I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Leah looked at the dozen riders. Several of them were tied to the horses' butts with a rope. They had long swords on their waists and looked like desert bandits.

"Are these horse bandits?" Seeing those people, Leah was stunned for a moment, and then she quickly thought of something.

It is said that bandits often appear in the desert, but I didn't expect to see one today.

Now that she had seen it, she couldn't just ignore it, so Leah ran straight towards the direction of those horse bandits.

And those horse bandits also had a lot of gains today. On this Silk Road, there were many merchants who often traveled between the two places, and they specialized in robbing those merchants.

Therefore, in order to prevent such things from happening, some merchants often merge dozens of traveling merchants together to form merchants with hundreds of people.

Faced with these caravans of hundreds of people, the bandits had no choice, but their luck was not always so bad. There were always some merchants who were willing to take chances and were unwilling to pay money to join these caravans and wanted to act on their own.

So those caravans consisting of only a few people became their target.

Chapter 93 Merchants from the Roman Empire

This group of merchants from Rome in Europe were unlucky. They were discovered by these horse bandits and captured on the spot.

These merchants from Rome were feeling very miserable. They were originally a team of several hundred people, but they were unlucky and encountered a sandstorm and a mudslide.

The result was that the team was directly dispersed, and finally his team became a small team of more than ten people. In the end, they were discovered by this group of horse bandits, which can be said to be extremely unlucky.

Just when this Roman merchant was feeling anxious about his future safety, the bandits suddenly stopped because a girl in a Hanfu court dress appeared in front of them.

The girl stood in front of them with a picturesque appearance.

If it were in the past, seeing such a beautiful girl, these horse bandits might have rushed over directly, but this is a desert, how could such a beautiful girl suddenly appear?

Wearing Han Chinese clothes and alone.

This bandit leader must be quite smart to be able to walk sideways in the desert for so long.

"I wonder which kind of deity this fairy is? Why is she blocking our way? " Suppressing the greed in his heart, the horse bandit leader walked up and asked carefully.

Why is this different from what I thought? When you saw me, shouldn't you rush over and grab me to be your wife?

The horse bandits were so polite that Leah felt it was difficult to attack them.

"Why are you tying these people? Who are they?" Leah pointed at the merchants with their hands tied.

"They are just some travelers from the Western Regions. They offended us and were captured by us." Seeing Liya pointing at those traveling merchants, the horse bandit leader made up an excuse.

These bandits can speak a little bit of different languages. After all, if they don't know the language of the merchants, it will be difficult to communicate. They are also multi-lingual talents.

"Miss, please save us. We are merchants from the Roman Empire. These horse bandits have robbed us of our belongings and even captured us."

These businessmen had long noticed the communication between Leah and the bandit leader. When they heard that Leah mentioned them, they rushed up regardless of the bandits' obstruction and spoke in somewhat broken Chinese.

"Merchants from the Roman Empire? Are you from the Roman Empire?" Leah was a little surprised.

Today's Roman Empire has long been divided into the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire. Both sides believe that they are the orthodox, but standing in their way is still the Hun Empire.

It was this Hun Empire that split the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Rome.

In the end, the Western Roman Empire split into dozens of countries of varying sizes. Only the Eastern Roman Empire remained strong and lasted until the Sui Dynasty, when it perished and became the Byzantine Empire.

"We are merchants from the Eastern Roman Empire." The merchant hurriedly said when he heard Leah's question.

Seeing Liya whispering with the merchants, the bandits could no longer bear it. One of them pointed at Liya and said, "Boss, I think this girl is just pretending to be a ghost. She is not an immortal. Why don't we just catch her together?"

"That's right, what immortal? I'm the first one who doesn't believe in it. If you don't want such a beautiful woman, then give her to us!"

Although the leaders of these horse bandits have some intelligence, their subordinates are not so smart. Since they are in this line of work, their heads are hanging on the belt. When they see such a beautiful girl, they can only look but not touch, so they really can't help it.

"I'm indeed not an immortal, but I have no problem dealing with bandits like you. If you were sensible, you would surrender to the authorities instead of dying here." Leah said while looking at the bandits.

"Little girl, today I'll let you know how powerful your bandit brother is!" Seeing that Liya admitted that she was not an immortal, these bandits became bolder and some of them even started to tease her.

Leah didn't say anything. These horse bandits were ruthless killers.

There is no village or shop nearby, so it would be more convenient to kill him. This was also my original idea.

When Leah drew out a sword and slashed the throat of a horse bandit, the horse bandits quickly surrounded her.

Even if the leader of the horse bandits wanted to say something, it was too late. Seeing that his men had already had a conflict with the girl, he had no choice but to join in and attack Leah with them.

However, these horse bandits were just a group of ordinary people. Even if the bandit leader was a little quick-witted, Leah had no intention of letting him go. In the blink of an eye, these horse bandits were sent to their grave by Leah.

After killing the group of horse bandits, Leah looked at the group of merchants from Rome again.

Seeing that Leah easily dealt with the horse bandits, the Roman merchants quickly knelt on the ground, fearing that Leah would also kill them. You know, it is not common for bandits to rob bandits.

"Get up, everyone. I won't do anything to you. You can also take back all the property that was robbed from these people." Leah waved her hand.

The businessmen thanked him repeatedly.

"What's your name? Where are you going?" Leah continued to ask after the merchants took back their belongings from the bandits.

"Miss, my name is Pinov. We plan to go to the Han country along this Silk Road to do some business, but the road is really difficult to travel." Pinov replied and sighed again.

It would take several years to go back and forth on this road. If war broke out in a country on the way, they would have to stay there for a long time. If they were unlucky, they might even lose their lives.

However, the rewards for such a round trip were also very generous. Even though they knew there were dangers, countless merchants still traveled back and forth on this Silk Road.

"Can you tell me? What items do you plan to bring back from the Han country? Can they be sold for a lot of money?" Leah was also a little curious. Although she knew that this road had always been called the Silk Road, she was not quite sure what it meant.

Pinov began to talk to Leah.

It turned out that as the number of envoys and merchants increased, the East and the West had a deeper understanding of each other.

Western countries are not very interested in porcelain and other items from Eastern countries. The reason is that their aesthetic concepts are different. However, there is one exception, and that is the silk worn by the Han people.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu Khan, who was riding on the head of the Han Dynasty, could obtain a large amount of silk as tribute from the Central Plains of China every year.

However, these silks did not conform to the customs and aesthetics of the Huns, so most of them were transported westward, reaching places such as the Western Regions, Central Asia and Persia.

Chapter 94: Women only affect the speed of my sword drawing

These silks are smooth and beautiful, their colors are as beautiful as flowers, and their texture is as light as spider silk. They are easy to carry and can be sold in Europe at a high price comparable to gold. They are truly excellent products.

The Sogdians there immediately realized the business opportunity, and so they traveled thousands of miles and tried every possible means to go to the Central Plains of China.

By this time, the Han Dynasty had already defeated the Huns, and silk had become a gift to the envoys of the vassal states in the Western Regions. When these merchants arrived at Yumen Pass, they were immediately turned down by the expensive tariffs.

However, they did not give up, so they dressed up as envoys from various countries in the Western Regions and defrauded silk from the Han Dynasty. The reason they were so crazy was that the limited amount of silk had quietly become popular in the West.

In the Parthian Empire, Persians used silk to decorate palaces, make robes for Zoroastrian monks, and even serve as brightly colored military flags.

From Bactria to Tiaozhi and Ptolemy, the Greeks who dominated the Middle East called silk "Amorgos clothing". It was a treasure from a distant foreign land and a luxury item that princes and nobles used to show off their status.

Later this fashion spread to Rome.

Those elders and generals were also crazy about the gorgeous silk from the East.

Although there are occasional wild silkworms in other places, they are nothing like the mature craftsmanship in the East that has been passed down for thousands of years.

Shu brocade, Lu silk, Luoqi, gauze, all kinds of silk from all over the country competed with each other for beauty. From the emperor to the officials and civilians, they were common clothes that could be worn by all classes. The silk that flowed out of Yumen through gift trade was just a drop in the bucket.

But it has profoundly changed the Western Regions. The oasis cities that were originally independent of each other became active and prosperous because of silk, and they used silk as currency.

In European countries, silk was used as a medium of exchange for the purchase and sale of vineyards, slaves, and livestock.

So this road is called the "Silk Road".

However, as far as Leah knew, this route was by no means a continuous long-distance trade directly to Rome, but a short-distance exchange in a relay manner from one stop to another.

Even the Sogdians, who went the farthest, could only transport silk from Yumen to Kangju and then sell it to Parthian merchants.

Unexpectedly, for the sake of this so-called silk, merchants from as far away as the Roman Empire came here in person.

After sighing, Leah wanted to build this Silk Road even more.

Because this is not just a Silk Road, it also announces to the outside world the power of this ancient oriental country.

Because a country can build a road in the desert, how powerful and wealthy is this country to be able to build a road in the desert?

Liya believed that once she built this road, those Western countries would definitely find ways to come to China to see how powerful and prosperous this country is!

Only in this way can it be called a true tribute from all nations!

Leah did not make things difficult for these merchants from the Roman Empire and pointed them in the direction of Yumen Pass.

With the thanks of these Roman merchants, after they left, Leah looked at the dozen or so corpses on the ground. These corpses were just right for her to do experiments.

Under Leah's skeleton summoning technique, the corpses staggered up from the ground.

"It doesn't look like a skeleton. I thought it would be a skeleton."

Leah looked at the bandits in front of her with orchid-colored light in their eyes. She originally thought that the flesh and bones would automatically fall off, but now it seems that this is not the case. Instead, they look a bit like zombies.

After thinking about it, Leah asked one corpse to grab the other corpse to see if she could lift it up.

Under Leah's command, one of the corpses lifted up the other corpse and placed it directly above his head.

Next, Leah directed the corpses to do some other things, and she understood a little bit.

These corpses seemed to be much stronger and more obedient, but their brains were not very smart and they could not make delicate things. They could only do hard labor.

But isn't this exactly the hard work she needs?

With these corpses, Liya became more confident about the construction of the road from Hexi to Xinjiang.

I just don’t know if the bodies of these people will decay because of this. Maybe she needs to discuss it with her sister. Maybe she may have many solutions.

Leah thought about it and felt that she needed to discuss this matter with Morgan.

Leah released her control over these people, and they turned back into a group of motionless corpses. Leah waved her arm, and a pile of yellow sand buried the traces of a dozen people.

"Let's go back." Leah looked around and didn't find anything strange, so she opened the water mirror and walked in.

When she came back again, she was already back in her room.

The room was quiet and untouched. No one should have come in.

Leah opened the room and walked out, just in time to run into Morgan who had just returned.

It was just that Morgan had a bad look on her face, as if she wanted to kill someone. However, when she saw Leah, she immediately put away that look and instead put on a flattering smile.

"Sister, are you awake?" Morgan came to Leah and reached out to touch her hair.

But Leah dodged it directly. She would not obey Morgan just because of what happened between them last night. She was just giving Morgan a little sweetness so that he would continue to work for her!

That's right, that's right, women only affect the speed at which I draw my sword!

Thinking of this, Leah's eyes suddenly became firm again.

Morgan felt a little embarrassed when he saw Leah avoiding him in person, but he quickly comforted himself that his sister was just being too proud and couldn't let go of her pride.

"Why do you look so unhappy after you came back?" Leah couldn't help but ask when she thought of Morgan's expression before he came back.

"I get angry when I talk about these things. Those Confucian people are so annoying!" Morgan said sullenly when he heard Leah say that.

"Oh, what did those Confucian people say?" Liya just came back yesterday and she doesn't know how the situation in Hexi has developed now.

"It's all those Confucian teachings, always emphasizing moral cultivation, saying these things can't be done and those things can't be done. It really makes me mad!" Morgan said gloomily.

Leah laughed when she heard that. What kind of personality is Morgan? He is a very strong person who likes to have the final say.

But at present, these people cannot be killed, because they are carrying out the cultural revival of the Han family here, and they are needed. So when Morgan faced them, his expression was as disgusting as if he had eaten a fly.

Chapter 95: Liya Plans to Establish Chang'an as the Capital

What do Confucians like to do the most? They die for their own good. However, Confucianism overemphasizes the obedience of individuals in the collective, obliterating people's individuality and thus making the entire traditional Chinese society lack the power of innovation.

In the context of the patriarchal system, Confucianism emphasizes the distinction between righteousness and profit, and between the individual and the group, and emphasizes that individuals must abide by the rules and make contributions in the collective, thus severely restricting individual development.

In a sense, Confucianism is an ascetic ideology, especially Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, which requires people to be pure in mind and have few desires, and even to preserve the principles of heaven and eliminate human desires, which has greatly curbed personal independence and the free development of human beings.

Finally, Confucianism overemphasized realism and humanities knowledge, neglected natural science, lacked a rational scientific spirit, and regarded scientific inventions as gimmicks, which led to the lack of scientific spirit in traditional Chinese society and also caused modern China to lag far behind the West.

Our four great inventions greatly advanced the course of Western civilization, but in our traditional Chinese society, the compass was used for fortune-telling, paper was used to write eight-legged essays, and gunpowder was used to set off firecrackers and fireworks.

This is clear evidence of the lack of exploratory and scientific spirit, and also represents the failure of Confucianism in this regard.

Confucianism can be used as an ideology to constrain those small countries that will become dependent on one's own country in the future, but it cannot be used as a national policy of one's own country. This is why Leah thinks that Confucianism is useless and still accepts Confucianism.

Because Confucianism can be used to persecute other countries, especially small countries that have been persecuted by Confucianism may not even know it.

When the countries around China only use Confucianism to label themselves, China will remain safe.

After Liya talked to Morgan about the advantages and disadvantages of Confucianism for a while, she got down to business.