Back to the Warring States Period as Zhao Kuo

Antiochus II smiled indifferently, and said, "Everyone who fails will say that he has many reasons. Do you think that as an emperor, I will easily believe such reasons?"

The prince said to Antioch II very respectfully: "If the father doesn't believe it, then the child can prove it for the father, as long as the father can allow the child's witness to come in front of the father."

Antiochus II stared at the prince in front of him, with a hesitant expression on his old face.

Frankly speaking, Anjok II actually believed in this son in front of him, and once regarded this son as the best heir to the throne in the future.

It was precisely because of this that after learning of the news of his son's failure, Antiochus II lost his composure and lost his temper, and directly recruited the prince back from the front line.

The so-called deep responsibility of love is like this.

After a moment of silence, Antiochus II said calmly, "I'm giving you this chance, and I also hope that what you say is not a lie, otherwise you will know the consequences."

The prince heaved a sigh of relief, stood up quickly, and walked out of the palace.

After the guests, the prince returned to the palace again, but this time there were two more guards and a coffin beside him.

"This is the child's witness."

The prince pointed to the coffin and said.

Antiochus II frowned again: "Your witness is actually a dead man?"

The prince didn't say anything more, but lifted the coffin board directly.

A rancid smell of corpse immediately filled the hall. Although this corpse had been pickled with lime, its smell was still very offensive.

The prince pointed to the corpse in front of him and said: "Father, please take a good look. This corpse has the wounds caused by the strange weapons of the Han people. I can assure you that Father is absolutely impossible to be in any place." See this strange wound."

After hesitating for a while, Antiochus II stood up, came to the coffin, and stared at the rotting corpse in the coffin.

Looking at the expression on Antioch II's face, he began to become serious.

His eyes fell on the corpse, and he saw the dense bullet holes on the corpse, and he said after a while, "What kind of weapon is this?"

The prince did not dare to be negligent, and hastily explained to Anjok II truthfully the battle situation he had witnessed that day.

Antiochus II frowned the more he listened, and after a long time, he waved his hand and signaled the palace guards to carry the coffin out.

Antiochus II turned his attention to the prince again, and said calmly: "If what you said is indeed true, then I can understand your failure.

But I want to tell you that I will send someone to the Eastern Governor's District for verification. If there is any lie in what you say, the consequences you will bear will be very terrible. "

The prince said to Antiochus II with a serious face: "Please rest assured, father, not a single word of the child's words is a lie. This can be proved by the mouths of all the soldiers who participated in the battle and survived."

Antiochus II pondered for a while, waved his hand at the prince, and said lightly: "I already understand everything about you, now you can go down."

The prince hesitated for a moment, and said when he was about to leave: "If possible, my son hopes that when we launch an attack on the Han Kingdom in the future, we can personally lead an army to avenge today's failure."

Antiochus II ignored the prince and just sat there quietly, seemingly lost in thought.

Seeing this, the prince could only retreat helplessly.

After the prince left, Antiochus II suddenly said after a while, "Do you think this matter is true or not?"

During the construction, there was only Antiochus II alone, but after Antiochus II finished speaking, another old man appeared soon.

The old man was wearing extremely gorgeous clothes, and his face looked vaguely similar to that of Antiochus II. He was the current prime minister of the Seleucid Empire and the cousin of Antiochus II.

The prime minister said: "What His Royal Highness said is basically the same as what our people obtained in the Eastern Governor's District.

Unless they have completely colluded in advance, otherwise this matter should basically be the truth. "

Antiochus II trusted this prime minister very much, because it was this prime minister who helped him win the throne for many years, and has been helping her conquer the east and west and the Ptolemy Egyptian dynasty, the sworn enemy of the Antioch dynasty in the west. fight.

So after listening to the prime minister's words, Antiochus II frowned and couldn't help but said: "If this is the case, then besides those damned guys in the west, don't we have more people in the east? A very terrible enemy appeared.

This is not good news for us. "

The prime minister said calmly: "On the surface, it does look like this, but from the reports of our spies lurking in the Eastern Governor's District, the mountain range to the east of the Eastern Governor's District is an article with a vast desert. The place is not suitable for the continued survival and combat of large armies."

Antiochus II said, "You may have forgotten that there is also a very fertile river valley there."

The old prime minister didn't change his expression, and continued to say: "The Lapi River Valley is indeed a very fertile place, but the amount of plagiarism he can only sustain an army of tens of thousands of people, er, as His Royal Highness said. It is impossible for such a powerful dynasty-level army to be fully supplied by that small river valley alone.

So I can assert that after the victory in this war, His Majesty the terrible Han Emperor should have chosen to withdraw his troops back to his capital to celebrate their victory in the Western Expedition this time. "

After Antiochus II heard this, the expression on his face relaxed a little bit.

Since the Alexander Empire fell apart due to the death of Alexander the Great, it has been divided into several parts.

Among them, the Seleucid Empire occupied the parts of Central Asia and West Asia, while the Ptolemaic Dynasty occupied Egypt. At the same time, there were several forces fighting each other in Greece and Macedonia. They all felt that they were the most orthodox Alexander. The successors of all the other forces regard the other forces as traitors.

Antioch, the capital of the empire listed below, is located on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, which is very close to Egypt and Asia Minor. In other words, other forces are likely to attack Antioch by sea or land. It also caused Antioch II to focus most of his energy on the western front for so many years, and actually seldom asked about the east.

The prime minister continued: "From a normal point of view, no matter how powerful an empire is, there is a limit to the area it can rule.

Since we are separated from the great Han country by what they call the Western Regions, it must be very far away for them to reach the territory of our Seleucid Empire.

So I think we don’t need to worry too much about this Han country, maybe we should send envoys to find and contact this Han country, and try to find a way to see if we can establish contact with them through commercial trade, and maybe even be able to Let them be our new allies. "

After Antiochus II heard this, his eyes lit up completely, and he couldn't help but slapped his thighs and praised: "Wonderful! Then do this, you immediately send an envoy to tell those guys over there, you must be careful Treat the Han emperor with a respectful attitude.

By the way, take some merchants to see if there are any goods we can use in those Han countries, and do business with them properly. "

The Seleucid Empire originated from the Alexander Empire and the predecessor of the Alexander Empire was the Kingdom of Macedonia. The Kingdom of Macedonia is next door to Greece. It is a country deeply influenced by the Greek Ming. The Greek Ming itself was the first to establish a commercial colony in the world. bright.

Therefore, the Seleucid Empire is actually an empire that is very keen on business and trade. Although they have been fighting non-stop with Ptolemy in Egypt and mainland Greece in recent years, their business and trade have basically not been interrupted.

For Antiochus II, if he can also develop trade with the Han Dynasty, this is definitely very good news, and it will definitely allow the Seleucid Empire to obtain more lucrative income.

The old prime minister nodded and said, "I'll do this right away, but if His Royal Highness finds out about it, I'm afraid he won't be very happy."

After all, both of them had heard it just now, and the feeling in His Royal Highness's heart couldn't be more obvious, wanting to avenge the Great Han Kingdom.

Antiochus II said disapprovingly, "I, the emperor, personally did this matter, so what right does he have to question it?

The interests of the empire are higher than his personal feelings. As a possible future successor of the empire, he should remember this clearly.

We have enough enemies, and I don't want another powerful enemy to appear in the east that might affect us.

By the way, remember to tell those envoys and businessmen that after they go to the Han Kingdom, they must find a way to find out about the secret weapon of the Han Kingdom.

If possible, we must buy that weapon at any cost. As long as we can learn how to make this weapon, perhaps it will no longer be a dream for us to unify the empire of Alexander the Great again. "

As he spoke, a smile appeared on Antiochus II's face!For him, this was not a very pleasant day at first, but after discussing the resolution, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly felt that the weather today was quite good, even the breeze blowing outside the palace was So refreshing.

Antiochus II stood up and said to the old prime minister in front of him: "I heard that the kid from the Ptolemy family has become restless again recently. According to the report from the navy, the Ptolemy family recently sent The number of times the envoys went to Greece is obviously too frequent. I suspect that they may be preparing to launch another joint attack on us. You must order the battle order. The Asia Minor side should make preparations immediately. Traitors here are gaining every inch of our empire."

The old prime minister nodded, and then said: "I heard that a new powerful country has recently risen on the Apennine Peninsula, and its name is the Roman Republic.

Maybe we can think about wooing this Roman Republic and making them our allies against Greece and Ptolemy. "

Antiochus II pondered for a while when he heard the words, and then said: "I have heard of this Roman Republic, these Apennines are ambitious guys, we may be able to use them, but we cannot expect them to be our true friends. ally."

The old prime minister smiled and said to Antiochus II: "Your Majesty the Great Emperor, you don't worry too much. In this world, except for our Seleucid Empire itself, who else is worthy to be our true ally?" ?

As long as we become stronger, whether it is Greece or Egypt, whether it is Rome or the Han Kingdom far in the east, they will all submit to the feet of our Seleucid Empire and become our most humble subjects. "

When Antiochus II heard this, he was taken aback for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

Chapter 1139 Zhao Kuo Returns from the Western Regions

Time passed unknowingly, and another half month was gone.

Zhao Kuo and Li Mu stood together, watching the Yili City, which had begun to take shape, with gratified smiles on their faces.

"From now on, this will be the westernmost city of our Great Han Kingdom. Of course, this is only temporary."

For Zhao Kuo, the footsteps of the Western Expedition will never stop, so although Yili City is now a frontier, it will soon become a city some distance away from the border, and soon it will become a city. The inner city of Han Dynasty.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu also nodded, and said in full agreement: "To tell you the truth, life here is actually pretty good, and I don't even want to go back."

Zhao Kuo suddenly thought of something, couldn't help laughing, and said to Li Mu: "I heard that the wives and concubines in your family are jealous every day because of you. Is it true?"

Li Mu is different from other people, because he belongs to Zhao Kuo's confidant and beloved general, so there were quite a few people who wanted to approach Li Mu when Li Mu was still a small officer.

After Li Mu became a general, there were many ministers scrambling to marry Li Mu. Their idea was actually very simple. Since they couldn’t marry Zhao Kuo, they should marry Li Mu, the general whom Zhao Kuo trusted, and the effect was the same. The difference is not too much.

Under such thinking, this led to Li Mu's number of wives and concubines reaching a total of nine, three times that of Zhao Kuo.

Of course, it’s fine if it’s just like this, but the problem is that Li Mu’s equipment is all born in a noble family, and they all came with political purposes, so after marrying Li Mu, they also helped each other Forming factions and fighting endlessly within the family caused Li Mu a great headache.

This feeling reminded Zhao Kuo of a comedy movie he had watched before time travel. It was the same situation after someone married several wives, so that he had to run out and go to someone else's mansion , became a slave, and finally succeeded in marrying someone else's maidservant.

It sounds like a story that is quite boring, but if you tell the name of this story, it will be different. The name of this story is Tang Bohu Dian Qiuxiang.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu also showed a wry smile on his face, and said to Zhao Kuo: "Unexpectedly, His Majesty also knew about this matter of the minister's family."

Zhao Kuo patted Li Mu's shoulder with a smile, and said to Li Mu: "Actually, I think this matter should be relatively easy to solve. After all, this era is still dominated by men, and the concept is the most deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. As long as you can show The majesty of the head of the family, is there anything you can't handle?"

After thinking about it for a while, Li Mu said with a sad face: "Of course it's not a problem to get rid of those old men. After all, I'm now the deputy prime minister and Taiwei of our Han Dynasty, but the problem is that these women hang themselves when they cry, make trouble, and hang themselves. It's too difficult to handle!"

Zhao Kuo laughed loudly and stopped mentioning this matter.

In fact, Zhao Kuo has already figured it out. It's not that Li Mu has no ability to solve this matter. In fact, as long as he finds a few wives and concubines who are the most troublesome and severely reprimands them, or even divorces them directly, that matter will be resolved. That's it.

But the crux of the problem is that Li Mu is actually unwilling to do this, perhaps because he has feelings for these wives and concubines.

As the saying goes, housework is difficult for an upright official, since Li Mu has already planned to continue indulging in this happy trouble, then of course Zhao Kuo doesn't need to continue to pull Li Mu out of it.

Just as there is a saying that goes well, a child is not a fish, how can you know the joy of a fish.

After a while, Zhao Kuo said to Li Mu, "How are you solving the matters south of Tianshan Mountain?"

Li Mu thought for a while, and said to Zhao Kuo: "The department must say that these bandits in the desert are destined to be a long-term trouble, and they can only be wiped out slowly.

However, I feel that as long as we develop this area properly, when everyone's life is better in the future, naturally no one will join the horse bandits.

These horse bandits will slowly die out and become the dust of history. "

After Zhao Kuo heard this sentence, he couldn't help but look at Li Mu in surprise. He didn't expect that Li Mu's ideological awareness is so high that he can say such a thing.

But I have to say that Li Mu's method is indeed the best way to deal with the horse bandits.

To put it bluntly, no matter where people are, in the final analysis, they just want to survive. If it is not that they cannot survive, most people will definitely not choose to be a robber.

Zhao Kuo nodded with a smile and said: "This is indeed the truth. In the future, the Western Regions will become an important node connecting us with the vast land further west. People here will not become rich because of planting any crops, but they will. Wealthy because of business."

In many places where the arable area was insufficient and the environment was very harsh in history, people often found ways to choose other ways out.

For example, in the coastal areas of China, in fact, in ancient times, it was quite difficult to survive, so people in these places often choose to go to sea or do business, which leads to the merchants in these coastal provinces Very special.

This is a truth that people often say, if you cannot make this society adapt to you, then you can only find a way to adapt to this society yourself.

A few more days later, a new group of Han officials finally arrived in Yili City.

Zhao Kuo was also very straightforward, and directly designated this place as the seat of the governor-general's seat in the western part of the Han Dynasty.

Yili is rich in products that can maintain a sufficient number of troops, and it is relatively close to the south or north of the Tianshan Mountains. If there is any problem on either side of the two sides, Ili will You can send troops to solve it at any time.

In addition, Yili itself is actually the city of the Han Kingdom closest to Central Asia, so if the Han Kingdom wants to continue to attack Central Asia in the future, it can continue to start from here, so as to minimize the impact on logistics. Kill three birds with one stone.

It is precisely because of this that the Qing Dynasty has always regarded Yili as the core location for controlling the western region in history.

It's a pity that the Qing Dynasty and the Tsarist Russian Empire signed a treaty of forfeiting power, humiliating the country and ceding land for compensation, which separated a large area of ​​​​northwest land, which caused Ili to change from an important inland town to a frontier city. The Qing Dynasty had to continue to move the government.

Of course, it was impossible for Zhao Kuo to make the mistakes made by the Qing Dynasty.

This fresh city will not be the end of the Great Han Kingdom's Western Expedition, but will become the starting point for the next Western Expedition of the Great Han Kingdom.

After staying in Yili City for another 7 days, guiding these new officials from the Han Dynasty to complete the basic work and establish a basic ruling order, Zhao Kuo left 1 soldiers and horses here, and then With the remaining 10,000+ army, they left Yili City in a mighty way, and officially embarked on the journey of returning to the dynasty.

When I came here, it was because of the war, so Zhao Kuo’s mood was more or less dignified, but when I went back, the outcome was already decided, and the entire Western Regions also fell into Zhao Kuo’s hands, so at this time Zhao Kuo is in a good mood.

After browsing the Borokonu Mountains again, Zhao Kuo saw the familiar desert again.

Looking at this desert full of billowing heat waves, Zhao Kuo couldn't help expressing emotion.

"It would be great if this vast land could be used as arable land!"

Frankly speaking, the main reason why the Central Plains dynasty in history was unable to control the Western Regions for a long time was because it was indeed not suitable for farming peoples to live in, and there was too little water and arable land.

Otherwise, even hills like Wuling and mountainous areas like Yunnan and Guizhou can be taken by China. Why is the Western Region not ruled by China?

As a farming nation, the Huaxia people do have a very tenacious character, but they also have a kind of shortcoming that can be said to be not a shortcoming, that is, the Huaxia people don't like land that cannot be cultivated for a long time.

This has also led to the fact that in history, when the Central Plains Dynasty of China occupied almost all the arable land that could be occupied, it was easy to lose the desire to continue to forge ahead, thinking that the land outside was some waste soil that was not suitable for farming. There is no need to spend more manpower and material resources to expand.

Listening to Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu also said with a smile: "Actually, your Majesty, you are not completely right. If you ask me to tell you, if this area is really all cultivated land, then it will definitely be built here." For a powerful country, even an empire, at that time, it is hard to say whether it will be our Han country that will conquer them, or the empire here will conquer us."

Zhao Kuo was taken aback when he heard it, and then he couldn't help laughing, nodded and said: "This is indeed the truth, but, to be honest, if we really start a war with a farming empire that exists here , then of course victory can only belong to our Great Han Kingdom.”

For Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu expressed his deepest agreement.

This pair of the most famous monarchs, ministers and generals in the Great Han Kingdom can definitely be said to be full of confidence in leading troops to fight.