Chapter 48: Yan Han received the Turks, and Byzantium swallowed Latin

The iron gate is located on the west side of the port of Gerbint on the west coast of the Sea. It is said to be closed, but it is not closed. It is a natural pass. Forty years ago, the Mongolian army led by Guiyou and Mengge invaded the Caucasus and captured the Iron Gate. Since then, the Tiemen Pass has been basically undeflied, with the Kingdom of Azerbaijan in the south, Turkic nomadic tribes in the north along the coast, and Chechens and Inguish in the backing area. West of Chechnya and Ingushetia is the Kingdom of Georgia, and west of Azerbaijan is the Kingdom of Armenia.

In this era, the rich mineral resources in the Caucasus, especially oil, have not been discovered, the products are poor, and the people live in poverty. The mountainous area is nothing more than raising some livestock, mainly goats, producing cashmere, but the yield is far less than sheep's wool; the flat land is nothing more than planting some wheat and cotton.

The climate here is suitable for cotton growth, and it is also good to grow cotton. However, the Elli Khanate destroyed the Arab Empire and the city of Baghdad. Baghdad is the center of the textile industry in West Asia and the main way out of Caucasian cotton. After Baghdad was slaughtered, the textile industry in West Asia moved to the Mediterranean coast far from the Caucasus. There is no way out to grow cotton, and grain cultivation is often robbed by the Mongolian army. A large part of the land in the Caucasus is desolate, and the area is becoming more and more poor.

In such a poor territory, the Golden Horde, the Illi Khanate, the Byzantine Empire and the Principality of Rostov have no appetite to annex. But for Yan Han, the meaning is different. Poverty doesn't matter. As long as there is land, it is a real national strength for Yan Han.

So Zhao Jin made the next plan to expand from Zanzhou to the southwest to the Caucasus. If all ethnic groups in the Caucasus (until modern times, there are more than 50 ethnic groups) can be merged into the multi-ethnic family of Yanhan, protect them to live and work in peace, and help them get rid of poverty and become rich, it will be a win-win! If the Caucasian people can live a stable life again, let them grow cotton and send it to Yanhan local textile, Huang Daogu's various cotton spinning machinery will be very useful, and there is no need to worry about the clothing of Yanhan soldiers and civilians! ...Yes, Huang Daogu, with the urgent needs of the country, Zhao Jin misses her more and more, and almost every day, "When will aunt come?" Even the miss of Ajiao and Anu is not so urgent!

Food is not eaten in one bite. If you want to occupy the Caucasus, you have to take your time step by step. First of all, we should try to occupy a part of the coastal area north of the Iron Gate. The ruling power there is empty, only a number of Turkic nomadic tribes wandering, and they were just disabled by the Ilili army not long ago. After the occupation, the port of Gerbint was expanded and the city was built at the Iron Gate. With a strong defense guarantee, Yan Han's forces could penetrate deeply into the heart of the Caucasus.

So, in this year, Yan Han had no other military action, and the only thing he wanted to achieve was to march to the Iron Gate. Zhao Jin made up his mind and smiled at the four brothers, "Listen, I'm going to use you as the vanguard to help the Illi Khanate sweep away the Turkic tribes north of the Iron Gate!"

The four brothers were a little surprised. Nomads fight back and there without a sense of belonging, and the strong are the target of their loyalty. What's more, the Turkic tribes they came from have been destroyed, and the rest of the tribes have no friendly relations, and they have even killed their tribes before. However... They were influenced by some Chinese education in Yanhan and learned that they should be loyal to their own nation. So, should they ask the four Turks to be the vanguard and wipe out all the Turkic tribes north of the Iron Gate?

Without waiting for them to hesitate to come up with a result, Zhao Jin laughed loudly: "Ah ha ha! Just kidding. In fact, this is just an excuse. If you don't say so, the Illi Khanate must not be happy when our army sent troops to the iron gate. Therefore, I decided to put that area under our control on the pretext of sweeping the Turkic tribes and opening up the commercial road to the Irli Khanate! As for you, the old tribe has been destroyed. It doesn't matter. When I take down that area, I will give you subordinates and livestock to regain your own tribe and be loyal to me.

The four brothers are all Turkic warriors. They have good force, but their brains are not easy to use. After listening to Zhao Jin's words, they smiled for a moment, but then scratched their heads... I don't quite understand what the king is going to do?

The three brothers of the Fang family came forward and said, "Congratulations to the four adults! Congratulations to the four adults!" Just explain it to them in detail.

The Bok brothers finally realized that it was harmless to the Turkic tribe and good for their brothers. At this time, they were really happy and hurriedly thanked the king and shed tears of gratitude.

The Fang brothers were still full of their minds and taught them: "If the four adults die in great trouble, they will be blessed. Now we are happy to meet the Lord and reorganize the tribe. How lucky it is, how lucky it is!"

So the brothers followed suit and shook their heads and said, "Our brothers are happy to meet the Lord. How lucky it is, how lucky it is!"

Wuda and Li Gui looked at each other and felt strange.

So Zhao Jin appointed the Bo brothers as the vanguard and led a thousand cavalry to open the way; Wuda, Li Gui, Xu Yu and Li Huazhen accompanied him, and the king personally ordered 4,000 cavalry as the Chinese army; Xiao Qian and Su Fan alone led 3,000 infantry as the rear army. This time, only 8,000 troops were used, and there were not many generals, and even the three generals were not sent out to let them stay in the capital to train their troops.

Wuda said, "8,000 people are enough, but the lord doesn't have to march in person."

Several generals immediately echoed. Fang Yuandu also said, "How can the Lord's golden body take the jade toes lightly?"

Zhao Jin smiled in his heart and said, "Jade toe? More than light jade toes, my jade feet, **, jade hands, jade arms, jade head... Where can I not work? Anyway, you have to advise me to stay and stay motionless, hehe, don't think about it. Since I came to this world, won't I waste a great opportunity if I don't walk around?

So Zhao Jin didn't listen to anything and insisted on his own expedition. Fang Yuandu quickly changed his words and said, "Mingjun is not afraid of hard work! Dayu ruled the water and forgot his home, but the lord was not under it!"

Fang Jian's way of saying: "How great is the heart of the benevolent!"

Fang Mianzhi said, "My brother is a little minister. He doesn't know the measure of his lord, and he is ashamed!"

So this is the decision to go south to the iron gate. At this time, the envoy of Yanhan returned and told him that Aba Haihan agreed to be friendly but did not agree to exchange money for slaves. Zhao Jin muttered, "In this way, I have to send another messenger to Illi. In addition to fighting for the exchange of slaves, we should also skillfully explain the reason for our dispatch of troops to the Illi Khanate. Who can take on this task?"

In the Yanhan Dynasty, there is a shortage of civil servants and eloquent envoys. No one answered for a moment.

The three Fang brothers looked at each other. Fang Yuandu and Fang Jianzhi nodded. Fang Mianzhi arched his hand to Zhao Jin and said, "The Lord is up. The little minister is not talented, and he is willing to be a messenger.

Before Zhao Jin opened his mouth, a voice scolded Fang Mian first: "What can you do? Dare to be a messenger!" So he came forward and patted his chest: "The lord is on the top, and the last general will be the messenger!" - There is no doubt about this. Just because He Pan had no share in the expedition, he was depressed. At least the messenger could run out. Maybe he could fight the robbers on the road, so he decisively begged for his life.

Zhao Jin looked at the generals. The generals looked at each other and looked like they were saying, "It's certainly not reassuring to send an envoy to the history of food; but if Lieutenant He makes an envoy, I'm afraid it will definitely be smashed."

Fang Mianzhi was pushed away by He Pan, but he was not annoyed. He asked with a smile, "Mr. Lieutenant, what kind of country is Elli?"

He Pan said rudely, "What are you afraid of, inferior barbarians?"

Fang Mianzhi gave a thumbs up: "How grand lieutenant is! That's right! It's very true!"

Fang Jianzhi bowed more than 90 degrees to Zhao Jin: "Congratulations, Lord! The Lord has won! The lieutenant's envoy will definitely live up to his mission.

"The Lieutenant has a complete range of humanities and martial arts. What's the difficulty of his mission?" Fang Yuandu turned around and said, "However, how can you use a cow knife to kill chickens?"

Fang Jianzhi quickly grabbed He Pan's sleeve: "Yes! There is nothing more national than military affairs. The lieutenant shoulders the heavy responsibility of training, how can he be distracted by trivial matters?

Fang Mianzhi stroked He Pan's rough hand and sighed, "So it is. The lower officer didn't know that the lieutenant shouldered such a heavy responsibility. I can't say. It's time for such a villain to go out of the matter of Illi.

Fang Yuandu nodded repeatedly: "The lower barbarian country is only a small minister. My brother, too, Lieutenant, is a must."

He Pan was stunned by their words and vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he just scratched his head and couldn't think of a word to say, so he had to retreat.

"Okay." Zhao Jin finally nodded and said, "Shang Shanshi, you choose 19 people from Hu Ben as guards, go to Wangcheng Horse Farm to lead 20 first-class horses, and go to Illee as soon as possible to achieve the mission I ordered."

It turned out that in the spring and summer of this year, Zhao Jin began to set up three major royal horse farms across the country, that is, the horse breeding base directly under the central government, to carry out the centralized breeding and management of stallion, horses and pony.

These three major horse farms are: Wangcheng Horse Farm, Cangyuan Horse Farm and North Horse Farm.

Wangcheng Horse Farm is located in Seoul, with the smallest area, but Zhao Jin's galloping BMW and the first-class horse as a general mount are all the stallions of this horse farm, so it has very good stallion resources.

Cangyuan Horse Farm is located on the Wudong grassland, with the largest area and the largest number of horses.

The northern horse farm is located in Yezhou, mainly for breeding mountain horses that are resistant to the mountains and suitable for climbing mountains.

The three imperial horse farms not only breed the horses of the Yanhan army, but also are responsible for selecting horses for breeding, cultivating high-quality mounts and generals; selecting excellent stallion to breed horses and improving the quality of national war horses.

Zhao Jin believes that as long as he insists on running the imperial horse farm well, he will make his country's war horses more and good, and BMW will continue to emerge. Now it has just begun, and it will gradually be effective in the future. With the passage of time, the results will become more and more effective.

Fang Mianzhi got the king's order and quickly went to Elli.

(to be continued in the next section)

Note:

Jerbint: The ancient city of the Caucasus, one of the important ports along the coast of the Sea. It was built as a fortress in the fifth century and belongs to the Dagstein Autonomous Republic of Russia.

Yuzhi: The emperor's noble toes... to honor the emperor to personally go out. Historical Records • King of Yue Goujian Family: "Today, the king raised his jade toe and killed the orphan minister, and the orphan minister's only order is to listen." Zuo Zhu·Hi Gong 26 years: "When I heard that you raised your jade toes, you would humiliate me."