Mythic version of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 6914: The Last Help

"In short, during the grand court meeting, we will give this thing as a gift to Her Royal Highness the Princess. It will be this year's gift." Chen Xi pointed at the Yuanfeng Sword and said seriously, "It can also be considered an explanation. After all, it has not been shipped for several years. If it is not shipped again, Her Royal Highness may be unable to bear it."

It is normal to spend money on scientific research without getting any results. After all, there is a very important link in scientific research called trial and error, and the essence of trial and error is to have no results, so that you can feel at ease to change to a new route.

Chen Xi's scientific research, which is bound to produce results, is illogical. For this reason, Chen Xi also specially promoted it to Liu Tong. However, no results have been produced in several years, and he has also cheated Liu Tong of a lot of money. If he doesn't produce the original product, Chen Xi is worried that Liu Tong will get angry.

"That's fine. After all, it has the words Yuan Feng on it." Liu Bei nodded to show that he understood. This kind of weapon is called a ceremonial weapon, but when it is really handed over to Liu Tong and becomes a spirit after a drop of blood, it is no longer a simple ceremonial weapon, but a real national weapon. This is why the first one was given to Liu Tong.

Only in this way can this thing be effectively used as a high-standard reward representing status and position. Well, to put it another way, if Liu Tong makes a sword spirit out of this thing, it would be a shame for the large family if they don't get one.

After all, every family these days has its own symbol. A thing that is definitely a divine weapon, naturally forming the symbol of this family, also has the function of inheritance. Even nowadays, the major families are willing to spend some resources to purchase it.

What's more, this is indeed a divine weapon, a divine weapon that is more in line with the definition of a divine weapon than the Dragon Bone Rolled Steel Sword, and it is just put out to collect the floating wealth of the major families.

The same goes for the reason why the first magic weapon was given to Liu Tong, just like the lamb chops that Concubine Xian specially offered for three thousand coins per mouthful, if you don't have a bit of class, you don't deserve to eat this thing, it's pure luxury, just to add a bit of class!

"When will the second sword be forged?" Liu Bei was not polite either. He could accept giving this sword to Liu Tong. After all, she was the regent princess. Even if she did nothing, as long as she was still in the position, she should be given such a high status. But Liu Bei must get the second sword.

Although the double-edged sword is good, the spiritual broadsword is obviously more convenient to use!
"He's currently recuperating. I think other swordsmiths are just helping out. Maybe after the new year, they should be able to produce four or five swords at a time." Chen Xi thought for a while and said, Pu Yuan has just entered a new realm and needs to consolidate his position. Even if he risks his life, he has to make a breakthrough to prove that his previous luck was not accidental.

"Four or five items? One for me, one for you, one for Yide, one for Zijian, and even if we arrange one for Wen Ze or Xingba, there won't be enough to go around!" Liu Bei smacked his lips twice, indicating that the number was far from enough. This was because Guan Yu and Zhao Yun didn't need such things, and there were ready-made ones, which could be issued later and given to those in need first.

As for Sun Ce, Yuan Tan, Cao Ang and others, Liu Bei didn't even consider them. At least he would make arrangements for these people after giving Xu Chu a good beating.

Just like the seventh-generation ships, they were all prepared for Gan Ning from the beginning. At most, Gan Ning couldn't defeat Celian with them, so he lent them to Zhou Yu. After all, this was a national treasure and couldn't be messed with.

"Forget it, give it to others." Chen Xi waved his hand and said, "I have already notified Pu Yuan. If we really want to start casting, we will cast snake spears and broadswords first. Although we can cast four or five pieces at a time, I don't think there will be four or five finished products. This thing is not that easy to make."

"Yes, then let's arrange it for Yide and Zijian first. I can only show off here at most. The magic weapon will probably be covered in dust if it falls into my hands." Liu Bei pondered for a moment after hearing this and quickly understood Chen Xi's arrangement. Indeed, in terms of maximum utilization, it still has to be Zhang Fei and Hua Xiong.

"I have it here even more. Please prepare it for me when you prepare it for the major families in the future. After all, this thing is essentially a ceremonial weapon." Chen Xi took the Yuanfeng Sword and flicked it twice, saying, "However, such a ceremonial weapon is also very important for the current feudal state."

“After all, it is a magical weapon that can be passed down and will last forever with the country.” Liu Bei put the Yuan Feng Sword back into the sword case, and then threw the sword case to Xu Chu. This thing is indeed the best gift given to Liu Tong at the grand court meeting, and it will have a very amazing effect if it is activated directly in front of everyone.

"That's about what I mean." Chen Xi nodded. Liu Bei was gradually able to keep up with Chen Xi's thinking on certain things. At least when Chen Xi mentioned how to hand over the sword to Liu Tong, Liu Bei understood.

"Is there anything else?" Liu Bei looked around and saw the piles of scales, which were from before they were unified and still had not been used up.

"What should we do with these things later?" Liu Bei said, pointing at the pile next to the weapons rack.

"It will be distributed directly to the Ganges servants later." Chen Xi said expressionlessly. There was no better way to deal with this thing, so they could only distribute it like this.

"As for other things, there are none. In the past two years, the Shaofu's main focus has been on producing various farm tools, and there has not been much development in the military equipment. If anything, it is mainly replacing materials and upgrading the original military equipment." Chen Xi shook his head and said.

Although Chen Xi used secondary cementite at the beginning, there is still considerable room for optimization. After nearly ten years of optimization, the strength and toughness of the material have been continuously improved. Although the improvement is not too much with each generation change, the overall improvement is indeed continuous.

Especially in the past two years, the successful sea trials of the seventh-generation ships represented an amazing breakthrough in materials science by the Han Dynasty, which in turn brought about an overall innovation in armaments.

Therefore, these weapons look the same, but Liu Bei's previous feeling was correct. The new generation of weapons and the previous generation of weapons, even if they look the same, the former are stronger than the latter.

"What's the current situation of farm tools?" Chen Xi suddenly asked Liu Bei. Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this, then stroked his beard, "They are very good things, but they are promoted too slowly, especially good things like heavy plows. An old soldier can open up a large area of ​​land in a few days."

Chen Xi imagined the old soldiers pulling the heavy plow. It was a bit strange, but considering that some old soldiers have a talent for strength, they can pull this much harder than oxen and horses. Even if they have a talent for endurance like Bai Tao, they can work for three days and three nights without rest, which is more powerful than mechanization.

"There are also non-powered lawn mowers. Many people in Northern Xinjiang use them. If you have a talent like spiral force field, you can use them to mow the grass very quickly. You don't need to bend over, just push it forward." Liu Bei recalled what he saw in Northern Xinjiang. "However, some non-powered lawn mowers that use large blades are too efficient in the hands of veterans."

"Just say your name." Chen Xi asked curiously when he heard this as he followed Liu Bei out.

"Hua Chen, one person controlled more than 20 of these large lawn mowers with a pole, and then used the spiral force field to push them forward. He could mow an acre of grass in just a dozen seconds." Liu Bei said with some emotion as he walked, "Because of this, he opened a ranch in Jiuyuan with others, and he mowed grass every day."

"If the roots are not dug, just leave it alone and let him mow as he pleases. There are millions of square kilometers, so why should we be afraid of him mowing the grass? Let him mow, what's the problem?" Chen Xi said indifferently. It takes 20 seconds to mow an acre of land, and if you work eight hours a day, you can only mow one square kilometer. The northern border of the Han Dynasty is millions of square kilometers.

"Well, it seems that he is indeed harvesting very aggressively. He can harvest one square kilometer in a day, which means hundreds of tons a day. Well, I think we should give him the entire silage information and let him engage in silage. Why raise cattle? How much money can you make from cattle? With his ability, silage is simply a no-cost business. Sell it to the country, which needs it very much." After saying a few words, Chen Xi realized that Brilliance's efficiency was simply incredible. However, raising cattle with such incredible efficiency, under the premise of having a state-owned ranch, the money earned was just so-so.

Of course, for Brilliance, it is already very happy to get a few hundred thousand yuan every year. After all, they don’t have to do anything. They just have a bunch of large lawn mowers, mow the grass everywhere, and raise cattle. Most of them are no-cost businesses. It’s just a contribution, and it’s really great. Isn’t it much better than eating dirt before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, right?
"Huh?" Liu Bei turned his head to glance at Chen Xi, but didn't react.

"He cuts so much grass that his ranch can't eat it all. Without professionals, the ranch can only be so big. If it's bigger, the management staff needed won't be enough at Huachen's level. He can cut two to three hundred tons of grass a day, and a cow eats thirty kilograms of feed a day. At the limit, if he doesn't feed the cows with refined grains but only grass, he can support twenty to thirty thousand cows by himself..." Chen Xi explained casually, "Lord Xuande, do you think Huachen can build such a large ranch?"

Although they are raised in captivity, since they are in the northern Xinjiang region, they must be moving around with the water and grass. In other words, the cattle are grazing on the grassland. In this case, if Hua Chen wants to consume all the grass he cuts, his ranch must have about 50,000 cows.

There are not many large ranches in the Han Dynasty with more than 50,000 cows. Currently, there are more than 20 large ranches combined, with less than 1.5 million cows. If Hua Chen and his old brother from an unknown family can privately run a ranch with 50,000 cows, Wen Hui, Liang Mao and others will definitely report to Chen Xi. After all, this is a very big deal.

Chen Xi hasn't received any news yet, so we can only say that the ranch jointly owned by Huachen and others has at most one or two thousand cows, and not even three thousand. This can also explain why Liu Bei thinks it is outrageous that Huachen cuts grass like this, because Huachen only needs to cut grass for one month a year, and the rest of the time it just needs to wait for the money.

A cow costs about 5,000 coins in the border counties, but almost double that in the Central Plains. In the past two years, three to four hundred cows have been slaughtered a year. After deducting the cost, Hua Chen gets a few hundred thousand coins a year. It sounds like it would be better to work with Sun Qian, after all, Hua Chen's spiral force field is not inferior to Dong Zhe's at all. However, it is easy for Hua Chen to mow the grass. He only needs to do it for one month a year.

When Liu Bei saw Hua Chen cutting grass frantically, he probably thought that Hua Chen was rushing over from Qingzhou to stock up on fodder for his own ranch.

"Oh, so that's it." Liu Bei thought about it and felt that it made much more sense.

"It can only be like this, but it has no future. Let him come to cut grass for the Northern Xinjiang Ranch, and give him the added value by making it into silage, which will be of better quality." Chen Xi said casually, "I estimate that this upper limit can be easily reached, about one million per year."

It's impossible to get any higher, and this is because only a few people like Huachen and Dong Zhe can do this. But to be honest, if you do this, the lawn mower will be severely damaged, and you will have to replace it every few days. But Huachen probably doesn't care, it's a good job with an annual salary of one million.

"I always feel like you can always come up with ridiculously good professions." Liu Bei said with a complicated expression, "Even these professions that sound ridiculous just by listening to them are actually completely reasonable considering the current environment."

"We can raise 50,000 more cows. We just need to hire one more grass cutter, a dozen grass harvesters with strength talent, and a dozen managers. The total cost will not exceed three million yuan, but the benefits it can bring..." Chen Xi looked up at the sky and calculated casually, "If we calculate that we can sell 10,000 cows a year, this is an actual output of 100 million."

In fact, it is not calculated in this way. A cow worth ten thousand coins would cost more than ten thousand coins if it is taken apart and sold. To be precise, the beef is worth this much. If the tendons, hair, hide, horns, bones, etc. are used for weaponry and production, it would be another sum. It's just that ordinary people cannot handle it in this way when buying a cow. With the scale of Chen Xi, of course, he can process every drop of blood for him.

"If 100 million coins and 10,000 cows are put together, it seems that cattle are more important than money." Liu Bei said with some doubt.

"Because most of the time, it is difficult to buy 10,000 cows with 100 million five-zhu coins. Only in my era can we do this kind of business. In other eras..." Chen Xi said casually. Although the price is this, it does not mean that you can buy it!
Especially when a lot of supplies are needed, it is difficult to buy them even if you want to, especially in special times, having money and having food are two different things.

"Indeed, no wonder I often feel that money is not as valuable as physical objects." Liu Bei slapped his thigh and suddenly realized, "Although money is still valuable, my experience during the Yellow Turban era tells me that those materials are more important."

Chen Xi glanced at Liu Bei speechlessly, but in the end he said nothing. Liu Bei's intuition was simply destroying the beautiful society that Chen Xi had built over the years with stability, peace, credibility, etc. Something like currency needs to be stable in troubled times and rely on material support, but in prosperous times, it mainly depends on the stability of society and the credibility of the country.

Of course, this mainly refers to credit currency. Of course, there has been no pure equivalent currency since ancient times. Even gold coins, silver coins, copper coins, etc., fundamentally speaking, they also have the aspect of credit currency, but this thing has a guaranteed value.

"This feeling will gradually disintegrate in the next few decades, especially after the new generation can use money to buy what they want from the supply and marketing cooperatives. This feeling will completely disappear, and the country's credibility will be completely established." After thinking about it, Chen Xi opened his mouth to explain.

Since Liu Bei thinks so, then there must be many old people who have experienced the Yellow Turban era who would think so too. Chen Xi has no way to reverse this kind of cognitive level and can only rely on the magic of time to gradually smooth it out.

"Is that so? That should be a very peaceful period." Liu Bei said with a smile, and then took Chen Xi out of the armory and got back on the carriage. When they got into the carriage, Liu Bei suddenly said to Chen Xi, "Zichuan, after the grand court meeting, I plan to go to the Ganges."

"Ah?" Chen Xi was stunned. "Shouldn't you come with me to verify the troop deployment of Jizhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and Yongliang after the New Year? After all, I can't rest assured if I don't verify the deployment of the three million troops to completely defeat the Kushan Empire in advance."

"Zichuan, I sometimes think about a question. What is your military level?" Liu Bei did not answer Chen Xi's question, but asked a question instead.

"Ah, it's okay. The level is not very high, but it's indeed presentable. After all, I'm different from Zhou Gongjin. I don't show off my skills, but try my best to demonstrate my command ability with the most basic and rigid tactics. It's not strong, but with the support of my logistics, I'm confident that the regular troops can suppress it." Chen Xi didn't mean to hide anything from Liu Bei, nor was he modest.

"So you can actually command the million-strong army of Ganges?" Liu Bei asked with some curiosity. "According to your answer, it should be possible."

"Well, if the middle and lower-level structures are complete, the logistics are properly deployed, and every step of the transfer is arranged and the schedule is calculated, it is possible. But Lord Xuande, you have also heard that there are too many prerequisites for me to do this, so for the sake of safety, I must verify it first." Chen Xi said very seriously, "In essence, the mobilization of troops in the six northern states is essentially a means for me to verify my command method."

"It's a test, and also a bottom line, right? First test whether you can do this, and then try to see if you can make relatively accurate dispatches. If you can, the Battle of the Ganges can be fought this way. Split them up and give them to the main forces of each unit, letting them do what they want. If something goes wrong, use the plan in your plan, concentrate superior forces, and encircle and annihilate the enemies?" Liu Bei asked Chen Xi.

"I haven't thought about it that deeply. The significance of verification lies in the fact that I am not sure I can organize three million troops to do this." Chen Xi said with a dry laugh, "Logistics dispatch, personnel coordination, food and grass transportation consumption, etc., all these need to be tested. Even if I have prepared the so-called margin, I still have to test the actual operation."

"You should be able to do it alone." Liu Bei looked at Chen Xi seriously and said.

"No, Lord Xuande and I must work together on this." Chen Xi looked at Liu Bei with a serious expression.

"I need to go to the Ganges." Liu Bei shook his head and said, "After all, they have followed me for more than ten years. Even if they have other ideas, before anything happens, I think they can still be saved. I think I should give them a hand in the end."

"It's already been pulled." Chen Xi said after a moment of silence.

"I didn't appear in front of them. I just issued the decree and passed it on. I went there in person, let them see me, and then make a choice." Liu Bei said solemnly.

"I'm afraid it won't have any substantial significance. It's true that some people will be touched by seeing Lord Xuande, but most people will change their minds when they see you. But when they go to the battlefield, they will continue to think. Lord Xuande, there are some things that you can't eliminate even if you go there." Chen Xi said very seriously.

"Most of them have followed me for more than ten years. If I can save one person during my trip, it will be true to my original intention. I have seen everything I should see in the country. As for the troop deployment, Zichuan, I have discussed it with Her Royal Highness the Princess. You will be promoted to Prime Minister in this court meeting, instead of being the Shangshu Pushe who is in charge of all prime minister's affairs as before." Liu Bei said slowly.

"There is no difference." Chen Xi shook his head. What about the Prime Minister and the Shangshu Pushe? Aren't they doing the same thing?
"You can use the military power with justification. The prime minister assists the emperor in regulating yin and yang, following the four seasons, nurturing all things, pacifying the barbarians, and befriending the people, so that the ministers can perform their duties." Liu Bei said with a smile, "It is unreasonable for the Shangshu Pushe to mobilize troops, but it is natural for the prime minister to mobilize troops. You are just worried about what has happened and will happen again in the future, but the prime minister is different."

The prime minister in the Han Dynasty could negotiate with the emperor. The prime minister was abolished later because the prime minister had too much power. Without any other constraints, the prime minister was in charge of all officials, assisted the emperor in governing the country, and was in charge of everything.

The core is to control everything. In other words, you can command anything.

This is also the core of Prime Minister Zhuge's control over the military and political affairs of Shu Han. Although Liu Chan has delegated power, the basic setting of the prime minister is like this. Liu Bei is preparing to withdraw from the government and no longer serve as the Grand Marshal. He is preparing to tour the country on behalf of the emperor as the King of Jin. Then the best choice is naturally to promote Chen Xi as prime minister to control the military and political affairs.

"Is that so?" Chen Xi was silent for a while. "But I still suggest not going to the Ganges. Follow me to complete the verification, then go on a western tour, and then patrol on behalf of the gods."

"But if I don't go and make up for all the efforts I should have made, my conscience will be uneasy. Yun Chang told me that the Ganges incident was caused by human greed, but those who have such desires do not deserve to die." Liu Bei looked at Chen Xi very frankly, "I may not be able to suppress their greed, but if I go, I can always pull some back. After all, they fought for the country, and this is not right."

"By that time, the Kushans may not necessarily agree to a truce with us." Chen Xi said in a low voice.

The last few days have been really exciting. It feels like I'm witnessing history. China's tough move may really win the hearts of the people. No matter what, it is still the devil, but what the old devil did was really outrageous. The US's tax increase is only understandable for China, but it is really outrageous if it is done directly to the whole world.

Considering that many Chinese products are often re-exported to the United States, the US's global tariff increase is understandable. Otherwise, China would have to change its skin and enter the country. The simplest example is the tax the United States imposes on Vietnam's galvanized steel plates. Let's put it this way, Vietnam's heavy industry is not qualified to export to the United States at all. Guess whose product this is? So the United States is a bit crazy, but the underlying logic is understandable. It's just too crazy.

You have to know that if the punishment measures are harmless, it means that the person carrying out the punishment has no authority, and that's how the halo is broken.

I did some calculations out of boredom. China's GDP is composed of about 30% foreign trade, and 14% trade with the United States. Re-export accounts for about 25%. Now that the United States has imposed tariffs on the world, re-exports are unlikely to be a big deal. If other countries are not affected in the future and China can still trade, the GDP loss after the trade between China and the United States is cut off will be about 7%. Taking into account the new regional trade, the biggest impact on China is that its GDP growth rate will slow down to around 3%. Based on this calculation, the US GDP may really be negative 1%.

If this really happens, as long as the EU does not act like a traitor, we may see the same scene as last century.