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With the surrender of Qiuzi and the demise of Shule, Khotan, the only one left, was unable to support itself, and it suddenly collapsed under the attack of Wang Maide and Fuqu Nancheng.

After the Great War, the Hexi Army carried out a brutal purge of the royal families of the Western Regions.

A large number of royal men were systematically killed, leaving only a few nobles and ordinary people.

So far, the vast territory east of the Green Mountains and the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains belong to Hexi.

However, this does not mean that everything is fine, and how to maintain stability in the Western Regions and achieve long-term peace and stability is the biggest problem.

The geographical environment of the Western Regions is very special, the climate is dry, most of them are uninhabited deserts and Gobi, and the environment is very harsh.

It is only in some low-lying places that underground rivers gush out of the ground, forming oases.

Almost all the people of the Western Regions live in an oasis.

The way of life of the oasis civilization is different from that of the two major civilizations of agriculture and nomadism.

And the special thing about the oasis is that in this small piece of land, the difference in water volume can be very large.

The water content near the water source is very high, and the land can be cultivated into fertile land.

The farther away from the water source, the drier the land becomes, and to a certain extent, only pasture grass grows.

And in the most remote places, only the desert remains.

In order to maximize the use of land resources, people naturally choose to farm in places with the most abundant water resources and graze in relatively arid places.

Therefore, the production mode of the oasis civilization is a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry, and because of the limited area of the oasis, the animal husbandry in the area is not like the nomadic people who graze by the water, but can only be confined to the inside of the oasis.

Another special feature of the Oasis Civilization is that the distance between the oases and the oases is very long.

Compared with the desert and the Gobi in the entire Western Regions, the oasis occupies a very small proportion of the area.

The distances between oases and oases are enormous, often reaching hundreds of miles.

In the middle are deserts and Gobi deserts, and the environment is harsh, and it is very dangerous to walk back and forth.

In other words, the cost of transportation between oases is extremely high.

So most of the oases have a self-sufficient economic model and have little interaction with other oases.

Because of the limited size of the oases, the food that can be produced is very limited, and there are few troops that can be supported.

Even the power of the entire Western Regions could not provide enough supplies for a certain number of troops to travel between the vast desert and the Gobi Desert.

And this is precisely the fundamental reason why the Western Regions was divided into dozens of small countries in history, but it has never been able to form a unity.

The Central Plains Empire will face the same problem when it tries to control the Western Regions.

In the same way that the Central Plains Empire could not occupy the grasslands for a long time, the oases produced limited food, and it was also impossible for the Central Plains Empire to station a large number of troops in the Western Regions for a long time.

Even if each oasis is forcibly occupied, the garrison will eventually become a new small country on its own due to the inaccessibility of the oases between them.

Therefore, in history, those who ran the Western Regions mostly used the means of diplomatic relations to entrap them, and rarely occupied them directly.

In other words, the rule of the Central Plains Empire in the Western Regions was different from that in the agricultural areas.

There was no extensive system of counties and counties, and there were no officials stationed in various places to rule directly, but only a few important strongholds.

The rest of the country is ruled indirectly by small vassals, and the status of the Central Plains Empire in the Western Regions is somewhat similar to that of the Wulin Alliance.

However, relying on diplomatic relations can certainly allow the countries of the Western Regions to follow the banner of the Central Plains Empire, but this method often treats the symptoms rather than the root cause.

Whenever there was turmoil in the Central Plains, the Western Regions would break away from China and stand on its own.

Even if the two Han Dynasty have Dingyuan Hou Banchao operating for 30 years, there will still be turmoil.

……

"Dadu Protector, victory, victory, Western Expeditionary Army victory."

"Congratulations to Daduhu, I just received an urgent report from the scouts that the Western Expeditionary Army has taken a large area of territory east of Green Ridge."

"Really? Bring the emergency report to Shuo and take a look! ”

Wei Shuo hurriedly took the urgent report handed over by Frustrated Meng Xun, opened it and quickly browsed it.

Sure enough, it was written in detail the process of Wang Maide and Du Jin destroying the countries of the Western Regions.

"Good! In this way, the Western Regions will completely belong to our Hexi. ”

Wei Shuo excitedly said to everyone: "Since Zhang Qian's passage to the Western Regions, the countries of the Western Regions have always rebelled. ”

"Although the two Han Dynasty have Dingyuan Marquis who has been running the Western Regions for 30 years, there are still inevitable turmoil breaking out."

"Hexi resolutely can't follow the old path of the previous dynasty, I don't know if you can have a plan to teach Shuo, so as to make the Western Regions an inherent territory of China."

"My lord, in addition to the influence of external forces, a large reason for the rebellion in the Western Regions in history is the decline of the Central Plains Dynasty."

"As long as Huaxia remains strong, the Western Regions will hardly dare to betray."

"Hehe, it is impossible for any dynasty to remain prosperous for a long time, there will always be a day of decline."

"Please also speak freely, how can we ensure that the Western Regions are subordinate to China when the dynasty is in decline?"

"Only in this way can we fundamentally prevent the Western Regions from descending and rebelling."

As soon as most of the capital's words came out, everyone fell into deep thought.

I don't know how long it took, but I saw Liu Muzhi Huo Ran get up.

He arched his hand and said loudly: "My lord, the minister thinks that there are three main reasons why rebellions often occur in the land of the Western Regions. ”

"First, the local people in the Western Regions have a unique cultural and civilization inheritance, and they are fundamentally different from the Central Plains culture, and they only have admiration for China, but they have no sense of belonging."

"When China was strong, the countries of the Western Regions attached themselves to China one after another, whether from security considerations or from an economic point of view."

"Once China declines, due to the lack of a sense of belonging in the Western Regions, it will choose to betray again and again."

"Second, the Central Plains Dynasty never regarded the Western Regions as a part of China, and only compared the countries in the Western Regions to the barbarian tribe, which was difficult to educate."

"Because we don't pay enough attention to it, we naturally won't bother to operate and manage."

"And if there is no effective management anywhere, there will inevitably be turmoil."

"Third, the important reason for the frequent rebellion in the Western Regions is also the geographical influence."

"The desertification of the Western Regions is very serious, and the cost of direct management in the Central Plains Dynasty is too high, so extensive management can only be adopted."

"Okay, Dao He is a good point, and he explained the difficulties of running the Western Regions very thoroughly."

After giving Liu Muzhi a high evaluation, Wei Shuo's voice changed: "Since it is so difficult to run the Western Regions, why does Pontus still insist on it? ”

"To think about this issue, we need to consider it from a grand strategic perspective. Because the operation of the Western Regions has never been a local issue, but a global one. ”

"For China, passing through the Western Regions is not only a need for foreign trade."

"It is more important to prevent and combat the harassment and invasion of northern nomads by building a favorable surrounding security environment."

"Since its birth, the Chinese nation has always faced the threat of northern nomads."

"The Western Regions have now become the strategic flank of the Central Plains against the northern nomads."

"With victory, the Central Plains Dynasty can not only eliminate the nomadic threat, but also develop westward to maintain the security of the Silk Road."

"Therefore, how to manage the Western Regions well will be a major strategic issue to maintain the survival and development of the Central Plains Dynasty."

"As for the three major problems just mentioned, Shuo thinks that they can be solved from several aspects."

"The first step: destroy the country, eliminate its rituals, and strangle all the factors that sprout rebellion in the cradle."

"In fact, Maide and Du Shi are being implemented as planned, and the backbone of the rebellion has always been some nobles and descendants of the royal family."

"Like some ordinary people, they don't care who is the king, as long as the family has food and drink."

"Step 2: We must reverse the outside world's understanding of the Western Regions."

"All of you here are well-educated people, and it shouldn't be difficult to write an article."

"Next, Shuo hopes that everyone will publish more articles in the newspaper that discuss the importance of the Western Regions."

"From now on, if anyone dares to mention that the Western Regions are barbarian lands, don't blame Shuo for not remembering the old feelings."

"Say hello to the newspapers in the name of the Metropolitan Protectorate, and you are not allowed to publish any more articles that belittle the importance of the Western Regions in the future."

"From now on, the people in Hexi will regard the Western Regions as the inherent territory of China, which is as important as the Central Plains and Guanzhong."

"Step 3: Improve traffic conditions!"

"Inconvenient transportation is indeed an important factor restricting the stability of the Western Regions, but now that Hexi has such a sharp weapon as cement, what are you afraid of geographical inconvenience?"

"At present, the straight road from Gaochang to Shangtai is about to be completed, and then we will continue to build the straight road to the west until it reaches the foot of the green ridge."

"When the Northland is unified in the future, we will extend the straight east to the sea."

"In this way, a major artery running through the east and west will greatly strengthen the government's control over the local government."