Two Controllers

Author: Gongsun Wujiu

Two Controllers

"Body-drug slaves, are these all Cypriots?"

Liu Yi asked the supervisor casually.

The supervisor said respectfully, "Your Majesty is really discerning. Most of these slaves are from Cypriots."

"In order to build roads, Wensu State purchased nearly three thousand slaves in total!"

Liu Yi nodded when he heard this, looked around, and continued to ask, "I'm afraid there will be a lot of casualties in building this section of the road?"

The overseer sighed and said, "What the noble man said is true. Seven or eight people will die in one mile of land."

Liu Yi didn't say anything after hearing this, but ordered someone to reward the supervisor with ten pieces of gold.

In the words of gratitude from the supervisor, Liu Yi continued to set off eastward.

However, contrary to the original plan, he took the initiative to visit King Wensu when passing by Wensu Kingdom.

"Kong Liang, the leader of Wensu Kingdom, pays homage to Liu Junhou!"

Upon hearing that Liu Yi was coming, King Wensu hurriedly came to greet him.

"Please rise, Lord Wensu!"

Although Wensu State has a large land area, it has a small population and its national power is at the bottom among the countries in the Western Region.

Therefore, although Wensu State also sent troops to participate in the Chigu War, they were not able to obtain the King's Golden Seal from the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, when facing the Han envoys, Gumo, and the kings of the Kucha kingdoms, his status was lowered and he could only call himself the king.

Facing the respectful and respectful Lord Wensu, Liu Yi still maintained his humble style.

King Wensu originally planned to hold a banquet for Liu Yi in the palace to entertain Liu Yi and his party, but Liu Yi refused.

"Your Majesty, you don't need to worry so much. I need to go to Luntai. I don't dare to delay any more. I just want to observe the road construction..."

After some exchanges between the two, Liu Yi took the initiative to introduce the topic to road construction.

Liu Yi took the initiative and said, "When I came here, I saw Wensuduo using Serbian slaves as road construction workers. Is this possible?"

King Wensu felt ashamed and said, "It is true that Wensu is a weak country with few people and has to rely on purchased slaves!"

Hearing this, Liu Yi shook his head and said, "There is nothing wrong with using slaves. A certain person in Shule also used many slaves, but Wensu probably used them illegally!"

Lord Wensu was stunned when he heard this, "Would you like to hear the details?"

Liu Yidao said, "All the slaves of Guan Wensu are talented, so you can get twice the result with half the effort!"

Lord Wensu paid his respects and said, "I hope Liu Junhou will not hesitate to teach me!"

Liu Yi was not polite when he heard the words, and explained Zhang Yue's strategy in Luntai and his own method in Shule.

"This can improve slave work efficiency and reduce personnel deaths... Slaves with good performance joining Wensu can also improve Wensu's national strength..."

In the end, Liu Yi did not deny the disadvantages of doing so.

"It's just that as a result, the amount of money and food that needs to be invested will increase by about 30 to 40%!"

The Lord of Wensu bowed and said, "Thank you for your guidance. Although Wensu is small, it has benefited from the Silk Road, and there is no shortage of money and food!"

Liu Yi nodded and said, "That's good!"

Liu Yi stayed in Wensu for half a day and continued his journey eastward.

From then on, every time I saw people building roads on the road, I would talk to them.

He found that when the countries in the Western Regions were building roads, what they did was not much different from Wensu, but everything they did was lacking.

After the initial enthusiasm dissipated, the people of various countries all complained.

Even in the road sections directly responsible for the Han army, there are still various problems.

Liu Yi recorded all this in a book and prepared to report to Zhang Yue after arriving in Luntai.

…

"Your Majesty, this is what I saw and heard along the way. I hope you will check it out!"

After Liu Yi arrived in Luntai, he approached Zhang Yue alone.

Zhang Yue took the document from Liu Yi and looked at it carefully.

Liu Yize waited quietly by himself.

More than a quarter of an hour later, Zhang Yue raised his head.

He looked at Liu Yi with satisfaction and said, "Well done. I will hand this matter over to Mr. Cai. Do you have anything to add?"

Liu Yi heard this and bowed, "No!"

Zhang Yue walked to Liu Yi's side with a smile, "Go back and have a rest first, we need to get up early tomorrow!"

Liu Yi stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I will take my leave!"

After Liu Yi left, Zhang Yue sighed.

Su Fei asked in confusion, "Why do you sigh?"

Zhang Yue smiled and shook his head, "It's just a sigh!"

After speaking, he directly handed Liu Yi's report to Su Fei.

"I will hand this document to Duke Cai and tell him to handle it as appropriate!"

Su Fei said his promise and immediately went to Cai Ting's house.

Zhang Yue shook his head with a wry smile again, but some things are difficult to change.

Fortunately, Zhang Yue has become more experienced now and quickly readjusted his condition.

The next day, the planned meeting was held as scheduled. Except for Pan Hong and Ma Han who were far away in Ershi City, all the other officials with a rank of Qian Shi and above attended the meeting.

The issue of unifying Ding tax was not immediately discussed after the meeting began.

Instead, we first discussed the construction and road projects in various places.

With the support of Zhang Yue, Liu Yi first presented what he had seen while traveling eastward and gave his own opinions.

"What do you think?" Zhang Yue asked everyone after Liu Yi sat down.

Guo Kai, Han Jiang, Cai Ting and others expressed their opinions on this one after another.

After some discussion, everyone agreed that they could not directly interfere with the practices of other countries, but they could provide guidance.

Although Liu Yi was not satisfied with the final result, he was also a smart person. After some thinking, he understood the reason and no longer forced it.

After discussing the road construction, everyone reported on the development results of their respective regions in the past six months.

Among them, the one that satisfied Zhang Yue the most was Suiye City, which Han Jiang was responsible for.

According to Han Jiang's report, Suiye City has completed the construction of the inner city.

Not only that, after the influx of a large number of immigrants, the coal mine and smelting field in Broken Leaf have been completed and officially put into production.

This time Han Jiang also brought armor, weapons and gold produced from broken leaves.

In addition, it belongs to Shule in Liu Yi. Now the road from Shule to Wuji has been built.

At this time, Liu Yi was working hard to build the road from Wuji to Ershi City.

Liu Yi estimated that it would take at most another year and a half to open the road to Ershi City.

It's just that the terrain the road passes through is steep, so the death toll remains high.

Zhang Yue and everyone else did not take it seriously. When building a road in such a dangerous place, everyone had already prepared for a large number of casualties.

So when Liu Yi mentioned these things, Zhang Yue didn't pay too much attention.

On the contrary, it was also publicly stated at the meeting that the road construction masters brought by Du Ling from Chang'an this time would be given priority to Liu Yi for selection.

Although everyone was envious, they had no objections. Prioritizing the road to the west was also unanimously approved by everyone.

After dealing with these matters, the meeting officially turned to the focus.

"Your Majesty Chang'an has already issued an edict in favor of Wu Luntai's trial implementation of the "unification of Ding and Ding taxes". Please teach me!"

Zhang Yue said seriously while asking for the emperor's edict.

After hearing this, everyone did not answer immediately, but started discussing in a low voice.
Chapter completed!