In Dayao, not only was food expensive, but all resources were also expensive.
When Ren Baqian first arrived, salt cost 120 copper coins per tael.
Fifty copper coins for a tael of honey.
Roughly brewed fruit wine, a hundred copper coins per catty.
When Ren Baqian first arrived at the beast park, the caretaker treated him to hard liquor (inferior liquor) from the Yun Nation, which cost one tael of silver per catty.
As for the other materials, such as linen cloth, one tael of silver each, brown cloth, three taels of silver each, and silk cloth, thirty taels of silver each.
In this world, a horse was four zhang, which was equivalent to thirteen meters.
An ordinary person's monthly income was only enough to buy one and a half bolts of sackcloth. In Dayao, ordinary people wore animal hides, and only those who were better off could wear sackcloth. Low-ranking officials could only wear two sets of clothes made of cloth all year round. Even if there was a hole in the clothes, they would feel heartache and gasp in shock.
A few days ago, when Ren Baqian was chatting with Lin Mengsheng, they talked about the situation of the people in the Yun Nation.
In this day and age, scholars were not ordinary people. There were very few commoners who could study. Most of the children of merchants and government officials had the opportunity to study.
This was the case for Lin Mengsheng. Although his family was not considered wealthy in the Yun Nation, it was still considered wealthy.
Logically speaking, such scholars were usually aloof from worldly affairs, but Lin Mengsheng was very familiar with the lives of the common people, and could be considered an anomaly.
The income of the people of the Yun Nation was lower than that of the people of Dayao.
After all, Dayao was vast and sparsely populated, and the resources per capita were much higher. Furthermore, ordinary people were at least at the Man Wheel level and had great strength. Whether it was farming or hunting, they were much better than the citizens of other countries.
In the Yun Nation, a Man Wheel expert's monthly income was at least 10 taels of silver. An Earth Wheel expert's monthly salary would be at least 100 taels of silver if he were to work as a consecrator in the warlord's residence.
On the other hand, Dayao's winged cavalry only paid ten taels of silver a month.
The monthly income of the people in the Yun Nation was no more than 800 to 1,000 copper coins.
In the Yun Nation, one catty of salt was only 100 copper coins.
Brown rice was eight copper coins per catty, and coarse grain flour was eleven copper coins. This was one-third to one-fourth of the price in Dayao.
On the other hand, the price of beef was fifty copper coins per catty.
The main reason was that the Yun Nation was more involved in farming than herding. Even though the slaughter of cows wasn't prohibited like the Tang Dynasty, they could still serve as a strong laborer. Therefore, they were quite expensive.
A rooster costs twenty copper coins, and a hen costs fifteen copper coins.
One bolt of linen cost three hundred copper coins, one bolt of linen cost six hundred copper coins, one bolt of silk cost two taels of silver, and the satin cost ten taels of silver.
The prices of goods were only one-third to one-fourth of those in Dayao, and even one-tenth of those in Dayao. Their income was half that of the aboriginals.
More importantly, they ate very little!
Even though their fertility rate was slightly higher, with each family having three or four children, overall, their lives were still slightly better than that of the aboriginals.
Of course, this was only slightly better, and it was even equivalent.
This was because aboriginal commoners rarely fell sick. Most of their injuries were caused by hunting or fighting. The biggest cause of accidental death, other than dying in the mouth of wild beasts and being bitten or infected by wild beasts, was childbirth.
On the other hand, the people of the Yun Nation were completely ordinary people. When they were sick, they would go to the doctor if they had the money. If they didn't, they would just wait for death.
In short, the common people of this era were just trying to survive and survive.
The real difference was that there were many "middle classes" in the Yun Nation.
There were many merchants in the Yun Nation, and it wasn't like ancient China, where merchants were ranked at the bottom. In the Yun Nation, commerce was developed, and the status of merchants wasn't low.
Small merchants and peddlers usually didn't have to worry about food and clothing. There were also many so-called wealthy squires, and there were even wealthy merchants who could hire Earth Wheel experts.
The living conditions of these people were very good. The standard of living of a middle-class wealthy family was much better than that of Tong Zhenye.
The wealthy merchants were even more extravagant.
Due to the prevalence of merchants in the Yun Nation, it catalyzed technological progress in various aspects. For example, smelting and textiles, they were much better than Great Xia.
Zi Donglai had once reported to the empress that the Yun Nation's continuous firing ballistae were a type of relatively advanced weapon in this era.
From various aspects, the Yun Nation had already seen the emergence of capitalism.
As long as the Yun Nation wasn't destroyed and continued along this path, it would only be a matter of time before it blossomed and bore fruit.
Unfortunately, they met a socialist hammer like Ren Baqian!
Ren Baqian felt that he had corrected their erroneous capitalistic path and led them to the socialist family.
Don't ask about socialism. What about the empress?
This was a socialist feudal country with Dayao's characteristics!
Shouldn't the nation give him some commendation and at least let him join a party or something? It was fine to take a step back and join a group!
Not the FFF group.
Ren Baqian thought about it and remembered that he was a member of the FFF before he came to Dayao.
After thinking about it for a while, he laughed first.
"Like a fool!" The empress rolled her eyes at him. She didn't see many people start to laugh foolishly after thinking about it. She couldn't be bothered with him and rode Qi Shui to the front.
After less than half a day, everyone arrived at their destination. Standing on a hill, they could see a vast expanse in front of them that overlooked the entire plain.
Two rivers meandered across the plains, encircling the grassland. Large herds of cattle and sheep wandered on the plains. There was also a small forest at the corner of the grassland. Most of the trees grew fruit trees. When Ren Baqian came over, he tasted them. They tasted sweet, slightly sour, juicy, and pretty good.
"Is this the place?" the empress asked after stopping Qi Shui and looking down. "The scenery isn't bad."
"This is the place." Ren Baqian nodded and said, "Especially those two rivers. They are generally between 10 to 20 meters deep, which is enough for boats to travel. Furthermore, they won't flood during the rainy season.
The two rivers converged downstream to form a large river that flowed through the border between the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation.
If the new city is built here, we can save a lot of effort in transporting goods. Relying on river transportation, trade will be more prosperous. "
Ren Baqian calmed himself down and said, "The new city that I envisioned doesn't have city walls. It's just a plain that can be expanded in all directions."
In Ren Baqian's vision, the new city would sooner or later reach a scale of millions or even tens of millions of people, and it was extremely important to facilitate expansion.
"You don't want the city walls? It doesn't seem appropriate, "Tong Zhengye said subconsciously when he heard the last sentence.
"What's wrong with that?" Ren Baqian asked.
Tong Zhenye was stunned by this question. What's wrong with it? They were afraid that wild beasts and enemies would attack them, so the city walls could play a defensive role.
Under normal circumstances, this was indeed the case.
But this was a plain, and there were no ferocious beasts.
As an ancient race, they were never afraid of others attacking them.
It had always been them beating up others!
Thinking about it this way, it did not seem to be inappropriate.
"Sir Tong's thinking has been solidified by his previous understanding. Others need city walls, but we don't. What's more, which country in history had ever used a city wall to defend against an enemy? This is the capital, not the border. If the enemy can reach here, it doesn't matter if there are city walls or not. "Ren Baqian laughed.
"That's the logic, but I still feel a little strange." Tong Zhengye scratched his head.
"If we want to achieve the level of an industrialized society, a large population is essential. We are different from other countries that develop normally. We incubate technology in Lan City and radiate it to the surrounding areas with Lan City as the center. We use the fastest speed to advance our technology. Therefore, building such a super capital is the best choice.
Lan City, for example, has a population of only tens of thousands. This population is too small, and we can't recruit people after building a few factories. "
A small population didn't just mean that they couldn't recruit workers. There were also fewer laborers, teenagers of the right age, and students.
Simply put, a small population meant a small potential.
"However, if there are more people, there won't be enough food, and it will be difficult to transport them. We won't be able to support them!" Tong Zhengye continued.
In this era, the food in the city mainly came from the surroundings. On one hand, it was because of low productivity and low output. On the other hand, it was difficult to transport food, and it would cost too much to transport.
A city like Lan City could generally support a population of more than 100,000 people. If it was the capital of a country, it could even reach a population of hundreds of thousands or millions.
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