After crossing the Khyber Pass, the first thing you have to cross is the Hindu Kush Mountains, where the army advances relatively slowly.

After crossing the Hindu Kush Mountains, he entered the valley in the river.

The foxes in the river are a very rich place. In later generations, they belong to the three countries of the five Central Asian countries. Moreover, Uzbekistan, the most populous of the five Central Asian countries, concentrated the vast majority of the population here.

This place is also the richest and most suitable for agricultural development in Central Asia. In history, there were many nomadic peoples who turned into agricultural people after occupying this place.

This is also the second place where the Han Dynasty developed vigorously after the Yili Valley.

When Zhao Kuo arrived here, he saw a very huge city and countless farmers who were farming.

A large part of these farmers are immigrants from the Central Plains. In addition to these farmers, many slaves are working hard to cultivate many fields.

King Ashoka looked at the situation in front of him, as if thinking for a moment, he spoke to Zhao Kuo beside him and said, "It seems that you are also a country that attaches great importance to agriculture."

Zhao Kuo has basically been walking forward in the same carriage as Ashoka these days. He actually has a deep interest in this emperor, who is known as the most talented and strategic in India in history.

Moreover, considering that Ashoka was already an old man, Zhao Kuo certainly was not worried that Ashoka would have any personal threat to Zhao Kuo, not to mention that Mao Sui stood by Zhao Kuo in an endless manner.

After hearing Ashoka's words, Zhao Kuo also laughed and said, "Of course, if any country in this world does not pay attention to agriculture, it will definitely perish."

Ashoka looked at the countless fertile fields in front of him and said slowly: "Actually you don't know. One of the things I have always wanted to do is to conquer this area. However, the Seleucids' resolute resistance made it difficult for me to achieve. How did you do it?"

Zhao Kuo said: "In fact, the government is also a relatively simple thing. It only needs to discharge my musketeers and explosives."

This sentence kept Ashoka silent for a long time.

After continuing to move forward, we soon arrived at a city.

Zhao Kuo introduced to Ashoka beside him: "This is the capital of our entire Central Asian Governor's Region, and his name is Salmahan City."

Ashoka looked at Zhao Kuo with some confusion and said, "Is this word of interest of any special meaning?"

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "This is not the city we established, but a race called the Lits, so this name also follows their names."

Ashoka nodded and said, "If it were me, I might consider a name with a more national style."

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "Actually, I thought so too, and I also gave me a very Chinese-style name.

But you may not know that the people here really like this name. They can even mobilize tens of thousands of people and ask the officials for their orders."

King Ashoka looked at Zhao Kuo strangely and said, "Is it because of these just tens of thousands of people that you have changed your original name?"

Zhao Kuo smiled and nodded and said, "You are right. Tens of thousands of people, although it sounds very small, is actually the majority of the population of this city. Although they have not become my people with conscientiousness, I know very well that it will be a matter of time before they assimilate into my country in the future.

If Jingjing changed the name of a city and could make them my people, then I think this business is not a loss."

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Ashoka sighed and said, "The Buddha said that we need tolerance and compassion when treating the people. From this point of view, you seem to have done it."

Zhao Kuo looked at the city of Salmahan in front of him and said with a smile: "Actually, you misunderstood. When dealing with the enemy, my methods are also extremely cruel. However, since my people are not enemies after all, I must be kind to them."

Ashoka nodded and agreed with Zhao Kuo's words.

On the second day, the army left the city again and continued to move towards the northeast.

Why the northeast direction?

The main reason is that Zhao Kuo wants to go to Yili to take a look.

The city of Yili has a special emotion, because it is a very rare area in the entire Xinjiang region, very suitable for agriculture, and is also the best piece of land in the northwest direction of the later China.

Zhao Kuo must let everyone know that this area must be taken seriously.

Yili City has undergone earth-shaking changes.

This place has now become a city with a permanent population of more than 200,000. In this era, cities of this size can definitely be among the top cities.

It was noon when Zhao Kuo arrived here, which was also the hottest time of the day.

But even so, there were still people coming and going outside Yili City, and countless vendors were riding camels and carriages, bustling through the city gates.

King Ashoka looked at the carriages of these vendors on the road with curiosity, and asked Zhao Kuo: "Is this a famous big city in your country?

I didn’t expect that your country was still very close to us.”

After hearing Ashoka's words, Zhao Kuo also laughed and said to Ashoka very surely: "You are wrong. This is not a big city in our country. In fact, this city was just built by us a few years ago. It belongs to our country's relatively remote and new city."

After hearing Zhao Kuo's words, Ashoka's face clearly showed a look of suspicion.

For Ashoka, this city is almost comparable to Fahrenheit. Is such a big city just a remote city that has just been built?

But Ashoka didn't say anything, he just observed it silently.

After passing through Yili, it officially entered the Junggar Basin, which is the northern border area.

After a few days, I arrived in Turpan, south of the Tianshan Mountains.

From Turpan to the east, there are many Gobi Deserts.

After entering the vast desert of the Gobi Desert, Ashoka's face showed a shocked expression, and he couldn't help but say to Zhao Kuo: "I didn't expect that your country has such a harsh terrain and completely uninhabitable place. How could you exert such a strong national strength under such a mess?"

You know, the South Asian subcontinent where Ashoka is located is very suitable for agricultural cultivation. Even the mountains in the northern part of the South Asian subcontinent do not have these Gobi deserts in front of them, which is so daunting that it even feels like the breath of death is coming.

This made Ashoka involuntarily feel a sense of awe in his heart. He even felt that the place in front of him was probably what the Buddha called hell.

After hearing Ashoka's shock, Zhao Kuo Lian's smile was still very peaceful. He said to Ashoka: "You see, this place is indeed quite desolate now, but don't worry, when one day we build the railway here, this place will not be as desolate as it is now. It will develop into the largest main road connecting the east and west sides of our Han Kingdom."

Ashoka said that he did not understand Zhao Kuo's words at all.

After all, for Ashoka, something like railway is beyond the full cognition.

Of course, there is no need for Zhao Kuo to explain these things like Ashoka, because as long as you walk out of this desert, you can reach Dunhuang.

Where is Dunhuang?

It is the westernmost station of the railway line in the Han Dynasty.

Ten days later, the large group finally came out of the Gobi Desert. Since they had already had many experiences in walking in the Gobi Desert, the entire army was not under much threat this time.

What we really need to pay attention to is sandstorms, which is something that even a large army of tens of thousands of people is very difficult to deal with. However, sandstorms are not something that can be encountered at any time. Now that a large number of caravans have passed back and forth, the Han Dynasty has already made a very systematic analysis of how to deal with sandstorms and how to prevent sandstorms from being encountered.

After crossing the sandstorm, Ashoka breathed a rare sigh of relief, folded his hands and muttered to himself, thanking the Buddha for his favor.

Zhao Kuo looked at King Ashoka in front of him and suddenly asked a question.

"Did you believe in Buddha sincerely?"

This sentence sounds like a nonsense. As the king of a powerful Buddhist empire, would Ashoka not believe in Buddha?

But strangely, facing Zhao Kuo's question, King Ashoka actually fell into hesitation.

I'll say what you say.

After a while, Ashoka slowly said: "This is a very strange thing for me. I found that when I was very ignorant, that is, when I was adolescent, I was very devout to the Buddha, but later with my continuous success, it seemed that my awe for the Buddha was gradually decreasing.

But when I failed and became your captive, I found that my belief and awe of Buddha had returned again, so tell me, have I always believed in Buddha sincerely?"

Zhao Kuo obviously didn't expect that King Ashoka would even get the blame back.

After a smile, Zhao Kuo said seriously to King Ashoka: "I believe that for the current Buddha, you are indeed a very devout believer."

Dunhuang is here.

When he saw the train rumbling towards him, even an emperor like Ashoka could not help but show a look of surprise on his face.

Obviously, even this famous emperor could not understand why a train could appear in this world.

"What's this?"

“This is a train.”

"Is the train...is this something that can be moved without the power of manpower or livestock?"

“As you see.”

Ashoka still looked shocked until he got on the train. He looked at the scenery that kept going backwards on both sides of the road, but he never came to his senses for a long time.

In fact, it is not just King Ashoka, even the other prisoners from the Mauryan Dynasty have the same expression, which can be said to be a fake one.

The soldiers of the Han Dynasty have long been used to this formation. After all, after every war, there will always be unsavvy prisoners showing this expression, so they are also used to it.

For the people in Korea, they don’t care much about it now, except for our feelings, because for them, the fun of teasing these country bumpkins has been used before. What they pay more attention to is when they can go home and hold their wives, who have been separated for more than half a year, have a sleep.

As a man, most of the time he thinks about his mind is just a little bit.

Zhao Kuo fully agrees with this point. Zhao Kuo has fought so many wars and knows the cruelty of war. Many times, when you are not careful, you will find that many teammates who have fought side by side with you have long been dead.

It’s okay to lose it. For example, some people may be mourning the world’s historical books and keep their names when they die. However, after these most ordinary Han countries, the soldiers in these Han countries may only have a “dog card” on their bodies, as well as some weapons or clothing, and the corpses cannot return to their hometowns.

There is actually a strong psychological pressure behind this. If this method can be used to effectively relieve psychological pressure, Zhao Kuo thinks it is completely OK.

This is why many soldiers suffered from various traumatic stress symptoms after fighting in later generations.

However, in this era, few people will notice this.

Because this psychological disease is still a relatively in-depth range for this ancient times and has not been explored yet.

Zhao Kuo issued a very special order, which was to let all the combat soldiers leave first, and finally Zhao Kuo's emperor.

This question was not until King Ashoka, who came to his senses a few days later, even remembered it and asked Zhao Kuo.

After hearing Ashoka's questions, Zhao Kuo first asked Ashoka with a smile.

"Do you think in this world, is it important to be an emperor or a commoner or a commoner?"
To be continued...