The dealings Li Sheng mentioned are certainly not ordinary trade.
But recently, the border fortress in the northwestern region of the Tang Dynasty...the more northwest side of the Anxi Protectorate, that is, deep in the Pamir Plateau, received bad news again.
The content of the news is that Rome is about to use troops in the Balkans!
The Balkans have always been called the powder keg of Europe because this place is exactly the dividing line between Europe and Asia.
If the people of China cross the Pamir Plateau, then the first place they set foot on will be there!
In this situation, it was impossible for the Tang Dynasty not to take action. There was absolutely no doubt that Li Er would increase troops in the military town of Anxi.
However, compared to Li Er, although Li Sheng did not participate in the small meeting held by Li Er, Wei Zheng and others, it can even be said that from an official perspective, Li Sheng did not participate in this matter.
However, this matter still caused a lot of thinking in Li Sheng...
Because if I remember correctly, Rome during this period was no longer as powerful as Rome during the Han Dynasty.
The development of Europe is in sync with China at many points. One example is the birth of many philosophers in Europe, which happened to be during the Spring and Autumn Period in China when various schools of thought were contending - that is, Plato and Socrates.
Of course, the subsequent development can also be imagined. Heroes emerged in large numbers, the world was in melee, and finally the truth and the master of truth were selected with blood from the hundreds of contending schools. The Qin and Han Empires were established, and the same was true for Rome.
And then!...Then the big man will be gone, and although Rome did not die suddenly, you will know if you think about it...
The same development as the Eastern Han Dynasty will naturally lead to Feiraization.
Of course, the details are somewhat different. The system construction of Han Dynasty was more complete than that of Rome. It was later ended because of changes in some technological nodes. The invention of paper led to an update of the political ecological infrastructure, but the system failed to keep up.
So it ends.
Rome was different. The system construction from the beginning of the founding of the country was incomplete, and its subsequent decline was just... a matter of time. The seeds that were planted at the beginning gradually fermented.
Of course, this doesn't matter. To Li Sheng... the fate of Rome has certain reference value and research value, but in short, there should be nothing controversial about the changes in Rome's national power. The current Rome is a peaceful regime similar to the Song Dynasty.
And what kind of regime is this kind of regime like the Song Dynasty? Even if Yan Yun cannot be taken back, Yue Fei will be sentenced from a distance when he is about to take over the lost land. What is even more outrageous is... the year before the official end of the Song Dynasty,
Dajin directly gave Yan Yunbai to the Song Dynasty - and the Song Dynasty, which took back its territory, died suddenly like that.
According to the script in Li Sheng's memory, the current Rome is at this level.
I respect this opponent because Li Sheng knows that when considering national affairs, he cannot be inflated, but his memory should be correct.
However, now, Rome has taken the initiative to use troops abroad.
Overseas military affairs will only happen in the hands of two kinds of regimes. One is that the emerging elite class loses control after the popularization of education, such as the one in front of the station...
The other kind is that the political ecology is really clear and clear. Everyone vows to pacify the world and come out to make decisions for the people of the world - such as the many peasant armies in history, the representatives of which are Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bang.
And now...
Li Sheng thought to himself, could this guy in Rome fake his body overnight? If I remember correctly, this was a funny period when the Praetorian Guards in Rome were making coups every day and directly auctioning off the throne...
How is it possible to use troops abroad in this state? To be precise, the throne has directly become an auction item. It is impossible for a big boss with authority to come out and say what we need in Rome now, and in what direction we must use troops, because
After the death of Severus, Rome went directly into the Rebellion of the Eight Kings script, and then went to the extreme stage of auctioning the throne. The entire system was completely inoperable and could not be started.
You're so cool, you can actually fake corpses...
Li Sheng simply couldn't figure out how such a strange thing could happen. It was like a terminal cancer patient healing himself in place - let alone a doctor, even ordinary people would be confused when they saw it.
Of course, maybe... Lingzhou, Anxi Protectorate, the northwest of China were strategically located, and domestic and foreign merchants gradually prospered, bringing any new vitality to Rome... It's hard to say.
After all, the Western Jin Dynasty was so bad that it became the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but after the Eastern Jin Dynasty was so bad, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty emerged.
Although Liu Yu also came to power in a coup, he seemed to be no different from other coup makers such as Sima Yi, but Liu Yu was more moral and capable than the group of people in the Sima family. After seizing power, he immediately reorganized the government and started doing business, including the Northern Expedition.
Pay for your homeland.
Although Liu Yu failed to usher in a great era at the level of the Han and Tang Dynasties in the end, China still had a lot of hope at that time, and
But now that things have come to an end...
China's geographical interests in the northwest are at risk. No matter what adventures Rome has experienced, they must find a way to deal with it.
And how to deal with it...
The first way is, of course, to increase troops.
Rome still dared to send troops to the Balkans. In Li Sheng's opinion, this was no different from the Incheon landing. It would be unjustifiable not to smash his head.
But...problems also arise, because the transportation methods in this period are still not developed enough.
As mentioned before, the Balkans region is the crossroads of the world island, but it is a special crossroad——
Europeans can go directly there if they want to go there, but although China is also located in the center of the world island, if they want to go there, they have to cross the Pamir Plateau!
This kind of journey is often daunting even if infrastructure construction in the northwest is developed and merchants become increasingly profitable.
It’s just that the current shipbuilding technology has not advanced to a certain extent, the risks of sea trade are still huge, and pirates are still rampant, so there are many merchants coming and going in Lingzhou, but... in general, the people traveling to both sides of the Pamir Plateau are
The cost is still extremely high.
And if you think about it for a moment, you will know...
The cost of business transactions is extremely high.
So how could it be easier for the Tang Dynasty to dispatch the imperial army?
Garrisoning troops in Anxi and establishing military towns all rely on the valuable qualities of the Forbidden Army soldiers who can endure hardships, but the scale of tens of thousands cannot be larger.
The location of the Anxi Protectorate is not even in the core area of the Pamir Plateau.
Now it is even more difficult to send the Forbidden Army into an organic form and directly cross the plateau there!
That's why...
Li Sheng suddenly got an idea when he met Asmin today.
If the Tang Dynasty wanted to directly defeat Rome's desire to eat shit, it would have to build a railway line, otherwise it would be impossible. But maybe...