As a group of thieves, Ding Jin has no definite number of soldiers and horses under his command. When he came to Luoyang, Xijing this time, he said he brought three thousand soldiers with him. In fact, according to the observations of Xie Linong and others, there were only more than a thousand soldiers at most.

Less than two thousand.

Most of the bandits that Zongze gathered in Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo have this characteristic. He has many soldiers and horses, and there is no exact number. There are only two or three thousand people in his hands, but it can be said that the soldiers and horses are tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.

Anyway, the imperial court did not pay them food and wages, so they were allowed to brag nonsense. For example, Ding Jin also boasted that he had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and went on an inspection tour of Kaifeng Prefecture. In fact, there were not so many? Thousands of people were there.

Amazing.

This incident made Wang Xiaolie feel confused and a little at a loss.

Based on the knowledge of his previous life, Zong Ze defended Kaifeng Mansion and worked very hard. He had millions of rebels under his command and their morale was as high as a rainbow. If it weren't for Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou who were afraid of death and did not dare to return to Kaifeng, the war against the Jin Army would never have been as bad as in history.

So passive. When I came to this era, I should go to Kaifeng Mansion to help Zongze defend Kaifeng. As long as a million rebels were organized, what was the need for the Jin Army to worry about!

But reality told Wang Xiaolie that this was not the case.

One million rebels, that's the number reported by the bandits who gathered together according to Zongze. There are really so many people, how can Kaifeng Prefecture get the food and grass to feed them? I'm afraid no one can tell how many people there really are. Even the leader of the rebels himself doesn't know.

How many soldiers are these people equivalent to? It is also unclear. But according to Wang Xiaolie's estimation, even if they are all reorganized, there will be 30,000 to 50,000 combat soldiers, which is already great.

The Jin army invaded the south in three directions, attacking Jingdong Road in the east, Shaanxi Road in the west, and Jingxi Road in the middle. It was obvious that Kaifeng Prefecture in the middle was vacated. What Zongze faced was not the main force of the Jin army. They kept fighting.

The Jin army that went to Zhengzhou and Huazhou was just a partial division of the Jin army. How many people were there in the partial division? According to the Jin army's habit of invading, more than 5,000 people are worthy of the main force. The Jin army that Kaifeng faced was probably only two or three thousand people.

The scale. With two to three thousand people, they fought hard with Zongze. Zhengzhou and Huazhou both won and lost.

The millions of rebels in the capital are just talk and cannot be taken seriously.

According to historical memory, we should go to Kaifeng Mansion. But in reality, there is not much use in guarding Kaifeng Mansion. At least for people like Wang Xiaolie, there is not much use. What is useful is that Zhao Gou goes to guard Kaifeng Mansion. Really make up your mind to guard Kaifeng Mansion.

With the power of the country, they will fight to the death with the Jin army. If others go, Kaifeng Mansion will definitely not be able to hold it, so it doesn't make much sense.

In fact, the Jin army's southward invasion at this time had no intention of occupying land. The main purpose of the Jin army's southward invasion was to rob property and people. Of course, it also had another purpose, which was to capture the Southern Song emperor. However, the Jin army at this time did not know that Zhao Gou

Where, there is no deployment targeted.

Kaifeng Mansion has been robbed, the city is in ruins, and there is no hope in the eyes of the Jin Army. The three-way southward invasion just avoided Kaifeng Mansion. To be precise, this time it was not that Zongze defended Kaifeng well, but that the Jin Army simply did not

I didn't set that as my goal.

The gap between historical knowledge and reality made Wang Xiaolie a little overwhelmed.

Going down the hillside, there is a small village. Ding Jin's troops camped around the village, which seemed a bit chaotic.

Wang Xiaolie entered the village, but no guards came to ask, so they were allowed to walk towards the village. When they arrived at the village, Wang Xiaolie felt something was wrong and said to Shao Ling: "We have never been here before, and we don't know where Ding Duxun lives.

.Look for a soldier and ask, don't go to the wrong place."

Shao Ling promised. Seeing a few soldiers basking in the sun under a tree by the roadside, he stepped forward to sing a promise and asked them where Ding Jin lived. Several of them looked up at Wang Xiaolie and Cao Zhiyan, and raised their fingers to point to the courtyard in the middle of the village.

.

The three of them followed the dirt road in the village to the courtyard in the middle of the village. They saw guards guarding the door. Wang Xiaolie stepped forward to sing a promise and said: "Wang Xiaolie, the leader of the rebel army on the lower mountain, came to see Ding Duxun.

.The governor has given instructions, please inform me."

A guard entered the courtyard. After a while, he came out and crossed his hands and said: "We are all patrolling to discuss matters with the generals. You can go in."

The three of them entered the courtyard. In the main room in the middle, several men were sitting inside, making noisy noises. After entering, Wang Xiaolie crossed his hands and said, "Wang Xiaolie, the leader of the rebel army on the lower mountain, is here.

I have been ordered by the governor to come and meet to discuss matters."

The man in the middle had a stout build and a dark complexion. After hearing this, he looked up at Wang Xiaolie and said loudly: "Xiao Sheren has been sleeping for many days and has not been able to see each other. When I woke up today, I didn't expect to be such a good man!

"

Wang Xiaolie has grown in stature, but he is slender, which cannot be seen when he is lying down. When he stands up, he can see that he is not thin. These days, people like Ding Jin have not looked down on Wang Xiaolie very much, so

I met him today and they all praised him as a good man.

Taking their seats at the end, Cao Zhiyan and Shao Ling stood behind them. Ding Jin introduced the leaders present. In addition to Yu Huan, there were also Ma Xi, Peng Tan and Shi Jian, most of whom were Ding Jin's companions when he launched his army.

Instructing the soldiers to pour wine for Wang Xiaoxue, Ding Jin said: "It's good luck today. We found a cow and killed it for a meal. There has been no mutton in our mouths for many days, and a bird has appeared! Xiaosheren came just in time.

.”

Wang Xiaolie hurriedly thanked him.

At this time, the most common meat was mutton, followed by pork, chicken, etc. Unlike in later generations, game was generally not very popular because of its low meat content and bland taste. In addition, the rarest of things was the most valuable.

, game is not difficult to hunt at this time, so of course it is not taken seriously. Unless it is something that is particularly rare and tastes good, it is valuable.

Of course, there is beef. But most of it is sold in rural shops to poor families with no money. People with a little status will not eat it.

In Wang Xiaolie's memory, there were many stories about people in the Song Dynasty who liked to eat mutton. Only when he came to this era did he realize that this was not the case. For example, people in the Song Dynasty valued mutton and despised pork, and regarded pork as a debased meat. Later generations found many of them.

The reasons are, for example, the pigs are not raised well and the meat smells fishy. Or the pigs are raised in pens and are unclean compared with sheep, so people with status do not eat them. In fact, they are just made up based on the situation of later generations. This era is not

Yes. Pigs are of course gelding, and meat is not cheap compared to mutton, and it varies from place to place. In some places, mutton is more expensive than pork, in other places the price is almost the same, and there are even places where pork is more expensive than mutton. Just like now

In Kaifeng Prefecture, after the plunder of the Jin soldiers, prices became very high. Mutton cost 8,000 taels per catty, while pork cost 6,000 taels. The difference was not big. At this time, logistics was inconvenient, and the price difference between mutton and pork depended on the supply and demand situation in each place.

Not only pork and mutton, the legend of beef is even more outrageous. China, an agricultural society, banned the slaughter of farm cattle. Later generations misunderstood that the ancients did not eat beef, and many explanations came out. Just like in the novel "Water Margin", as soon as the heroes arrived at the store,

Often, a few kilograms of beef are required. Some clever literati took advantage of this and said that the government is not allowed to eat beef. This is written in the book to illustrate the rebellious spirit of the heroes. When I heard about it in the previous life, Wang Xiaolie also

I think this statement is very reasonable, and I am a well-educated person. Only at this time did I realize that it was a complete fabrication.

China only bans the slaughter of farm cattle, but does not ban the eating of beef. If the cattle are not slaughtered, won't they die? It's just beef that is eaten, sick and dead, and it doesn't taste good. At this time, there are government restrictions on general beef

The price is twenty cents per catty. Mutton and pork are usually one hundred cents per catty, or even more, and beef is much cheaper. When the heroes sit down in the hotel, they ask for several catties of beef, just because

It’s just poverty. Beef is the cheapest meat in this era, and it doesn’t taste good no matter how you cook it, so rich people don’t eat it.

The government's price limit of twenty cents per pound is aimed at sick and dead cattle. In other words, slaughtered cattle must also be sold at this price, and it is a government sale, in line with the policy of banning the slaughter of farm cattle. That's why there is

Folks secretly slaughter farm cattle and earn a hundred cents per catty, making a lot of profit.

There are so many stories. The main reason should be that in the Song Dynasty and before, there were not many records and incomplete information on commodity prices. Moreover, due to inconvenient transportation, prices vary greatly in different places. In addition, some literati like to make up stories to show how knowledgeable they are.

Profound.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, detailed statistical yearbooks were available, and the prices of pork, beef, and mutton were clearly visible. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the slaughter of farm cattle was banned. The cheapest meat was beef, followed by mutton, and the most expensive was pork. With the development of agriculture,

With the acceleration of the industrialization process, the price of pork, which is relatively more suitable for industrial breeding, has dropped. Later, vegetable cattle, which are specialized in meat, have risen, and the price of beef has basically been the same as that of mutton. By about 1978, due to the development of agriculture, new pig varieties

After breeding, the price of beef and mutton gradually exceeded the price of pork.

In later generations, the price of pork was much lower than that of beef and mutton. This is because in an industrial society, pork is more suitable for industrial breeding. In fact, in other countries, beef and mutton are still cheaper in many places. In the society before the founding of New China, pork was not much cheaper than beef and mutton. It was nothing more than that.

Regions vary greatly, and the situation in each place is different. When the slaughter of farm cattle is prohibited and there are no vegetable cattle specialized for meat, beef must be the cheapest.

As Ding Jin, today is freshly slaughtered beef, and the price is the same as mutton. At this time, when Jingxi Road has been plundered by Jin soldiers and the land is almost completely white, it is indeed a blessing for Wang Xiaolie to have a hearty meal of beef.

After drinking a large sip of wine with everyone, the wine tasted bland. Wang Xiaolie slowly sipped the wine and looked at the others to assess the situation.

Putting down the wine bowl, Ding Jin said loudly: "A few days ago, Taiwei Zhai attacked the Jin camp, and the news leaked out, so he lost the battle. He sent a message that he would lead us to fight the Jin army again in the next two days, and asked us to move quickly. But there was insufficient food and grass.

, I can’t do it, I just arrived in Yong’an County today. I don’t know how the war in Luoyang City is going.”

Peng Tan Weng said: "I heard that the Jin army took the treasures and the population and went north, leaving Wu Shi to cut off the queen. The Jin soldiers are fierce, how can they be easy to fight? Why not wait a few more days, maybe Wu Shi will lead his troops to the north.
Chapter completed!