"Zhang Qian, do you know anything about the Western Regions?"
Li Yunze warmly entertained his father Yan and Zhang Qian, and even let Zhang Qian sit next to him.
Seeing the emperor taking the initiative to pour him wine, Zhang Qian was really flattered.
He took the wine glass respectfully, then saluted Li Yunze and said, "Your Majesty, I have only heard that there are many countries in the Western Regions, but I don't know the details."
Just after they met, Li Yunze directly appointed Zhang Qian as his official, and he could become his minister.
Master Yan, who was sitting next to him, looked slightly moved, and then said with a smile, "I know that there are many rare treasures in the Western Regions. Every time a caravan comes to the East Market, it will cause looting."
"What the doctor said is true."
Zhang Qian nodded, "I saw a caravan from the Western Regions in the East Market not long ago. The spices they carried were worth as much as gold, and they were sold out in half a day."
In fact, the ancient Silk Road had already been opened as early as the Yan and Huang Dynasties.
Caravans from the Western Regions brought jade to China for sale, which was the earliest Silk Road.
It has lasted for thousands of years. Although it has been intermittent, it does exist. It is not as ignorant of the Western Regions as imagined.
"Spices and all that, it's just a trail."
Li Yunze smiled slightly, picked up the wine glass and drank a glass of wine. "The Western Region is vast and rich, and it is the land that I must seize from China."
Historically, Emperor Wu sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Western Regions. The real purpose was to contact the Dayue clan, the Huns' former enemy, in order to find allies to attack the Huns.
Li Yunze was absolutely confident that he could defeat the Huns, so he was not that concerned about finding allies.
Having said this, he simply stood up and pulled the map hanging on the wooden frame from the side.
"This is Chang'an." Li Yunze pointed at Chang'an City on the map, which was obviously many times larger than the actual area, and then pointed eastward, "To the east is the endless sea. Before shipbuilding skills improve, there is not much point in going to sea."
Maritime trade prospered in later generations, but the prerequisite was that all regions were at least developed, and minerals, crops and the like could be produced.
In this era, the overseas islands are truly deserted lands.
Just like the people on the islands who lived a good life in childhood, they are still practicing slash-and-burn farming.
Once a place like this is taken over, it still needs a lot of investment in manpower and material resources to develop it and promote all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
In short, input and output are not proportional.
Li Yunze's finger immediately pointed down to the south. "The south is a primitive jungle, with smog and smog running rampant and swarms of tigers and leopards."
To the south of the Han Dynasty is Nanyue. Zhao Tuo is almost a hundred years old and is still alive.
Due to the settlement and development of 500,000 Qin troops, the south-south border barely looked like it, but it was still nothing compared to China.
As for South Vietnam further south, it really goes without saying that they are all virgin forests with no roads, and the indigenous people living in them are no different from savages.
Even if such a place is occupied, the investment and return will still be out of proportion.
Just look at South Vietnam. It took the Qin army of 500,000 people several decades to achieve some success.
If the Han Dynasty wanted to go further south, it would take at least one million people to invest, and it would take a long time to develop.
Li Yunze's finger turned upward and landed outside the Great Wall.
"The northern grasslands are vast and vast, but the land is barren and difficult to cultivate."
The prairie may appear to be a vast area, but it is actually a barren land.
If you want to farm, you can dig out the sand from the ground with a few hoe blows.
As a livestock land, it is enough to be able to support millions of people.
If the Han family, who are good at farming, were to leave, the prairie would be turned into desert within a few years.
Withdrawing his hand, Li Yunze's eyes fell on the northeast corner of the map.
This area is quite fertile, but it lacks cold-resistant grain species, and it is also a true wilderness, with muddy swamps everywhere and a barren landscape that needs to be developed from scratch on a large scale.
Shaking his head slightly, Li Yunze's hand fell on the west side of the map. "The water and grass here in the Western Region are rich and the land is fertile. More importantly, it is mature farmland that has been developed for more than a thousand years. If it is paid into the pocket of a big man, it can be used."
Li Yunze is not stupid and talking nonsense. In fact, the Western Region in this era is indeed a good place with fertile land.
You must know that even Lop Nur, which was known as the Sea of Death in later generations, was still a vast lake until the 20th century.
The snow water flowing down from the Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun Mountains nourishes the Western Regions with great fertility.
Li Yunze turned around and looked at Zhang Qian, "Ziwen, are you willing to travel to the Western Regions for me?"
Zhang Qian hurriedly stood up and came out of the queue, saluted Li Yunze and said, "I am willing to die for your majesty!"
Li Yunze nodded with satisfaction and asked Zhang Qian to sit down, "When you go to the Western Regions, you have only one job, and that is to record the customs, mountains and landforms, rivers and weather along the way. These things are related to whether the army can win the battle in the future, so you must do it well.
born
work."
"I guarantee it with my head on my neck. If things don't work out, I will never come back!"
Looking at the young but energetic Zhang Qian in front of him, Li Yunze sighed in his heart, "The politicians dare to take risks. If they were rotten scholars, they would be frightened to death and would not dare to go outside. They would only dare to dominate and be despised in China!"
'
"Have a good time doing things."
Li Yunze raised his hand and patted Zhang Qian's shoulder, and said softly, "When you return, I will not hesitate to reward you with the title of Marquis."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Li Yunze set his sights on the Western Regions. In addition to opening up space, there was also a very important reason, which was to open up a passage to the West Sea through the Western Regions.
In this era, the black corn farmers in Africa still rely on picking crops to make a living, and the Indians in America still live in tents and rely on the sky to eat with rocks.
The only ones who can truly lead the future are the Han Dynasty in the east and Rome in the west.
Li Yunze did not regard the Xiongnu as a life-or-death enemy. In his opinion, destroying the Xiongnu was just a matter of time.
After that, he will level the World Island and make the whole world speak Chinese!
I heard that the Huns have been busy fighting among themselves recently, and they have not come to invade on a large scale for a long time.
The imperial court was recuperating and conserving strength, and there was no large-scale use of troops. Generals like Wei Qing were idle for a while.
She stayed in the mansion all day and had nothing to do except read books and practice martial arts. Princess Pingyang was indeed quite enthusiastic, but it was too much for her to be too enthusiastic.
On this day, Wei Qing took advantage of Princess Pingyang to go to Changle Palace to visit the imprisoned Liu She, changed his clothes and leisurely walked out of the palace for a stroll.
There really isn't much place to visit in Chang'an City. It's either a palace or a prison, or the residence of the royal family and nobles.
If you don't go to places like Zhangtai Nanyuan, then you can only go to the East and West markets.
Wei Qing came to Dongshi and walked around before arriving at a place where people gathered.
He knew that this place was the place where the emperor decreed to hold a forum of hundreds of schools.
At this time, a famous master was giving a lecture on the stage and expounding the teachings of famous masters. Many people listened with interest.
Wei Qing stood in the audience and listened for a while. Feeling that he did not understand, he shook his head and prepared to leave. However, when he did not want to turn around and leave, he was shocked to see several Huns listening not far away.
As a general who had fought against the Huns, Wei Qing subconsciously touched the sword.
"General."
The accompanying servant hurriedly came forward and said, "It's the envoy of the Huns."
"messenger?"
Wei Qing was stunned for a moment, and then loosened his grip on the sword, "Why didn't I know?"
"The general has not left the house these days." The servant explained, "He came here a few days ago. I heard he came to ask the emperor for help."
"Huh?" Wei Qing was greatly surprised. "The Huns asked the emperor to help them?"
"Hearing that it was the envoy sent by some king of the Huns, he raised an army to rebel against Shanyu. He couldn't defeat him and came to the emperor for help."
Wei Qing was greatly surprised. He had only been away from home for a few days, but something like this happened.
The matter is indeed true. The envoy who came was sent by Yizhixie, King of Zuoguli of the Xiongnu.
Ever since Shan Yu, a military minister, joined the invaders and was beaten up by Li Yunze until he wet his pants and his strength was greatly reduced, the ambitious Yi Zhixie began to cause trouble.
The rule on the prairie is that the strong are respected. The military minister Shanyu suffered a serious loss of strength, so naturally someone wanted to replace him.
Even if there is no Yi Zhixie, there will be others who will stand up and challenge.
It's just that although the military minister Shan Yu was beaten badly by Li Yunze, he still had a lot of strength in his hands.
Not only did Yizhixie fail to seize the position of the Great Chanyu, but he was beaten back and forth.
In desperation, I had to look for help everywhere.
This sent a letter asking for help directly to Li Yunze.
After understanding the ins and outs of the matter, Wei Qing nodded slightly and prepared to leave.
Turning around here, I heard the Hun envoy not far away shouting in proficient Chinese, "Why are there no military strategists preaching scriptures?"
The Han Dynasty had a prosperous culture and was the center of civilization in the Eastern world.
The Huns, who lived a nomadic life, envied the Han culture from the bottom of their hearts.
In addition, many Han people fled to the Xiongnu, so it was not difficult for the envoy to speak fluent Chinese.
The spectators around did not pay much attention to the attire of the Hun envoy.
Just like a large number of Han people fled to the Xiongnu, there were also many people who fled to the Xiongnu and came to the Han Dynasty.
Especially inside and outside Chang'an City, Huns are not uncommon.
In other words, Wei Qing has not fully adapted to the change in status, otherwise he would not have wanted to draw his sword when he saw the Huns.
When someone interrupted his sermon, the famous man looked a little unsettled.
He glared at the Huns and said, "The emperor has a purpose, a military strategy, and the work of the Mohist school is not as good as a hundred schools of thought. If you want to listen and learn, go and find the emperor. Go quickly, don't make trouble here."
Li Yunze is not stupid. Of course, truly useful things will not be made public.
For example, military strategists' military books, Mohist's important tools, etc. are not shown to others.
Especially things like military art and tactics, if you want to learn them, you can only join the martial arts hall that Li Yunze is preparing.
Obviously, people of foreign races are absolutely not allowed to enter the martial arts hall run by Li Yunze.
The idea of 'if you enter China, you will conquer China, if you enter Barbarians and Di, you will conquer Barbarians', that doesn't work with Li Yunze.
There is only one thing he pays attention to, it is not my kind!
No one knows better than him what those who entered China did in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Watching the Xiongnu envoy leave, Wei Qing, who was thoughtful, immediately asked, "Go to Weiyang Palace."