In the cold winter, the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains are covered with ice and snow, and heavy snow falls from the gray sky. The fields and mountains seem to be covered with a snow-white carpet, and the big trees seem to be covered in white robes. The world is exceptionally quiet. The Chinese army's tent was used as the official residence of Tingzhou. Yang Ji, Li Jing and others were discussing matters in Tingzhou.
Li Jing said with a smile: "Once the master's slave trade is implemented, all the tribes and tribes outside the territory will definitely become more chaotic."
Yang Ji took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "The more chaotic they are, the easier it is for us to obtain slaves in the slave trade; the more fierce they fight, the more weapons, food, medicinal materials, and cloth they need. In order to strengthen their own strength, they They will try every means to plunder resources, and in order for their tribesmen to survive, the tribes between the major forces will also go to war with each other, and will also plunder the war horses and people of the surrounding tribes in exchange for survival supplies. For us, the more chaos outside the territory, Tingzhou, which is in name only in name, will be less affected, which will also allow Tingzhou to have a peaceful external environment to develop for a long time in the future. When the five cities of Tingzhou and the five-level defense system you envisioned are established, even if one day , we are no longer in Liangzhou, and Tingzhou can also protect itself."
"This method is to use the flesh and blood of the barbarians to nourish and build the Great Sui Dynasty." Li Jing's eyes lit up, and he had completely understood Yang Ji's strategic intention.
Yang Ji smiled slightly and did not continue talking.
"People who are not of my race must have different minds!" Xue Ju said: "Now that we are strong and the enemy is weak, why don't we, the Sui Dynasty, go all out and occupy the surrounding areas?"
"It is easy to annihilate the enemy, but difficult to govern!" Yang Ji sighed and said, "As far as my current territory is concerned, it has reached the limit of population, food, and marching speed. For example, if there is a rebellion in Jiaozhou, when the news spreads, By the time we arrived in Guanzhong, it would have been a long time ago. If we transferred troops from Guanzhong again, the rebels might have occupied the entire Jiaozhou; and in the West, our influence and deterrence from the Sui Dynasty could only extend to the Western Regions. , no matter how far away, there is the danger of being out of reach.”
"If a war breaks out somewhere, if the army cannot enter for more than a hundred days, it is basically the limit. I call this limit the empire's extreme wall. If we exceed the empire's extreme wall, if we continue to expand the scope of our rule, The result is that the other side will rebel after the army withdraws. Therefore, instead of occupying these territories that we cannot actually control and setting up enemies everywhere, it is better to leave a vast space for them to fight on their own. We only need to use politics to , economy, military, and culture to exert influence.”
There have been dynasties in history that have broken through the extreme walls of their empires. However, those kinds of breakthroughs have actually resulted from being crushed by the conquerors too many times and simply giving up the struggle. After that, these empires that broke through the extreme walls of their empires simply relied on their past military achievements. It doesn't matter if it takes one or two years for the army to enter the army so that they don't dare to rebel. But for the feudal dynasty, it was not an ordinary difficulty to achieve this level.
With the current strength and reaction speed of the Sui Dynasty, blindly pursuing a large territory and territory would not only be a bad thing, but would become a huge burden and burden.
In order to strengthen the imperial court's rule and control over various places, Yang Jian has been continuously repairing official roads, improving the post system, and shortening the journey from east to west, north and south little by little over the years. This is actually an attack on the extreme wall of the empire, but the target of conquering is the inner extreme. The "Guanzhong-Guazhou" straight road he is planning to build is an offensive that takes into account both internal and external considerations.
"I understand, humble position." Everyone nodded silently. What Yang Ji said was easy to understand, very thorough, and everyone could understand it.
At this moment, a burst of noise suddenly came from outside, and everyone frowned at the same time. Seeing that Yang Ji didn't say anything, Li Jing knew that he was letting himself, the governor and general manager of Tingzhou, take charge, and immediately asked sharply : "Who is making a noise outside?"
After a while, a young official stepped inside, bowed and saluted Yang Ji and Li Jing, and said: "This is to the Chief Manager, Li Shishi. It was the Prime Minister Chen Min of Tianshan County who captured a Sogdian caravan staying in the city. .”
"Why are you arresting the Sogdian caravan? What happened, please tell me in detail?" Tingzhou is located on the northern route of the Silk Road. It is the main route for the Sogdians to do business in Eastern/Turkic, Khitan and other places. Some people go south from here to Iraq. Prefecture; some people also went to the north of Datong City in Ganzhou, went south along Juyanze and Ruoshui, and entered the Sui Dynasty for business. When they heard that Tianshan County would become the prefecture of Tingzhou, some Sogdians who were very keen on business prepared Set up shops and transfer stations here. Since they kept to themselves and brought many things needed by officials and people, Li Jing didn't pay much attention to them. At this time, he was greatly surprised when he heard that the county magistrate had arrested all the Sogdians.
The young official said: "I heard from the county officials that the city patrol army was on patrol. Some people said that the Sogdians who came today had snatched away their daughters, so the city patrol army closed the city to search and captured all the caravans." Come here."
"Is there such a thing?" Yang Ji's expression turned cold when he heard the words "their daughter". He put the wine glass on the table, stood up and said, "Let's go out and take a look."
A group of people stepped out of the "Prefecture Government Office" tent and walked towards the "County Government Office".
. . . . . . . .
The Sogdians live in Central Asia controlled by the Western Turks. From the Han Dynasty to the present, they have been
Traveling back and forth along the Silk Road, the main commercial activities were to purchase silk porcelain paper medicinal tea from the Central Plains, and to transport small but high-value treasures from the Western Regions, such as sesame, jade, agate, pearls, etc. As a result, many Sogdian city-states and small states were formed. They used their surnames as their country names. The more famous ones are the nine states of Kang, An, Shi, Cao, Shi, Mi, He, Luo and Bai. People in the Central Plains are accustomed to calling these nine states the "Nine Surnames of Zhaowu". .
This Sogdian caravan from Tianshan City came from the distant state of Kang. They consisted of more than 100 merchants, more than 200 camel drivers and guards, and a total of more than 800 camels. Loaded with Western gems and spices, they traveled thousands of miles to the Sui Dynasty in exchange for silk, porcelain, tea, and paper.
Despite the heavy snowfall, the Sogdians, who are famous for their proficiency in business, good at planning, hard work, and proficiency in various languages, had no intention of stopping. In addition, their camels were not sheltered from wind, snow, and sand. So after replenishing drinking water in Tianshan County, we hurried westward, preparing to stay in Tianchi City in the west. However, just as they were setting off, they were driven in front of the county government office by a large group of Sui troops, including men and camels.
"I have seen the chief manager and Li Shishi in my humble position." When Yang Ji, Li Jing and others arrived, the county magistrate Yuan Fu and the county magistrate Chen Min came forward with dozens of people to salute.
"Well!" Yang Ji glanced at them with a serious look on his face, and asked the crying people: "I am Yang Ji, the chief manager of Liangzhou, and your daughters were snatched away by these people? When did this happen? ?”
"Reporting to the chief manager, it was my granddaughter who was robbed, not my daughter." An old man cried and said: "Just an hour ago, two barbarians came to my house and asked where the spring water was. I happened to be weaving a dung basket. I kindly asked my granddaughter to take them to find a well, but she never came back. The old man looked everywhere but could not find anyone. The barbarians who had just arrived today were nowhere to be seen, so I had to ask the soldiers for help. Here we are. After arriving here, I realized that these fellow villagers were the same as me. They either lost their daughters or their granddaughters. The situation was similar to what I encountered. And these barbarians were traveling in the snow. They must have a guilty conscience and were trying to escape! The general manager must make the decision for us."
"Don't worry, I will definitely make the decision for you." Yang Ji looked at Chen Min and asked, "Is this the only caravan today?"
Chen Min quickly replied: "Go back to the Chief Manager! This Sogdian caravan is the only one arriving today."
Yang Ji asked again: "Has anyone escaped?"
Chen Min said: "After receiving the news, I closed the city gate and caught this group of people in the middle of the city. They couldn't escape at all."
"Well done!" Yang Ji praised, led everyone towards the Sogdian caravan surrounded by soldiers, and loudly ordered: "Unload all the goods and accept inspection. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy."
In front of the sharp swords and the strung crossbows, these Sogdians did not dare to complain at all and obediently unloaded the goods from the camels.
Yang Ji, who was watching coldly, noticed that more than a dozen barbarians were leading a dozen camels carrying large boxes to the edge. Before he could say anything, Xue Ju next to him also noticed something unusual. He whispered: "Young Master, you were robbed." I’m afraid the children who left are in these boxes.”
Yang Ji nodded and said in a deep voice: "Take a dozen brothers up and capture these people for me. Remember, you have to move quickly and don't give them a chance to take hostages."
"Here." Xue Ju summoned a dozen guards and explained clearly, then walked towards the dozen barbarians.
Xue Ju kicked a barbarian and said carelessly: "You bitch, what's in the box?"
The barbarian hurriedly smiled and said: "There are exquisite porcelain inside, please forgive me, general."
"What porcelain? I think it's a weapon." Xue Ju continued to buy time for the guards.
The barbarian took out a handful of gold coins and gave them to Xue Ju. He said with a smile: "The general is joking. We are upright Sogdian merchants. We travel between the East and the West all the year round. We know the rules of the Sui Dynasty very well. How dare we sell privately?" Where are the weapons?”
"Really?" Xue Ju pretended to receive the money and punched the Hu man hard in the stomach.
"Ugh!" The barbarian knelt on the ground with a thud. His stomach hurt so much that he even vomited out gall water.
When the accompanying guards saw Xue moving, they immediately took action and restrained these barbarians who were obviously problematic.
More than a dozen soldiers rushed forward, unloaded the boxes from the camels, and cut off the locks with their knives. The faces of these Hu merchants suddenly turned pale.
A soldier tore off the wool felt and turned around and shouted: "General Manager, the lost child has been found!"
Yang Ji walked over quickly, escorted by a group of guards. He glanced at the box and saw two unconscious little girls curled up inside.
"General Manager, we have them here too!"
"General Manager, there are also two children in this box."
"..."
The soldiers discovered one after another that there were little girls knocked out by medicine in more than twenty boxes.
"How can it be?"
"Bah, what a morally corrupt scum!"
This sudden turn of events also stunned many Hu businessmen, who exclaimed in shock, and cursed each other in fluent Chinese in an attempt to draw boundaries and stay out of the matter.
"The evidence is conclusive, why are you still pretending to be innocent?" Yang Ji was so angry that his lungs almost exploded at the innocent exclamations of the Hu merchants. He hadn't even gotten a foreign slave yet, and he was being attacked by these Sogdian traffickers. After stealing dozens of children, he roared with a livid face: "Capture all the wild dogs and take them to the Chinese army's tent for investigation. All boxes must be opened and inspected. I want to see what's inside."
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