The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 513 Asking for help
The imperial court made a decision on the necessity of lifting the sea ban.

Big meeting, big noise!

A small assembly, a minor disturbance!

Most of the officials who advocated lifting the maritime ban had vested interests in the Jiangnan region.

Whether in the past or present, how many people who entered officialdom through the imperial examinations were ordinary citizens?
Even those from humble backgrounds have once been wealthy!

The Kansai region, however, is peaceful and tranquil.

What shattered this tranquility was a snowy night in mid-December.

The night watchmen of the Iri Valley discovered Marcoli, a Venetian merchant, frozen to death in the snow.

This person can be considered a celebrity in Kansai.

He held a prominent position among the foreign merchants.

It wasn't because he purchased over two million taels of silver worth of perfume in Kansai at once, but because the craftsmen he bought for the General of the Nation had already produced the hand-cranked sock machine.

It started to snow.

This machine, which could hand-knit a pair of wool socks in just 15 minutes, opened the eyes of craftsmen and military families in Kansai.

The way everyone looked at the foreign craftsmen was incredibly enthusiastic.

Marcoli had no idea that all the managers of the Kansai Trading Company regarded him as a benefactor who supplied technical talent.

Sure enough, upon seeing the God of Wealth unconscious in the snow, the sentries quickly set to rescue him.

In the dead of night, Tian Jiu received the news and jumped out of bed from the heated kang.

See you again.

Goodness gracious!

It had only been a little over three months since I last saw him, but the headhunter who had come with a protruding belly had now become skin and bones!

His clothes were tattered, like those of a beggar.

When he woke up, his expression was like that of a frightened bird.

After seeing Tian Jiu and the others' garrison uniforms, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then a string of rapid foreign words came out:

"My God, our group of more than 8,000 people was robbed on our way from Kashgar to Stone City."

Despite being masked, their robes and warhorses clearly identified them as horse archers from the Kashgar Khanate!
These horse archers were brutal and ruthless. They not only robbed all our goods and money, but also indiscriminately slaughtered innocent merchants.

Afterwards, they threw all our bodies into the deep abyss of the valley! If I hadn't been lucky enough to be a good swimmer, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to escape back to Bagua City.

General Tian, ​​you must tell General Zhenguo about the terrible situation we have suffered!

I begged her to stand up for me, and for us merchants who were murdered for our money! With these robbers around, who would dare to do business in Kansai in the future?”

The translator from the business, who had been hastily brought in, wiped the sweat from his brow.

I translated his meaning in a way that was roughly correct.

After Tian Jiu understood the ins and outs of the matter, he was initially extremely angry, but after thinking about it for a moment, he almost burst out laughing.

They're not afraid of the Kashgar Khanate causing trouble!
I'm afraid they'll continue to behave honestly, just like they have these past few years.

It's so frustrating that I can't even find a respectable excuse to deal with them.

Now, isn't this excuse presented to us on the spot?

Ever since.

General Gan Minglan, the Grand General Who Protects the Nation, brought a lawsuit against the Kashgar Khanate to the emperor.

They were accused of raising soldiers to become bandits, robbing and killing more than 8,000 foreign merchants who came to Yongtai Dynasty to do business.

This dealt a heavy blow to the Silk Road.

As major customers who make significant contributions to the imperial court's customs duties, they could not stand idly by when their lives and property were in danger. Furthermore, it was said that with the barbarians acquiring so much ill-gotten wealth, their national strength would inevitably increase greatly.

What good can come from a strong enemy?
Finally, in order to clear away all illegal obstacles on the Silk Road, the General of the State volunteered to lead troops on a western expedition after the ice and snow thawed the following year.

The reason is readily available!
The outcome of the war is predictable.

Take the ease with which a founding emperor could expand his territory, for example.
In any case, Emperor Qianwu's heart was burning with passion.

I used to think that the Western Regions were nothing but sand and desert. Our ancestors made several westward expeditions for a few ounces of raisins, but in the end they never managed to govern that land properly.

But now, he doesn't think so.

There are massive coal mines in the Gobi Desert.

There is also very useful oil in the desert!

No piece of wasteland is useless.

It all depends on whether someone discovers its value!
The Grand General who protects the country is clearly a discerning talent.

Since she is so determined to eliminate the last powerful state in the Western Regions, the territory where the Hu people are now hiding must still be of use.

He had already made up his mind, but he didn't show it on his face.

Taking advantage of the recent unpleasantness caused by the lifting of the sea ban, Gan Minglan's complaint was brought out during the grand court assembly for the civil and military officials to discuss.

as always.

The civil officials kept praising China as a land of etiquette and a great nation.

This indicates that the imperial court can send a message to the capital of the Kashgar Khanate, demanding an explanation from its Khan.

They also demanded that the horse archers and cavalrymen who participated in this robbery and massacre pay with their lives for the foreign merchants, and that they return the stolen goods to the merchants' families.

In short, the message is the same: if you can talk, don't take action.

However, a group of military officers, led by Xiong Zhen of the Ministry of War, strongly opposed it.

"What's there to talk about? Who would rob goods worth tens of millions of taels of silver one minute and then return them the next? The lives of more than eight thousand foreign merchants are lives too. One life for another, how could the barbarians agree to that?"

"If you ask me, it would be better to just start a fight! Several skirmishes have shown that the barbarians are just scoundrels! They will never stop their commotion until every last soldier is defeated!"

"Most importantly, with the General Who Protects the Nation personally leading the army, the pacification of the entire Western Regions is just around the corner!"

"Lord Cao, the next few months will depend on your Ministry of Personnel! The cities of the Kashgar Khanate will be sending officials, and they may be selecting talent from the palace examination next February?"

The military commanders had an inexplicable confidence in the fighting capabilities of the garrison in Kansai.

However, they had little faith in the court's ability to select officials.

"How many years has it been since the founding of our Yongtai Dynasty? Every year, the provincial administrations say that there aren't enough local officials!"

"If you ask me, those young scholars who passed the provincial examinations shouldn't focus so much on becoming Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations)! Wouldn't it be better to just assign them official positions directly?"

"That's right. How many seventh-rank official positions will be freed up after conquering the last powerful kingdom in the Western Regions?"

Most military generals are straightforward and outspoken.

Dissatisfaction with civil officials could be directly voiced during grand court assemblies.

In their minds, conquering the country was the job of military generals, while governing the local area was more about the scheming and ingenuity of scholars.

We can't let the General Who Protects the Nation continue to control the entire Western Regions, can we?

Indeed it cannot.

With the enormous profits from foreign trade already in sight, the civil officials had long wanted to reach into that fertile land of Kansai.

Even a skinny arm can't twist the thick leg of a general who protects the country, but surely he can get a piece of the scraps from the new territory he's about to conquer?

Before long, the court reached a consensus.

Gan Minglan's request to join the fight was approved.

The Ministry of Revenue allocated three million taels of silver for military expenses as the military cost for the western expeditionary army the following year.