Han Dynasty equipment beats Rome
In the vast history of history, there have always been many strange things, but to talk about “unbelievable”, we must first talk about a strange event in the Han Dynasty: “The Han Dynasty equipment beats Rome”.
To this day, the issue of “Who is the strongest Rome in the Han Dynasty” has often caused quarrels among Chinese and foreign netizens. Moreover, in ancient times, the traffic conditions were limited, and the “arms trading” was also difficult to operate. Can the “Han Dynasty Equipment” really beat Rome? The Persian replied: Well, it was beaten.
Since Zhang Qian’s mission to the Western Regions, the Silk Road running through Europe and Asia has entered a golden age. Han dynasty silk has been selling well in the Western world since then, but “made in the Han dynasty”, which became popular with silk, also includes lacquerware, bronze mirrors, ironware and many other objects. Among them, iron weapons are especially “just needed”.
Although ancient China was not the earliest country in the world to smelt iron, since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China’s iron smelting technology has come from behind, especially pig iron technology and steel frying technology, which are more than a thousand years ahead of the contemporary West. The weapons of the Han Dynasty became the hard guys to take advantage of it. The Persians, who had always been bullied by Rome, took advantage of their geographical advantages to desperately invert the ironware of the Han Dynasty and even introduced iron smelting technology.
Such a lively scene, even the brilliant Han Dynasty star Chen Tang, who wrote, “Those who break the strong will be punishable even if they are far away,” were in the eyes of the famous Han Dynasty. In the words of Chen Tang to Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty: In the past, the Han army faced Hu Bing (the soldiers and horses of Central Asian countries), and the fighting power was usually one to five. Now because these countries bought a lot of Han dynasty iron weapons, they also mastered some Han dynasty iron smelting skills. Therefore, the ratio of the Han army to their combat power dropped to one to three.
It was the Romans on the other side of the Silk Road who experienced the power of “Han Dynasty Equipment” firsthand. Roman historical records indicate that Corasu, the ruler of Rome, led his army across the Euphrates River in an attempt to completely conquer Persia. But the Persians who stocked up on the equipment of the Han Dynasty had a very hard waist this time. In the ensuing war, the Persian army armed with the “Han Dynasty artifact” was so morale that it almost wiped out the Roman army.
Compared with the sight of the Han Dynasty selling equipment to the West, the Song Dynasty, also known as the “Fu Song”, also engaged in business, but there is also a dumbfounding truth: trade is difficult to make money.
Difficult to make money in trade
One of the routine operations of “Iron Blood and Strong Song” is to spend money to buy peace. For example, with the Liao Kingdom, under the advantage of the “Northern Soldiers” on the battlefield, the Song Dynasty readily gave in and exchanged for peace at the annual price of “300,000 coins”. In the Song and Jin battlefields where the Jin army was severely passive later, the Southern Song Dynasty also decisively recognized the counsel. Not only did half of the rivers and mountains disappeared, they also bought “two hundred and fifty thousand silver silk” to buy peace. Many people think that this money is just a fraction of the money for the “Fu Song”. In fact, when the Song Dynasty had the highest silver income, it was only 800,000 taels each year. A large amount of money was scraped away every year, which is almost the same as cutting meat.
Although Da Song spends more money to buy peace, we can do business. With Da Song’s developed productivity, don’t all the lost money have to be earned back? The fact is, this is how easy it is. For example, regarding the trade in the Liao Dynasty, Song Qi, a famous official in the Northern Song Dynasty, had objective statistics: “Three or four years of benefit are slightly enough.” It is not easy for Da Song to make 30% to 40% of the annual coins lost every year through trade.
Moreover, the “30-40%” is actually the book number. The annual “income” from the trade between the Song Dynasty and the Liao State is mostly cloth, mules, horses, cattle and sheep, and precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. Very rarely. On the contrary, the Liao State made a large amount of copper in the Northern Song Dynasty every year through trade in salt and so on. Even the Liao Kingdom also cast a large amount of iron money, and used the difference between copper and iron to exchange a large amount of Song money. Shen Kuo once recorded that “those who shed Chinese money in the north don’t know how old they are”. Then there was a weird thing. On the books of the Northern Song Dynasty, “earning Liao Dynasty money”, in fact, a large amount of copper money went out every year, causing a serious money shortage, and the more you make money, the more you lose money.
Didn’t the Northern Song Dynasty realize it? Listen to Song Renzong’s original words: “First, the dynasty sets up the mutual market to exchange existence, not for profit.” So although the Liao State often has non-discriminatory operations, the Song dynasty is a calmer, as long as it can not fight and suffer a loss, it does not matter. So the more you lose, the more you eat, and you end up poor and weak.
Of course, compared with the Song-Jin trade, the Song-Liao trade after the Southern Song Dynasty “recognized the uncle” is even more outrageous. Because in the “Shaoxing Peace Discussion”, the heavy land for copper and silver production was ceded to the “golden uncle”, so the precious metals in the Southern Song Dynasty are more important. The amount of money cast was only one-tenth of the Northern Song Dynasty. But even with this little money, the “Uncle Gold” did not let it go. In Song Jin’s bargaining market, gold men often used various methods to buy and sell copper coins in large quantities, and even exchanged gold country banknotes for copper coins in the Southern Song Dynasty. As a result, the money shortage in the Southern Song Dynasty was even more serious. The modern archaeological team unearthed a large number of Jin Guo treasury in the northern provinces, the amount reached 10,000 jin, and a lot of it was Southern Song money…
“The teachers of the Republic of China are very happy”
A legendary “happy thing” in the Republic of China was “being a teacher”. In the past few years, every Teacher’s Day has been celebrated in many places, and the “Republic of China” has started. Articles on the Internet often use “the high salaries of teachers in the Republic of China” and “the happiness of teachers in the Republic of China” to attract people’s attention. So when you traveled to the Republic of China to be a teacher, are there really many “modern fanciers” who are so happy?
At first glance, the teachers in the Republic of China are indeed very happy. An ordinary university professor’s salary for a year can basically buy a house in Xizhimen, Beijing. In the era of the National Government after 1927, the monthly salary of university teaching assistants was more than one hundred fiat currency, and the monthly salary of professors was three to four hundred fiat currency.
But these people are actually very few.
In the Republic of China, elementary school teachers, who accounted for more than 90% of teachers, were not so happy. For example, in northern provinces such as Shandong, in theory, elementary school teachers can also get a salary of 30 or 40 fiat currency, but in reality, most of them are between 10 and 15 fiat currency, which is only one-thirtieth of the monthly salary of university professors. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where the literacy rate is relatively high and economic education is well developed, the monthly salary of elementary school teachers is only more than ten yuan, and the lowest is only three yuan. You know, the monthly salary of local civil servants before the Anti-Japanese War started at 55 yuan a month.
The so-called “Republic of China teachers are very happy” is just the happiness of the “professors” and “masters”, but it is the poor memory of most teachers.
Why is there such a big gap? In the final analysis, the Republic of China’s investment in education was too low. Even in the “Golden Decade” when the “masters” were so hard to show off, the Republic of China’s education expenditures accounted for about 2% of the national expenditures. With such a small amount of money, high salaries are paid to “professors” and “masters” every year, and it is naturally very rare to send them to ordinary teachers. So it is not surprising why the illiteracy rate of the “elegant” Republic of China remained above 80% all year round.
