RPAGF Chapter 7183 I'm really not worthy
Chapter 7183 I'm really not worthy
Chapter 7183 I'm really not worthy
"May I ask a couple more questions?" Chen Xi asked Langarajan with a smile. Langarajan raised his glass and clinked it with Chen Xi's.
"Ask anything you're curious about, I'll answer anything you know. After all, I'm living off Marquis Chen, so I have to curry favor with him a little. I'm a lowly person!" Langarajan said with a smile.
"Does the Kushan Empire really not know?" Chen Xi asked with a hint of suspicion.
“Of course I know. From what I know, there are definitely quite a few people who know about this and have a deep understanding of it.” Rangarajan said this with obvious sarcasm.
"This is really..." Chen Xi said with a hint of speechlessness. If those Kushan people didn't know the danger and still did this, Chen Xi could understand. But knowing it was so dangerous and still doing it, then it can only be said that greed was at play.
"Just like what Chen Hou said about the Han aristocratic families, there's no need to doubt their wisdom, only to worry about their greed. The Brahmins are in the same situation. To put it bluntly, it's not that they don't want to completely control everything in this country, but that they simply can't," Langarajjan said with a hint of disdain. Having dealt with Brahmanism quite a bit, Langarajjan knew very well what those people were all about. What they called restraint and self-discipline were just empty words.
Surely no one actually believes the ruling class doesn't want to take everything? What a joke! If the ruling class didn't have that ambition, they shouldn't be the ruling class.
While individuals within the ruling class may indeed betray this idea, one of the inherent instincts of the ruling class itself is to expand without limit.
"That's true." Chen Xi nodded after a moment of silence. Indeed, humans do share common traits, so instead of thinking those people are stupid, it's better to consider the issue from another perspective. Maybe those people are simply driven by greed!
While you might think the Brahmins are stupid, the higher-ups in the Brahminy might be making a fortune. In the end, when others see that you haven't gained anything, they might think you're the stupid one.
"Is there any countermeasure on the Kushan side?" Chen Xi asked with some curiosity.
“There have been countermeasures from the beginning, but I feel that the Brahmins have exhausted the means of countermeasures.” Rangarajan replied thoughtfully. “However, at present, the idea of constantly bringing in external enemies to cut off their own rotten flesh, with the higher-ups joining forces with the invaders, and then drawing new blood seems to be the right path. After all, this path is really powerful.”
"You mean the Yuezhi, who represent the Northern Nobles, might also be a means prepared by the Brahman high command to counter Brahma?" Chen Xi asked with a hint of surprise.
"Because upon careful consideration, this is indeed the best countermeasure. Compared to other methods, this one is the strongest and most effective. No matter how fiercely the Brahmins cause trouble, the two sides have been at peace for over a hundred years, and they have indeed provided provisions. Even if the sky falls, the Yuezhi cannot escape, right?" Langarajan said calmly. "So this can be considered a solution, and compared to other methods that rely on Brahma, this method is indeed very powerful."
“Although it sounds absurd, what you’re saying does make sense. After all, we’ve been at peace for so long. If the sky really falls, the Yuezhi will have to bear it no matter how unhappy they are.” Chen Xi said with a hint of unease, but he still agreed with Langarajan’s line of thinking.
"So, if the Han dynasty enters the region where the Brahmins reside, I think you'd better be on guard. Those things have been lurking there for over a thousand years and have formed a loose but incredibly resilient organization," Langarajan said with a hint of warning.
To reiterate, before fully pledging allegiance to the Han Dynasty, Langarajan couldn't truly empathize with it. But once he did, he realized that the Han Dynasty was indeed his destiny. As the saying goes, once the thought of pledging allegiance to the Han Dynasty arises, one feels a sense of boundless freedom. Moreover, Langarajan had already been a plebeian for two years and enjoyed the benefits of the Han Dynasty for two years. To be fair, it was quite good, so he was willing to help the Han Dynasty with some defenses within his capabilities.
“We realized this a long time ago, so we have been on guard ever since we started fighting the Kushans. And to be honest, we allow the Yuezhi to surrender, but we have never accepted the surrender of the Brahmins.” Chen Xi nodded upon hearing this, deeply agreeing with what Langarajan said.
“The Yuezhi are in a state of turmoil right now. It’s impossible to get them to surrender. You have to defeat them before they realize that you are the rightful heirs.” After all, Langarajan has been involved with the Yuezhi for a long time and has become quite familiar with them. He fully understands and agrees with the Yuezhi’s madness.
After all, look at Mahinda, the Saka, who were infected by some of the Yuezhi's mental illnesses. Not to mention someone like Langarajan, who was already mentally ill.
"If we send a million-strong army to bombard them, many problems will be solved," Langarajjan said with a sneer. He didn't think that the Han dynasty's defeat of the Kushans was a war of annihilation. After all, if you look at this from the perspective of a vassal king, the Yuezhi soldiers who are now following along are just like that. Anyway, if they lose, it's the vassal king who will get the iron fist. What's there to be afraid of?
"That's what I was thinking too. What do you think of the food at the banquet, Brother Lan?" Chen Xi said with a smile. These old Yuezhi people are indeed very strong. As expected of the tough guys who brought the Yuezhi to its peak in the last era, they all have excellent vision and clear thinking.
"Well, I think I'm just a country bumpkin." Langarajan looked at the various dishes on his table. "I've been a nobleman for many years, and there are many things that I've never even seen, let alone eaten. I think, just based on this, the Celestial Empire truly lives up to its name."
He was, after all, born into a noble family of one of the four great empires of Eurasia, yet when he came to the Han court for a banquet, he found that he didn't recognize half of the things served on the table.
The reason why the relationship between Langarajan and Master Wan Zhen warmed up so quickly is that Master Wan may not be good at other things, but if you ask him what this thing on the table is, Master Wan really knows, and can explain it to you in great detail.
Chen Xi looked down at the table in Langarajan. Apart from the main course, it was all fish. It was rare to see people in the mountains eating fish so much.
"You can pack up any leftovers from the dinner. If there's anything you like, you can have it packed up," Chen Xi said, looking at Langarajan, who was clearly full but felt it was such a waste that he hadn't tried all the different dishes.
“Look, this is where the atmosphere is,” Langarajan said with a smile.
"The Prince of Jin is looking for me, so I'll head over first. Brother Lan, please visit the Mechanical Research Institute more often and see if you can optimize those electric motors and other gadgets." Chen Xi said to Lan Jia La Zhan with a smile, then picked up the golden goblet and joined Liu Bei.
"Ji Yu, have a drink," Liu Bei said to Liu Zhang, who was already somewhat unrestrained and had secretly brought his high-class mount, the Rolling Beast, into the room.
Liu Zhang and Yuan Shu didn't stand on ceremony when they saw Liu Bei; they raised their cups in a toast.
Then Chen Xi looked at his brother-in-law and sighed. To be honest, someone like Zhen Yan, who had been stripped of his title and had his property confiscated, shouldn't be in Weiyang Palace. But Yuan Shu was powerful, and he said Zhen Yan was a servant. The others couldn't make a fuss about it, and considering Chen Xi's situation, they all turned a blind eye.
"Brother-in-law, you've had it tough too." Chen Xi sighed. He poured Zhen Yan a glass of wine. To be honest, it was only Zhen Yan who had prepared it; everyone else had to prepare it themselves and then offer it to Chen Xi.
"I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it." Zhen Yan quickly took the wine cup.
"So, what are your plans for the future?" Chen Xi asked with a hint of wistfulness after clinking glasses with Zhen Yan.
"Um, are you asking this as Marquis Chen or as my brother-in-law?" Zhen Yan asked with a somewhat embarrassed expression.
"Brother-in-law." Chen Xi glared at him; this guy actually held a grudge.
"Of course, I'll continue with the sugar industry. I think that although the potential of this liquor is very high, there are just too many competitors. After making some money from here, I'll continue with the sugar industry. Although the Zhen family has fallen, their sugar industry is truly renowned in the Central Plains." Zhen Yan thought for a moment and then laid out his plan, since it was his brother-in-law asking.
"The main problem with Lijiu is that it's hard to integrate." Chen Xi nodded. Zhen Yan could see this fatal flaw at a glance and then play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses. To be honest, this guy is indeed suited for business.
"What about the Zhen family?" Chen Xi asked tentatively.
"Forget it. I clearly realize that I am not suitable to be the head of this kind of wealthy family. I am more suited to running a large enterprise. I am far from being good at running a family business and scheming against others. My brother Zhen Yao is more interested in this kind of thing, so let's leave the Zhen family to him. We can each pursue our own lives, which will be a beautiful story." Zhen Yan said this with a carefree attitude.
It's clear that this guy does have a certain air of having a fortune that can be recovered even after it's been spent.
"Speaking of which, I've always wanted to ask something: after your Zhen family's sugar business reached that level, how exactly did you obtain so much syrup?" Chen Xi asked with a touch of authority.
Zhen Yan remained silent for a while after hearing this. After a long pause, under Chen Xi's gaze, he forced himself to give the answer, "There are many sugarcane plantations in Nangui. The Zhen family collects syrup from there, processes it, and then sells it."
"Before the logistics industry was developed, the logistics cost of this operation was probably half the price of the syrup itself, right?" Chen Xi frowned.
"Actually, we didn't start this business with the intention of making money. It was about increasing production. For Zhen Family Sugar Industry, which was expanding rapidly at the time, whether it made money or not was only one aspect. In fact, in my opinion, as long as it wasn't a long-term loss, it was perfectly acceptable." Facing Chen Xi's gaze, Zhen Yan felt there was no need to hide anything anymore and immediately revealed all his considerations from back then.
“Sugar is basically in short supply; people consume as much as they can get, so there’s no worry about not being able to sell it. Also, sugar doesn’t have an expiration date, and storage only requires consideration of spoilage, not the time frame. So when I started this business, my focus was on the market.” Zhen Yan told Chen Xi everything he had considered, with a hint of helplessness in his voice.
“The Brahmans have the largest sugarcane producing area in the world today. Of course, the scale of their plantations is indeed not as large as our Han Dynasty's, but in terms of production area and total output, we have not surpassed them at this stage,” Zhen Yan said with a serious tone.
To reiterate, you can call India rubbish, but India is indeed one of the most blessed places in the world. Despite its poor water infrastructure, India still ranks among the world's top producers of essential resources like food and sugar. While China can still outpace India in food production with its technology, it will be extremely difficult for India to surpass China in sugar production.
Even in later generations, India remained one of the world's top three producers of white sugar.
As for the third century, India was basically second to none, and the Central Plains and Rome simply couldn't compare with India.
Moreover, due to the overall environment, even though Chen Xi consciously built large-scale sugarcane plantations in southern Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, the overall scale was still far inferior to that of Nangui. After all, Nangui is the place of origin for sugarcane, so there's nothing more to say about that.
However, considering the technological reasons, the white sugar produced by the Han Dynasty completely defeated the gray sugar that was the tribute of the Kushan Empire. The technological gap between them was probably several hundred years. However, later, perhaps due to the diffusion of technology and the availability of samples of the top-quality sugar from the Han Dynasty, the Kushan Empire also produced its own sugar.
However, there is a huge gap in quality control compared to the Han Dynasty, which leads to considerable quality problems and a relatively large difference in taste. But as the saying goes, these days, if you can eat sugar, don't complain. You should know that sugar was a panacea for a long time in later generations.
To be fair, while this thing can't cure diseases, it can provide a strong energy supply to the body, allowing your immune system to work at full power. For people in ancient times, this was already an amazing healing ability—it doesn't matter how it's treated, as long as you get better!
However, considering that those who can afford to consume white sugar in other countries are basically nobles, or at the very least, free citizens, they would still eat well if they could, which led to smuggling, which is the situation Zhen Yan is talking about now.
Of course, Chen Xi tacitly approved of this smuggling, and as the scale of smuggling continued to expand, Kushan was now almost becoming one of the Han Dynasty's reservoirs. Therefore, apart from certain materials being strictly controlled, strategic materials such as salt and sugar were exported to Kushan by the Han Dynasty.
"My plan at the time was to absorb and even monopolize the export of Kushan syrup, and then process it domestically. With the support of the then-booming Zhen's Sugar Industry, I estimated that I could acquire all the other sugar companies in the country in about five years, leaving me as the sole exporter of Kushan syrup," Zhen Yan said with a touch of nostalgia for the glorious past.
In fact, the Kushan syrup was exported to other countries, such as Rome. However, given the choice, the Romans also wanted to have something better. In other words, if Zhen Yan could supply sugar, the Romans would have been willing to negotiate with the Zhen family.
Furthermore, if the Zhen family truly establishes such a transnational monopoly in trade, given their influence, they could actually negotiate with Rome, or at least with Canassis.
"Once I monopolize the production of Kushan syrup, the rest is actually quite simple," Zhen Yan said with a hint of regret for not having achieved his goal.
By that time, whether the Zhen family were feudal lords or not was no longer important; staying within the country was even more important than venturing out to expand.
"It's rare to see someone with such ambition," Chen Xi said with a smile. Although Chen Xi should have intervened to stop Zhen Yan before things reached that point, given Chen Xi's dignity, the moment he reached out to stop him would also be the moment when the Zhen family truly took off.
After all, this transaction, even if it suppresses the Zhen family's quota, also makes the Zhen family, like the thirteen companies that are about to control the livestock industry in Southeast Asia, an important link in the national commercial system.
This is also a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card!
“Actually, back then, I already realized that money in the real economy isn’t that important. No, to be precise, even earlier, when I first went from upstream to downstream, and before the goods were even shipped, I had already received the next round of funding and invested it in new industries, I realized that money in the real economy is just a vehicle.” Zhen Yan suddenly looked at Chen Xi with a solemn expression and said.
Chen Xi nodded upon hearing this. There are very few people in the world who can understand this level of understanding, and Zhen Yan happens to be one of them. This is also why, when the Zhen family caused such a big incident, Chen Xi directly asked Ruan Gong to allocate five hundred palace guards to Zhen Yan to solve the problem.
Because of the qualities Zhen Yan displayed at that time, Chen Xi believed he was qualified to get involved in the most crucial aspects of the Han Dynasty's management of the empire, so Zhen Yan was worth protecting.
However, the answer sheet that Zhen Yan handed in to Chen Xi was, to put it mildly, enough to kick Zhen Yan away.
This is also why Chen Hou, as the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat and the one who assisted in governing the country, would directly scold Zhen Yan in front of Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang. However, Chen Xi, as his brother-in-law, would tell Zhen Yan to pursue his own freedom. This was because Chen Xi already knew that Zhen Yan had the ability to recognize credibility, but he did not have the mental capacity to manage that ability.
Therefore, Chen Xi let Zhen Yan pursue her own life.
"Then you should understand what I planned to arrange for you when I met you," Chen Xi said with a hint of helplessness.
"I am very grateful for your trust, brother-in-law, but I still have to say that I really cannot bear such a heavy burden." Zhen Yan said honestly, "Brother-in-law, you should run Chang'an Bank yourself. I am really not qualified."
While lying in bed, I sorted out the plot.
(End of this chapter)