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Volume 3: Stormy France Chapter 148: Making Money

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    Chapter 148 Making Money

    Frederick finally launched his troops, and the Pope's letter for help was the best excuse. Perhaps, even without that strange letter for help, Frederick's ready-to-go army would not have been able to put away its minions.

    The arrow is on the string and must be fired.  The seemingly peaceful interior of the Holy Roman Empire also had many unstable factors, and Frederick needed to rely on foreign wars to divert everyone's attention.

    Originally, Frederick summoned Bai Zhou to discuss sending troops. First, he asked Bai Zhou's troops to cooperate with the army and go south to the Alps and into the Apennine Peninsula. Second, he hoped to use Switzerland to allow the empire's soldiers to attack from two directions at the same time.  Entering Italy.

    Of course, Frederick knew that with the fighting power of the Western Qin tribe alone, it was absolutely impossible to continuously create miracles when he went south to fight again. Even if he could, that was what Frederick hoped for, because he knew that at this stage, the Western Qin tribe needed to recuperate and recuperate, not  Fight again.

    Frederick wanted a dog, not a wolf that would bite back.

    This dog only needs to be ferocious, and does not need to be strong, because he needs a dog to bite people, not to show off.

    Squeezing out every ounce of fighting power of the Western Qin people will not be harmful to the Holy Roman Empire in any aspect.

    But something like this happened. After the Duke of Switzerland was assassinated, he was "in low spirits and had a headache." So it was impossible for the Western Qin people to send troops to help. Frederick had to follow the original plan and lead his nobles, big and small, to go south with a large number of troops.  .

    At the same time, Charles VII of France, after hearing that the Holy Roman Empire was raising troops to go south, also took up the banner of recovering the lost territory - the Iberian Peninsula was in raging war, and it was impossible to have the energy to go north; Burgundy was still in  During the civil strife, Philip was exhausted and busy dealing with Joan of Arc's offensive and had no time to take care of himself; as for the Western Qin, even their Duke was now exhausted (this is what happened to you for defrauding me of my property), and he didn't care about Charles VII at all.

    It has to be said that during this specific historical period, the whole of Europe was in flames of war, but Switzerland, a place surrounded by wars, had gained rare stability.

    In terms of time, the several wars launched by the Western Qin people were like the twists on the powder barrel. They ignited the beacon fire across the entire continent, but they were the first to return to peace.

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    Bai Zhou once again dismissed the "good intention" sent by the Earl of Zurich - after seeing the tools brought by this famous doctor, it was difficult for Bai Zhou to imagine that his profession was a doctor instead of a plumber or a butcher.

    Meng Zhi snickered sillyly on the side. This was the seventh doctor he had kicked out in the past month.

    At first, this task was done by Li Jin. Originally, this old man had the concept of a gentleman talking but not doing things, and he also held the great ideal of exchanging Eastern and Western medical concepts. However, there was no result.

    Li Jin was well versed in health preservation and was considered to be physically strong, but after all, he was old and would inevitably be at a disadvantage when performing a full-scale martial arts competition with those he regarded as "quack doctors". Then, this important mission was handed over to Meng Zhi.  .

    Meng Zhi did not disgrace his mission. Every doctor was respectfully invited in and then thrown out roughly (Bai Zhou said he had a headache, and the doctors were about to perform a craniotomy on him.  Those who brought anesthesia, letting Mengzhi just throw them out is already a big favor to the nobles who sent these doctors).

    In this day and age, it¡¯s too easy to pretend to be sick, especially for those Western doctors who don¡¯t understand what it means to look, smell, ask, and feel.

    Fiora finally woke up a few days ago and heard Li Jin say that if the dagger was two inches lower, even the gods would not be able to save her life.  Fortunately, the injury was not in an important position, and some of the accompanying Western Qin soldiers were knowledgeable about medicine, so he was lucky enough to save his life.

    Fiora doesn¡¯t need to pretend, she¡¯s healed when she¡¯s well. Although her body is inevitably weak, she visits Bai Zhou¡¯s ¡°bed¡± every day.

    After this window was broken, the relationship between the two people can be described as a rapid development, like honey mixed with oil. Even Meng Zhi, a big nerve, would shy away when he saw Fiora coming to visit her.  .

    I think that although Bai Zhou had never been in a serious relationship before, he still knew the essentials, famous sayings, "aphorisms", poems, and songs that he should know by heart. Speaking of which, in terms of love words, no one in this era could talk to him.  It's an order of magnitude.

    Of course, there is another problem that is not a problem, and that is Caiwei.  This little maid didn't seem to mind at all when Bai Zhou kissed Fiora in front of her.

    The little maid has a very high level of ideological consciousness and looks like I don¡¯t mind being a ¡°little¡± person.In this way, Bai Zhou felt that he was accumulating sin points.  When he heard that little Caiwei had begun to affectionately call Fiora her sister, the guilt value increased in a cubic series, but then he continued to think about it, and it seemed that the happiness index also increased in a cubic series.  Increasingly as you turn upwards.

    After lying on the bed with his body stretched out for a month, even Bai Zhou felt that if he continued to lie down like this, his whole body would be rusty. Moreover, Frederick's large army was making very smooth progress in Italy, and there was no need for Bai Zhou's troops.  .

    Even if Frederick was hungry and unscrupulous, Bai Zhou would probably pretend to be sick again. The first time he was alive, the second time he was familiar. Bai Zhou was confident that if he did this again, it would definitely be more lifelike.

    In fact, Bai Zhou really didn¡¯t know what was going on when Frederick summoned him last time, but it was nothing more than those few articles, praising the Western Qin¡¯s martial arts, and then asking him to lead his people to fight for the Holy Roman Empire again.

    If Bai Zhou really saw Frederick, then the Western Qin Dynasty would definitely not be able to escape this campaign.  After all, when the Western Qin Dynasty was still temporarily in Hungary, when Bai Zhou met the king of the Holy Roman Empire for the first time, he conquered Italy. This was what Bai Zhou had said before.

    Blind refusal will only make Frederick feel bad about Xi Qin, and then the life of the Xi Qin people will not be easy.

    Therefore, we can only delay. I don¡¯t know whether it is luck or misfortune. This assassination gave Bai Zhou the best excuse-the coach was attacked and no one could lead the army.

    Because Europa implemented the rule of "my subordinates' subordinates, not my subordinates", Frederick did not expect that he could directly mobilize Western Qin generals such as Meng Shan and Wei Fu across the cypress boat. Naturally, Western Qin sent troops  The matter was settled.

    To put it bluntly, Frederick hoped that Western Qin would always be in a state of war, and that the nerves of the entire nation would always be in a state of war. Such a nation would be a sharp knife in his hand. Moreover, since Western Qin did not have perfect logistical support,  Ordinary people have always been in a difficult living situation, which means that Frederick can use the knife of Xi Qin however he wants, and he doesn't even need to be afraid of it breaking, as long as it is sharp enough.

    Frederick could ignore the economic production of Western Qin, but as the son of Western Qin, Bai Zhou could not ignore it.

    In the initial conquest of Switzerland and the war against Burgundy, in these two major battles, the entire Western Qin Dynasty, to use a nicer word, was called a wartime economic system. Everything served the war, and civilian use was completely converted into military industry; and to use the idiom closest to the essence  To describe it is to be militaristic.  Apart from anything else, if they were not from the Western Qin tribe, every family would have a pair of crossbows and some barely-handled weapons because they needed to hunt. If they relied solely on the few supplies supported by Frederick, the Western Qin soldiers would definitely  You have to cut down trees to make soldiers and rise up.

    Not to mention food.  Before encountering the main force of Burgundy, the remaining grain of Western Qin was only enough for half a month. If the goddess of luck had not lifted the skirt of the Western Qin people, the gunpowder packet hit the bullseye and destroyed Burgundy.  The human command system, this war is destined to be a protracted war of attrition.  And if they hadn't conquered Burgundy and used Joan of Arc to extort tens of thousands of gold coins worth of food from the French, the people of Western Qin would probably have had no choice but to go hunting (or robbing) in the mountains.

    ??The war involves manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Even if the Western Qin people are fighting one against a hundred, but they are bare-handed and half-starved, this war is still a fart.

    Regardless of the fact that the West Qin Company has achieved two great victories, it can be considered that it has completely established a foothold in western Switzerland. However, as long as the West Qin people lose once, even if it is not a battle-level defeat, it is just a failure in an ordinary battle, the consequences will be unimaginable.  of.

    In a word, the people of Western Qin cannot afford to be defeated.

    A defeat would cause the world to collapse. Bai Zhou had no doubt that if the Western Qin was in trouble, the first ones to show off their weapons would definitely be the Swiss Germans. Regardless of the previous two wars, they were on the same front as the Western Qin.  The one on the top looked like he was following the lead of the Western Qin Dynasty.

    In fact, if Burgundy hadn't been so desperate, devoting all the country's troops, and being surrounded by evil neighbors, it would have resulted in a complete defeat.  Maybe Phillip can fully recover his strength in a few years.  However, Western Qin is not good at it and does not have this background at all.

    So, at this time, let Xi Qin go to Italy?

    Only an idiot or a lunatic would agree to do this.

    Although Bai Zhou is also very jealous of the wealth of the Apennine Peninsula, he also understands that with such a small military force of the Western Qin people, they can only get some water and water there, but not much benefits; what's more, according to Bai Zhou  As far as history is known, Frederick conducted six southern expeditions. One is that the Western Qin Dynasty will still have the opportunity to participate in this robbery in the future, and the other is that in fact, in every battle, Frederick was not exhausted.  Full credit.

    Although due to a turning point in history, a nation from the east appeared that had never been recorded in history books, the Western Qin Dynasty wouldBai Zhou still doesn't know what kind of impact it will have on the Roman Empire and Italy's national destiny. He can only wait and see.

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    "Walking on the streets of Bern, you can accidentally step on the feces of unknown animals. It's really disgusting.

    The newly built Twin Cities of Bern is still in its infancy, but it has a complete wastewater recycling system to prevent the whole city from being filled with a strange smell.

    Some time ago, almost all the young people of the Western Qin tribe were involved in the war, which resulted in the Twin Cities not even having an outline now.

    The seeds have been planted. If the weather is good one year, there will be a good harvest in autumn, and Baizhou will not have to worry about buying food all day long.

    The surplus military horses of the Western Qin Dynasty are temporarily placed in a horse farm near the Belfort Mountains in Burgundy. It is a large pasture. If it were placed in Switzerland, Bai Zhou would definitely be reluctant to use it to raise horses instead of growing crops.

    Now that the Western Qin people have become an agricultural and pastoral people instead of a nomadic people, the importance of horses in life is far less than that of a strong working cattle.  But horses are horses after all. In the cold weapon age, they are a strategic resource that will never depreciate (of course, an adult horse will definitely depreciate when it grows into an old horse). It is impossible for Bai Zhou to let his tribe give up raising them.  This horse tradition.

    The horse farms in Burgundy raise tens of thousands of horses with excellent bloodlines. With a little training and running-in, they will become qualified military horses.

    This is the only place where the West Qin tribe has stationed troops in Burgundy. Baizhou cannot trust such a large amount of resources in the hands of others without taking care of it himself. For this reason, Baizhou gave Zhen Zhen as a gift.  Germany has five hundred war horses.

    After the war ended, Weifu was finally free to teach and train some officials. In this half of Switzerland, Xi Qin could not only occupy the upper-level leadership position, nor could Weifu handle all the miscellaneous matters alone.

    In the month after the war, everything was developing in an orderly manner. Until the first day of the second month, when Weifu once again reached out to Bai Zhou for money, Bai Zhou, a dignified seven-foot-tall man (not yet available)  So high), I couldn't help but feel my scalp numb.

    money

    Bai Zhou really wanted to shout to Weifu: "Look at how much I would be worth if I were sold as pork with a clearly marked price."

    Some time ago, Western Qin has been in a state of war, and the money matters have always been taken care of by the Weifu. Besides, during that period, Western Qin obviously had more income and less expenditure, so there was no need to worry about money matters at all.

    But now it¡¯s completely different. City construction requires money, leveling the land and buying cattle requires money, and feeding standing soldiers also requires money. These three items are eating up the finances of the Western Qin Dynasty.

    Don¡¯t say it¡¯s not time to collect taxes yet. Even if it is, Bai Zhou looks at the huge fiscal deficit and understands that it is impossible to support the development of the Western Qin people by relying solely on agricultural taxes and head taxes.

    Borrow it from Fiora?  Putting aside the matter of losing face, if Bai Zhou really wants to say this, I believe Fiora will not hesitate.  But the key point is that this is not a long-term solution. Asking people to borrow money can only cope with it for a while, but not for a lifetime.

    "When you are poor, you want to change. In the era of cold weapons, what is the most profitable thing to do?"

    War

    This is a profitable business.  During the Crusades, how many people actually went to the far East for their faith?  I believe most of them are just for wealth.

    But Western Qin is now unable to fight a war. Even if it has this strength, let me ask, which of the surrounding countries can Western Qin face alone?

    "If you are poor, you will want to change. In this era when products are extremely limited, what can be profitable?"

    Trade

    Bai Zhou still remembers that in the game, compared to trade taxes, there are poll taxes, agricultural taxes, and mining taxes.

    Wei Fu calculated that if Western Qin keeps collecting taxes in Switzerland as it is, it will be impossible to support an army of 30,000 people. Of course, this is based on the situation that everything goes well. If there is a natural disaster**  , or a foreign enemy invades, the Western Qin people will have no extra supplies at all.

    Even if the number of troops is reduced, urban construction is still a very expensive project. The money saved by reducing the size of the army alone is only a drop in the bucket.

    Therefore, the Western Qin people must carry out trade.

    Not to mention the poor local products in Switzerland, the coal and iron in Burgundy are good things, but this kind of strategic resource is not at all in Bai Zhou's first consideration.

    Tea, silk, ceramics.

    These three items with strong oriental characteristics are all found in Europa.It comes in the form of luxury goods.  But there are many problems: tea trees have certain requirements for the growing environment. The cold weather in Switzerland is not necessarily suitable for the growth of tea trees, and a specific place must be found; and the clay required for firing ceramics is not available everywhere, let alone that kind of growth.  The best kaolin for firing pottery may not be available in Switzerland at all; mulberry trees are not so particular, but the question is, how could the West Qin migrate with a large number of silkworm babies along the way?

    In other words, even if Western Qin can produce tea, ceramics, and silk, it will be in the future, not now.

    ?????????????????????????????In this war-torn continent, what is the best and most profitable thing to sell?

    arms

    Simple coal mines, iron ore, and timber cannot be sold for much money. Although the entire continent of Europa is not rich in products, it can be completely self-sufficient in this era. After all, coal mines, iron ore, and timber are not rare metals.

    Raw materials can never be sold at a high price in any era.

    But once they are converted into weapons and armor, everything will be different.

    Especially at this time, you can't find a country in Europe that is not at war (Northern Europe is still temporarily calm), which fully shows that the arms business is very marketable, and it can be said that supply exceeds demand.

    Whether it is ordinary weapons and armors or well-made weapons and armors, Bai Zhou believes that they can be sold at a good price.

    Not only iron tools, but also leather armors, bows and crossbows, and even horses raised by the Western Qin people, are all commodities that can be traded in the Western Qin, and the prices are not low (firearms will certainly not appear in the ranks of trade goods).  Because this weapon is already an epoch-making product, Bai Zhou decided not to sell even black powder to others until Western Qin itself had better thermal weapons.)

    Of course, cats teach tigers to save something. Bai Zhou still understands this truth. Naturally, he will not sell weapons that represent the highest level of craftsmanship in Western Qin to others. First, he is worried that they will use "Made in Western Qin" to attack the Western Qin people.  The second is to minimize the possibility of them stealing teachers. Even if they steal, they will not learn the most advanced technology of Western Qin.

    For example, crossbows. The bows made by the people of the Western Qin Dynasty using "six materials" have a much longer range than most bows and arrows on the European continent. On the battlefield, a one-meter advantage in range may determine the winner.  , let alone an advantage of dozens of meters.  Of course, Western Qin would not use such meticulous craftsmanship.  Bai Zhou believed that as long as it was twenty or thirty meters longer than ordinary bows and arrows, this kind of bow could be sold at a good price on the mainland.

    But, there is another question, a very important question, where did Bai Zhou find so many people who can build weapons for him?  .  

    More information, address

    ? www.piotia.com
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