The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 553 First Mover Advantage
When people learned that Da Qi was planning to build a railway more than 4,000 miles long, they were shocked by Tian Ze's generosity.

Although Tian Ze's "water network" plan and the development of the Northeast Plain are more ambitious, they are both livelihood projects that can pay back their investments in a short period of time and have obvious interim results.

So no one will object to this.

The money, food and manpower spent brought immediate results and it was obviously profitable.

However, the project proposed now is obviously a loss-making one!
Many people were furious about this, thinking that Tian Ze was just being vain and had no regard for the people's strength.

Now that the country has just been settled and has not even been unified, it is completely self-destructive to devote the whole country's strength to a project that will produce no results in the short term.

Some people even worried that Tian Ze would be another Qin Shi Huang, making life miserable and causing public resentment.

However, people with insight can see the significance behind this news.

"Your Majesty is really determined to support the Western Expedition!" Looking at the contents of the Da Qi Daily, Xun Shuang, the head of the Xun family, said in a deep voice.

If they had previously had some doubts about Tian Ze's purpose of letting the various princes and powerful families move westward, now this doubt has been completely dispelled.

If Tian Ze didn't really want to march west, if it was just to attack Kushan, he would never do such a thing at this time.

Its goal is definitely to target the three major Western empires, and it will not let any of them go.

"Master, what should we do?"

Xun Shuang carefully read the contents of the daily newspaper over and over again.

Ever since Tian Ze established the Da Qi Daily and made it the official newspaper of Da Qi, all knowledgeable people have a copy and read it every day.

In their eyes, every decree and every piece of news contains a lot of information, pointing to the future direction of Da Qi.

At the same time, it also provides a good reference for the development of their families and individuals.

After thinking for a long time, Xun Shuang finally made up his mind.

"Send all the capable young people in the clan to serve under Wen Ruo and Youruo."

Tian Ze has always been the one driving the world's development. Xun Shuang is very convinced of Tian Ze's abilities and even respects him.

Since Tian Ze really wants to push forward the westward expansion, the chances of success will be extremely high.

On the surface, this is a gamble with great risks but even greater rewards, but with Tian Ze around, Xun Shuang feels that the chance of losing is very low, and at the very least it is a small profit.

In that case, what is there to worry about?
Except for leaving a few necessary foundations, he put all the rest into one bet. He wanted to make a big bet.

Times have changed. It is no longer an era dominated by their family.

Just look at the situation in the Northeast Plain and it becomes clear.

What did the Youzhou noble families look like before? There were only a few big cats and small cats, and they were not respected by the Central Plains noble families at all, not even worthy of being second-rate.

But now?
Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west. It's been less than ten years and the two sides have turned around. Who can trust it?
Now is no longer the time when you can be the leader by taking steady steps. Everyone is fighting hard.

If the Xun family does not keep up, they will inevitably be eliminated.

Compared with the other three families, the Xun family has unique advantages!

No matter what, Xun You is a member of the Xun family.

Broken bones are connected to the tendons. Even if they don't have any contact, Xun You's existence has greatly affected the development of the Xun family.

Moreover, they also had two outstanding sons, Xun Yu and Xun Chen, who were the most trusted ministers under Cao Cao and Yuan Shao respectively, so the first-mover advantage was too great.

It's worth a gamble.

The Xun family was not the only one to make the same decision. Most of the noble families made similar choices. This was also one of Tian Ze's goals.

As the leader who proposed the Western Expedition, if he himself did not express his position or take some actions, how could others not have concerns?
No matter how great the benefits are, they must be compared with the risks.

For a century-old dynasty and a thousand-year-old family, it would be impossible for Tian Ze to get the family to actively move forward without spending some money.

Once the railway construction was decided, the powerful families would naturally gather and take action.

In this way, the resources that can be influenced and leveraged are far beyond imagination.

Tian Ze never does business at a loss.

Following Tian Ze's order, Da Qi's sophisticated machine immediately began to operate efficiently.

With no more worries, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao quickly organized people to go to the Western Regions, became neighbors with Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan, and settled down there.

Attacking Kushan is not a matter of a day or two, it will take at least two years of preparation.

Because all the land of Kushan was given to the noble and powerful families, and the four kings did not have even an acre of land.

The place they occupy and operate now will be the basic base for the next few years, and they will only be able to move after they conquer Anxi.

The four kings must accumulate sufficient food supplies, good farmland and population.

It was almost like starting over from scratch, so the four kings were naturally under a lot of pressure, especially Yuan Shao and Cao Cao who came later.

Fortunately, Tian Ze supported them wholeheartedly and did not hold back. He directly built a large amount of fields for them, which eliminated a lot of worries.

The development of the Four Kings was generally smooth, but there was still a huge problem, that is, the territory was too small.

In order to facilitate the conquest of the Kushans, the central and eastern areas of the Western Regions were not suitable for the four kings' elites at all. The only places where they could station troops were the western part of the Wusun Kingdom, the Shule Kingdom, the Shache Kingdom and other places.

But this area is indeed a bit small, and is mostly mountainous.

Therefore, after spending more than half a year to gain a foothold, the four kings quickly turned their attention to the nearby Northern Huns.

In Shule State, inside Yuan Shao’s newly built palace, the four kings gathered together and began to discuss the next strategy.

As the leader, Yuan Shao took the lead and said, "Your Majesty is ready to take action against Liu Bei. The war in the Central Plains should be over in the next few months."

"With the unification of the Central Plains, Your Majesty will have to focus a lot of energy on internal rectification and sorting out, and will have no time to take care of us."

"But once your majesty has resolved these internal issues, I'm afraid he will take action against the Kushans. This will not be short, nor long, probably in more than a year, when the railway between us and Chang'an is completed."

Listening to Yuan Shao's speculation, Cao Cao and the other three nodded slightly.

They have also thought of this.

Tian Ze didn't send them out to be their babysitters.

Apart from the necessary help given at the beginning and some mutually beneficial transactions, the rest is up to them.

To a large extent, they are working for themselves, so even if Tian Ze is not in a hurry, they themselves will have to be anxious.

The opposition to the Western Expedition within Da Qi has never disappeared, and they are well aware of this.

They believed in Tian Ze, but the day would come when Tian Ze would leave.

Once Tian Ze left, would the next monarch still be willing to support the Western Expedition? Would he still be able to withstand the pressure from his ministers?

No one can say for sure about all this.

(End of this chapter)