The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 590 Empire Twilight
Although he had been fighting in the southeast, the civil officials under Liu Fan had never stopped gathering information about the Kushans and Sindhu.

They have a pretty good understanding of the current situation of the Kushan Empire.

Internal struggles were fierce and continuous, including struggles over imperial power, struggles over politics and religion, and struggles over local areas.

If that were all, it would be fine. The fundamental problem of the Kushan Empire was that although its strength was indeed not weak, it was more like a loose cultural community that relied on the spread of Buddhism and trade taxes to maintain its existence, and its system was extremely immature.

"The Kushans were quite powerful, relying mainly on cavalry and elephants, and incorporating tactics from Central Asian countries. However... they lacked the ability to continue to expand abroad."

"The Kushan territory adjacent to Sindhu today is occupied by powerful tyrants, which are similar to vassal states. They do not completely obey the orders of the Kushans, and it is said that they have been thinking about independence in recent years," said Li Yan.

"Under such circumstances, the Kushans are too busy to take care of themselves and should not have the energy to take care of the situation in Sindhu."

"In the Satavahana dynasty, there were frequent internal power struggles. The 'Rebellion of the Four Kings' broke out a few years ago. The central government has almost lost control over the local areas."

"Plus, the Roman Empire has reduced its trade with the East in recent years, the Brahmin nobles have monopolized the land, uprisings have occurred frequently, the central finances have collapsed, the army has shrunk, and there seems to be a crisis of division. It's a bit like..."

Li Yan stopped talking here. The current situation of these two countries is simply a replica of the late Han Dynasty.

When Liu Bei heard this, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly: "In other words, the two countries that posed a slight threat have already shown signs of national destruction and have begun to split, right?"

Before Li Yan could speak, Tian An, who had been standing behind Liu Bei in silence, suddenly said, "Not just these two countries."

"The Parthian Empire had also experienced the 'Rebellion of the Five Kings' before, and was invaded by the Roman Empire. It lost Ctesiphon and Seleucia in southern Mesopotamia and was forced to sign an unequal treaty."

"Due to Rome's continued invasions and Kushan's trade competition, there was also the independence of the vassal states, the collapse of the central finances, the decline of the army, and frequent uprisings."

"His Majesty Da Qi once said that this period can even be called the 'Twilight of the Empire'."

“Even our real enemy, the Roman Empire, although its military strength was at its peak, it also began to decline economically, and problems with the royal family, religion, and corruption were also growing.”

Hearing Tian An's words, everyone's eyes were on him.

There was a gleam in Sun Quan's eyes.

Liu Fan asked with some doubt: "Brother Wang, who is this?"

Liu Bei was slightly startled and introduced: "This is my cousin from the Changwen clan, Chen An, Chen Zhiyuan."

Liu Fan suddenly realized what was going on when he heard this, and then he looked at Chen Qun behind Liu Bei with envy: "Brother Wang is really able to recruit talents from all over the world!"

"I only have a vague understanding of the situation in Parthia, but I didn't expect Zhiyuan to be so familiar with several major empires. The young are really formidable!"

However, Liu Fan was fooled.

Zhou Yu, Sun Quan, Li Yan and others who were present had a gleam of light in their eyes and guessed Tian An's identity.

After all, these are all confidential matters. Even if Tian An comes from a large family, it is impossible for him to know so much. He even seems to be very familiar with the situation in the Roman Empire.

"The emperor today is truly an extraordinary person!"

Sun Ce, this fool, was just like Liu Fan. He didn't realize Tian An's identity. He just instinctively felt that his temperament was extraordinary, but he was more attracted by Tian An's words.

"Twilight of the Empire!"

The decline of several empires was undoubtedly great news for them.

"Then just do as Boyu said and get started!"

This straightforward style of play was what Sun Ce liked best, so he naturally supported it. "Since we are going to take action, we must plan carefully before we act." Liu Bei looked at everyone with a sharp gaze.

"Sindhu is so weak internally, there is no need to hesitate. We should just sweep from east to west."

"However, just in case, the neighboring kingdoms of Satavahana and Kalinga should not move for the time being to avoid chaos."

"As for Chola, it is located on the southeast coast and must be taken quickly."

"Bofu, you are good at quick battles and quick decisions. You led 100,000 elite troops to attack Chola by sea, and at the same time, you took over the central and southeastern parts of Sindhu."

"Bo Yu, you command the army to attack the northeast of Sindhu from west to east."

"I will lead my troops and take a detour by sea to seize the land southwest of Sindhu."

After understanding the enemy's situation, Liu Bei felt extremely proud.

I have never fought such a rich battle in my life, so I might as well just go for it.

In this situation, there is no need to force any coordination. It is purely a battle for territory, so all you need to do is balance the distribution.

"What about Southeast Asia?" Liu Fan suddenly asked a question.

"The imperial court probably doesn't have the time to take over this place right now."

"Then we will keep it for now, manage it well, and store more food and grass." Liu Bei said.

To be honest, after learning about the land conditions in Southeast Asia and around Sindhu, Liu Bei regretted it extremely.

If he had known this, he should not have insisted on the Northern Expedition. Wouldn't it be better if he had led his troops directly south?
It was not difficult to capture Jiaozhou, and sweeping across the southeast was also minimally difficult.

In this way, not only would there be a way out, but it would also be easy to take over tens of millions of people. Why would there be any worries about the prosperity of the Han Dynasty? It would not have reached the point it is today.

However, thinking about Tian Ze's previous promise, Liu Bei felt a little calmer.

At least there is hope.

Sindhu and the southeastern area are extremely fertile, but unfortunately they are too close to the Central Plains and are not within his reach. He can only operate here for a few years.

However, Liu Bei and others did not think of passive resistance. After all, although they only had the right to use the food for a short period of time, every grain produced was theirs.

As for the problem of too much food and fodder being difficult to store and transport, Tian Ze will solve it for them.

As the "mastermind behind the scenes", Tian Ze is well aware of the principle of maximizing resource utilization.

Tian Ze would accept anything as long as it was offered by Liu Bei and others.

Beautiful girls, gold, silver, population, and food can all be exchanged for resources from Tianze, and they can also be stored for a long time and retrieved at any time.

They conducted transactions directly in the name of Da Qi Money House, and Tian Ze even paid them interest.

Of course, the cost of transportation still needs to be calculated.

This method of clearly marked prices and mutual benefit is much better than pure support, and can also be considered "work-for-relief" to some extent.

Liu Bei and others were also very motivated. Everything they got belonged to them. Even if it was land that did not belong to them, they could exchange it for corresponding things from Tian Ze according to the area.

(End of this chapter)