The countries of Central Asia were very far away from the empire, even Bactria, the closest to the empire, was six or seven thousand miles away on a flat map, and these six or seven thousand miles were filled with deserts, Gobi and mountains, and it would take at least a year for a small group to travel back and forth, and even slower for a large army march, so the threat to them from the strength of the empire was not so serious.

There are not many remaining forces around the empire, but there are not many forces that can slightly engage with the imperial army on the frontal battlefield, Donghu and Xiongnu are the two big forces connected to the empire's territory on the grassland in the north, Wusun can also be counted as one, if it is in a hostile state, the current Donghu may be able to confront the empire, after a setback, the Xiongnu can only fight guerrillas, and Wusun still has the ability to resist.

Other small powers adjacent to the empire's borders were the weak Hu tribes of the steppes, and the savage tribes of the South Asian subcontinent living in the primeval forests. These small forces are basically unable to resist the invasion of the imperial army, and the imperial army is everywhere, and they have no other way to ensure their survival except to surrender or migrate.

The envoys of the Central Asian countries were concerned about the Chinese gods, and the Donghu and Wusun people were focusing on the army on the side of the empire.

"Sure enough, the advice of the ancestors is not to easily start a war with the Chinese, it is necessary."

"Yes, our ancestors fought against the Chinese a long time ago, and they have come to the conclusion that the Chinese are not only outnumbered, but also superior in all technologies, and cannot easily provoke such an enemy."

"Well, the Chinese have always been a grudge-bearing race, and the habitat they occupy is too blessed, if there is no way to destroy them all at once after the war, they will inevitably suffer endless revenge in the future."

That is really the training of the ancestors of Donghu with the lessons of blood, and it was the Yi people who were entrenched in Liaodong during the Xia and Shang periods. Wars often break out between the Yi people and the Central Plains people, in the early stage, the Yi people gain an advantage in the war, but the more the Yi people want to defeat the Central Plains Dynasty in the back, it is more difficult for the Yi people to defeat the Central Plains Dynasty, until the Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang, the Zhou Dynasty carried out many campaigns against the Yi people, and drove the Yi people to Liaodong and further north. The two sides can be considered to have settled down.

Time continued to pass, and since then, the Yi people have settled in the grasslands and forests north of Liaodong, and have been divided into many tribes and tribes, and they have not gone south again to find trouble with the Central Plains Dynasty, but if they can still force the Central Plains Dynasty to parry with all their strength before, it will be difficult for them to win again in the battle against the princes under the Zhou Dynasty. Not only did it be difficult for them to achieve victory, but they were ...... by the vassal states under the command of the Zhou royal family That is, the army of Yan State continued to counterattack, and a lot of land was occupied by Yan State under the rice without losing chickens.

In the Warring States Period, many tribes in Liaodong formed tribal alliances. They have their own alliance names, but the Central Plains side is named Donghu. Since the Chinese civilization entered the Warring States Period, the Eastern Hu have rarely moved south, and their main expansion direction is set on the grassland, so the main targets of attack have been changed to the Hun Yu and Xiongnu, and occasionally cross the territory of the Hun Yu or Xiongnu to invade the Qu Arch people.

"History has shown that going south is not a wise choice. We have frequently succeeded in expanding on the grassland, and now the Huns are stupid to fight the Chinese in the region, and the Xiongnu have failed to invade the south, not only losing about 110,000 warriors, but also some tribes such as Hun Yu, Qu Jie, and Hu Jie. It's a great time for us to expand eastward. ”

"The king has sent an envoy to the Xiongnu side, asking Jituo to offer a horse and cattle and sheep. In addition, he also asked for at least 50,000 women, and even asked for Ji Tu's family. ”

"Hehe, the law of the jungle, they are weak, and they deserve to be blackmailed. If Jitu doesn't face the reality, then we'll grab it ourselves. That's not just the price! ”

King Donghu's blackmailing of the Xiongnu should have happened to Mao Dun, at that time, Mao Dun had just killed Touman and seized the position of Xiongnu Shan Yu, but now it happened to Ji Tuo.

The time node has changed, and the target of King Donghu's blackmail has also become Jituo, but I don't know how Jituo will respond?

"yes. The law of the jungle eats the strong, so we should be cautious and cautious in the face of this new dynasty in the Central Plains. ”

"Well, you should be cautious."

The Donghu envoys entered the empire from the north of Liaodong, dragging their feet along the way for nearly half a year, and they walked slowly because they wanted to observe what kind of country the emerging empire was.

According to the normal situation, a piece of land should be in a dilapidated state after war, but when the Donghu envoys entered the territory of the empire, they saw that not only the ruins caused by the war had been basically bulldozed. Large-scale construction is also carried out everywhere they have passed, although you can still see some traces left by the war, but more is the enthusiasm for construction, the people who live in this land, they seem to have come out of the war, showing a kind of hope for life, with high enthusiasm for construction.

Civilians quickly healed the wounds caused by the war, that is because after a long period of special periods on the Chinese side, since the Zhou royal family was weak, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the civilians on the Chinese side are no strangers to the war at all, it should be said that they have long been accustomed to the environment of war, they are just the same as their ancestors, what to do during the war, what to do after the war, a continuation of inertia.

If there is no relevant policy formulated by Lu Zhe, the people who should do what should be done after the war will still heal their wounds in their own way, but because of the policies formulated by Lu Zhe, the people on this land at least do not have to work hard to survive, as long as they participate in the construction, they can at least have a full stomach and wages to get, and the construction is the land they rely on for survival, how can there be no enthusiasm? And this is something that the Donghu people don't know, so they are amazed to see the enthusiasm for construction.

Along the way, the Donghu envoys were also observing the imperial army, and they had encountered the imperial border legions when they were at the border, and those field legions were all elite temperament, at least armed to the teeth in terms of weapons and equipment. When they entered the hinterland of the Empire, they often passed by some garrisons, and they were observed that the garrisons in the hinterland of the Empire may not have the vigor of the Frontier Corps, and the weapons and equipment of the inland garrisons are not as luxurious as the Frontier Corps, but at least they should be equipped with weapons and weapons.

"This is a rich land, and the people who live in it are very industrious, and the ruling class that governs the country knows how to make use of the rich land and the industrious people."

"Hmm. Therefore, not only should we not have bad relations with them, but we should also try to maintain friendly relations. ”

"Yes, this time with them against the Huns is a crucial step in establishing friendship."

"Perhaps we should also learn from the nations that have arrived from the far west, and strengthen the empire in traders?"

"Yes, we need cloth, weapons, and food from the Empire. The empire needs our horses, cattle, sheep and furs, medicinal herbs, etc., and it is time to step up trade! ”

Lu Zhe has an unimaginable enthusiasm for expansion, but expansion depends on having a strong army, so the empire has never been stingy in arming its own soldiers, especially in the cost of soldiers in some field legions.

The soldiers of the field regiment, in addition to the main weapon of the sword, knife, gun, will also be equipped with a dagger, all weapons are iron soldiers, daggers are generally used to cut meat, when necessary, it is an ultra-short personal weapon for self-defense. Like a crossbowman. In addition to the bows or crossbows they were armed with, they must have at least one short soldier if necessary. The defensive equipment depends on the difference between the troops, and at the very least, a leather armor will be equipped. There are also some bits and pieces, such as water bags, lunch boxes, blankets and other necessities of life.

Compared to the country ruled by Lu Zhe, whether it is the land of China or other places, there has never been a ruler who is willing to spend such a huge amount of resources to arm the army, and some kings cannot afford to be armed. More than not.

Iron weapons! What are the main weapons used by all known countries or forces in the world now? Basically, bronze weapons are still used. Only a few nations have their armies equipped with iron weapons in elite legions, but the Empire has replaced them with iron weapons in their armies.

Before iron weapons became ordinary weapons, the value of a qualified iron sword was far higher than imagined. To take the simplest example, the Central Asian countries had envoys and caravans to the empire, and they could buy iron soldiers on the market, and the materials of those iron soldiers were far inferior to the quality of the army. However, an ordinary iron sword costs more than ten copper coins.

According to the currency exchange rate between the empire and the outsiders, the money is always equal to one tael (i.e., fifty grams) of silver, and the value of an ordinary iron sword is almost thirty silver coins. Silver coins are the four drachmas widely circulated in the Mediterranean and Central Asia, and each of these coins weighs 17.19 grams.

Thirty silver four-drachmas to buy a normal iron sword, doesn't that sound like an exaggeration? It is indeed very exaggerated, but it cannot be argued that not all countries have mastered iron smelting technology. Iron smelting technology is still a technology that is not widely spread, and even the mastered iron smelting technology is divided into advanced and backward.

Those in Central Asia did not feel that it was expensive to buy an iron weapon for thirty silver coins, in fact, many of them even felt that the iron sword on the imperial side was only thirty silver coins, which was slightly cheaper. It is relatively simple to have this idea, that is, someone used the iron sword brought from Central Asia to split the iron sword on the empire's side, and the result was that both iron swords had gaps, but the gap in the iron swords on the empire's side was obviously smaller.

Iron weapons in the empire distinguish between military and civilian use, the quality and style of weapons in the military system is of course popularization, but not all civilian iron weapons can be guaranteed to be the same quality. Maybe the iron sword that was taken out for comparison belonged to the better quality one, so those in Central Asia felt that it was worth the money?

The iron weapons on the market in Nanling were purchased by those who came from abroad in a very short period of time, and almost as many as they put on the market, they were sold, resulting in the phenomenon that the price of iron weapons rose, and the iron weapons of some counties around Nanling were also purchased.

Not only are people from Central Asian countries buying weapons, but with the arrival of the Donghu envoys, they have also joined the competition, which has directly led to the phenomenon of raising the price of weapons sold on the market and disconnecting them. The answer given by those merchants is that they need to get permission from the government before they can accept large orders.

"Is it feasible to bribe imperial officials? Let the officials of this empire agree with the civilian arms manufacturers to accept our orders. ”

"I think it can! But can we change our strategy and not buy weapons from their private businessmen, but place orders directly with their officials? ”

"What a good idea!"

The empire requires a special license for many industries, such as opening a shop, a workshop, or a factory, and each industry needs to have official records. There are many functions of the license, one of which is to facilitate the registration of the number of types of trades, then to review the business situation for tax collection and refund, and more importantly, to supervise the treatment of workers by each licensee.

The empire's taxes on commerce are not only in and out, the taxes collected from all walks of life will be partially refunded after the balance of the year, although the amount of return is not much, but with the return of taxes there will be some honors that money cannot buy, and perennial large households can even gain an advantage in some official orders.

With the continuous development and expansion of commerce and industry, the working class of the empire has been increasing, and Lü Zhe is extremely aware that profits are based on exploitation, so he has established a relevant supervision system before the concept of capital~capital~lordship~ righteousness has not yet taken shape.

Of course, the treatment and welfare policies of the working class were limited to those who were registered in the Empire, and those who were not registered in the Empire's register, such as those who had done a lot of evil in the war, or the prisoners of war and slaves captured by the Imperial army, had no one to care about their lives or deaths.

What is the reality? With the development of commerce, the need for labor has increased repeatedly, and the employment of imperial people has a minimum basic salary and prescribed working hours, and even some benefits and work-related injuries, resulting in the phenomenon that merchants prefer to buy slaves as labor, which also causes another phenomenon. That is, the demand for slaves has increased repeatedly, so that the military policy of foreign development has seized foreign races more frequently, and the army's pursuit of foreign wars is no longer how many enemy soldiers to kill, but to be able to capture more enemies alive in which war, and then escort them back to China and sell them to those who need them. (To be continued......)