Liu Che stood in the imperial garden of Lantai, quietly looking at the several magnificent and exotic flowers growing in it.
Not far away, at the entrance to the garden, there is a wooden sign with a bright red note on it, warning all passers-by: Anyone who enters without permission will die!
This garden and its associated buildings are the most secret forbidden areas of Weiyang Palace.
Very few people know what the flowers and plants grown in this garden are.
Even those who knew it couldn't understand why the emperor was so solemn and protective of this garden planted with exotic flowers and herbs from the Western Regions as if it were comparable to the Han tripod enshrined in Taizong Temple.
Only Liu Che knew that the terrifying flowers of hell were planted in this garden, which covered an area of only more than 400 square meters.
Staring at the blooming flowers, Liu Che chuckled.
The results of this early warning are very good.
In the north and south of the river, on both sides of the river, the clans, nobles, scholars and common people had no other choice but to bow down and bow before Liu Che's divine omen.
The imperial power of the Han Dynasty has never been so strong and powerful. Even the founder of the country, Liu Bang, may not be more majestic than Liu Che now.
When imperial power and divine power are unified and recognized by the people of the world.
The emperor truly became the only man in the world who was the only one who respected himself.
Now, Liu Che is free to do whatever he wants.
Even if he said that he wanted to build Star Destroyers, the people of the world and all classes of people would probably follow him and build them.
In front of the emperor who has mastered divine power.
The relatives of princes, bureaucrats and nobles are all the scum of war!
The Han Dynasty has truly entered the era of "the king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die".
Even the East Palace has completely lost its power to restrain Liu Che. Under the two-gong system, the East Palace may still be able to maintain its detached status, but if it wants to be like in the past, calling Liu Che over and yelling at him when he is unhappy, that is impossible.
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The emperor with the blessing of destiny has no taboos.
Everyone in the government and the public knelt before the miracle in Guangling City.
Let me put it bluntly: Now, even if all the aristocrats and bureaucrats unite to oust Liu Che, as long as Liu Che can walk out of Weiyang Palace and walk to the city of Chang'an, all opposition and restrictions will be in vain.
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Just like the Emperor Taizu of the Celestial Dynasty once said when he was angry: If the People's Liberation Army doesn't want me, I will go to the Red Army.
Liu Che now has the power to turn over the table and start another game.
But precisely because of this, Liu Che had to be more calm and cautious.
He knew very well that the power he had now was too powerful and too terrifying.
It is simply an existence that destroys the balance of the game.
Just like these magnificent flowers of hell before his eyes.
If this power is used properly, the development of the Han Dynasty and the development of social processes can be accelerated several times or even dozens of times. Within a hundred years, it is not a dream to enter the industrial society.
But if there is a slight deviation, it will be irreversible.
Liu Che was a little worried that he would be addicted to the illusion of mastering everything, creating everything, and destroying everything, and forgetting his goals and mission.
But the emperor, to put it bluntly, is a loner.
Liu Che had no one to talk to.
There are many things that are not an option if you keep them in your heart for a long time.
Therefore, Liu Che often comes here recently, quietly looking at the flowers and plants in the garden in a daze, or talking to himself.
But today, Liu Che came here not to relax.
It was to lift the ban on a batch of cotton seeds stored here.
Last year, through smuggling transactions with Yi Zhixie, Dalu and others.
In total, the Han Dynasty obtained more than a thousand dan of various plant seeds.
Ninety percent of them were basically useless for Han agriculture, or were just a supplementary means.
For example, sesame seeds, cucumbers, etc.
However, the remaining ten percent are nuclear bomb plants with huge influence that can even change history.
Cotton is one of them.
After obtaining the cotton seeds, Liu Che asked the agricultural officials of the Shaofu to organize and open up a test field of about 100 acres in Shanglinyuan as a cotton test base to explore cotton planting technology.
After a year, I have accumulated a lot of experience.
Therefore, Liu Che plans to open a cotton plantation in Shangjun this time to lay the foundation for large-scale cotton planting in the future.
As long as this is done.
Then, it would be equivalent to cheating the Han army.
Even cotton can be used as a weapon. There will definitely be Huns or other nomadic people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the Han army for a cotton coat.
However, this road is destined to be full of thorns.
I want to turn cotton into cotton cloth.
In the middle, we need to overcome cotton planting and breeding technology, and cotton textile technology.
If you don't spend a few years exploring it, don't even think about it.
In addition, if cotton cloth comes out, the entire social economy will be shaken.
The reason is very simple. At this time, cloth was a auxiliary currency, and even the cloth itself was hard currency.
You can imagine what kind of turmoil the entire society would experience if cotton, a new type of durable, economical fabric, flooded the market!
Especially those areas where the mulberry and hemp industry is the backbone will be fatally hit.
Countless farmers will go bankrupt or even fall into dire straits as a result.
This is just like the earth in future generations. If one day, humans suddenly master nuclear fusion, the first thing that will usher in is probably not the whole human race entering the interstellar era, but the collapse of the human economy, oil and the products attached to the oil economy.
Everything will collapse, and tens of millions of unemployed people will consume the brain cells of all leaders.
Sometimes, being advanced may not bring benefits, but may bring danger!
The same is true for Liu Che.
He carefully promoted the development of industry instead of rolling up his sleeves and working hard.
However, after successfully pretending to be a ghost this time, Liu Che can finally take a bigger step.
Choosing Shangjun as a pilot project for cotton planting and promotion was decided by Liu Che after half a year of research.
Because, at this time, Shangjun was a natural planting base for cotton.
Shangjun is very poor. The land is barren, the mountains are densely forested, the water resources are scarce, and the population is sparse. Even the Huns are reluctant to take the road of the county to invade the Han Dynasty. Because the gains outweigh the losses.
Such a poor place is the most suitable place for growing cash crops.
Putting the cotton planting base in Shangjun can also avoid the situation similar to that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when Jiangsu and Zhejiang were replanted with mulberry trees, developed the silk industry, and exported to earn foreign exchange. As a result, Jiangsu and Zhejiang changed from a grain-producing area to one heavily dependent on food.
Such problems arise in areas supplied from outside.
Liu Che simply could not imagine how much negative impact it would have if cotton planting was developed in Guanzhong.
Just think about it, the food shortage in Guanzhong has increased from one million dan to five million, or even tens of millions of dan every year.
Any reasonable person would shudder.
Watching Wang Dao take out several bags of cotton seeds buried deep in the cellar that had three layers of protection.
Liu Che couldn't help but think: "I wonder where the Huns are now?"
The last time Liu Che received accurate information about the Huns was in December last year. At that time, Yi Zhixie, who was secretly trading with the Han Dynasty at the foot of the Great Wall, delivered a message: the Huns were advancing westward and were overseeing more than ten national soldiers in the Western Regions.
The troops arrived in Dawan.
Anyone can see the meaning.
Yi Zhixie hoped that after Liu Che discovered that the main Xiongnu force was advancing westward, the Han army would go northward and defeat the Xiongnu tribes deployed near the Great Wall.
Of course, Yi Zhixie is not an international friend. He is so close to Han people that he doesn't even know who he is.
His purpose is simple.
It is to hinder the military officials, and even cause the military officials' westward expansion plan to fail, or even suffer a disastrous defeat.
The military ministers are undefeated, where will Yi Zhixie's chance come from?
As for whether this will lead to the decline of the Xiongnu and the loss of its dominance over the grasslands and East Asia?
What does this have to do with Yi Zhixie?
Even if he wants to consider this issue, I'm afraid he will have to sit on the throne of the Xiongnu Great Chanyu.
But Liu Che is not stupid.
Now go out of the fortress and confront the Huns. Maybe you can win in the early stage.
But then, when the Huns came back to their senses, it became difficult to deal with them.
There is no doubt about the power of the Xiongnu.
Compared with other nomadic peoples who competed with the Han people in history, the Huns also had the blood bag of the Western Regions to replenish their blood, and they had an unparalleled advantage in terms of consumption.
The Han Dynasty was pushed out in a wave. If it had not pushed away several key resource points of the Huns, it would have broken its backbone.
The Huns, who had regained their composure, still had enough energy to compete with the Han Dynasty.
In other words, as long as the Han army cannot open up the passage to the Western Regions for one day, it will cut off the Huns' control over the countries in the Western Regions.
With the Huns replenishing blood from the countries in the Western Regions, no matter how bad the situation is, at worst it will be the same as in history. They will retreat to Mobei and not come out, and the Han army will be able to do nothing.
Therefore, as long as the Huns did not provoke or take the initiative to invade, Liu Che would be stupid and tear up the peace treaty and take the initiative to start a war.
However, Liu Che was still very concerned about the Huns' movements.
Ever since last year, Liu Che deliberately sent someone to pass the map to the Huns, and at the same time followed the clues and killed many informants and intelligence personnel deployed by the Huns in the Han Dynasty, Liu Che has been both concerned and worried about the progress of the Huns' westward advance.
It’s impossible not to care or worry!
What if, if the Huns really opened up the road to India and started to colonize India?
That would be tragic!
With the support of Third Brother's endless human resources, maybe the Huns can really rise to the level of nomadic evolution.
As for whether the third brother can resist the Huns?
Liu Che has never doubted this issue.
In the history of Third Brother, there is no record of a successful fight against foreign invasion...
Even the Tibetan Buddhas once walked down from the Himalayas to civilize and educate the people of Sange, recite sutras well, and make progress every day.
"I hope the people of Dawan can work harder..." Liu Che said in his heart: "Don't embarrass your ancestors!"
Twenty or thirty years later, Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions and arrived in Dawan, where he witnessed with his own eyes the prosperity and prosperity of Dawan.
Zhang Qian said in his own words: Dayuan is located southwest of the Xiongnu and directly west of the Han Dynasty. It is thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty... It belongs to more than seventy cities of various sizes, with hundreds of thousands of people.
Zhang Qian didn't lie.
Later, Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, suffered a bloody blow in front of Dawan, and barely managed to win a tragic victory and return home.
It was Xiaozhu who mobilized the power of the whole country. The result of supporting Li Guangli was only the reserve force. Xiaozhu mobilized 60,000 people, as well as 100,000 cattle, 30,000 horses, and countless other livestock. In addition, in Jiuquan and Zhangye,
There were as many as 180,000 Han troops responsible for logistical support and support. In order to transport military rations to Li Guangli, the Seven Branches of the World were sent to transport food supplies. The supply teams were connected with vehicles and people, forming a long queue from Dunhuang to Jiuquan and Zhangye.
Liu Che felt that no matter what, the Dawan people could last three to five years in front of the Huns, right?
Otherwise, it would be strange if Alexander didn't crawl out of his grave to settle accounts with these guys!
On the other hand, Liu Che felt that the Wusun people would definitely give full play to their strengths as troublemakers in history.
If he didn't secretly stumble or even hinder the Huns, would Wusun still be called Wusun?
However, just when Liu Che was looking forward to watching a good show.
A news came from Yunzhong County: the Huns cavalry attacked a Han village at the foot of the Great Wall, killing and taking away most of the villagers.
Wei Shang, the governor of Yunzhong County, urgently reported to Chang'an.
After Liu Che received the report, he immediately felt like he had been slapped twice on the face.
"It's true that a dog can't change its habit of eating shit!" Liu Che cursed secretly.
He knew very well that the Han army must make a resolute and thorough response to this provocation.
Otherwise, the Huns cavalry could invade today, kill and take away Han people.
Tomorrow, the Huns will dare to break through the Great Wall and directly attack the big cities in Han Dynasty.
There is no need to reason with the invaders or study any countermeasures.
Since they brought all the guns and knives to your house, they also killed your family members.
Do you still have to call the police first and then sit down and reason with them?
Anyone with a normal IQ would choose to kill him first!
Liu Che immediately replied to Wei Shang, the governor of Yunzhong County: Anyone who openly offends the Han will be killed no matter how far away he is! If one of my people is killed by a prisoner, you will take the prisoner's head one level at a time!
To put it simply, Wei Shang is asked to retaliate in equal measure.
You kill one of my commoners, and I'll kill one of your herdsmen.
Not only that, Liu Che also ordered that all exchanges with the Xiongnu at the foot of the Great Wall be immediately cancelled, including smuggling trade with Yi Zhixie and others.
The posture they put out is very obvious: If the Huns don't give me an explanation, I will give you the Huns an explanation!
In the past, Liu Che's decision would undoubtedly have encountered many obstacles.
The anti-war faction and the appeasement faction are quite powerful in both the government and the opposition.
Even Emperor Taizong Xiaowen compromised in front of these people.
But now, no one dares to have any objections.
In front of the emperor who was confirmed that he indeed had destiny.
All bureaucrats and powerful people are scum.
Only the two empress dowagers from the East Palace sent someone to call Liu Che over and offered some words of patience and calm down.
But in the end, both queen mothers were convinced by Liu Che.
Liu Che's reason for persuading them was very simple: I was ordered by Heaven, and Heaven ordered me to protect the country of China. If I disobeyed the order, I would be punished by Heaven, and there would be nothing to pray for!
Under such strong reasons, both the anti-war faction and the appeasement faction could only remain speechless.
No one dares to bear the crime of letting the emperor be punished by heaven.
Of course, in the end, Liu Che promised that as long as the Xiongnu did not expand the scale of the war, Liu Che would not expand the war either.
As long as the Huns can give Liu Che an explanation, Liu Che is willing to restore old friendship with the Huns.
As for Wei Shang’s actions.
Liu Che responded to the two empress dowagers' questions with one sentence: The arrow is on the string and must be fired. (To be continued.)
