The Empress’s Gigolo

Not only was Dayao’s food expensive, but almost all of its goods were too.

Before Ren Baqian arrived, a mere 50 grams of salt cost 120 copper coins.

50 grams of honey cost 50 copper coins.

500 grams of coarse fruit wine cost 100 copper coins.

When Ren Baqian first arrived at the beast park, the caretaker offered him an inferior, yet strong, alcohol from the Yun Nation, which cost a tael of silver for 500 grams.

As for the other goods, a batch of sackcloth cost around a tael of silver, a batch of hemp cloth cost three taels of silver, and a batch of silk cost 30 taels of silver.

A batch of cloth in this world was roughly 13 meters long.

An average person’s income for a month was only enough to buy one and a half batches of sackcloth. In Dayao, ordinary people wore animal hides. Only those who were more well-off could afford to wear sackcloth. A low-level official could only afford to own two pieces of hemp clothes to last them through the entire year and would feel quite distressed if there was a hole in them.

Ren Baqian and Lin Mengsheng chatted about the situation of the people in the Yun Nation.

The scholars nowadays weren’t commoners, very few ordinary people were literate, and only the children of businessmen and officials had the opportunity to study.

This was the case for Lin Mengsheng. Although his family wasn’t considered wealthy in the Yun Nation, they were a pretty large and affluent family.

Normally, these scholars tended to place themselves above the common populace, but Lin Mengsheng knew the lives of commoners very well and could be regarded as a different category of person.

The income of the commoners in the Yun Nation was lower than that of the commoners in Dayao.

After all, Dayao was vast, but it was sparsely populated and had higher resources per capita. Ordinary aboriginals were strong, were at least at the Man Wheel level of strength, and were better at hunting and farming than the people in other nations.

In the Yun Nation, a Man Wheel level expert earned at least ten taels of silver per month. An Earth Wheel expert could easily work for a warlord and earn a monthly salary of around 100 taels of silver.

The winged cavalry warriors in Dayao only earned ten taels of silver per month.

The commoners in the Yun Nation only earned an average of 800 to 1,000 copper coins per month.

However, 500 grams of salt only cost 100 copper coins there.

500 grams of brown rice cost eight copper coins, while various grain crops and flour only cost 11 copper coins per 500 grams, almost a third of the price in Dayao.

On the other hand, 500 grams of beef could cost up to 50 copper coins.

The main reason was that the people in the Yun Nation mostly grew crops and raised less livestock. Even though it wasn’t forbidden to kill cows like it was during the Tang Dynasty, cows were strong work animals. Thus, beef was very expensive.

A rooster cost 20 copper coins and a hen cost 15.

A batch of sackcloth cost 300 copper coins, hemp cloth cost 600, thin silk cost two taels of silver, and silk could cost up to 12 taels.

The price of goods in the Yun Nation was about a third of the price in Dayao and was even up to a tenth for salt. Their salaries were about half of the aboriginals’.

More importantly, they ate less!

Even if their fertility rate was higher, with three to four children in most families, they still led a better life overall than the aboriginals.

Of course, it was only slightly better or even equivalent.

This was because the aboriginals rarely got sick. If they were unwell, it was mostly due to injuries caused by hunting or fighting. Other than dying in the jaws of wild beasts or from infections caused by animal scratches or bites, the leading cause of accidental death was childbirth.

The Yun Nation’s commoners were completely ordinary people. When they were sick, they would seek medical help if they had the money or simply wait to die if they didn’t.

All in all, the purpose of the people in this era was simply to live and survive.

The only real difference was evident in those who were more well off than the ordinary people. There were many people in the Yun Nation who belonged to the middle class.

There were many merchants, but they weren’t as inferior as those in ancient China. Business flourished in the Yun Nation, and the merchants weren’t considered lower class.

Small merchants and hawkers usually had nothing to worry about. There were also a lot of squires, rich families, and wealthy merchants who could even employ Earth Wheel experts.

The living conditions of these people were very good. The living standard of a moderately wealthy household was even higher than that of Tong Zhenye.

Wealthy traders with large businesses led extravagant lives.

It was precisely the prevalence of the Yun Nation’s merchants that catalyzed all aspects of their technological progress. They were more advanced than Great Xia in processes such as smelting, spinning, and weaving.

Like what Zi Donglai had once reported to the empress, the Yun Nation’s crossbow cart was a very advanced weapon in this era.

Judging from various aspects, the Yun Nation had seen the emergence of capitalism.

As long as the nation wasn’t destroyed, sooner or later, things would still end up the same if they continued to do what they were doing.

It was a pity that they encountered a socialist hammer like Ren Baqian!

He felt that he had corrected their misappropriation of capital and led them into the big socialist family.

What would happen to the empress in a socialist society?!

This was a socialist feudal nation with Dayao’s characteristics!

Should the nation award something to Ren Baqian for this? Perhaps let him join a political party or even a small society!

Just not a FFF group. ¹

He pondered over this. He seemed to have been a member of a FFF group when he first arrived in Dayao.

Ren Baqian then laughed at the thought of his current situation.

“You look like a fool!” The empress rolled her eyes at him as she hadn’t seen many people who laughed at their own thoughts. She didn’t bother to care about him and rode forward on Qishui.

They arrived at their destination in less than half a day. Everyone stood on a hill and looked over the entire plain with no obstructions in the way.

There were two meandering rivers on the plain that surrounded the grassland which had large herds of cattle and sheep wandering around. There was a small section of forest in the corner, and most of the trees were a type of fruit tree. Ren Baqian had tasted the fruit when he came here previously. It was sweet and slightly sour, had juicy flesh, and tasted quite good.

“This is it?” The empress stopped Qishui and looked down at the plain. “The scenery is pretty good.”

“Yes.” Ren Baqian nodded. “These two rivers are around ten to 20 meters deep and sufficient for boats to sail. They don’t flood during the rainy season either. Moreover, the two rivers converge downstream to form a large river that flows through the border of the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation.

If the new city is located here, we can save a lot of energy on transportation. By relying on river transport, trade will be more prosperous. I envision the new city to have no walls. This is a vast plain, and the city can be expanded in all directions.”

Ren Baqian was determined. In his view, the new city would have a population of tens of millions, so it would be extremely important to facilitate expansion.

“No walls? Isn’t there something wrong with that?” Tong Zhenye asked subconsciously as soon as he came over and heard the last sentences.

“What’s wrong?” Ren Baqian countered.

After being presented with this question, Tong Zhenye stumbled. What was wrong? In the cases of beasts hurting people and enemy attacks, walls could play a defensive role.

This was the norm.

However, this was a plain without any ferocious beasts.

As aboriginals, they never feared enemy attacks.

They were always the ones attacking people!

At that thought, it seemed as if nothing was wrong with not having walls.

“Sir Tong, your thoughts have been blinded by your understanding of the past. Others may need walls, but we don’t. Besides, in the past, have walls been used to defend against enemy countries? This is the capital, not the border. If the enemies can reach us here, it wouldn’t matter whether we have walls or not.” Ren Baqian smiled.

“If we want to reach the level of an industrialized society, a large population is a must. We are different from other normal developing nations. We work based on success statistics. We innovate technology in Lan City as the core and radiate it outward, using the fastest speed to bring technology to the next level. As such, building a super capital like this is the best choice.

We only have a population of tens of thousands of people in Lan City. This population is too small. We have only built a few factories, yet we can’t even recruit enough manpower,” Ren Baqian explained.

Not only did a small population lack in manpower, but the labor force was also smaller. Youths and students were less numerous as well.

Simply put, there was little potential with a small population.

“However, if there is a large population, then there will be insufficient food and difficulties in transportation. We will not be able to support it!” Tong Zhenye added.

In this era, the grain in the city came mainly from the surrounding areas. There was low productivity and output on one hand and transportation difficulties on the other. Moreover, transportation costs were too high.

In cities like Lan City, they would generally be able to support a population of more than 100,000. The population of a national capital could even reach the millions.

It was a pity that the size of the aboriginal cities was determined by the amount of available food, and the population size was much smaller.