Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1476 Foresight
Yuan Xi took the battle report and made marks with charcoal on the linen map on the table. The capture of Jiameng Pass marked the countdown to the fall of Yizhou. He was quite satisfied with the speed.

Because the Jinniu Road is more dangerous than the Hanzhong Road, the previous road construction plan from Wuzhangyuan to Hanzhong is no longer applicable. However, after the Wei State lost Hanzhong, it was already too late to turn the tide, because there was no strategic depth from Hanzhong to Chengdu, and the Jin army only needed to push forward.

Even if Cao Zhi did not surrender at Jiameng Pass, it would not consume more than one winter's supply of the Jin army. In recent years, the Jin State has built roads in the front and cultivated land in the rear, and has stockpiled enough food. If everything goes well next year, it will take about another year to reach Chengdu.

At the same time, the changes in the northern part of Wei State were somewhat beyond Yuan Xi's expectations. Xiahou Dun, who was best at internal affairs, and Cao Ren, who was best at defense, died suddenly in a short period of time. This was too much of a coincidence, but for Jin State, this would certainly not be a bad thing.

Of course, these two people were the pillars of the Cao clan. Their deaths were a huge blow to the power of the Cao clan. From then on, no one could stop Sima Yi, and his ascension to the throne became a natural thing.

The only thing that worries Yuan Xi is that Sima Yi can now act without restraint. If he integrates all the forces of the Wei State and concentrates them in one direction, such as attacking Jingzhou, the current Jin army defense line in the Jianghuai area may not be able to stop him 100%.

Yuan Xi thought for a while, then asked Cao Xian to bring some letter paper and prepared to send an edict to Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, asking them to cooperate in blocking the two directions of Yizhou.

But after he wrote a few sentences, Yuan Xi felt something was wrong and threw the waste paper into the brazier. After writing two sheets of paper, he found that he had no clear ideas at all, so he had to take a roll of blank bamboo slips and start drafting on it.

Cao Xian saw Yuan Xi writing and erasing, erasing and writing again, and could not help but take the opportunity to ask during the tea break: "Your Majesty, why don't you call your advisers to discuss this?"

Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "What other strategist can understand the situation as well as Kong Ming and Boyan?"

"Besides, their military and political talents are already the best among my men. Others' ability in marching and fighting may not be comparable to them."

"In Jicheng, Yang Xiu is popular among the people, but his military strategy is not good. Gongyou's health is getting worse and worse. He has already taken sick leave and is not involved in government affairs."

“Others.”

He suddenly remembered, "I forgot that Lu Zijing just came back not long ago."

Lu Su and Zhang Zhao have been in Bingzhou for the past two years. The two of them have worked together to make things difficult for the Bingzhou merchant clan. They found out their previous illegal business practices and interrogated them one by one, using legal means to punish those who were opportunistic and self-seeking, while dividing and suppressing the rest. In the end, the Bingzhou merchant clan was no longer in a state of collapse, but was already half dead.

After this, the Bingzhou merchant clan was severely damaged and no longer had the strength to cause trouble. The dominance of the Bingzhou trade route was peacefully transferred to the Jin court.

The market share gaps left over from the trade routes also needed to be filled. Merchants from Guanzhong, Jizhou, Jianghuai, through the leadership of the Jin State's Shangya, became shareholders and participated in the trade. At the same time, they established a chamber of commerce alliance, with the Jin State auditing the accounts and leading the allocation of goods.

In the future, the main customers of Bingzhou Trade Route will be Budugen's Western Xianbei. This is equivalent to putting another rope around the neck of Western Xianbei on the basis of the grassland alliance. In the long run, the military and economy of Western Xianbei will be suppressed and controlled by Jin State, and the difficulty of causing trouble will be greatly increased.

What's more, nowadays, various sects within the Western Xianbei are flourishing. In order to spread their doctrines, they compete to prove their abilities to the Xianbei royal court. Casting spells and gambling are common, which greatly enriches Budugen's daily life.

If this approach could be successful, Yuan Xi was prepared to use it as a typical experience and allow these sects to develop westward and integrate into the Diqiang clans in Liangzhou.

The Diqiang clan was also an unstable factor. After experiencing the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China in later generations, it gradually became stronger and reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty, forming two huge national forces.

The ones in the north were called Uighurs, and the ones in the south were called Tubo.

These two forces were once so powerful that they controlled Central Asia and West Asia. Although the Tang Dynasty was strong at that time, it was often at a disadvantage when facing the two. In particular, Tubo defeated the Tang Dynasty several times, making it worried and uneasy for decades.

The Uighurs were no pushovers either. They produced a large number of Uighur cavalry, which were a very important part of the Tang Dynasty's mercenary system. However, these people only cared about money and not people, and over the hundreds of years of history, they also caused a lot of trouble to the Tang Dynasty.

Now that he had the experience of later generations, Yuan Xi naturally did not want to let these two forces develop. He considered and planned for a long time before he came up with a countermeasure.

The Uighurs in the north in later generations are still just a loose Qiang tribe. They are distributed in the northern part of Liangzhou and around the Hexi Corridor. They now border the territory of Jin State. The military strength of the two is not equal. The measure Yuan Xi took against them was to fully assimilate them.

Because the extension of the Hexi Corridor is the Silk Road, which is related to the trade exchanges with Central Asia and the Western Regions for hundreds of years, its economic and cultural importance is self-evident. Yuan Xi did not believe anyone in this, he needed to firmly control it in the hands of Jin State, instead of creating a middleman Sogdian in the Western Regions like the Tang Dynasty in later generations, not only letting the other party control most of the profits, but also letting the other party occupy the magpie's nest, and finally causing the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty. An Lushan and Shi Siming, who were Sogdians, wanted to seize power and establish a country, bringing the whole of China into a huge war again.

The plateau area in the southwest of Liangzhou, where many territories are not yet under the control of the Han court, is the sphere of influence of Tubo in the south.

It has been more than 237 years since Tubo was established in the Snow Region in later generations and its first monarch, Nyatri Zamp, ascended the throne in BC. It has formed its own unique culture and the problem can no longer be solved simply by assimilation.

However, the State of Jin could not ignore it, because Tubo had frequent exchanges with the Arab region in Central Asia, and its development in technology and culture was actually not slow. It also had a considerable aversion to the Central Plains culture, and it could not be suppressed by simple means.

Especially during the Tang Dynasty, Tubo had already invaded the northern Indian region. At that time, Xuanzang went to India, which was controlled by the Harsha Dynasty, to seek Buddhist scriptures. Through Xuanzang, the two countries wanted to establish an alliance. Finally, when the Tang Dynasty sent an envoy to India, it encountered an accident and the envoy was detained by the rebel Alonashun.

The deputy head of the delegation at that time was Wang Xuance. He took the opportunity to escape to Tubo and borrowed 8,000 soldiers from the then Tubo King Songtsen Gampo. He then defeated Alonashun and became famous in one battle.

However, the country that benefited the most from this battle was Tubo, which successfully expanded its influence into northern India and gained control of large tracts of land and spice resources. Since then, its national strength has become increasingly stronger, and it began to send troops toward the Tang Dynasty, defeating the Tang army several times and becoming a rival to the Tang Dynasty.

Yuan Xi, who was very familiar with this history, naturally responded. His first move was to conquer Yizhou in the future, and then immediately set about opening up the Shu-Shendu Road and infiltrating his power into the Indian region as soon as possible.

Today's India is called Sindhu, also known as India, which is home to hundreds or thousands of tribes. It was ruled by the Kushan Empire for more than two hundred years and is now in a period of rapid decline. In a few decades, the Kushan Empire will collapse and India will again split into hundreds of tribes. It was not until a long time later that the Gupta Dynasty appeared.

In other words, now is an excellent opportunity for the State of Jin to expand its influence into India. As long as the Yizhou passage is opened, it can send troops to control northern India and limit the development space of Tubo.

After this step is completed, the next step can be taken, which is to spread the modified religion to Tubo.

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In the long history of mankind, Chinese civilization has been the least affected by religion, while other civilizations have almost all coexisted with religion. This has its pros and cons, but it is undeniable that religion plays an extremely important role in many civilizations.

But there is also a very interesting thing, that is, most religions can promote the outward expansion of the regime, strengthen military power, and enhance the aggressiveness of the regime that combines politics and religion.

But there is only one religious exception, and that is Buddhism.

As long as the Buddhist civilization flourishes, its external military power will be greatly weakened, as if it were under a curse. The Buddhist regime in India was suppressed and destroyed in later generations. After Tubo prospered Tibetan Buddhism, it gradually declined and finally became a harmless and closed religious tribal circle on the plateau.

Yuan Xi's plan was to open up the Yizhou passage, and then the landlords in northern Tianzhu would spread Buddhism into Tubo, and then in the direction of Liangzhou, the sectarian alliance would be introduced through the Uighur area from north to south into the Tubo map, making Tubo a peaceful region where hundreds of religions coexisted.

This consideration is based on the fact that the technology of the time is not yet capable of developing the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After all, it would take hundreds of years just to build the roads. In this case, it would be better to let the people there live a happy life.

Yuan Xi wrote down his idea on the bamboo slips, confirmed it several times, and then washed off the ink with water. For this kind of thing, he just needed to remember it in his heart and pass it on to Yuan Rui orally when the time came. There was no need for too many people to know.

He figured out a few key points and felt relieved immediately, so he asked someone to invite Lu Su over.

Upon hearing the news, Lu Su hurried over and met Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi said, "Mr. Zijing has worked hard these past few years."

Lu Su declined the offer quickly, but he was sighing in his heart. He and Zhang Zhao had lived in Jianghuai for a long time and liked to eat fish sashimi and rice. However, after arriving in Bingzhou, they only ate dried meat that was difficult to digest and suffered from constipation.

Lu Su himself was in good health, but Zhang Zhao could only take laxatives, and often he would have to work for several days after each defecation. When the two completed their mission and were recalled to Jicheng, Zhang Zhao even shed tears.

Yuan Xi handed a stack of military intelligence to Lu Su, "This is the situation of Wei in recent years."

"Now that Sima Yi is in power, I would like to ask you to see if his actions are consistent with the idea you proposed back then of dividing the world into two."

(End of this chapter)