Zhang Zhao knew why Li Shengtian asked this, because even future generations would not know that these great empires that appeared at the same time and declined almost at the same time in history had seemingly unrelated but thousands of connections. Inextricably linked.
Thinking of this, I, Duke Zhang, took a writing brush from the table.
From the northern end of the Apennine Peninsula controlled by Charlemagne's Empire, to Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire, to Baghdad in the black-clad world, to Persia, to the Western Regions, then through the Hexi Corridor, and finally to Chang'an.
Zhang Zhao drew a line in all these places with a brush to connect them.
"This? Is this a trade road? Is it the Silk Road starting from the Tang Dynasty?" Li Shengtian pondered for a while, and he knew what Zhang Zhao was drawing.
This is the trade route that connects east-west trade! It is also one of the foundations of the founding of Khotan.
"That's right! Uncle, please see, Charlemagne's empire controls Genoa here, and the western end of the Silk Road is here. Here, people can already buy silks and porcelain from the Tang Dynasty, but by the time they get here, the silks, satins, etc. have already been It's a sky-high price.
Therefore, many merchants only regard the silks, satins and porcelain of the Tang Dynasty as their signature products, and the products they sell more often come from Heiyi Dashi.
After they sell their own goods, they will buy some local goods and transport them back to Dashi.
But the land in Dashi is barren, and they simply cannot eat so many commodities, so they can only keep transporting them eastward.
After changing hands several times, these commodities were summarized into glassware, fragrant leaves, pepper, nutmeg, olive oil, Sanle pulp, blankets and even swords, armor and horses that appeared in Khotan.
When it reaches Khotan, part of it will be digested by Khotan, and then some jade, wine, etc. will be added to continue transport eastward. Eventually, all the goods will reach Chang'an.
In Chang'an, these mountains of commodities will be completely digested by Chang'an, which has a population of two million. Even if Chang'an cannot digest it completely, there will be Luoyang, Longyou, Shannan, Jiangnan, Jiannan, Lingnan and even the entire Tang Dynasty.
After the Tang Dynasty, headed by Chang'an, digested these commodities, the porcelain, pottery, silk and other commodities of the Tang Dynasty would be continuously transported away by merchants, and then embark on the road to the west again. "
Zhang Zhao said a lot in one breath, and Li Shengtian also nodded.
"That's right! This is how the Silk Road worked. When the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, hundreds of thousands of merchants passed through Khotan alone every year. It was really prosperous at that time!"
The Silk Road, this trade route named by German scholars in the 19th century, was far from being as frivolous as it sounded to later generations.
Before the rise of maritime trade, it was the largest, most important, and even the only large-scale trade route in the world.
Moreover, this trade road spans hundreds of thousands of miles, and it is not carried out by a group of merchants, but by businessmen of different nationalities and cultures from stop to stop.
Therefore, with this trade route, everyone along the way can benefit. Merchants make money, people sell unnecessary goods and buy needed goods, and rulers receive a large amount of business taxes.
With the blessing of the Silk Road, the Hexi Corridor was not a sand-eating place in the northwest that would be mentioned in later generations, but a first-class golden passage. The population of Dunhuang in the Tang Dynasty was even several times that of Dunhuang in later generations.
The Hexi region, dominated by the Republic of Gansu, had a status equal to that of the Guangdong region of the later Republic in the Tang Dynasty.
The Silk Road sounds like an ordinary business road, but it is actually a golden road.
"What a pity! The Silk Road is no longer as prosperous as it used to be. Ever since the two Anshi thieves brought trouble to the world in the 14th year of Tianbao, this Silk Road has been getting worse day by day. I wish I could have eaten the flesh and blood of these two thieves during the Tianbao year! "
Even though it was almost two hundred years ago, Li Shengtian still gritted his teeth when he mentioned the Anshi Rebellion.
"Uncle, after the Anshi Rebellion brought chaos to the world, it was not just the Silk Road that was destroyed! Uncle, please see, after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was almost in decline.
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But at the same time as the Tang Dynasty declined, the great empires that had prospered at the same time as the Tang Dynasty in the past, such as Tubo, Black Clothes Dashi, Qin and Charlemagne's Empire, all began to decline almost at the same time. In less than a hundred years, Tubo even ceased to exist. , uncle, don’t you think this is a bit too coincidental? "
A flash of lightning flashed in Li Shengtian's mind. He threw away the leg of lamb in his hand, squinted his eyes and threw himself in front of Zhang Zhao's map. His fingers slid along the Silk Road drawn by Zhang Zhao bit by bit.
"Erlang, you are saying that the reason why these great empires were able to maintain their prosperity was all because they participated in this ancient Silk Road that shone through the present. After the decline of the Silk Road, they inevitably fell into collective decline."
"Yes! The biggest reason for the decline of the Silk Road is the decline of the Tang Dynasty. Uncle, in our world, there were about 20 million Dingkou, and in the Tang Dynasty, including black households and hidden households, there were about 80 million .
These are great numbers! Before Anshi, the amount of goods that 80 million people had to digest in a year was simply incalculable, so no matter how much goods came from the West, we could digest them.
After we digest these commodities, we will produce a huge amount of goods for merchants to sell to the West, thus supporting the prosperity of several large empires in the West.
Haven't you ever been surprised? It was snowing in June on the Qiangtang Snowfield and extremely bitter and cold, but how did Tubo Zanpu rely on to maintain more than 200,000 soldiers?
Where did the cloth, money, grain, salt and iron come from that could support the Tibetan generals to compete with Taizong and Gaozong in an era when there were so many famous generals? "
"Yes! Those Tubo people in the day care would have been unable to survive long ago if it wasn't for a certain person who provides financial aid all the year round.
Even among the nobles, if they can have a bowl of Japonica rice with honey and a glass of purple wine, they are living a good life.
How did they support those hundreds of thousands of soldiers back then? Does it depend on the prosperity of the Silk Road? "
Li Shengtian was stunned for a long time, and a question he had never thought about before came to his mind.
"My uncle is right. The reason why Tubo prospered was because of the Silk Road. The reason why Tubo declined rapidly was also because of the decline of the Silk Road.
In fact, after the Anshi period, the Silk Road could still be maintained, but the Tubo people dug their own graves.
They planned the Pingliang Alliance Incident in the third year of Zhenyuan of Dezong. Although this shameless plan eliminated the three northwest generals of the Tang Dynasty and killed hundreds of elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, its serious consequences were far worse than those obtained by Tubo. Much bigger.
After the Pingliang robbery, the Tang Dynasty completely gave up its alliance with Tubo. The bigger impact was that the Tubo people had exposed their bad faith. They even dared to plunder the Tang Dynasty, so what's the point of just doing business?
From then on, merchants preferred to take a detour through the grasslands controlled by the Uighurs rather than go west of the river.
After realizing that there were fewer traders in Hexi, what the Tubo people did was not to show their willingness to maintain trade routes as soon as possible. On the contrary, the noble Dong Dai below was afraid that there would be no traders in the future and no wealth, so he simply allowed his soldiers to plunder, hoping that in the end Get a handful. "
"This is really asking for death! I should take this as a warning!" Li Shengtian's eyes widened when he heard the anti-intellectual actions of the Tubo people, and he couldn't help but complain.
"Yes! Since then, the Silk Road has been cut off. Even though Tubo has captured Hexi and most of Longyou, the output cannot maintain the size of the army with hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
A large number of soldiers had no food and clothing, and middle- and lower-level officers also lived in poverty. In order to compete for more survival resources, they launched brutal internal killings. "
Speaking of this, Zhang Zhao smiled and said, "Back when Taibao Gong raised his voice, one of the biggest reasons why Fan Han responded was because the Silk Road was cut off.
Hexi is not a wealthy town to begin with. The Silk Road is dead, the financial resources from top to bottom are exhausted, and the city is trapped in poverty.
Therefore, when the Taibao Gong upheld his righteousness, not only the Han people responded, but the Sogdians, Longjia, Dadan, Uighurs, and even the Tibetan people themselves also followed suit.
In fact, the land of Hexi is almost dead. After opening up Ganliang and returning to the motherland, we also need to reopen the Silk Road! "
Zhang Zhao said with a smile, but Li Shengtian seemed to suddenly realize it. He looked at Zhang Zhao with burning eyes. It was obvious that he no longer regarded Zhang Zhao as a brave general, but as a soldier!
"When Erlang said this, I also remembered that my grandfather once said that the reason why our Yuchi family was determined to drive away the Tubo people was because Khotan was running out of life. I originally thought that my grandfather meant that the Tubo people oppressed them too much. It turns out it’s because the Silk Road was cut off!”
Speaking of this, Li Shengtian seemed to have grasped a bit of Zhang Zhao's thinking, but he still couldn't figure it out. What does this queen of Karahan have to do with what Zhang Zhao said?
"My nephew, I would like to ask my uncle, is the commercial tax that Khotan has received from the Silk Road in recent years rising year by year or declining?"
Li Shengtian's face darkened, "Where did the increase come from? The commercial tax received last year was only 70% of what it was five years ago!"
"Then my uncle must have thought that the drop in commercial taxes was because traders on the Silk Road were attracted by the Gaochang Uighurs and a large number of them took the North Road, so that caused a decrease in the number of traders on the South Road?"
"Isn't it?" Li Shengtian asked doubtfully. That's what he thought, so he discussed with Cao Yijin and prepared for the two companies to join forces to attract as many merchants as possible to the south.
Zhang Zhao and his envoys walked to the ancient city of Loulan and were plundered by Gaochang Diloda Ganpu Gucheng. This was actually a warning from Gaochang Wu's mother Khan to the two families.
"No!" Zhang Zhao shook his head affirmatively, "My nephew obtained from Wu Dal'er the statistics of merchants passing through Dunhuang and Shazhou commercial tax records in recent years. Last year, compared with five years ago, Shazhou commercial taxes dropped significantly. Thirty and a half percent!”
"How could this happen? How could this happen? Is it because the Uighurs in Ganzhou have changed? Or are they making trouble again in Hexi?"
Li Shengtian was suddenly in chaos. Whether he took the northern route to Gaochang Uighurs or the southern route to Khotan, all merchants came from Dunhuang, Shazhou.
However, the number of merchants and commercial taxes in Dunhuang decreased, which shows that the decrease in commercial taxes in Khotan was not due to the fact that all the Uighurs took the northern route of Gaochang, but that the number of merchants coming from the east was decreasing sharply.
"None of them!" Zhang Zhao took a deep breath. He couldn't bear to tell Li Shengtian this cruel reality.
"The real reason is that the population of Guanzhong is in decline, less than one-tenth that of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The Central Plains has experienced several wars, and Dingkou is not as good as before. The entire Central Plains, the rich land, has begun to turn to Yang Wu and Qian Beyond the land.
Guanzhong was in ruins, and Hedong, Henan, and Hebei were also in turmoil due to wars. At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of wealthy households in Guanzhong. Not a single one of them survived, and the rest were poor farmers who were struggling to survive. They could no longer digest the colored glaze, jade and other items brought from the west. .
Because these had nothing to do with people's livelihood and were used by officials and nobles, when the Tang Dynasty could not digest the goods from the west, merchants could only use money to buy the output of the Tang Dynasty.
This not only increased costs, but also reduced profits along the way, which would inevitably lead to a sharp increase in the prices of silk and porcelain in Datang.
The skyrocketing prices also caused the Cannibals, Qin people and Franks in the west to gradually no longer be able to afford the products of the Tang Dynasty. It is understandable that the Silk Road gradually withered.
What is even more terrifying is Qian Yue, Wang Min and Nan Han, because they have begun to prepare to build ships to go to sea, trying to reach Dashi directly from the sea. In the future, I am afraid that this maritime Silk Road will replace the road Silk Road. "
This was the great horror. Li Shengtian, who was a little fuzzy under the influence of alcohol, was covered in cold sweat like rain, and he suddenly woke up.
If large ships were built in Huainan, Jiangnan, and Lingnan and the Silk Road returned to the sea, then Khotan would be doomed. Without the Silk Road, how could the Jin Kingdom survive?
"Since Erlang knows this, there must be a solution, right? Come and tell your uncle!" Li Shengtian grabbed Zhang Zhao's hand, his eyes filled with nervousness.
Zhang Zhao sighed, it was like this in history. After years of fighting with Karakhan, Khotan was wasted to death at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains because of the interruption of the Silk Road.
"Uncle, this is a general trend that cannot be saved by humans! But we can try to delay it. Anxi and Hezhong cannot be saved, but there is still a chance for the Khotan Kingdom!"
Li Shengtian turned pale when he first heard Zhang Zhao say that no human effort could save him, but then he heard the words that Yu Tian could save him. Within a few breaths, he seemed to be on the verge of life and death. He sat upright. Look at Zhang Zhao.
"Please Erlang teach me!"
"I'm willing to share my worries for my uncle!" Zhang Zhao also sat back upright and bowed.
He then tore off a piece of jute paper and drew a map of the South Asian subcontinent beneath Khotan with a brush.
"Uncle, this is the country of Tianzhu that Tang Xuanzang visited. The climate here is hot, but it is rich in products. Rice can be harvested three times a year. Various fruits, vegetables, and spices are everywhere.
In the northwest, a plant called cotton grows, which can be used to make clothes, bedding, etc. It is more than ten times warmer than linen and Gebu.
Moreover, its people are weak and weak, and the Brahman religion rules the people of Tianzhu into equal parts, making it very easy to manage. This is simply the granary and treasure house of the Golden Kingdom that God has given me! "
With that said, Zhang Zhao became completely excited. Going to India to become a master is probably the favorite thing for many Chinese men in later generations who like history and maps and open up new territories.
What a colony! How come it fell into the hands of a cheap guy like Dai Ying? Why didn’t our ancestors know how to colonize India?
Isn’t this coming?
Zhang Zhao excitedly pointed at the Indian mainland, "Uncle, please see, if we can capture Mar Yinang (Fergana), we can find a passage through the Persian Saman Kingdom to reach Tianzhu smoothly after leaving the valley mouth." .
In addition, we can also cross the snow-capped mountains from Congling Shouchu’s hometown.
This two-sided attack requires only a few thousand soldiers, and Tianzhu will definitely surrender. At that time, we can plunder a large amount of treasures from Tianzhu, and at the same time, we can also rob the people of Tianzhu, because they are extremely obedient and are the best serfs.
We brought the Tianzhu people to Malyinang to cultivate and cultivate, and then enfeoffed our own people to become lords. It was similar to the military system of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, it was the Iqta nobles of Karakhan, who gave hundreds of acres of land to each person, making them Yongzhen Yifang.
If there are 10,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of peasant auxiliary soldiers stationed in Malyinang and the entrance of the valley is closed, no one can take it away. Moreover, there are serfs from Tianzhu who have cultivated the land for generations, and our warriors only need to practice martial arts from generation to generation.
When the population multiplied, they would send their descendants to Tianzhu to become masters, or to attack Samampos. When the serfs were gone, they would go to Tianzhu to plunder and come back.
At the same time, trade routes can also be opened to transport sugar cane, cotton, and spices from Tianzhu back to Khotan, Hexi, and even the Tang Dynasty.
After transporting silk, porcelain, etc. from the Tang Dynasty, we can also teach them to drink tea and then sell the tea.
This goes on and on, constantly absorbing the blood of Tianzhu and strengthening itself. Even if the big Silk Road is cut off, our small Silk Road from Tianzhu to Chang'an can be maintained! "
This is actually Zhang Zhao's prescription for Hexi and Anxi. It is almost a foregone conclusion that the overland Silk Road will be cut off, but he can open up a small Silk Road, which may be called the Cotton Road in the future.
Because the main problem now is that after Guanzhong is broken, it can no longer digest luxury goods from the West.
Unable to digest these Western luxuries, the Silk Road of two-way trade became one-way.
Therefore, Zhang Zhao wants to grow cotton in India. This thing is for mass consumption and does not need to be digested by the noble businessmen and officials.
In addition to cotton, various Indian spices and even raw cane sugar can also be sold to Anxi, Hexi and Guanzhong.
Guanzhong sold silk, porcelain, pottery, and decolorized yellow mud to India.
In this way, the entire road can be revitalized. Only with this business road can the decline of Anxi, Hexi, and especially Guanzhong be delayed.
All wars ultimately focus on logistics. With this money, Zhang Zhao is qualified to go east and compete for the world, and has the confidence to rebuild China.
"I understand! What a good plan! Erlang has a far-sighted vision, and his uncle is nowhere near as good as that!" Li Shengtian clapped his hands and laughed.
"I understand! I can't do this, I don't have enough brains, and your cousin Cong De can't even do it! The only one who can do this, Zhang Erlang, is the only one who has this ability!
No wonder you want to take in the queen of Kara Khan, because she has the royal blood of the Dongcao people in Malyi Nang Valley and the Kizikurgan people in the hometown of Congling. You want to use this woman to leverage these two peoples. ! Driving them to be the vanguard to annex Mar Yinang and control Tianzhu. "
