge me?
However, in this way, the Han tribe became a fast-fissioning cell. The speed of spread became faster, but it lost its accumulation. There were few brothers in the family. As soon as they became adults, they had to set up their own families and contribute their own strength to the population growth of the Han tribe.
The final result was that there was no place to recruit soldiers. After the recruitment, no one stayed at home to farm. Without food, many people would starve to death.
Luo Chong turned around the room several times, making the first and second wives, who were sitting on the kang sewing clothes for their children, dizzy. They had no choice but to sit down with their hands on their foreheads.
"What are you worried about, my husband? Isn't our Han tribe developing very well now?" Xiaodie couldn't help but speak.
"We are short of people. The Han tribe is developing well, but there are more and more constructions everywhere. We need people for the newly discovered coal mines, the factories on the lake island, and the wars. You Fu has also occupied a piece of land from the grassland. He will build a new city when the time comes. The new city also needs a lot of people. We need people everywhere, but the immigrants from all over the country have just settled down, so we can't mobilize them. Alas," Luo Chong said worriedly.
Zhan Ying, who was standing by, had only joined the Han tribe for a short time and didn't know much about the composition of the Han tribe. She hadn't even wandered around the counties of the Han tribe, so she didn't have any good solutions to Luo Chong's worries.
But Xiaodie was different. She was one of the first to join the Han tribe, and she had a relatively clear understanding of the development process of the Han tribe. Now she heard Luo Chong say that there was no one available, so she asked curiously.
"Aren't there many new people coming to Yunzhi's Weishan County? Last time I heard you say that the number of new arrivals has exceeded 10,000. And Liuyang County has been constantly absorbing population in recent years. Can't they transfer some manpower?"
Luo Chong was stunned after hearing this, and then suddenly laughed.
"Hahahaha, yes, there are new immigrants there. Aren't there not enough houses and land? It's just right, let's start with them."
After Luo Chong finished speaking, he ran out of the house and set off for Weishan County, leaving Xiaodie and Zhan Ying confused, but they were no longer surprised. Their husbands were the leaders of the Han tribe, and there were many things to do. It was common for them to be away from home for several months. There was nothing they could do.
Luo Chong, who was running non-stop, ran to Liuyang County in just one day, and then immediately found Liuyang County Magistrate Dashu.
"How many new immigrants are there this year, and how many of them are young and middle-aged, and have these been arranged now?" Luo Chong asked without any nonsense.
"Well, to answer the chief, there are about 6,000 new people this year, and there should be less than 2,000 adult men. The household registration has been registered, the houses have been arranged for occupancy, and the fields have been divided. Some have already planted crops, and some are too late this year, so these people can only find some manual work to do, or do some small business."
Dashu didn't understand why Luo Chong rushed to ask this, but after a moment of hesitation, he quickly answered.
"Well, nearly 2,000 young and strong, then you can recruit soldiers from these people, and you can write down the conditions for recruiting soldiers." Luo Chong thought about it and immediately said to Dashu.
"Okay, I'll get paper and pen." Dashu also immediately took out a small notebook and a document pen, and then looked at Luo Chong and waited for him to speak.
"From now on, we will recruit 500 soldiers. They must be healthy and have no disabilities. They must be over 18 and under 40 years old. They must have children in their families. Those who do not have land yet will be given priority.
Soldiers will receive a monthly salary of 30 yuan. They can be awarded a title for meritorious service on the battlefield. The specific reward will be determined based on their merits. There will be rewards for killing enemies and capturing prisoners.
The sacrifice pension is 50 yuan for funeral expenses. Their eldest son will be promoted to a higher rank. The martyr's subsidy is 10 yuan per month. The subsidy can be received until their son reaches adulthood and sets up a new family. The subsidy is based on the household and will be received by their widow. If the widow remarries, it will be received by their son.
The recruitment will be completed within seven days from the date of the announcement, and then these new soldiers will be sent to Hanyang City."
(End of this chapter)
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