In the cold winter, the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains are covered with ice and snow, and heavy snow falls from the gray sky. The fields and mountains seem to be covered with a snow-white carpet, and the big trees seem to be covered with white robes. The world is exceptionally quiet. Used to serve as

In the Chinese military tent at Tingzhou's official residence, Yang Ji, Li Jing and others were discussing matters in Tingzhou.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Once the master's slave trade is implemented, all the tribes and tribes outside the territory will definitely become more chaotic."

Yang Ji took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "The more chaotic they are, the easier it is for us to obtain slaves in the slave trade; the more fierce they fight, the more weapons, food, medicinal materials, and cloth they need. In order to strengthen their own strength, they

They will try every means to plunder resources, and in order for their tribesmen to survive, the tribes between the major forces will also go to war with each other and plunder surrounding areas.

Fallen war horses and people are exchanged for survival supplies. For us, the more chaos outside the territory, the less affected Tingzhou will be in name only. This will also allow Tingzhou to have a peaceful external environment to develop for a long time in the future.

Once the five cities of Tingzhou and the five-level defense system you envisioned are established, even if one day we are no longer in Liangzhou, Tingzhou will be able to protect itself."

"This method is to use the flesh and blood of the barbarians to nourish our Great Sui Dynasty and build the Great Sui Dynasty." Li Jing's eyes lit up, and he had completely understood Yang Ji's strategic intention.

Yang Ji smiled slightly and did not continue talking.

"Those who are not of my race must have different minds!" Xue Ju said: "Now that we are strong and the enemy is weak, why don't we, the Sui Dynasty, go all out and occupy the surrounding areas?"

"It is easy to annihilate the enemy, but difficult to govern!" Yang Ji sighed and said, "As far as my current territory is concerned, it has reached the limit of population, food, and marching speed. For example, if someone rebels in Jiaozhou, when the news spreads

By the time we arrived in Guanzhong, it was already

It will be a long time later. If we mobilize troops from Guanzhong, the rebels may have occupied the entire Jiaozhou; and in the West, our influence and deterrence of the Sui Dynasty can only extend to the Western Regions. No matter how far it is, there will be

It’s dangerously out of reach.”

"If there is a war in a certain place, if the army cannot enter for more than a hundred days, it is basically the limit. I call this limit the empire's extreme wall. If you exceed the empire's extreme wall, if you continue to expand the scope of your rule,

The result is that the other side will rebel after the army withdraws. Therefore, instead of occupying these territories that we cannot actually control and setting up enemies everywhere, it is better to leave a vast space for them to fight on their own. We only need to use politics to

, economic, military, and cultural influences can be exerted.”

There have been dynasties in history that broke through the extreme wall of the empire, but those breakthroughs were actually caused by being crushed by the conquerors too many times and simply giving up the struggle. After that, these empires that broke through the extreme wall of the empire simply relied on their past military exploits.

To make them dare not rebel, it doesn't matter even if the army enters the country within a year or two. But for the feudal dynasty, it is not an ordinary difficulty to achieve this level.

With the current strength and reaction speed of the Sui Dynasty, blindly pursuing a large territory and territory would not only be a bad thing, but would become a huge burden and burden.

In order to strengthen the imperial court's rule and control over various places, Yang Jian has been continuously repairing official roads, improving the post station system, and shortening the journey from east to west, north and south little by little over the years. This is actually an attack on the extreme wall of the empire, but the target of the attack is the internal extreme.

The "Guanzhong-Guazhou" straight road he is planning to build is an offensive that takes into account both internal and external considerations.

"I understand, humble position." Everyone nodded silently. What Yang Ji said was easy to understand and very thorough, and everyone could understand it.

At this time, there was a sudden burst of noise outside, and everyone frowned at the same time. Seeing that Yang Ji didn't say anything, Li Jing knew that he had asked him, the governor of Tingzhou, to take charge, and immediately asked sharply

: "Who is making the noise outside?"

After a while, a young official stepped inside, bowed and saluted Yang Ji and Li Jing, and said: "I would like to report to the Chief Manager, Li Shishi. It was the Prime Minister of Chen Min County of Tianshan County who captured a Sogdian caravan staying in the city.

.”

"Why are we arresting the Sogdian caravan? What exactly happened? Please tell us in detail?" Tingzhou is located on the northern route of the Silk Road. It is the main route for Sogdians to do business in East/Turk, Khitan and other places. Some people go south from here to Iraq.

Prefecture; some people also went to the north of Datong City in Ganzhou, went south along Juyanze and Ruoshui, and entered the Sui Dynasty for business.

When people heard that Tianshan County would become the prefecture of Tingzhou, some Sogdians who were very keen on business prepared to set up shops and transfer stations here. Since they kept their own rules and brought many things needed by officials and people, Li Jing also

He didn't pay much attention to it; when he heard that the county magistrate had arrested all the Sogdians, he was greatly surprised.

The young official said: "I heard from the county officials that the city patrol army was on patrol. Some people said that the Sogdians who came today had robbed their daughters, so the city patrol army closed the city to search and captured all the caravans."

Come over here."

"Is there such a thing?" Yang Ji's expression turned cold when he heard the words "their daughter". He put the wine glass on the table, stood up and said, "Let's go out and have a look."

The group of people stepped out of the 'Prefecture Government Office' tent and walked in the direction of the 'County Government Office'.

........

The Sogdians live in Central Asia controlled by the Western Turks. From the Han Dynasty to the present, they have been

Along the Silk Road, the main commercial activities were to purchase silk porcelain paper medicinal tea from the Central Plains, and to transport small and high-value treasures from the Western Regions, such as Sesel, jade, agate, pearls, etc. As a result, many Sogdians were formed.

They are small city-states, and they use their surnames as their country names. The more famous ones are the Nine Kingdoms of Kang, An, Shi, Cao, Shi, Mi, He, Luo, and Bai. People in the Central Plains are accustomed to calling these nine states the "Nine Surnames of Zhaowu".

This Sogdian caravan from Tianshan City comes from the distant Kang State. They consist of more than 100 merchants, more than 200 camel drivers and guards, and a total of more than 800 camels. They are loaded with precious stones and spices from the West. They are not far away.

Wan Li came to the Sui Dynasty in exchange for silk, porcelain, tea, and paper.

Despite the heavy snowfall, the Sogdians, who are well-known for their proficiency in business, good at planning, hard work, and proficiency in various languages, had no intention of stopping. In addition, their camels were not sheltered from wind, snow, and sand.

So after replenishing drinking water in Tianshan County, they hurried westward, preparing to stay in Tianchi City in the west. However, just as they were setting off, a large group of Sui troops, including men and camels, rushed to the county government office.

"I have seen the chief manager, Li Cishi." When Yang Ji, Li Jing and others arrived, the county magistrate Yuan Fu and the county magistrate Chen Min came forward with dozens of people to salute.

"Well!" Yang Ji glanced at them with a serious look on his face, and asked the crying people: "I am Yang Ji, the general manager of Liangzhou, and all your daughters were snatched away by these people? When did this happen?

?”

"Reporting to the chief manager, it was my granddaughter who was robbed, not my daughter." An old man cried and said: "Just an hour ago, two barbarians came to my house and asked where the spring water was. I happened to be weaving a dung basket.

I kindly asked my granddaughter to take them to find a well, but once she went there, she never came back. The little old man looked everywhere but couldn't find anyone. These people just came today.

The Hu people were nowhere to be seen, so I had to ask the soldiers for help. After arriving here, I realized that these villagers were just like me. They either lost their daughters or their granddaughters. The situation was similar to what I encountered.

And these barbarians are rushing in the snow, they must be guilty of treason and trying to escape! The general manager must make the decision for us."

"Don't worry, I will definitely make the decision for you." Yang Ji looked at Chen Min and asked, "Is this the only caravan today?"

Chen Min quickly replied: "Go back to the chief manager! This Sogdian caravan is the only one arriving today."

Yang Ji asked again: "Has anyone escaped?"

Chen Min said: "After receiving the news, I closed the city gate and caught this group of people in the middle of the city. They couldn't escape at all."

"Well done!" Yang Ji praised, and led everyone towards the Sogdian caravan surrounded by soldiers, and loudly ordered: "Unload all the goods and accept inspection. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy."

In front of the sharp swords and the strung crossbows, these Sogdians did not dare to complain at all and obediently unloaded the goods from the camels.

Yang Ji, who was watching with cold eyes, saw a dozen barbarians leading a dozen camels carrying large boxes to the edge. Before he could say anything, Xue Ju next to him also noticed something unusual. He whispered: "Young Master, you were robbed."

I'm afraid the children who left are in these boxes."

Yang Ji nodded and said in a deep voice: "Take a dozen brothers up and capture these people for me. Remember, you have to move quickly and don't give them a chance to take hostages."

"Here." Xue Ju summoned a dozen guards, explained clearly, and walked towards the dozen barbarians.

Xue Ju kicked a foreigner and said carelessly: "You bitch, what's in the box?"

The barbarian hurriedly smiled and said: "There are exquisite porcelain inside. Please forgive me, general."

"What porcelain? I think it's a weapon." Xue Ju continued to buy time for the guards.

The barbarian took out a handful of gold coins and gave them to Xue Ju. He said with a smile: "The general is joking. We are upright Sogdian merchants. We travel between the East and the West all the year round. We know the rules of the Sui Dynasty very well. How dare we sell privately?"

Where are the weapons?”

"Really?" Xue Ju pretended to receive the money and punched the Hu man hard in the stomach.

"Ugh!" The barbarian knelt on the ground with a thud. His stomach hurt so much that he even vomited out gall water.

When the accompanying guards saw Xue moving, they immediately took action and restrained these barbarians who were obviously problematic.

More than a dozen soldiers swarmed up, unloaded the boxes from the camels, and cut off the locks with their knives. The faces of these Hu merchants suddenly turned pale.

A soldier tore off the woolen felt and turned around and shouted: "General Manager, the lost child has been found!"

Yang Ji walked over quickly, escorted by a group of guards. He glanced at the box and saw two unconscious little girls curled up inside.

"General Manager, we have them here too!"

"General Manager, there are also two children in this box."

"..."

The soldiers discovered one after another that more than twenty boxes contained little girls who had been knocked unconscious by medicine.

"How is that possible?"

"Bah, what a morally corrupt scum!"

This sudden turn of events also stunned many Hu businessmen, who let out bursts of exclamations, and cursed each other in fluent Chinese in an attempt to draw boundaries and stay out of the incident.

"The evidence is conclusive, why are you still pretending to be innocent?" Yang Ji was so angry that his lungs almost exploded at the innocent exclamations of the Hu merchants. He hadn't even gotten a foreign slave yet, and he was being attacked by these Sogdian traffickers.
Chapter completed!