The big cake painted by Zhou Yu completely ignited Liu Bei's determination to invest.

When he finally left Fusang and returned to the Central Plains, Liu Bei's last decision was to make a budget for the next few years, so that Prime Minister Li Su could let go of the implementation and authorize more ocean-going ships to shipyards stationed on the Pacific coast.

Zhou Yu had only one sea ship with a tonnage size similar to that of Liu Bei's ship - of course the interior decoration and other details must be completely different.

One is the royal yacht, and the other is the ocean-going expedition ship. As long as the expedition ship is strong, durable, and has good seaworthiness and stability.

There are two other ships, originally two thousand tons, planned to be used as backups or sister ships for the expedition fleet, but because they had no budget before, the court had not approved money for many years of rest and rest, so they were always in the wood processing preparation stage and had not yet got off the dock.

After all, the expedition fleet has only one largest ship of the same type, which is definitely not safe. If something goes wrong, the ocean exploration will die. There are three ships, each time they go out at least two, and then leave an emergency spare tire, so that the ocean exploration cause will be promoted to the normalization of institutionalization.

This most advanced flat-deck ocean frigate of this era, after mass production, could actually reduce the price to 200 million copper coins. However, because the quantity was too small, the "R&D cost, trial and error cost" had to be amortized, so it seemed that it would cost 400 million to 50 million.

If you have no idea about this number, you can calculate that in the era of the inland waters at the end of the Han Dynasty, a maximum tonnage of a ship with a maximum tonnage of 2,000 people was only 10 or 20 million yuan.

When Li Su destroyed Sun Ce, the 800-ton five-tooth warship he built was only 40 to 50 million. If he wanted to wrap iron sheets and custom-built armor and weapons and equipment, he would add another 10 to 20 million.

Therefore, 200 million per ship is equivalent to the top-level fully equipped five-toothed warships and more than three times the price, otherwise the Navy is a bottomless pit for gold swallowing.

But because the exploration of the Northeast can once and for all, incorporate the grasslands in the upper reaches of Heijiang, Mobei into the Chinese civilization circle, these are now a small amount of money.

Liu Bei finally made a big move, and there were three top-class ocean frigates in the future, one was ready-made and two newly built. This part was allocated 500 million copper coins.

The first-class flagship that Li Su sat in Yangzhou and Fusang a few years ago is like the latest model of today's Small One. After improvement and optimization, it will be about 1,500 tons. This type of flagship is a little more than 100 million because it is a more mature technology and has no "research and development cost". Liu Bei approved the creation of five more ships, with a total price of 600 million yuan.

The second level is reduced to 1,200 tons, which is similar to the flagship that Zhao Yun and Taishici destroyed Linyi and intimidated Funan to surrender (but the shape must have been optimized). This type of one costs 70 to 80 million. Liu Bei made ten ones with a big stroke.

The above-mentioned shipbuilding plan does not need to be implemented in Fusang. In fact, after the past ten years of farming construction, the largest shipyard in Fusang has only built 1,200 tons, and the bigger one can only be built but not built.

The best ship is still built at the Juzhang County Shipyard in Kuaiji County, Yangzhou. After it is built, it will be driven to the Fusang Front.

There will be a total of three first-class ocean-going ships of 2,000 tons, five second-class ships of 1,500 tons, and ten third-class ships of 1,200 tons, totaling 18, forming the Dahan's ocean-going geographical exploration fleet.

These ships may not have to be tied into one rope and used in one exploration direction, and can also be divided into two or even three batches.

Some of the products are built first and then travel to Han and southern Borneo to explore the full picture of the Spice Islands, find Australia, and accumulate some experience. In the future, continue to voyage to the northeast to find the Americas.

Then divide a branch to go to Maolhamnien to explore the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea routes. Directly trade with the Roman Sea and suck up the gold and silver of Europeans as much as possible.

These are all later stories.

The entire preparation cycle will take another two or three years, and there is no rush. After all, the Han Dynasty completely eliminated the Xianbei in the south of the desert in 215 years, and the national debt was completely paid off in 217 years.

Now it is the second half of 218, and the court has begun to save money in just one or two years. It is normal for the next large-scale action to do it in two or three years.

It would also be better to give Zhao Yun on the other side some preparation time to go deep into the military farm in the Northeast to go upstream to solve the problem of the enemy in the Lake Baikal Basin.

As for strategic deception work, such as being alert to the Xianbei people who fled to Mobei and the Dingling people who were originally in Mobei, it is not difficult.

Those Rong Di who had been beaten to escape from the crowd were not in the process of intelligence work at all.

The food and grass stockpiled by sea ships made by Han people, as long as you find any other purpose to make excuses on the surface, those Rong Di would not have thought that they were prepared for them if they wanted to break their heads.

This will give you a big surprise then.

If you are surprised, you will not be surprised if you translate it in advance.

...

Liu Bei and his party finally lingered on Fusang Island until the end of July, and then rode the sea boat provided by Zhou Yu. Under Zhou Yu's personal escort, they followed the Jinqing Strait between the later immortal Taiwan and the Jinqing Strait between the Heiyi Island, and returned to the Whale Sea to meet with the previous genuine imperial fleet in Yueshan County.

Fortunately, the end of July of the Northeast region was not very cold, so Liu Bei could stay there for the time being.

For more than a month later, he basically spent the next one, passing by roughly a few days along the coast of Heiyi Island and Liugui Island. He did not log in, but just listened to the introduction of relevant officials and knew where the origin of the rye and Liugui giant dishes he had obtained before.

With the guidance of Zhou Yu, he roughly knew where the estuary of Heijiang was and what the terrain of the estuary was. But Liu Bei could not take a huge fleet to enter Heijiang to find out the truth, and there was not enough time. He could only look at the picture book Zhou Yu sent someone to find out before.

At the beginning of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Liu Bei finally returned to the vicinity of Vladivostok, and then drove along the Tumen River into the inland river, where he experienced the last stop of this two-year patrol. Naturally, the general Zhao Yun, who was fully responsible for the settlement and border defense in the Northeast region, was responsible for the development of the cavalry.

In the Northeast region, the future will be the top priority for the Han Dynasty to completely solve the threat of the northern desert grassland, and everything will be left to Zhao Yun.

Zhou Yu was only fighting and assisting in providing logistics and transportation tools. The one who actually sent troops and food to directly command the battle was definitely Zhao Yun.

The final annihilation battle against the Huns in the southern desert was the first achievement won by Lu Bu and Guan Yu. Lu Bu killed the Xianbei Khan, while Guan Yu completed the annihilation of the main force of Xianbei.

Mobei's contribution should also be repeated in turn, allowing Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun to complete the final blow.

In order to use the troops three years later, Liu Bei also attached great importance to inspecting the current work of land reclamation and grain storage in the Northeast region, water conservancy, and road improvement.

Liu Bei also had feelings for the land of Liaodong. After all, thirty years ago, in early 188, when Liu Bei had just pursued and pacified Zhang Chun, he finally fought to Liaodong. That year, he was the prefect of Liaodong for a short time.

Later, Li Su subtly hinted that before Emperor Ling passed away, he had to maintain an extremely loyal attitude towards the Han Dynasty. "I am a brick in the court, and I need to move wherever I need to go." He did not show any tendency to separatist. The court asked him to give up the base and move to Hanzhong, so Liu Bei went there without any nostalgia.

But this experience also led to Liu Bei having feelings for the people of Liaodong, who were the first people under his rule.

This time, the emperor came in person. After thirty years, the victims who were rescued by Liu Bei in the past are now at least in their fifties. The average life expectancy of ordinary civilians in this era is still relatively low, and only 20% of them can survive this day.

Even so, the imperial guards were warmly welcomed and loved by the local people, which made Liu Bei feel the atmosphere as if he was returning to Zhuo County.

During his inspection in Liucheng County, the northernmost part of Liucheng County, Liu Bei could not help but go to the camp of the military camp and gather with the soldiers to drink with the land reclamation soldiers. The inspection lasted for half a month, and only in October began to return to the Central Plains, and returned to Luoyang before the end of the twelfth lunar month.

...

After returning to Luoyang, Liu Bei did not act rashly immediately, but let everyone spend the New Year peacefully. Time flipped through the blink of an eye until the beginning of spring of the first month of 219.

During this period, Liu Bei also gave everyone some sweetness as promised. During his tour, he promised that when he was in Yangzhou that "the imperial court will give gold rewards in the future, and it will be really given gold, and it will no longer be converted into copper coins at the official exchange rate to exploit the ministers." Now Liu Bei has done it.

During the Chinese New Year this year, he made a name to reward the ministers who made meritorious service last year, and he actually gave gold. However, the amount was relatively small, so he only made a few typical examples.

Who makes it possible for people to make meritorious contributions in peaceful times? It is mainly those who have geographical discoveries or have made great contributions.

Then, after the spring plowing ended, Liu Bei officially gradually implemented the currency reform discussed by Li Su during his tour.

The court first began to focus on recycling gold, and the price of 18,000 yuan per gold was temporarily. After a period of time, the execution was almost done, so it announced the issuance of paper gold, which prohibited the circulation of physical gold as currency in the form of a decree, and could only be used as jewelry and other objects for decorative use.

Don’t think that this law is overbearing. In order to change three to two coins and reduce the fluctuations in the currency value, there is nothing we can do about it.

Moreover, there were definitely not only the Han Dynasty that controlled monetary items, but also the controlled varieties. It was already very kind that Han Dynasty only controlled gold.

After all, in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was still strict control over "brand storage". Rich businessmen hoarded more brocades at home, which could be considered as malicious hoarding of scarce currency and had to be investigated.

There is no need to elaborate on the follow-up details of Liu Bei's monetary reform. After all, when Li Su discussed with Liu Bei before, he made it clear.

I tried to think of all possible problems in advance. Now it is just the specific implementation stage, and after a few months of trial operation, I really didn't encounter any worse situations that were obviously beyond Li Su's expectations.

Of course, there were some powerful families and marquises in the court, but their strength and scope were within controllable levels.

...

The Korean central government has steadily implemented currency reforms to make the Han Dynasty's monetary system more adapted to the current situation of gold and silver development. In 219, the biggest event in the Han Dynasty's government was a diplomatic mediation thousands of miles away.

It turned out that the Han delegation, who had been preparing for the west since 218, finally arrived at the Parthian Empire territory at the border between the Central Asian grassland and the Persian region under the leadership of Yang Xiu and the escort of Deputy Envoy Ma Dai in the autumn of 218, and also approached the war zone between Rome and Parthia.

However, because this happened thousands of miles away, the Central Plains did not know the situation in real time when Yang Xiu arrived.

The road that Yang Xiu took was also passed by several small Central Asian countries, because the Great Han Dynasty and Parthia did not directly border.

To leave the country, the Han Dynasty needs to go through Kangju, which Ma Chao has just been detained in recent years.

(Note: The one who was reconquered and directly ruled by the Han Dynasty in the Western Regions is currently Wusun. Wusun was in the territory of Xinjiang in later generations.

A considerable number of Kangju belonged to areas that were ceded by the Russians in later generations, including some areas in the Balkhash Lake Basin. They are now only vassals of the Han Dynasty and have not been conquered)

After passing Kangju, Dayuan and Shache, places that also belong to vassal states, can be directly bypassed. Because these small vassal states are geographically distributed north and south, and if you want to go east-west trade routes, just choose one of them to pass.

In Dayuan, Shache happens to be in a relatively rugged position in the Pamir Mountains (Kush Mountain in Xingdu). It is inconvenient to climb westward, which means it is a dead end road, or it is convenient to go to Kangju in the north.

(Note: Kangju is located in the southern part of Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan today, as well as in parts of Yili and Aksu in Xinjiang, my country. Dayuan is located in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan to northern Tajik, but does not include the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan, so it is a dead end road, and Shache is a little further west, and it is also in Tajik)

To the west of Kangju are those independent small countries that are not affiliated with any great empire, including Hualazimo and Khurasan.

These two principalities belonged to the Kushan Empire in South Asia in the 180s and 190s twenty or thirty years ago. But the Kushan later experienced wars and divisions like Parthia, Rome, and Han dynasties at the end of the 2nd century.

So later, Khorasan and Hualazimo became independent in fact and became autonomous principalities. During this process of independence, they were supported by the Parthians to a considerable extent. After all, Parthia also hoped that their neighbors to the east would be divided and weaker.

It is best to give up the main trade routes and traffic routes for trade with Dahan. In this way, when Parthian merchants go east, they will save them from paying high tariffs to the Kushan people in Hualazimo.

Therefore, by the end of the 210s, Kushan had actually shrunk southward into the Indus River Basin, and its national strength was in a weak period. This led to the fact that although it was also known as one of the four major empires in the 2nd to 3rd centuries, it had no sense of existence or voice in international affairs before.

Because its most essential "East-West-West Trade Trade Road Hub Node" has been independent. Kharasan is roughly equivalent to Turkmenistan in later generations, while Karazimo has most of Uzbek and the Wakhan Corridor extending out of northern Afghanistan in later generations.

The direct-governed territory that is still retained in the hands of the Kushans is just a small area of ​​Pakistan in later generations, a small area in northwestern India, plus the southern non-transportation route area of ​​Afghanistan. Therefore, this location cannot prevent direct exchanges between the Han Dynasty and Parthia and Rome in Central Asia, and it cannot even block the road.

Because the local area lacks the necessary powerful empire, Yang Xiu's itinerary is safe, and no one dares to attack Ma Dai's thousands of elite cavalry.

In small priests like Hualazim and Khorasan, any Han envoy who dares to provoke transit may be destroyed every minute.

Yang Xiu arrived safely and safely at the war zone between the Parthians and the Romans on the later borders of the Iranian border, the edge of the Persian Plateau.

Not to mention, the latest round of combat between the Romans and the Parthians is really a bit like the pattern of the Iranians backwards in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Chapter completed!