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Chapter 246 The prosperous trade routes in the Western Regions

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    The Governor's Office of the Western Regions has been established, with jurisdiction over four counties in Hexi, namely Wuwei County, governed by Jia Hui, the prefect of Guzang.  Zhangye County, the governor of Zhangye County is Zhang Qiao.  Jiuquan County.  The governor of the county, Lufu, restored the Lu branch.  Dunhuang County, the county governs Dunhuang prefect Zhao Ponu.  In addition, four major captain's mansions were established outside the four counties. The captain's palace of Juyan was established in Juyanze, and Yi Jixuan was the captain.  The head of the pool, where bandits are most likely to appear, was assigned a captain to protect Shang, and Gao Buji was called a captain.  Shangguan Jie led 10,000 troops to station at Yumen Pass and became the captain of Yumen Pass.  Li Ling led 10,000 troops to garrison Yangguan and became the captain of Yangguan.  In this way, the organizational structure of the four counties in Hexi has basically taken shape.

    ??Then the governor's office was in charge of the military and government of the four counties. There were two senior officials with a rank of two thousand shi in the government, namely Dongfang Shuo and Du Yannian.  There are six departments under the rank of Qianshi, which are the Department of Internal Affairs and are in charge of the government orders and documents of the Metropolitan Governor's Government.  The Department of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the foreign affairs of the Metropolitan Governor's Office and the countries in the Western Regions.  The Finance Department is responsible for coordinating the money, food and equipment of the Governor's Office.  The Department of Agriculture and Commerce is responsible for business, travel, customs, agriculture, mulberry and water conservancy under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Governor's Office.  The Department of Officials is responsible for the appointment, promotion, and dismissal of officials under the Governor's Office.  The Criminal and Prison Department is responsible for arrests in the Criminal Prison.

    Zuo Shi Dongfang Shuo led the three departments of internal affairs, foreign affairs and civil servants.  Du Yannian, the right official, took charge of the three departments of finance, agriculture and commerce, and criminal prison.  Six divisions were established in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and a strict power system with Grand Governor Huo Guang at the top of the pyramid was fully formed. All the power of the four counties in Hexi was concentrated in Huo Guang.

    Yangguan and Yumenguan are two passes built by Huo Guang with all his efforts. The passes are actually huge city walls with a radius of more than ten miles.  At this moment, outside Yangguan and Yumen Pass, countless business travelers on both sides of the city pass gathered outside the city. The businessmen who wanted to enter the pass and enter Hexi were stopped, and the business travelers who wanted to leave the pass to go to the Western Regions were also hesitant.

    "What's going on? Is this going to give people a way to live? They actually have to levy a tariff of 1 out of 10 taxes. Isn't this going to be a loss-making business?" Business travelers outside the two city gates looked at the order issued by the Governor's Office.  , everyone was excited and wanted to find Huo Guang to discuss it.

    Shangguan Jie and Li Ling stood on the city gates they were guarding respectively, looking at the more and more business travelers gathering outside the city gates on both sides with indifferent expressions.

    "Go down the order and guard the city tightly. Anyone who dares to break through will be killed without mercy!" As the military orders of the two guards were issued, earth-shattering footsteps suddenly sounded in the city gate. The footsteps were uniform, and every step seemed to move the earth.  Tremble.

    The originally noisy businessmen fell silent instantly, and then under the gaze of the businessmen, infantry formations with thousands of people appeared on both sides of the city gate through the smoke and dust.

    An infantry formation armed with giant shields and spears appeared in front of the merchant brigade. The giant shields in the front row hit the ground heavily, and the "thud" sound seemed to make the earth sink a lot downwards.  The business travelers were frightened by the momentum and couldn't help but take a few steps back.

    The army lined up in front, making the business travelers look at each other in shock.  Immediately afterwards, a chilling voice from the top of the city tower read out a document: "According to the decree of the Grand Governor, anyone who carries goods in and out of Yumen and Yangguan will be charged a customs duty of 10 per cent. Any smuggling carried out.  Once inspected, all goods will be confiscated. In addition, except for the weapons and armor required for security, other bows, crossbows, weapons and armor are not allowed to be taken out of the customs without documents from the Governor's Office."

    "Huh, this is simply not giving people a way to live At worst, I won't be able to get out of seclusion. If we don't go out, I want to see what kind of money the governor can receive?" On the side of the Han businessman, a rather handsome man  The big businessman with status encouraged him.

    This man has a good reputation and some prestige among businessmen. When he said this, many people agreed.  "Yes, as long as we resist together, even the governor will have to change the tax rate in the end. Let's go back to Dunhuang."

    One after another, merchants began to return to Dunhuang with caravan goods. During this period, the Western Han Dynasty mainly exported silk brocade and paper tea to the Western Regions. These items could be stored for a long time, and they did not worry about the storage time being too long.

    When the Han merchants chose to fight the high tariffs and not leave the customs, the Hu merchants from the Western Regions who wanted to enter Hexi also made a similar choice.  They mainly sold spices, gems, gold and silver utensils to the Han Dynasty. These Hu merchants built temporary camps outside Yumen Pass and Yang Pass.

    When Han merchants and Hu merchants chose to fight against Huo Guang, what happened at Yumen Pass and Yang Pass had been reported to Huo Guang's governor's house.

    "It seems that all this is not as expected by Marquis Wan Guan! I wonder how to break the situation next?" Dongfang Shuo looked at Huo Guang and Lu Shu who looked calm. Not only were they not surprised at all, Lu Shu had even expected what happened today.  situation.

    "Now it's time to look at Marquis Wan Guan." Huo Guang took the lead and looked at Lu Shu with an expectant smile on his face.

    "Please rest assured, my lord, my subordinates have been preparing for more than two months this time. Not only are the goods more than three times more than before, but they have even bought some goods that have never appeared in the Western Regions." Lu Shu picked up the iced grape juice in front of him and drank it.  He took a sip and looked like he had everything under control.Tao.

    When Han merchants returned to Dunhuang one after another, everyone discovered that a huge caravan that had never been seen before in Dunhuang was supplying and repairing.  The number of people in this caravan exceeded 2,000, and the number of guards alone was six to seven hundred. The goods they carried filled the entire Dunhuang city.

    "Look, this caravan is about to leave Oh my god so many goods must be worth tens of thousands of gold, right? Isn't this escort team too huge? Even if we try to destroy it,  It's enough to conquer those small countries" The unprecedented caravan slowly drove out from Dunhuang City, heading towards Yangguan.

    Among the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions, there are powerful countries like Wusun and Dayuan, with tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 troops, while there are also small countries like Pulei and Jingjue, which only occupy one city and have no more than ten thousand people.  , There are no more than a thousand soldiers.  Such a small country is more appropriately called a city-state.

    With six to seven hundred well-equipped Han guards, it is not difficult to destroy a small country like Jingjue.  However, these small countries are often located on the transportation routes of the Western Region, with vast deserts and Gobis in front and behind them. The caravans need supplies from these small city-states, so they have the value of survival.

    "Follow me, this is Marquis Wan Guan's caravan. Let's go see if they pay the customs duties. If they do, then that's it. If they don't pay, the Governor's Mansion will no longer have any prestige!" Some businessmen with particularly shrewd eyes looked at it.  It turned out that this unprecedentedly huge caravan was owned by Lu Shu. They wanted to see if Lu Shu's caravan could pay such high tariffs. If they didn't pay these merchants, they would have found a way to the governor's office.  They did not believe that such a large caravan was really willing to pay such a high tariff.

    Lu Shu only arranged a caravan this time, from Yangguan to Shanshan, along the southern trade route of the Western Regions to Dawan and then to Tiaozhi State further west.  Because Huo Guang proposed that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty rejected Wusun's marriage request, the two countries have currently severed diplomatic exchanges. Huo Guang was also worried that Wusun would hinder the trade route, so he did not arrange for the caravan to leave Yumen Pass this time. At the same time, this unprecedentedly large caravan  The caravan also has another mission, which is to contact Dawan to form an alliance to attack Wusun from east to west.

    Dayuan is a large country to the west of Wusun. It has more than 70 cities and towns, with a population of nearly one million and tens of thousands of soldiers.  Huo Guang never thought of reconciling with Wusun. There would be a battle there sooner or later. Once Hexi developed to a certain extent, he would launch a westward expedition, and his first target would be Wusun.  To establish ties with Dawan from afar and attack Wusun from afar is Huo Guang's major strategy in the next five years.

    Downstairs of Yangguan City, Lu Shu's westbound caravan stopped outside the gate in an orderly manner. Officials from the Agricultural and Commercial Department of the Metropolitan Governor's Office had already begun to check and count the goods leaving the customs one by one.  After going through the necessary procedures in a rigorous and orderly manner, under the watchful eyes of countless merchants watching the excitement, the caravan manager handed over a customs duty of more than 1,400 gold to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, and then the Yumen Gate was opened and troops were stationed at Yangguan.  Under the strict protection of the people, this unprecedentedly large caravan slowly sailed out of Yangguan and began its westward journey in full swing.

    "Have you really paid so much goldThe value of the goods in this caravan is so high? This is almost the total trade volume on the entire Western Region trade route in the past three monthsWhat should we do now?  "Some merchants already showed signs of struggle in their eyes, and their hearts began to waver when they saw Lu Shu's caravan leaving customs.

    "Waitwait and see, I don't believe that with such a heavy tariff, plus the cost of hiring such a large team, how much money can I make in the end?" However, some businessmen made a rough estimate of the caravan's cargo in their minds.  After considering the profits that could be brought by the past situation and calculating the consumption of these personnel, we found that although Lu Shu's caravan was huge, it would not make much money in the end, and it was even possible to lose money.

    When everything was normal in Hexi, the merchants who gathered in Dunhuang finally waited for the first of Lu Shu's caravan to return after nearly two months of anxious waiting.  During this period, not all of the huge caravans continued to trade, but returned one after another after completing transactions between cities. The number of caravans who actually made it to the end should only be about a hundred people.

    The first team to return did not bring back goods from the Western Regions countries as in the past. They returned to Yangguan with light equipment. However, they did not enter the pass immediately. Instead, they found those who had been waiting outside the pass.  Hu businessmen who refused to pay high tariffs.  After some price bargaining, this team purchased the goods from Hu Shang at a price lower than the original market price. After paying the import tariff again, this team crossed Yangguan with a full load of goods from the Western Regions and entered.  The territory of the Han Dynasty.

    When the caravan returned to Dunhuang for repairs, the merchants who stayed in Dunhuang began to use various connections to inquire about the profit status of this team.

    However, after this inquiry, news spread like wildfire that shocked the whole world.  It turned out that Lu Shu's caravan was taking advantage of the reluctance of other merchants to leave the customs, and took the opportunity to raise the prices of goods in the Western Regions. Because the Han Dynasty's goods were all luxury goods, they generally purchased them from the upper class of the Western Regions. These people  Still have a soft spot for high-priced goods, plus supplyThe insufficient provision made these nobles flock to him even more.

    After a rough calculation, the profits from the sales of the goods carried by this first returning team were about three times higher than usual.  And there is no doubt that the value of these commodities will increase over time.  At this time, no merchants could sit still anymore, and they rushed the caravans to Yangguan and Yumenguan, scrambling to pay customs duties and exit.

    And the Hu merchants in the Western Regions are not idiots. When some of them sold their goods at low prices to the returning caravans, some people had already discovered that the prices of their Western Regions goods were likely to increase on the Han side. These people also took the initiative.  Pay customs duty and enter customs.

    At this time, everyone understood why Huo Guang and Lu Shu were not worried at all about these merchants not paying tariffs.  If they don't pay, it means that Lu Shu will completely monopolize the trade in the Western Regions. Of course, this is impossible, so the merchants have no choice but to continue trading on this trade route. To offset such a huge tariff, they have to have a larger organization.  The caravans expanded the distance of trade farther in order to earn greater profits. As a result, the trade routes in the Western Regions became more prosperous and the land west of Hexi became richer and richer.
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