sweeping the world

Chapter 677
It was already after the Winter Solstice when Liu Yan, who was in Guanzhong, received the battle report from Huan Wen.

"Annihilate 6 Guptas, including the [-] fleet." Xu Zheng had no regrets about this kind of war. The Han army won again and again in East Asia. At its most glorious time, it wiped out hundreds of thousands of people. Enemy: "Our army has not lost much, and the warships seem to have lost a lot."

In fact, the Han army did not have much experience in naval battles, and the battle at Asanyang could be regarded as a real naval battle.In the first stage of the invasion, by the time the center received the battle report, 57 ships of the Han army had sunk, and as many as 68 ships had lost their combat effectiveness in a short period of time, which meant that the combat effectiveness of the expedition fleet was almost lost by half.

The expeditionary force only had [-] warships, not counting the auxiliary transport ships and supply ships. They started the sabotage battle since they arrived in Asanyang. In fact, the number of warships lost during the sabotage battle was very limited. In the subsequent sea battle between the two armies.

"We captured 230 ships of various types from the enemy army, and the number of ships held by the expeditionary force did not decrease but increased." Ji Chang was in a very good mood, but it was not because of the capture of various ships of Gupta, it was: "General Zhengnan mentioned, The Gupta nobles are willing to pay the ransom, which can be roughly calculated to be worth 120 seven tons of gold."

Katruk Karp said that nobles would pay their own weight in gold to redeem themselves, but not every noble was so rich, and those who were able to pay their own weight in gold accounted for only a small part.

No one knows whether Ah San's place is rich in gold, but it is a fact that Ah San is extremely obsessed with gold.The Gupta high caste who were defeated and captured had been notified that they would not be able to produce wealth equal to their own weight in gold, and would be sent to the mainland of Han as slaves.

Gold is not a currency in circulation in the current Han Kingdom. The Han Kingdom has only resumed the circulation of five baht coins, including silver is not a currency in circulation, but cloth and grain account for a large proportion of the barter.

"Huan Wen has sent an envoy to the Gupta side and will replace the gold with grain." Liu Yan was naturally happy to learn that the war against Asan had been won, and he had already approved that Huan Wen, as the commander-in-chief of the front line, could act expeditiously.He had to mention something: "We won the first battle against Ah San, but we did not fully evaluate Ah San's strength."

"That's right, the Asan country named Gupta is more powerful than we imagined." Xu Zheng, who is a captain, was somewhat surprised to learn that Gupta could organize several million troops: "The next thing is , we are traveling thousands of miles across the sea to invade, and I am afraid that it will be very difficult to destroy Gupta in a few times."

No one knows whether the Gupta dynasty could organize an army of several million, but with the Guptas currently having an army of no less than 40, and the Han army having to invade across the sea after traveling thousands of miles away, it would not be easy to destroy the Guptas.

In the final analysis, the Han Kingdom is too far away from the Gupta Dynasty. The Gupta Dynasty's maritime strength is not weak. The Han army can defeat the Gupta army. However, given the current situation of the Han Kingdom, being determined to destroy the Gupta Dynasty will also make it difficult. I feel very uncomfortable.

"The demise of Gupta is a long process." What Ji Chang paid the most attention to is: "As we know before, Gupta is a country rich in food. If they admit defeat, in addition to the nobles who are willing to pay ransom, the national level will also be punished."

It has been confirmed that there will be a large-scale drought in the Central Plains. Before that, there was not much time to prepare for disaster prevention, such as the construction of water conservancy facilities, etc. We can only make a disaster relief plan after the outbreak of the drought.

"We need food, a lot of it." Ji Chang, as the prime minister, imagined how much pressure he would be under after confirming that a large-scale drought would break out: "Nearly 250 million tons have been seized from the Indochina Peninsula, and this figure is far from enough."

According to the weight unit of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, one stone is 160 kilograms, and 250 million tons is 120 million stones. In fact, the quantity is already very terrifying, but it is really not enough to support a country.

According to the data obtained from various investigations and calculations in the Han Dynasty, the large-scale drought will last for at least three years. At that time, most of the areas in the north of the Yangtze River Basin were barren, and only the south of the Yangtze River could maintain production.

The current population of Han is 720 million. If the Yangtze River is used as the boundary, the population north of the Yangtze River is about 1000 million, and the remaining population is all south of the Yangtze River.

The drought that is about to break out will affect the entire northwest, including Guanzhong, and then Bingzhou, Daizhou, Sizhou, Yanzhou, Youzhou, part of Jizhou, part of Yuzhou, and part of Qingzhou before the administrative unit of prefecture was abolished. One third of the huge Han Kingdom was affected by the disaster.

Throughout the seven years of Yuanshuo, the center of the Han Dynasty was busy with too many things, but the most important thing was to estimate the local grain-producing areas, vigorously develop the land of Jingchu (Hunan and Hubei) south of the Yangtze River, and the development of the land of Jingchu There is an effect, but there is really not much output that can be obtained by ordinary people.

In addition to the south of the Yangtze River, which is not affected by the drought, the original Xuzhou also paid attention to water conservancy construction.

Xuzhou was a big granary in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Although it was repeatedly damaged by wars, it has been recovering after waiting to be under the jurisdiction of Liu Yan. In this special season when drought is about to break out, it is also a grain-producing area that is expected.

Furthermore, the land of Bashu will definitely not be affected by drought, but there is only one plain in Bashu that is a grain-producing area (the Chengdu-Du Plain), which basically serves as a guarantee for Bashu's self-sufficiency.

For the Han State, nothing deserves more attention than the impending drought, and finding ways to obtain food has become the key.

No Central Plains dynasty has strong resistance to natural disasters, and many dynasties perished due to the outbreak of natural disasters.When natural disasters broke out, the past dynasties were rarely able to come up with any effective methods. Even if there were enough food reserves, in fact, due to road problems and official corruption, there were basically no effective methods that could be sent to the victims. How many.

To break it down, among the dynasties in the Central Plains, the generation with the strongest resistance to natural disasters was the generation known as the Weak Song Dynasty. When facing natural disasters, the two Song Dynasties mainly used the recruitment of victims to form the Xiang Army. The Xiang Army actually gathered the victims. Effective management to reduce the spread of refugees after natural disasters is also a major step in stopping ambitious people from tempting and recruiting victims to change the government.

Whether the two Song dynasties were brought down by the Xiang army or not is not the key. The key point is that the two Song dynasties had a very popular maritime trade. There are relevant data proving that during the two Song dynasties, grain was continuously purchased from overseas. This was also after the population explosion and commercial development in the two Song dynasties. But there is no obvious reason for food shortage.

Liu Yan was not prepared to gather the victims to form a Xiang army. The plan he came up with was to form a construction corps. To put it bluntly, it was to centrally manage the people in the disaster-stricken areas and hire them to carry out various constructions to achieve the goal of providing relief with work.

"Disasters are inevitable, so it is natural to take this opportunity to improve domestic transportation." Ji Chang was talking about domestic transportation planning, mainly led by the Prime Minister's Office, Taiwei Office, Yushi Mansion, Tingwei Office, Dali Temple...etc. All other departments are involved: "The preliminary plan is that the east, west, south, and north frontiers will all build a national road leading directly to the capital. The southern capital and the northwest leading to the capital will be the first to be built."

In the plan, the starting point of the south is Jiankang, across the Yangtze River, through Lujiang County, Ruyin County, Chen County, Yingchuan County, Xiangcheng County, Xingyang County to Hongnong County, and meets various hub roads at Tongguan. Further to Guanzhong, it will reach Chang'an New City, with a total length of more than [-] miles.

The other starting point is in Dunhuang County (Yangguan) and will run through Jinchang County, Jiuquan County, Zhangye County, Wuxing County, Wuwei County, Guangwu County, Longxi County, Nan'an County, Lueyang County, and Fufeng County to Chang'an New City , with a total length of more than [-] miles.

If the national roads from the south to New Chang'an and from the north to New Chang'an are built, a national road running from northwest to southeast will appear, which indicates the stability of Han's rule over the northwest and southeast, and will also create the first great history in history. The achievement is to build a national highway with a total length of more than [-] miles.

"We have made relevant preparations." Ji Chang is 39 years old this year. He looks old at first. There are too many government affairs on his body, and he looks even more old when he works too much. However, he looks in good spirits: " The plan is to focus on construction in sections in each county, and finally connect the sections of road. It is expected that the two roads will be built within 15 years.”

Of course, the drought will not plague the Han Dynasty for 15 years. The initial guess is about three years. The number of people who will invest in road construction first will start with 600 million people, and the number of construction personnel will gradually decrease in the future.

The Prime Minister's Office has made a 15-year plan. The first three years will be the peak period of construction when manpower is most abundant. The main investment of the victims will be in flat areas that are not dangerous. The military and slaves will complete the tasks of clearing mountains and forests.It will take 15 years to build, taking into account that the victims of the disaster will be gradually demobilized, and slaves will be used as the main force of construction, supplemented by corvee workers.

The two national highways in the southeast and northwest alone took 15 years. In addition, the northeast to Xinchang'an and the southwest to Xinchang'an will take longer. The latter two are basically viewed according to the series of national projects.

Liu Yan has no doubts about the dispatching of food. With the "golden finger", there is no need for time-consuming and laborious transportation. What is more important is the consideration of water use.

"I'm already trying my best to store water." Ji Chang didn't dare to make any guarantees in this regard, he could only say: "I will do my best."

Nowadays, the main goal of the Han Dynasty is to obtain food. It is not only sending expeditionary troops to invade and construct various local food production areas, but also developing the greatest potential for the sea fishery.

The coastline of Han is very long, and it is temporarily impossible to do deep-sea fishery, but the development of offshore fishery is actually mature. There are a large number of fishing boats operating in the offshore, which can provide a large amount of seafood.

"Your Majesty." Lu Yi kept trying to interrupt but couldn't. Waiting for an opportunity, he immediately asked, "General Zhengnan mentioned the affairs of Sasan and other countries, how should we arrange it?"

Huan Wen led his army to victory in Asanyang. Although the Gupta Dynasty had not completely conceded defeat, the victory was achieved under the witness of many countries.

After that battle ended, Urgutai Bahram went ashore with a Han warship, and only met Huan Wen a few days later. When he mentioned that he was from Sasanian Persia, he also mentioned the story of "continuing the frontier". beg.

In addition to Persian Sassanids, the following two satraps (Serbs), Karabaras (Asan), Rambajana (Sri Lanka), Balava (Asan), Arakan (Bengal), The Pyu Kingdom (Burmese) sent people to get in touch with the Pingman Xiaowei Department, and they all proposed to send envoys to the Han Kingdom.

Later, when the "Battle of Asanyang between Han Dynasty" reached Rome, the Roman side also got involved and made a request to send an envoy to Han.

At present, except for Rome, the requests of other countries have been sent to the Han Kingdom. As long as Liu Yan nods, the envoys of various countries will arrive at the mainland by sea via Malacca in the spring of the coming year.

Lu Yi is happy to see the success of so many countries sending envoys. As a pundit, his duty is to be responsible for diplomacy, but for a long time, he has never done anything constructive except handing in the letter of war. Things, desperately need to have a stage to perform on.

By the way, with regard to activities such as "All nations come to court", there were a few small-scale activities in the pre-Qin (Qin unification) period. The Western Han Dynasty was more about conquering outwards. The Eastern Han Dynasty had one during the Liu Xiu period. After that It took until the Sui and Tang Dynasties to reappear.

The small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has been talking about "all nations come to court" to whitewash their faces, but those so-called "all nations" envoys are actually fake names, and their real identity is a merchant.

So far, the Central Plains Dynasty has basically no interest in "All Kingdoms Come to Korea", which stems from the fact that as long as there is such a country, it will be conquered by the Han people in the future (such as the Western Han and Eastern Han from the "Wan Guo" in the Western Regions), Lu Yi's excitement The point is that I finally have a little business to do, which can increase my understanding of the outside world, and I also want to figure out the countries, so that I can make more contributions to the country on the road to conquest.

"The Sassanids are the Parthians, right?" Xu Zhengzhen didn't know there was such a nation as Persia: "General Zhengnan mentioned that they were once allies with us, but is it true?"

If Lu Yi wants to show something, he must check the classics that should be consulted. He really found relevant records in some classics, such as the incident of Zhang Qian's mission in the Western Han Dynasty, but there is no document that can prove that the two sides are allies. .

"It's Persian." Lu Yi reminded Xu Zheng.He was still waiting for Liu Yan's reply, and when Liu Yan nodded, he said: "The minister will send someone from Pingman Xiaowei's Department to contact him."

Liu Yan thought of something, whether it is Parthia or Sasanian, the Persians also control the vast plains, and they seem to be a civilization rich in food. Maybe they should discuss food trade after contact?He also didn't forget Rome, which ruled Egypt. Now that Persia and Sassan have been in contact, it may be possible to try to contact and open trade.

(End of this chapter)