At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 430: Unexpected Expansion and Show of Strength
While the tea drinkers in the teahouse were arguing fiercely, the street outside the teahouse suddenly became noisy, and everyone began to look towards the bustling street.

At this time, a horse team was walking slowly on the street. The people sitting on the horses were dressed as Han officials. They were all wearing red and decorated with colorful ribbons. They bowed to the people around them in high spirits. The people around them were even more excited and threw flowers and silk cloths to them.

Junchen and Zhang Yuan were surprised to see this scene, so they asked the people nearby: "What are you doing?"

"This is a parade of praise. Have you read the Han Monthly Report? These people are this year's pioneer Han officials. They came to Chang'an City and will receive commendations from the court. Have you seen the one in the front?"

The military official hesitated and asked, "This person seems to be a Qiang?"

"The Qiang people are also descendants of Yan and Huang, not to mention that they are great contributors. Now they are real Han people."

Junchen curled his lips. The Han people liked this. They claimed everyone was one of their own and then shamelessly occupied other people's territory.

In the early years, the military officials did not understand that the Han emperor was obviously very hostile to the Xiongnu, and he prepared for this for five years and launched the unprecedented Mobei War.

However, when the Han people were promoting the Huns, they said that the Huns were descendants of Yan and Huang, and that the Han and Huns were one family. How could there be a family occupying the desert like this? The Han people redefined the concept of a family.

Later, a Han adviser explained to him that only by saying that the Han and the Huns were one family could the Han have legal authority over the desert. At the same time, it could also paralyze the lower-class Huns and prevent them from resisting the rule of the Han.

Judging from what the military officials had inquired about in Chang'an City, the Huns in the desert had obviously accepted the Han people's statement. They acknowledged the idea that the Han and the Huns were one family, and they lived peacefully in the desert as Han people.

Zhang Yuan didn't care about this statement. Instead, he asked curiously, "What merits did Jing Lei have? He can be ranked ahead of all the Han officials."

"He has made military achievements. Our Han Dynasty attaches the most importance to military achievements. He is naturally the first among the meritorious officials."

"Military merit?" The two were a little surprised. They had not heard that there was any war in the Han Dynasty, and judging from the atmosphere in Chang'an City, it didn't seem like the Han Dynasty was at war.

The tea drinker enviously said, "Jing Lei led the people on the border and expanded the territory by thousands of miles. This time when he came to Chang'an, he might even be granted a title. There is a detailed introduction in the Han Daily. You can go and read it yourself."

So Junchen and Zhang Yuan went to look through the Han Monthly Report, and sure enough, there was a record of the thundering incident.

Ever since Ji Bu led a group of Qiang people from the plateau to attack Hexi, the Qiang tribes on the plateau have been decreasing.

After the Han Dynasty established Jincheng County and Wuwei County, it absorbed a large number of Qiang tribes from the surrounding areas and educated them to become Han people.

Some vacuum zones appeared on the plateau, but the climate on the plateau was harsh and all the tribes were struggling to survive. They would migrate from harsh areas to relatively fertile lands. In the past, these lands should have been occupied by powerful tribes, and a fierce conflict would inevitably break out between the two sides in order to survive.

But now all these tribes have been absorbed into Jincheng County by the Han Dynasty, and the tribes on the plateau naturally occupied these fertile lands. They don’t understand why such an unowned land appeared, but they will naturally occupy this land and continue to move southward until they encounter obstacles.

Afterwards, Tian Zang encountered a very annoying thing. One or two ignorant tribes would appear on the border from time to time to invade Jincheng. Tian Zang naturally could not let such tribes go, so he directly sent troops to capture all the people of the tribe, young and old.

But when asked why they invaded the Han Dynasty, these tribes didn't even know what the Han Dynasty was. The reason for the invasion was very simple: they had run out of food and had to steal food to survive the winter.

Faced with such a simple and honest Qiang tribe, Tian Zang was speechless, but such things were difficult to stop. The plateau seemed to produce such tribes. Almost every year after the autumn harvest, there would be such tribes coming down from the plateau to kill people, forcing Tian Zang to recruit troops for defense after the autumn harvest every year.

Finally, Jing Lei suggested to Tian Zang that the soldiers of Jincheng County should simply march towards the plateau and push the territory westward, so that Jincheng would have a buffer zone.

Tian Zang agreed to Jing Lei's proposal, but he encountered another problem. As soon as the soldiers reached the plateau, they would suffer from altitude sickness, feeling weak all over and having no combat capability at all.

Finally, Tian Zang appointed Jing Lei as the fake Sima and recruited thousands of Qiang people who were originally from the plateau as soldiers to build a buffer zone for Jincheng.

As a result, even Tian Zang did not expect that Jing Lei led these thousands of people directly to Xihai, the hinterland of the plateau, and captured tens of thousands of people from more than a dozen Qiang tribes. He also established Xihai Town near Xihai, directly pushing the territory of the Han Dynasty hundreds of miles to the plateau.

Because of this military achievement, Tian Zang reported Jing Lei as a vanguard Han official. Xu Fan thought this was a rare opportunity, so he ranked Jing Lei first among the vanguard Han officials.

But these deeds seemed a bit horrifying to Junchen.

He worriedly said, "Father wants to make the Han emperor release some of his people by submitting to the Han Dynasty. Isn't he courting disaster? Even the Yuezhi people don't like the cold and bitter plateau, but the Han emperor still wants to conquer it. I'm afraid that after the Han emperor has conquered the desert, he won't let go of the Western Regions either."

Zhang Yuan said calmly, "Don't worry about trying to get the skin of a tiger. Distance is the best weapon of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu is now west of the Western Regions, tens of thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty. The army marches fifty miles a day, and it will take a year to reach the Xiongnu. As long as the Han emperor still has reason, he will never attack us again."

"We should stay in Chang'an and collect more useful intelligence to facilitate the Chanyu's decision-making."

Junchen and his adviser Zhang Yuan listened to the gossip about the Han Dynasty's taxation in Chang'an City in a teahouse. They always felt that listening to such information from the people was a bit superficial and it was difficult to truly understand the strength of the Han Dynasty.

So the two of them found Gongsun Shuo, the Han Dynasty's chief guest, and wanted to visit the Han Dynasty's workshops and schools.

Gongsun Shuo reported the situation to the emperor. Gongsun Shuo attached great importance to the Xiongnu and Dayuezhi delegations and made extremely thoughtful arrangements for the visits of the two delegations.

It's not that Gongsun Shuo is a coward. With the current strength of the Han Dynasty, everyone is a Han chauvinist, not to mention high-ranking officials like Gongsun Shuo.

But interests forced him to lower his head. The main duty of Dianke was to entertain foreign countries. Hundreds of years ago, when the King of Zhou convened a meeting of princes, he would invite powerful foreign leaders to serve as witnesses.

However, the territory of the Han Dynasty has continued to expand over the years. The latest map of the Han Dynasty even includes the plateau. At this time, the entire map of the Han Dynasty is 10 times larger than that of the Qin Dynasty. Although most of this 10 times area is not a good location, such a huge empire is enough to make any Han citizen proud.

Any Han official would be extremely proud if he saw this huge empire on the map. Almost all the known land in the world would be occupied by the Han Dynasty, and it would soon become a fact that the Han Dynasty ruled the world. But this situation was very fatal to the Dianke, whose main task was to entertain envoys from foreign countries. As a result, all these small countries were destroyed by the princes of the Han Dynasty.

Over the years, Gongsun Shuo had begged them to leave a few tribes behind and not to wipe them out, so that when the Han Dynasty held a meeting of princes, it would look better. At least a few witnesses had to be left behind.

But it still caused a lot of jokes. Among the tribes that were invited by the Han Dynasty to hold the meeting of princes, those with more than ten thousand people were considered relatively large tribes. Most of them had hundreds or thousands of people, the kind that could not even be the husbands of the Han Dynasty. Because of this matter, a lot of jokes were caused.

When the Han Dynasty streamlined the Han officials two years ago, the Imperial Household became the monkey that was killed to scare the chickens, but in fact, their Dianke Yamen also suffered a heavy blow, and two-thirds of the Han officials were reduced.

But this is not the saddest thing. The saddest thing is that they paid such a heavy price, but they can't even get on the hot list in Chang'an City. Many people in Chang'an City don't even know that there is a government office called Dianke. They are also a department of the Nine Ministers, but they are not even a chicken. How sad it is.

He was rarely invited to attend grand court meetings held at the Prime Minister's Mansion. Even if he attended a few times, he was a nobody and had no say at all.

The publicity over the past two years has made Lu Shu covet the position of Dianke. Although the influence of Dianke in the Han Dynasty court has gradually declined, it is still one of the Nine Ministers, an old department established at the founding of the Han Dynasty. Their rank is one level higher than the county governor with a salary of 2000 shi.

Although the Propaganda Order has had an increasing influence in the Han Dynasty in recent years, it has also set up patent offices in 50 counties of the Han Dynasty, and its influence is constantly expanding from the local level to the court.

But the Propaganda Department is still a two thousand stone department, which is naturally one level lower than the four thousand stone department. Lu Shu has been trying to improve this over the years, hoping that his Propaganda Department will also become one of the nine high officials of the Han Dynasty.

Then he set his eyes on the position of Dianke. The court was trying to streamline the Han officials, and it would be obviously very difficult to add a Nine Ministers Department. But if they pulled down one of the Nine Ministers Department and replaced it, it would be relatively easier.

Therefore, Lu Shu used his advantage in propaganda to constantly belittle the Diankefu Yamen, believing that this department was useless in the court.

This was also recognized by the people of Chang'an. The four barbarians were almost wiped out. What role did this guest have? Was he going to entertain those barbarian leaders who only had a few hundred or a thousand people?
Gongsun Shuo naturally noticed Lu Shu's intention, but he had no way to refute it. With the expansion of the power of the Han princes, they couldn't even find a tribal leader of tens of thousands of people in the past two years. How could they refute it?

The arrival of the Huns and the Yuezhi this year made Gongsun Shuo overjoyed. The Huns actually revived in the Western Regions and conquered another 5000 miles of territory. The Yuezhi became even more powerful. It is said that they destroyed dozens of countries in Sindhu and established the Kushan Empire. Although its area was not as large as that of the Han Dynasty, its population was said to be to million. In terms of population size, the Kushan Empire can be regarded as a country of the same level as the Han Dynasty.

With these two powerful countries joining the Han Dynasty's Conference of Princes, this year's conference was finally not too ugly, and his Dianke Yamen finally had a reason to exist.

Gongsun Shuo naturally had to entertain the military officials and they would immediately report any problems they had to the emperor.

Xu Fan naturally didn't care that the Huns knew the true strength of the Han Dynasty. He was even happy to see this situation. It is human nature to yearn for power.

Only when these Huns understand the power of the Han Dynasty will they become Han people in spirit. They will not doubt the fact that they are descendants of Yan and Huang, nor will they resist sinicization.

Look at Xu Fan's situation in later lives. The big country on the ice field did so many things. Even though it was cheated so many times, it still remained true to its original intention and wanted to become one family with them. Why? It's because they are rich and powerful.

Therefore, Xu Fan wanted to make the Huns realize the powerful strength of the Han Dynasty and make them submit psychologically. In this way, even if the Huns were thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty, they would not want to break away from the Han civilization.

For the Huns who had fled to Central Asia, they were no longer enemies of the Han Dynasty. Instead, they were allies and potential markets of the Han Dynasty.

If they could become the Whip of God a few hundred years earlier, it would be even better for the Han Dynasty. The radiation range of the Han civilization would directly affect the entire world island.

However, Rome still existed at that time, and it was unknown whether the Huns could defeat Rome. However, their actions could greatly advance the influence of Han civilization on the frontiers. If silk could be brought to Rome in advance, it would be a good thing for the Han Dynasty.

So under the leadership of Gongsun Shuo, they came to the Bashang Iron and Steel Plant. Gongsun Shuo took them to see the Han Dynasty's latest blast furnace, and let them see the molten iron flowing out like a waterfall. One blast furnace can produce 20 kilograms of iron.

This scene shocked Junchen and Zhang Yuan. Influenced by the Han-Xiongnu War, after Ji Zhou established his country in the Western Regions, he attached great importance to the steel industry. Whenever he occupied a country, he would ask the rulers to hand over the blacksmiths.

There was no shortage of blacksmiths in the Western Regions, and they also had a tradition of smelting steel. Ji Zhou gathered these people together and built a steel city.

Using all resources to build weapons and armor, it is not unreasonable to say that steel is the foundation of the Huns' country.

But when Junchen and his men saw the current scene, they felt their faith was broken. The steel output of a steel plant in the Han Dynasty was more than ten times that of his Xiongnu Kingdom. Junchen just finally understood the despair of his grandfather Maodun facing the Han people, an enemy that there was no hope of defeating.

Gongsun Shuo was very satisfied with the expressions of Junchen and the others, and presented them with a sword and an armor.

Then he took them to see the steam engine workshop and told them that this was the most advanced workshop in the Han Dynasty, capable of producing the most efficient steam engines in the world.

But this was beyond the understanding of the military officials. They did not understand why the Han Dynasty would cast precious steel into such a lump of iron.

But after Gongsun Shuo took them to the Brothers Textile Factory, Junchen and the others were finally shocked. They just watched the cloth being woven like flowing water under the drive of the steam engine.

You have to know that in the Western Regions where textile technology is backward, cloth can still be used as money. The silk passed down from the Han Dynasty is the most high-end luxury product in the Western Regions.

But now, in front of the Han Dynasty's magical steam engine, silk is just an ordinary cloth.

Zhang Yuan finally understood why the Han Dynasty was so rich. The Han Dynasty had such a strong ability to produce wealth that they were naturally rich.

Gongsun Shuo found that Junchen and the others were so shocked that they were speechless, and nodded with satisfaction. You country bumpkins finally understand how powerful and wealthy our Han Dynasty is.

(End of this chapter)