Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2135 Plateau Power, Sword Yang Dao Established

Six messengers went to propose marriage to six families.

Furthermore, these six envoys purchased a large number of books along their journey.

In the alternate world of Tianqi, papermaking and printing techniques already existed. Apart from some books that required a certain level of technical expertise, such as those on bows and crossbows, or a few banned books, most books circulated freely among the people.

For ordinary people, the problem isn't a lack of access to books, but rather whether they can understand them.

Therefore, these envoys from the snowy plateau, along their journey, acquired several copies of any books available on the market, ranging from folk tales and various schools of thought to books on color culture like the Golden Bottle.

In addition, they used money to pave the way, hiring a large number of technical talents from the Eastern Yi, Northern Di, and Han.

Although, in the general public, they are mostly basic technical talents.

Those who are truly capable are generally controlled by the government and receive government salaries.

These folk technical talents are naturally of little help to the Dongyi, Beidi, or Central Plains peoples. But if it's a plateau, that's a different story.

"The plateau has four celestial beings and two divine generals. They're flexing their muscles at us!"

Guan Zhong noticed the members of the six missions discovered by the Luo Wang (a surveillance network) and showed a hint of interest in their rare performance on the plateau.

As far as he knew, this plateau was currently in a state of division and had not yet been unified. However, he directly sent four celestial beings and two divine generals to accompany the delegation, making it exactly one delegation per mission.

Moreover, the delegation, consisting of four celestial beings and two divine generals, made no attempt to conceal their presence, and even deliberately exposed themselves.

In contrast, when other legitimate missions were on their missions, these truly hidden forces were all kept secret, kept as their last trump card!

After all, only hidden strength can be called a trump card.

If these so-called trump cards are exposed, they will be useless if the mission encounters danger.

Once exposed, if someone targets the delegation, these forces will naturally be taken into account.

The high-profile actions of the six highland delegations were clearly intended to flex their muscles on the plateau to the six powers, including the Han Dynasty, that had sent them.

Regardless of whether their mission was to propose marriage or something else, if they wanted to establish connections with other powers, the first step was to gain their recognition of their value and strength.

Otherwise, what force would waste their time with some nobody who just appeared out of nowhere? They're not just killing time!
Of course, the presence of four celestial beings and two divine generals also greatly surprised Guan Zhong and the others present.

If it were a unified plateau, then Guan Zhong and his companions wouldn't be surprised. However, this was, after all, only a part of the plateau.

If every part of the plateau possessed such power, then the unification of the entire plateau would indeed be enough to make Guan Zhong and his contemporaries take notice.

While the number of celestial beings and divine generals cannot determine whether a country is powerful, it can reflect its national strength from a certain perspective.

Wang Yu remained noncommittal regarding the number of celestial beings and divine generals.

The delegation from the Northern Plateau made no attempt to conceal their identities from these individuals, displaying considerable arrogance. Consequently, the names of these individuals were at least known to the Luo Net.

La, Atum, Set, Tefnut... Wang Yu wasn't familiar with most of these names, but he wasn't completely unfamiliar with them either.

Aren't these people the Egyptian gods implanted in the snow-capped mountains of the northern plateau?
If nothing unexpected happens, it seems that Songtsen Gampo and the people of these snow-capped mountains have gotten mixed up together for some unknown reason.

Therefore, the power that the plateau is currently displaying cannot represent the power of the entire plateau.

"What do you all think? Should we accept Gaoyuan's marriage proposal?"

The envoy from the plateau has arrived, and we must meet with him. Therefore, whether or not we agree to this matter, we should establish a procedure as soon as possible.

However, these things also gave Wang Yu a bit of a headache!
Looking for someone!

He has no brothers or sisters. Although he has daughters, none of his daughters are over two years old.
It would be better to do what the Golden Horde did and find someone of suitable age from the royal family.

But given the environment of the plateau, who would want to go there?

The plateau is a completely different place from the Northern Barbarians!

"I believe we should agree!"

Guan Zhong glanced at Zhuge Liang opposite him and was the first to step forward and answer.

"The plateau overlooks the Northern Di and Eastern Yi. Even if we don't need it today, we might be able to use it someday!"

For Guan Zhong, it was merely a casual move on the plateau.

If it proves useful in the future, given the location of the plateau, its impact will likely be significant.

Even if she becomes useless in the future, it doesn't matter. In the end, she's just a woman.

For a woman, this price is nothing, even if that woman might be of higher status. It's cruel, but that's reality.

In the eyes of politicians like Guan Zhong, exchanging a woman for a potentially useful pawn in the future was a sure-fire way to make money.

As for the princess who was chosen for the marriage alliance, or what her fate would be, Guan Zhong never cared about the personal fate of the princess compared to the future interests of the country.

"In my opinion, we should not agree!"

"The people of the plateau may be brave, but they suffer from the harsh cold and can offer little help to our Han people!"

What Zhuge Liang said was also not without reason.

Geographically speaking, the plateau could indeed help them contain the Northern Di and Eastern Yi to some extent, allowing them to not worry about the rear during their eastward and westward campaigns, or at least save some of their strength in the rear.

Moreover, it also conforms to the principle of befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones!

However, all of this is predicated on the premise that the plateau has sufficient capability to control the Northern Di and Eastern Yi.

But at least on the plateau today, they don't have that capability.

Certainly, the harsh living environment has forged the strong physique of the people of the plateau. This is similar to the situation in the southern regions.

After all, if your physical condition isn't good, surviving in a place like this isn't easy.

But what good is having a good body?
The southern barbarians also had good physiques, but could they do anything to the Great Wu?
Can a unit with armor fight a unit without armor? Can a good physique alone make up for that?

The rise of the Southern Barbarians was due to Chi You taking advantage of internal problems within the Wu Kingdom and the weakened border defenses. He disregarded casualties and defeated a Wu army, then used the Wu army's weapons and equipment to arm the Southern Barbarians, gradually snowballing his power to its current state. However, the plateau is not as developed as the Southern Barbarians, not only in terms of population but also in terms of unification.

Therefore, the plateau currently doesn't really have much strength, and its value to the other party is indeed limited. And if it doesn't have enough value, why should they be given a princess?
After all, behind the princess lies her symbolic meaning.

"I believe it is fine to agree. The princess is still young, and it is uncertain what will happen in ten or more years!"

Yao Guangxiao also spoke up, giving the third answer from those present.

Clearly, Yao Guangxiao wanted to use the title of princess to keep Gao Yuan on his toes.

As everyone knows, although the Han Dynasty had princesses, how could those princesses be used for marriage alliances? Therefore, even if they agreed, there were ample reasons to delay it for more than ten years.

As for what will happen more than ten years from now, that depends on the state of the world at that time and whether the plateau can bring the Han Dynasty the benefits they want!
Anyway, if it's just a verbal agreement and neither party formally presents their credentials, then wouldn't it be a piece of cake to erase this agreement a decade or so later?
To put it bluntly, if things really don't work out in ten or twenty years, we can just let the princess syndrome continue for another ten or twenty years.

What's the situation with the plateau? We can't possibly let their princess travel while she's sick, can we? Wouldn't that be tantamount to actually wanting her to go on her journey?
Wang Yu glanced at Guan Zhong, then at Zhuge Liang, and then at Yao Guangxiao. Could these three have planned this in advance?
Three people gave three completely different answers!

It seems like he said everything, but it's actually equivalent to saying nothing at all; he was simply given a multiple-choice question.

The key point is that there is no absolutely right or wrong answer to this kind of multiple-choice question; each option has its own rationale.

As for the others, after Guan Zhong, Zhuge Liang, and Yao Guangxiao gave three different answers, they completely lost interest and their minds wandered off into the distance.

Those who served as ministers were responsible for coming up with ideas and for carrying them out, but they did not belong to the decision-making level; they only had the right to make suggestions.

Their suggestions have now been presented. Three paths, three directions; it remains to be seen how the higher-ups will decide.

Wang Yu knew that it was now his turn to deal with the situation, and that it was practically impossible to get an accurate answer from the people below.

"Of the four states of Jing, Duan, Yang, and Xu, only Han State remains in the land of the Great Sword!"

"It's just a pity that Da Wu also set its sights on the lands of the four minor dynasties, and took Haodi into its hands with almost no effort."

"In the land of Jianhao, I originally intended to establish another province. However, since the task has not yet been fully accomplished, my beloved ministers believe that the four provinces of Jing, Duan, Yang, and Xu should be merged into Shenglan Circuit, or that the plan should remain unchanged and Jianyang Circuit should be established!"

Having just set aside the issue of the Gaoyuan envoy, this matter hadn't yet reached the point where a decision needed to be made that very day. After all, he hadn't even met that Gaoyuan envoy yet.

Therefore, Wang Yu then turned to talk about Su Dingfang's western expedition.

Su Dingfang's conquest of the Greatsword was actually quite easy, thanks to the various clever maneuvers employed by the Greatsword's internal staff.

The Battle of the Great Swords, led by Su Dingfang, actually took less than two months to wipe out all of the Great Swords' forces. The next step was to take over their territory.

For the Han army, taking over the remaining territories was even easier than defeating the main force of the Great Sword.

Claymore has truly given everyone from kings to ministers a series of surprises.

The battle against the sword fought by Su Dingfang was already quite easy. However, the Great Wu, by turning the tables and using the pretext of a campaign against Guo, made it even easier for them to take down the Great Hao.

They even took the opportunity to enter Hanzhou, southwest of the Great Sword, and used the mountainous terrain of Hanzhou to defend against Su Dingfang to the north.

As for whether Su Dingfang could snatch the spoils from Da Wu's mouth and take over Hao Di in one fell swoop, Wang Yu wasn't very confident.

After all, neither side wanted to go to war over such a small piece of territory for the time being. Frankly speaking, the territory that Great Hao possessed wasn't worth that much.

If the two sides were to fight a full-scale battle, even if the victor gained some spoils, those spoils would not be enough to compensate for the losses they would suffer in a full-scale war against a dynasty-level power.

Of course, neither side wants to start a war, but a local war is unavoidable.

Both sides, while not wanting to go all out in war, wanted to test whether the other had real strength or was just a paper tiger.

At the same time, if we don't demonstrate our strength, it will be difficult to even make peace.

"I believe it would be better to establish another one!"

"If Haodi falls in the future, it will be directly incorporated into Jianyang Dao!"

"Establishing the Sword Yang Path will also allow us to take charge of matters in the north!"

When the topic turned to the north, Guan Zhong's tone became somewhat enigmatic. There were some things that, while difficult to say explicitly, were understood by everyone.

The alliance between the Great Han and the Golden Horde is currently relatively stable, as both sides need the other's presence.

Even for a long time to come, both of them will need the presence of the other.

Neither the Tuoba tribe nor the Great Wu could be wiped out in a short time. The fact that both are still around means their alliance has a foundation.

However, even the strongest alliance is still just an alliance. Now that the two sides' territories have already crossed borders, it is necessary to take necessary precautions!

This newly established Jianyang Road is the first line of defense in the north.

"I second that!" Zhao Anling immediately agreed.

Establishing a new one is equivalent to opening up a large number of new official positions.

This is very favorable for officials who want to advance in their careers.

After all, many of the officials under Wang Yu are indeed underutilized in their current positions given their abilities.

The addition of such a large number of officials and this extra piece of the pie is also an effective way to alleviate internal conflicts.

"I also believe that a new system should be established!" Zhuge Liang echoed.

Merging into Shenglan Road is absolutely impossible!

If that's the case, then Sheng Lan Dao has become far too arrogant.

Although the military and political power of the Great Han Dynasty have now been separated, and even military power has been divided into various sectors, with the border troops and the local troops not under each other's command.

However, no matter what, the emergence of such an expanded state in the border region is a disastrous act.

After all, the extent of imperial power's influence is, in a sense, determined by distance. The further away from the capital a place is, the weaker its influence.

(End of this chapter)