Kung Fu finally has a heart, Zhao Kuo still did not find the coal mine in the end, Helan Mountain is dozens of miles wide from east to west, hundreds of miles long from north to south, and there are not coal mines everywhere, how can it be said that if you find it, you can only arrange personnel to explore it little by little afterwards.

But Zhao Kuo saw something ten times more important than the coal mine at the foot of the mountain. I saw a cluster of cyan flower bones growing at the foot of the mountain, only the size of a thumb, gently shaking under the mountain wind, it looked so inconspicuous, but Zhao Kuo's whole person trembled with excitement - cotton!

It turned out to be cotton!

The flowers have basically withered and grown into flowers, and only a few of them are still blooming with small blue flowers.

He was so sure that this was definitely cotton, but why was there cotton here?

"Immediately send an order to protect this place, and arrange for someone to explore the neighborhood to see if there are any such plants." Zhao Kuo ordered, even if the Huns are destroyed, it is not as important as cotton.

Let's try it soon, everyone. 】

With cotton, Zhao was able to completely occupy the territory of the Xiongnu, rather than being forced to give up and let other Rongdi occupy it because of the harsh cold environment.

Although Zhao Guo also had other cold-proof items before, the yield was completely incomparable with cotton, and the cold-keeping effect was also uneven. Cotton is one of the very few items that can be popularized among ordinary people and has very good thermal properties.

"Go and call a few people from Shuyan and ask where this is coming from." Zhao Kuo said quickly.

"This is what the king mentioned before, the cotton that can keep the people of the world cold?" Liu Ping stretched out his hand tremblingly, wanting to touch it, but he was afraid of hurting it.

"It's exactly the same as what I saw in an old book." Zhao Kuo said with great confirmation, although the cotton flowers are much smaller than those seen in later generations, the appearance has not changed, and he will not admit his mistake.

It didn't take long for the soldier to come over with a few Quyan people, and when he saw Zhao Kuo, the Quyan people immediately scolded, scolding all the vicious words he could think of in his heart.

However, Zhao Kuo was in a good mood now, so he didn't bother with them, pointed to the cotton and asked, "Tell this king, where did this come from?" ”

The people of Quyan said a lot of words that Zhao Kuo didn't understand, and a soldier who understood the words of Quyan clasped his fists and said: "King Yu, they don't know what they said, it may be that the caravan came from the West to do business every year, and every year there are caravans from the West to do business here, exchange goods with them, and they will also send caravans to the West." ”

"Caravans? Which way did they go? Zhao Kuo asked.

"They said that they used to go west from Yueshi, and then Yueshi was occupied by Qin, so they made a detour to Juyanze, where they could lead to the extreme west, and the people there were very rich, every family had very beautiful jade, and some merchants made a lot of money with it." The soldier said.

"Ask them if any of them have walked through Juyanze." Zhao Kuo said.

"The king wants to open a trade route with the Far West?" Huang Shigong asked.

"Not bad." Zhao Kuo nodded, "Last year, the Qin State had already sent merchants to the West to find the Queen Mother of the West. The search for the Queen Mother of the West is fake, and the developer road is real. Even the Qin State, which is heavy on agriculture and suppresses business, is looking for a breakthrough, let alone my Zhao State? We have learned that the West still has an incomparably vast land where people from other countries live, and where there is endless wealth. As long as our silk, tea, and ceramics can be delivered there, the wealth there will be ours. ”

The Central Plains is so big, and the business is very prosperous, but it won't take long to saturate, and if you want to develop quickly, you can only open up new markets.

In addition to the Central Plains civilization in this period, there are ancient Indian civilizations and Seleucid civilizations, and as for other places, they are basically uncivilized savages, and there are no conditions for opening trade.

It's just that the two are far away from the Central Plains, and I don't know what year and month they will have to wait until they want to open up a trade route.

"Far West...... I'm afraid it's tens of thousands of miles away from my Zhao Kingdom......" Huang Shigong muttered, even with his wisdom, it was difficult to imagine what the scene was thousands of miles away.

"Don't you want to see what is west of the desert in your lifetime?" Zhao Kuo asked with a smile.

"The last general is old, I'm afraid I have a weak heart." Le Yi sighed.

However, Lian Po patted the armor on his body, and said with high morale: "The last general thinks that he can fight for another fifty years." ”

"Hahaha, this king also thinks that General Lian Po can fight for another fifty years." Zhao Kuo laughed.

In fact, with the strength of the two, as long as there are no accidents, there is no problem at all to live for a few more decades, as for accidents...... As the two of them are generals in the transcendent realm, if they don't look for death, there is basically no such possibility.

After a while, several soldiers came over with three people, who were obviously very knowledgeable about the times, and did not shout or say some ugly things, but greeted them with good manners.

"What's your name?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"The king, the younger one's name is Huai, and this is the younger brother's second brother, named Thorn. This is a little cousin named Mo. The man standing in the middle said, his upper body bare, and a whitish animal skin tied around his waist, which did not have a single animal hair, and could not tell what kind of animal it was.

His skin was dark, and his arms were peeled from the scorching sun. There is also a wound on his shoulder, I don't know if he was injured by Zhao Jun when he was fighting just now.

"You walked the Juyan Ancient Road?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"The king, the little ones have indeed walked through." Huai said.

"This king plans to reopen the ancient road of Juyan and hire you as guides, are you willing?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"Yilila woohoo......" At this time, the man next to him suddenly shouted.

"What did he say?" Zhao Kuo pointed at Mo and asked.

"The king, he said that the ancient road of Juyan is very dangerous, and only one out of ten people can come back alive. Along the way, you will not only encounter wolves, large insects, snakes, sandstorms, but also bandits, and some countries even pretend to be bandits and rob passing merchants. Huai said.

"Are there other countries near Juyanze?" Zhao Kuo said with a frown.

When he read 'Bicycle wants to ask the side, the subject country passes Juyan', he also learned a little, although Juyanze is far away from the Hetao, but it has not yet reached the Western Regions, there should be no other countries.

"There are a couple of small countries that don't have names, and ...... From here to Juyanze, it is only the first half of the Juyan Ancient Road, and the second half is even more dangerous. Huai said.

"The widow will send soldiers to protect you, and your task is to bring the king's caravan out safely and back safely. As long as you can do it, the king will be rewarded. Zhao Kuo said.

"Thank you, thank you, King." When the three of them heard that they were rewarded, they hurriedly knelt on the ground and bowed, "King, when are we leaving?" ”

"There is no urgency in this matter, the widow has not prepared yet, and he will look for you when the widow is ready." Zhao Kuo said.

"The little ones are waiting for the king's orders." Huai said.