Li Si, a name that is almost indistinguishable from Passerby A in Chinese civilization, came from a village in Hengshan County and is now a member of the glorious Imperial Cavalry.

The Imperial Cavalry has been a very famous code name in recent years, it is they who swept the grasslands outside the Saiwai, opened up hundreds of thousands of square miles of land for the empire, captured a large number of livestock at the same time, and captured the Hu people also became the labor force of empire building.

This time, Li Si's school was ordered to escort the booty and slaves back to their homeland, accompanied by an envoy from the Roman Republic.

Li Si didn't know where Rome was, and he didn't know what the republic was. In fact, he asked some robes, but he soon found that no one knew what the Roman Republic was, and most people knew that it was a very distant country, and after saying "I guess I won't be able to go around for a long time", he had no interest in finding out.

The Empire has been exploring the world with great intensity, and the exploration on land and sea has never stopped, but the exploration is for the sake of conquest...... Well, to explain that it is to destroy the city and destroy the country, and then plunder on a large scale, so the interest in some countries that can be "reached" is relatively large, and the interest in countries that will not be able to "go around" for a while and a half is relatively low.

In a circle, most soldiers thought that as long as the imperial army could reach them, any country could let them take what they wanted, and usually they could get military exploits, wealth, and slaves.

Li Si's service time was not long compared to those veterans, he joined the army in the eighth year of the imperial calendar, and was selected into the First Cavalry Regiment because of his good riding skills. When he joined the First Cavalry Corps, those places that should have been recovered had already been recovered and recovered, and the historical process was to open up the northern frontier.

I have to tell the truth, when the empire first marched into the northern frontier, it was not as smooth as it seemed on the surface, after all, the strength of the Hu tribes in the grassland at that time was not weak, and the other was that they were not familiar with the geography and terrain, and there was a lot of trouble just to adapt.

The imperial army entered the Hetao first, and at that time, the herdsmen of the Xiongnu in the Hetao were almost taken south by Touman, so they used "enter".

Most of the Huns left behind in the Hetao were old and weak, and it was not too difficult to occupy them, and the empire only took less than half a year to complete the recovery of the Hetao.

That's right, it's Liberation! The Hetao used to be part of the territory of the Qin Empire, and the empire annexed all the countries in China, so it naturally inherited the ownership of all the national territories.

After the recovery of the Hetao, the empire began to open up the grasslands of northern Xinjiang, and the First Cavalry Corps where Li Si was in those wars only participated in the preliminary stage, which was the most difficult stage, and then it has been operating in the northwest of the empire.

Originally, many people's understanding of the grassland is that in addition to grass or grass, there is almost no economic value, even those soldiers who can distribute the spoils of war can participate in the war, and what they can get in the process of war is except for horses, cattle, sheep and captured Hu people, most of them do not feel that there is any too attractive economic benefit.

It was only then that the erroneous view was reversed, and the army sent a large number of captured booty back to the country using the post station system, and a large number of cattle and sheep were purchased by the ruling government, because the number of cattle and sheep was so large that on average, each soldier could get a share of the profits, and he could actually get four or five cents of money.

That's four or five yuan in the nine years of the imperial calendar, and a five-baht coin can buy two steamed buns, and the consistent money is 1,000 five-baht coins, which is actually a lot, which can make a family eat better for at least two months.

The grassland can not be cultivated, even if it can be transformed into arable acres of land to take time and cost is higher, according to the concept of pure farming people is indeed not very useful, but the current Chinese ethnic group is not exactly a farming nation!

Nowadays, there are quite a few clans in Longxi, Beidi, Liaodong and other places that still maintain a nomadic lifestyle, and they have been grazing since their ancestors, generally providing war horses and live livestock for the army as meat. Because the benefits are so large, those clans have not thought of changing their lifestyles.

The Hetao was recovered by the empire, and some of the clan chiefs with active thinking quickly reacted, and all of them migrated to the Hetao, because the Hetao is a rare area in the east with abundant water and grass, even if a small tribe can have the Hetao, as long as it takes decades, it will definitely be able to grow into a large tribe.

Because it was not a purely agrarian people, the imperial occupation of the prairie was not entirely regarded as chicken ribs, but in a certain way became fragrant buns.

Five or six years have passed since the empire marched into the steppes, and now there are not only large herdsman-based clans, but also appropriate domestic migration. Because of the extremely developed animal husbandry and the fact that the empire preemptively built a national highway from the Yangtze River valley to northern Xinjiang, the grassland has actually become the largest meat supply of the empire, and a large number of cattle and sheep are driven back to the hinterland along the road every day to become a plate of food on the table of ordinary families.

"I'm going back for three months this time!"

"Isn't it? I'm going to spend it all on spending time with my family. ”

"Hmm! It's time to spend time with your family. ”

"Every time I go back to my hometown, it changes a lot, doesn't it prove that our battle outside is effective?"

"That's it!"

The soldiers of the cavalry team were not ordered to be silent, and the comrades-in-arms chatted more enthusiastically, and they would be disbanded after returning to Guanzhong's Michi, and then they would basically go back to their respective homes to find their own mothers.

The Roman legations? After entering Guanzhong, it was actually handed over to the garrison in the hinterland of the empire, and the Conscription Corps was only responsible for protecting Xianyang, even if the task was completed. In addition, as for the booty and slaves, in fact, they will be handed over when they arrive in Xianyang.

"What did you bring with you this time?"

"Some local products from the Western Regions, what else can they be?"

"What's that?"

"Some gems, they're not valuable."

Having said that, because of the characteristics of Chinese civilization, gems are really not a valuable thing in the empire. The characteristic of Chinese civilization is that it likes jade, and there is a saying that "a gentleman is like jade", which in some respects can reflect the Chinese people's liking for jade.

The civilization in the Western Regions was greatly influenced by Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and people with a bit of status liked to wear gemstones, and some soldiers of the Western Legion Corps would inevitably capture some during the battle.

In addition to jade, the Chinese civilization is inferior to jadeite, and there is no jade or jadeite origin found in the Western Regions, and what has been found is the origin of some gemstones, especially agate and other gemstones, which are the most because of the existence of active volcanoes in the Western Regions.

In addition to all kinds of gemstones, the expeditionary corps also found gold mines in the Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun Mountains, which are open-pit gold mines, and some dog-headed gold is exposed to the air.

Gold mines are naturally more important, but because the Japanese islands have been rich in gold, after the Western Expedition Corps reported, the center only sent a survey team, and after exploration, it was found that although they were all open-pit gold mines, the reserves were not as large as imagined.

Of course, the expeditionary corps was extremely disappointed with the results given by the exploration team, because according to the new law, the army can enjoy a 5 percent subsidy for the discovery of resources abroad, and all the soldiers on the register can receive subsidies during the discovery period, and they will be subsidized according to the roster until they retire, until the resources are exhausted or the soldiers on the roster die.

It was a new bill, and the Emperor had put it into something called the Imperial Constitution. What is the Constitution? Grab a random question, most of them don't know, only those who have more knowledge and have heard about it can figure it out, but everyone only understands one thing, anyway, the emperor is giving benefits to the army again.

The Imperial Constitution is something that has been made out of the empire for nine years, and some bills have been added one after another, but its importance has not been known to ordinary people, but the noble group and some big families and gentry have been paying attention to it all the time.

The team led by Zhang Cang was a bit "swollen", in addition to more than 4,700 soldiers, there were more than 20,000 slaves and nearly 6,000 carriages. Oh, and the Roman legation was indispensable.

The carriage was loaded with more complicated things, and apart from some necessary baggage, it was nothing more than the trophies of the escort. There are too many forces in the Western Regions, and the spoils of war are usually quite strange, ranging from precious gold and silver to some literary and artistic works of art.

In fact, every month, there will be a convoy of the post station system to and from various armies, in addition to delivering letters to the soldiers, they are returning to China with some private booty, and then using the domestic post station system to send the private booty back to their hometowns and hand over to their families.

The soldiers who fought abroad were grateful for the existence of the post station system, there was no post station system that they could use before, even if there were more trophies, they could only be kept around, if they could get the holiday, they would naturally bring it back by themselves, and if they could not get the holiday, they could only ask their comrades to stop by or in the same area. In this way, there are not many troubles, and there will even be bullshit such as comrades-in-arms embezzling property.

The post station system needs to pay an additional fee for private transportation, but the most important thing is to have a voucher, that is, what is entrusted to transport is clearly written, and who you want to hand it over is also clearly written, and it is more necessary to get the signature or draw of the designated person to complete the entrusted task. In the event of theft or loss of transport, the client will be able to recover the actual value.

In addition, it must be made clear that the post station system is not strictly a state-owned institution, it is led by the state and the framework is formed by the military, but in fact, it accepts retired soldiers, and those soldiers are divided into shards to form a network mode of storage and hosting system.

This team from the Western Regions only stepped into the empire after more than two months of marching, and they entered from Dunhuang County, and they needed to take the line of Jiuquan County and Zhangye County.

"The reason why it is called Jiuquan County is because Xu Zhonglang saw a lake when he came here, and found that the lake was actually a spring, and then poured the wine in the wine pot into it. Is this statement true? ”

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not, it's just right to call it Jiuquan anyway."

Li Si's answer made his face embarrassed, in fact, he was more biased, and that statement was spread randomly.

In fact, it was really a nonsense, and the emperor had already named those places on the map before the imperial army marched into some places. So, the main generals of the army have experienced such a scene, and the map they are looking at has a name before it is captured.

Although Dunhuang County has been occupied for nearly two years, it is still a barren land when you go all the way, and most of it is also barren when you enter Jiuquan County, but at least you can see some villages.

"The country is so barren." Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calpheus said to Ulilius: "After walking for at least three hundred miles, all you can see are a few villages. Is our line like this, or is the country simply not as populated as it is rumored? ”

Ulilius couldn't answer at all.

Some of the Romans' perception of the empire was based on all kinds of rumors, which often seemed exaggerated, and the difference was how many times exaggerated. They entered the so-called imperial mainland, did not see the rumored bustling city, and everything that caught their eyes was even worse than when they were in the Western Regions.

"I heard that this area has not been occupied by them for long?" Ulilius would often chat with Zhang Cang, know some of the situation, and said: "Maybe if you go a little further, what you see will be more real?" ”

"Really?" Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calphus just had a feeling, he thought for a while, and said: "On the road, you can often meet the teams, most of them are some baggage caravans or civilian caravans. ”

Behind Ki Ru Sriwei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers also went to Zhang Cang and asked directly what the problem was.

"It's developing, but we can't see those new towns on our route, after all, it's too vast and sparsely populated!" Zhang Cang's face was taken for granted, and he said: "Although the population of the empire is more than 60 million, the territory is too large. ”

Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers couldn't say the rest of the way, and he decided to see with his own eyes.

The desolation only improved when it approached Wuwei County, but the Romans were a little skeptical that the Empire had deliberately chosen a route with a lot of people.

At that time, Li Si was conducting an inspection in Wuwei County, and he was stunned when he heard that there was a force returning from the Western Regions, and then he knew that there was an envoy from Rome in the team.

"Rome? Why does this name seem familiar? Li Si recalled very seriously and thought of something: "Your Majesty seems to have mentioned this country?" (To be continued.) )