The twenty-seventh day of the fifth month in the summer of the third year of Yuande.
The pilgrim team of Zhao Tuo, King of South Vietnam, finally crossed Hangu Pass and entered the territory of Guanzhong.
"After years of separation, things have changed and people have changed..." Zhao Tuo sighed in his heart while sitting in a large carriage, looking at the mountains and people outside.
This is the first time he has returned to this familiar hometown after an absence of seventy years.
Although he was from Zhending, he went to Xianyang after he was 16 years old and served as a knight for the First Emperor.
For him, Guanzhong is considered his second hometown.
He has very deep feelings for this place.
pity……
The scene outside the car curtain is completely different from the Guanzhong in my memory.
"That's right, Xiang Yu entered the pass and caused a massacre. The pass was ruined and the people were scattered..." Zhao Tuo sighed softly in his heart.
Even when he was far away in South Vietnam, he had heard about the massacres Xiang Yu caused in Guanzhong.
The magnificent Afang Palace was burned down by a fire, and Xianyang, the old capital of Qin, was burned to ashes. It is unknown how many old Qin people died at the hands of the rebels.
As a result, when Emperor Liu Bang later moved the capital to Guanzhong, he was forced to manage politics in Shuoyang first, and then moved to the Weiyang Palace and Changle Palace in Chang'an a few years later.
As for the establishment of Chang'an City, it had to be pushed back. It was not until around the sixth year of Emperor Hui that Chang'an City was completed.
Before that, Chang'an was just a township, not a city.
Therefore, after experiencing such a major historical change, the entire cities and villages in Guanzhong have undergone earth-shaking changes.
Therefore, the economic and political center of the Qin Dynasty may now be just a field and a farm, but the former fields and mountains have now become the capital of Fengyi.
I am afraid that the only thing that has not changed in Guanzhong at this moment is probably the ever-flowing Wei River and Ba River.
As he was lamenting the changes in his homeland, Zhao Tuo's eyes suddenly saw something familiar.
A wooden track stretches forward on one side of the straight road.
Zhao Tuo is very familiar with this kind of trajectory.
In order to destroy Chu, the Qin Dynasty laid hundreds of miles of tracks like this to transport supplies to the army.
After the conquest of Baiyue, supplies and ordnance supplies for hundreds of thousands of troops were continuously transported to the edge of Lingqu Canal through such tracks, and then transferred to Lingnan through the canal.
After South Vietnam became independent, he also thought about building a similar track to strengthen his control over Baiyue.
However, after trying it, Zhao Tuo sadly discovered.
If you want to build and lay such a track, you need a unified central empire to provide it with basic material support. You need a young government with countless capable craftsmen and the ability to mobilize a large amount of resources at any time. You also need a Shangjun rooted in
Under the thought, like a spider. A civil service system that can control and monitor the situation of local villages and pavilions at any time.
To put it simply, I want to build a track like this.
It needed to resurrect the Qin Empire.
Let the ideology of farming and war and the system of military merit, land and housing become the cornerstone of national policy.
Then, under this premise, we must also ensure that the government has enough manpower, material resources and resources that can be used.
Moreover, the rulers themselves must have extremely firm will and belief to promote the construction of rail projects.
Without meeting these conditions, it would be impossible to build such a track.
Even if the construction is barely completed, it will only look good in appearance.
If there is a flaw in any link, this track will be abandoned.
Apart from this, if the state's control capabilities are insufficient and the deterrence of the law is insufficient, these wooden rails will most likely become the target of destruction by the people. Compared with going to the mountains to cut firewood, the wooden rails on the rails are obviously easier to obtain.
"It's just that the Han Dynasty built such a track in Guanzhong. What was the purpose?" Zhao Tuo couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Da Qin built the track just to conquer the world.
Therefore, the Qin Empire never laid tracks in Guanzhong.
Because, there is no need for this.
There are no supplies in Guanzhong that require such tracks for transportation.
But Zhao Tuo was surprised to find that the track built in the Han Dynasty was not idle, but was in fact very busy.
In just half an hour, Zhao Tuo saw a dozen carriages pulling loads of supplies, heading straight for Han Valley along the track.
"What's going on?" Zhao Tuo called his confidant eunuch and asked.
The eunuch immediately went to ask the officials of the Han Dynasty who escorted the delegation to Chang'an. Not long after, he came back and reported: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty..., I have asked the officials of the Han Dynasty. It is said that this thing has been replaced by a carriage track.
, was built under the order of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. There are currently two in the Han Dynasty, one leads from Chang'an to Xiaoguan, and the other is this one, connecting Hangu and Chang'an..."
"Well, Xiaoguan does need a track..." Zhao Tuo nodded after hearing this.
Nowadays, it is no different than in the Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty was a tyrannical and tyrannical country with no rivals in the southeast, northwest and northwest.
Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, it has been threatened by the Huns from the north.
In the past few decades, the two countries have conducted as many as three large-scale battles at the level of Pingcheng.
Each time the army is mobilized, it amounts to hundreds of thousands.
Therefore, by building such a track, the Guanzhong garrison can be immediately deployed from Chang'an to Xiaoguan, and supplies can immediately support the frontline troops.
Such a track is better than a hundred thousand troops!
But what is there to repair about the Hangu-Chang'an track?
Zhao Tuo remembered clearly that Guanzhong had always been self-sufficient, and even had enough energy to support the Kingdom of Abundance in Guandong.
With the help of Zheng Guoqu, Guanzhong had bumper harvests every year, and there had never been any attempt to adjust grain in Guandong.
Nowadays, there is no big threat in Kanto, and it is impossible for the country to need such a track to transport troops and supplies.
But this track looks very busy.
So the question arises, why did Liu build such a track and transport so many materials to Hangu?
"Go and ask, where are the supplies on this track going to be transported?" Zhao Tuo asked.
Not long after, the eunuch came back to report: "Your Majesty, my servant has already asked clearly. It is said that this track was built with money from the great Jia Shi of Guandong. The emperor of China wanted to praise him. He issued a special edict to allow him to use it.
This track is for profit. The carriages that the king saw just now are all transport fleets under the name of the Shi family. They are used to transport goods and commodities, transfer them to Kanto, or transport goods from Kanto to the customs..."
"Master's family..." Zhao Tuo nodded. He had already heard about the Luoyang Master's wealth. In the past year, caravans and fleets under the name of the Master's family had not only come to South Vietnam.
With a family worth tens of millions, the Shi family certainly has the financial resources to build such a track.
But then he looked at the eunuch in astonishment. He looked incredulous: "You mean, the emperor of China allowed a merchant to use the track to transport supplies?"
Since the Qin Dynasty, the status of merchants has been infinitely low!
At that time, the First Emperor even laid a stone to declare to the world: Farming should be carried out and the country should be eradicated.
This includes merchants, knights, and scoundrels.
The Great Wall of Qin, Afang Palace, and the Imperial Mausoleum of the First Emperor were all paved with the bones of these people.
From what Zhao Tuo knew, although the Liu family was not like the Qin Dynasty, they did not have a good attitude toward merchants.
When will the Jia people, who are regarded as the last in their career, be able to use such a military weapon as the track?
Not to mention using it for profit?
Although he had been in southern Xinjiang for a long time, Zhao Tuo's views on merchants had already changed.
In South Vietnam, caravans from China are even necessary for the development and survival of the Kingdom of South Vietnam.
Without these merchants coming with China's advanced tools and utensils, the Kingdom of Nanyue would probably not have enough ability to grasp the overall situation and even be unable to leave Panyu City under the king's orders.
But with these merchants, things are different.
Relying on ironware and various advanced tools from China, the South Vietnamese army defeated the disobedient forces of various ethnic groups in Baiyue and extended county governance to Jiaozhi and other places.
Zhao Tuo was therefore also extremely important in trade and exchanges with China.
During the period of Empress Lu, because the Changsha Kingdom closed border trade and banned all ironware and materials from flowing into South Vietnam, Zhao Tuo mobilized the whole country and had a fight with the Wu family in Changsha.
In the end, Empress Lu ordered the dispatch of General Zhou Zao to lead the Chinese elite to support Changsha.
It was due to the natural dangers of Wuling Mountains and the scorching hot weather in the south that Chinese soldiers fell ill one after another. I am afraid that the South Vietnam Kingdom was about to be destroyed by the elite Han army commanded by Zhou Zao.
It was after this trade war that Zhao Tuo finally completely changed his understanding of merchants.
In the following decades, while vigorously trading with China, he also actively built his own trading fleet.
In Panyu City, various Yi and Di merchants from far away places gather every year.
In fact, many people came from a country that Zhao Tuo had never even heard of.
These merchants brought various rare properties and a lot of wealth.
In the Kingdom of Nanyue, the commercial tax alone is no less than the land tax.
But now, in this pass, the Liu family's home base is supposed to be the most discriminatory place for businessmen, but there are businessmen who can use such a military weapon as rails.
This makes Zhao Tuo somewhat unimaginable.
But consider the person who made this decision.
Zhao Tuo couldn't help but sigh and thought in his heart: "Is there really a saint in this world who knows it from birth and receives orders from heaven?"
At that time, Zhao Tuo once served as a knight for the First Emperor, and even served as a personal attendant for a time.
From what he knew, the First Emperor was not an omnipotent British lord who was born with knowledge.
The First Emperor's great achievements depended on just one word: Diligence.
The First Emperor slept less than three hours a day, and was usually reviewing memorials from all over the world during the day.
On average, the memorials he read every day weighed ten stones in total, and they were piled up like a hill.
This is just the usual workload.
If there is a large army going out or a war to destroy the country, it is common to work without sleeping for three days and three nights.
As Zhao Tuo knows, the current emperor of the Han Dynasty is far less diligent than the First Emperor.
It can even be said that you can't keep up with the horse racing.
His grandson Zhao Hu once told him that today's emperor is a person who likes to chat with others. He is not necessarily dealing with political affairs at ordinary times. Instead, he likes to wander around.
When meeting interesting people or things, they would chat for a long time. Usually, if there was no big or urgent matter, government affairs memorials would be left to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor's desk to deal with.
He will only listen to the results.
There is no doubt that it is impossible for such an emperor to be like the First Emperor, who relied on non-stop processing of memorials to obtain countless information and intelligence, and then knew the world's major events through keen sense of smell and judgment.
So how did he make such a decision, or how did he see the economic potential of merchants?
Looking at the track, Zhao Tuo couldn't help but sigh: "What a great trick. The country got a track without any contribution. Although merchants are allowed to use it, that person must be responsible for the maintenance and repair of the track."
The master has borne the burden..."
"That's not all..." Zhao Tuo immediately thought about it again: "If the track expenses are all paid by the Shi family, doesn't it mean that the wages of the workers and craftsmen are also paid by the Shi family?"
"Benefit the world without plucking a hair..."
Zhao Tuo shook his head, feeling that he could no longer keep up with the current thinking of the Chinese emperor.
He has lived for more than ninety years and has met countless strange people. He has also met countless interesting guys.
But this was the first time that Zhao Tuo met someone who could use the financial resources and power of merchants in this way.
Then he thought about what he had seen and heard along the way.
In Jiangdu, he met the officials and workers of the Han Dynasty. They opened many fields-like workshops on the seaside, and then introduced seawater, dried it in the sun, and brine to make salt.
On both sides of the Yangtze River, he saw a large number of rangers and "heroes" heading to Liaodong in the north, supposedly to pan for gold.
These heroes came in such an endless stream that in some places they blocked local traffic.
This made Zhao Tuo stunned. He couldn't let go for a long time. In order to make up the number of people who immigrated to South Vietnam, the First Emperor even used the army to forcibly arrest people to make up the number.
Later, because all the garrison troops were bachelors, in order to stabilize people's hearts, they even arrested unmarried older women everywhere. As a result, people in the world were resentful, and the seeds of the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising were laid.
But now, a golden rumor has made all the rangers and 'heroes' in the world take the initiative to bring their own dry food and go to the bitter cold land in the north that is far more terrifying than the original Baiyue area to open up wasteland.
In Luoyang, Zhao Tuo received more news and intelligence.
For example, the young emperor of the Han Dynasty implemented a strict food protection policy in Guanzhong, fixing the price of food in Guanzhong at fifty qian per stone all year round.
A variety of magical tools have been launched.
Waterwheels, plows and even mills are said to have blossomed all over the land of Sanqin.
Therefore, during the Qin Dynasty, the Mohist family, which was at its peak, was also invited back to Chang'an to revive again.
Putting all this intelligence and information together in his mind, Zhao Tuo suddenly had a clear understanding: "This emperor is probably more ambitious than the First Emperor!"
Without an ambition greater than that of the First Emperor, would the emperor need to do so many things?
Following the path of his fathers and ancestors and continuing to move forward is enough to ensure eternal peace.
Only if he had an ambition greater than that of the First Emperor in his chest, would he work so hard to govern and do everything possible to develop and boost national power.
The resurrection of the Mohist family, the resurrection of Orbit, and all the things he witnessed with his own eyes.
It all proved to him that the heart of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, just like the First Emperor, was by no means limited to Kyushu.
What he wants is probably Bahuang*...
"It seems that I really came to the right place to go to Chang'an for pilgrimage this time!" Zhao Tuo sighed in his heart.
He understood very well that if he had chosen not to come in the first place.
hehe……
How could a Chinese master with greater ambitions than the First Emperor watch him dominate South Vietnam?
Hundreds of thousands of troops could cross the Five Ridges in a matter of seconds!
Don't talk about the natural dangers of the Five Mountains, and don't talk about the scorching heat in the south.
Back then, the First Emperor mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops in order to conquer Baiyue.
At that time, there was not even a road between the Five Ridges, and the Haiyang River (Xiangjiang River) and the Great Rong River (Lijiang River) were two completely unrelated rivers.
The First Emperor had made up his mind, and all these difficulties suddenly ceased to be difficulties.
No road?
The Qin army dug through the mountains and filled up the swamps, and naturally there was a road!
No river channel?
Then chisel one yourself!
It was excavated in the 28th year of the First Emperor's reign and was completed in the 33rd year. A large number of Qin troops easily penetrated into the South China Sea and Baiyue.
Because the Qin Empire collapsed later, Zhao Tuo felt that now, the Lingqu canal might have connected all the rivers in the Baiyue Land together, and even penetrated deep into Jiaozhi.
In the face of such will and execution, even if South Vietnam resists as a whole, it is nothing more than a mantis trying to act like a chariot. At best, it can cause a little trouble to the Chinese soldiers, and then they will be crushed!
At this moment, Zhao Tuo couldn't wait to see the Emperor of the Han Dynasty whom he had never met before.
He has an intuition
"I'm afraid, I will be able to see the shadow of the First Emperor again..."
Thinking of this, Zhao Tuo couldn't help but feel his heart surge.
No matter how people in the world judge the First Emperor, in Zhao Tuo's heart, he is always a mountain that can only be looked up to. (To be continued.)
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