In the long river of Chinese history, there is a road that is very famous, this road is called the Silk Road.

The Silk Road stretched from the East to the middle of the World Island, that is, Central Asia. It not only enables the commodities of countless civilizations on the island of the world to circulate from east to west, but also plays an auxiliary role in cultural exchanges.

The Silk Road first appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, but the trade route during this period only led to the vicinity of Zhaowu Jiu, and the farthest reached the Greco-Bactrian kingdom at that time. At this time, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was no longer ruled by the Osidmus dynasty, but by a dynasty called Euclatides. The Western Han Dynasty did not even come into contact with the Parthian Empire, the overlord of Central Asia at that time, and the main object of exchange was not the Greco-Bactrian under the rule of Okratides, but the Yueshi Kingdom and some of the Northern Sakya, Kashmiris, Odambaro, and so on.

It was only during the Eastern Han Dynasty that the route of the Silk Road expanded to the west, and at this time the Eastern Han Dynasty had already bordered the territory of the Kushan Empire after occupying the Western Regions, and the Silk Road also reached the territory of the Parthian Empire, but it was unknown to some countries further west and the Roman Empire, the Western overlord at that time.

In fact, whether it is the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, or Yang Sui and Li Tang in the later historical stage, the Silk Road did not reach as far as the continent of Europa, and the farthest tentacle reached near the Zhonghai, so the exchange between the Chinese civilization and the various civilizations of Europa could not be said to have existed before Li Tang.

In such a historical period, especially in the Li Tang Dynasty after Yang Sui, the Turks blocked the Silk Road for a long time, also because of the rise of the Tibetan Empire, the Silk Road was actually in a state of abandonment, and the Silk Road on land was not restored until the establishment of the Zhao and Song dynasties.

From the establishment of the Zhao Song Dynasty to its demise, the northwest and northern frontiers of the Chinese ethnic groups have always been in a state of squeezing and truncating, and the Zhao Song Dynasty also opened the maritime Silk Road in another way, which was established in the Zhao Song Dynasty attached importance to commercial taxation. It was also the peak of the development of ships under the rule of Zhao and Song, so there was the emergence of the Maritime Silk Road.

After the end of the pre-Qin era in ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty, they did not try to continue to expand to the west, but unfortunately the Xiongnu took the lead in rising, and the Western Han Dynasty was a little overwhelmed to deal with a Xiongnu.

There have been the rise of the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic and other grassland forces, and the successive dynasties have done their best to deal with the Hu forces on the grassland, and the Chinese ethnic groups have completely lost the opportunity for territorial expansion.

"If there is any stage that is most suitable for our race to expand. Nothing more than our present age. Today, the Xiongnu have not fully risen, and the forces on the grassland, such as Hujie, Ding Ling, Donghu, Qu She, Hungeng, Wusun, and Jiankun, have not been integrated, and there is no overlord on the grassland that is difficult for us to conquer. Lu Zhe glanced at the officials present with a blazing gaze: "Giving up such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we are destined to be cursed and despised by future generations." ”

It's really that kind of reason, the ancient pre-Qin Huaxia ethnic group did not complete the unification, and the Zhao dynasty was established with the ambition and strength of rapid outward expansion, but the first emperor only completed the goal of recapturing the Hetao and conquering Lingnan, and the Great Qin Empire after the death of the first emperor collapsed and collapsed in the civil strife.

After the Zhao dynasty, which had confidence and ambition to open up outward, was replaced by another dynasty. With the rise of the various alien races around the territory, it is also because the internal forces have not been maximized and utilized, and the Huaxia ethnic group really has no strength to expand outward.

It has lived up to the absolute superiority of the ethnic group itself. It also lived up to the status of the "Chosen People (Country)" given by God, and when he wanted to open up outward, he found that the surrounding alien races were no longer so easy to deal with. It is difficult to actively seek opportunities to expand outward. The territory of the Chinese ethnic group was limited to those lands occupied during the strongest period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was difficult to take a step outward, and in many cases, it was even compressed because they could not defeat the alien race.

"It took me ten years to start from scratch and set off from Yiling. It has Nanjun, Hengshan County, and Lujiang County...... Until the unification of the Warring States Period, the old land of Huaxia south of the Yangtze River captured several counties of Lingnan Land and won the land of the Baiyue tribes. Lu Zhe felt very powerful when he spoke: "After sending troops to the Central Plains, within two years, he took the vast land of Liaodong and Northern Xinjiang, including the Central Plains, and also recaptured the occupied Hetao from the Xiongnu and other Hu people. Not only that, but our army also invaded at least 1.8 million square miles from the Hu people. ”

Not? Lu Zhe is talking about the new counting unit of li, not one mile and three hundred meters in the ancient pre-Qin period, but one mile is five hundred meters. The imperial units of calculation have been renovated, and millimeters, centimeters, meters, miles, and kilometers have been used. In fact, then, Lü Zhe's expansion in the steppe encroached on 900,000 square kilometers of land from the steppe tribes.

Someone brought a scrolled map of the mountains and rivers, which was seven meters long and five meters wide, and the map of the territory of the empire included all the current territory of the empire, as well as the surrounding areas.

"Look here," Lu Zhe didn't know when he was already holding a wooden stick in his hand, he pointed to the location of the grassland: "We are only less than four hundred miles away from Wolf Juxu Mountain," and then pointed to the northwest area, "It's only two hundred miles away from Junji Mountain," he handed the wooden stick in his hand to Yan Bi next to him, and then said: "In the next five years, our army must take Wolf Juxu Mountain and Junji Mountain, including the land around them." ”

"Your Majesty, the Hu people in the depths of the grassland have gathered in large numbers to go south, if we can inflict heavy damage or even annihilate the Hu people who are heading south, maybe within two years we will be able to achieve the goal of expanding the territory to Wolf Juxu Mountain and Junji Mountain." Su Lie grinned widely.

Su Lie, who lacks heart, has always been in the forbidden army sequence, and has been the most Mei Li's deputy for a long time.

Mei Hong's current official position is the commander of the Zhonglang General's Army, and he commanded 50,000 forbidden troops to be stationed near Jiangling on the edge of Nanling City.

A large number of steppe Hu people went south, and many regiments of the Wehrmacht sequence moved northward one after another, and the number of regiments that had entered the combat position had reached 11, two of which were the 21st and 22nd mixed regiments that would be returned to Fusu in the future.

The regiments of the Wehrmacht stationed in the Central Plains, Liaodong, Northern Xinjiang, and Northwest were also ordered to prepare if the war on the grassland did not go well. They will go north as a second echelon to reinforce.

The 100,000 cavalry units in the original forbidden army were rebuilt into the 13th and 14th cavalry regiments under the Wehrmacht sequence, and a cavalry corps was recently formed after recruitment and reorganization of the forbidden army. Among the 150,000 forbidden troops, one cavalry corps is also preparing for reinforcements to the north, and the two mixed corps have not received orders to prepare for war for the time being.

Mei Kai is the commander of the Zhonglang General of the Cavalry Corps in the Forbidden Army, and he and Su Lie will be recalled to Nanling and enter the palace, it is Lu Zhe who needs the two of them to understand the recent affairs of Northern Xinjiang, and also requires the two to study the geography and climate of Northern Xinjiang.

Inflicting heavy losses or annihilating the Hu people in the south, the entire empire is operating at high speed, just to prepare for the upcoming great war. Grain from all over the south was being transported to the north in a steady stream, and workshops and factories in various places oiled and packaged all kinds of weapons produced by them and transported them to the north.

"We need more soldiers," Xiao He, who is in power, said for his own reasons: "We need to open up more land in the south, just 300,000 tuntian soldiers are not enough, we need at least 500,000 tuntian soldiers." ”

The empire's current grain reserves are quite large, but once the Great War in Northern Xinjiang begins, the grain reserves will definitely be consumed like flowing water, after the calculations of the ruling government. If the battle in the Northern Frontier cannot produce results within two years, the Empire's grain will reach the warning line, and if the Northern Frontier War lasts for more than two years, the Empire will have a food shortage.

"Unrealistic, right?" Kuaitong, of course, wants the military to expand its military. However, in many cases, the more soldiers, the better: "At present, there are more than 3 million registered soldiers in the military, and the regular soldiers of the 20 national defense forces and the three forbidden army sequences are 1.15 million, and there are 1.85 million auxiliary soldiers and second-line garrisons, not counting war materials and losses." The funds used to pay military salaries will be 1.7 million guan every month, or 2.07 million guan per year. ”

Every country allocates different military spending to the military in each period, and military spending will be reduced in peacetime. Military spending in times of war will be increased. The military expenditure allocated by the central government to the military is currently 20 million yuan per year, and in addition to the military salaries paid to the soldiers, these military expenditures also need to spend money on food, weapons, clothing, animal power, and so on.

"If the ruling government is willing to increase the annual military expenditure to 30 million yuan, the Taiwei Administration will agree to increase the number of soldiers." Kuai Tong looked a little scoundrel and smiled vigorously at Xiao He.

Xiao He immediately frowned, and scolded in a low voice: "It's really a lion's big mouth." ”

Lu Zhe was considering a new problem, as the Wehrmacht expanded the corps to twenty corps, the number was increased, but the combat effectiveness was reduced as a whole. Under the frequent wars, many newly formed regiments did not have enough time for training, and almost all of them were immediately mobilized to a certain war zone after the reorganization. Fortunately, the newly formed corps is selected from the auxiliary sequence, and has a certain tactical literacy and experience.

"Twenty corps is already the limit," Lu Zhe did not plan to expand the army again: "After the war in northern Xinjiang is over, the auxiliary troops and the second-line troops must also be re-planned, and the number of personnel in the army should be reduced as much as possible. ”

That is, in a specific social environment, the number of soldiers under Lu Zhe's command will exceed three million, and there will be such a huge number mainly because after the war, the people cannot accommodate too many idle people, so that so many young people are called unstable factors among the people, it is better to have a constraint on recruitment.

"It is good for the country to maintain a regular army of 1.2 million to 1.3 million is a reasonable number, and then to establish a proper reserve system, so that more qualified people can join the army when needed." Lu Zhe glanced at Kuaitong: "The regular army will take out the establishment of 300,000 to maintain the outward exploration war, and then cooperate with the rotation system, so that the whole army can have a real combat environment in the rotation." ”

That was a matter that had been discussed a long time ago, and that it was not necessary to maintain a huge army that could hardly cope with the national strength and manpower, but to establish a reserve system to ensure that there was a source of troops, and to maintain a certain army to constantly wage war.

Xiao He kept nodding, as long as there is no war in the local area, in fact, starting a war is a pretty good thing, because the war requires the purchase of quite a lot of materials, and a large number of orders will stimulate the private economy, which can digest the civilian labor force, and the speed of economic take-off will be extremely amazing. Then it can be said that as long as the homeland can be stabilized and the overall resources can be increased in foreign wars, war is not a bad thing.

"Donghu has sent envoys, they are discussing the feasibility of attacking the Xiongnu with us, and the Taiwei Department needs to judge whether Donghu wants to confuse us and make a corresponding response plan." Lu Zhe laughed a few times: "Maybe it's not a bad thing to use each other in the short term, just like we agreed and encouraged Parthia and Bactria to enter the Western Regions. ”

"The Western Regions are ours, Your Majesty." Kuaitong had always believed this, and was not so happy that Parthia and Bactria would extend their claws to the Western Regions: "Perhaps we should have acceded to the request from the Usun side." ”

The Wusun envoys arrived in Nanling three days ago and were received by Jing Ju from the Hongru Pavilion.

In order to win the interest of Lu Zhe in the alliance, the Wusun envoy brought more than 500 horses over, of which the stallion and the mare were divided in half, and it was proposed that the two sides could not only cooperate militarily, but also the people's trade would be in full swing.

"The Wusun people only hoped to eliminate the growing threat of the Xiongnu, and they did not show any ambition to unify the Western Regions. We need more excellent war horses from Wusun, and at least in five or even ten years, we also need a force that is friendly to us in the Western Regions, which can provide more aspects to reconnoiter the mountains, rivers, geography and customs of the Western Regions. Kuaitong had obviously been trying to convince Lu Zhe after careful consideration. (To be continued......)