The thick cloth was lifted up, and below was a wooden platform about a meter long and wide. The wooden platform was surrounded by wooden boards, and in the middle was a mountain plain made of soil, sand, gravel, wood chips and other objects! There were exquisitely made cities, tents and other objects on it. What was even more surprising was that there was water flowing through the valley!

"This is Chang'an! This is Wei River!" Wei Qing, who was beside Liu Che, blurted out, pointed to the city and river on the edge of the wooden platform and said, and then his finger moved to the west, "So that's what Hexi has to do with the Western Regions?"

"Yes! This is the sand table from Hexi to the Western Regions that we saw along the way and the oral narratives of Tangyifu, Fumituo, Huweishka and others!" Li You nodded and responded. This was what he asked Liu Che to come and make a sand table model that was extremely shocking for the current era.

The sand table first appeared in the Qin Dynasty. When Qin was deploying the destruction of the six kingdoms, Qin Shihuang personally piled up and studied the geographical situation of various countries. With the assistance of Li Si, he sent general Wang Jian to carry out the war of unity. Later, when Qin Shihuang was building a tomb, he built a large terrain model in his tomb. The model not only contained mountains, hills, cities, etc., but also used mercury to simulate rivers and seas, and used mechanical devices to make the mercury flow and cycle. Unfortunately, this most luxurious sand table in history was not presented to everyone until the later generations of Li You!

After that, the sand table was no longer used in military affairs. Until Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu conquered Tianshui and the local tyrant Wei Xiang in Wudu area, General Ma Yuan "gathered rice into a valley to draw the situation", which made Emperor Guangwu feel like "the enemy is in my eyes". This can be said to be the first application of the sand table in human military history!

In this world, Li You advanced this time by two hundred years! Let Liu Xiu's ancestor, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, also have the opportunity to see the style of this military weapon.

"Please look at your majesty!" Li You pointed to the mountains and rivers on the sand table, "This is Chang'an City. I left here last year to reach the border. I walked west along the Qilian Mountains at the entrance to the Xiongtu territory, and then crossed the territory of the Kunxie King to the Western Regions Loulan Kingdom! It is the country where Prince Fumituo is located, and then continue to go west, passing through Yanqi, Kucha, Gumo Kingdom, Shule Kingdom to the Dayuezhi territory, and then south through Shache Kingdom, Khotan Kingdom, Jingjue Kingdom, and the Mo Kingdom returned to Loulan! Go east along the original road westward to return to the Han territory and arrive in Chang'an!"

Liu Che's eyes followed Li You's fingers and swept through the mountains, rivers and desert grasslands he passed by. His mood could not calm down for a long time. It was not until he saw this sand table that he had an intuitive understanding of the Han territory he commanded and the territory of the Huns. After a long time, he let out a breath and praised sincerely, "Zhang Aiqing has worked so hard all the way!"

When he heard the oral statement in his first time, he had only a vague understanding of the difficulties of this trip, but until he saw this sand table, his understanding gradually became clearer and only occupied such a large position on the sand table. So how long and difficult the journey that the Han delegation traveled!

"Zhang Aiqing, why is the top of this mountain white? It's like it snows in winter?" Liu Che soon discovered something strange on the sand table. He had also visited Zhongnan Mountain near Chang'an and other places. However, unless it was winter, these mountains were all green. Look at the mountains near Chang'an on the sand table, which looks like this. Why is the mountain green below the hillside, but when it reaches the top of the mountain turned white? What is the reason?

Well, it seems a bit early to talk to him about the relationship between altitude and temperature at this time? Do you want me to start with junior high school physics? After a moment of confusion, Li You decided to ignore the real reason. "Your Majesty, this mountain is a mountain that we crossed before we crossed the river and entered the territory of King Xiu Tu. The snow on the top of this mountain does not melt all year round! Therefore, I painted the top of the mountain with white! If my army wants to advance west from here, we must prepare cotton coats and other things to keep warm!"

"The world is so great that there are all kinds of wonders!" Liu Che said with emotion when he heard that there was still snow in the midsummer, and then his finger pointed to the Taklamakan Desert between Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun Mountains. "Why is this place full of sand? Why didn't Zhang Aiqing pass through this directly when he returned from the Western Regions? Instead, he went south and circled in such a big circle?"

"Your Majesty! This is a sea of ​​sand that stretches for thousands of miles. There is no water or plants in the sea of ​​sand, but only the long yellow sand! Once a person breaks into it, he will die of thirst and hunger, and he will never be able to leave anyone!" Li You answered truthfully.

"So that's it!" Liu Che, who grew up in the Guanzhong Plain, could not imagine what the desert looked like. He hid the matter in his heart and continued to ask, "This is the territory of King Xiu Tu and King Kun Xie?"

"Yes! The Great Khan of the Huns commanded all the troops, and there were twenty-four chiefs in charge of troops from all over the country. King Xiu Tu and King Kun Xie were both one of the twenty-four chiefs! Each of them had a population of tens of thousands and more than ten thousand soldiers! But now they were sent by the military minister Shanyu to the Western Regions to assist the Wusun Kingdom, and it was difficult to return for a while! Now the Hexi area is empty, which is the time when our army advances west!" Li You raised his voice, "This Western Expedition will surely defeat the Huns, wipe out the shame of Bai Deng in the past, and promote the power of our Han army!"

"With this thing, the enemy is in my eyes!" Liu Che excitedly held the wooden board on the edge of the sand table with both hands, and used his strength so much that his knuckles began to turn white. "Immediately summon Dou Ying, Tian Feng will come here! I want them to see this treasure of Zhang Aiqing!"

Compared with Prime Minister Xu Chang, Taiwei Zhuang Qingzhai and others who were promoted to the throne because of Empress Dowager Dou, Liu Che trusted old ministers like Dou Ying and Tian Fen. When he thought about the use of the sand table, he thought of them immediately.

"Where is the Xiongnu royal court?" The eunuch who was delivering the order hurriedly left, and Liu Che looked at the sand table again.

Li You's fingers went north along Chang'an and to the vicinity of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of later Mongolia. "Your Majesty, the Xiongnu royal court is here! It's three or four thousand miles away from Chang'an!" The straight line distance from Xi'an to Ulaanbaatar is 1,531 kilometers. Li You pointed to the large gap between Chang'an and the Xiongnu royal court and said regretfully, "It's a pity that Tang Yifu has left the Xiongnu for more than ten years, and his memory is inevitably blurred, so this part is not marked very clearly! In the future, only the messengers and merchants will inquire more and then slowly fill it in!"

"Now, only the mountains, rivers and rivers on the sand table from Hexi to the Western Regions and the Han Dynasty are still accurate! Other areas need to be replenished continuously!" Li You reminded that he did not want Liu Che to start planning the Battle of Mobei based on this sand table.

"Sand table? Does it mean to gather sand into a plate? This is a good name!" Liu Che nodded and praised.
Chapter completed!