In the eighth and ninth years of Zhenguan, the number of official and private business teams of the Han Empire who went to the Western Regions to do business and went to the West to do business doubled.

By the tenth year of Zhenguan, the city department, which had only been established for more than three years, had already submitted a very beautiful tax report card to the central government through taxation.

However, also in the tenth year of Zhenguan, because the trade in the Western Regions dominated by the Han Empire seriously affected the interests of the Kangju Kingdom, the Kangju Kingdom had to unite the Parthian Empire and the Kushan Empire to wage war against the Han Empire, trying to regain the dominance of the trade routes.

However, the Parthian Empire refused to participate in this military alliance because of the threat of the Roman Empire, and in the end, only the Kushan Empire, which had always had thoughts about the Western Regions, participated in this joint operation.

The results speak for themselves.

Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun sent troops on two roads, Zhang Fei led the troops to resist the army of the Kushan Empire, and Zhao Yun led the troops to attack Kangju.

After two months, Zhao Yun led his troops to pursue more than 1,000 miles, basically wiped out the army and leadership involved in Kangjuguo, and won three major battles, six battles and six victories, and Kangjuguo, which was still in a state of nomadic life, was destroyed.

The upper echelons of Kang Juguo were escorted back to Luoyang by the Han army, and under the order of Emperor Liu Bei, all of them were beheaded for public display, and the heads were spread all over the world to declare the great martial arts of the Han Empire.

After the fall of Kangjuguo, Zhao Yun led his troops south, met Zhang Fei, and fought with Zhang Fei to fight against the Kushan Imperial Army.

The Kushan army is a little more organized and resilient than the Kangju army, and the army's tactics and tactics are relatively mature, but it is still a bit small compared to the Han army.

Zhang Fei only commanded 30,000 troops to deal with the Guishan army at that time, while the Guishan side dispatched about 80,000 people to try to take the Western Regions in one fell swoop.

After Zhao Yun's mobile forces arrived, Zhang Fei suddenly broke out, and the iron cavalry was vertical, and he defeated the Guishan Iron Cavalry in a battle, and then defeated the Guishan infantry army head-on, just a big victory, and the Guishan Imperial Army was defeated.

This was followed by a two-month pursuit.

Guishan sent about 50,000 reinforcements to try to resist the pursuing troops of the Han army, but the momentum of the Han army was too strong, and Zhang Fei was suppressed for three months, where could he bear it?

Once the fight started, he was like a madman, and even led a small number of cavalry to attack, that is, to feed the war with war, regardless of logistics, quickly interspersed, and attacked the logistics base of the Guishan army, burning most of the grain and grass with a fire, so the Guishan's reinforcements collapsed together with the defeated army.

The five-month battle between the Han and the Guishan and Kangju ended with the destruction of the Kangju and the annihilation of the Kushan army, and the Han army won a complete victory, and the first battle established the position of the hegemon of Central Asia and won a complete victory.

After that, there was internal turmoil in the Kushan Empire, the emperor was killed, the imperial family was divided, and the empire fell apart, that is, more than a year later, a unified empire went to split, entered the internal Warring States era, and was no longer able to take care of anything else.

When the Parthian Empire heard the news, they immediately sent envoys to reconcile with the Han Empire, expressing their willingness to cooperate with the Han Empire in doing anything, whether commercial or political, as long as there was no military confrontation.

Parthia was also in a dilemma, the western side of their empire's territory was squeezed by the Roman Empire all the year round, and the Roman Empire saw that they were unhappy, because they controlled the Silk Road, and the second-way dealers did a good job, selling the goods of the Han Empire at sky-high prices, and the Romans could not bear it, so they went to war.

The two sides fought to the death, and it was not until the news that the Han Empire had destroyed Kangju and destroyed Kushan that the Parthian Empire realized that something was wrong.

On one side was the Han Empire, which wanted to sell goods.

On one side was the Roman Empire, which had to buy goods.

I'm caught in the middle and be a second-course dealer.

If this matter is known to the two empires, and the two empires communicate privately, won't I be finished?

To say that the top of the Parthian Empire is also quite self-aware.

After the Han Empire and the Roman Empire met at sea, the Roman Empire quickly told the Han Empire about the matter, and Liu Bei was immediately angry when he learned that his country's goods had been sold to Rome after being super-doubled by the Parthians.

Good guy, you made money with the goods that I shipped after my hard work, and I also doubled the price for a super double, so that the Roman Empire bought it, and you ate one or two dealers at both ends, and your heart is still so black, no wonder you want to be beaten by the Romans.

So Liu Bei decided to put forward a small request to the Parthians, such as opening trade routes, coordinating the minimum tariff, not being allowed to deal with the merchants of the Han Empire without permission, and providing protection to the merchants of the Han Empire.

Say yes or no?

Don't say yes?

That can only force you to say yes.

In March of the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Zhao Yun led 10,000 cavalry to attack the eastern provinces of the Parthian Empire, and in the face of the 30,000 cavalry of the Parthian Empire, Zhao Yun was not afraid and charged directly, defeating the 30,000 cavalry of the Parthian Empire in a battle.

The Han army entered the territory of the Parthian Empire, swept away all the granaries in the region, swaggered to eat and drink locally, and garrisoned here, and defeated all the reinforcements sent by the Parthian Empire, and the resistance of the local armed forces was also completely defeated, in fact, occupying an entire administrative district.

At the same time as this battle, the five eastern legions of the Roman Empire entered the western border of the Parthian Empire, threatening the Parthian Empire with force, and making a posture of all-out war.

The Parthian Empire faced a crisis situation of being attacked from two sides.

The Han Empire and the Roman Empire almost put forward an ultimatum to the Parthians that if they did not agree to the terms of commerce between the two sides, they would wait for war, and the result of the war would inevitably be the destruction of all the royal family of Parthia.

That's right, it's to slaughter the entire royal family.

How's that, say yes or no?

Its high-level thought left and right, but there was really no way, and finally chose to compromise with the Han Empire, agreed to Liu Bei's request, and accepted the MFN clause for the Han Empire.

As a result, the Han Empire withdrew its troops, and the Roman Empire withdrew soon after.

Subsequently, in July of the 11th year of Zhenguan, the Parthian Empire opened its borders and trade routes to the Han Empire, kept the tariffs to a minimum, and allowed the merchants of the Han Empire to enter the Parthian Empire to do business.

Moreover, the Parthian Empire did not have the right to enforce the law against the citizens of the Han Empire, and this power belonged to the highest office of the Han Empire in the Parthian Empire.

At this point, the Silk Road was fully opened, and the merchants of the Han Empire were given the possibility of actually reaching the Roman Empire directly from the Yumen Pass and Yangguan Pass, although no Han merchant had done so before.

Moreover, after the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, the importance of the land Silk Road also declined, and it was no longer the only one.

However, at that time, the maritime communication capacity was still weak, and the route could pass through the Western Regions and the Parthian Empire, so more trade could be done, so the overland Silk Road was still preserved.

The Roman Empire also sent merchants into the Parthian Empire, and directly traded with the merchants of the Han Empire in the Parthian Empire, and the two sides used the Parthian Empire as a market, and the Parthian Empire was reduced from a second-tier dealer to a trading place.

However, because the commercial protection they provide is still in place, the two empires are still willing to give this tax, this hard work.

Therefore, from then on, although the Parthian Empire could not rely on the identity of a second-tier dealer to live as a luxurious life as before, the basic food and clothing could still be maintained.

In this regard, there was some dissatisfaction within Parthia, because of the damage to interests, the nobles within it set off some actions against the Han Empire and the Roman Empire one after another, all of which ended in failure.

After these rebellious nobles were exterminated, the high-level politics of the Parthian Empire gradually lost its independence and began to develop in the direction of puppets and compradors.

After the eleventh year of Zhenguan, the communication between the Han Empire and the Roman Empire became frequent, and as the trade between the two empires became more and more frequent, some areas along the trade routes of the two empires also became prosperous.

At the same time, the Han Empire gradually established temporary bases along the Maritime Silk Road, and began to build ports and military camps, developing towards semi-permanent or even permanent garrison camps.

There were also doubts and dissatisfaction in the countries along the route, but under the overwhelming threat of force from the Han Empire's army, this dissatisfaction and doubts directly evolved into a war to destroy the country.

Some small countries along the route did not have any national strength at all, and even some small countries in the Western Regions were inferior, and the Han army only dispatched three or five hundred regular troops, which directly turned into a war of annihilation, and in fact completed the occupation of the local area.

Therefore, along the Maritime Silk Road, from the eleventh year of Zhenguan to the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, in two or three years, the Han Empire established more than a dozen temporary bases, and built simple military camps and ports to facilitate the rest of the merchant fleet.

Subsequently, farmland began to be cultivated within these temporary bases, and the development of self-sufficiency in daily life began.

For this reason, the Han Empire even began to hire professional farmers to go to the local area to carry out the "professional reclamation" action, recruiting people according to five to seven times the monthly income, a period of three years, and they could go home or renew their term when they expired, so that a group of farmers who were bold and willing to earn money were successfully recruited.

The addition of these professional farmers laid a good foundation for the Han Empire's overseas base development plan.

In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, there were two wars at home and abroad in the Han Empire, and the domestic operation was the operation of Yangzhou to suppress bandits, and the Jiangnan water network successfully established by Guan Yu played a vital role in this anti-bandit operation.

Although Shanyue in Yangzhou has the advantage of geographical advantages, the Han Empire has recruited displaced people to return to their hometowns to farm for many years, and attracted many people who want to live a peaceful life to return to farming with generous policies, which greatly weakened the power of the Shanyue displaced people's armed group.

Second, after so many years, the Han army has also fully adapted to the terrain and climate in the south of the Yangtze River, and this operation was initiated by Shanyue, so Guan Yu naturally beat them without discussion.

The war ended quickly, and the armed group of the Shanyue displaced people, who had been unable to adapt to the trend of the times, was completely wiped out by the Han army in only two months, and the last mountain was burned bare by the fierce fire oil tank, and there was nothing left, and Yangzhou officially entered a period of peaceful development.

And the second war was fought against Japan.

Liu Bei's Dongyuan spy team sent to the Japanese archipelago to find gold successfully found a large number of silver mines according to the guidance of the locals, although the legendary gold mines have not yet been found, but the huge amount of silver mines is enough to make Liu Bei, who lacks precious metals, red-eyed.

So Liu Bei arranged for the army of the Central Plains Military Region and the fleet of the Jiangnan Military Region to fight together, and the two sides assembled on the Korean Peninsula, taking advantage of the monsoon to cross the Tsushima Strait and successfully land on the Japanese archipelago.

In this era when there was not even a decent government in the Japanese archipelago, 20,000 troops directly controlled the Iwami Ginzan area, wiped out the local armed forces, captured many locals to assist the Han army in mining mines, and boats of silver frantically sailed towards the Han Empire.

Relying on the import of a large amount of silver, Liu Bei successfully promoted the reform of the imperial silver currency in the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, using silver as legal tender, and minted the first self-minted silver currency of the Han Dynasty - a silver coin printed with Liu Bei's own head.

The introduction of precious metals was a good way to alleviate the increasingly obvious deflation of the Han Empire, and with the inflow of gold and silver from the Kushan, Parthian and Roman empires, as well as the inflow of silver mines from Japan, the Han empire took a solid step on the road to monetary reform.

Basically, by the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, Liu Bei had expanded the territory of the Han Empire to the extreme, and the Quartet limit set at the beginning, except for the southern region, which was a bit difficult to deal with because of the epidemic, had been successfully completed in the other three directions.

Although the Han Empire prepared wormwood in advance, and popularized the epidemic in advance, claiming that the epidemic originated from mosquitoes, so it was necessary to stay away from mosquitoes and use various ways to drive mosquitoes away, but the epidemic still inevitably appeared.

Under the threat of such an epidemic, Liu Bei arranged for a medical team to find medicine for treatment on the one hand, and on the other hand, he could only postpone his southward movement, limiting the activities of the main forces of the Han Empire on the Indochina Peninsula to the coastal areas and not going deep into the interior for the time being.

The natural conditions are limited, but the Han Empire in the fifteenth year of Zhenguan is completely different from the Han Empire in the first year of Zhenguan.

The strategic plan of opening up and going out has been recognized by the public, and more and more people are willing to go out, and more and more people are yearning to go out, and they have indeed made money.

Many merchants of the Han Empire settled in the overseas controlled areas of the Han Empire, and many settled in the territory of the Roman Empire, specifically in Egypt, in order to do business and survive there.

The whole empire presents a thriving, enterprising spirit, and people are full of interest in exploring the unknown, always staring at new opportunities to make a fortune, hoping that new opportunities will fall on their heads, or at least, let themselves get a piece of the pie.

More and more people have at least one or two people within the family who work overseas, or at least have the experience of leaving the territory of the Han Empire, unlike in the past, leaving the county to which they belong is equivalent to going abroad, and now it is only when they leave the territory of the Han Empire that they are serious that they are considered to be going abroad.

Otherwise, even if you go to Yizhou or even Yunzhou as a Youzhou person, you won't be considered going abroad.

Liu Bei occasionally paid a private visit, and when he ate at a restaurant in Luoyang, all he heard was that the commoners of Luoyang were talking about where the imperial fleet had found, or where they had seen the news that the Kushans, Parthians, or Romans had come to do business with strange goods.

It is true that not all of the empire has been good news over the years, and bad things have happened a lot, but this kind of change from the bottom, this spirit of opening his eyes to the world, yearning for the world, and embracing the world, makes Liu Bei feel very happy.

After eating a bowl of fried rice and a portion of braised pork in the restaurant, Liu Bei left the restaurant with Zhuge Liang and wandered the street.

Looking at the people coming and going on the street, looking at the prosperous and lively scene, Liu Bei showed a slight smile as he walked.

"Kong Ming, whenever I see such a scene, I feel that so many years of hard work are worth it, tired, it doesn't matter, I can see such a prosperous scene when I leave the palace, this is exactly what I yearn for."

"Dahan can have today, you are the greatest hero, and no one in the world can compare with you."

Liu Bei turned his head and looked at Zhuge Liang who was following him.

"Kong Ming, it's not like you would say this."

"Minister...... I'm just telling the truth, what can't I say about what actually exists, what real merit? ”

Zhuge Liang said with a smile: "Without you, the Han world may be in the state of the current Kushan country, but with you, the Han has surpassed any country in the past, even if it is the three generations of ancient times, who dares to say that he can be better than you?"

So although some of Chen Butang's statements sound a little flattering, basically no one will choose to oppose it, you don't want to publicize it like this, but there are many people who think this way in the land of the Han Dynasty, and I am not the only one. ”

What Zhuge Liang said was last month, when Chen Lin, the new secretary of the Ministry of Rites, proposed to make Liu Bei the first virtuous king in the past.

Chen Lin thinks that no one can do Liu Bei's level among the emperors of the past and present, and no one can push a country to such a height, even if the Confucian scholars have been talking about the rule of the three generations in ancient times, can it be more brilliant than today's Han Empire?

Can't you?

Therefore, Chen Lin feels that in the future, Liu Bei should be promoted as the most virtuous person in ancient and modern times, and Liu Bei should be placed in a position that surpasses the rule of the three generations of ancient times.

Liu Bei felt that there was something inappropriate about this matter, but there were really many people who thought it was appropriate to do so, and many officials and even the people supported it.

The reason is simple.

The rule of three generations in ancient times, everyone has not experienced it, and I don't know how simple and comfortable it is.

But Liu Bei's Zhenguan governance, everyone really experienced, it was really comfortable.

Not to mention anything else, let's just talk about this aspect of eating, more than ten years ago, what everyone ate was still very simple, and today, with the popularity and pandemic of stir-frying, the existence of "cuisine" has begun to appear all over the country, and with the affluence of people's lives, more and more people have begun to pursue appetite.

It is no longer the pursuit of the aristocratic class, and some ordinary people have no official status or business, but their family background is enough to support their pursuit of food.

——————

PS: I plan to use a few biographies for the final ending~

(End of chapter)