At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Page 721

The young man with the spirit of the bloody warrior back then is no longer there.

What is alive now is a wily politician and a manipulator who has retreated to the background.

Still, he won't stop fighting.

The battle that belongs to him is far from the point where he can take a little rest.

He will continue to fight.

For the country he has worked so hard to build.

Give me a little more time, give me a little more energy, I can't just lie down and rest!

Where Cao Lan couldn't see, Guo Peng clenched his fists tightly, and the flame of fighting in his heart never abated.

The war in the Western Regions was imminent, and it had to start when he was still able to deal with it, and when he was not too tired.

On the first day of May in the eighth year of Yande, Guo Peng visited the staff station in person and began to fully understand the efforts made by the staff station, the Linzi camp, and the military in the Western Regions over the years.

Almost four years have passed since the four-year Wusun civil war in Yande to the present. The civil war that year wounded Wusun's vitality. Wusun lost more than half of his population and army, and he could no longer compete with the Western Regions of the Wei Empire. The garrison confronted and lost the threat.

The rest of the Western Regions, big and small, can't fight against the Wei army. As long as there is a war, the Wei army can push all the way, defeat and destroy their countries one by one, and set up counties in their old places for governance.

About three years after Yande, the main traffic roads in the Western Regions began to be repaired.

The main road extending from Dunhuang County through Yumen Pass to Tagan City, where the Protectorate of the Western Regions is located, has been repaired in May of the seventh year of Yande and officially opened to traffic. .

At the same time, at the request of the countries in the south of the mountain, Guo Peng approved the repair of the main road of the mountain road in the fourth year of Yande.

Starting from the fourth year of Yande, the main traffic road in Shannan began to be repaired. It also started from Dunhuang County, passed Yangguan, Qiemo Kingdom, and went directly to Jingjue City in Jingjue Kingdom. This main traffic road crossed half of the Western Regions and went directly to the Western Regions. hinterland.

Shanbei Road was completed in the seventh year of Yande, and Shannan Road was officially completed in February of the eighth year of Yande.

The repairs of the two roads cost a lot, but through the transactions with the countries of the Western Regions, Guishuang Kingdom, and Anxi Kingdom over the years, the money for road repairs has actually been earned back.

During the years when Guo Peng stopped fighting externally and turned to revolutionizing internally, the economy of the Wei Empire has always been improving, constantly developing and accumulating, and has basically made almost enough money from the huge investment in the early stage.

In other words, these accomplished projects did not consume the vitality of the Wei Empire, and the initial investment began to make profits, and produced sustainable economic benefits.

It is not unreasonable to build roads first if you want to get rich.

Because Shanbei Road and Shannan Road have a high utilization rate, Guo Peng also set up toll stations on these two roads to collect tolls to maintain the road conditions of these two roads.

And because of this, there are post stations used by the army to serve military purposes, and hotels run by the people themselves to develop the local economy.

It can be said that the completion of these two roads has helped the Wei Empire to fully understand the situation in the Western Regions, military, economic, political and other aspects. block.

Doesn't seem to want to cover it either.

And with the invasion of the civilization power of the Wei Empire, the societies of countries in the Western Regions have basically been assimilated by the Han civilization.

They are also used to wearing Han costumes, decorating themselves like Han people, using the same farm tools for farming, eating with chopsticks and bowls, cooking in clay pots and iron pots, and sleeping in beds.

Then at the national level, all the buildings in their country are also benchmarking against the buildings of the Han people——

In other words, it is the construction task contracted by the Han Chinese construction caravan, helping them plan, and then building buildings with timber and other materials brought from the inland.

The upper classes of the countries in the Western Regions were very wealthy because they had made high profits from the Silk Trade Road, and because they felt that they had become a vassal state of the Wei Empire, carefree and had no ideal pursuits, so they began to pursue a luxurious life and enjoyment.

First, the food and clothing must be the best, and must be imported from the mainland of Wei.

They wear clothes made of Shu brocade.

The bedding used for sleeping is also carefully woven silk.

What I drink is the brewed wine bought from the official hotel in Luoyang.

When eating vegetables, you must eat stir-fried dishes. All the seasonings are imported from Wei State, such as soy sauce brewed from Youzhou soybeans.

Even the salt should be the best Qingzhou sea salt and Yizhou well salt, which are at the same level as tributes.

The bowls and chopsticks used are all made by the best craftsmen in Luoyang. It is said that they are still royal items that the royal family can't use and sell.

The houses I live in are all [-]% replicas of the Central Plains system——

Although they are in a barren land, this does not hinder their yearning for the culture of the Central Plains, so they build their houses specifically after the characters of the upper class of the Han family.

Their requirements are very clear.

Chapter 1238 The tide of fighting against wealth in the Western Regions

The high-ranking nobles of the countries in the Western Regions are very good at enjoying it now.

All of their enjoyment must meet the standards of the dignitaries of the Wei state, and they must meet the standards that even if a Wei state nobleman comes to their house, he will feel as if he is returning to his own home.

That's their pursuit, and they don't hesitate to pay huge sums of money for it—anyway, they have too much money to spend, and they won't use it to improve people's livelihood, so of course they want to find ways to show off their wealth and enjoy themselves.

And the best place to consume is naturally Wei Guo.

Therefore, what they have consumed in Wei State these years, as well as the consumption within the business scope of the two major imperial merchant teams, is enough for Guo Peng to organize a small and medium-sized war with about 1 people.

It can be seen that the opening of the silk business road has brought them huge wealth and income in these years.

They can do a lot of things that they never thought of before.

Or spend a lot of money to take your family to Wei Guo for a tour.

Go to Chang'an and Luoyang in Guanzhong, go to major cities in the Kanto region, and even travel to the south of the Yangtze River.

For the group of people with a lot of money and no place to spend, Guo Peng doesn't mind opening up a special channel for them, allowing them to spend money lavishly along the way to show off their financial resources.

The more you spend, the better.

In some small countries there is even a fight for wealth.

In the second quarter of the sixth year of Yande, when Guo Peng reviewed the foreign trade transaction quota, he suddenly found that the sales of Shu brocade and tea bricks had increased significantly in this quarter, and he was quite puzzled.

Forget about Shu brocade, this tea brick is a new product of Yande for four years, and its luxury is still higher than Shu brocade. When it was still tea, it was not resistant to storage and long-distance transportation, and it was sometimes corrupted. After Guo Peng learned about it, he ordered the inner court to take charge of it. The department of Jiangdong Tea Garden researches tea bricks.

After the birth of tea bricks, the storage resistance has been greatly improved, and the sales volume has also improved as a result. More powerful and rich people are willing to buy tea bricks.

Guo Peng felt curious, so he sent someone to investigate, but the results left him speechless.

It turned out that the fight for wealth took place in Kucha, a great country in the Western Regions.

The main participants are the two uncles of the King of Kucha. The two got into a fight for some reason, and they started fighting for wealth.

My uncle used imported Shu brocade as firewood to cook rice and boil water, so the people of Kucha all said that he was more wealthy.

The uncle was very upset, so he chose to use imported tea bricks to boil tea water, and then use the tea water to wash the pot and wash the dishes. When the news spread, the people of Kucha felt that he was rich.

Unwilling to be outdone, the uncle used the expensive luxury [icing sugar] imported from Jiangnan in the Central Plains to make sugar water, used it as a reward for the servants to drink, and let the servants go out to publicize it, so people in Kucha said that he was more wealthy.

The uncle was even more upset, and took out the high-end luxury seafood [pearl] imported from Qingzhou in the Central Plains, ground it into powder, gave it to the servants to eat, and let the servants go out to publicize it, so the people of Kucha said that he was the richer.

After coming and going, they didn't know how much luxury goods they imported from the Central Plains to fight for wealth, and gradually attracted the attention of King Kucha and the upper-class nobles of several surrounding Western Region countries.

Then they also went off to fight for wealth one after another, showing off their strong financial resources to prove that they are relatively rich.

In this way, there was a wave of fighting for wealth throughout the Western Regions.

This is okay.

This battle for wealth has lasted for a long time without ending, which shows that the dignitaries of the countries in the Western Regions are really full of food and drink.

However, in contrast to the drastic changes that have taken place in the upper class of the Western Regions, the lives of the people at the bottom of the Western Regions have not improved much.

How to live or how to live, some places are even worse——

Because Wei Guo merchants came to the place where they lived on a large scale to do business, and even bought land.

The Wei Guo business traveler was willing to spend a lot of money to build his own manor in order to buy land. The money was enough, and the local ruler agreed when he saw that the money was open.

Those who disagreed were labeled as heretics, and soon lost their right to speak.

As a result, Wei Guo Business Travel squeezed local agriculture and commerce in an all-round way. Local farmers and small traders went bankrupt one after another.

The dying manor, which was exterminated by Guo Peng in Wei State, became a sharp knife in the Western Regions.

The imperial merchants bought land to build manors one after another, ran out of local farmers and small traders, brought them into their own manors after they ran out and went bankrupt, and produced agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits and vegetables on the spot, and did not produce staple food. All food was shipped from Hexi for sale. .

It didn't take long for the small countries in the Western Regions who didn't know how to play economic wars to be played in a fog.

But the rulers themselves don't care either.

As long as there is enough money for them to spend and enjoy, that's enough. A small number of people who worry about the country and the people have repeatedly protested and raised objections to the supreme ruler, thinking that this is completely handing over the country to the Wei people, not It's their own again.

The kings of these small countries heard such voices, but they were not worried, but more afraid.

I am afraid that the people of Wei will not do business with them knowing that there are such people in their country, so that they will have no money to spend.

Then such people are generally resolved internally by them, and they are not allowed to continue to speak out, so that they can enjoy better.

They didn't want to offend the Wei people.

The upper class pursues Wei's products on a large scale, and the middle and lower classes naturally follow suit, forming a trend. It is impossible for the local fragile and small original ecological businesses to compete with Wei's high-quality products.

So in just three or four years, the imperial business team organized by Guo has basically controlled all aspects of the business of these countries, from daily necessities, to agricultural products, to luxury goods, and even military products, all of which are fully controlled by Wei Guo's business brigade .

Among them, [-]% are controlled by the imperial merchants under the control of Guo Peng, and the remaining [-]% are controlled by private business travellers.

The commercial power of the small countries in the Western Regions has been squeezed to the point that there is almost no room for survival. All those who survived used their status and power to cooperate with Wei Guo's merchants and travel, and became compradors, eating inside and outside.

Due to their weak strength, not even the size of the Gongsun family in Liaodong, they have no resistance at all in the face of Wei's all-round commercial invasion.

So basically as long as Guo Peng ordered to cut off their supplies, they would fall into panic in a short time.

Or someone Guo ordered to attack their country, and it would not cause any social unrest.

Naturally, it is not a country that is not dissatisfied and worried about this, and then openly opposes it.

At some time a few years ago, they even appeared in groups.

For example, in Yanqi State, the king of Yanqi State was very dissatisfied.

He was very dissatisfied with the large-scale business trips of the Wei State merchants into the Yanqi State and the large-scale run-off of bankrupt farmers and small traders by relying on capital and technological advantages.

After a period of patience, he protested to Cao Xiu, and integrated the forces of the domestic opposition, trying to introduce a bill to restrict the actions of Wei's business travel, so as to protect the country's agricultural production and business vendors.

chapter 1239 one thousand 140

Regarding the existence of such people, Cao Xiu naturally felt that Wei's majesty had been challenged.

So he asked Ma Yuan, who was a helper by his side and in charge of the entire Linzi Camp in the Western Regions, to instigate the Compromisers in Yanqi to launch a proxy war under some unfounded excuse.

With Wei Guo behind him, the original king of Yanqi Kingdom was defeated and killed.

Then Cao Xiu canonized the winner as the new king, and the new king abolished all policies that were unfavorable to Wei's business travel, and promoted cooperation with Wei in all aspects.

Others such as Qiemo State and Weixu State also experienced such a trend, all of which were instigated by Ma Yuan to instigate the local Linzi camp forces to unite with its internal vested interests to overthrow the opposition one by one and establish a government closer to the Wei Empire .

Of course, its national policy has turned on a large scale, and it has moved closer to the Wei Empire in an all-round way, becoming the de facto economic colony of the Wei Empire.

The country's economy has been controlled by the Wei State, and its domestic high-level officials can also enjoy huge traitorous profits. This is a wonderful thing in the eyes of some shameless people.

If someone objected to him, he would immediately drive the person to Gancheng and hand it over to Cao Xiu.

As a result, in the past few years, the countries in the Western Regions have no voice of opposition, and all of them have obediently become Wei's economic colonies or semi-colonies.

The more developed and convenient the transportation, the more Wei people, the more serious the situation of becoming an economic colony.

Today, in the eighth year of Yande, with the completion of the two main roads of the Western Regions of the Wei Empire, and the full passage of the Shanbei Road and the Shannan Road, wherever the road can reach, it is already a high priority for the political economy of the Wei State. depended on.

Under such circumstances, the countries in the Western Regions have actually lost their ability to resist the Wei State, and a puppet government that is fully controlled from the economy to politics to the military has emerged.

During the past four or five years, the Wei Empire has not mobilized much troops, but it has a strong influence on most countries in the Western Regions.

The few remaining countries with relatively strong resistance, such as Wusun and Qiuci, are not within the scope of Guo's worries.

It's better to take it directly, if they can't take it down and fight with troops, they can't resist.

The [-] Northwest Corps of full-scale cavalry plus [-] guard cavalry make a total of [-] cavalry. If such a powerful force cannot defeat these countries in the Western Regions, Cao Ren has really been a fool all these years, and he will be severely punished. Even a stroke to the end.

The Northwest Corps has sufficient food and powerful generals. Although the Nanzhong War has not yet completely ended and it will take some time to mop up, it will not affect the overall situation.

One state in Yizhou is enough to provide enough military supplies to the Nanzhong Crusade Army, and the Nanzhong Crusade Army does not lack supplies.