Under the imperial power [***] system, as long as the edict of the Son of Heaven is in hand, the execution of the military and political departments can only be described as speed.

However, in just over a month, General Gongsun Yi of An Yi had already led his soldiers out of Chang'an City and galloped towards Longxi Didao. In addition to the 8,000 Hu cavalry, 2,000 Tiger Cavalry were temporarily added, and more than 200 generals from the Tiger Ben and Yulin schools accompanied him.

Keeping pace with Gongsun Wei is the new Han Beihe Hou Wasuge. During the New Year's Festival, Emperor Jing had sent special envoys to Beidi and Anding and other counties to collect the Qiang prisoners of war of the Beihe tribe, and sent them to Di Dao as soon as possible, and handed them over to Wu Kuai, the Taishou of Longxi. As soon as Vasso arrives at Didao, he will hand him over and lead him back to the northwest grasslands.

"Bei He Hou is worried about it, I don't know why I'm worried?" While resting in the horse, Gongsun Yu frowned again when he saw Vasu Fu, looked at Chang'an City behind him, and asked with a smile.

Vasuge shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Why does General Gongsun ask knowingly? Now that my clan is gone, I only have one relative left, so I can't rest assured. ”

Gongsun Xiao comforted: "Your Highness has promised to protect her thoroughly, and she is full of words. You don't need to worry too much, it's only right to do errands for the court. ”

Vasuge sighed faintly, and said dejectedly: "I have fallen into the land of no return, how can I go to see the warriors of the clan again?" ”

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, and said with a straight face: "What's the use of self-pity? Now that His Majesty has made you a humble candidate, and intends to release more than 10,000 troops from your clan and return them to your command, it is already a great grace of the emperor. If you can make meritorious contributions, why can't you revive the Beihe tribe in the future? I hope you don't live up to Your Majesty's high expectations, otherwise you will really cut off the Miao descendants of the Beihe tribe! ”

Vashuge didn't refute, just smiled self-deprecatingly. He has no choice now, and his only precious daughter has been taken hostage by the Han State in the name of protection. The generals under the command of Beihe, who were released with it, also followed the dead soldiers of the Han Dynasty at all times, even if they wanted to resist, they were also delusional. In order for the Beihe tribe to survive, he could only honestly be a puppet, be the butcher's knife of the Han Emperor, and cut down on the Xiqiang tribes.

The men on the grassland are to follow the strong, the weak are slaves and maids, and it is a matter of course to be cattle and horses, and the soldiers of the Beihe tribe are not very resistant to submitting to the Han. What's more, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty not only sealed Wasu as Beihe, but also secretly promised to open the Longxi border city for the Beihe tribe alone, so that they could exchange slaves and livestock for grain, grass and weapons, which was a good thing that the Xiqiang tribes originally dreamed of.

Nearly 10,000 elite cavalry under the command of Gongsun Xiao, the general of Anyi of the Great Han Dynasty, will also be stationed in the northwest grassland to support the Beihe tribe at any time. Of course, it is more about monitoring and supervising, but if there is the slightest change in the Beihe tribe, these elite horsemen will return the entire Vasugo clan to the deepest depths of hell.

In fact, Vasuge did not fully see the true intentions of the Han court, and the reason why Gongsun Yu led his army into the northwest grassland to assist the Beihe tribe was actually shouldering several other important tasks.

The first is to train the troops, not only to let the officers and men under his command try to adapt to the local climate, but also to accumulate experience in marching and fighting on the plateau. It is also necessary to let the generals of the two schools of Huben and Yulin conduct experience and field surveys, so as to provide marching routes and feasible surname suggestions for the westward expedition and immigration of the later army.

Secondly, it is to spread the Chinese language among the various ethnic groups in Xiqiang, publicize the prestige of the Han army, and gradually mythologize the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty. This is a stupid method that takes a long time and has slow results, but after accumulation, it can more stabilize the rule of the Han Dynasty over the northwest region. Liu Che did not want to carry out ethnic naturalization and integration, but tried his best to elevate the Han people to the position of a higher ethnic group, to create an irresistible impression on the nomads, and to consolidate the legitimate surname of the Han ruling power.

The most important thing is still slaves, and in the face of several infrastructure projects that are about to be rolled out, the Han Empire urgently needs a large number of strong slaves. Liu Che repeatedly told Gongsun Xiao that this time in the northwest grassland, the capture of slaves should be listed as the top priority. In order to motivate the soldiers, Liu Che even offered a high price of 10,000 yuan for each elite slave, regardless of gender, and had Emperor Jing promise that there was no need to hand it over to the national treasury.

Liu Che had no way of knowing how many nomadic tribes such as Xiqiang and Yueshi were, but he thought that if he could capture millions of strong people, it would be a huge blow to all ethnic groups in the northwest. Especially in the Tibetan areas of later generations, due to the backwardness of transportation and communications, if Liu Che could not form an effective rule during his lifetime, he would not mind turning these places into no man's land. It is better to leave thousands of miles of desert without people and wait for future generations to develop it than to ignore it and form hot potatoes such as Tubo in later generations.

The amount of grain and grass needed for the march of more than 10,000 cavalry was not a small amount, and thousands of carts followed the army. Fortunately, the construction of the Northwest Avenue has been going on for several months, and some of the roads in Chang'an, Tianshui, and Longxi have been paved with asphalt, and the rest of the roads that have not yet had time to be built have also been repaired and leveled, and they can be poured immediately when the asphalt concocted by the oil mill arrives.

The horses' hooves trampled on the smooth and wide asphalt avenue, making a muffled tuk tuk. The overseers along the road, who had been in charge of road construction, were worried that the march of the army would damage the road they had worked so hard to build, but until the cavalry and baggage that stretched for miles had all passed, the asphalt road did not show major cracks or collapses, except for a few small depressions in some sections.

After the asphalt avenue was tested by the unexpected passage of the army, the stewards in charge of supervising it reported the news to the master, detailing the unexpected quality of the asphalt avenue. The Han magnates were not stupid, and now they all knew that the large amount of money invested by the Royal Industrial Group for road construction could be recovered by collecting the "tolls" of the caravan's Laoshzi.

It is self-evident how important it was for caravans to have a sturdy and flat trade route that did not need to be repaired and maintained, and which was guarded by armies along the way, without fear of bandits. The Han magnates seemed to have seen an endless stream of caravans pouring into this trade route, throwing large sums of money into the treasury of the Imperial Industrial Group.

They are not stupid, and naturally they dare not snatch food from the royal industrial group. But they look further, and now the asphalt highway is limited to Gyeonggi counties and Northwest Avenue. Then the vast Central Plains and Jiangbei of the Han Dynasty have become big fat in the eyes of the Han magnates. Especially in the middle and lower reaches of the rainy river, the roads are often muddy and unpassable during the rainy season. If there is such an asphalt avenue, it is simply an old hen that lays golden eggs.

Emperor Jing has been on the throne for ten years, but he has never been as tired of attending the early dynasty as he has been recently. The Manchu civil and military seemed to have nothing to do, or there was too much money in the house, and they were scrambling to serve the country and pay for the construction of roads. Every time the early dynasty was held, the courtiers praised the emperor's wisdom and the four seas were peaceful, and they began to build roads one after another, looking like a virtuous minister who died for the country and the people.

Although Emperor Jing was riddled with old illnesses, he was not blind, so he naturally knew the little abacus in their hearts. Helplessly, in the early Han Dynasty, which admired Huang Lao's skills, the royal family was just the top nobles of the Han Dynasty in the final analysis. Although the emperor of the Han Dynasty is nominally rich from all over the world, it is absolutely impossible to eat alone. Otherwise, the emperor would not need to set up a separate Shaofu to collect wealth for the imperial family, which was strictly separated from the treasury.

Everything was caused by the asphalt avenue, and Emperor Jing naturally unceremoniously ordered the crown prince Liu Che to settle the matter as soon as possible.

Liu Che lamented in his heart, road toll collection is a complex system project, which cannot be easily solved by a layman.

In fact, all the road branches were funded by the major families, and Liu Che felt that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

After all, if it is handed over to county officials to build roads, under today's bureaucratic system, corruption [***] aside, the perfunctory tofu scum project alone is enough to give the central government a headache. However, it was left to the great families to pay for the construction and let them collect tolls, but they would build it with all their own dedication and maintain it from time to time in order to attract more caravans to the road.

This is called the primary stage of the market economy, and it is also the Han version of the market competition mechanism. As long as the main line is firmly in the hands of the Imperial Industrial Group, it is believed that the major families will not be able to control the future imperial traffic.

The only thing that worries Liu Che is that the major families only seem to see the benefits when it comes to fees, and if they can't recover the costs in a short time in the future, they may secretly force the caravan to pay high fees, and even force the merchants of their respective fiefdoms to pay additional fees. Fishing with all his might is not what Liu Che wants, but it can be done by the Han magnates.

"Eh, cross the river by feeling the stones, I'm not a god anyway, so I can just give it a try." Liu Che sighed secretly, and then ran to the dormitory and fell asleep.

The next day, after the morning dynasty, Liu Che, who was haggard, compiled the "Regulations on the Management of Toll Roads in the Han Dynasty" into a book, handed it over to the emperor's father, and explained it in detail for most of the day before he was put back to rest by Emperor Jing, who seemed to understand whether he understood or not.

Emperor Jing summoned the court commander Ji Di and asked him to make the regulations on this booklet into a law according to the system of Han law and promulgate it as soon as possible. The confused Ji Di naturally found the initiator again, and the prince Liu Che discussed. Liu Che couldn't help but have black lines in his head, he didn't expect the emperor's father to think of legislation, he really took it for granted, but he didn't know that the emperor had one mouth and hundreds of officials broke their legs.

When it comes to the law, Liu Che couldn't help but become more and more cautious, he not only explained the inconsiderate points to Ji Di in detail, but even put forward the broad concepts of "demolition compensation" and "traffic penalty" in a bad taste. In the end, the two had to go to the central government office, and discussed a series of detailed rules on road grade audit and toll standards with Prime Minister Yuan An, Tainong Ling Cao Luan, and Shaofu Secretary Chen Yu.

For half a month, the "Dahan Road Law", which was later called the world's first road traffic law, took shape. From the original thin handbook presented by Liu Che, it has become a large tome of more than ten thread-bound books.

Looking at the newly transcribed law inscription in the Tingwei Mansion, Liu Che shrugged his shoulders and secretly slandered himself: "It's tiring to play through the real TM, and I have to participate in the legislative work, can the author give me an invincible protagonist halo?" Let your little brother do these trivial things well! ”

When he landed, the dark clouds rolled in the sky, and the thunder shook the sky, splitting on the ground outside the gate of the Tingwei Mansion, leaving three big characters - impossible! (To be continued.) )