Chinese New Year

Chapter 1389 Win-win
In the murky mud, groups of shirtless strong men were dredging the silt.

It was very hot, and the sun was blazing, causing the skin on many people's backs to crack.

People were lying on the ground under the shade of the trees, probably all suffering from heatstroke.

The doctor paced back and forth, muttering, "Even digging a river has to wait until the dry winter," then shook his head and sighed as he treated the patients one by one—in reality, it was a drop in the ocean, and most people died before they could receive treatment. This was the terrible thing about corvée labor, except this time it was prisoners.

The warriors, carrying swords and bows, sat in front of the thatched hut, wiping their sweat and drinking water in large gulps.

Not far away, people were digging a pit to bury a corpse, and flies were buzzing around.

Some of the corpses were intact, while others were missing their heads. As for where the heads were, one could check the fences of their respective camps.

This is the cruel reality of river management construction sites; it's not just the physical labor you might imagine, but an extremely devastating undertaking for the people.

They catch fugitives every day, but people still escape every day.

This was the first time Shao Yu had ever seen such a grand scene. After riding his horse for several miles, he remained silent.

Just then, a huge rumbling sound came from a section of the river upstream.

He turned his head and saw that the sluice gate was wide open, and the turbid river water was surging down, vigorously washing over a winding, narrow waterway.

For a fleeting moment, the mud on the riverbank crumbled, and the vegetation was broken and swept downstream.

It's unclear how long the sluice gate was flushed, but it slowly closed again.

The remaining river water slowly flowed into the distance, and the water level in the riverbed gradually dropped. In the distance, several thousand strong men had gathered. Judging from their appearance, most of them were Xianbei and Wuhuan people with shaved heads. At this moment, they were trembling with fear, their faces pale.

The power of heaven and earth is something no one can help but fear.

“The river channel has been straightened.” Chen Yan, the prefect of Guangling, came over and explained, “In the past, when Emperor Wen of Wei toured the south to Guangling, many of his boats ran aground on his way back, and were captured by the Wu people. This is the place.”

Shao Yu nodded.

He knew that one of the major tasks this year was to repair this section of the Hangou Canal, but he didn't expect that it would require the mobilization of tens of thousands of people. His father truly spared no effort in connecting the north and south.

However, it is not feasible to leave it unrepaired. This eastern canal was dug by the State of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period and has been followed by successive dynasties, playing a significant role. However, it has a fatal flaw: some sections of the river are too high, making navigation impossible when the water is shallow, thus requiring the construction of locks.

Of course, building locks is not a complete solution. The best way is to mobilize the entire nation's resources to dig a new canal, but that would be too costly and probably only feasible during the peak of the Great Liang Dynasty. In fact, he was not sure about this, because the plan was too massive and would be difficult even during the Great Liang Dynasty's golden age. If there were any wars at that time, the problems would be even greater.

"Dong dong..." The sound of drums rang out.

Shao Yu looked up and saw that most of the water in the river had been drained, leaving only a small, discontinuous pond in the center.

The original riverbed and banks had been completely washed away, and all sorts of miscellaneous things were mixed together with the muddy water. The able-bodied men who had been gathered and waiting were urged by the sound of drums to go down into the muddy pond with their tools and clean it up little by little.

So this is how you straighten a river!

Shao Yu withdrew his gaze and asked, "I heard that these barbarians are causing quite a commotion?"

“At first, there was,” Chen Yan said. “However, with the Henan garrison troops coming from the south to keep them in check, and the county troops also being mobilized, they couldn’t cause any major trouble. The chieftains were gone, and they had no warhorses, bows, or swords. In Xuzhou, a place crisscrossed by waterways, killing them was as easy as killing chickens.”

“Furthermore—” Chen Yan cleared his throat and continued, “Their elderly and infirm are over there.”

Chen Yan pointed to the dilapidated shantytown in the distance and said, "More than 20,000 elderly, weak, women and children are helping to carry soil, pile soil, cook, and wash clothes. 30,000 able-bodied men and women are going down to the river and being managed separately. They can't escape."

Frankly speaking, the ratio of able-bodied men to the elderly, weak, women, and children is very abnormal. Generally speaking, adults over fourteen or fifteen years old account for at most one-third of the population; any higher indicates that the tribe has abandoned a large number of the elderly and weak.

"After this section of the river is repaired, we will register them as households to increase the population," Chen Yan concluded. "Xuzhou has only 600,000 people, which is far too few. This place can produce rice, and with more people farming, more rice will be transported to the capital."

"We still need to build schools, right?" Shao Yu asked.

"It must be done," Chen Yan said. "The matter of changing customs and habits is of great importance to the emperor. If these people are trained in Chinese customs, they will be Liang people a hundred years from now. Who will remember that they were Xianbei or Wuhuan people?"

Shao Yu then looked towards the vast plains to the south.

Lakes are scattered like stars, and villages are elusive and hard to find. Occasionally, one might spot a mound of land piled up like an island in the water, covered with reeds swaying in the wind.

Who would have thought that the nomadic people of the grasslands, skilled at riding horses, might one day have to travel by boat to various places to make a living by growing rice?

“They’re repairing the river here, so merchants have all gone to the Chaohu and Feishui areas. Commerce in Guangling must not be as prosperous as it used to be,” Shao Yu asked again.

"I'll be back next year." Chen Yan said casually, then added, "The matter Your Highness inquired about earlier has yielded some results."

"Oh?" Shao Yu became interested and asked, "They agreed?"

“This matter is inseparable from river management,” Chen Yan said. “Your Highness, please follow me.”

******
As the sun began to set, Shao Yu arrived at a Buddhist temple west of Guangling City.

Before entering the temple, he took a closer look and noticed that the temple was quite new.

During his campaign against Liao, he discovered that both the Murong Yan Kingdom and Goguryeo had Buddhist temples. While residing in Luoyang and Bianliang, he heard that two new Buddhist temples had been built in each of the two cities over the past ten years, and now, upon arriving in Guangling, he saw yet another newly constructed temple…

These monks really know how to do things!
It's understandable that some people turn to Buddhism for solace during times of war, but it's quite something that Buddhist temples are still being built everywhere now that the world is at peace.

Recalling his mother's words that she had been influenced by her family when she was young and had a fondness for the Celestial Masters sect, but now she was increasingly convinced of Buddhism, Shao Yu was speechless.

When the group arrived at a secluded courtyard, they found it already occupied. A portly, wealthy merchant, his face contorted with worry, said to a monk, "Venerable Master, my wife and I have been devout Buddhists for many years, making constant offerings. Why then could we not save my son's life?"

Upon hearing this, the monk pointed to a paper lantern hanging under the eaves and said, "This lantern can shield you from the night wind and prevent the flame from going out. But what if the oil runs out..."

After saying this, the monk shook his head and sighed.

The wealthy merchant seemed to understand something, but he was still in great pain.

The monk turned around, bowed to the person who had come, and left without saying anything more.

Shao Yu turned his gaze away from the monk.

These people have already infiltrated every aspect of people's lives. Outside the temple, there are flower-selling children, catering to ordinary believers; inside, there are quiet gathering places for wealthy merchants, catering to the upper class—truly catering to every need.

The Celestial Masters sect was still researching talismans and even rebelling from time to time, no wonder it was suppressed.

"Your Highness." Several wealthy merchants stepped forward and bowed to Shao Yu.

Shao Yu returned the greeting and invited everyone to sit down.

"Lord Chen said you want to buy horses, but don't know where to sell them?" he asked.

"Xuzhou, Yangzhou." The wealthy merchant who had just lost his son disregarded everything else and immediately put away his grief, saying.

Chen Yan then introduced the wealthy merchant's identity: Huan Feng, a local from Guangling.

"How many people in Xuyang use horses?" Shao Yu asked again.

“Even Guangzhou needs horses, but the place is unbearably hot, and the horses don’t live long,” Huan Feng said. “But even though horses die easily, wealthy families in Guangzhou still keep buying them.”

"They probably bought most of them from Ningzhou, right?"

"Exactly."

"Where did you buy your horses before?"

“Jiangling,” Huan Feng said, “but the journey is long, and most of the good horses are owned by the Chu people, so we have suffered losses time and time again.”

"What are the prices of horses in Jiangnan?"

Upon hearing Shao Yu's question, Huan Feng hesitated.

Chen Yan gave him a displeased look. Huan Feng noticed this and immediately said, "Prices fluctuate every year, but it will always cost 50,000 coins."

Shao Yu neither confirmed nor denied the statement.

The price might be higher than he said, and perhaps not many human traffickers have come yet, so the price might drop in the future. In any case, he would send someone to investigate; he couldn't let people just make empty promises.

"There are indeed many horses in Liaodong, but the situation is uncertain, and I dare not sell them lightly," he said. "How many do you want?"

"Three thousand horses a year, is that possible?" Huan Feng asked cautiously.

Shao Yu thought to himself, "I thought you wanted ten thousand horses, but you only wanted three thousand!"
However, he also knew that the worst thing in business was to hoard everything. Selling three thousand horses a year was already a remarkable business. If he went any further, what if Zhang Shuo discovered one day that his Flying Cavalry was short of horses and came to his shop to buy more? Wouldn't he be devastated?
Don't think this is impossible. Shao Yu heard that his father—well, let's not talk about it—his maternal grandmother talked about it for a long time.

“Three thousand horses are certainly possible, but if there are any more…” Shao Yu hesitated.

The wealthy businessmen exchanged glances.

Those who know, know. If it can sell three thousand horses, why can't it sell ten thousand? It's just a matter of price.

As for whether 10,000 horses can be sold, well, with the northern gentry moving south in large numbers, who wouldn't want to get some horses?
Even when fighting for territory with barbarians in the mountains, they mostly deployed infantry, but in crucial moments, dozens of cavalry would charge out, catching the enemy off guard, and the power was unimaginable. Even when Sun Quan ruled the south and was at odds with Cao Wei, he still tried every means to smuggle horses from the north and Shu; you can never have too many of these things.

"Your Highness," Huan Feng tentatively said, "we can go to Donglai to set up a residence, purchase goods from the Central Plains, and exchange them for horses with Your Highness. We'll take as many as you have, I wonder..."

This is actually a typical triangular trade, which involves first purchasing goods from the south, transporting them by boat along the Han Canal to Xuzhou, selling them to familiar Henan merchants, then purchasing Henan goods from them, transporting them to Donglai, selling them to Shao Yu, and then driving horses back to Guangling or Jianye.

Shao Yu only needed to search for Roman horses, drive them to Lushun to board a ship, and then ship them to Donglai.

Horses were relatively worthless in Liaodong, but goods from the Central Plains were very valuable, especially necessities for production and daily life. Shao Yu could make money twice from this.

Of course, these Guangling merchants made money three times over: selling goods from Jiangnan to the Central Plains, making money once; selling goods from the Central Plains to Shao Yu, making money once; and selling horses from Liaodong to the Southerners, making money again—a win-win-win situation!

Otherwise, why do you think they went to such lengths to persuade Prefect Chen Yan to invite the Prince of Yan to come and discuss the matter?

In this system, no one loses out; that's the beauty of trade.

"In a few days, someone from the Mi family of Donghai will come to discuss things with you in detail," Shao Yu said.

The wealthy businessmen looked pleased, but then some worry crept in.

The Mi family were renowned wealthy merchants in Xuzhou. Their involvement meant a significant portion of their profits would be taken away. But what could be done? Although Mi Huang and Mi Zihui had retired to their homes to recuperate and had resigned from all official positions, he was still the emperor's early patron. Who would dare to underestimate him? Besides, several of his sons were also officials.

We can only look on the bright side. With the Mi family involved, this deal is more secure, and even Zhang Shuo might not dare to openly intercept your horses.

After finalizing this matter, Shao Yu then discussed other goods from Liaodong with everyone...

(End of this chapter)