When Fulward left, he was extremely conflicted. On the one hand, he wanted to kill Masinde easily, but on the other hand, he also felt that Masinde had indeed done his utmost to treat him and Kushan.
"General, what should we do now?" After Masinde left, Sidney, who had been hiding in the back hall of the palace, came out and asked solemnly.
Since the last showdown between Fulward and Masinde, Fulward has already planned to summon his men. Although as Masinde estimated, Fulward can only summon some of them. After all, it took so long for him to gather his men.
It's not like Hinde didn't do anything. He actually assimilated many Kushan elites into his own people. After realizing what Masinde had done, Furward was more or less prepared for this.
"Continue to gather people. After three days, those who have not been gathered here will be ignored. We will take the northwest passage back to the Kushan Empire." Fulward said calmly.
Many of what Masinde said are correct. For example, in the current situation, it is actually difficult for the Kushan elites who have fallen into the Qiang rhythm to withdraw. After all, dozens of people suppressed a large tribe, leaving tens of thousands of people afraid to move.
, it’s not because dozens of people are all tough men fighting one against a hundred, it’s just because under the organizational inertia, not many people directly resist, but on the other hand, when the organizational inertia collapses...
We have no choice but to give up. Unless everyone is a five-level smelting super elite, facing this situation, we have no choice but to give up on this path.
But if each of them is a five-level smelted super elite, why did Fulward have to squat on the plateau for so long? Just lead these super elites straight to Chang'an.
Although Chang'an cannot be captured, it is absolutely impossible to stop it with so many elites from the fifth level of smelting, the blockade of the Qiang people, the blockade of Xinzhou, Yizhou, Hanzhong, and the garrison from Chang'an to Hanzhong, etc.
Why did Fulward follow Masinde's suggestion? Isn't it because he also realized that it was basically impossible for him to break through the outermost blockade of the Han Empire and that he would not be able to break into the vicinity of Chang'an.
For Fulward, there is no need to attack Chang'an. As long as his army can reach Chang'an, it will cause a stir in the world. When the time comes, he can casually kill some Han elites, and he will be able to give General Guishuang a spirit beyond the military spirit.
Blessing.
Just like General Wei's victory at Longcheng, the elite Han army that attacked together suffered losses of more than 20,000. However, because it beheaded 700 Huns, it was called the first great achievement of the Han-Hungarian War.
It represented that the Han Dynasty officially began to counterattack the Xiongnu.
Therefore, as long as Fulward can rush to the vicinity of Chang'an, even if he cannot go back at all, he will be famous forever. However, under Masinde's explanation, Fulward clearly realized that he simply could not do it. The Qiang blockade caused him to
His soldiers could infiltrate at most a few hundred people.
If thousands of people really cross the Qiang's front on a large scale, a battle will occur no matter what. Once a large-scale battle begins, there will be no way to continue to conceal his movements, and Xinzhou, Yizhou, Hanzhong and Yanbian
Those garrison regiments are not just watching.
As long as the Qiang people bite their main force, the garrison closest to Fuwode will really rush forward and fight Fuwode. Therefore, unless Fuwode can quickly defeat the Qiang people and fight against the Qiang people,
Only if they still have the ability to suppress the Qiang reinforcements, can they truly enter the Han Dynasty's homeland.
As for the Tibetan area, Boward didn't think it was the homeland of the Han Dynasty at all.
"Northwest? Is it the ancient Silk Road?" Sidney frowned. He was one of the deputy commanders of Camel Rider, so when he went to Tibet, Fulward had discussed it with him.
They have also considered the Karakoram Corridor.
But after they sent people to conduct on-site inspections, they realized that this road is currently unreachable. The snow cover caused by the Little Ice Age has greatly increased the difficulty of traveling on this road. This is why people have walked this road in recent years.
There is basically no reason for the merchants on the road.
Otherwise, this road alone can lead directly to the inner side of Kushan. Those smugglers in the Han Dynasty who were not afraid of death would definitely be willing to take this road to make some money.
After all, no one does a loss-making business, but a group of people want to do a beheading business and make money, which is not shabby at any time.
In addition, although Chen Xi managed the business dealings between the Han Dynasty and Kushan, it would be difficult for later generations to completely solve the problem of smuggling.
Taking into account the widespread use of bill redemption and the difficulty of completely eliminating smugglers, Chen Xi's last choice can only be to coexist with the smugglers. It is not that it is impossible to completely kill the smugglers. After all, this is the feudal era, and it can be completely eliminated.
Regardless of human rights, if the Imperial Iron Fist is big enough, it can easily kill anything it dislikes.
But for Chen Xi, such a solution was just like swatting mosquitoes with a cannon, and it was not worth it at all, so he created official smugglers who were licensed by the state. Well, those who paid taxes were certainly not considered smugglers. As merchants,
Management businessmen. If big businessmen enter this industry and make a lot of money, they will naturally suppress other people from entering and making money.
Therefore, as long as he manages the types of goods sold by these merchants, Chen Xi can generally maintain stability. These are also nominally Han smugglers. The most sold by these merchants are actually salt and sugar, because these two things are produced by the Han Dynasty.
The quality is good and the price is much lower than that in Kushan.
Especially salt. The price of Han Dynasty salt was so low that even Kushans thought it was ridiculous. For this reason, Kushan secretly learned from Han Dynasty sun-dried salt. Unfortunately, the merchants who smuggled Han Dynasty refined salt in Kushan at that time were those who were backed by large-scale states.
The country's feudal lord, the top Brahmin super smuggler, decisively killed the guy who was running a salt farm in Kushan and started his own salt farm? Then how can we make money by taking advantage of the government?
In short, it's very awesome. After reading Dong Zhao's investigation, Chen Xi felt that it was too outrageous, and he even didn't know what to say. When these top-level trash in Kushan are killing their own people, it really highlights the diversity of a species.
Sex, outrageous, super outrageous.
So far, even though the salt-drying technology of the Han Dynasty's salt fields has already spread to Kushan, Kushan still smuggles refined salt from the Han Dynasty.
After all, whether the country can make money and whether it can stabilize the people's livelihood has nothing to do with me, the Lord of Kushan, or me, the Brahmin. Anyway, our offerings cannot be less.
Chen Xi could only admire this, and by the way, Rome wasn't much better either.
The relationship between the Han Dynasty and Rome has always been good. Even the steel mills allowed the Romans to visit. Naturally, they would not stop people's livelihood things like saltworks. Therefore, Rome got the sun earlier than Kushan.
Salt technology.
Of course, a very important point here is that at that time, Chen Xi really felt that the Roman Empire was higher than the Emperor and that it was difficult for the two parties to have a substantial conflict of interest, so he went with the Roman Empire.
Then the Romans, who had obtained the high-level salt-drying technology of the Han Dynasty, also began to engage in sun-drying salt in their own country. After all, compared to boiling salt, the cost of sun-drying salt was lower and the output was greater. Moreover, after multiple treatments, the quality of the salt brine was improved.
It’s also better, the bitterness and astringency will basically be dealt with.
So after the Han Dynasty's salt-drying technology arrived in Rome, Rome got rid of the troublesome things it used to do. Then, the official salt works were not solved yet because of the Senate's wrangling and profit distribution, big fish eating small fish and other issues.
, the official salt of the Claudius family has been sold everywhere.
What is a cancer? This is a cancer. Pompianus was so angry that he was about to explode. Later, although the country's official salt field was also opened, the Claudius family had already taken the lead and became famous.
, Guan Yan actually couldn't do it to the other party.
Even occasionally the salt sold by the Claudius family looked more like official salt.
There is no way, we have coexisted with Rome, you have me, and I have you. The Claudius family can always find a place in the core area of ​​a big city, and then build a place to sell salt, and then put up a sign saying
It's official salt, and the Roman government has to go through the process to buy land. Even if the government sometimes wants to find a land in the core area, it will be very embarrassing if there is no room for demolition.
So much so that the fake official sold salt in the core area for two years, while the real Roman official just acquired the land on the edge of the core area and built a store. How can this be compared?
In short, just by selling salt, Chen Xi witnessed the diversity of nobles in the feudal era. They were almost all beasts, but the beasts had different postures.
By the way, the reputation of the Claudius family has become better in the past two years. A very important point is that Pompianus' acquisition plan allowed the Claudius family to acquire Rome.
That's right, although they talk about letting Rome acquire the Claudius family, in fact, in Chen Xi's view, it is the Claudius family that actually acquires Rome, and a large number of industries that are urgently needed for people's livelihood are in Rome.
What a waste of time in the hands of the Ladius family!
After Pompianus completed his own blending, the price of food and salt was reduced by 15% overnight. It seemed to be very beneficial to the country, but anyone with any brain would know that with a nod from the Claudius family, the whole country
What does it mean that the price of this daily necessity has dropped by 15%?
In short, it’s a cancer, a real cancer.
But again, at least after the nominal acquisition, Rome does seem to be a complete imperial country, much more normal than Kushan. At least there will be no such thing as an official opening a salt farm privately and being assassinated by a larger official.
matter.
To be honest, Chen Xi estimated that if the Kushan Empire wanted to open a few truly official salt farms now, Oswin would have to end up doing so, and he would only open a few, rather than completely controlling the country's refined salt.
After all, the businessmen across the country who can touch this are all super bosses with strong backends. Take the Shulac family as an example. Is that smuggling? That means asking the warship to help bring some cargo to pressurize the warehouse. Check? Check.
Shit, this is no longer a matter of illegal shooting, this is a matter of really finding out something and everyone will end up badly.
If you want to make this money and can make this money, how can the Kushan leaders really not know? This is not a comprehensive consideration to make the Kushan people at the bottom sacrifice again. Anyway, the animals can still persist. Besides, the salt of the Han Dynasty is so
Okay, whatever you want to make, just buy it!
So much so that every year the Han Dynasty produced far more refined salt than the empire needed, but it was still consumed all because there were so many admirable smugglers.
However, even if there were so many smugglers, the Han Dynasty basically did not use the Karakoram Corridor. Needless to say, what was the situation there? Even if the army was superior to the merchants in all aspects of quality, facing being completely covered by snow
and the glacier-covered Karakoram Corridor, which may also be difficult to pass.
"Then where do you want to go?" Fulward looked at Sidney and said calmly.
It is impossible to go south. The road south is easy to walk in the early stage, but after entering the Tibetan area and entering Yizhou, the difficulty will rise sharply. After entering Zhongnan, the difficulty will explode directly. It is very likely that you will face it directly.
The Han Dynasty mobilized the elites who had conquered the country from the Ganges River.
Compared with the pursuit of the Qiang people and the ice and snow in the Karakoram Corridor, the elite of the Ganges Army under Guan Yu are the real insurmountable problem, and compared with Fulward, they are really numerous.
, and he is very powerful. If Fulward has the ability to escape and ascend to heaven when Guan Yu calls on the Ganges Army to encircle and suppress him, then the position of the strongest tenth knight will have to be given up.
Not to mention passing through directly, just escaping and ascending to heaven requires a tough fight of the level of the Tenth Knight, and a lot of luck.
"It is better to go west and cross the Himalayas than to take the Karakoram Corridor. The difficulty is not much different between the two sides." Sidney said after being silent for a long time.
"We have no way to go west, and we can definitely cross it, but we have no way to calculate the time, and we don't know how much food and grass we need to carry. We have no plan." Fulward said calmly, "In terms of time, it is too hasty.
To be continued...