"This is Chang'an, the imperial capital of the Han Empire?"

After a month and a half of long journey, Julian can be regarded as looking at Chang'an City in the distance.

As the capital, the first capital without a city wall to protect was Xianyang, Shang Ying did not plan to build a city wall during the founding of the city, because he felt that the Qin State should be an offensive country, and then there was no strong enemy in the west, and there were Hangu Pass and Yuguan Pass as a barrier in the east.

Today's Chang'an, as the second capital without a city wall, is Liu Yan's belief that the Han State should be an offensive country, but he has not forgotten the reliance on Tongguan, Yaoguan and Lantian Pass.

With the Qin Empire being driven straight into the Qin Dynasty without danger, Qin III led a hundred officials to surrender, and Liu Yan did not build a city wall in the capital, which was met with strong opposition.

The opponents did not dare to directly say that the descendants were not filial and had no way to manage the challenge, but they listed some very positive points to emphasize that the capital must have a city wall, or a city wall that is so majestic that there is no limit, but they were broken by reality, and the power of gunpowder said that no matter how majestic the city wall is, it will not be of any use.

The real situation is that since the gunpowder was studied, no matter how majestic the city wall is, it is also a matter of measuring how much gunpowder can blow up, and the city wall built with huge manpower and material resources will collapse after a "boom", what is the use of building?

Weapons will continue to evolve with each passing day, and if there are already front-loading bronze cannons, maybe in a few years or decades, there will be rear-loading artillery, and even more powerful weapons, and it would be extremely unreliable to build walls as barriers.

Choosing a dangerous place and building some satellite fortresses is a reliable choice.

I've never seen a fort group built in a fortress, but I've never seen a city where the walls were built according to the specifications of a fort fort group.

Julian saw a city unprotected by walls, but the area was exaggerated, and he had a sense of the neatly planned buildings that could be seen from afar, and the road plans that could be discerned from afar.

"What kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder does the Han people seem to have?" Flavies stared intently at the city in the distance: "They are particular about everything neatly, and they regard all chaos as a representative of no order? ”

Everyone remembered what they had seen and heard in the Han Kingdom, there is no need to say that the soldiers did not need to say, and the civilians also had deep military habits, such as the city or the countryside can often see people walking in groups according to the formation, and there will be no such thing without forming habits.

Their impression of the order pursued by the Han people was built up bit by bit, and it may not be that everyone understands what the order represents, but they can guess how many trained soldiers can be gathered just by looking at the Han people.

You can see those towering buildings in Chang'an from a long distance, how tall do you have to be to tell the towering!

It is not very high, the highest is only thirteen floors, three-story houses are the mainstream, and only the mansions of some dignitaries rarely appear more than two-story buildings.

Commoners like to build houses three stories high, because they can own as much land as they can, and if they don't build higher, they will inevitably not have enough rooms.

The residences of dignitaries occupy a large area, and there is no need to build the house into multiple floors, and even build a garden pond or something.

But it doesn't mean that the mansions of dignitaries and nobles don't have towering buildings, Liu Yan is used to climbing high and looking far, they will regard climbing high and looking far away as a very high thing, even if they have a fear of heights, they often force themselves to go up to a high place to climb high and look far away, or it will be interpreted as not learning from the good example of the Son of Heaven.

The envoy team set out from Jiankang, and they took the national highway that was still under construction.

When passing the Yangtze River Bridge, one of the international friends was shocked by the generosity of the Han people, and they had never seen a bridge across the river with a length of more than a kilometer. Although the Yangtze River Bridge is supported by an island in the middle, the kilometer bridge is still an epic project for them, and anyone who sees it will be stunned and shocked.

The Yangtze River Bridge they saw was built on the bones of slaves, and more than 30,000 slaves were lost in the construction of the bridge alone, and hundreds of Han Chinese were sacrificed, mainly in the construction of the bridge piers.

The piers were built by filling in the soil to increase the height of the riverbed, and then erecting giant trees as support points, with piers every 15 meters.

It is not simply to fill the riverbed, but to build iron cages to fill the mud and stones, transport them by boat and unload them, and complete it bit by bit.

Although the project of the Yangtze River Bridge has some opinions from Liu Yan, it is more that the craftsmen use their own wisdom to conceive.

Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, many things that the ancients could do, even if modern times have such high technology, but modern people still can't do what the ancients could do.

For example, the Yanjin Stone Bridge (also called the Jianjin Bridge) across both sides of the Great River (Yellow River), which was built at the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty and perfected by the Eastern Han Dynasty, was used until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms before being destroyed.

To say that the existence of the Yangtze River Bridge is enough to blind the eyes of international friends, shocking their brains into tofu scum, and the various things they see along the way are challenging their cognition.

In ancient times, there was no such thing as building roads before you want to get rich, but a similar view certainly exists.

The central center conceived and revised the construction of a national highway across the east, west, south and north of the mainland, and the total length from Jiankang to Tongguan reached 3,200 li, which is equivalent to "putting" a long and exaggerated passage from the northwest to the southeast in the mainland.

Three thousand two hundred miles? That's about 1,100 Rome, which runs from the western tip of Spain to the eastern border (probably Luxembourg).

The Romans famously said that "all roads lead to Rome", but there is no road that leads directly to Rome. It is an exaggeration to say that the widest road in Rome can have four or five meters, and the basic specification of the national highway on the Han side is eighteen meters wide.

For international friends, when they learned that the Han people were building two avenues across the border, they had no other ideas than being dumbfounded or dumbfounded at the first time they heard it.

What they saw along the way could understand why there were villages and towns and large cities on both sides of the roads that connected the northwest and southeast of the country, depending on the ease of transportation.

Only by personally walking from Jiankang at seven o'clock in the southeast to Tongguan, the end point in the northwest, will you have the most intuitive impression of this huge project.

From a military point of view, there is such a road, from the northwest or southeast to transfer troops, even if it is not a desperate rush, it will definitely be able to reach in a month, and the road will become an important part of the central control place, there is such a road, as long as the center is not rotten to the end, any rebellion is self-defeating.

From an economic point of view, then a road is the flow of goods, the mother no longer has to worry about her son getting lost, the father will be happy that the road is safe and secure, and the speed of delivery will be extremely fast!

"It's an epic project!" Kesias is not only talking about the construction of two national highways for the Han people, but also about Chang'an City: "I heard that it only took three years for the Han people to build this huge city that is destined to remain famous for thousands of years? ”

In fact, the general construction of the city took only one year and three months, and the construction of some epic wonders was difficult and increased the time consumed.

The so-called epic spectacle refers to the palace clusters, and there are also places that will be used in various ceremonies, the most difficult being the stadium with a capacity of 100,000 spectators.

The closer you get, the more you can't get a panoramic view of Chang'an City, but you will be more shocked by some of the buildings.

"What's that building that looks like a winged beetle?" Ksiaias didn't know how many times he had been stunned since he came to Han: "Also...... Too...... It's too big! ”

What the hell is a winged beetle? That is, the top of the gymnasium cannot be closed by solid building materials, and can only make the blocking pattern to the greatest extent, and when necessary, it can only rely on the giant cloth to form a covering effect.

After all, the stadium is capable of accommodating 100,000 spectators, and its main building must be very large, plus the square and some minor buildings, it occupies a wider area.

Closer, closer and closer, but they were puzzled by the fence walls they saw.

"This is the capital of the Han Empire...... Walls? Julian was talking about the fence walls: "The height is only two meters at most, is there any military value?" ”

Neither of the same foreign groups could give Julian an an answer, and they could not have imagined that the fences were either used to prevent people or animals from running around.

The roads outside the city lead directly into the city, but they are not for people to enter and exit casually, and there are still gates at the entrance to the city.

There is no entry tax in the Han Kingdom, and it is necessary to go to a special place to buy and sell goods, and the tax is also generated in the market, and the role of the gate is to target the team with a large number of people.

In addition, for the purpose of cultivating and recuperating the people, if the villagers sell things, they do not have to pay taxes if they sell things in small quantities.

In fact, even if the government wants to collect taxes, it is impossible to keep an eye on everyone, so it is better to directly provide convenience to the common people.

The team of international friends is very large, and Wang Meng, who led the way, naturally cannot take them through the normal passage, otherwise it should affect the normal entry of ordinary people, and the route chosen is a special road for the army to enter the city.

"At least fifteen steps wide!" The step that Flavies said was a Roman step, and the step was about one meter and forty-nine centimeters, that is, the width was more than twenty meters: "I suddenly remembered that the Han people have a kind of paranoia about the road, and they must be wide enough, and they are divided into left and right lanes!" ”

This is something to be proud of, in addition to the Han people in the current world, the rest of the countries and races are not divided into left and right lanes, if there are more people, they will definitely mix, collision and pushing are inevitable, and blockages are also common.

"I'm not concerned about this ......," said Kesias in a strange puzzlement, "Didn't the Han Empire arrange a welcoming ceremony for us?" ”