?"Is Langjun from Guanzhong?"

"I am indeed from Guanzhong. I followed my shopkeeper to Lanzhou to go out for business and experience it."

"Mr. must be a legitimate family. He is a illegitimate family. His children are fifteen and sixteen years old and have come out to gain knowledge."

"Uh... the father-in-law is right..."

Jincheng gathers in a corner, Yuwen Weicheng, dressed in casual clothes, now transforms into "Yu Langjun" from Guanzhong and chats with an old man selling medicinal materials on a street stall.

The old man had gray hair and a vicissitudes of his face. He sat on the stone beside the street stall. Yuwen Weicheng bought some medicinal materials, then sat on another stone, and asked the other party about the Lanzhou style.

As we chatted, Yuwen Weicheng found that the other party had a rich experience. He had served as a soldier several times and followed the army to attack Tuyuhun.

When the old man was fifteen or sixteen years old, he was still a commoner of Wei. He was recruited by the government to join the army as a young and strong man to transport food and grass. At that time, the Wei army and the Turks united, set out from Liangzhou, crossed the Tianshan Mountains to the south, and attacked Tuyuhun.

In fact, the Khan of the Turks wanted to attack and plunder Tuyuhun, and the Wei army was just a coordination. The reason why the Wei army did not leave Hehuang was to give Tuyuhun a surprise.

Later, more than 20 years later, during the Jiande period, more than 30 years ago, the Zhou State attacked Tuyuhun, and the prince took charge of the war. The old man was already middle-aged at that time, and was conscripted by the government and went to war with the army.

The official army went around the west sea and captured Fuqi City, the capital of Tuyuhun. The army was stationed between Fuqi City and Xihai. In order to supplement food, they also fished from the west sea. The fish had no scales and tasted delicious. Until now, the old man is still feeling the deliciousness.

Yuwen Weicheng deeply felt this, because this time he went on the expedition, he also ate the scaleless fish caught in the West Sea.

There was a serious listener who spoke more and more. When he went to the expedition, he was frostbite and had a disability in his legs and was unable to walk. Therefore, he was never recruited to join the army again. During this period, he went through the Sui Kingdom. Later, the court returned. His relationship with Tuyuhun was sometimes good and sometimes bad. Hezhou, which was close to Hehuang, was attacked twice in three days, and in Lanzhou, east of Hezhou, was relatively better.

Speaking of this, the old man sighed: "Oh, this time the government army attacked, the Western thieves still fled westward. When the government army retreated, they will definitely make a comeback. This has been the case for decades, and I don't know when it will be."

"Yes, I just hope that after this battle, Tuyuhun will be honest for a few years..." Yuwen Weicheng agreed. Of course, he would not discuss such issues with the other party, just to know the most realistic life situation of the people.

If the ruling party wants to be familiar with the people's sentiment, it cannot rely solely on listening to officials' reports, because bureaucrats at all levels may report good news but not bad news or consciously mislead, so they must visit the public frequently.

When visiting the people, you naturally have to hide your identity. It is best to pretend to be an ordinary business trip, so that you can have a good conversation with the people and hear what the people think through the chat.

This is a skill that Yuwen Weicheng learned from his father, but there is a risk in going on a tour in a veil. It is likely that the corpse will be trampled on the street due to conflicts with the rogue or the Ranger.

Even if you have no worries about your life, you will always be bad if you have broken hands and feet or scars on your face.

Therefore, when going on a mini-dress tour, you must pay attention to ensuring your own safety. After all, "a son of a thousand gold cannot sit in the hall". Don't always think about being a hero like a wanderer in the world and having conflicts with others at will.

This is also my father's explanation.

Yuwen Weicheng was on a tour in a very low-end tour, so naturally there were casual guards on the side to protect him. However, at this market, no one would have thought that the crown prince would sit with an old man and chat about family matters.

The old man was talking nonsense, and he was quite proud of his situation. Although he had one leg, he had a lot of children and grandchildren. His life could not be said to be comfortable, but food and clothing can always be achieved.

There was not much land at home, so he could only leave it to his eldest son. The other sons made their own way. Some were tenants, some were woodcutters, and they picked some medicinal materials back. He saved up a certain amount and took a bag of cloth and carried it to the city to set up a stall.

After half a day, I can sell as much as I can, sell some copper coins, and buy some daily necessities to go back.

His family is not far from Jincheng, so even if you walk slowly, it is okay to go out early and return late. Now the territory of Lanzhou is quite peaceful, and you are not afraid of any forced people blocking the road and robbing the road halfway.

When he heard the other party say "Peace", Yuwen Weicheng asked: "Brother-in-law, do you collect taxes when entering the city or setting up stalls in the market?"

"If you don't collect, you won't collect it. You have to set up stalls in the designated location of the market. After all, the shops have to pay rent, so of course they have to be in the best position..."

"How do you sell iron nails in the city nowadays? The common ones..." Yuwen Weicheng asked, comparing the size with his fingers.

"Five nails are cheaper for a penny."

"Where is the pig? The pig, the little pig, the five or six-month-old pig."

"No need to buy it, it's up to you at home."

"If it is sold, how much is the price?"

"It's necessary to sell for 200 yuan, but that can't be sold. You have to grow up and eat meat during the Chinese New Year." The old man said this and continued excitedly:

"It is better to pick cotton than to raise pigs. When autumn comes, the cotton fields are white, and the owners are anxious to hire people to pick cotton. That is a good time to make money by working...

"Hold someone to pick cotton, both young and old, to take care of food and accommodation, and then pick a pound of cotton for two cents. The boy can pick twenty or thirty pounds a day, and adults can pick sixty or seventy pounds a day, and they can pick more with skilled hands... "

"So many cotton fields, cotton is blooming one by one, and I've been busy for a month or two. How much is that? Isn't it more cost-effective than raising pigs?"

"But I'm tired, old man, because my legs are inconvenient and my waist can't be able to eat, so I can't go. My children and grandchildren and my daughter-in-law go to the cotton field to pick cotton. They are busy from dawn to dark every day. I've been busy for a month and my waist is so tired that I'm about to break..."

"The cotton is not high, and adults have to bend over if they want to pick cotton. Think about it, how tired is it to bend from morning to night? The elderly can't bear it."

"The waist is tired and the hands are also suffering. The cotton needs to be picked one by one, but the leaves are hard, and it is easy to pierce your hands, wear your hands, and scratch your clothes. It's so hard..."

Yuwen Weicheng was suddenly shocked when he heard the old man talking.

Longyou Weaving Department has been established for many years. Its textile factory is now mainly textile cotton cloth, and cotton cloth is very popular, so the cotton planting area in Longyou area is increasing year by year.

Wherever localities can ensure the supply of food, more fields or newly opened wastelands will be more cotton.

There are many cotton plantations, and there are more and more, so planters hire a large number of people. Yuwen Weicheng has already known this before.

When it comes to the harvest season, it requires manpower to pick it, Yuwen Weicheng also knows this.

But he didn't know that the planter actually paid such a high wage for hired workers in order to pick cotton.

In other words, the "process" of cotton picking is a link in the cost of cotton plantations. Because it is hard and indispensable, planters can only hire people to do short-term labor with "high salaries".

Because the area of ​​cotton fields is getting bigger and bigger, when it comes to the season of picking cotton, there is a situation of tight employment. In order to pick cotton in time, the plantation owners have come up with all the ways to pick cotton. There is really not enough people, so they guard the yard and the servants go together.

what does that mean?

1. With the development of cotton planting and textile industry, the demand for manpower is very strong. Cotton fields need to be maintained, cotton picking and transported, which all depend on manpower. Now, seasonal manpower shortage has begun to occur in Longyou area.

2. For planters, slave plantations are more cost-effective than hiring plantations, because they are also "food and accommodation". Slaves do not need wages and have to work hard or tired. However, they can stop working at any time, and it is not easy to beat and scold too much.

Slaves are low-cost production tools for planters. If you want higher profits, you have to need more slaves. Under high-intensity compression, the lifespan of slaves is limited, so they have to be "replaced" frequently.

So, where do the abundant and cheap slaves come from?

Thinking of this, Yuwen Weicheng was a little lost. During this Western Expedition by the government, the prisoners of Tuyuhun Ding were tens of thousands of people and more than 100,000 livestock. In addition to part of the prisoners who were rewarded to Tiel Xueyantuo tribe who enthusiastically helped the war, they were now all divided by the wealthy Longyou families who were enthusiastic about "supporting the army" before the war.

Yuwen Weicheng was still strange at the time and felt that Longyou seemed to be short of manpower, so why did he rush to capture prisoners? After all, these Tuyuhun tribes could not farm, and they would probably run away if they grazed.

Now it seems that he has ignored the two industries of cotton planting and textiles.

Although the Xihai area is desolate and has no important minerals, for the Longyou area, which has already grown cotton on a large scale, the most precious wealth in the Xihai is not cattle and sheep, but people.

To be precise, it is a slave.

Therefore, Tuyuhun and the Qiang tribes in the West Sea changed from chicken ribs to chicken legs. If there were any Qiang chaos similar to that in the Han Dynasty, then the official army would probably not lose money when attacking, and selling the prisoners to the plantation owners is obviously profitable.
Chapter completed!