Cao Cao was sent away, and Liu Bei also went to Qiangdi a few days later to take up his post. With these two great heroes in the world, one in the east and one in the west, Liu Wei also began to focus on the post-war recovery of the Chang'an region.

Due to Liu Wei's swift and appropriate handling of the rebellion of Li Wei and Guo Yan, Chang'an and the Sanfu region were not as devastating as they were in their original history.

However, under the danger of the army, there are still certain losses, especially in the area around Chang'an. (Most of them were destroyed by Zhong Xuan himself) but generally speaking, the loss is relatively small, and it is not very difficult to recover.

It's just that what Liu Wei is planning is not only to restore Chang'an to the pre-war level, but to build Chang'an into an international metropolis with a highly developed economy and culture. In Liu Wei's big plan, this will become the starting station for the Han Dynasty to go to the world.

If you want to build roads first, Liu Bian, who is a man in two lifetimes, still knows this wise saying. The reason why Rome was able to become a prosperous empire spanning the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe was not unrelated to its well-developed road network. The so-called all roads lead to Rome, which is exactly what it means. Therefore, if you want to build Great Chang'an, Liu Bian's first step is to build roads.

A large route from Luoyang to Chang'an was under intense construction by nearly 30,000 captured Xiliang rebels. This was the first real national highway in the Han Empire, and Liu Wei promised the prisoners of war that they would be free once the road was built. It's just that I didn't expect that this road was getting longer and longer, crossing Chang'an, crossing Liangzhou, and going west along the Silk Road, becoming the longest highway in Dahan and even the world. It was not finished until Liu Wei's death.

Five years later, these prisoners of war were freed, some were reinstated as good citizens, some joined the imperial army, and many more stayed to continue to build roads, becoming the first batch of road builders in the Han Empire.

The material used to build the road, Liu Wei chose the extremely modern asphalt concrete, rather than the bluestone material commonly used in road construction in this era.

The paving project with bluestone materials is slow, and there are many difficulties in mining, transportation, construction and subsequent maintenance, and the cost is very high. The asphalt concrete does not have so many defects as bluestone materials, and most of the highways in later generations are asphalt roads.

Generally, asphalt materials are mainly generated by coking by-products - coal coke asphalt and petroleum asphalt, the residue produced after petroleum distillation, as well as natural asphalt mines in nature.

The first two are more cumbersome, and the rest of the asphalt mining looks like a good option. The only difficulty is that people have not yet realized the importance of asphalt as an engineering material, and there are huge difficulties in mining.

Where to mine and how to mine, this seemingly difficult problem can be easily solved in front of Liu Bian.

Liu Wei knew that there was an asphalt mine with a storage capacity of 10 million tons near Jiameng County in Guanghan County. Some of the asphalt ore has the characteristics of high softening point, and the quality is particularly good.

The reason why Liu Wei knew it was not because his perverted memory remembered the distribution of all the mineral deposits in the country, but because Jiameng County has always been a very famous place in Liu Wei's memory.

The first Xiongguan Jianmen Pass in Shuzhong is adjacent to Jiameng County, and the place where Zhang Fei picks up the lights and fights Ma Chao at night in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is Jiameng Pass. And the reason why Liu Wei remembered this place is that more than a thousand years later, Jiameng County became Guangyuan City, which is rich in oranges.

A problem caused by food safety made Liu Wei, who loves oranges, remember this city that was originally unknown in his previous life. Concerned people checked the information of this city on the Internet, and naturally saw that there was a huge asphalt ore body here and something called Jiameng County during the Han Dynasty.

Liu Wei, who had long been interested in building roads, sent a large amount of manpower and material resources into Jiameng County, Yizhou to explore asphalt ore bodies on the spot before the Xiliang Rebellion. Since no one in this era had ever seen the appearance of asphalt mines, the members of the coordination agency sent by Liu Bian adopted a very clumsy but effective method to bring back all the asphalt mines that met Liu Bian's description to Liu Bian.

The next thing is easy to do, the people of the unified investigation agency disguised themselves as Taoists and took the correct samples of asphalt ore to find the villagers near the mine, and used alchemy as a cover to buy a large amount of asphalt ore at a low price - not at a high price, otherwise it will be too noticeable. Induce the villagers to take the initiative to mine asphalt ore themselves.

The purchased asphalt ore is refined into asphalt and mixed with gravel to make asphalt concrete and paved on the road, which is tamped by road builders with wooden piles.

The roads were repaired, and commerce naturally developed. While building the road, in order to raise funds for post-war recovery, Liu Wei held a conference in Chang'an to attract investment.

In Liu Wei's future plan, the development of business is also a very important part.

The commercial activities of the Eastern Han Dynasty were much more prosperous than those of the Western Han Dynasty, and the expansion of the size and number of cities, the development of salt and iron sales, the increase in the variety of commodities and a certain amount of foreign trade all made the commerce of the Eastern Han Dynasty have made a great progress.

However, the Eastern Han Dynasty still inherited the Western Han Dynasty's policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", and commerce was still regarded as the last industry in society, although the status of merchants was higher than in the Western Han Dynasty—at least not like killing merchants and pigs like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. However, the hierarchical hierarchy of Shinong and industry and commerce has gradually become clear, and the Shidafu group is in the dominant position in society, and the manor economy of the wealthy landlords represented behind it occupies the main economic body of the Han Empire.

The vast majority of the capital from commercial activities in the Eastern Han Dynasty eventually flowed to land, and many merchants used the profits from business to buy land, rather than carrying out commercial cycles. These merchants were not pure businessmen, they only did business as a means of accumulating capital, and eventually wanted to join the dominant class of society, the scholar group.

This deformed commercial development also became one of the reasons for the serious land annexation in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, wars were frequent, and commercial activities were seriously affected. The merchants have shifted their capital to the land, an economic entity that can be seen and touched. This exacerbated the continued deterioration of land annexation.

In Liu Wei's future reforms, in order to solve the land problem of the Han Empire, it was necessary to establish good and orderly commercial activities and improve the status of merchants. However, this will inevitably infringe on the interests of the scholar group and arouse their opposition. Therefore, Liu Wei must be careful, and this investment promotion conference is also a test of future reform.

In June of the third year of Guangxi, Liu Wei issued an edict to invite some famous businessmen from all over the world to come to Chang'an to meet him, and at the same time discuss the sale of Liu Wei's newly made porcelain.

The appearance of porcelain in the Han Dynasty is not new, as early as the Yin Shang period, there was a "primitive porcelain" developed from pottery with rough workmanship and certain porcelain characteristics. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the production of porcelain had gradually developed and matured. Large-scale porcelain kilns have appeared in Shangyu County, Yangzhou, most of which are dragon kilns built along the slope. At this time, the porcelain was mainly celadon, with a certain amount of black porcelain. The workmanship of celadon is fine, the tire is hard, does not absorb water, and the surface is covered with a layer of cyan glass enamel; Black porcelain is a type of porcelain developed on the basis of celadon, which was founded in the Eastern Han Dynasty and is covered with black high-temperature porcelain glaze.

Although celadon and black porcelain were common in the Eastern Han Dynasty, their production process was very simple, and they were not as exquisite as those in later generations, and were sought after. Its value is not as good as the glassware that Liu Wei is preparing for mass production in the future.

Therefore, the big businessmen invited by Liu Wei did not find it attractive at first to attract investment on the pretext of selling porcelain. What really interested them was that today's son would invite these merchants who were engaged in the last business to discuss the matter, which made those merchants who were often despised by the scholars feel a great honor, and to be able to have a relationship with the emperor, the benefits brought by this are huge, and some long-term businessmen even vaguely feel that the imperial court is releasing some kind of signal. So not to mention selling porcelain, even if the emperor asked them to discuss selling, they came to Chang'an willingly.

However, with this thought, when they opened the gift from Liu Wei sent by the envoy sent by Liu Bian, they opened their mouths wide in shock.

All of them are the same, and inside the box is a set of celadon tea utensils. The color of this set of tea vessels is like the blue sky, the porcelain surface is smooth and clean, and the sound is crisp and awake with a flick of the hand. These big businessmen have also traveled from south to north and have seen extraordinary, but they have never seen such a timeless porcelain. When I picked up the teapot and looked at it, there were two sentences written on it by Liu Wei: The rain has broken through the sky and the clouds, and the color is the future.

It's so apt, this crystal clear teal tea vessel is as refreshing as the sky after the rain. Such a rare porcelain is not comparable to ordinary celadon, not to mention the handwritten inscription on it, which is worth a thousand gold!

The eyes of those big businessmen immediately showed a hot gaze, and at that moment, they instantly forgot all the glory invited by the Son of Heaven, and what they saw in their eyes was a golden avenue leading to greater wealth.

The messenger sent also revealed to them that the Son of Heaven had prepared more than porcelain in Chang'an. In short, bring more money, there are benefits!

took out the money and thanked the envoy, and then the big businessmen prepared the funds and carriages and began to go to Chang'an in a hurry. Some businessmen who are bold but do not have enough funds to turn over have begun to consider selling some of their fields to raise funds.

For Liu Wei, this is a good start.

In addition to these merchant classes, Liu Wei also sent invitations to some family members, such as the Zhen family in Jizhou, the Chen family in Yingchuan and other scholars. After all, the main body of the country's politics and economy is still the scholar class, and although Liu Wei's future reform conflicts with the interests of these scholars and will arouse their opposition, if Liu Wei sweeps away these scholars in a violent form and forcibly carries out reforms, it will cause huge chaos, and then let alone the success of the reform, the country will probably fall into the middle of survival. Therefore, before the reform, Liu Wei was still ready to woo, divide, and transform the Shi clan.

These scholars did not respond as enthusiastically to Liu Bian's invitation as enthusiastically as Shang Jia, although these scholars have always believed that they do not put their eggs in the same basket, and they are also very welcoming to the olive branch thrown by Liu Bian. It's just that they either reject business because of deep-rooted concepts, or they are afraid of the local princes and dare not have anything to do with the imperial court. In short, most of the wealthy families invited by Liu Wei politely declined to him. However, Liu Wei didn't care, these people still revealed their favor to the imperial court, and using their local influence was also conducive to the future national unification of the imperial court.

Liu Wei's fanfare in Chang'an to attract investment did not fail to arouse the dissatisfaction of the imperial court's scholar group. Shangshu Lingshi Sun Rui went to Liu Wei to argue that the Son of Heaven and Shang Jia were self-defeating and contrary to the right path.

Liu Wei replied to him: "The first emperor still set up a market in the palace, imitating merchants to buy and sell, and I just followed the affairs of the first emperor. ”

In the early years, Emperor Liu Hong of the Han Dynasty imitated the market in the court, wine shops, street vendors, and ordered the palace maid Huangmen to pretend to be a merchant buyer, and he wore merchant clothes to wander among them. This kind of anecdote made Liu Wei use it as an excuse, saying that he had summoned merchants just to imitate the first emperor and fulfill his filial piety.

Shisun Rui inherited the family business when he was young, erudite and talented, and held a prominent position in the court for many years, and the sea was up and down, so it was impossible to be blinded by Liu Wei's words or two. Again, he said: "The establishment of a city in the palace of the first emperor was bewitched by eunuchs and carried out absurd acts, and Your Majesty cannot follow suit. Emperor Xiaowu should be used as the advertisement, emphasizing agriculture and mulberry and light commodity colonization, which is the foundation of consolidating the country. ”

Shisun Rui was really fierce enough, scolding Lao Tzu in front of his son. directly said that Emperor Ling's behavior was chaotic, and asked Liu Wei to learn how Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty governed the country.

Fortunately, Liu Wei didn't have any feelings for Emperor Ling of Han, and what Shi Sun Rui said was also right, so he didn't get angry, but just commented on a sentence under his recital and returned it to him.

"The ancestors were good at breeding, so as to create a foundation, continue the century-old national ancestry, and prosper the Han Dynasty. If there is chaos today, it is like a world of light and martial arts, when extraordinary means are used, how can it be followed by the trip of filial piety in the prosperous era? Rulers should respond to the times. ”

Liu Wei directly told Shi Sun Rui that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was far away, and my real ancestor Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu started in troubled times by doing business, if there is chaos today, why can't I follow suit?

Shi Sunrui was speechless. Although he was instructed by Yuan Kui to come to the table, he was not Yuan Kui's hardcore henchman, but only belonged to the Shidafu group. He is quite upright, at least he has to be face-saving. As soon as he saw that he couldn't say anything about Liu Wei, he also died down. He still agrees with some of Liu Wei's views, especially the sentence that the ruler should adapt to the situation of the time, which also goes to his heart.

However, Yuan Kui's other henchmen were not as face-saving as Shi Sun Rui, and Wu Fu, Zheng Gongye and others wrote to Liu Wei one after another, stopping Liu Bian's plan to attract investment for various reasons. Some are even vexatious.

Liu Wei ignored all these pieces and threw them in the trash. Holding a conference to attract investment in Chang'an has this advantage, far away from the scholars and doctors of the imperial court, they can't hear their opposition, and they can't leave their posts and come to Chang'an without permission, so they can only express their opinions through writing. Liu Wei is much less stressed, and only needs to prepare a larger trash can.

Ignoring those opposing voices, in June of the third year of Guangxi, merchants gathered in Chang'an City, and the first commercial event in the history of the Han Empire began.

(To be continued, stay tuned for the next chapter)