Chapter 1170: Carrying on the Past and Opening up the Future (Sixty) The Dead End in Tan Feng’s Mind

Tan Feng was dressed in casual clothes, with only two guards, wandering around Yingchuan City casually. Compared with when he first took office, Yingchuan has gradually recovered its vitality. The people who fled at that time gradually returned to their homes. Now there are nearly 100,000 people in Yingchuan City. This is a miracle in Tan Feng's eyes.

However, he had to bitterly admit that Yingchuan's magical recovery to the pre-war period, even more prosperous than before the war, was not due to himself, but to the Han people who confronted him. In Yingshui City, the prosperity there is at least twice as good as here.

After the ceasefire between the two countries, more and more merchants flocked here, most of whom were Han merchants. They brought countless items produced in Han and rushed to Qin through Yingchuan. Merchants in Qin used Yingchuan as a base, transferred them from Han merchants at low prices, and then transported them to the country to sell them at high prices.

Tan Feng is a person with a strong learning spirit. He never hesitates to learn from his opponents about things that can strengthen himself. Just like when he was defeated by Gao Yuan, he returned to Jicheng and immediately began to reorganize the new army, forming a new army completely in accordance with Gao Yuan's army building model. High salaries, strict discipline, sophisticated equipment, strict training, the army of that year did give Tan Feng some hope.

But in the battle of Yuyang, the new army of Yan State, which had not yet become a climate, was defeated by Gao Yuan again. This battle also completely broke the backbone of Yan State, and planted the evil consequences for the later invasion of Jicheng by Qi people.

For many years, Tan Feng has been concentrating on opposing Gao Yuan. Of course, he has been studying Gao Yuan's policies more attentively. Whenever a new policy is introduced in the Han State, Tan Feng will take it and study it carefully to judge the impact of this policy on the Han State.

After many years of research, Tan Feng discovered with some pain that the combat effectiveness of the Han army is strong. It is not only based on the combat effectiveness of the army, but also an overall systematic system, logistics supply, efficient command system, post-war pensions, domestic livelihood, and the implementation of economic policies. In Qin, he was completely powerless to change these.

For example, post-war pensions are the most intuitive and easiest to learn, but Qin did not do so. The pensions for soldiers who died in battle in Han were extremely amazing. For those soldiers who were disabled due to injuries, there was a complete system that allowed them to live a decent life after retirement. Just this one, Tan Feng believed that it was enough for soldiers to fight for Han without any worries on the battlefield. On the other hand, in Qin, those beggars begging on the streets were retired soldiers who were disabled due to injuries. The existence of these people not only hurt the dignity of Qin, but also chilled the active soldiers. Who doesn't worry that they will become like this?

But the Qin court was not willing to make more changes on this. They were only willing to spend a lot of money on those who made military exploits and survived, nineteenth-level military merits. Each level has three transfers, and reaching the first level will get a considerable treatment, but such people are after all very few, and more ordinary soldiers live in dire straits.

Even this cannot be satisfied,

let alone other things.

The Han Kingdom has completely handed over its logistics system to merchants. In Tan Feng's initial view, this is completely a chaotic policy. Merchants are all profit-seeking and despicable. In order to gain benefits, they dare to do anything, but the Han army has implemented this policy for almost two years, and the result is that the logistics and transportation capacity of the Han army has been greatly improved. In order to get this job, the merchants of the Han Kingdom have invested a lot of capital to improve their transportation and distribution capabilities. A large number of new carriages have been put into use, and material storage and transfer stations have been erected on both sides of the traffic line, which can deliver the materials needed by the Han army to the hands of the army in the shortest time.

The Han government conducts an open bidding every three years. All merchants who have registered with the Han State and have reached a certain level of assets are eligible to bid. This also allows all merchants to continue to improve their service level and delivery speed after making money, in the hope that they can get the task again in the next bidding.

Now Tan Feng has completely figured out all the links here. The implementation of this policy is not as simple as it seems on the surface. It is because of this policy that the Han government has completely gotten rid of the need to mobilize a large number of civilians to escort the baggage after a war. These tasks are all implemented by merchants, and merchants need to pay for hiring civilians. The people have wages to get, and their enthusiasm is also very high.

More importantly, the Han government has invested heavily in infrastructure. Wherever the Han army fights, roads are built there. The perfect and well-connected transportation network has greatly improved their transportation capacity. The use of new carriages has saved a lot of material resources. The new carriages with iron wheels and rubber wrapped outside can carry more and have fewer livestock.

What is more important is that the perfect roads, new carriages, and scientific transportation make it possible for the Han army to mobilize the least manpower no matter what level of war it faces. They will not abandon the domestic fields because of a war, and will not have a fatal impact on the domestic economy and people's livelihood.

In the Qin State, this is not possible. For example, in the war with the Han State two years ago, Li Xin's 100,000 troops alone mobilized nearly 200,000 civilians to transport food and supplies, which caused the domestic grain production to drop by 20% that year, and famine occurred in most places.

Tan Feng wrote a detailed report on his research in the past two years and submitted it to the King of Qin. He hoped that his research would attract the attention of the King of Qin and the court, so as to make some fundamental changes to the Qin State. Otherwise, in the long run, the advantage of the Han State will become more and more obvious. At that time, even if Qin and Chu join forces, it will be difficult to compete with the Han State.

This is a dead end that is difficult to solve. After going around and around, it is finally in the game.

In the confrontation between countries, military is only one part of it. It is more of a confrontation between the overall strength of the country. Judging by the army alone, even if a certain degree of victory is achieved temporarily, it is difficult to change the general trend. Just like this time, the Battle of Pengcheng between Chu and Han, Qin and Chu worked hard and planned for a long time. In the end, although they successfully wrapped the New First Army of Han, the Chu people did not kill all the New First Army. Huang Xie and Qu Zhong were quite sober. They did not want to make a deadly feud with the Han State at this time, and thus become a shield for Qin. After they made their demands and were satisfied, they released all the remaining troops of the New First Army.

It's a pity that there are sober people like Huang Xie and Qu Zhong in Chu. If the Chu people slaughtered the New First Army, Gao Yuan would have to use force against Chu because of domestic pressure. The two countries would fight, and fight hard. That would be the most favorable situation for Qin.

Thinking of this, Tan Feng couldn't help but think of the Great Council that Gao Yuan had set up. This is a government office that Tan Feng still hasn't seen clearly. They have no power to govern, but they dare to veto the resolution of the Supreme Political Affairs Hall of Han. What exactly does Gao Yuan want to do with this thing?

Does he want to establish a system that only existed in ancient times? If so, is it a blessing for Qin?

Shaking his head, Tan Feng stopped thinking about this problem. Now he has understood that Gao Yuan's head is not a normal head, but the things he has made can make his Han country fly higher and higher like wings.

In the Mao Wei incident, he lost his most capable subordinate Tan Kang. The last group of people left in Yan State were also wiped out in this action. Only one in ten survived, and they basically lost the ability to operate in Han State. For those who survived, Tan Feng asked them to hide deeply and never have any activities without his orders. These last nails are precious and must not be used unless it is absolutely necessary.

What comforted him was that Tan Kang did not die in vain. He successfully hijacked Mao Wei and used this to severely damage the New First Army of Han State. Tan Kang was also posthumously named a general for his merits this time, which was regarded as an explanation for his family. And he, because of his merits this time, was named Yingchuan Hou by the King of Qin, which was enough to make him proud. As an outsider, Tan Feng was named a marquis earlier than Lu Chao. You know, Lu Chao's background is much deeper than his own.

Mao Wei, who also defected to Qin, was also named Marquis. According to the agreement with Chu, a workshop for producing explosives was established in Sui County. Zhou Yu sent a full 5,000 troops to guard it. The strict protection of the workshop there was even more than that of the royal palace in Xianyang. I don’t know how much sand was mixed into the Black Ice Platform, and it was monitored day and night.

Tan Feng also got dozens of kilograms of the first batch of products. Tan Feng experimented several times and found that the power was indeed amazing, but it also had fatal weaknesses in use, and there were huge hidden dangers in storage. Tan Feng heard that Lu Chao put these amazingly powerful things in his general's mansion, and he didn't want to do that. If he was not careful, this thing would explode, which would be enough to blow him up.

I walked into a warehouse casually. This is a shop selling daily necessities. The items inside are basically from the Han Kingdom. There are a wide variety of items. Almost everything you need in daily life can be found here. Tan Feng's eyes swept over the items on the shelves. Without exception, the labels on those goods all indicated that they came from the Han Kingdom. This is also a new invention of the Han people. Any commodity is labeled with the workshop that produces them. The Han Kingdom also has an Industrial and Commercial Bureau that specializes in this matter. After a name is registered by a workshop, other similar products are not allowed to use this name.

Seeing Tan Feng coming in, the clerk hurriedly came over, "Young Master is here, the boss just came back from purchasing goods today, and he is in the back now!"

"Take me there!" Tan Feng said simply. (To be continued)