After Chen Mu returned, he asked people from Honglu Temple to find Shanshan's official envoy in Luoyang to come and question him.

The current Han Dynasty is indeed not as prestigious as it was in the Western Regions during the Han and Ming Dynasties.

At that time, a powerful group of men descended from heaven to envoy the Western Regions. He first shocked Shanshan, then punched Khotan and kicked Qiuci. More than fifty countries, large and small, were all pacified by him alone.

Even the Kushan Empire, known as one of the four great empires in the Han Dynasty, once attacked the Western Regions, but was repelled by Ban Chao and the coalition forces of the Western Regions.

It is a pity that after Banchao, the Eastern Han Dynasty fell into a long period of Qiang chaos and had no time to look westward. The Silk Road was cut off, causing the central government to lose control of the Western Regions. In the end, the Western Regions Changshifu existed in name only.

During this period, there was also internal chaos in the Western Region. Countries attacked each other, such as Jingjue, Qiemo, Shulu, Kumi, Weitou, Huhu and other countries, which perished around this time.

By the time Liu Bei re-established the new Han Dynasty, only a dozen of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions were left. With the rise of the Han Dynasty, contact was again established.

It's just that the new Han Dynasty is in a stage where everything is waiting to be done, and Liu Bei's current idea is to build the country.

The Western Regions were too far away from Luoyang. Except for Shanshan Kingdom and the Lop Nur area just outside Yumen Pass, he had no intention of recovering the other countries.

For the people of today's Han Dynasty, the Western Regions can only be regarded as an unpopular topic that is casually talked about after dinner.

People only know that it is a very far place, thousands of miles away from Chang'an, and it may take two or three years to walk. In the former Han Dynasty and more than a hundred years ago, the Han Dynasty ruled there.

The rest is no longer a concern for the Han people.

But Chen Mu must care.

Because his cotton planting kingdom is now in Shanshan Kingdom.

As the saying goes, if Loulan is not destroyed, it will never be returned.

Shanshan Kingdom was the former Loulan Kingdom, which was later destroyed by the Western Han Dynasty and renamed Shanshan.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shanshan was the first country to be beaten by Ban Chao, and it was very close to Xiliang and Gansu.

After leaving Yumen Pass, we arrived at Shanshan Kingdom, about 70 to 80 kilometers away.

Therefore, it was greatly influenced by the Han Dynasty.

There is a saying in later generations: "Too far from heaven, too close to America."

The same is true for Shanshan State now.

As one of the world hegemons from the 1st to 3rd century AD, the Eastern Han Dynasty punched the Western Regions, kicked the Northern Territory, attacked the Southern Barbarians, radiated to the East China Sea, and was invincible throughout Asia.

The thirty-six countries in the Western Regions suffered from it repeatedly, and Shanshan State was the first to bear the brunt.

Therefore, Chen Mu sent Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping's caravan to Shanshan State, and then sent an army of several hundred people to escort them.

The king of Shanshan State considered the countless oppressions his ancestors had suffered in front of the Han Dynasty, and in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, he finally surrendered in tears and expressed his willingness to accept the re-rule of the Han Dynasty.

But it didn't take long for him to feel that this was a very wise decision.

Because after Chen Mu sent people to import cotton seeds from Shendu, the cotton industry took root in Shanshan Country, bringing huge commercial profits and economic development to Shanshan Country.

The people of Qingzhou can have cotton quilts and clothes, and Liu Bei's army can not be afraid of fighting in winter. This is all because teams of camels along the Silk Road spent more than ten years pulling them back regardless of cost.

Therefore, today's cotton industry in Shanshan is not only important to the people of Shanshan, but also to the huge empire of the Han Dynasty.

For a prime minister of a huge empire.

Sitting in this position of the empire's decision-maker, fame, wealth, and desires no longer matter.

Powerful in the Western Region?

That is thankless.

But the country's interests must come first.

In this difficult period, cotton is a strategic material.

If there are problems in the cotton industry due to the war in the Western Regions, it will affect the interests of the entire country.

So Chen Mu must understand the situation there.

soon.

After being summoned by the people from Honglu Temple, the envoy from Shanshan Kingdom heard that the Prime Minister had summoned him and hurriedly entered the palace in a carriage and came to Yuntai Hall.

Upon hearing the arrival of the messenger, Chen Mu raised his head and took a look.

He was a young man of about 25 or 26 years old. His appearance and clothing were not much different from those of the Han people, except that his skin was a little darker and he wore a pointed hard hat on his head. He looked elegant and well-educated, as if he had read a book.

Makes people feel good.

"Are you the envoy of Shanshan Kingdom?"

Chen Mu asked.

The man hurriedly held up his hands and replied in Chinese: "The envoy is the prince of Shanshan Kingdom, his name is "Luo", and his Chinese name is Luo Shan."

"Luo?"

Chen Mu was slightly confused, why is it a single character?

An official from Honglu Temple was beside him and explained: "Prime Minister, people in many countries in the Western Regions have no surnames. According to the records left by Ban Dingyuan, the king of Shanshan during the Guangwu period was named An, and he later received Ban Dingyuan.

The previous king’s name was Guang, and this king’s name is Hu.”

"It's interesting."

Chen Mu looked the young man named "Luo" up and down and said: "Sit down, I heard that there are white people, black people and red-haired people in the Western Regions, but looking at you, you seem to be no different from people in the Central Plains.

"

Luo Shan quickly said: "Back to Prime Minister, Shanshan is the country closest to Liangzhou. Shanshan people, Qiang people, Han people, Kushan people, Parthians and even Huns live together in the country, so there are many Han people. In fact, all of us from Shanshan country are

He looks like a Han Chinese, and may have the same ancestors."

"oh."

Chen Mu didn't know much about the history of the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty. He did like to read history books, but in the "Book of Han" and "Book of the Later Han", there were relatively few records about the Western Regions.

Moreover, it has been twenty-five years since he traveled to the Han Dynasty. It is too long ago and it is impossible to retain his memory no matter how good he is, so it is normal not to know.

But how can things recorded in history books be as clear as those of a local like Luo Shan?

Therefore, Chen Mu also asked Luo Shan about the situation of various countries in the Western Region at this time.

Luo Shan did not dare to neglect and answered them one by one.

It turns out that after Ban Chao, the countries in the Western Regions fell into civil strife for a period of time. Without Ban Chao's suppression, the big countries began to annex smaller countries.

For example, Shanshan State annexed Nuqiang, Xiaowan, Jingjue, Qiemo, etc.

Qiuci annexed Gumo, Wensu, Weitou and others.

During the Western Han Dynasty, there were still more than thirty or forty countries. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were less than twenty countries left. They were either relocated, wiped out, or annexed.

In addition, the big country mentioned here only refers to the Western Regions, because a big country in the Western Regions cannot even compare with a county with a relatively large population in the Han Dynasty, and the small country is almost the same as a Xiangting village.

For example, the Jingjue Kingdom at that time had only a few thousand people, while the Qiuci Kingdom had nearly 100,000 people.

At present, the more powerful seven kingdoms in the Western Regions are Wusun, Qiuci, Dayuan, Kangju, Daxia, Dayuezhi, and Shanshan, with a population of more than 100,000. They are called the Seven Strongest Countries in the Western Regions.

The weaker ones include Khotan, Shule, Yarkand, Cheshi Wubu, etc., with a population of between 70,000 and 80,000 to 10,000 and 20,000.

As for other small countries, their populations are basically around a few thousand or even a few hundred people.

It can be said that the total population of the entire Western Region is only one million.

Originally, after the Han Dynasty lost control of the Western Regions, the Kushan Empire further west extended its claws to the Western Regions and controlled several countries in the west.

But in recent decades, the Kushan Empire has gradually declined, and its control has declined a lot.

It is worth mentioning that the Kushan Empire was also one of the four great empires at that time. In terms of its peak strength, it ranked fourth among the four empires and was stabilized by the Parthian Empire.

As for the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire, they were between equals.

The territory of the Kushan Empire was probably from Punjab to Tajikistan in northern India in later generations.

In addition, it also controlled Khorasan, which was located to the east of Afghanistan in later generations, Khwarazm, which was located in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in later generations, and Kangju, Dayuan, Khotan and other countries in Hotan and Kashgar in Xinjiang.

Khorasan was originally the territory of the Parthian Empire, but at that time the Parthian Empire was pinned to the ground and rubbed by the Roman Empire. At the same time, internal rebellions continued, and it was no longer able to control the Khorasan region in the east of the empire.

The same is true for the Western Regions. After Ban Chao, the Han Dynasty also suffered from constant civil strife and was unable to control the Western Regions.

Therefore, in the 2nd century AD, that is, between 100 and 200 AD, the Kushan Empire took advantage of the opportunity and occupied these places. The empire was briefly at its peak, with a population of nearly 14 million, equivalent to a quarter of the Han Dynasty at its peak.

one.

But by the mid-to-late 2nd century AD, the national power of the Kushan Empire had begun to decline from its peak, and there were signs of decline.

By the end of the 2nd century AD, almost during the reign of King Hubisaka II of the Kushans, his control over Central Asia weakened. Kangju and Dayuan were freed from restraint, and Khorasan and Khwarezm also broke away from the Kushans.

The scope of rule and influence has been reduced a lot.

After the death of Hubisaka II, his successor Vesudeva II became the Kushan King.

In the original history, the Kushan King was skilled in both civil and military affairs and worked hard to govern, which restored the country's strength to a certain extent and gave the Kushan Empire its final prosperity.

Even after Cao Cao unified the north, Vesutiva II sent an envoy to Cao Wei in 229 AD and was named King of the Dayue clan by Cao Rui.

However, history seems to have gone awry at this time due to the butterfly effect. Now that Vesutiva II succeeded to the throne, his national power has increased. In the past few years, he began to attack the Western Regions and regained control of Kangju, Dayuan, Khotan and other countries.

, and expedition to the east of the Western Region.
To be continued...