After several years, Zhang Qian returned again, no longer as green as when he set out.
Zhang Qian, who had been running in the Western Regions for several years, looked red from the sun and was a little thin, but his eyes were still bright and he was in good spirits.
"Zhang Qing, thank you for your hard work."
Zhang Qian, with tears in his eyes, stepped forward and saluted with a choked voice, "Your Majesty, I am back!"
Li Yunze stepped forward to help him up, looked at Zhang Qian and nodded repeatedly, "It's good to be back."
Immediately, he looked at the members of the mission who returned with Zhang Qian.
When we first set out, there were hundreds of mission members, translators, guides, doctors, grooms, veterinarians, and military guards.
But at this time, only about a hundred people came back with Zhang Qian.
Of course, compared to the many years gone by in history, and even only two people coming back in the end, it is already much better.
"Tell me."
Arriving at the temporary camp, Li Yunze took Zhang Qian and sat down and asked, "How did you get here all the way?"
"I led my troops out of the border wall all the way to the west, passing through the Qiang land and towards the West Sea (Qinghai Lake). When I was traveling across the desert and the oases in the Loulan Kingdom, the local people with evil intentions attacked the mission and suffered heavy losses."
After saying this, Li Yunze immediately showed an angry look on his face, "The small country of Zuo'er is so bold! It dares to attack the Han mission. Zhang Qing, when the army enters the Western Regions, you will personally lead the troops to destroy this country and avenge the Han family! "
Zhang Qian was so moved that he stood up again and saluted, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The next step is to sit down and continue talking about the journey. "There are many small countries in the Western Region, most of them are one city and one place, and they dare to call themselves countries. There are Huns in many countries, and the queens of many countries are Hun women."
This is a fact, because the Huns on the grassland must have entered the Western Regions in advance. According to their tradition, it is appropriate to control their country by marrying off their daughters.
"However, after crossing the vast sea, the influence of the Huns on the other countries was not great. When heading north, we met the Wusun people."
Li Yunze raised his eyebrows, "The Wusun people are allies of the Huns. Are you starting a fight?"
Zhang Qian smiled bitterly, "I also know that the Wusun people are allies of the Huns, so they started to run away after encountering the Wusun cavalry. However, the Wusun people pursued them closely, and more and more people and horses gathered. In the end, they even dispatched thousands of soldiers." The cavalry surrounded us."
At this point, Li Yunze knew there was a story.
If they were all killed by the Wusun people, there would be no Zhang Qian here telling stories at this moment.
Li Yunze was very cooperative and asked with curiosity, "How to solve it?"
Zhang Qian explained, "Just when I thought I was going to die in battle, the Wusun cavalry stopped fighting and just surrounded us. It wasn't until a few days later that Wusun Kunmo and Lie Jiaomi came to the formation in person. I need to discuss this with you in detail beforehand."
Li Yunze narrowed his eyes, "It seems that the Wusun people finally want to get rid of the control of the Huns."
Wusun Kunmo (chief) Liejiaomi lost his country when he was young, and later fled to the Huns. He was adopted as his godson by Maodun Chanyu, and sent troops to help him restore his country.
Of course, strength is the most important thing on the prairie, and there are careerists everywhere. No matter how great a favor is, it is useless in the face of interests.
Since then, Wusun has basically been equivalent to a vassal tribe of the Huns, except that it is powerful enough.
Facing the Wusun who were strong enough and had a large enough population, the Huns naturally used various means to control them and arranged many manpower for surveillance.
The only reason why Liejiaomi could receive the envoys of the Han Dynasty in full view of the public was that he no longer wanted to be the little brother of the Huns.
Liejiaomi naturally knew about the Han army's successive defeats of the Huns.
Just like the Huns arranged manpower here in Wusun, Liejiaomi also arranged manpower among the Huns.
He knew that the Han Dynasty was so powerful that he even forced the Huns not to invade the border every year.
Especially the death of the military minister Shanyu made Liejiaomi determined.
It's just that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. In order to guard against the Huns' revenge, Liejiaomi is willing to form a relationship with the big man to deal with it together.
After all, for the grassland tribes, they must not be soft-hearted at all when they can take advantage of it.
"What did Liejiaomi say?"
"Your Majesty." Zhang Qian's expression was a little excited, and he said happily, "Lie Jiaomi said that he has long admired the majesty of the Han Dynasty and is willing to ask the princess of the Han Dynasty to conclude an alliance. If the Han Dynasty can join forces with Wusun, they will definitely defeat the Xiongnu in a flanking attack!"
Zhang Qian, who was delighted, regarded this incident as his biggest gain from his mission to the Western Regions, and attracted strong reinforcements to deal with the Huns.
But when he looked at Li Yunze expectantly, he saw that there was no joy on the emperor's face.
"I."
Li Yunze's voice was cold, but with incomparable determination, "No marriage!"
Historically, Lie Jiaomi did seek peace with the Han Dynasty through Zhang Qian, and Emperor Wu also selected Princess Xijun, the daughter of Liu Jian, to marry Lie Jiaomi.
But there is no human ethics in the grassland tribes. After Princess Xijun died of illness, Emperor Wu chose Princess Jieyou to marry Liejiaomi's son Junxumi. But after Junxumi died, he forced the princess to marry him instead. Sun Weng returned to Mi.
Later generations seemed to have filmed TV series based on this, promoting some kind of love.
This really left Li Yunze speechless. How could there be any love in this?
As a time traveler, if you arrange a marriage, your ass will be blown.
The diplomatic principles that Li Yunze follows are very simple: no surrender, no tribute, no fraternity.
Whatever you want can be solved through diplomacy, if not then start a fight!
Li Yunze would never do it anyway by relying on women in exchange for benefits.
This is why when Zhang Qian said this, he immediately felt dissatisfied.
However, Emperor Wu in history forced the princess to remarry based on the instructions of "following the customs of his country and wanting to destroy Hu together with Wusun".
From this point of view alone, Li Yunze looked down upon him very much. He would rather lead all the Han family members in the world to fight than lose them all!
Zhang Qian was a little dazed, and when he came to his senses he hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, this is a good opportunity to get strong reinforcements."
"Strongness is achieved by oneself, not by assistance."
Li Yunze simply waved his hand and said, "There is no need to mention the marriage matter. I have made up my mind, so let's stop it."
The emperor's words have reached this level, so what else can Zhang Qian do, but he can only accept it.
Liejiaomi was still wary of the Huns. After all, he grew up in the Huns and experienced the most powerful period of the Huns.
Even though he now sees the weakness of the Huns and wants to stand on his own and be the master of his own country, he is still afraid.
This is the only reason why he wants to form an alliance with the Han family. He hopes that the power of the Han family will involve the power of the Xiongnu from afar, so that he can have both sides.
After all, Wusun didn't pay much here, he just married a Han woman.
Moreover, this Han woman also brought an extremely generous dowry, and even had eunuchs, imperial servants, craftsmen, etc. as dowries. She really made a lot of money.
The abacus was very good, but it was a pity that he met Li Yunze who didn't like this, so the abacus naturally failed.
"Wusun?" Li Yunze chuckled. "When I wipe out the Xiongnu, it will be their turn. I will not leave any tribes on the grassland behind."
After talking about Wusun, at Li Yunze's signal, Zhang Qian gathered his mood and continued to tell his story.
"After I left Wusun, I returned eastward along the mountains, passing through many countries along the way. Many countries hoped that the Han Dynasty would send troops to help them expel the Huns."
At this time, the Western Regions were in the hands of the Huns. The Huns severely exploited and exploited the Western Regions. If the nomads were not accustomed to settled life, they would have directly destroyed their country and occupied their land.
Under such an environment, those small countries that were deeply troubled by the Xiongnu naturally caused complaints.
"Expel the Huns?"
Hearing this, Li Yunze was also happy, "It is right to expel the Huns, but after expelling the Huns, the land they occupied must also be handed over."
Li Yunze doesn't like any false reputation, he doesn't want any kind of Khan or co-leader, or any restraint or foreign state.
Either don't fight, or if you fight, you will definitely occupy the territory, and then move the Han people there, thus starting from ancient times.
In Li Yunze's opinion, these small countries in the Western Regions have no need to exist at all. When the Western Regions are recovered, each small country will basically be just a county.
Those who are willing to listen to good advice can naturally be given preferential treatment. There is no problem in moving to Middle-earth to become a rich man.
But if you are unwilling to do things, then go do hard work. Anyway, there is an extreme shortage of hard work among the big men now, and there are scarce jobs everywhere waiting for them to do things.
"correct."
Li Yunze asked casually, "Have you been to Lop Nur?"
"Passed by."
Zhang Qian immediately responded, "With abundant water and grass, and flocks of birds and animals, it is indeed a rich and wonderful place."
Li Yunze couldn't help laughing when he heard these words that had nothing to do with the Gobi Desert.
Before large-scale water conservancy projects were launched, Lop Nur in this era was indeed a super large lake as the final destination for melted snow water in the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains.
"This time I am on an envoy to the Western Regions. I will record the mountains and rivers, geography, customs and customs, military equipment, merchants on the road, etc." Zhang Qian took out a thick book and handed it over with both hands. "Please read it."
Taking the book, Li Yunze looked through it carefully.
Zhang Qian's records are very detailed. Basically, every place in the country has detailed records. This is naturally done with great care.
Closing the book, Li Yunze nodded with satisfaction, "Zhang Qing did a good job. This book alone is worthy of the title of Bowang Hou."
Zhang Qian was overjoyed and saluted and thanked him repeatedly.
As for the other people in the team who have returned, Li Yunze will naturally not treat them harshly.
Although no one else except Zhang Qian could be granted the title of Marquis, each person would be promoted to at least the third level of the title, and each person would be rewarded with at least one hundred gold. There was no doubt that this was a huge reward.
Li Yunze is not afraid of spending money, and he is not afraid of giving out any title.
In his opinion, compared with the spirit of pioneering and enterprising, this thing is completely worth mentioning.
Li Yunze gets angry when he thinks of the secluded dynasties in later generations.
He was originally the boss, and he was still in the great era of horse racing and staking, but he gave up before his eyes and allowed barbarians from all over the place to take over.
In any case, such things are absolutely not allowed to appear in his big man!
(End of chapter)
