He left Yi Jixuan to build a city in Juyan and set up Juyan Duwei Mansion. Huo Guang continued to lead the remaining more than 20,000 troops to the west.

"Grandmaster, Dunhuang is ahead, and the westernmost city we control. A hundred miles later is the Western Regions. Going northwest is Pulei Kingdom, the west is Bailongdui, and going southwest is Shanshan territory." Huo Guang and his army appeared on a sand dune, and Zhao Ponu pointed to a small city in the distance and said.

Huo Guang also saw this small town standing in the desert. On the road outside the city, a group of business trips traveling through Dunhuang City. As the last stop for the Han Dynasty to the Western Regions, Dunhuang was the first stop for the merchants from the Western Regions to enter the Great Han Dynasty. Whether it was the Han business trip or the Hu business trip in the Western Regions, they would stop here.

"There is a moat in Dunhuang? Where does this river start? Where does it flow?" Huo Guang did not expect that there was a clear river in the desert that cost dozens of miles, thus forming such a desert oasis and the city of Dunhuang.

"This river does not have a name, but it seems to flow down from the Qilian Mountains. It finally flows to the north, forming a lake a hundred miles north of Dunhuang." Zhao Ponu explained in detail. It has been a few years since the Han Dynasty took over here, and many places do not have names, and they have not paid much attention to it.

Huo Guang nodded with satisfaction at Dunhuang City. It was not as famous as later generations. It was just a transportation hub and had just begun to play its role.

"Hey, why are there two roads west of Dunhuang?" Huo Guang suddenly noticed that no matter what you enter and exit Dunhuang City, they all gather from the northwest and southwest to the bottom of Dunhuang City.

"It's like this. To the west of Dunhuang is a place called Bailongdui. Not only is there a few hundred miles of Gobi, but it often blew strong winds, as if there were ghosts and gods crying, making it difficult to tell the direction. Even the most experienced business travelers would not go through Bailongdui. Usually, they either go to the northwest passage to Pulei Kingdom, then take the Cheshi to Kucha or Wusun. Or they go to the southwest passage to Shanshan, Xiaowan, Jingjue, Yutian, and finally to Dayuan." Zhao Ponu had a long understanding of this, so he explained the reasons for Huo Guang in detail.

"Oh? It turns out that the business roads in the Western Regions are like this... In fact, after passing Dunhuang, they become two business roads, right?" Huo Guang naturally drew a simple map in his mind, and he also had a vague concept of business roads in the Western Regions.

"It's true." Zhao Ponu replied affirmatively. Although he had never been to the Western Regions west of Dunhuang, these two business roads were not a secret.

"Let's set up camp in Dunhuang for the time being." Huo Guang looked at the roads separated from two directions outside Dunhuang and ordered. His eyes were thoughtful, as if the two business roads reminded him of something.

Huo Guang did not enter Dunhuang City, and he also lived in the temporary military camp with the soldiers. The temperature here at night was indeed much lower than during the day. During the day, Huo Guang and others were still wearing single clothes, and at night they had to put on cotton coats.

"Grandmaster, based on the existing map and what our army knows, the sand table in front of us is the detailed information of the entire Hexi County." Dongfang Shuo marked the last place name on the sand table and raised his head to Huo Guang.

At this moment, there were only Huo Guang, Dongfang Shuo and Du Yannian in the tent. The three of them looked at the sand table, all looking thoughtful.

"What do you think?" Huo Guang stared at the sand table for a long time, and had to admit that this intuitive sand table is indeed more real than a simple map.

"The distance between east and west on this narrow area is nearly two thousand miles away. There is also Dunhuang more than 500 miles away from the Lufu of Jiuquan County. It takes two days at the fastest time to go back and forth. Not to mention Juyan from Guzang, one way or two days may not necessarily be able to get off. This is not conducive to the transmission of military information and political decrees." Du Yannian had been the Jingzhao Yin of more than a year, and his vision was already extraordinary. In the past half month, they traveled all over the Hexi River, and some problems were discovered by them.

"I was just thinking that, and then wrote to the emperor, let's divide the western part of Jiuquan from here, set up a Dunhuang county, and then draw Wuwei from Juyan to Guide, and set up a Zhangye county, so that the county was governed by Guide. In this way, the two counties in Hexi were changed to the four counties in Hexi." Huo Guang drew a few lines on the sand table, and the original two counties in Hexi became four counties.

"Is the Dunhuang County Governor's capital determined to be in Dunhuang?" Dongfang Shuo asked.

"Dunhuang... is not only the capital of Dunhuang County, but also the capital's office." Huo Guang looked at Dunhuang on the sand table and determined the capital of the capital of the Western Regions that had not been confirmed.

"Will you rely too much on entering the Western Regions? The Grand Commander's Office was the first to be affected during the war, and there was no room for buffering!" Du Yannian said with some concern.

"It's this place. If we can't even keep the Hexi land, how can we talk about pursuing the Western Regions?" Huo Guang said with a decisive statement.

"Since the Grand Governor's Office has been confirmed, there are a few problems that have to be faced." Dongfang Shuo continued. They came to Hexi for the first time and were in trouble. There were too many problems they had to face.

"Sir, are you talking about the issue of officials?" Huo Guang understood what Dongfang Shuo was going to say. Since the Grand Chief Governor's Office was confirmed, all the officials should be equipped, but Huo Guang only had Dongfang Shuo and Du Yannian. There were few officials in Hexi, and most of the people had surrendered to foreign races. The talent problem was almost unsolvable in a short period of time.

Even the Grand Governor's Office is like this, not to mention the newly established officials of the two counties in Dunhuang Zhangye!

"Yes...not only is it a problem for officials... the population in Hexi is too small... This is the foundation that restricts our development!" Dongfang Shuo said with a sigh.

The power of the Grand Governor's Office in the Western Regions is great enough, but Hexi is still a barren land with sparse population and harsh environment. The people of the Central Plains are not willing to come here at all, let alone those literati who have mastered knowledge.

"So... I plan to build two passes here." Huo Guang's fingers fell in the northwest and southwest directions a hundred miles away from Dunhuang, where two business roads leading to the Western Regions were the throats.

"Build a pass? The Grand Governor wants to attract refugees through large-scale construction?" Dongfang Shuo looked at the place where Huo Guang's finger fell. Building a pass can not only build two fortresses west of Dunhuang to defend the Grand Governor's Office, but the construction process will definitely require a large number of manpower. With the opportunity to work, many people in the Western Regions have not actually lived well, and a large number of people will flow into Hexi. In recent years, it will not only make Dunhuang prosperous, but also have a significant increase in the population.

"It's a good idea to arrive, but the emperor probably won't give us money and craftsmen..." Du Yannian said with some concern. Most of the refugees are ordinary people who do not have skills. It's okay to sell coolies, but there are too few people who really belong to craftsmen here in Hexi.

"Of course, I can't count on the emperor, but you have forgotten that we still have a Wanguanhou. Although our family resources are not enough to build the West Land together, it is still a problem to build two passes. Let's leverage the economy of the entire Hexi Corridor from these two passes." Huo Guang said with a wise bead in his hands, as if the two passes were enough to make the entire Hexi land prosperous.

Dongfang Shuo and Du Yannian both looked at Huo Guang with confusion. It was indeed not difficult to build a pass with Lu Shu's financial resources, but the two passes were puzzled by how the two passes leveraged the economy of the entire Hexi Corridor.

"The construction of this pass cannot be completed overnight. Lu Shu should have arrived in a few days. Let's discuss it later." Huo Guang did not directly express the plan. When he began to patrol the Hexi land, Lu Shu had already set off for Hexi with a large number of servants.

Now Lu Shu's every move has attracted much attention. When he left Chang'an City, his whereabouts had long been known by Dayuan Ling Sang Hongyang.

Since the Jin case, 160 marquises were seized and removed from the country. The Han Dynasty not only directly reclaimed the land and population of dozens of counties, but also directly made the titles of marquises more and more substantial.

Sang Hongyang is now the Marquis of Anping. After Huo Guang left, he had become the hottest figure in the court. When there was no war around the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han also focused on developing people's livelihood economy, and Sang Hongyang was increasingly valued.

A few days later, when Lu Shu had already arrived in Hexi, Emperor Wu of Han also summoned Sang Hongyang to Weiyang.

"The Grand Governor wants to pay money to build two passes west of Dunhuang. What do you think about this?" Emperor Wu of Han asked Sang Hongyang directly straight to the point. It is no secret that Huo Guang built two passes west of Dunhuang.

Sang Hongyang stood on one side, thought for a moment and bowed and said, "I think this is a good thing. Governor Huo is willing to pay his own money, which saves a lot of trouble in the court. Now that the court's finances have just been relieved, they can't support other expenses anymore. After all, Hexi is the Hexi of the Han Dynasty. The prosperity of Hexi is also beneficial to the Han Dynasty."

Emperor Wu of Han also thought Sang Hongyang's words made sense. Even if Huo Guang and Lu Shu and others spent all their money, the effect of Hexi would not be too great. Both population and geographical reasons restricted the development of Hexi. Even if Huo Guang had the ability to reach the sky, it would be difficult for Hexi to undergo earth-shaking changes within ten years.

"By the way, the ones you said last time are all the losses in a correct way. I have thought about it carefully. I will issue an order to make you fully responsible." Emperor Wu of Han temporarily put aside the matter in Hexi and mentioned another thing.

This method of equalizing the average loss is the solution that Sang Hongyang felt when a big merchant like Lu Shu appeared and found for Emperor Wu of Han. His operation method was to transport the material originally transported to Chang'an to other major cities in the Han Dynasty for sale. The most direct manifestation was to increase the central government's income and at the same time suppress merchants' monopoly of the market. This was only half of this bill, and the other half was to use the money from selling material to purchase goods when it was low in major areas, and sell them again when it was expensive. The most direct effect of this was to make prices always exist in a reasonable range and always be controlled by the court.

This is Sang Hongyang’s real big plan, a plan to make the court the biggest businessman...
Chapter completed!