Happy New Year's Day, dear friends!

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"Where are the legations now?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the last news that came was that we had entered the territory of Pu Country and were temporarily staying in Gaochang. Baron Liu asked the center for instructions, because the snow is relatively large, he implores him to stay in Gaochang, when the weather permits, and then set off. ”

"Gaochang?"

Lu Zhe didn't have much of a concept of where Pu was in the country, but he had a little impression of Gao Chang. If he remembers correctly, Gaochang should be quite close to Dunhuang with the Tang Dynasty, is it the first or second stop for the Tang Dynasty to control the Western Regions?

Of course, it's hard to say whether there is a Tang Dynasty now, but it is still a thousand years away from that time.

The Western Regions were developed by the Han Dynasty, and China's control of the Western Regions was intermittent, and when it was strong, it was able to expand its sphere of influence to the Western Regions, and once the Central Plains was in chaos, it would lose control of the Western Regions.

Is the empire strong? In the eyes of many, the empire is now powerful, and it has completed the unification of the "world" in just over ten years, and even opened up a large territory in Lingnan and further south, and the empire has also set foot on the ocean to occupy many huge islands, who can say that the empire is not strong?

But in Lu Zhe's opinion, this is far from enough, if you calculate according to the territory area of the Celestial Empire in the later generations, the Heilongjiang region in the northeast, part of the grassland area in Inner Mongolia, the plateau in the west, and even the Western Regions have not yet been mastered, how can it be regarded as truly powerful?

Lu Zhe hoped that during his lifetime, he would be able to occupy at least the territory of the Later Celestial Empire on the mainland, and if possible, even go further. On the ocean, he wanted to completely control the "worm" in the east of the mainland, and also occupy a large number of islands in the southeast sea, so that the Japanese Islands and Luzon Islands would become a sacred and inseparable part of the empire.

"Traffic is a big problem......

"Huh? What did Your Majesty say? ”

Transportation is indeed a big problem, in fact, it is not that the imperial dynasties of the Chinese dynasties have not been able to expand even more. It is because of the inconvenient relationship of transportation, even if it is expanded, it is difficult to control, resulting in many sites being named and occupied but unable to be effectively used, and will be quickly lost due to the inconvenience of transportation.

In fact, without the means of long-distance instant communication, it is impossible for the center to know the place at all times. Without fast transportation, even if you know that something is wrong somewhere, such as rebellion, self-reliance, etc., there is no way to get the army into battle immediately. This gives rise to the phrase "beyond the reach of the whip", which speaks for itself.

In addition, it is like repeated imperial military operations against the steppes. As the army's battle line lengthened, the supply line became weaker and weaker, and that was a kind of restriction on transportation. Once the supply line is unstable, the morale of the army is one thing, and if you lose food and grass, you should collapse without a fight, and if you have an external force to push it again, you will wait to be slaughtered.

"At the beginning of the empire, we could hire a large number of Qiantou to carry out local construction, and wait for the situation to settle down, but it is not so easy to hire on a large scale." Lu Zhe is talking about the psychology of the people's minds. He added: "After that, we can only rely on prisoners of war to build roads, so how much can be done depends on how many aliens can be captured by the army to open up." ”

There were many people who were summoned into the palace by Lu Zhe, but there were not many who could understand what Lu Zhe said.

Luo Shao is the new lieutenant. He couldn't let the emperor have a cold spot when he talked about military affairs, so he followed the topic and said: "The steppe dispatch army has been combing the plains beyond Nuoshui, and the Southern Expeditionary Army and the navy have also been arresting foreign races. There was a pause, as if to recall something. Then he continued: "Last quarter, the grassland dispatch army transferred more than 10,000 Hu people to the interior, and the Southern Expeditionary Army and the navy also captured more than 30,000 Nanban and more than 8,000 savages respectively. ”

The army has always had "advances" in its outward expansion, and they are pursuing the capture of aliens when conditions permit. It would be so, the empire is really quite short of labor right now. Some dangerous work, such as mining and road construction, will always cause accidental casualties while working. Empire people need to be compensated for casualties, and slaves die when they die, so there are too many mines and infrastructure that need to use slaves.

Luo Shao is actually not very familiar with the north, he has always been responsible for the development of the south, seeing that Lu Zhe is still pondering, he said with a smile: "The southern jungle is full of savages, and the southern expeditionary army has continued to penetrate into the Jiaozhi generation, and many savage tribes have also been found in the northwest of Jiaozhi. ”

Cochin is the Vietnam of later generations, and now there is a group of Sha Minh people living there. There are also many ethnic groups to the north of Cochin, and it is not clear what the name of those ethnic groups is the empire, but the number of them is really not small.

The invasion of the Sha Ying people against the empire was relatively confused at first, and even the imperial army that appeared with friendliness, but as the number of troops in the imperial army continued to increase, the Sha Ying people finally came back a little, and before they could expel them, the imperial army first lifted the veil of mildness in disguise, and the two sides switched from "chattering" to speaking with sharp weapons.

What would a Stone Age race look like when faced with an army armed to the teeth? There is no doubt that the Stone Age tribes were defeated, village after village was invaded and plundered, the tribes were captured as slaves, and the land was occupied.

The vanguard of the Southern Expeditionary Army, which was now in charge of the development of the Cochin, had already marched the farthest troops into the vicinity of Yen Chau in modern Vietnam, where the first bridgehead had been established and a port was under construction.

The Nanyang Fleet also duly cooperated with the Southern Expeditionary Force, and they continued to explore and land along the coastline, and each time they achieved good results. However, the main goal of the South Sea Fleet is still to explore the islands of the ocean, and they have now begun to penetrate deep into Luzon, and as they go deeper, they find more and more things, such as the wild people living on the islands.

"Those wild people are generally not tall, that is, 1.4 to 1.5 meters, and it is difficult to do any rough work. The ruling government meant to send them to the Wajima by a fleet, where the gold and silver mines found were suitable for the work of small slaves. Luo Shao said and looked at Xiao He.

"Governor Kuai sent an official letter that they had discovered a very large silver mine in the north of Kyushu Island, and according to the direct translation of the local indigenous accent, there was a place called Iwami, so it was named Iwami Silver Mine." Xiao He looked a little excited, and he said, "According to the exploration. The Doge's Office had a bold guess that the production of Iwami's silver mines alone would be enough to support the empire's initial monetary reforms. ”

Lu Zhe didn't react much, he just knew that the Japanese islands were rich in silver mines, so he would devote himself to developing the ocean fleet, and send people to land before the fleet was formed.

According to legend, the process of mining this silver mine lasted for more than 400 years, and its output accounted for more than one-third of the world in the 17th century.

The reserves of silver are huge, and whether they can be mined is a key issue, after all, it is not the 17th century. Many mining technologies have not yet been studied, so Lu Zhe has to ask how much can be mined each year with the current technology.

"We have urgently mobilized three engineering brigades to the Japanese Islands, and the relevant equipment is also being stepped up to catch up." Xiao He was more anxious than anyone else to mine Iwami's silver mines, and he knew very well what it meant to complete the reform of the currency when he was in power, and his desire to leave a mark on the history made him energetic: "Now for every shipload of equipment that is completed, we will transport a shipload over." In addition, there is also feedback from the Wajijima, and some of the Iwami Silver Mine is naked~ exposed on the surface, and they have begun to carry out preliminary operations. ”

Many of the precious metals in the Wa Islands are indeed naked~ on the surface. Generally, it appears in various waterways, and it does not take much effort to dig out golden sands and silver sand. This type of metal ore is also the easiest to refine, such as silver ingots and gold tripods that were shipped back in advance.

"Our garrison on the Wajima Islands is also marching further east to the mainland, and they have encountered a tribe in a place called Izumo by the locals." Luo Shao didn't know what he was laughing at, shook his head and said, "Those natives who call themselves Yayoi people, they are shocked when they meet our soldiers, and they kneel and bow down one by one. ”

"Yayoi?" Lu Zhe was a little interested. He asked, "How do you know that their name is Yayoi?" ”

"Among those savages, there are people who can speak Liaodong, and they claim to be Yan people who crossed the sea to the Wa Islands during the Warring States Period." Luo Shao said with some amusement: "There are not only Yan people, but even Chu people and Qi people. There are also Shendao people, Quwo people, Buyeo people, and Sanma (Han), and there are not a few people who have migrated in the past. ”

It's not nonsense, but in the long history, there have always been people who have crossed the ocean to the Wa Islands, and the people north of Liaodong have gone the most, and when they arrived at the Wa Islands, they landed in the Kyushu area first, and drove the natives further east of the archipelago when they competed with the local natives for living space.

When the imperial army landed in Kyushu, the landing force encountered most of the natives of the Wajima, but immigrants from Shendao, Quwo, Buyeo, and so on from the north of Liaodong. These hunter clans obviously knew about the existence of the Yanhuang Miao descendants, and they also knew what the landing of the Imperial army meant, and they were the first to attack the Imperial army.

There are also many Yanhuang Miao people in the Japanese Islands at present, and they are not very welcoming to the appearance of the Imperial army, but they are generally mild, not as aggressive as those hunter tribes.

Now is not the peak period for the Yanhuang Miao descendants to flee to the Japanese Islands, and the people who have lived there are all people who fled the sea to escape the war during the Warring States Period, and their habitats are relatively concentrated in the southwest of Kyushu Island.

It seems that there is a record that the peak period from the mainland to the Wa Islands was the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the war of the Han Dynasty was at its worst. And when the Sima Jin Kingdom collapsed, there were more people who fled from Wuhu Chaohua, and the most people fled to the land of Qilu.

It was almost the people who fled from the mainland who brought civilization to the Japanese islands, and then they evolved into a new ethnic group after a long intermarriage with the local natives, from the north of Liaodong and the Malay ethnic group.

By the time of the collapse of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was difficult to calculate the number of coastal cities and people who tried their best to go to the Japanese Islands in the south and southeast regions. At that time, the Japanese nobles had the habit of sending Japanese women to the mainland to find the Song people to "cross the species", and the heirs of the daimyo in various places were basically Song and Miao descendants. This was also one of the main reasons why the Wa State was hostile to the Mongol Yuan at that time, and there was even a remark that the Southern Song Dynasty would be destroyed without China. (Author's note: If you are interested, you can check it out)

What did Lu Zhe want to do when he first sent his army to land on the Japanese Islands? In addition to plundering precious metals, in fact, he went with a big ~ slaughter ~ killing.

The first army to land was indeed murderous and set foot on the Japanese Islands, but they were a little dumbfounded when they encountered the people on the Japanese Islands, and found that the people living around the landing site were not indigenous at all, they were simply people with the same living habits, and the massacre ~ killing was a bit unmanageable.

The real intelligence feedback made Lu Zhe angry and funny, he couldn't understand why the people could use simple ships to cross the sea to reach the Japanese Islands, and why the dynasties of all dynasties didn't think of conquering that place. In the end, he himself was a little abrupt, the Huaxia continent is vast and boundless, and the land on the land has not been able to complete the conquest, speaking of which, the Yanhuang Miao descendants are pure continental races, and the place they focus on is the land, how can they bother to explore the ocean, let alone conquer the Japanese islands.

"Our steppe operation schedule is next autumn?" Lu Zhe suddenly asked. He nodded when he got the answer: "At least seven months left?" I would like to take advantage of this time to go to the Wajima Islands and actually investigate them. ”

Several ministers present were a little dumbfounded, they were not against the emperor's patrol, but they didn't understand how the patrol would choose the Japanese islands. You must know that the "world" has just been decided, and even if the emperor is on patrol, he should choose the locality, or proclaim the place, or show his majesty, whether it is thunder or rain and dew, he should always take care of the local first.

There is nothing to object to the emperor's tour, because there are already many examples in the past. Now is not the next few dynasties, the kings of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties have the practice of annual patrols, it is the kings to see the actual situation of their own territories with their own eyes, and the ministers are in some ways very much in favor of the king's patrols, using what they see and hear to understand the country they rule, but fortunately some administrative strategies can be practical.

After Qin unified the "world", the first emperor also went out on patrol from time to time, and there were no problems with the state administration during the tour. However, whether it is Xia, Shang, Zhou, or Qin, the rulers are all patrolling the territory, so ...... (To be continued.) )