Chapter 91: Fat Grain

"One, two, three~"

"Too many, can't count them all."

In Ye City's Xianyang Hall, looking at the piles of gold objects before him, Lin Dao simply asked, "How many in total?"

"According to the gold bar standard set by Lord Lang." Wang Meng reported, "There should be over four hundred bars."

The gold objects before him included gold cakes, horse hoof cakes, and various gold vessels.

Judging purely by appearance, quite a few pieces qualified as artifacts.

If they could be taken to an auction house for auction, the prices would surely far surpass the gold itself.

"Lord Xie truly has ability."

Lin Dao reached out and picked up a gold cake, weighing it in his hand. "He really earned this much for me."

Xie Yi took the goods provided by Lin Dao and returned to Jiangzuo.

Those novel goods achieved great success in Jiangzuo, and were hotly pursued by rich and noble families.

Especially the various glass vessels with novel designs, which sparked a buying frenzy.

The reason this business in Jiangzuo achieved such great success lay mainly in Xie Yi's identity and connections.

The Chen Commandery Xie Clan was itself a mid-tier aristocratic clan, and a rising one at that.

Moreover, Xie Yi and Huan Wen, who held great power, were very good friends.

Precisely because of this did he have the qualifications and channels to open sales routes, while also having someone backing him.

If he were of lowly attendant origin, the aristocratic clans would have long since forcibly seized the channels and taken the business.

If he were of commoner origin, heh~~~

His bones would have rotted away completely!

"When the next batch of goods is sent down, send a letter with it for Xie Yi."

Lin Dao weighed his words. "Just say his daughter is very comfortable here. No, let Xie Daoyun write a family letter herself."

"These."

He reached out, signaling the piles of gold objects. "Melt them all down and cast them into gold bars. I'm taking them away."

"Lord Lang." Wang Meng advised again. "Bingzhou has been recovered, with 61,400 registered households and a population of over 300,000."

"Such a large Bingzhou." Lin Dao was quite displeased. "Only 300,000-some people left?"

They all say Bingzhou is barren, but in reality the basins within have fertile land and developed river networks.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin State rose here to become the conqueror.

For it to be this miserable now, the sole reason is that the barbarian slaughter was too rampant.

"Barbarians that can't be killed off!"

Lin Dao, returned from the battlefield, narrowed his eyes at this moment; the killing intent on his body made people dread to look at him.

He coughed once. "Are there any barbarians?"

"Absolutely none!" Wang Meng, standing to the side, lowered his head. "The soldiers have gone mad with killing, even to the point of dyeing their hair with enemy heads to fake merits for rewards. How strong would barbarians have to be to survive in an environment where everyone is hunting them down?"

"Throughout Bingzhou, there are still many retainers and slaves hidden in the estates of local tyrants and powerful families."

"And many wild people hiding in the mountains and forests — these have not yet been counted and registered."

"In my estimation, there should be nearly 700,000."

Hearing these words, Lin Dao's gaze swept over, his lips moving slightly.

He already somewhat understood Wang Meng's meaning.

"Lord Lang." Wang Meng took a deep breath. "To restore production, more population is needed."

"Every province, commandery, and county lacks population; there is no capacity for migration."

"Only by breaking the estates throughout Bingzhou and settling the retainers and slaves."

"At the same time, dispatch people into the mountains and forests to recruit wild people."

Whenever chaos erupts under heaven, there will always be many people fleeing into deep mountains and old forests to survive.

Sometimes a new dynasty has been established for decades, yet wild people from the former dynasty still come out of the mountains and forests.

Lin Dao let out a long sigh. "Enough said. How much?"

Saying so much, isn't it just asking for grain and supplies?

Once the people are found, you have to supply food for their bellies, clothes for their bodies, roofs to shelter from rain, firewood, fields to plow, and tools for labor.

Given the current situation of the Beggar Army, all of these things need Lin Dao to pay for.

No choice. Who told him to be the Grand Commander?

If things are needed, of course they come to him.

Ancient people's diets lacked oil; they usually had to consume large amounts of carbohydrates to sustain life and stamina.

In the Jin era, one shi of grain approximated just over fifty jin in the modern world.

Elite men and the old, weak, women, and children have different appetites; elite men eat more, the old, weak, women, and children eat less.

A five-person household, averaged out, consumes over a thousand jin a year — that is, twenty shi of grain.

This is the demand for survival; when working the fields, grain consumption doubles.

If all findable people in Bingzhou are pulled out, there could be over a hundred thousand households.

That is to say, to feed them until next autumn's harvest requires an expenditure of over a hundred million jin of grain.

In reality, it's not just these.

Salt must also be provided, cloth must be provided, and all sorts of other supplies.

Sure enough, Wang Meng produced a thick stack of papers covered in writing and handed it over.

On the very first sheet was written the need for sufficient grain — at least three million shi of grain.

And he hoped it would be potatoes mixed with fat grain.

"This fat grain," Lin Dao said, greatly confused, "what is it?"

"It is what the lord distributes to the soldiers and civilian laborers for food," Wang Meng answered calmly. "Many have eaten it for months, their bodies gradually growing plump, so they all call it fat grain."

Now Lin Dao understood—it was feed~~~

After eating feed, can people still get fat?

He had never eaten it, truly didn't know.

Wang Meng added, "This thing is now very popular; even some military household families exchange fine rice and white flour for it."

These days, trying to find a fat person is truly not easy.

If a grain shop advertised, directly saying our grain makes you fat after eating it, that would definitely be rushing toward it like ducks.

Feed having this kind of side effect truly amazed Lin Dao.

He nodded without changing expression, "I will consider it."

Continue reading on.

What is in demand second only to grain is cloth and silk.

In the ancient world, clothes were extremely important assets, even able to be pawned at pawnshops for wealth.

And cloth, silk, and brocade could be used directly as currency for a long time.

Telling the wild people in the mountains and forests that we would give them grain and cloth would absolutely be irresistible.

Next were various production tools.

Including agricultural tools, as well as hammers, saws, planes, and so on.

Agricultural tools were naturally for farming.

Tools were used for building houses, making furniture, constructing water conservancy facilities, repairing roads, and so on.

Besides these, they also requested paper, candles, oil, meat, salt, and all sorts of supplies.

Putting away these shopping lists, Lin Dao's gaze fell on that pile of gold objects.

These gold objects were far from enough.

This was only Bingzhou after all.

The entire Northern Regions, You, Si, Ji, Qing, Xu, Bing, Yong, and other states, still had several million Han Family descendants surviving.

Lin Dao had killed Shi Hu's Qianghu, Murong Clan's Xianbei, and other beast-eating beast armies in advance, saving at least a million lives.

So many people now pinned their hopes on Lin Dao, truly making him Alexander.

Touching his nose, Lin Dao instructed, "Tonight Lingjiang will dine with me."

For three consecutive days, Xie Daoyun accompanied him.

She also wrote three letters home in a row, sending them to Jiangzuo for Xie Yi.

Encouraging her father to continue attacking, to earn more wealth for the Grand Commander.

"Lord."

One day, Wang Meng found Lin Dao and explained a matter.

"The lord heavily employs Ran Min's generals, destroys the Xianbei false Yan, and establishes the merit of destroying a nation."

"I do not know, those Qin generals who have followed the lord since Guangzong, what do they think?"

Lin Dao furrowed his brow, saying nothing.

"Lord."

Wang Meng simply spoke plainly: "Those who followed the lord earliest are all the lord's trusted confidants and one's own people."

"Ran Min's generals are newly attached people."

"The lord heavily employs newly attached people, while the trusted confidants who have followed for a long time have nothing to do."

"This is not the strategy of a wise lord."

"Just say it directly," Lin Dao interrupted, "what should be done?"

He had previously valued Ran Min's reputation and ability, lacking consideration in this regard.

Now thinking about it, it was indeed not right to chill the hearts of the old ones.

Wang Meng considered for him; since he voluntarily raised this matter, he must have had a plan.

Indeed, Wang Meng advised, "The remnants of the stone bandits still occupy Guanzhong."

"The lord can send troops to destroy them."

Shi Hu's last living son, Shi Bao, was stationed in Guanzhong.

At this time he was still carrying out the orders Shi Hu gave before his death, fighting successive battles with the Qiang led by Yao Chang.

He did not betray Shi Hu's trust; even in such a situation, he still refused Yao Chang's negotiation, just fighting straight.

"Good."

Lin Dao agreed immediately, "Then arrange for Qin Lang, Sun Dalang, and them to recover Guanzhong."

This kind of thing has existed since ancient times.

From Liu Lao San bringing the old brothers from Pei County to found the realm, later dynasties basically followed this rhythm.

Like the Guanzhong Aristocratic Clans, the Huai West Group, and so on.

Qin Lang and the others had long followed Lin Dao to work, with senior qualifications and deep experience.

If Lin Dao did not heavily employ them, it would cause people's hearts to float.

After all, once people are full, they like to indulge in wild thoughts.

Fortunately, Wang Meng reminded him in time.

The history books say he has the talent of a king's assistant, and it truly is not nonsense.

Similarly, Lin Dao thought of Jin Lian and Sun Rong, who had followed him just as early, and he could not neglect them too much either.

He also carved out spare time to tutor them in foreign language lessons.

Lin Dao truly carved out this time; his work was also very busy.

In Yonghe Spacetime, millions of people across the various states, provinces, and counties depended on him for food and clothing.

The logistical pressure was immense.

Buying potato feed domestically, corn from Beautiful Country, soybeans from Samba Country, rice from Third Brother's Home, wheat from Big Hair Second Hair, and also purchasing frozen pork on the international market.

Lin Dao felt that directly buying commercial cooking oil was not suitable in terms of price.

It would be better to buy raw materials, bring soybeans to Yonghe Spacetime, and arrange manpower to press oil.

The residue left after pressing oil could also be used to feed cattle, horses, and other large livestock.

Horses were mainly used in the military and for transporting goods, among other things.

Cattle were crucial; after training and fitting with nose rings, they were the most important helpers for plowing fields.

As for frozen pork, it was cheap enough to astonish Lin Dao.

A jin cost only a few coins, the cost was low to an unbelievable degree.

Lin Dao specifically inquired and learned that there were even reserves from several decades ago during the World War.

That is, sending them to Yonghe Spacetime; if sold in the Modern World, it was estimated people would beat them.

The wealth gathered in Yonghe Spacetime was exchanged like flowing water for all kinds of goods, and then sent back.

Lin Dao was busy to the point of being unable to disentangle himself; only when teaching foreign language classes every evening could he be said to have a chance to relax his mind and body.

That evening, Lin Daozheng was having dinner with Zheng Yingtao, Shi Hu's former Empress.

According to the rules, after dinner they could go study foreign languages together.

While eating, an Urgent Military Report was delivered.

"The Qiang Yao Chang's faction, heading south to surrender to Jiangzuo."

"The Jiangzuo Court appoints him Imperial Envoy with the Node, Cavalry and Chariot General, Grand Commander of the Six Yi, Great Chanyu, Commander of All Military Affairs in Jianghuai, Equal of the Three Excellencies with the Prefecture's Ceremonial Guards, enfeoffed as Duke of Gaoling Commandery."

Lin Dao suddenly stood up, grabbed the bowl in front of him, and smashed it onto the ground.

"Aristocratic Clans, the most shameless of all!"

End of Chapter