Chapter 517 Target Kushan
For a country, both the gun and the pen are indispensable.

The military serves politics, and politics is based on the military.

This truth has been best verified by the current situation in the Western Regions.

With the support of Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan, the powerful families, with the tacit approval of Tian Ze, unscrupulously infiltrated into the countries in the Western Regions.

Countless new faces appeared in the courts of various countries.

However, most of the noble families still paid some attention to the impact, and most of the new faces that appeared were from their own country.

How come the top leaders of various countries don’t know what these new faces are?

If it weren’t for Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan, they would have quietly suppressed these people and firmly held on to the power in their hands.

But the knife was already at their necks, how could they dare to move?
They can only watch helplessly as the power in their hands is eroded bit by bit.

They had no intention of resisting because they knew it was meaningless.

If you act like a fence-sitter for too long, you may survive, but you will lose the possibility of growing into a towering tree.

Their bones had long since gone soft, and they no longer had the courage to fight to the death.

Tian Ze had no intention of killing all of them. He retained their status and treatment, and gave them plenty of gold, silver and jewelry, but he lost his power. It was a smooth transition.

In this seemingly calm but undercurrent power transition, the countries in the Western Regions gradually fell into Tian Ze’s control.

Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan, who helped Tian Ze to manage the situation, did not work in vain.

In addition to the population that Tian Ze transferred again, there were some people in the Western Regions who understood Chinese, and their appearance and customs were greatly influenced by the Han Dynasty.

Naturally, Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan recruited as many people as possible under their command without any hesitation.

Although the countries in the Western Regions are prosperous and wealthy, the gap between the rich and the poor is much larger than that of the former Han Dynasty, and development is not balanced.

There are both rich countries close to trade routes and poor countries located in remote areas.

There are many people whose lives are worse than those of the people under Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan.

Relying on working for Tian Ze, the people under the command of Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan lived a very good life. Except for the need to migrate every few years, it can be said that they were fully paid, which was a compensation to some extent.

The average living standard is even higher than that under Tian Ze.

This is of great appeal to a large number of people in the Western Regions.

Who doesn’t yearn for a life in the “Heavenly Kingdom”?

The former reputation of the Han Dynasty is an inestimable fortune, and it is of great benefit to “heirs” like Tian Ze.

Various intangible influences have benefited Tian Ze and others a lot.

The yearning of these Western Regions people for the life of the Han people is already deeply imprinted in their minds, so they are very willing to join.

In this way, Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan consolidated their new base while gathering the people to strengthen themselves.

And their next target, without a doubt, is the empire closest to Da Qi.

Kushan!

Among the four great empires, the Han Dynasty and Rome were undoubtedly the leaders, followed by Parthia and Kushan.

But as it was listed among the four great empires, even if it was the last one, the strength of the Kushan Empire should not be underestimated.

At its peak, the population was over 15 million and the army was nearly 500,000.

Although it has begun to decline, it still has a population of over ten million, hundreds of thousands of troops, and a vast territory.

He was Tian Ze’s primary enemy when he left the Central Plains.

Different from the scattered countries in the Western Regions.

The Kushan Empire was a complete and great empire, and even though it was in decline, it should not be underestimated.

The long distance from Da Qi meant that Tian Ze could not send out a large army to attack. The maximum number of troops he could send was 500,000. It was almost impossible to conquer such a large empire in a short period of time by relying solely on Tian Ze’s troops.

Its large population, unique culture, mature political system and vast strategic depth make it extremely resilient and difficult to take down easily.

In comparison, although Sindhu at that time also had a population of nearly 40 million and over one million troops, it was much easier to deal with.

The two sides are totally not in the same league.

The latter may seem powerful on paper, but in reality it is fragmented and consists of multiple kingdoms and tribes. It has been pinned down and eroded by the former over the years.

If there is enough time, Tian Ze will naturally have ways to deal with these two countries. But this world is big, Tian Ze cannot grasp the future, and he just wants to end everything before he leaves this world.

Sindhu could be easily swallowed, but the Kushans were a big trouble to have around.

Once a war is launched against Sindhu, the Kushans will inevitably be involved.

This is the instinct of an empire.

Even if they are not aware of their own crisis, they will never give up such a piece of fat meat and will choose to take advantage of the situation.

However, if we attack Kushan first, it will easily lead to a chain reaction.

It is very likely that Parthia and Sindhu will be involved.

Don’t underestimate the power and strategy of an empire.

Being able to grow to this point, it is definitely not an existence that can be easily erased.

So Tian Ze needs some help.

The seven great princes were the vanguard army prepared by Tian Ze.

From an economic perspective, when a factory expands to a certain size, a problem arises: if it wants to expand further, the benefits will gradually offset the costs.

Because cost management is a very complicated matter, it cannot be easily done by simply adding up paper data.

A big country formed by the merger of two small countries will be several times stronger than either small country. This is the effect of resource integration.

When a country expands to a certain size and then further expands, the benefits of management will be lower than the costs due to factors such as productivity and the speed of information transmission.

In this case, what is the best solution?

Our ancestors thought of this a long time ago.

Enfeoffment!

If the factory can no longer be expanded, wouldn’t it be enough to just build another one?
Lu Bu and other princes were no match for Tian Ze in terms of strength, and even if they were combined together they would still be powerless to compete.

But in external warfare, the combined power they can unleash far exceeds that of Tian Ze.

Because of their small size, they can move their base to the front line and fight to support themselves, and the cost is much lower than the benefits.

With the help of the seven countries, Tian Ze was even prepared to deal with the worst situation.

One against three.

At the same time, we should deal with Parthia, Kushan, and Sindhu, and at worst, we can also add the Northern Huns.

Of course, it would be better if it were simpler.

So Tian Ze asked Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan to start to restrain themselves.

Wusun and Shule were almost very close to Kushan and Northern Xiongnu, with only one or two small countries in between, which was the safe distance reserved by Tianze.

Tian Ze did not want to wake up the sick Kushan tiger prematurely before the Central Plains was cleaned up and sufficient preparations were made.

Either don’t take action, or if you do, strike a fatal blow, leaving the enemy no chance to resist or maneuver, and simply destroy and swallow them up with overwhelming force.

(End of this chapter)