I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Chapter 7: The Country on the Decline

Of course, at this time, Xinjiang was not yet considered Chinese territory, or it was not under complete control. Poland, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan were not called these names either.

They were all small countries with strange names. Anyway, Leah couldn’t remember them all. The only ones she knew were the more powerful ones.

However, she traveled all the way from England to China, which is much farther than Tang Sanzang's journey from the Tang Dynasty in the East to India to seek Buddhist scriptures.

But the reality is that the distance from the Netherlands to China is only about 9000 kilometers. In modern times, even if they walk 30 kilometers a day, it will not take them a year.

But they were not going in the wrong direction, coming to the Netherlands? Or should it be a province of the Roman Empire now?

Here, Leah heard a lot of news about the Whip of God.

The Scourge of God, also known as Attila, the leader of the Huns, was a ruthless character.

Although the Huns were defeated by the Han Dynasty, they migrated to Europe. As a result, they destroyed many countries and even established the Hun Empire in Europe!

Even the once powerful Roman Empire was crippled by this guy, but this guy would die in 453 AD. With his death, the once prosperous Hun Empire also fell apart.

It is now 450 years old, which means this guy still has 3 years to live. But what does this have to do with Leah? She doesn't plan to develop in Europe.

Europe at that time was poor, culturally weak, and even dirtier. It was nowhere near as good as China.

Europe in this era is really not good enough!

Considering that Attila was not dead yet, Leah did not choose to cross the Hun Empire, but went directly through the wilderness and forests that were not ruled by the Huns.

Merlin was also very confused by Leah's choice. He didn't understand what Leah was doing. Why was she heading to a sparsely populated area? Aren't they going to see the declining Roman Empire? Leah's direction was completely wrong.

"Liya, where are you going?" At this moment, the three of them had already traveled half of the territory of the Hun Empire. Merlin finally couldn't help but ask.

"I'm going to the country of the Han Dynasty. You've heard about it on the way, right? There is a powerful country called the Han Dynasty in the east. Even the Huns are no match for them." Leah looked back at Merlin and said.

"The Han Dynasty? But according to what the Huns said, that country is still very far away from us, right? We are not even halfway to their destination now."

During this period of travel, Merlin did hear news about the Han Dynasty from some Huns. Even he was surprised that there was a country more powerful than the Roman Empire and the Hun Empire.

Of course, this great man no longer existed, but the distance between the two sides was too far. The Huns at the moment did not know this news. They had long been frightened by the Han Dynasty and did not dare to go to the Han Dynasty at all.

"I know, so I plan to go to the strongest country over there. Since the country over there can defeat the Huns, and the Huns can defeat the Roman Empire, isn't the gap between them very big?" Leah explained with her hands spread out.

"What you said makes a lot of sense." Merlin didn't know how to respond.

"But walking like this is really not a good idea. Let's go and rob two horses from the Huns. They don't have much else but horses." Leah said after thinking for a while.

"All up to you." Merlin said indifferently.

Anyway, he can't control Leah's thoughts now, so he can only watch Leah do it.

Then the three of them came to a pasture, and when the Huns didn't notice them, they secretly stole two horses and quickly ran away.

With horses, they could move much faster, reaching 100 kilometers a day.

Of course, they could also go faster, 150 kilometers a day, but Leah also wanted to see the scenery along the way and prepare for the future, so she paid a little attention while rushing.

In addition, there is the problem of Alice. She is still young and weak, and cannot travel so much in a day.

However, both Leah and Merlin are very strong. Even if they travel through remote places or encounter dangerous natural dangers, they can handle it.

The whole journey was absolutely safe.

After walking and stopping along the way for half a year, Liya finally arrived at the Chinese territory "Liangzhou Wu'an County"

Along the way, they passed through dozens of countries including the Xiongnu, Dayuan, and the Western Regions. Only Leah knew the hardships they had gone through.

Fortunately, relying on the Silk Road trade route, their direction was not too wrong, otherwise it would be hard to say whether Leah would run to Russia.

It was already 451 AD. Liya looked at the town that truly belonged to the Han people in the distance and was very excited. Finally, she was going to start her own journey to restore the Han people's land here!

"Selling steamed buns, delicious steamed buns!" When I walked into the city, I heard the voice of shouting coming from afar.

"Is this the big country in the East? It's completely different from ours, both in terms of construction style and culture." The three of them came to a county and looked at the hawking sounds on the roadside. Merlin watched and nodded as he commented.

Although China is in chaos at the moment, it still cannot conceal the ancient atmosphere.

In fact, Dunhuang at this moment also belongs to the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it is too desolate, and the costumes and other attire there are too Western, which is very different from that of the Han people.

The situation in Xiliang is much better.

Although the costumes of the three people look strange here.

We all know that Lily's outfit is actually a little erotic, with all the snow-white skin on her back and no decorations on her shoulders.

In Europe, this kind of dress is only acceptable, but compared to the more conservative Chinese region, it is a bit problematic.

Fortunately, Xiliang is still a little far away from the Chinese region, and the people there are tough, so Liya's outfit is not too shocking. Maybe...

Of course, Leah also noticed this. On their way here, they encountered several groups of villains who had bad intentions towards Leah.

In order to avoid attracting too much attention from passers-by, Leah could only change into simple clothes, making her look like a female knight traveling.

Alice also looked around curiously, especially those delicate little things, such as bells, small drums, etc., which deeply attracted Alice's curiosity.

Chapter 8: First Arrival in China

Seeing this, Leah smiled slightly and led Alice to a stall. "Alice, what do you like?"

Looking at the beautiful merchandise in front of the stall, Alice was a little confused about what to choose. Alice looked around and finally pointed at a rag doll.

Lea picked up the doll, asked the price and paid for it.

Alice was very happy holding the doll she bought. Seeing her happy look, Leah also smiled.

Merlin didn't know what method he used, but he could communicate in the Chinese language without any obstacles.

Then Leah came to a stall selling bread. She hadn't eaten buns for a long time and now was a good time to reminisce.

Seeing the three people, the boss smiled and said, "Miss, would you like to buy some steamed buns?"

"Do you have meat buns? I want to buy some." Leah asked.

"Meat buns? What are those?" the boss asked puzzledly.

"Don't you know meat buns?" Leah also responded with question.

"Miss, please forgive my ignorance. I don't know what the meat buns you are talking about are." The boss shook his head.

Liya thought about it and thought that maybe it was called differently in ancient times, not meat buns, so she explained: "It's the steamed buns you mentioned with pork in them, that's meat buns."

"We don't have that little guy here, only the steamed buns made of coarse grains." The boss shook his head.

Meat is very expensive, and it has to be used to make steamed buns. The increased price of steamed buns is unaffordable for ordinary people.

"Give me four steamed buns, then." Leah said helplessly.

"Okay, two steamed buns for one penny." The boss said with a smile.

After paying the money, Leah gave one to Alice and one to Merlin. Then she took a bite of the bun and found that it had no taste at all, not even a bit of sugar. This bun was just for filling her stomach and was not delicious at all.

But even so, Leah did not throw it away in disgust, but ate it silently. Whether it tasted good or not was secondary, the taste of home was the most important.

Alice also frowned. Even for her, her appetite had been improved by Leah during this period of time. Such tasteless steamed buns were indeed difficult to swallow.

However, Alice looked at Leah who was silently chewing the steamed bun and Merlin who didn't say anything, so she had to chew the bun silently as well.

The three of them continued to stroll in Wu'an County. There were actually not many pedestrians on the street, so they walked very slowly, looking around as they walked.

At this time, Leah saw a shop in front of her, surrounded by many people.

The three of them pushed aside the others and took a look. They found a middle-aged man kneeling on the ground, begging the big men, "Please, please give me a few more days. I will definitely be able to collect enough money."

"Go to hell! Is it so easy to buy money from our Black Tiger Gang on credit?" Facing the middle-aged man's pleading, the big man walked up and kicked the middle-aged man to the ground.

He cursed, "You bastard, you can't even come up with this little money, who are you trying to fool? You Han people are so cheap, I'll beat you up. Since you can't come up with the money, you can forget about doing business!"

"Han people?" Upon hearing this, Leah on the side looked at the middle-aged man kneeling on the ground and the big man who was talking in a high-handed manner.

Of course, Leah had some understanding of the current situation in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

At this moment, China had already fallen apart after the Three Kingdoms period, the Eight Kings' Rebellion, the Five Barbarians' Invasion and the Sixteen Kingdoms period.

After hundreds of years, the north was unified by the Former Qin Dynasty, and then the entire north was unified by the Northern Wei Dynasty of Tuoba Xianbei.

In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Han people could be said to have a low status. This policy led to the largest uprising in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the "Gai Wu Uprising."

Although it was suppressed within a year, it still had far-reaching impacts. The Northern Wei regime became less solid, and small-scale uprisings occurred from time to time.

Even so, the north is not without benefits. Over the years, the Five Barbarians have become Han Chinese, which is a fusion of the two great ethnic groups.

The south was now ruled by the Han regime of Liu Song. Liya didn't want to pay attention to Liu Song for the time being. She had decided to find an opportunity to conquer the north first.

"Gentlemen, I am not lying to you. I really have no money. Please give me three more days and I will collect the money. Master Liu, is this okay?" The middle-aged man got up from the ground, still kneeling on the ground, crying and begging.

"Three days? Not even one day is enough. If he doesn't have money, beat him! Beat him until he has money!" However, the man called Master Liu did not soften his tone despite the man's pleading. He just snorted coldly, waved his hand, and asked his men to come forward.

"Yes!" Several big men behind Master Liu walked up and started punching and kicking the middle-aged man who was kneeling on the ground.

Although Alice on the side didn't understand what these people were saying, she saw with her own eyes that these people bullied one person, not to mention that the middle-aged man was in that state.

The middle-aged man's appearance reminded Alice of what happened when she met Leah. Her face flushed red and she couldn't help but stepped forward and said, "Let him go, all of you!"

Leah didn't expect that Alice rushed up first without her making any move.

In fact, these people were very careful in their attack and did not kill the store owner. After all, if he was really beaten to death, they would have to pay compensation.

"Where did this little girl come from? What are you mumbling about?" Seeing Alice pointing at them, Master Liu frowned.

At this moment, a woman ran out of the store and shouted to the big men outside: "Here is the money, stop beating him!"

As she spoke, the woman quickly handed the silver coin in her hand to Master Liu with trembling hands.

"Okay, stop."

Seeing that he had the silver in his hands, Master Liu did not say anything else. He waved his hand at the big men who were beating people, stopping their actions.

Then he said to the woman, "If you do this again next time, I can't guarantee that he will survive. This is a lesson for you so that you will remember it!"

"Yes, yes, sir, you are right. We will never delay again next time." The woman nodded repeatedly.

"Let's go." Master Liu glanced at Alice who was looking at him angrily and ignored her.

He simply called out to his four men, glanced at the crowd, and shouted, "What are you looking at? Get out of here!"

The onlookers didn't dare to say anything and dispersed. In the end, only Leah, Merlin and Alice were left there.

Master Liu just glanced at Leah and the others and then looked away. He walked past them silently with an extremely cold expression.

"A bunch of bad guys!" Seeing Liu Ye and the others leave, Alice walked to Leah's side and said viciously to their backs.

"Okay, we're new here and don't know the situation here. Let's go ask other people first." Instead of looking at the man with bruises all over his body, Leah went to a restaurant across the street.

Chapter 9 An Unjust Society

After ordering a few dishes, Liya waved to the shopkeeper and asked, "Shopkeeper, what happened to that group of people just now? They are openly collecting protection money. Don't the local government care about it?"

You know, farmers pay taxes and grain to the government, so the government has an obligation to protect them. So, the government has no intention of stepping in?

"Miss, please don't make things difficult for me. I dare not talk about such things." Hearing Leah asking about what happened just now, the shopkeeper quickly refused.

Seeing this, Leah took out a tael of silver from her bosom and placed it on the table.

One tael of silver is roughly equivalent to 1000 yuan in modern terms.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper was moved. He looked around and whispered to Liya, "Miss, I'm only telling you this. Don't tell me it was me who said it."

"Don't worry, shop owner!" Leah nodded.

The shopkeeper immediately took the silver from the table and said to Liya with a smile: "Miss, to be honest, the group of people just now are a branch of a gang called the Black Tiger Gang in our Wu'an County."

"Gang branch?"

"Yes, the Black Tiger Gang is a well-known gang in the underworld. It is said that their leader is also a famous master in the underworld, so don't provoke them." The shopkeeper reminded.

"Master...internal energy, true energy?" Liya thought about it, is it what she thought?

But think about it carefully, this world is a magical world!

The existence of things like internal energy is not uncommon, especially in the East. They do not rely mainly on magic, but things similar to internal energy. The more exaggerated ones can even use magic.

For example, Zhang Jue, the great and virtuous advisor in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, his Taiping Technique, the ability to call the wind and rain, the Yellow Turban puppet soldiers, etc., are all kinds of magic.

However, its power is not as strong as shown in the mythology. It can be regarded as comparable to various Western magic.