Zhang Zhao knew why Li Shengtian asked this, because even future generations would not know that these great empires that appeared at the same time and declined almost at the same time in history had seemingly unrelated but thousands of connections.

Inextricably linked.

Thinking of this, I, Duke Zhang, took a writing brush from the table.

From the northern end of the Apennine Peninsula controlled by Charlemagne's Empire, to Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire, to Baghdad in the black-clad world, to Persia, to the Western Regions, then through the Hexi Corridor, and finally to Chang'an.

Zhang Zhao drew a line in all these places with a brush to connect them.

"This? This is the trade road? Is it the Silk Road starting from the Tang Dynasty?" Li Shengtian pondered for a while, and he knew what Zhang Zhao was painting.

This is the trade route that connects east-west trade! It is also one of the foundations of the founding of Khotan.

"That's right! Uncle, please see, Charlemagne's empire controls Genoa here, and the western end of the Silk Road is here. Here, people can already buy silks and porcelain from the Tang Dynasty, but by the time they get here, the silks, satins, etc. have already been

It's a sky-high price.

Therefore, many merchants only regard the silks and porcelains of the Tang Dynasty as their signature products, and the products they sell more often come from Heiyi Dashi.

After they sell their own goods, they will buy some local goods and transport them back to Dashi.

But the land in Dashi was barren, and they simply couldn't eat so many commodities, so they had no choice but to keep transporting them eastward.

After changing hands several times, these commodities were summarized into glassware, fragrant leaves, pepper, nutmeg, olive oil, Sanle pulp, blankets and even swords, armor and horses that appeared in Khotan.

When it arrives in Khotan, part of it will be digested by Khotan, and then some jade, wine, etc. will be added and transported eastwards. Eventually, all the goods will arrive in Chang'an.

In Chang'an, these mountains of commodities will be completely digested by Chang'an, which has a population of two million. Even if Chang'an cannot digest it completely, there are also Luoyang, Longyou, Shannan, Jiangnan, Jiannan, Lingnan and even the entire Tang Dynasty.

After the Tang Dynasty, headed by Chang'an, digested these commodities, the porcelain, pottery, silk and other commodities of the Tang Dynasty would be continuously transported away by merchants, and then embark on the road to the west again. "

Zhang Zhao said a lot in one breath, and Li Shengtian also nodded.

"That's right! This is how the Silk Road worked. When the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, there were hundreds of thousands of traders passing through Khotan alone every year. It was really prosperous at that time!"

The Silk Road, this trade route named by German scholars in the 19th century, was far from being as frivolous as it sounded to later generations.

Before the rise of maritime trade, it was the largest, most important, and even the only large-scale trade route in the world.

Moreover, this trade road spanned hundreds of thousands of miles, and it was not carried out by a group of merchants, but by businessmen of different nationalities and cultures from stop to stop.

Therefore, with this trade route, everyone along the way can benefit. Merchants make money, people sell unnecessary goods and buy needed goods, and rulers receive a large amount of business taxes.

With the blessing of the Silk Road, the Hexi Corridor was not a sand-eating place in the northwest that would be described as bitter when later generations mentioned it, but a first-class golden passage. The population of Dunhuang in the Tang Dynasty was even several times that of Dunhuang in later generations.

The Hexi region, dominated by the Republic of Gansu, had a status equal to that of the Guangdong region of the later Republic in the Tang Dynasty.

The Silk Road sounds like an ordinary business road, but it is actually a golden road.

"What a pity! The Silk Road is no longer as prosperous as it was in the past. Since the two Anshi thieves brought trouble to the world in the 14th year of Tianbao, this Silk Road has become worse day by day. I wish I could have had the flesh and blood of these two thieves during the Tianbao year!

"

Even though it was almost two hundred years ago, Li Shengtian still gritted his teeth when he mentioned the Anshi Rebellion.

"Uncle, after the Anshi Rebellion brought chaos to the world, it was not just the Silk Road that was destroyed! Uncle, please see, after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was almost in decline.

But at the same time as the Tang Dynasty declined, the great empires that had prospered at the same time as the Tang Dynasty in the past, such as Tubo, Black Clothes, Qin and Charlemagne, all began to decline almost at the same time. In less than a hundred years, Tubo even ceased to exist.

, Uncle, don’t you think this is a bit too coincidental?”

A flash of lightning flashed in Li Shengtian's mind. He threw away the leg of lamb in his hand, squinted his eyes and threw himself in front of Zhang Zhao's map. His fingers slid along the Silk Road drawn by Zhang Zhao bit by bit.

"Erlang, you are saying that the reason why these great empires were able to maintain their prosperity was all because they participated in this ancient Silk Road, and after the decline of the Silk Road, they inevitably fell into collective decline."

"Yes! The biggest reason for the decline of the Silk Road is the decline of the Tang Dynasty. Uncle, in our world, there were about 20 million Dingkou, and in the Tang Dynasty, including black households and hidden households, there were about 80 million

.

This is such a great number! Before Anshi, the amount of goods that 80 million people had to digest in a year was simply incalculable, so no matter how much goods came from the West, we could digest them.

After we digest these commodities, we will produce a huge amount of goods for merchants to sell to the West, thus supporting the prosperity of several large empires in the West.

Haven't you ever been surprised? It snows in the Qiangtang Snowfield in June and is extremely cold. But how does Tubo Zampu maintain its more than 200,000 soldiers?

And where did the cloth, money, grain, salt and iron come from that could support the Tibetan generals to compete with Taizong and Gaozong in an era when there were so many famous generals?"

"Yes! Those Tibetan people in the day care would have been unable to survive long ago if it hadn't been for the constant financial support.

Even the noble ones among them are living a good life if they can have a bowl of Japonica rice with honey and a glass of purple wine.

How did they support those hundreds of thousands of soldiers back then? Could it be that they relied on the prosperity of the Silk Road?"

Li Shengtian was stunned for a long time, and a question he had never thought about before came to his mind.

"My uncle is right. The reason why Tubo prospered was because of the Silk Road. The reason why Tubo declined rapidly was also because of the decline of the Silk Road.

In fact, after the Anshi period, the Silk Road could still be maintained, but the Tubo people dug their own graves.

They planned the Pingliang Alliance Robbery Incident in the third year of Zhenyuan of Dezong. Although this shameless plan eliminated three generals from the northwest of the Tang Dynasty and killed hundreds of elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, its serious consequences were far worse than those obtained by Tubo.

Much larger.

After the Pingliang plunder, the Tang Dynasty completely gave up its alliance with Tubo. The bigger impact was that the Tubo people had completely exposed their bad faith. They even dared to plunder the Tang Dynasty. What's the point of just doing business?

From then on, merchants preferred to take a detour through the grasslands controlled by the Uighurs rather than go west of the river.

After realizing that there were fewer traders in Hexi, what the Tubo people did was not to show their willingness to maintain trade routes as soon as possible. On the contrary, the noble Dong Dai below was afraid that there would be no traders in the future and no wealth, so he simply allowed his soldiers to plunder, hoping that in the end

Get a handful."

"This is really asking for death! I should take this as a warning!" Li Shengtian's eyes widened when he heard the anti-intellectual actions of the Tubo people, and he couldn't help but complain.

"Yes! Since then, the Silk Road has been cut off. Even though Tubo has captured Hexi and most of Longyou, the output cannot sustain an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

A large number of soldiers had no food and clothing, and middle- and lower-level officers also lived in poverty. In order to compete for more survival resources, they launched brutal internal killings."

Speaking of this, Zhang Zhao smiled and said, "When Taibao Gong raised his arms and called for help, one of the biggest reasons why Fan Han responded was actually because the Silk Road was cut off.

Hexi is not a wealthy town to begin with. The Silk Road is dead, the financial resources from top to bottom are exhausted, and the city is trapped in poverty.

Therefore, when the Taibao Gong upheld justice, not only the Han people responded, but the Sogdians, Longjia, Dadan, Uighurs, and even the Tibetans themselves also followed suit.

In fact, the land of Hexi is almost dead. After opening up Ganliang and returning to the motherland, we also need to reopen the Silk Road!"

Zhang Zhao said with a smile, but Li Shengtian seemed to suddenly realize it. He looked at Zhang Zhao with burning eyes. It was obvious that he no longer regarded Zhang Zhao as a brave general, but as a soldier!

"When Erlang said this, I also remembered that my grandfather once said that the reason why our Yuchi family was determined to drive away the Tubo people was because Khotan had no chance of survival. I originally thought that my grandfather meant that the Tubo people oppressed them too much.

It turns out it’s because the Silk Road was cut off!”

Speaking of this, Li Shengtian seemed to have grasped a little bit of Zhang Zhao's thinking, but he still couldn't figure it out. What does this queen of Karahan have to do with what Zhang Zhao said?

"My nephew, I would like to ask my uncle, is the commercial tax that Khotan has received from the Silk Road in recent years rising year by year or declining?"

Li Shengtian's face darkened, "Where did the increase come from? The commercial tax received last year was only 70% of what it was five years ago!"

"Then my uncle must have thought that the drop in commercial taxes was because merchants on the Silk Road were attracted by the Gaochang Uighurs and took the North Road in large numbers, so that caused a decrease in the number of traders on the South Road?"

"Isn't it?" Li Shengtian asked doubtfully. That's what he thought, so he discussed with Cao Yijin and prepared for the two companies to join forces to attract as many merchants as possible to the south.

Zhang Zhao and his envoys walked to the ancient city of Loulan and were plundered by Gaochang Diloda Ganpu Gucheng. This was actually a warning from the Gaochang Wu Mother Khan to the two families.

"No!" Zhang Zhao shook his head affirmatively, "My nephew obtained from Wu Dal'er the statistics of merchants passing through Dunhuang and Shazhou's commercial tax records. Last year, compared with five years ago, Shazhou's commercial taxes dropped significantly.

Thirty and a half percent!”

"How could this happen? How could this happen? Is it because the Uighurs in Ganzhou have changed? Or are they making trouble again in Hexi?"

Li Shengtian was suddenly in chaos. Whether he took the northern route to Gaochang Uighurs or the southern route to Khotan, all merchants came from Dunhuang, Shazhou.

However, the number of merchants and commercial taxes in Dunhuang decreased, which shows that the decrease in commercial taxes in Khotan was not due to the fact that all the Uighurs took the northern route of Gaochang, but that the number of merchants coming from the east was decreasing sharply.

"None of them!" Zhang Zhao took a deep breath, and he couldn't bear to tell Li Shengtian this cruel reality.

"The real reason is that the population of Guanzhong is declining, less than one-tenth that of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The Central Plains has experienced wars many times, and Dingkou is not as good as before. The entire Central Plains, the rich land, has begun to turn to Yang Wu and Qian

Beyond the land.

Guanzhong was in ruins, and Hedong, Henan, and Hebei were also in turmoil due to war. At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of wealthy households in Guanzhong, and not a single one was left. The rest were poor farmers who were struggling to survive. They could no longer digest the colored glaze, jade and other goods from the west.

.

Because these had nothing to do with people's livelihood and were used by officials and nobles, when the Tang Dynasty could not digest the goods from the west, merchants could only use money to buy the output of the Tang Dynasty.

This not only increased costs, but also reduced profits along the way, which would inevitably lead to a sharp increase in the prices of silk and porcelain in the Tang Dynasty.

The skyrocketing prices also led to the cannibals in the west, the Qin people and the Franks, who gradually could no longer afford the products of the Tang Dynasty. It was understandable that the Silk Road gradually withered.

What is even more terrifying is Qian Yue, Wang Min and Nan Han, because they have begun to prepare to build ships to go to sea, trying to reach Dashi directly from the sea. In the future, I am afraid that this maritime Silk Road will replace the road Silk Road."

This was the great horror. Li Shengtian, who was a little fuzzy under the influence of alcohol, was covered in cold sweat like rain, and he suddenly woke up.

If large ships were built in Huainan, Jiangnan, and Lingnan and went to sea, and the Silk Road all returned to the sea, then Khotan would be finished. Without the Silk Road, how could the Jin Kingdom survive?

"Since Erlang knows this, there must be a solution, right? Tell your uncle quickly!" Li Shengtian grabbed Zhang Zhao's hand, his eyes filled with nervousness.

Zhang Zhao sighed, it was like this in history. After years of fighting with Karakhan, Khotan was wasted to death at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains because of the interruption of the Silk Road.

"Uncle, this is a general trend, and no human effort can save it! But we can try to delay it. Anxi and Hezhong cannot be saved, but there is still a chance for the Khotan Kingdom!"

Li Shengtian turned pale when he first heard Zhang Zhao say that no one could save him, but then he heard the words that Yu Tian could be saved. Within a few breaths, he seemed to be on the verge of life and death. He sat upright.

Look at Zhang Zhao.
To be continued...