After this battle, the main force of the natives of the three counties was eliminated. The natives of the three counties no longer had the organized strength to confront the slave hunting team head-on. They could only retreat step by step and keep running away.
The slave-hunting team then turned into a full-scale pursuit and hunting operation, just like hunters chasing their prey.
The prey that has lost too much blood cannot escape for a long time. It can only scream and bleed while exhausting its last strength in the endless escape. After all the desire to survive has been exploded, it collapses to the ground and has no breath anymore.
.
The cunning hunter finally won.
After the middle of the first month of the third year of Zhenguan, the native settlements in various counties in Jiaozhou were discovered and destroyed on a large scale. A large number of young and strong native men and women were captured by the slave hunting teams, and few of them could escape.
After late February, the number of natives in Nanhai County, Yulin County, Hepu County, Jiaozhi County and other counties decreased significantly, and there was not enough to catch them.
In the past, thousands of natives could be arrested every day, but after late February, the number of natives caught dropped sharply. On the lowest day, only 32 natives were arrested in Hepu County.
Therefore, local governments urgently determined that it was because everyone was too eager to arrest a large number of natives that they were quickly arrested. As a result, the native reserves in various places were insufficient or even exhausted, making it impossible to continue large-scale arrests.
The remaining natives are either dead or hiding in the more desolate mountains and old forests, making them harder to find and more difficult to arrest. If we continue to arrest them on a large scale, not only will the difficulty increase on a large scale, but the results will also decrease on a large scale.
In the past few months, slave hunting teams in more than 30 counties in Jiaozhou and Central Plains counties have also suffered certain losses.
There were also quite a few people who died or died in battle due to various diseases and harsh living conditions. The total number of these people totaled more than 500. However, everyone was addicted to the pleasure of catching the natives and was not very happy.
Don't worry about such small losses.
After the large-scale hunting ended, such casualties were also mentioned, and everyone began to deal with the funeral affairs of their companions. Some accompanying doctors also began to pay attention to some diseases in the Lingnan area, and began to look for treatment methods.
The government has more considerations.
The local inventory is in short supply, making it more difficult to continue to capture people. If you want to obtain a large number of natives more efficiently, you need to find another way.
Or explore other states and counties, but you need to risk disunity.
Or just do what Liu Bei said, take a boat to the sea, go to the south or west of Rinan County, go to places that are not part of the Han Empire's borders to find more native settlements, and obtain higher profits in a way that will not affect unity.
In those places, it belongs to whoever has the fastest hand, and there is no such thing as affecting unity. Although it will be more difficult, the rewards will be greater.
After careful consideration, each county government prepared to organize their own hunting teams to go overseas, convening private and government forces to go overseas to find more natives to bring back and sell, providing sufficient labor force for farmers in various places who were in urgent need of labor.
Then earn enough money.
Not to mention, with the increase in the number of native captures these days, the demand for native slaves in various places is also rising, and there is no limit to it.
Not to mention that the Jiaozhou branch, which is a large family in the Central Plains, can afford to buy a large number of slaves. Even ordinary individual farmers will choose to buy some slaves to help cultivate wasteland after acquiring thousands of acres of land.
They also have some relocation subsidies issued by the imperial court, which is enough for them to purchase three, four, five or six native slaves to help reclaim wasteland, which is also a very important means of production for them.
The profit from catching local people and selling them is really huge.
Not to mention individuals, local governments also make a lot of money.
The price of a young and strong native male varies from county to county in Jiaozhou, but the general range is not too different.
For example, a native can be sold for 30,000 yen in Jiaozhi County, while in Rinan County the price is slightly cheaper, between 25,000 and 27,000 yen. In Nanhai County, it is more expensive, about 27,000 yen.
About 31,000 yuan.
The price of natives is mainly determined based on the supply quantity of local natives, and is greatly affected by the market.
Then the price difference between male and female natives is also relatively large.
The price of a young and strong female native is about 60% to 70% of that of a male native. Generally speaking, unless a female native is particularly strong, she will not be able to sell for a high price.
But there are some exceptions. For example, if these female natives are quite beautiful, they will be sold as special commodities to some particularly wealthy buyers, and some big buyers with other ideas will buy them at a higher price.
A very handsome native.
Anyway, in remote states and counties, the court does not care about the purpose and content of the natives' sales. As long as they pay taxes to the government, you are free to buy and sell, and you are also free to do what you buy. The government does not intervene in the management of the natives.
This gives some wealthy big players full room to operate, and they can freely do things they cannot do in the Central Plains.
Therefore, according to the basic principle of 30-70, the government can obtain a profit of 9 million yuan from the sale of a thousand natives. After excluding various costs and expenditures, the government's legal tax revenue is 600 yuan.
More than 10,000 yuan.
Compared with the tax revenue of the entire county or state capital in the past, this is definitely a huge amount of money, ranking among the top three in various types of income.
The imperial court will contribute some money to support the construction of various places in Jiaozhou, but it will also require local governments to bear part of the expenditure themselves, and the imperial court will not invest fully.
Therefore, it is also a headache for local governments to obtain this part of the expenditure.
But now, this problem is no longer an issue.
As long as there are still people who need natives and as long as there are still natives to arrest, the government will not lack this fund.
The fact is that the total number of natives in Jiaozhou is not enough for the development of Jiaozhou's wasteland. It seems that it can still be supported at present. The main reason is that both the supply capacity on the supply side and the demand on the demand side have not been developed, and the imperial court has not yet formally organized a large-scale organization.
The manpower migrated south to Jiaozhou, and the capabilities of the joint slave-hunting team of Jiaozhou officials and civilians were not fully mature.
The fact is that the total number of natives in Jiaozhou is not enough for the development of Jiaozhou's wasteland. It seems that it can still be supported at present. The main reason is that both the supply capacity on the supply side and the demand on the demand side have not been developed, and the imperial court has not yet formally organized a large-scale organization.
The manpower migrated south to Jiaozhou, and the capabilities of the joint slave-hunting team of Jiaozhou officials and civilians were not fully mature.
Once the demand on the demand side is fully developed and the capabilities of the joint slave hunting team are fully mature, that will be the real peak.
Liu Bei is also examining this issue now, and is considering how to gradually release the demand for cheap labor in the Central Plains states and counties. He also needs to worry that the demand for this cheap labor is too high, which will lead to larger-scale hunting operations.
So much so that the natives in the surrounding areas were wiped out.
Of course, he doesn't think there is any moral issue in this. Moral issues are not even considered a problem in the development period. People who are so obsessed with making money have no time to care about moral issues.
He was just worried that the population of the major civilizations in the surrounding areas was not enough, and that one day they would all be captured by the Han Empire and even completely extinct.
It is not possible to exhaust the lake to fish. He wanted to let the Han Empire take a sustainable path of exhausting the lake to fish, so that the Han Empire could enjoy this "demographic dividend" for a longer period of time without destroying the entire East Asia, Southeast Asia and even the whole of East Asia and Southeast Asia in one or two hundred years.
If all of South Asia is wiped out, won’t the demographic dividend dry up?
But judging from the current situation, because the production technology is not available, if you want to develop, you really have to use human lives to fill it. Therefore, whether the demographic dividend will dry up first, or the Han Empire will take the lead in launching the technological revolution, that is a question
Questions worth debating.
However, the Han Empire finally started the beginning of its outward-oriented national strategic actions. How could it put the brakes on at this time?
Liu Bei has no interest in this. He now just wants to know where else besides Southeast Asia, where else can he get a larger "demographic dividend" to help the Central Plains and remote states and counties develop.
He looked around and quickly found several good directions.
The Nanman in the south of Yizhou, Goguryeo, Fuyu, Sanhan and even Japan in the northeast of Youzhou, the countries in the Western Regions west of Liangzhou and even the Xianbei people who fled westward before.
For now, the "demographic dividend" in these three directions can be obtained by the Han Empire in a relatively easy way, and it will also pose some strategic security threats to the Han Empire through war operations or slave hunting operations.
Turning this threat into a "demographic dividend" is really a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.
So based on the level of the threat, Liu Bei decided to order the governor of Yizhou and the Xishu Military Region to learn from Jiaozhou's "advanced experience" and carry out slave hunting operations in the southern counties of Yizhou to obtain a large number of native slaves.
Agricultural development in Sichuan.
In the western region of Liangzhou, exploration is the main focus, and military operations should not be launched for the time being.
In the northeastern part of Youzhou, some military means can be used to carry out all-round blasting against the several small countries there.
But before that, there is still a small problem with Gongsun Du that needs to be solved.
After Liu Bei conquered the Xianbei people a few years ago, he handed over the three counties of Liaodong, Xuantu and Lelang to Gongsundu, and asked Gongsundu to recruit and train troops in the three counties. This was for the people who had no time to take care of Liaodong at that time.
Liu Bei should solve his worries and suppress those guys who are ready to make a move.
Facts have proved that his choice was not wrong. Gongsundu was very talented in military affairs. He relied on the three counties to raise more than 10,000 regular troops. After more training, they became a powerful force with considerable combat effectiveness.
Moreover, Gongsundu himself was also a moderate war maniac. He fought in the south and in the north. For several years, he suppressed Goguryeo, Fuyu, Dongwoju and other countries or tribal alliances.
Before that, before the rise of Gongsundu, Goguryeo, Fuyu, those tribal alliances, and even the Three Hans further south had harassed and plundered the Han territory. Compared with
From this point of view, after Gongsundu took control of Liaodong, he was credited with attacking these places and maintaining the Han border.
At least in these years, Gongsun Du fought more than thirty times with them, large and small, and never lost a single battle. At most, he was tied. The other times, he won all the time. He can be said to be a victorious general.
Originally, Liu Bei also wanted to praise Gongsun Du, but he realized that this guy was more or less the king of the mountain and had the idea of separating one side, so he never took any further praise to him, but reserved his views on him.
Xiahou Dun had previously accused Gongsun Du, saying that he had had some bad influence on the situation in Youzhou. For example, this guy often fought wars and liked to raid grain on a large scale before war, which caused the price of food to rise in some areas of Youzhou.
Xiahou Dun wrote to him many times and told him about this matter, asking him not to launch wars so frequently, to discuss with the Privy Council more often when encountering problems, and not to make decisions without authorization. Especially since he often did this, it would have a great impact on Youzhou's agricultural production.
This is very detrimental to the development of Youzhou.
Gongsun Du had a different view on this. He thought that if he discussed everything with the Privy Council, wouldn't it be a waste of time to fight?
Sometimes when a fighter plane is discovered, it is a great opportunity to destroy the enemy, but in the end, we have to report to the Privy Council instead of attacking. After a few months, the permission from the Privy Council comes, and the battle has no longer to be fought. Is this the right thing to do?
Of?
Gongsun Du also mocked Xiahou Dun for this, saying that Xiahou Dun himself could not fight, so he should govern the place honestly and not interfere with his actions, otherwise he would accuse Xiahou Dun of interfering in military affairs to Liu Bei, which made Xiahou Dun almost angry.
Liu Bei was not very happy when he found out about this, but he did not have an attack.
Later, according to the news sent by Dongyuan secret agents from the three counties of Liaodong, Gongsun Du was quite honest at first, but as he won more and more victories against foreigners, he became bigger and bigger, and his prestige became higher and higher.
, he increasingly believed that he was the master of the three counties of Liaodong and a major contributor to the stability of Liaodong, and should not be limited to the status of a Liaodong county governor and a miscellaneous general.
In addition, there were people around him who were adding fuel to the fire, praising him and flattering him in various ways, so he gradually felt that he should ask Liu Bei for a higher position and power.
After Liu Bei became emperor, he gave Gongsun Du a lot of benefits, such as appointing him as Liaodong Zhonglang General, making him a marquis, increasing the number of towns, commanding the [Liaodong Camp] soldiers to guard Liaodong, and having the qualifications and power to initiate wars.
, just report to the court afterwards.
This gave him a lot of power to act expediently, and Liu Bei actually appointed the three counties of Liaodong to Gongsun Du before. The governors of Xuantu County and Lelang County were also proposed by Gongsun Du to the court, and the court made the official appointment.
, this was the special treatment given to him by Liu Bei in the hope that he could guard the three counties of Liaodong with peace of mind.
After proclaiming himself emperor, Liu Bei was busy with other things for a while. He didn't think of these things in Liaodong, so he put aside the disposal of the three counties in Liaodong. However, what he didn't expect was that Gongsun Du actually took action in the period after the decree on the Dutian was issued.
During this time, he made a suggestion to Liu Bei.
He proposed to divide the three counties of Liaodong, plus the lands of Fuyu, Goguryeo and other countries that he had acquired through military means in recent years, to establish a new state called Pingzhou, and make him the governor of Pingzhou.
In addition, he also submitted many military merits that were not mentioned before, hoping to submit them to the Privy Council for evaluation. The implicit meaning in his words was that he hoped that Liu Bei would grant him the title of general, and he did not want to be the lieutenant general anymore.
He felt that his achievements were no less than those of generals such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. He could also make the foreigners in Liaodong docile and obedient, so he believed that he was qualified to be a general.
It would be fine if he was just a general.
Liu Bei also believed that Gongsun Du had this qualification. His achievements in attacking and suppressing Fuyu, Goguryeo and several other tribes were indeed outstanding military achievements. He also planned to make Gongsun Du a general after a while.
.
But Gongsun Du brought this matter up himself, which seemed to him to be a little too arrogant and disrespectful of himself as the emperor.