Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 605. Peace and Prosperity
In the 13th year of Zhongxing, the Han army returned safely from the Western Expedition. However, the death of General Ma Chao still made the whole country sad. Ma Chao was also the last of the Five Tiger Generals still alive. After Ma Chao's death, the Five Tiger Generals completely became history.

Zhao Yun died of illness as early as the third year of Zhongxing, which is not much different from the original timeline; Zhang Fei died a little later, in the fourth year of Zhongxing, he was drunk after a heavy drinking at home.

The same was true for the elders of the previous generation, such as Xu Shu, who basically died of illness between the fifth and tenth year of the Zhongxing period.

Along with the Han Dynasty's Western Expedition Army, Zhang Nan's Han Navy also brought back the good news.

As early as when Feng Xi was on his southern expedition, Zhang Nan's navy had requested Liu Chan to go out to sea for exploration. With the help of the world map drawn by Feng Xi, the compass and other positioning tools, Zhang Nan sent a fleet of about 5,000 people, more than ten large ships, and more than 30 medium and small ships all the way north. After replenishing supplies at the Japanese island, they advanced along the easternmost part of the plate later called Asia, which was named Kyushu at this time, and successfully arrived at the New World after crossing the place later called the Bering Strait.

This continent was named South and North New Continent long before the fleet set off. The fleet spent a year in the entire New Continent and successfully found crops such as pumpkin, pepper, sweet potato, potato, corn, peanut, tomato, sunflower, cotton, rubber, etc. that had a profound impact on later generations. At the same time, medicines such as quinine were also taken away.

The Han army's expedition fleet was able to discover these things so accurately thanks to the books compiled by Feng Xi in previous years. One of them was specially written for future expedition fleets. It contained illustrations hand-painted by Feng Xi himself and a detailed description of their appearance. For this purpose, Feng Xi also specially found a painter to study painting techniques, and finally successfully sketched it out with carbon sticks and brushes.

As for the common scurvy problem during the voyage, Feng Xi had already prepared for it. The fleet had carried a large amount of dried fruits sealed with salt and sugar when they set sail. Although some of them didn't taste very good, they did provide some vitamins. The fleet also replenished some fresh fruits in the Japanese islands, and when they arrived in Xinzhou, they had more local fruits as supplies.

At the same time, the fleet discovered that there were already indigenous people in Xinzhou. Amidst the confusion and gestures, some locals voluntarily boarded the ship and headed to the other side of the mysterious continent to see the mysterious prosperous dynasty.

In the winter of the 12th year of Zhongxing, the fleet that had completed the exploration of Xinzhou successfully returned to the Han Dynasty. Pang Lin and Zhuge Zhi, who led the fleet, were named county marquises by the delighted Liu Chan for their contributions to the exploration of Xinzhou, not to mention being promoted to higher positions.

The various crops that Zhuge Zhi brought back had already been established in the Han Dynasty due to the reforms of Feng Xi and Zhuge Liang, and the Ministry of Agriculture was specifically responsible for agricultural improvement and selection of the best crops for planting. After receiving these seeds, the Ministry of Agriculture immediately began to cultivate them, striving to select high-quality seeds and their offspring within ten years.

A year later, when the Western Expedition Army returned from the Western Regions, even places like Liangzhou had begun to grow cotton.

Internally, the Han Dynasty also carried out political reforms, replacing the previous chaotic division of labor with three provinces and seven ministries with clear division of labor. Among them, the Ministry of Agriculture was added at the request of Feng Xi, because although the Ministry of Agriculture seemed to be only responsible for farming, it was actually responsible for all food-related matters in the country.

The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for everything from researching and improving rice varieties to establishing farms and pastures. With the arrival of new crops, it is foreseeable that the variety and quantity of food in the Han Dynasty will be enriched.

As for Zhuge Liang, since he did not have to work as hard as in the original timeline, he was still serving as prime minister in the court until the 239th year of Zhongxing, which was AD. However, it seems that he will be the last prime minister in the Zhongxing Dynasty, and there will be no prime minister after Zhuge Liang.

In the 15th year of Zhongxing, after two years of peace, the northern tribes jointly attacked Youzhou, Bingzhou and Liangzhou. Liangzhou suffered the least loss because of its strong people and the fact that the Han army had just completed its western expedition and had perfect military deployment. However, Youzhou and Bingzhou suffered considerable losses because of their vast geographical area and the fact that more than 300,000 invading tribesmen died and injured, which shocked the capital. In anger, Liu Chan ordered the then General Ma Su, General Deng Ai, General Bao Feng, General Bao Yi and other generals of the Jingzhou army to march north to Mobei under the leadership of General Guan Xing.

Originally, Liu Chan wanted Feng Xi, who had made outstanding military achievements, to lead the Northern Expedition. However, Feng Xi seemed to have contracted a disease during the previous southern expedition to Kushan and was unable to go on the expedition due to his poor health. Therefore, the matter had to be handed over to Guan Xing.

At this time, after more than a decade of development, the weapons of the Han army had become extremely terrifying. Muskets and artillery had already been equipped, and even the cleverly made revolver muskets were crooked.

As for the traditional weapons of the Jingzhou Army, grenades, they have gradually developed in a direction similar to modern ones.

It is easy to imagine how the traditional cavalry would fare against such a semi-modernized army. The nomadic peoples who invaded from the south suffered heavy casualties, and the Southern Xiongnu were relocated to various states of the Han Dynasty on Feng Xi's advice. Most of them went to Yuezhou, Chanzhou and other places in the south.

These northern ethnic minorities also had a lot of experience in raising cattle, horses, and sheep, so some of the Southern Xiongnu and other ethnic minorities who were loyal to the Han Dynasty even entered the Ministry of Agriculture, took charge of establishing livestock farms, and provided cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock supplies to the Han people.

As for other northern ethnic minorities, they were not so lucky. The Northern Dingling were completely defeated by the army led by Ma Su. Only one in ten of their members were killed or wounded. Those taller than the wheel, both men and women, were killed, and their children, cattle and sheep were taken back to the Han Dynasty to be assimilated.

The Xianbei leader Kebineng was shot to pieces by muskets in a battle with the Han army led by Deng Ai. Hundreds of thousands of Xianbei people, all adult males were killed by the Han army, and the women and children were taken back to the Han Dynasty and slowly assimilated.

As for the other ethnic minorities, except for the Qiang, who had almost been assimilated by the Han people in Liangzhou and even took the initiative to build ranches and farms for the Han people, the Jie, Di and other tribes all suffered heavy casualties, with only one in ten of their people left. In the end, they had to flee westward and northward with their people, and their whereabouts disappeared.

On his way back, Ma Su received an order from Liu Chan, and under the help of Fu Qian who was stationed on the island of Wo, he attacked from the north and south and wiped out Goguryeo, the Three Han and other places that had previously rebelled together with these foreign races.

At this point, the territory of the Han Dynasty stretched from Lake Baikal in the north to the Indochina Peninsula in the south, from the Western Regions in the west to the Wa Islands in the east. It was already the largest territory since the Qin Dynasty.

The people of the Han Dynasty had not felt hungry for a long time. There were a wide variety of vegetables and fruits; potatoes and sweet potatoes so abundant that they had to be cooked in various ways; rice with a high yield after being improved; beef and mutton produced in the northern pastures, and pork from farms everywhere...

Today's Han Dynasty is a country of peace and prosperity, with the people living in peace and prosperity. Research and development in various sciences are also rapid.

(End of this chapter)