The Cao clan and the Mi clan had long known that the actual control of the caravan was already in the hands of the emperor.

Cao Hong and Mi Zhu were only the nominal owners, endorsing the emperor and becoming the emperor's white gloves, and even they could not have the most profit share.

Mi resigned himself to his fate early in the morning.

Obediently stand up and accept the guidance, there is no objection, just lie down and take the money.

After some twists and turns, Cao Hong's side also obediently lay down, gave up the struggle, handed over control, and became a pawn of the emperor.

It is not wrong at all to say that the Cao clan caravan and the Mi clan caravan became the royal caravan in the hands of someone Guo.

Du Feng and Ma Yuan adhered to Guo Peng's will and brought the Cao caravan and the Mi caravan to Tiannan and Haibei to do business, but wherever Guo needed it, there were traces of the two caravans.

Now, it was the time when Guo Peng needed them.

"I have invested a lot of money in the training camp, and you know as you know, money is needed in all aspects at the moment, and I also plan to build an inland waterway from Luoyang to the south, which requires more money, and the national finances are already stretched, and I can't do it if I don't want to open source."

Guo Peng sighed: "You should know the importance of the silk trade route to me and to the Wei State, whether we can successfully open up this trade route, sell the goods, and earn more money is very important for me and the Wei State." ”

Du Feng and Ma Yuan nodded again and again.

"Your Majesty's meaning, I will understand."

"Well, now that the four counties of Hexi have been restored, I have sent people back to Liuzhong City to garrison, you can start to prepare, bring more goods to the Western Regions, contact and trade with the countries of the Western Regions, and in the process, carefully explore the actual situation of the countries in the Western Regions, internal and foreign affairs, and so on."

Guo Peng handed them another important person.

The two of them understood and nodded again and again.

"In addition to the Western Regions, some countries outside the Western Regions had better come into contact with them."

"Beyond the Western Regions? Your Majesty is talking about the kingdoms of Kushan and Sabbath? ”

Ma Yuan asked.

Guo Peng nodded.

"Although the countries of the Western Regions are numerous, most of the countries are very small, relatively, the population is also very small, and the ability to buy my Wei goods will not be very large.

So if you can trade with them, you should be able to sell a lot of things, after Ban Chao occupied the Western Regions, he once sent envoys all the way to the west, across the country of rest, to the country of Great Qin, it is said that the country of Great Qin is bigger than the country of rest, outside of China, there is such a big country, how can you not go to see and see? ”

Guo Peng smiled.

Ma Yuan and Du Feng were also excited about this.

Far away lands?

For a long time, Huaxia has not looked out to explore the outside world.

Among the courses they took in the camp was a subject called geography.

It not only tells the story of the famous mountains and rivers of the land of China and the climatic conditions of various places, but also tells the story of the Western Regions and some countries further west of the Western Regions.

They have built a different worldview from ordinary people, and they know that the world is big and they are small.

And these textbooks talk about the history of Ban Chao's subordinate Gan Ying crossing the Sabbath State to the Great Qin State.

Later, the Great Qin State also sent two missions to China, once during the reign of Emperor Han He and once during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and they also traveled thousands of miles to China.

I guess I want to open up a trade route, right?

The situation of the Roman Empire during this period was not clear, and he was not an all-knowing and all-powerful person.

He knew that this Great Qin was the Roman Empire, and that the Sabbatical Empire would not be replaced by the Persian Empire in a short time.

The rest, he really didn't know.

They all have a strong national power and a huge population, and naturally, they also have a strong spending power.

He didn't know what kind of emperor the other party was, what kind of system it was, and what the military, political, and economic situation was, and he also forgot everything about the other party's customs and the like.

The documents of the former Han Dynasty would not have left him such a sensitive record - what envoy would say that his country was troubled internally and externally?

Therefore, you still have to see it for yourself, explore it yourself, explore it, and live there.

Where the army can't reach for the time being, you can let the merchant travel go, this is the greatest value of the merchant travel, and it is also one of the reasons why Guo pulled up two imperial merchants.

To explore, to figure out, to make money!

Du Feng and Ma Yuan received Guo Peng's order and began to organize the resources and energy in their respective hands to form a joint caravan.

This will be an unprecedentedly large number of joint caravans to join the west, an unprecedented super-large caravan expedition to the west.

In order to ensure the safety of the combined caravan, Guo mobilized two squads of the forbidden army with a total of 100 people to join the joint caravan, and then transferred eight squads from the guards with a total of 400 people to join the joint caravan.

Guo assigned this caravan a total of ten squads of 500 military forces.

A military force of this magnitude is really not small for a caravan.

With the strength of the Wei army and the actual national strength of those small countries in the Western Regions, an army of five hundred people was enough to wipe out more than half of the small countries in the Western Regions.

As the head of the combined caravan, Ma Yuan personally went to the Western Regions to open up the Western Regions trade routes, and then went all the way west, to the Anxi Empire and the Kushan Empire, to contact them, and inquire about the "Great Qin", that is, the Roman Empire.

The military force will be under the command of Ma Yuan.

In addition to the 500 professional soldiers who had full marine equipment, each merchant traveler involved in the operation was assigned a protective sword.

The trade route was long and unpredictable, so everyone had to be armed, and once they encountered the enemy, they would enter into militarization in an all-round way and accept the protection and command of the army.

Ma Yuan received professional military training in the training camp, and the army of 500 people was also led by its own officers, so the military force could be guaranteed to command.

And then there was the large entourage of caravans.

This time, the joint caravan went west, mainly carrying a relatively large amount of gold and silver, which was the most handy commodity in the Central Plains.

For example, a large number of porcelain, pottery, lacquerware, as well as bronze, bronze mirrors, are great works of art, art and practicality, as well as the famous Shu brocade, silk book painting, gold, silver and jade.

Then there are all kinds of men's and women's clothes, hats, shoes, dishes and chopsticks for eating, cups for drinking, barbecue utensils, iron pots, musical instruments unique to the Central Plains, bamboo slips and books, and so on.

All-inclusive, all lacking, not to mention the local products of the Central Plains, and even the leather products and bone products of the nomads - it is difficult to pay tribute.

A considerable share of each was prepared for Ma Yuan to sell along the way according to the actual situation, but it was still necessary to keep some for use when entering the Rest Empire or the Kushan Empire.

The small countries of the Western Regions used to be vassal states of the Han Empire, and they did not need much respect in the legal sense, but countries like Guishan and Anxi, with populations of millions and hundreds of thousands of troops, were not so easy to be vassal states.

This is the significance of Guo Peng's establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

These larger countries need to live together peacefully and equally, do business with harmony, make money with harmony, and maintain a relatively normal long-term trade partnership.

Anyway, Guo didn't think about sending troops to destroy Guishan and rest in peace.

Unless they call, then they need to fight back, as long as they don't move, Guo doesn't want to move.

The distance is too long, the logistics are too difficult, it is better to do business.

As for what kind of production and construction corps or something, it may be quite meaningful, and Guo plans to try it in some places.

Now look at the goods of these caravans, the quantity and variety are staggering, but none of them are superfluous.

To show the wealth and abundance of the Central Plains Empire, it depends on them.

A large number of mules and horses and a large number of carts, the entourage exceeded 4,000 people.

Not only are there soldiers and businessmen, but Guo Peng also set up doctors and cooks with the team, and some handymen.

Lin Lin finally exceeded 4,000 people, which is quite a large scale.

There aren't too many people, but when you count the cargo trucks, the scale is quite terrifying.

Since the former Han Dynasty passed through the Western Regions, there have been caravans of this scale that have set off from Luoyang to the Western Regions.

This is the first time, and it deserves to be recorded once in the history books.

At the same time, I don't know what rumors I heard, and some family caravans behind the DPRK and China officials also asked for connections in the hope that they could bring their own caravans to join the joint business operation, hoping to get permission.

There are many people who seek this possibility, although not all, some people still have doubts about it, but there are also many people who ask to participate, so this question is placed in front of Guo Peng.

Guo Peng thought about it and felt that this would be good, it would attract the eyes of these people to the outside a little, and it could also reduce their obsession with domestic land a little.

If you look outward, you can relatively reduce your attachment to the country, and it is also a different kind of good for the domestic Li Shu.

So Guo chose fifty-six families from the list that had always performed better, and allowed their caravans to join the combined caravan.

But the premise is that you must completely obey Ma Yuan's orders and follow Ma Yuan's rules, otherwise if there is any problem during the journey, Ma Yuan will be killed, and you can't be aggrieved.

All the families agreed.

So in this way, the caravans of these families also joined the joint caravan, paid the deposit, prepared the manpower, and prepared the goods, and for a time the traffic inside and outside Luoyang City was crowded.

In this way, the number of people in the combined caravan quickly swelled from four thousand to seven thousand, and the scale was even larger.

"Your Majesty, the caravan is too large to manage, do you want to send some generals or officials to accompany you?"

Ma Yuan put forward such an idea, trying to use the bureaucratic model or the military model to manage the caravan, otherwise there would be a real problem if the number of people was too large and went a little further.

Guo Peng thought about it for a while and felt that what Ma Yuan said made sense.

In the face of such a situation, in order to facilitate unified management, Guo Peng specially awarded Ma Yuan the rank of lieutenant, and also awarded him Fu Jie, confirming his leadership position for the entire caravan.

And basically use the rules of the army to manage and restrain this team, in order to help Ma Yuan manage, Guo Peng also specially selected five senior military judges to join the caravan, specifically responsible for trying illegal things and executing lawless people.

Make sure that this combined caravan will have a unified command on the way and will not fall apart.

Guo Peng let Ma Yuan announce all the rules in advance, if you are willing to accept it, join it, don't follow if you don't want to accept it, you will make trouble if you follow, and don't blame anyone if you are beheaded.

Say the ugly things in front, everyone has a point in their hearts, and if something really happens when the time comes, deal with it according to the rules, and the rest of the people will not panic.

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