The Cao family and Mi family had long known that the actual control of the caravan was already in the hands of the emperor.

Cao Hong and Mi Zhu were just nominal owners, endorsing the emperor and becoming the emperor's white gloves, and they could not even have the most profit share.

Mi accepted his fate early in the morning.

Stand up and accept guidance, have no objections, just lie down and get the money.

After experiencing some twists and turns, Cao Hong lay down obediently, gave up his struggle, handed over control, and became a pawn of the emperor.

It is nothing wrong to say that the Cao family caravan and the Mi family caravan have become the royal caravans in the hands of Mr. Guo.

Du Feng and Ma Yuan followed Guo Peng's will and brought the Cao family caravan and Mi family caravan to all over the world to do business. Wherever Guo needed, there were traces of two major caravans.

Now, it is the time when Guo Peng needs them.

"I have invested a lot of money in the training camp, and you know that you have to use money at the moment. I also plan to build an inland waterway from Luoyang to the south. This requires more money. The national finance is already in short supply. It is impossible to find a way to open source."

Guo Peng sighed: "You should know the importance of the Silk Trade Road to me and the State of Wei. Whether we can successfully open up this trade road, sell goods, and earn more money is very important for me and Wei."

Du Feng and Ma Yuan nodded repeatedly.

"I understand what Your Majesty meant."

"Well, the four counties in Hexi have been restored. I have sent people back to Liuzhongcheng to guard. You can start preparing and bring more goods to the Western Regions to contact and trade with the Western Regions. In this process, carefully explore the actual situation of the Western Regions, domestic affairs, diplomacy, etc.."

Guo Peng handed them over to an important figure.

The two of them understood and nodded repeatedly.

"You'd better get in touch with some countries outside the Western Regions," said Dr.

"Outside the Western Regions? What Your Majesty is talking about the Kushan Kingdom and the Rest Kingdom?"

Ma Yuan asked.

Guo Peng nodded.

"Although the Western Regions have a large number of countries, most of them are very small, and relatively small in population, and the ability to buy goods from Wei is not very large. From the historical materials of the Han Dynasty, we can probably know that the Aishi Kingdom and the Kushan Kingdom are both large countries, with a large population and a large area.

So if you can trade with them, you should be able to sell a lot of things. After Ban Chao occupied the Western Regions, he sent envoys all the way westward, crossing the Kingdom of Anxu and heading to the Great Qin. It is said that the Kingdom of Great Qin is larger than the Kingdom of Anxu. In addition to China, there is such a great country, how can you not see it?"

Guo Peng smiled.

Ma Yuan and Du Feng were also excited about this.

A distant country?

For a long time, China has not explored the outside world.

In the course they studied in the camp, there is a subject called geography.

It not only tells the famous mountains and rivers of China and the climatic conditions of various places, but also tells the stories of the Western Regions and some countries further westwards.

From this they built a worldview that was different from ordinary people. They knew that the world was big and they were very small.

These textbooks talk about the history of Ban Chao's subordinate Gan Ying crossing the Abnormal Kingdom to the Great Qin Kingdom.

Later, the Great Qin State also sent envoys to China twice, one during the reign of Emperor He of Han and the other during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and they came to China from thousands of miles away.

Maybe I want to open up a trade route, right?

Mr. Guo was not sure about the situation in the Roman Empire during this period, and he was not an omniscient and omnipotent person.

He knew that the Qin Dynasty was the Roman Empire, and that resting empire would not be replaced by the Persian Empire in a short time.

He really didn't know the others.

They all have strong national strength and a huge population, and naturally, they also have strong consumption capacity.

He didn't know what emperor the other party was, what system it was, what military, political and economic conditions it was, and he forgot all the customs and other things about it.

The documents of the former Han Dynasty would not leave him such a sensitive record - which envoy would say that his country was in internal and external troubles?

Therefore, you still have to see it yourself, explore it yourself, and live there.

A place where the army cannot reach for the time being can be allowed to go to business travelers. This is the greatest value of business travelers and one of the reasons why Mr. Guo has brought up two royal merchants.

Go explore, figure it out, and make money!

Du Feng and Ma Yuan received Guo Peng's order and began to organize their respective resources and energy to form a joint caravan.

This will be an unprecedentedly large-scale joint caravan and the west expedition, an unprecedented and large-scale commercial group's western expedition.

In order to ensure the safety of the joint caravan, Guo mobilized two imperial guards, a total of 100 people to join the joint caravan, and then mobilized eight teams from the guards to join the joint caravan.

Mr. Guo equipped the caravan with a total of ten teams of 500 military forces.

Military power of such a scale is really not small for a caravan.

With the strength of the Wei army and the actual national strength of those small Western countries, a five hundred army is enough to destroy more than half of the small Western countries.

As the head of the joint caravan, Ma Yuan will personally go to the Western Regions to explore the Western Regions' trade routes, and then go westward to the Aquila Empire and the Kushan Empire, contact them, and inquire about the news about the "Qin", which is the Roman Empire.

Military forces will obey Ma Yuan's command.

In addition to the five hundred professional soldiers who have a full set of land combat equipment, every businessman involved in this operation will be assigned a ring-headed knife for body protection.

The trade road is long and difficult to predict, so everyone must be armed. Once the enemy situation encounters, they will fully militarize and accept the protection and command of the army.

Ma Yuan received professional military training in the training camp, and the 500-man army was also led by his own officers, so military strength could be guaranteed to be commanded.

Then there were a large number of caravan escorts.

This time the joint caravan advanced westward, and the main products that were carried by the larger amount of gold and silver were the most promising products in the Central Plains.

For example, a large number of porcelain, pottery, lacquerware, bronze and bronze mirrors are all great works of art, both artistic and practical, as well as the famous Shu brocade, silk book painting, and gold, silver and jade.

Then there are all kinds of men's clothes, women's clothes, hats, shoes, bowls and chopsticks for eating, cups for drinking, utensils for barbecue, iron pots, musical instruments unique to the Central Plains, bamboo slips and books, etc.

It is all-encompassing and all-inclusive. Not to mention the local products of Zhongyuan, there are even leather and bone products of nomadic peoples - from Nanlou.

Each one was prepared with a considerable share, so that Ma Yuan could sell it along the way according to actual conditions, but it was still necessary to keep some for use when entering the Silence Empire or the Kushan Empire.

The small Western Regions were once vassal states of the Han Empire, and they did not need any respect in the legal sense. However, countries such as Kushan and Anxi, with a population of millions and hundreds of thousands, were not so easy to become vassal states.

This is the significance of Guo Peng's establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

These larger countries need to live in peace and equality, do business in harmony, make money in harmony, and maintain a relatively normal long-term trade partnership.

Anyway, Mr. Guo never thought about sending troops to eliminate Kushan and Anxu.

Unless they come, they need to fight back. As long as they don’t move, Mr. Guo doesn’t want to move.

The journey is too far and the logistics is too difficult, so it is better to do business.

As for the production and construction corps, it may be quite meaningful. Mr. Guo plans to try it in some places.

Now let’s look at the caravans’ goods in quantity and variety, which is amazing, but none of them is redundant.

To show the prosperity and rich resources of the Central Plains Empire, we have to rely on them.

A large number of mules, horses and large carts, and the entourage exceeded 4,000.

Not only were there major personnel such as soldiers and businessmen, Guo Peng also set up doctors, kitchen staff, and some chores.

In total, the number of people exceeded 4,000, which is a considerable scale.

There are not too many people, but if you include cargo transport vehicles, the scale is quite terrible.

Since the former Han Dynasty connected to the Western Regions, there have been caravans of this size from Luoyang to the Western Regions.

This is the first time, and it is worth recording by historical books.

At the same time, I don’t know what the news was heard, but the family caravans behind some officials in the court also used their connections to find connections. I hope they could join the joint business operations with their own caravans, hoping to get permission.

Many people are seeking this possibility, although not all, and some people still have doubts about it, but there are also many people asking for participation, so this question is placed in front of Guo Peng.

Guo Peng thought about it and thought that this would be good. It could attract the eyes of these people to the outside world and reduce their obsession with domestic land a little.

If you look outward, you can relatively reduce your obsession with the country and also have an alternative benefit to the domestic common people.

So Guo chose fifty-six families from the list that performed well and allowed their caravans to join the joint caravans.

But the premise is that you must completely obey Ma Yuan's orders and follow Ma Yuan's rules. Otherwise, if you encounter any problems during the journey, you cannot be scolded if you are killed by Ma Yuan.

All families agreed.

So in this way, these family caravans joined the joint caravans, paying deposits, preparing manpower and preparing goods. For a time, the traffic inside and outside Luoyang City was crowded with people.

In this way, the number of the joint caravan quickly expanded from 4,000 to 7,000, and the scale went even further, making Ma Yuan stare straight.

"Your Majesty, the caravan is too large and inconvenient to manage. Should some generals or officials be sent to accompany you?"

Ma Yuan proposed this idea, trying to manage the caravans in bureaucratic or military mode, otherwise if the number of people is larger and going a little further, there will be problems.

Guo Peng thought about it and felt that what Ma Yuan said made sense.

Faced with such a situation, in order to facilitate unified management, Guo Peng specially granted Ma Yuan the military position and also granted him the Fu Jie to determine his leadership over the entire caravan.

And basically, the rules in the army were used to manage and restrain the team. In order to help Ma Yuan manage, Guo Peng also specially selected five senior military judges to join the caravan, specifically responsible for the trial of illegal matters and the execution of illegal people.

Ensure that this joint caravan will have unified orders during the long journey and will not fall apart.

Guo Peng asked Ma Yuan to announce all the rules in advance. If you are willing to accept them, join them. If you are unwilling to accept them, don’t follow them. If you follow them, you will cause trouble. Don’t blame anyone if you are beheaded.
Chapter completed!