At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Therefore, Xian Yuyin had sent a letter to Guo Peng before, suggesting that Guo Peng follow the story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and ask for excellent horse breeds from Dawan Kingdom, which has excellent horse breeds, to improve the bloodlines of the war horses in the Central Plains, so as to increase the impact of the Wei army cavalry.

Guo Peng thinks so.

Given the customs of raising horses in captivity in the Central Plains and the disadvantageous geographical environment, if the horse breed is not improved, it will gradually degenerate over time, from tall horses that are good at running and endurance to poor horses that can only pull carts.

People in the Song Dynasty should understand this point best.

In the early Northern Song Dynasty, a certain genius made up a joke, saying that he saw a war horse feel very painful because of mating with the mare that gave birth to it, and finally committed suicide, which aroused public opinion.

He said that this is an act of extinction of ethics, and it should be stopped immediately. Humans have personality, and horses also have qualities. Humans cannot humiliate horses, and horses cannot be allowed to behave in such an ethically destructive manner.

So the imperial court was under pressure and stopped the maintenance of the blood of the horses that was carried out independently by the Song army at that time.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the cavalry of the Song Army generally looked down on the war horses of the Liao Kingdom. They believed that the Liao Kingdom war horses were short, weak in explosive power, and of inferior blood. After they were captured, they were used as poor horses.

There was no such statement afterward.

Mr. Guo deeply felt the importance of improving the bloodline of war horses.

So when Ma Yuan led the joint caravan to set off, he told him not only to find the Guishuang Empire and the Guishuang Empire for trade, but also to find Dawan, obtain excellent horse breeds from Dawan, and bring them back to Wei State.

Someone Guo deeply felt the importance of improving the bloodline of war horses, so when Ma Yuan led the joint caravan to set off, he told him not only to find the Guishuang Empire and the Guishuang Empire for trade, but also to find Dawan. Excellent horse breed, brought back to Wei State.

Chapter 971 Dawan Kingdom is very good

The horse is the foundation of the armor, the great use of the country, peace is based on the order of distinction, and changes will help the difficulties of the far and the near.

Whether the war horse is good or not is of great significance to the rise and fall of the country and the tranquility. This is something that the ancients also knew.

Ma Yuan, whose surname is Ma, is more aware of this.

The original horse breeds in the Central Plains, due to long-term captivity and driving, their running ability and endurance are greatly reduced. For cavalry who require extremely high speed and endurance, this kind of horse is not ideal.

Therefore, it is very important to introduce war horses with excellent bloodlines to improve the bloodlines of warhorses.

But this is not the solution to the problem. The reason for the difference between the horses in the Central Plains and the horses in the plateau lies in the breeding environment of the war horses.

There are vast grasslands and plateaus in the north and west of the Central Plains. The vast land is sparsely populated, which is convenient for horses to run and gallop. The breeding of horses belongs to free range.

However, due to geographical restrictions in the Central Plains, the traditional method of raising horses is captive breeding, which limits the range of activities of horses.

It was okay at the beginning, but after a long time, the impact of stocking and captivity on horses is reflected.

If the custom of raising horses in captivity in the Central Plains cannot be changed, unless the bloodlines of war horses are continuously improved, the advantages of bloodline improvement will still be lost, and excellent war horses will still degenerate into poor horses.

This is very dangerous, because Guo can't guarantee this, or the Wei Empire can't always guarantee that the horses with excellent bloodlines can be introduced in time to improve the bloodlines.

However, the number of war horses that can be raised in Bingzhou and Hexi is still limited.

That's why Mr. Guo decided to take over the grassland areas occupied by the Western Regions and regions and the northern Xianbei, occupy them for a long time, and use them as livestock areas in the Central Plains to create a grassland animal husbandry economy, revitalizing this idea.

He wanted to raise livestock in these places, provide the Central Plains with meat and dairy products, and also stocked war horses in these places, supplemented by bloodline improvement, so as to completely change the plight of the Central Plains war horses' continuous degeneration.

War horses are tanks in the era of cold weapons, especially after being equipped with the three cavalry artifacts, as the number of cavalry in the Wei army system continues to increase, the number of cavalry victories continues to appear, which has been continuously proven.

Yu Jin's raid on King City of Fuyu relied on the cavalry equipped with the three artifacts, galloping at high speed without much rest, so when he raided King City in one fell swoop, Fuyu Kingdom never reacted.

This is especially true for the heavy armored cavalry built with tall horses and powerful warriors. Although they don't have much actual combat experience on the battlefield, every time they appear on the field, they will inevitably cause a bloodbath in the enemy's army.

And raising horses in the Central Plains is really expensive.

Without grass, the war horses can only eat rice, and the land needed to raise a horse can feed [-] to [-] people. This economic account is not worthwhile.

In the end, I am afraid that it will become a enclosure movement where horses cannibalize people.

The people of Song Dynasty suffered a lot from this, and Guo will never repeat the same mistakes.

The Grassland Animal Husbandry Economic Zone must be established, and the grassland must be controlled, so that the grassland becomes a military buffer zone and builds a solid line of defense for the northern part of the Central Plains.

So someone Guo handed over this arduous task to Ma Yuan.

Let him know that one of the major tasks of his westward journey is to obtain excellent war horses from Dawan State, and then bring them back to Wei State to improve the bloodline of the war horses.

So Ma Yuan marched all the way to the western end of the Pamir Plateau, and finally found the Dawan Kingdom.

When they arrived in Dawan Kingdom, the equipment of Ma Yuan and others was different from when they set off.

In order to better walk in the desert, they exchanged many horses for camels with merchants from the Western Regions, so the entire caravan was no different from a Western Regions caravan except for the horses.

And the camel is worthy of the title of the desert ship. It is indeed faster, better and more tolerant than the horse to move forward in the vast and sparsely populated desert of the Western Regions.

The huge camel caravan carried heavy loads in the desert and slowly arrived at Dawan Kingdom.

At this moment, Dawan Kingdom no longer had the fearless attitude of those who didn't know back then.

The past of being severely punished by the Han army and severely bullied by the Shache people made them no longer arrogant. Facing the arrival of the joint caravan from the state of Wei, they expressed a warm welcome.

The King of Dawan met Ma Yuan in person, and when he learned that Ma Yuan wanted to buy a hard-earned BMW and other excellent Dawan horses, he looked at the hundreds of elite knights following Ma Yuan, swallowed, and said nothing He nodded in agreement.

Not only agreed to trade horses, but also agreed to start a large-scale exchange with the joint caravan, and then personally hosted a banquet for Ma Yuan and other key figures in the joint caravan.

The Central Plains products brought by the joint caravan were loved by the nobles of Dawan, silk, porcelain, and other handicrafts. Not surprisingly, the iron pot was welcomed by them again.

Along the way, iron pots have always become hot-selling products, so Ma Yuan set the rules.

First raise the price of the iron pot, and then limit the sale of it in each place, and only sell a part, so that all subsequent countries in the Western Regions can buy it and use it, so as to open up the market and strive for more shares.

After all, iron pots are not the kind that can never be worn out. If they are worn out, they will still buy them.

Transplant the living customs of the Central Plains to the Western Regions as a whole, complete this subtle and silent change, and then do it after the completion, they will not feel pain, and then violently resist.

They will better accept this fact.

This is the idea of ​​someone Guo.

So Ma Yuan communicated with Dawan King very politely and enthusiastically, and sold him some handicrafts and some luxury goods. Dawan King was very happy and liked it very much, and was willing to exchange goods with Dawan horses and the United Caravan .

The atmosphere of the conversation between the two sides was generally good.

After drinking for three rounds and both sides were happy, Ma Yuan asked King Dawan about himself.

He wanted to know some specific news about the Guishuang Empire. It was said that Dawan was very close to the Guishuang Empire and had a lot of contacts.

The king of Dawan didn't hide it either, saying that decades ago, Dawan was indeed ruled by Guishuang and became a role similar to their vassal state.

However, it didn't take long for Dawan to take advantage of the internal chaos and subsequent decline of the Guishuang Empire. Together with Kangju, Huacizimo and other countries, Dawan got rid of their rule and became an independent country.

It's just that unfortunately later, I was forced to listen to Shache Kingdom.

King Dawan didn't say this clearly, but Ma Yuan could hear it.

The Guishuang Kingdom is related to the former Yuezhi people. It is said that the descendants of the Yuezhi people eliminated the Daxia Kingdom that once established the country here. How much.

"More than 20 troops?!"

Ma Yuan was surprised.

Guo Peng once explained to him that Guishuang Kingdom is a big country, and the number of troops will not be small, at least not less than 20. This is the force they used to attack the Western Regions, but who would have thought that the total strength of Guishuang Kingdom would reach [-].

This is enough to prove that Guishuang Kingdom is indeed a big country that cannot be ignored.

However, it seems that this big country is not doing well now, otherwise, according to the number of their troops, Dawan Kingdom will not be able to get rid of the rule of Jisi no matter what.

But this is also very important.

More than 20 troops, even with a large number of people, cannot be defeated by a small number of troops.

It seems that Guo Peng's judgment is also correct. It is necessary to establish a stable bilateral cooperative partnership with the Guishuang country instead of being hostile to each other.

"They were very strong in the past, but in the recent period of time, Douyan has had a lot of friction with the Anxi Kingdom. The country in the north, as well as the Kangju Kingdom, and the Huacizimo Kingdom, we all resist the Guishuang Kingdom, and the Guishuang Kingdom has nothing to do with us. ,until now."

King Dawan explained what he knew.

Ma Yuan nodded.

"So that's it, I know... By the way, do Guishuang people welcome business travelers to do business in their country? If so, is there anything that needs to be avoided?"

Ma Yuan, who is well versed in the principle of going to the countryside to do as the Romans do, asked this question.

King Dawan knew that Ma Yuan might be planning to go to Guishuang to do business, so he nodded.

"Of course it is possible. I can send someone to lead the way so that the envoy can enter Guishuang country for business. Guishuang country does not exclude foreign businessmen from entering business. Parthians can also go in, and it is said that there are also businessmen from further west. For business, there are a lot of people anyway.”

Ma Yuan was very happy and thanked King Dawan.

Chapter 972. 980 Erguishuang Kingdom seems to have a lot of gold?

After staying in Dawan for seven days, the joint caravan completed a huge amount of trade.

Ma Yuan also took people to rest in Dawan, replenished food and water, and then carefully selected a group of official business travelers to follow him to Guishuang Kingdom to do business, and most of the other business travelers were allowed to go south first. Going down to the Shache country to do business, the soldiers will be divided into two groups here.

After Ma Yuan and others complete their mission in the Guishuang Empire, they will return to catch up with them.

Some of the caravans on the return journey slowly embarked on the return journey, carrying 500 top-grade BMWs and more than [-] second-rate horses obtained from Dawan.

Except for two excellent hard-earned horses, these horses will be sent to Luoyang to be handed over to Guo, and the rest will be sent to Longyou Horse Farm and Bingzhou Horse Farm for use as studs.

After the preparations were completed, Ma Yuan and others set off under the leadership of the Dawan King's envoy, and the Dawan King said that the envoy would send them to Lan's City, the imperial capital of the Guishuang Empire.

Ma Yuan and others followed the Dawan King's envoy and walked through many mountain roads. It was very difficult to go around.

After spending about half a month, Ma Yuan and others finally came to a pass along with a group of Dawan merchants.

There are towers at the gate, as well as guard soldiers, who seem to be inspecting and collecting taxes from business travelers entering the gate.

The envoy of King Dawan could speak Chinese, and after explaining to Ma Yuan, he went forward to talk with the officer guarding the pass.

The two chattered for a while, the officer was obviously a little surprised, and then went forward with the envoy of King Dawan, and watched Ma Yuan and his large caravan.

Seeing that Ma Yuan's appearance was indeed different from most of the people he had seen, the officer believed what the envoy of King Dawan said was an official caravan from the great eastern kingdom Wei Empire.

I believe that Ma Yuan and others came to Guishuang and Guishuang people to do big business.

The Wei Empire has a historical inheritance, and Guishuang naturally has it. As a descendant of the Yuezhi people, the Guishuang Empire also had some contacts and frictions with the Han Empire long ago.

Not everyone knows it, but someone certainly does.

They also know the existence of the distant Han Empire, because they also use silk. What they don't know is that the Han Empire no longer exists, and now it is the Wei Empire that rules the Central Plains.

But for them, it is naturally not very important, just as someone Guo does not know what the current emperor of Guishuang is called.

As long as it doesn't get in the way of doing business.

Ma Yuan is not an official official envoy, not a professional diplomat, but without a professional diplomat, he can reluctantly act as a diplomat.

Looking at the huge caravan that can't be seen at a glance, the Guishuang officer swallowed, waved his hand, and expressed his permission to let it go, even without the usual blackmail.

After passing the pass, Ma Yuan felt a sense of enlightenment.

After trekking hard for many days on the mountain road, I suddenly came to a relatively flat ground, and it was really comfortable to walk on.

All the way forward, not many days later, Ma Yuan looked at the endless flat land, and on the horizon, he saw a large-scale city.

"That's Lan's City, the capital of Guishuang Kingdom, where their king is. That city is very big. Except for the city in Liangzhou, I have never seen such a big city, and there are many people in it. , if you are doing business, it should be very convenient."

The envoy of King Dawan introduced Lanshi City.

Ma Yuan nodded.

For a big country with millions of people and hundreds of thousands of troops, his attitude must be different, and he cannot treat the Wei Empire's vassal states in the Western Regions the same way.

Guo Peng also specifically explained that these countries should not be treated as vassals, but should be taken seriously.

The Wei Empire will take the initiative to have friendly exchanges with them, rather than military confrontation or wanting to take over vassal states. The order of magnitude of a country with millions of people is completely different from that of the Western Regions. The distance is still so far away, and it is definitely not a simple military confrontation. Closed.

The two countries can establish friendly exchanges, do business with each other, and make money together. Don't think about other things now.

Along the way, the envoy of King Dawan continued to introduce the Guishuang Kingdom he knew, and helped Ma Yuan understand this country better.

Guishuang’s domestic commercial trade is very developed. Unlike the Wei Empire’s too pure emphasis on farming production, Guishuang not only has farming areas, but also has specialized animal husbandry economic areas.

This is a country that pays equal attention to farming and animal husbandry.

Grain, fruit, handicrafts, weapons, etc. were transported to pastoral areas, and fur, livestock, textile raw materials, meat, and dairy products were sold to farming areas.

They help each other and complement each other, and use their strengths to help each other's weaknesses, so that agricultural products and meat and milk obtained from animal husbandry can be bought in any city in this country.