Chapter 185 [The Messenger of Death]
【The Messenger of Death】
Grade: Purple;
Effect 1: Send an envoy. After granting the token, the envoy can be sent for negotiation, alliance, and mediation.
Effect 2: Courting death, disregarding life and death, or it can be said to be a gamble at all costs.
Comment: "The messenger seeking death will always give you a reason to send troops."
Selling price: 500 wen tai and 200 baht coins, and a monthly maintenance fee of wen tai and baht coins is required. Funeral expenses must be paid in advance before the mission.
Wow, this [Messenger] should be a basic purple profession. [Searching for Death] seems negative, but for the [Messenger] profession, it should be a neutral affix.
The envoy that appeared had the demeanor of a Han envoy.
This is indeed the case with the Han envoys. They travel between small countries holding banners and often do things that would lead to their own death.
However, these small countries could do nothing about the envoys. Killing the Han envoys would be tantamount to declaring war.
Could it be that because Madam An’s ancestors were canonized by Han envoys, she was able to produce such followers?
In addition to this purple follower, the system also spawned two blue followers.
[The costly and laborious Western Regions naval division]
Grade: Purple;
Effect: This follower always likes to propose some water conservancy projects that are costly and labor-intensive. If not restrained, the budget will be wasted without limit.
Comment: "A water diviner from the Western Regions, good at diverting water. He is a party B father with outstanding business ability but unwilling to modify the design drawings."
Price: 800 Wen Tai and Wu Zhu coins, and a monthly maintenance fee of 100 Wen Tai and Wu Zhu coins is required. If the design requirements are not met and the design draft is frequently modified, the quality of the follower will decline.
Water fortune tellers are a special profession in the Western Regions. They make a living by finding water and help herdsmen and city-state pioneers find wells.
In the vast Gobi Desert in the Western Regions, a well means a trading point, a settlement and a territory, so the water master has a very high status in the Western Regions.
This is also a very practical follower. Whether it is the Hexi Corridor or the Hehuang Valley, there are a large number of water conservancy projects that need to be built. If he gets involved in Guanzhong in the future, Guanzhong will also have a large number of water conservancy facilities that need to be restored due to the war.
It’s just that this follower seems to have a bad temper, and failure to construct according to his design may lead to a decline in quality.
Although it has some shortcomings, it is considered to be a pretty good follower that Ze has obtained recently.
Then there are two life profession followers of the [Western Region Merchants] series, and three [Camel Cavalry] followers with negative affixes, and none of these followers have camels!
Su Ze was also speechless. The system had evolved from no horses to no camels.
He was very curious. If he got an "elephant soldier" one day, would he have to buy the elephant himself?
After checking the harvest, Su Ze looked at Madam An with a noticeably different look in his eyes.
Facing Su Ze's eyes that seemed to want to "swallow" her, Madam An was not as shy as the women from the Central Plains. Instead, she actively straightened her chest, showing off her figure, and met Su Ze's gaze.
Su Ze didn't expect that this Sogdian woman was so hot. He looked away and asked about Gaochang.
Ever since she heard that Su Ze had captured Dunhuang, Madam An followed the reinforcements from Xiping City, crossed the Dangjin Pass, and arrived in Dunhuang City.
What surprised Su Ze was that Mrs. An was very bold in doing business. She sold all her silk and exchanged them for grain seeds and farm tools and transported them to Dunhuang City.
And this is exactly what Dunhuang urgently needs right now.
Su Ze's army captured the Gaoche people's livestock and had no shortage of food.
After taking over the city of Dunhuang, the weapons workshops in the city also worked overnight to make and repair weapons. Dunhuang itself was an important military fortress in the Hexi Corridor, gathering many Han craftsmen. Su Ze's weapons were also supplied.
However, grain seeds and farm tools are the things that Dunhuang lacks the most at present.
Because of the siege by the Gaoche people, this year's spring crops have not yet been planted.
The days of siege caused the people to eat up all the grain they had stored last year.
In order to defend the city, the defenders melted down farm tools and kitchen utensils into weapons.
Just when Su Ze was worried about spring ploughing, the goods brought by Madam An solved his urgent problem.
Su Ze waved his hand and used the spoils to buy the grain seeds and farm tools brought by Madam An, and then Madam An asked to see Su Ze.
Su Ze sighed, the Sogdians were indeed born businessmen, and Madam An had such a keen eye for business.
"Tell me, Madam An wants to see me, why?"
Madam An smiled, met Su Ze's gaze and said, "General Su, I want to buy a piece of land in Dunhuang and some Gaoche slaves."
"Buy land? Aren't you Sogdians traveling merchants? Why do you want to settle down in Dunhuang?"
Su Ze couldn't figure out Madam An's thoughts, and besides, was it necessary to ask to see him for matters like buying land and slaves?
Madam An continued, "Always walking in the desert is very bad for a woman's skin. I have long wanted to settle down, but there is no stable place in the Western Regions where I can buy property. But now with General Su, everything is different."
Madam An continued, "General, aren't you curious about what I'm going to plant?"
Su Ze swallowed his saliva. Madam An, who had been traveling to the Western Regions, had a kind of wild temptation. She called him "slave" all the time, which made Su Ze, who had been holding back for a long time, feel dry in his mouth.
Madam An also pinched the corner of her clothes. The Sogdians were born businessmen. The first thing she learned from her mother was the value of waiting for a price.
“The most valuable things are often the last to be sold.”
So although Madam An traveled far and wide, she rarely showed up in public and had rejected marriage proposals from some nobles and even rulers of small countries in the Western Regions.
She even paid some commercial price for this, but Mrs. An remembered her mother's words, and it was all worth it.
Because when she encounters the biggest "investment" in her life, she will earn everything back double.
From the moment Mrs. An met Su Ze, she felt like she had made the biggest "investment" of her life.
After hearing that Su Ze crossed the Qilian Mountains and recaptured Dunhuang, Madam An became more certain that the biggest "investment" in her life had appeared!
Next, it’s about how to “sell” yourself at a “good price”.
The Sogdians’ reputation on the Silk Road was based on “equivalent exchange”.
Although they were merchants, they understood the value of credit. The Sogdians would not sell inferior goods as good ones. For hundreds of years, they made money by trafficking in goods.
In order to sell the "goods" at a good price, the "goods" themselves must be valuable.
Madam An is aware of her beauty, but she wants to add more value to it.
Su Ze looked at Madam An, shook his head and said, "How can this general know what Madam An wants to plant?"
Madam An said, "I want to plant Baidiezi in Dunhuang." Baidiezi is the name of cotton in the Western Regions today. Su Ze looked at Madam An again. This woman is too perceptive.
She realized that she wanted to promote cotton planting in Hexi, so she decided to buy land and Gaoche slaves first and take the lead in planting cotton.
Su Ze looked at Madam An and said, "Madam An, do you really believe that growing white caltrops can make money?"
Madam An came closer and said, "No, I don't know how to grow white sedge, and I don't know if it can make money, but I believe in the general."
Su Ze narrowed his eyes and said, "Believe me?"
Madam An did not speak, but walked to Su Ze's side and said, "I believe that the general will not let those who follow you lose money."
"Then please stay in Dunhuang, Madam An, and see if I will let you lose money."
Since the other party has come so close to him, Su Ze has no reason to push him away. Besides, Madam An seems to be quite influential on the Silk Road. She can also provide help if Dunhuang is to be built into a major commercial center.
Madam An was secretly delighted, but she also remembered her mother's teachings and did not continue to stick it on.
She knew very well that things that were too easy to obtain would be considered too cheap, so she quickly bowed to Su Ze and left.
This vixen seduces people and then runs away!
Su Ze managed to suppress his desire with great difficulty. Anyway, Madam An was staying in Dunhuang, so there was no need to rush.
He has more important things to do now - Yumen.
Gao Hui and Linghu Qiu returned to Dunhuang together. Gao Hui and Su Ze explained the reasons why Yuan Yu, the governor of Liangzhou, was unwilling to send troops.
True king?
Could it be him?
The leader of the Six Garrisons Rebellion, Po Liu Han Baling, a resident of Woye Town, called himself the True King after the uprising. Could it be him?
Su Ze was not sure either. In the historical records of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there was very little information about Po Liu Han Baling, the leader of the Six Garrisons Rebellion.
The Six Garrisons were not six small towns, but a line of defense stretching to the north of the Northern Wei Dynasty, spanning the entire northern border.
Moreover, the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons led by Po Liu Han Baling did not only affect the Six Garrisons. After his uprising, Longxi and Guanzhong also responded to his uprising, and even Youzhou and Jizhou and other regions also responded.
All this shows that the uprising of Po Liu Han Baling was not an ordinary refugee rebellion, but a carefully planned uprising.
In this case, Po Liu Han Baling should have been planning for a long time, just like Zhang Jiao in the late Han Dynasty. However, there are not many records of such people in history.
This is a very unusual thing.
Su Ze had a guess that the details of the Po Liu Han Baling uprising were erased from historical records by later rulers.
This shows that Po Liu Han Baling did not lead an ordinary mutiny, but a large-scale uprising with a program and slogans that could overthrow the foundation of the rulers.
Perhaps it was an uprising with a program, just like the uprisings of Chen Sheng, Wu Guang and Zhang Jue, because the rulers were unwilling to allow such ideas to spread.
This is very scary. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's words "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?" completely buried the aristocratic Zhou aristocratic politics from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty. And Zhang Jue's Taiping Dao, with the words "The blue sky is dead and the yellow sky should be established", dragged the Han Empire into the grave together.
The mist of history obscures many truths, and Su Ze also became interested in Po Liu Han Baling's program.
However, Gao Hui knew nothing about this. He only knew that the envoys of the so-called "true king" traveled between various states and counties in the north, trying to win over local powerful people to start an uprising.
Su Ze can understand Yuan Yu, but that doesn’t mean he has to accept Yuan Yu’s opinion.
The Gaoche people are already at the end of their strength.
Yuan Yu was afraid of the heroes from Liangzhou, but Su Ze was not afraid of them.
However, Gao Hui did give Su Ze an idea that it was not necessary to defeat the Gaoche people in order to make them surrender.
persuade to surrender.
This was the method proposed by Gao Hui. This old envoy had spent half of his life in the Western Regions and the grasslands. He understood the thinking of the people in the Western Regions and the grasslands.
There were also attacks between the countries in the Western Regions, but there were not many wars at the level of annihilation of a country.
Based on his own experience in the Western Regions, Gao Hui explained that the special geographical conditions of the Western Regions made it difficult for a great power to emerge to rule all city-states.
The states in the Western Regions are all located in oases along the way, and the population carrying capacity of each oasis is limited.
It is impossible to completely control a country by stationing troops in every oasis.
If there is no garrison, even if an oasis is annexed, it will be difficult for the ruler to directly control the area due to the obstruction of the desert, and in the end he will have to rely on supporting the local people to rule.
The grassland is another case.
Tribes are rising up all the time on the vast grassland. Even the overlord of the grassland cannot prevent the rise of new challengers. They can only rely on force to rule a region like the wolf king. Once they decline, they will be quickly replaced by the new wolf king.
According to Gao Hui, even if Su Ze defeated the Gaoche Zuoxian King, new forces would rise on the grassland and would still invade.
The new wolf kings will be more predatory because they have just risen and need to use strength to prove their status.
Gao Hui suggested that Su Ze release the Gaoche people back to the grassland, make the Gaoche people, who had been severely damaged, submit to him, and use them to suppress the challengers on the grassland.
Su Ze thought of the method used by the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties to win over and control the grasslands. Isn't that the same method used by Gao Hui?
Support the declining overlord to suppress challengers, divide powerful tribes, balance the power of various tribes on the grassland, and finally become the arbitrator of grassland affairs.
Gao Hui is indeed a talented person!
Gao Hui volunteered to go to Yumen to persuade the Gaoche people to surrender, but was stopped by Su Ze.
Gao Hui was the General Pingxi, an envoy appointed by the imperial court to go to the Western Regions. If he persuaded the Gaoche people to surrender, would it be him, Su Ze, or Gao Hui who would influence the Gaoche people in the future?
This is not because Su Ze is on guard against Gao Hui, but because Su Ze wants to establish his own influence, and for such things he must use his own people.
However, Su Ze did not have any suitable diplomatic talents under his command. He did not expect to meet Madam An today. Isn’t this what he got?
Summon the [Messenger of Death], a middle-aged man wearing messenger clothes and holding his head high.
He had a defiant look on his face, and when he saw his lord Su Ze he just bowed slightly.
He is indeed seeking death. If he met an unruly monarch, he would probably be dragged down on the spot.
Su Ze was unsure, thinking, would this guy mess things up?
But on second thought, if the Gaoche people killed him, it would also give him an excuse to send troops.
Is this the meaning of "The messenger seeking death can always give you a reason to send troops"?
(End of this chapter)