Time passed without realizing it, and another half a month has passed.

Zhao Kuo and Li Mu stood together, staring at the Yili City, which had begun to take shape, with a gratified smile on their faces.

"From now on, this is the westernmost city in our Han Dynasty, of course this is only temporary."

For Zhao Kuo, the pace of the Western Expedition will never stop. Therefore, although Yili City is now a frontier, it will soon become a city that is a distance from the border, and soon it will become an internal city of the Han Kingdom.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu nodded and said in agreement: "To be honest, your majesty said, life here is actually quite good, and I don't want to go back."

Zhao Kuo suddenly seemed to think of something, couldn't help laughing, and said to Li Mu: "I heard that the wives and concubines in your family are jealous of you every day. Is it true?"

Li Mu is different from others, because he is Zhao Kuo's confidant general, so there are already many people who intend to get close to Li Mu when Li Mu was still a small officer.

After Li Mu became a general, many ministers rushed to marry Li Mu. Their idea was actually very simple. Since they could not marry Zhao Kuo, they would settle for the second best marriage to Li Mu, the general who Zhao Kuo trusted was not much different.

Under such an idea, this led to the number of Li Mu's wives and concubines reaching a total of 9, three times that of Zhao Kuo.

Of course, if it's just like this, it's fine, but the problem is that Li Mu's equipment was born in a large aristocratic family, and they all came with political purposes. So after marrying Li Mu, they also formed cliques and fought endlessly within the family, which made Li Mu feel a headache.

This feeling reminded Zhao Kuo of the story of a comedy he had watched before he traveled through time. After a person married several wives, he had to run out and go to someone else's mansion to become a slave, and finally successfully marry someone else's maid.

It sounds like a story is quite boring, but if you say the name of this story, it will be different again. The name of this story is called "Tang Bohu's Fragrance of Autumn".

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu also smiled bitterly on his face and said to Zhao Kuo: "I didn't expect that this matter in my family would be known by His Majesty."

Zhao Kuo smiled and patted Li Mu on the shoulder, and said to Li Mu: "Actually, I think this matter should be easier to solve. After all, in this era, men are still the ones who are the ones who are the most deeply rooted in people's minds. As long as you can show the majesty of the head of the family, is there anything you can't handle?"

After thinking about it, Li Mu said frowningly: "It is certainly not a problem to deal with those father-in-laws. After all, I am now the deputy prime minister and grand lieutenant of our Han Kingdom. But the problem is that these women cry, make trouble and hang themselves, which is really too difficult to deal with!"

Zhao Kuo laughed and stopped mentioning this matter.

In fact, Zhao Kuo had already seen that Li Mu did not have the ability to solve this problem. In fact, as long as he found a few wives and concubines who were the most violent, he scolded them and even divorced them directly, the matter would be over.

But the key to the problem is that Li Mu is actually unwilling to do this, perhaps because he has feelings for these wives and concubines.

As the saying goes, it is difficult for a clean official to make a decision. Since Li Mu has already planned to continue to indulge in this happy trouble, Zhao Kuo certainly does not need to continue to pull Li Mu out of it.

Just as there is a saying that goes, if a child is not a fish, how can he know the joy of a fish?

After a while, Zhao Kuo said to Li Mu: "How are you solving the things south of the Tianshan Mountains now?"

Li Mu thought about it and said to Zhao Kuo: "The department must say that these bandits in the desert are destined to be a long-term trouble and can only slowly destroy them.

But I think that as long as we develop this place well and when everyone's life is better in the future, no one will join the horse bandits.

These horse bandits will slowly disappear and become dust in history."

After hearing this, Zhao Kuo couldn't help but look at Li Mu in surprise. He didn't expect that Li Mu's ideological awareness was so high that he could say such words.

But I have to say that Li Mu's method is indeed the best way to solve the problem of the horse bandits.

To put it bluntly, no matter where people are, they just want to survive. If they don’t live, most people will definitely not choose to be a robber.

Zhao Kuo smiled and nodded and said, "It is indeed this reason. The Western Regions will become an important node that connects us to the vast land in the west in the future. The people here will not be rich because of planting any crops, but they will be rich because of doing business."

In many places with insufficient farming area and very harsh environments in history, people often find ways to choose other ways out.

For example, in the coastal areas of China, it was actually quite difficult to survive in ancient times, so people in these places often like to choose a way out such as going to sea or doing business, which led to a particularly large number of merchants in these coastal provinces in later generations.

This is a truth that people often say. If you cannot let this society adapt to you, then you can only find a way to adapt to this society yourself.

A few days later, a new group of officials from the Han Dynasty finally arrived in Yili City.

Zhao Kuo was also very pleased and directly designated this place as the seat of the Governor's District in the western part of the Han Dynasty.

Yili has abundant resources and can maintain a large army of sufficient numbers. Moreover, it is relatively close to the south of the Tianshan Mountains or north of Yushan. If there is any problem on either side, Yili can send troops to solve it at any time.

In addition, Yili itself is actually the city closest to Central Asia. If the Han Dynasty wants to continue to attack Central Asia in the future, it can continue to set out from here to minimize the logistical impact. It can be said that it will kill three birds with one stone.

It is precisely because of this that the Qing Dynasty has always regarded Yili as the core location for controlling the western region in history.

Unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty and the Tsarist Russian Empire signed a treaty to cede land and pay compensation, and separated a large area of ​​northwest land, which led to Yili from an inland town to a border city. The Qing Dynasty then had to continue to move its capital.

Of course, Zhao Kuo could not make the mistakes made by the Qing Dynasty.

This fresh city will not become the end of the Western Expedition of the Great Han Kingdom, but will become the starting point of the next Western Expedition of the Great Han Kingdom.

After staying in Yili City for another 7 days, guiding these new officials from the Han Dynasty to complete the basic work and establishing a basic ruling order, Zhao Kuo left 10,000 troops here, and then took the remaining army of more than 100,000, and officially embarked on the journey of returning to the court.

When he came, it was because of the war, Zhao Kuo was still in a more or less serious mood, but when he returned, the winner was decided, and the entire Western Regions were all in the hands of Zhao Kuo, so Zhao Kuo was in a very good mood at this time.

After browsing through the Boroconu Mountains again, Zhao Kuo saw the familiar desert again.

Looking at this desert full of heat waves, Zhao Kuo couldn't help but sigh.

"How great would this vast land be if it could be used as arable land!"

To be honest, the main reason why the Central Plains dynasty in history was unable to control the Western Regions for a long time was that it was indeed not suitable for the residence of farming peoples, and it was too short of water and arable land.

Otherwise, even hills like Wuling and even mountainous areas like Yunnan and Guizhou could be taken over by China, so why wouldn’t the Western Regions be ruled by China?

As a farming nation, the Chinese do have a very tough personality, but they also bring some shortcomings that are not considered shortcomings, that is, the Chinese do not like land that cannot be cultivated for a long time.

This also led to the fact that in history, when the Central Plains dynasty of China occupied almost all the arable land that could be occupied, it was easy to lose the intention of continuing to be pioneering and enterprising, and felt that the land outside was all wasteland that was not suitable for farming, so there was no need to spend more manpower and material resources to expand.

Listening to Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu also smiled and said, "Actually, your Majesty, you are not completely right. If I want to say this, if this place is really full of cultivated land, then a powerful country or even an empire will definitely be established here. At that time, it is hard to say whether our Han Kingdom will come to conquer them or the empire here will conquer us."

Zhao Kuo was stunned when he heard this, then couldn't help laughing, nodding and said, "This is true, but if we really start a war with an agricultural empire that exists here, then of course the victory can only belong to our Han Kingdom."

Li Mu expressed deep agreement with Zhao Kuo’s words.

This pair of the most famous monarch and ministers in the Han Dynasty can definitely be said to be full of confidence in leading troops to fight.

After a long journey, Zhao Kuo came to Dunhuang City in the Gobi desert that he crossed.

Including when he left a few months ago, this place was just a city that had just been established, but now when Zhao Kuo came back, he was very surprised to find that the city was already thriving and fully possessed the appearance of a city.

However, behind the development of this city, there are actually not people without hidden worries.

The county magistrate of Dunhuang County reported such a situation like Zhao Kuo.

"Your Majesty also know that the reason why our Dunhuang City has been able to develop to this day mainly depends on the continuous material and elements of the Central Plains, but the problem is that Dunhuang City. If you really want to develop, it is absolutely impossible to rely on external assistance all the time.

However, Dunhuang lacks the necessary conditions for development. It is sparsely populated and has insufficient arable land and water sources. Even if it is domesticated by some horses and other animal husbandry, it will not be able to support too much population.

I have thought of many solutions over the past few months, but I have never thought of a way to solve the problem. I would like to ask Your Majesty to give me some advice."

Looking at the Dunhuang County Magistrate who looked uneasy in front of him, Zhao Kuo also laughed.

"Of course I know your concern, but you also need to know that I had told everyone before leaving the imperial capital to expedition to the west that this time we go to the Western Regions, it will definitely not be a loss, but a big profit."

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the Dunhuang County Magistrate was completely confused because he did not understand what was related to the development of Dunhuang County?

Zhao Kuo smiled and continued to explain patiently: "Let me say that, this time we opened up the Western Regions mainly to open up the trade route to the west.

After I return to the Imperial Capital, the continuous business groups will set off from the Central Plains and go to the Western Regions to trade with them.

By that time, your Dunhuang City will become a very important trade node. You only need to collect a portion of the trade tax here, which is enough to make your city develop without any worries.”

What Zhao Kuo said is indeed the truth. In history, when the Han Dynasty opened up the Western Regions, the legendary Silk Road was opened.

A large amount of Central Plains silk was continuously transported along the Western Regions to Central Asia, West Asia, and then Europe. For a long time, European nobles were extremely obsessed with these exquisite goods from the East.

This Silk Road also brought huge income to the Central Plains dynasty, and made great developments in commercial cities along the way such as Dunhuang.

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, the Dunhuang County Magistrate was obviously a little skeptical. After all, in the eyes of the Dunhuang County Magistrate, the location where Dunhuang County is located can be said to be too remote, and it is simply a place where birds can't shit.

Will anyone really go through such a place to trade in deserts further west?

The Dunhuang County Magistrate really thinks this seems unreliable.

But in front of him was His Majesty the Emperor of the Han Kingdom. Of course, the Dunhuang County Magistrate could not be so stupid that he directly contradicted Zhao Kuo. He had to nod and said, "What Your Majesty taught me is that I understand that Dunhuang County will focus on developing business in the future."

Zhao Kuo smiled and looked at the Dunhuang County Magistrate who was born in the Academy but was obviously insincere when he spoke, and patted the other party on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, when has the words I said not fulfilled?"
Chapter completed!