My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 391 This is possible!
For the tribes that reached an agreement with the caravan, this was a good deal that they didn't even need to think about.

--Let them pass, and you'll get half their cargo at once;
Moreover, every time they let them pass, they were able to intercept the caravan's normal cargo.

After two trips back and forth, the harvest was already equal to killing the caravan and stealing all its goods.

What else is there to consider?
Dry!
Not only do they have to do it, but they also have to do everything they can to protect this caravan in order to keep this money tree that produces gold coins for a long time.

As for the caravans, when they went west, they could only send a quarter of their goods to the Western Regions for exchange and trade with the countries in the Western Regions.
When they come back, they can only bring back a quarter of the "trade income".

It seems like a loss, and it feels like being bankrupted by tolls for no reason.

But what if this caravan is not for the purpose of profit?
In other words, the loss of this caravan, or the "profit that should have been gained", was compensated by the central government - from the treasury of the Shaofu.
In exchange, the caravan only needs to bring a few spies and informants from the Embroidered Uniform Guard every time they go out of the border, just like this time, to gather information on the grassland?

In this way, all parties win, and a world is achieved in which only the Xiongnu Chanyu Ting is hurt.

——In Hexi, the Qiequ and Riju tribes controlled the main transportation routes and could earn a fortune just by collecting protection fees;

The caravan will continue to earn as much as it should, without any impact on its earnings. Moreover, the safety factor on the trade route has also been visibly improved.

Even the "tolls" and "protection fees" that had to be paid on the road were reimbursed by the Shaofu treasury.

As for the court in Chang'an, spending money to gather information was obviously something they intended to do, but they simply couldn't find a way to do it.

It's all right now;

Although it was unlikely that this caravan would be able to find out any information from within the Chanyu court while on the grassland, it was certainly easy to find out intelligence in other areas.

The same amount of money - the same amount of intelligence funds, Liu Rong would rather give it to a caravan like this than to that fence-sitter, the Donghu King Lu Tazhi.

Of course, the expenses to reimburse the profits of a smuggling caravan of this size are actually not small.

The expenditure of thousands or even tens of millions of dollars every one or two years was obviously too much for even a wealthy treasury like the Shaofu.

Therefore, Liu Rong did not intend to maintain this simple "I pay money, but don't work" cooperative relationship with this caravan, but to incorporate this caravan.

In fact, this is not difficult at all.

——The ones who reached a verbal agreement with Qiequ and Riju were Liang Shang, the leader of the caravan, and the two audacious Xiuyiwei.

The Huns didn't care about the remaining guards at all.

Even if I care, I can just make an excuse - can I just change a group of guards?

Even Liang Shang didn't have to be kept.

For Yuqiequ and Rizhu, this business only requires someone familiar to continue to perform and pay for the goods as promised.

As for the rest - where did the original caravan leader go, why didn't the original guards come, and why the caravan was filled with strange people in their twenties with flat heads, the Huns might have been a little confused and a little wary.

But this is not a big problem, just brush it off casually, it won't cause much trouble for the caravan...

From this perspective, the caravan had actually lost its usefulness to Liu Rong and the Han Dynasty.

Liu Rong could have let the Embroidered Uniform Guard replace that caravan and form a new "Han envoy group" to set foot in the Western Regions in the guise of merchants and start preliminary preparations for the Han's strategic deployment against Hexi and even the Western Regions.

As for doing this, is it fair to the caravan?

Smugglers have no right to talk about fairness!
Especially since they were smuggling strategic reserve materials, if they weren’t taken away and executed by the cannon, we should be thankful that the Han Dynasty had no cannons nowadays!
In other words, right now, the most cost-effective option for Liu Rong is to capture the caravan intact and bring it to the Tingwei Prison, or even kill them directly.

The best that could be done was to keep the leader Liang Shang, and use coercion, bribery, or promises to make him the consul of the Han Dynasty's "Embassy in Hexi".

But after a brief thought, Liu Rong decided to be more generous.

"Send a message to the Prime Minister's Office and the Minister of the Imperial Household."

"Zhang Bai, a merchant from Liang, has made great contributions to the country and has won my heart."

"——A reward of 100 gold coins, a royal sword, and two pieces of Shu brocade."

"One hundred brave warriors in the caravan will each be rewarded with ten gold pieces, two pieces of Shu brocade, and each will be granted agricultural status and civilian nobility."

With just a few words, Liu Rong made the final judgment on the smuggling caravan.

At Liu Rong's side, upon hearing Liu Rong's seemingly illogical and totally uneconomical choice, the doctor Zhou Ren was only slightly stunned, and then he happily bowed and accepted the order.

As for Liu Rong's purpose, Zhou Ren obviously understood it.

——Liu Rong is willing to pay a thousand gold coins to buy horse bones.

"Strategies of the Warring States: Strategies of Yan I" records a conversation between Guo Kui and King Zhao of Yan. Guo Kui used an allusion of spending a huge sum of gold to buy only a pair of horse bones to explain to King Zhao of Yan that if one wants to attract talents from all over the world, one should first show an attitude of thirst for talents.

About two hundred years ago, when Shang Yang was in charge of political reforms in the State of Qin, in order to win the trust of the people, he erected a three-meter-high piece of wood at the south gate of the market in the capital Xianyang, and promised to reward anyone who could move the wood to the north gate of the market. He also used this as a means to rebuild the prestige and credibility of the Qin government.

Obviously, what Liu Rong wanted to do was to encourage other smuggling caravans that should have been arrested and imprisoned by rewarding that smuggling caravan: let go and do it boldly!
As long as you make achievements, I will forgive your past sins;

I will reward you generously for your contributions!
The consequences of doing so are obvious.

From now on, every smuggler who escapes from the border and sets foot on the grassland will have an additional choice of "doing something for the country in exchange for wealth and social status" on the basis of the original "making money and saving lives".

Although not everyone will choose this path, with Liu Rong's precedent of "establishing trust with raw materials", when the opportunity is presented to them, they may no longer hesitate, but will make a more decisive choice: to be a person who is useful to the country and the nation.

If they are lucky enough, perhaps in the south of Mu or even the north of Mu, there will be a few more safe trade routes or intelligence channels that can be passed through safely by paying money through agreements with the Han family.

Even though they had bad luck, the other smuggling caravans remained the same, so for Liu Rong, there was no loss at all.

It's just a matter of trying to give the smugglers an open attitude.

Of course;
Whether it was out of consideration for protecting the caravan and the trade route in Hexi, or the Han Dynasty's overall national policy of "promoting agriculture and suppressing commerce", Liu Rong's reward for this caravan would not be too open and aboveboard.

It would be enough to secretly send someone to read out an imperial edict, and then mention it in an informal occasion, "Well, this caravan is very good."

As for the future, whether to let this caravan continue to maintain the original crew, with Liang merchant Zhang Bai, plus the hundred or so guards and five Embroidered Uniform Guards traveling in Hexi and the Western Regions, or to increase the number of Embroidered Uniform Guards or even directly take over the caravan, Liu Rong also has his own considerations.

——At the beginning, you definitely cannot just kick out all the original staff.

The safest way is to remove all the original guards and replace them with a new group of guards and thugs to prevent the news from leaking;

As for the Embroidered Uniform Guards, they will be gradually incorporated into the caravan in batches. For example, the next time the caravan goes out of the customs, the number of Embroidered Uniform Guards in the caravan will be increased to 20 to 30 people.

The next time, the number increased to about fifty;

Then seventy people, one hundred people, one hundred and fifty people...

Eventually, after slow and silent erosion, Liu Rong wanted this caravan to reach its final form: a grassland intelligence organization disguised as a caravan, led by Liang Shang Zhang Bo (replaceable) and composed of about two hundred Xiuyiwei intelligence personnel!

This new organization is also closely related to Liu Rong's subsequent integration of the Embroidered Uniform Guard...

"Although the Embroidered Uniform Guards were not in chaos over the past few years, Qing, you still had to work hard, right?"

After a brief silence, Liu Rongru's words officially opened up this topic.

Unexpectedly, before Liu Rong finished speaking, Zhou Ren raised his head with a little surprise, then nodded with mixed feelings, his back hunched a little.

——In Zhou Ren’s opinion, an intelligence department like the Xiuyiwei is itself a special product of a special era, born for a special mission.

Now, the special era has ended and the special mission has been completed.

Taking into account the current Liu Rong, who has always presented himself as an upright and honest political figure, it is difficult for Zhou Ren not to come to the conclusion that "the Embroidered Uniform Guard will withdraw from the stage of history."

As the co-founder of Xiuyiwei and the first person in charge during the actual operation, Zhou Ren has quite complicated feelings towards this intelligence agency.

As a court official, and a Han official who also possessed simple values, Zhou Ren knew that such a spy intelligence organization should not exist - at least it should not be used for such crooked purposes as 'monitoring officials'.

But as the first leader of this organization, Zhou Ren was reluctant to leave the stage of history so easily and hastily.

The last and most crucial point is: Zhou Ren is the Imperial Physician.

It is the Langzhongling who means "a new emperor may not have new ministers, but a new emperor will definitely have a new Langzhongling."

The user of Zhou Ren's Physician Order: Liu Qi, the First Emperor Xiaojing, is already the 'First Emperor Xiaojing';

The only reason why Zhou Ren could still sit in this position and continue to be Liu Rong's imperial physician was because of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

——The Han Dynasty did not need Zhou Ren to be the chief physician;
Among Liu Rong's staff in the Prince's Palace and his confidants in the Qiandi Palace, there were countless people who were eyeing the Langzhongling, a key position that had no room for promotion but was the closest to Liu Rong.

The only reason why Liu Rong went against logic and norm and kept Zhou Ren instead of appointing a new Langzhongling was that only Zhou Ren, the co-founder, could run the Xiuyiwei organization.

Now that Liu Rong has revealed his intention to ban this organization, Zhou Ren naturally feels disappointed.

Without the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Zhou Ren would naturally no longer have the possibility to continue to "occupy the toilet without doing anything" and occupy the position of Langzhongling.

No longer the Minister of the Nine Ministers in public, nor the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in secret, Zhou Ren would simply be the 'Marquis of Rufen'.

An ordinary marquis who is just an ordinary person and is unemployed at home.

Moreover, he is an 'ordinary' marquis who knows countless secrets of Emperor Taizong, Emperor Xiaojing, and even the current Liu Rong, three generations of Han emperors...

"This day has finally arrived..."

"I should have been prepared..."

"I should have thought of this long ago. This day will come sooner or later..."

For a moment, Zhou Ren's temperament wilted uncontrollably.

Even so, Zhou Ren still mustered up the last bit of his energy, raised his hands to Liu Rong, and asked Liu Rong to "instruct clearly".

Zhou Ren obviously intended to stand guard for the last time and give the Xiuyiwei a decent - or at least relatively decent - ending.

But Liu Rong's next words made Zhou Ren feel at a loss, and at the same time, this old minister, who was over fifty years old, rekindled a flame deep in his heart...

"In the past few years, the main task of the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been to collect intelligence on the princes of Guandong clans."

"Information was collected from the local counties and kingdoms in Guandong, and then reported to Suiyang, the capital of Liang, and then to Chang'an - this model was already very mature."

Liu Rong took a deep breath and said calmly, "You are the most trusted and closest minister to the late emperor."

"I think there is no need for me to elaborate on what the late emperor was thinking."

"——The Wu-Chu Rebellion was not the end of my Han dynasty's reduction of vassal states, but a very basic beginning."

"Only after the Wu-Chu rebellion was quelled did our Han dynasty have the possibility and the objective conditions to reduce the power of the feudal lords."

"Reducing the power of the feudal lords is a protracted war and a tug-of-war."

"So the Embroidered Uniform Guards still have to keep an eye on Guandong."

When Liu Rong said this, Zhou Ren was stunned and his mentality suddenly changed 180 degrees.

And Liu Rong's next words finally gave Zhou Ren the last reassurance about the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"It shouldn't be the Embroidered Uniform Guard's sole responsibility to deal with the Guandong clan princes. There are many other places in the world that need the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be busy."

"——For example, the Baiyue in Lingnan;"

"For example, the Southwestern Yi countries;"

“For example, the Korean Peninsula;”

"For example, the grasslands - Munan, Hexi, and even the Western Regions, and even the Hetao region, all need the Embroidered Uniform Guard to build a new intelligence organization."

...

"My intention is to conduct a system reform within the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"From the original simple network where the Embroidered Guards gathered intelligence, reported it online, and then summarized it in your hands, we have changed it to a more standard and tight intelligence network."

"A corresponding department should also be established within the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

"For example, the Xiongnu Division, the Nanyue Division, or the Southwest Division, the Korean Division, etc...."

(End of this chapter)