Water Margin farming to become powerful

Chapter 291 Xiao Yuchi Carefully Looks for Business Opportunities
Early in the morning, Sun Xin stood at the gate of the posthouse and looked curiously at the pedestrians coming and going in front of him.

The towns and cities of Jin Kingdom in front of you have a large population, but they generally have disheveled faces, and pedestrians have different national costumes.

Many people dressed as fishermen and hunters looked around in the street market, talking curiously, as if the small market town in front of them had already made them feel extremely prosperous.Many of these mountain people didn't even have linen clothes on them, and they all wore leather that hadn't been carefully tanned. They walked slowly through the market carrying all kinds of mountain goods. When passing by, Sun Xin could clearly smell the fishy smell from their bodies. Sun Xin knew that it was not their body odor, but that chemical tanning agents were not available where they lived, and the animal hides they wore were all tanned with human urine and animal brains in the most traditional way. If it is not fine enough, it will naturally have an unpleasant taste.

After watching for a long time, Sun Xin confirmed that among the people who came and went, except for some Koreans who were well-dressed, most of the other ethnic groups were obviously poor.

Sun Xin was watching carefully, and when he turned his head, he saw Le He and Li San walking back on the snow together.

"How do you look?"

Le He shook his head: "It's not good, it's too poor here."

Sun Xin had guessed it a long time ago. Seeing Pan Jinlian standing at the door of the building and giving them a questioning look, he pointed to the room.

"Go in and talk."

Several people entered the room, and Le He and Li San went out for a day, their hands and feet were red and swollen from the cold, and they hurried to the fire pit to face the fire.

While flipping the wood with tongs, Le He frowned and said, "This place is really poor. I thought they were as powerful as Jin Guo and Liao Guo, and they must have some strength. I went out and asked, and I found out that this city is already here. It’s an extremely rich place, and two miles out of the city, it’s full of refugees.”

Deng Fei asked curiously: "There are also refugees here? Are the refugees not allowed to freeze to death in the twelfth lunar month?"

Le He nodded: "It's freezing to death. The living guard the dead, and the cat is in the snow nest. It's really miserable."

Pan Jinlian came over with a pot of hot tea and poured it for Li San'er and Lehe. The two quickly got up to express their thanks.

Holding the teapot, she said, "Those are not refugees, they are all tenants."

Deng Fei was even more surprised when he heard the words: "The tenants don't even have a house."

"I was also surprised when I first came here, but after I asked, I realized that most of those people were serfs of the Han Dynasty. Unlike the farmers of the Song Dynasty, the Jurchens here are barbaric. There is no difference, as there is no time to build a shed in winter, so naturally put the cows and horses in the snow den and let them spend the winter by themselves."

Sun Xin was quite surprised by these words, "The economy of the Kingdom of Jin looks really bad."

Pan Jinlian hugged her daughter and nodded: "I have also tried to find out about it during this time. Although the people of Jin Kingdom are reluctant to say more, but after a long time, I can see some things clearly."

"It's not bad that the people of the Kingdom of Jin are very poor. Usually, the people of Jin provide us with meals in small buckets, and count them for us one by one. They usually use some salt, soy sauce, ointment and so on. It takes two or three days to ask for it."

She pointed to the iron pot for making tea, "It's this pot of tea, and the tea leaves are all given to us for one tael."

Li San also nodded in agreement: "It's not that they don't want to entertain us, it's just that they seem to be poor."

Sun Xin thought for a while and then nodded and said: "Today I went with Nama Zheng to talk to their officials, and I also heard that they had a very difficult life in the Kingdom of Jin a few years ago. This is not the herding people we imagined. Most people are Live by farming, fishing and hunting."

Le He agreed: "I just said, I went out to look at it for a long time in the morning. The land here is not flat at all, and it must be difficult to graze."

Sun Xin: "The so-called fishing and hunting can support how many people, so it is said that the fishing and hunting people are actually farming, but it is located in a bitter cold, so it is estimated that there will be no harvest from farming."

Pan Jinlian added: "There are still a lot of Han people here, but they are always bullied by the Jurchens and Xi people. Once disaster strikes, they will be plundered by the Jurchens. It is said that the Jurchens Jianguo has been robbed without knowing it, but many lands have been taken back by their hands. They belonged to their aristocrats, and many Han people were turned into slaves. There was a famine last year, and there were still many people who exchanged sons for food."

Hearing Pan Jinlian's description, Lehe and the others were quite surprised. Wu Song couldn't help asking Sun Xin: "Can they really afford our linen yarn when they are so poor? Don't take this trip for nothing."

Everyone also looked at Sun Xin worriedly. The development of their Sun Family Manor was betting on the Song and Jin trade. If they couldn't sell anything, it would be troublesome.

Sun Xin was thinking, when he saw everyone looking at him, he shook his head and said with a smile: "The people of the Jin Kingdom are not short of money, at least their nobles are not short of money. There is no end to it. What they are short of is supplies.”

Sun Xin asked Le He, "Brother, have you been to the market to see their prices these two days?"

Le He nodded: "This is also a tragedy. Their people are so poor, but the prices are frighteningly high. All kinds of utensils are at least [-]% more expensive than those in the Song Dynasty."

Sun Xin nodded: "Not only are toys and utensils more expensive, but the price of food is also much higher than that of Song Dynasty. This shows that they have too much silver and copper coins, which is why they have raised prices so high."

Le He thought for a while and then understood, "No matter how much their prices are here, silver is always silver. As long as you bring the goods, the silver can be spent when you bring it back to Song Dynasty."

Sun Xin nodded and said with a smile: "Not only gold and silver, but the fur and sea goods here are also valuable things in the Song Dynasty. There is no fear of no money to be transported back. Moreover, the Han people here are poor, and our supervisory committee has a chance to make use of it."

Deng Fei's eyes lit up: "What the owner said is that there are many poor people here, as long as we find a way to help them, they will definitely be with us in the future."

After learning about the situation of Jin Guo people, everyone originally had no hope for the development of the Supervisory Council in Jin Guo, but at this time, after Sun Xin mentioned something, they realized that there was a lot to do here, and everyone's faces were filled with joy.

Pan Jinlian couldn't help looking at Sun Xin with admiration. After such a long time, he was indeed so capable. Even Yun'er in her arms was surprised to see Uncle Sun Xin who was talking in front of her.

Sun Xin’s investigation in the Kingdom of Jin in the past few days has convinced Sun Xin that, just like in history, the Jin people’s economics is really not good, and it’s not good from the beginning to the end. All the districts were converted into pastures for grazing, and the Jin people also had similar operations, "cutting down mulberry trees for salary" and "cutting reeds for seats": cut down the mulberry trees used for silkworm rearing to make wood for burning, and burn the mulberry trees that have not yet grown up on the field. The seedlings are harvested and woven into straw mats.

This is a real institutional problem. Jin’s Menganmou restraint was organized in accordance with the tribal methods of the fishing and hunting peoples. It is very useful to manage slaves and recruit militias, but it is extremely inefficient in economic life.

The way this tribe is organized is basically the foundation of slavery. After the Jin Kingdom occupied a large number of cities in the Liao Kingdom, it would be strange to use such a foundation to manage a feudal empire, and the economy would go bankrupt.

However, the rise of the Kingdom of Jin was too fast, and the internal political struggles were too fierce, so there was no chance for Meng'an Mouke to make substantial reforms.On the contrary, in order to prove their own legitimacy, every person in power has intensified their efforts to restore the "old customs of the country", and all their thoughts are spent on Sinicization. How can they have the ability to reform internally?
The result is that by the time the country was destroyed, many wealthy Jurchen households had not yet learned how to farm land. According to historical records, "a family with a hundred families has no seedlings", they purely rely on squeezing Han serfs to produce food for them, and their ability to use land is better than that of Han landlords. By the time the Mongols came, the economy within the Kingdom of Jin was in a mess, and the economic status of the Han people oppressed by them came from behind. After the Mongols arrived, they slaughtered the Jurchens. In the end, when the Mongols ruled north of the Yellow River, they once occupied the The Jurchen nobles who descended from the vast land did not even have a few landlords left.

The worse the governance of the Jin Kingdom, the more economically it depends on the Great Song Dynasty. However, the military strength of the Great Song Dynasty in the history of the previous life was too big. Facing a Jin Kingdom with a chaotic internal governance, there is no way to convert its economic strength into Political and military strength.

After Sun Xin got to know him for three days, he was completely at ease. The desire of the Jin people to unite with the Song Dynasty was stronger than that of Zhao Guan's family.As for why no big shots have come to see Ma Zheng for a long time, it's just because they want to appraise them. When the time comes, people from the Kingdom of Jin will naturally come to see them.

Sun Xin said to Le He, "Let's go to the market in the city in the afternoon to see if they accept hemp yarn here."

Le He nodded, and Wu Song also went back to prepare things. Pan Jinlian suddenly looked up at Sun Xin and said, "I'll go with you too."

Sun Xin was a little surprised: "What are you going to do?"

Pan Jinlian thought for a while and said to Sun Xin: "I want to stay in the Kingdom of Jin. I can go back to Song Dynasty, but how will Yun'er go back? What are we going to do when we go back?"

"Dengzhou is so big, can't you find a place to support you?"

Pan Jinlian looked at Sun Xin and shook her head: "I don't want to live by men anymore."

Sun Xin was a little stunned to see her decisive eyes, nodded after thinking for a while and said: "Think about it, life in the Kingdom of Jin may not be as easy as you think."

"When the senior official from the Kingdom of Jin came here, he seemed to be quite friendly with my family, Yun'er. I think he seems to like Yun'er very much. Maybe I can stay in the Kingdom of Jin by following his path."

Sun Xin thought for a while and said helplessly: "After you take root here, you can contact Sun Ji, and tell me anything."

Pan Jinlian nodded to him gratefully, and took the child into the house.Sun Xin sighed. Seeing Pan Jinlian again this time, she felt that the girl with a girly air had suddenly matured a lot and had a lot of things in her heart.

In the afternoon, Sun Xin, Lehe, and Pan Jinlian, who put on men's clothing, came to the market in the city. When they went to the place, they found that the so-called market was just a few houses. Except for a grain shop and a shop selling bows and arrows, the other shops don't even have a signboard. Only when you get to the door can you see what they are selling.

Several people walked for a long time before finding a shop selling mosa.

(End of this chapter)