In the afternoon, the south bank of the Yangtze River, the Xiakou of Yingzhou, and the river outside the port, a fleet from Shu was waiting to enter the port.

On one of the boats, Yu Wen Zhao, dressed in casual clothes, sat by the porthole and looked at the densely packed boats outside the window, feeling a little unbelievable: Why are there so many ships?

It was like a flock of sheep, looking up, endless.

Next to him, an officer accompanied him saw him staring out the window without saying a word, and understood that this person was shocked by the prosperous shipping scene of Xiakou Port.

The boat had to wait for a while before he explained:

"This place is where the Han River enters the river, with merchants gathering and many merchant ships, which is normal."

Yuwen Zhao didn't say anything, but it was obvious that he was listening carefully, so the official introduced him.

However, there are many things to say, and I can't explain them clearly for a while, so I picked up a special one so that the other party could "know the autumn with one leaf":

"Now that sea trade is booming, and building sea ships requires a lot of wood. There are many tall trees around the Dongting Lake area. They are transported to Jiankang all year round, enter the boat yard, and build sea ships."

"Not only shipbuilding, but also the demand for wood is very high."

"Many merchants have made a fortune by selling timber, and Dongting Lake is much more busy. Xiakou, as a key place in Jiangxi, has become a timber transit place, and the port area is becoming increasingly busy."

This introduction aroused Yuwen Zhao's interest. He is now a prisoner and has no hope. So it would be nice to listen to some strange stories to pass the time.

He asked: "How to transport so much wood to Jiankang downstream?"

"If you float in the river, it will probably be very slow. Moreover, there will be ships flying around the river, and there will be no hidden dangers in large numbers of floating giant trees?"

"What Duke Yuwen said is very good, so there must be various considerations in this industry..."

As the topic extended, officials began to explain how to transport wood from a long distance.

Wood is lighter than water, so wood cut down in the mountains around Dongting Lake District floats from various rivers into the lake area to make wooden rafts.

Raise a simple mast, then open a sail, sail into the river like a ship.

Since it is used as a ship, there are naturally "shipmen" on it.

Of course, the conditions of wooden rafts are not as good as those of serious boats, so the wages of boatmen are higher than those of ordinary boatmen.

And you must be wary of water bandits along the way, and you must have a boat to follow, which is for escort.

The Yangtze River water bandits have existed since ancient times, but over the years, the government has spent a lot of effort to eliminate the river water bandits, stationed navy patrols in various sections of the river, and organized civilian fleets to participate in the "joint defense". Now the traffic on the river is quite safe.

The river road is peaceful, and more and more merchants are coming. In addition, the supply of wood is sufficient, so there are more and more large river boats carrying thousands of hu of cargo.

Whether it is going to the water or going to the water, most merchant ships pass by Xiakou, so there is this spectacular scene in front of you.

After hearing this, Yuwen Zhao had more questions: "There are many ships, which means there are many goods. So, what are the main things that are constantly trafficked by merchants?"

The official replied: "It's like tea."

"Tea?" Yu Wenzhao was a little surprised, "The sales of tea are so large?"

"It's very big, and the supply is in short supply." The official nodded, picked up his pen and drew a schematic diagram on the paper so that the captured Zhou royal family could understand how big the tea deal is today.

Taking Xiangzhou (referring to Dongting Lake District) as an example, governments in various places organized people to plant tea trees on a large scale in hilly areas, and private merchants also actively opened tea gardens. It took ten years to finally usher in a "harvest period".

Newly planted tea trees usually take three or four years to pick them in small quantities. When they approach ten years, they enter the peak period.

Now it is the tenth year of Zhenyuan, so the tea production in Xiangzhou has soared, but there is no need to worry about sales: the government has arranged sales channels long ago, and tea farmers don’t need to worry about this.

These tea leaves are first processed in the local tea farm to make loose tea, tea bricks, and tea cakes and then transported out.

The sales areas include various parts of Chu State, border areas, and overseas.

The officials drew a line on the paper, connecting the northern section of Dongting Hubei to Guangling near the sea estuary of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River:

"After loading the tea in Xiangzhou, it was only a few days before it arrived along the Yangtze River."

"Here, you can go north along Yundu, into Huai, and into another Yundu, and into north and arrive in Kaifeng."

"Either sell it in Kaifeng, or continue to go north, cross the Yellow River, and enter Hebei. You should know that now, the people in Hebei have also started drinking tea."

"Or, turn into the sea in Guangling, enter the sea, and head south to Lingbiao to exchange goods with overseas merchants. Overseas merchants are now very welcome to tea."

"Or it doesn't go south after entering the sea, but rides the wind to the north, passes through Qinglai, and breaks into Youyan coast, unloads the goods there, and transports them to Jicheng, Youzhou."

"Then you go over Yanshan by land from Jicheng and arrive in Huaihuang. There, you are transported to the grassland for sale by merchants."

"Of course, the sea boats can not dock in Youzhou, but continue north along the coast, arrive in the coastal areas of western Liaoning, and after unloading the goods, they will be transported to the Liucheng in Yingzhou and sold to the grasslands in western Liaoning."

Yuwen Zhao looked at the schematic diagram and listened to the explanation, and gradually understood the route of tea trade in Chu, and felt unbelievable.

Then he moved: the Chu court encouraged commerce and even made connections, such as the production, transportation and sales of tea, forming a huge "trade map".

This picture not only covers the domestic and regional areas of Chu, but also continues to extend in all directions of the grassland.

Even through the stormy waves, extending towards the overseas world that is thousands of miles away.

Not to mention whether such trade is run by the government or by the government and the people, just by looking at the scope, you can see how broad the vision of the Chu king is.

The other party's eyes are not just looking at the Central Plains.

Still looking at the grassland and overseas.

The State of Chu could organize people from all over the country to plant tea trees on hills and slopes, and then sell tea on a large scale. What about other products?

The famous Chu porcelain and glassware in Chang'an are like this, right?

The state treasury of Chu can obtain rich income through trade and trade taxes, and can afford more soldiers and more horses.

The king of Chu was good at breeding, so he was not short of money; he was able to govern the country, and could inspect temples, local zodiac signs, so he was not short of food and labor; he was able to train troops, and he could fight...

Such an enemy is too powerful.

There are newspapers in Chu State, which contain a lot of news. Yuwen Zhao had heard of it before. This time he left Chengdu and took the boat owner to enter, he read many newspapers and passed the time.

Of course, the newspapers he read were all old newspapers, and the date of release was at least three months ago, but even so, he read them with relish.

I learned a lot from it and learned that there are some strange changes in the Chu State today.

Not long ago, when he passed by Jiangling, he saw the latest newspaper. Apart from the dazzling "official army recovered Shu", he found that the news published in the newspaper had almost nothing to do with war.

The ones that occupy the most pages are all kinds of "business news" and local people's livelihood news.

It seems that the people of Chu are more concerned about people's livelihood, and they don't care about war.

This kind of indifference is not indifferent, but accusation that the official army will win.

Since it is a must-win situation, there is no need to make a fuss or newspapers to "cheer" in a long and long way.
Chapter completed!