Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 149 Yangguan
When Mencius saw his old friend, he smiled and said to him:
"I didn't understand the principles of benevolence and righteousness back then, and I was born to imitate others, so I did such a thing!"

"Now I understand what kind of character a gentleman should have, and I don't want to stand by and watch the miserable death of animals."

He Bo argued with him, "Do you think killing pigs and dogs is an evil act that harms people's kindness?"

Mencius said, "It is the duty of the chef and the butcher to slaughter and cut the meat. I cannot ask them to violate their duty just because I cannot bear it."

"Because of them, gentlemen can enjoy delicious meat without any fear or discomfort caused by seeing animals die."

Although benevolent,

But our ancestors were practical by nature.
This is still reflected in Mencius.

People have compassion.

So when we see pitiful animals, we can’t help but feel sorry for them.

But eating meat is a human need and cannot be given up.

So just stay away from the kitchen and don’t see it!
He Bo immediately said, "Well said!"

"I'm going to put this incident in your biography after the part where you watched a pig being slaughtered when you were a kid!"

When Mencius heard this, he was confused at first, then surprised.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Is this kind of thing worth your effort?"

The gods and ghosts actually wrote a biography for him personally?
He couldn't bear such an "honor"!

……

"Do you want to continue giving lectures?"

He Bo threw the things he brought to Mencius' disciples, letting them go to the side to marvel at them and then ask Mencius.

"Yes."

Meng Ke just went back to his hometown to rest, he didn't become autistic.

He still has a long way to go on the road of armed teaching!

"Then each of you should go about your own business. I will also be going to the Western Regions later!"

For the past two years,

He Bo climbed over the Nanshan Mountain with great difficulty and finally found his way to the Heihe River, which is now the Ruoshui River.

After crossing a mountain from Ruoshui, you will reach the Duanshui (Shule River) basin!
The Western Regions are right before your eyes!
After arriving at Ruoshui, He Bo completely severed his connection with the mother Yellow River and left the traditional territory of the Xia Dynasty.

Although I still want to go back,

But after all, it is no longer possible to receive any timely information like before.

Given He Bo's laziness, it is impossible for him to travel back and forth between the Western Regions and the Xia Dynasty every moment just to receive information in a timely manner.

Anyway, after so many years,
The Zhu Xia people have been fighting all the time. Compared with last year, at most they have fought a few fewer battles, or a few more battles.

It would be better to go to the Western Regions to see the oasis first!
According to Zhang Yi,
The Western Regions today are much more prosperous than in later generations, with many oases and rivers.

Based on the route provided by Zhang Yi, He Bo already knew what to do after Run entered Duanshui——

The Duanshui River flows into the salt lake, which is the Lop Nur that has long dried up in later generations.

And at this moment,
Lop Nur still exists and has sufficient water, and many rivers in the Western Regions flow into it.

He Bo can completely rely on Lop Nur to transform the Western Regions into his own shape bit by bit!

After all, the overall terrain of the Western Region is a large basin surrounded by many mountains.

This kind of terrain makes the rivers basically distributed along the mountains.

He Bo can really do it with this——

I surrounded the Western Regions!
When I think of such a beautiful thing,
He Bo couldn't help but hum softly!

The only bad thing at this time is,
The further west you go, the higher the mountains become, and the more continuous they become.

The river water mostly depends on the melting snow in the mountains, and the flow is not long, but often intermittent. He Bo can't directly flow from one big river to another like he did in the Xia Dynasty.

He walked and stopped, and after moistening a section of water, he had to climb up a mountain before he could moisten a new river again.

Time wasted,
It’s much longer than before!

The time it took to bring the Haomen River and the Nanshan Mountain where it originates was enough for the Qin caravans to go in and out of the Hexi Corridor several times, turning the Dadouba Valley into the Qin's appearance!

When he thought about the past few years, the Qin caravans had set out for the Western Regions with a large amount of goods, and returned with a large amount of treasures from the Western Regions, while he could only crawl slowly, watching the Rongdi people in the Hexi Corridor grazing their cattle and horses,

He Bo stopped humming.

……

new summer,

Prime Minister Zhao Guizheng was ordered to inspect the construction of Yangguan.

This place,

After two years of construction, the sacrifice of countless slaves, and the consumption of most of the people and wealth captured by Xinxia during the conquest of Gandhara, it was finally completed.

The city wall was built using local materials and by tamping down the earth. Then tall trees were cut down from Xindu and transported over to make city gates and outward defensive spikes.

During this period, all kinds of hardships,

Zhao Gui didn't want to say more.

It can only be said that it was thanks to the fact that the slaves from Gandhara were hardworking and seldom resisted even when they were severely oppressed that Xinxia was able to roughly block this mountain pass.

But even so,

The sun is not very tall either.

In addition to the limitations of terrain and resources,
There are also reasons for the decree:
After carefully examining the local terrain, Xinxia felt that although the narrowest part of the mountain pass was only two miles, the mountain road was long overall. It was very similar to the valley road recorded in his parents' notes when heading from Qin State to the Western Regions, but not as narrow and long.

Since it is long and narrow, simply blocking the opening will not be enough to stop a powerful foreign enemy.

So the King of Xia decided to build some beacon towers starting from Yangguan and along the mountain road leading to the new Xia mainland.

Once a problem occurs,
So they lit the beacon fire and let the drifting smoke announce the arrival of the enemy for Xinxia.

But this is not an easy project.

The amount of resources consumed is visibly huge.

There were also many people in the country who complained about Xia Jun.

Their point of view is direct.

I think it is useless to repair this thing, even Yangguan is unnecessary.

“Why do we need to repair it?”

"The original intention of building Yangguan was just to consume too many Gandhara slaves!"

When Zhao Gui was inspecting the project,
Someone found Guo Jun'an and said to him, "After we annexed Gandhara, because they surrendered too quickly, our country has attracted too many barbarians."

"Your Majesty, you are worried that killing the surrendered soldiers will bring disaster, so you are reluctant to kill them all. I understand this."

"Your Majesty, you do not want too many barbarians to live in your country, to prevent weeds from occupying the land where crops are grown and changing the appearance and culture of your countrymen. This minister understands."

"So when you ordered to move a large number of captives to Xingshan and use the opportunity of building the city gate to dispose of them as consumables, we did not stop you at all."

Xingshan,

That is the mountain range where the mountain pass is located.

Because their ancestors established Xinxia and gave birth to them after crossing this mountain range, it is believed that this mountain range represents the rise and prosperity of Xinxia, so it was named this way.

"But now it has been three years since Gandhara was destroyed."

"The barbarian countries have been overthrown, and the culture of the Chinese gentlemen has been spread. It is time to cultivate and develop, so as to educate the remaining barbarians, strengthen national strength, and strengthen the connection with the Western Regions and even the Chinese mainland. Why do we still need to block the Xingshan Pass?"

(End of this chapter)