From this day on, the Han Kingdom was no longer the previous country, but became another dynasty in the true sense of China, and it was an unprecedented unified dynasty with an unprecedented territory and population! Because Zhao Kuo's amnesty in the world and the grace of exempting taxes, the people in the world naturally had a new favor for the Han Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, everyone is ordinary people, so who can't get along with freedom and money?

As for those loyal and brave men who were nostalgic in the country, of course, there were certainly not a single one, but under the strong attack of the Han army, they were basically wiped out.

By now, basically those so-called "reverse Han and reversal" guys have become abandoned children of the times. Only a very small number of people are still insisting on their activities, but they are no longer related to the overall situation.

In this way, several months passed in a flash.

During these months, Zhao Kuo and the ministers and officials of the Han Dynasty have mainly done, to help people from all over the country to recuperate.

The war has been fighting on the land of China for hundreds or thousands of years, and it is time for the people of this land to have a good rest.

But this kind of rest is only temporary. Zhao Kuo is very clear that if he, as the founding king, does not find a way to explore something, then future successors will inevitably unconsciously embark on the old path of comfort and self-satisfaction, which is very unfavorable for China's future.

It is necessary to open up the road with Western time so that everyone knows that there are so many territories worth occupying and plundering outside, so that the ambitions of the Chinese people will always burn and never stop! As the saying goes, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools.

So on this day, Zhao Kuo came to the brand new "No. 1 Weapon Technology Factory of the Great Han Kingdom".

This place is now under the jurisdiction of the newly established Weapons Department. Although the Weapons Department is a military department, it does not belong to the rule of the Taiwei, but reports directly to Emperor Zhao Kuo.

The Minister of the Weapons Department is currently temporarily appointed by Guo Zong, which also makes Guo Zong the only important minister in the Han Dynasty who holds two ministerial positions, and his status can almost be said to be comparable to that of the three prime ministers.

Although Guo Zong seemed to be silent and had no contribution, in fact, all Zhao Kuo's previous wealth was basically managed by Guo Zong, and the annual surplus of the Han Dynasty was also under Guo Zong's rule.

If a country has no money, let alone war, it cannot guarantee the most basic people's livelihood. Therefore, even if a general like Guo Zong has no military merits, its importance is still not inferior to any general.

Standing on the imperial guards, Guo Zong was reporting something to Zhao Kuo.

"Your Majesty, after our army in the southwest continues to move south, we discovered a country called Yelang."

When Zhao Kuo heard this, his eyes lit up: "Yelang?

Is this country big?”

When Guo Zong heard this, he couldn't help laughing: "To be honest with Your Majesty, Yelang Country is at best as big as the smaller counties in our Central Plains.

But even so, it is already the largest country among the Southwest Yi and can compete with the Dian Kingdom."

The Southwest Yi is the general term for many foreign races in the mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou.

Because there are dense mountains and forests here, a mountain is often a tribe.

Some tribes also have a little contact with China. I heard that the popular claim of vassal states in China, so the chiefs of these tribes also like to call themselves kings and regard their tribes as a country.

In fact, this so-called tribe is actually just like a village, and it has the nature of self-entertainment.

But no matter what, after so many years, the Southwest Yi and the Chinese princes (especially the Chu State) had a lot of exchanges, and thus gradually made some social systems progress.

In addition, after decades ago, Zhuang Shu, a general of Chu State, failed to lead his army to fight against Qin, he led a Chu army to the southwest and conquered the original territory of the Dian State and claimed to be the King of Dian, which directly promoted the major changes in the southwest Yi side.

Many tribes began to merge cruelly. Among them, the most outstanding ones were the Dianwang Zhuang, who owned the regular army of Chu State, which was the most powerful Yelang State.

This is why in history, the Yelang King actually asked Qin Shihuang's envoy: "Which is greater than my Yelang or China?"

The reason is that Yelang is indeed one of the best power among the southwestern barbarians. The Yelang King feels that we have never fought the original Dian King in the Middle Kingdom. It is just that. Other Chinese countries in the Central Plains may be stronger, but they are not much stronger.

Of course, the later facts made the Yelang King know that his understanding was a complete mistake.

Zhao Kuo suddenly had some confusion and said to Guo Zong: "You are in charge of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Weapons, why are you suddenly related to Yelang?"

Guo Zong smiled slightly and said to Zhao Kuo: "Your Majesty doesn't know that this time the matter is really a financial matter."

The Southwest Legion said that the local women had extremely fair skin, and although the woman's appearance was not like China, she could still be called beautiful.

Therefore, the Southwest Army hopes that His Majesty can allow them to capture the sects as slaves and hand them over to our Ministry of Finance to dispose of some of the funds needed by the army."

Zhao Kuo left a total of 150,000 people in the southwest direction. His main goal was to allow them to rotate the southwest and adapt to the local climate, so that they could go south and completely control the entire southwest in the future.

Like the Qin Dynasty, although there were also Yunnan-Guizhou areas on its territory, the Qin Dynasty did not actually establish counties here. In other words, the Qin Dynasty only nominally controlled the place. The tribal chiefs of the Southwest Yi were actually ruled here, not the officials of the Qin Dynasty.

The existence of the Southwest Legion will undoubtedly help Zhao Kuo make up for this regret of the Qin Dynasty.

After all, it has been a year since Zhao Kuo set up the Southwest Legion last year. During this year, the Southwest Legion has indeed continuously crossed the Yangtze River and launched an attack on many tribes in the southwest Yi according to Zhao Kuo's orders.

Judging from the latest battle reports, some areas of northern Guizhou in Yunnan and Guizhou have been occupied by the Southwest Legion, and the power of the Han Dynasty is spreading towards the south at a slow but very resolute speed under the army of the Southwest Legion.

But what surprised Zhao Kuo was that his Southwest Army had actually started a slave trade.

"Slave..." Zhao Kuo touched his beard and fell into deep thoughts.

The slave of the slaughter was actually a very famous slave in history during the Qin and Han dynasties.

The sacred people are one of the southwestern barbarians. According to legend, their ancestors were Aryans from Central Asia. After passing through the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, they entered the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and eventually settled here.

Due to racial inheritance, the skin color of the people is whiter than that of the southwestern Yidi and even the Chinese. At the same time, their Aryanized Western Confucius also has the characteristic of "scarcity is precious".

During the Qin and Han dynasties, slaves, especially female slaves, were very popular among the upper class aristocrats. If there were no one or two beautiful concubines in the family, you would be embarrassed to say that you were in the top aristocrat family.

With this historical precedent, Zhao Kuo is not incomprehensible about the suggestion put forward by the Southwest Legion. After all, people have aesthetic views and love beauty.

What Zhao Kuo was considering was actually another issue.

Should we abolish slavery?

Slavery system sounds like a very inhuman and anti-human system. If it can be abolished, it will undoubtedly be a great merit.

However, as the emperor of the Han Dynasty, Zhao Kuo did nothing for merit. Zhao Kuo’s consideration was actually very simple - is this matter beneficial to the Han Dynasty?

In history, slavery continued until modern times in China. Even in the later modern times, there were still many extremely backward countries on the earth that retained slavery.

For example, in history, Ottoman Türkiye once captured Slavs as slaves in large numbers, so among the English words, the word "Slav" is almost the same as "slav".

As for the infamous "triangle trade" carried out by European colonial countries on the Atlantic Ocean later, the blacks of Midi were still using this matter to condemn the whites.

Of course, there is a reason why slavery existed for so long.

First of all, slaves can provide slave owners with sufficient and cheap labor, help slave owners expand production and obtain more materials.

Secondly, slaves can also serve as entourages or guards for slave owners in war affairs, and they are generally loyal and can help slave owners win better on the battlefield.

Finally, slaves themselves are relatively valuable and can be used for a long time, and the cost of feeding slaves is very low.

This is how slavery has not completely disappeared from the earth until modern times.

So, does the Han Dynasty need slavery in the current Han Dynasty?

Zhao Kuo thought about it and listed a few considerations in his mind.

First, the Han Dynasty is now at a time when the land is vast and sparsely populated. There are only 30 million people on the land of 6 million square kilometers, and more labor is needed to reclaim the land.

Second, it is not feasible to introduce foreign populations on a large scale and try to assimilate them. However, there is a very famous counterexample in history, that is, from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty, a large number of northern Hu people went south to the Central Plains, and eventually led to the "Five Barbarians' Invasion of China".

Third, from the perspective of management, if these alien races are to be assimilated, then the Han Dynasty will need to put in a lot of manpower and energy to teach the Chinese culture of these alien races so that they can gradually integrate into it.

However, if these alien races are treated directly as slaves, the cost of management will be much lower on the one hand, and on the other hand, it will also be able to gradually integrate these slaves into Chinese culture.

Fourth, the Han Kingdom will definitely continue to expand in the future, so more and more border lands will need to be reclaimed by Chinese immigrants.

But now the land in China is still surplus, who has the motivation to reclaim land in the border areas?

At this time, the value of slaves comes out. You only need to mobilize one slave owner to take dozens or hundreds of slaves to the frontier to cultivate, which is equivalent to more than a dozen or even dozens of families, with extremely cost-effectiveness.

Thinking of this, Zhao Kuo already had the answer in his mind.

From the perspective of human civilization, slavery must of course be abolished, and equality for everyone is the most basic principle.

But from the perspective of the Huaxia people and the Han Dynasty, Zhao Kuo felt that - equality?

It does not exist.

As the emperor of the Han Dynasty, of course, I want to make the lives of the Chinese people in the Han Dynasty better. If the price of doing so is to make those alien races slaves to China, I - it doesn't matter! This is like the white Western countries in later generations. They will only exploit yellow and black people all over the world through various economic and political means. Will they pay attention to whether other races are doing well and whether other races live or not?

No.

If that's the case, why should I be a Virgin at this time?

Let China become stronger first, let China occupy the entire earth first, and then let us come back and talk about equality for everyone, and then come back and consider the abolition of slaves.

Now... Zhao Kuo coughed and said lightly: "It is of course feasible to capture slaves, and it is also possible to sell them through the channels in the hands of the Ministry of Finance.

But I need to clarify two points. The first point is that no Chinese can become slaves. This is my bottom line.

The second point is that not only female slaves, but also young and strong male slaves should also be the targets of arrest."

When Guo Zong heard this, he was relieved and smiled: "I know that Your Majesty has a far-sighted vision and will definitely agree to this matter."

Guo Zong did not think as much as Zhao Kuo thought. The Minister of Finance was just a little worried that His Majesty would be too kind to the people.

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "But you have to keep a close eye on it. The army is the army and you must not deal with any money.

You will tell Li Mu tomorrow that guy that the Southwest Army is only responsible for war and arresting people, and all other matters will be handled by the Ministry of Finance. This must be clear about the process. Do you understand?"

As the Grand Marshal of the Great Han Kingdom, Li Mu also has many old friends in the Southwest Legion. It is hard to think about this matter that the Southwest Legion must have touched Li Mu first, and then Li Mu went to find Guo Zong. After the two discussed, Guo Zong would come to find Zhao Kuo.

Guo Zong repeatedly claimed yes and said with a smile: "Please don't worry, your majesty. I definitely think about money in this regard. I will definitely not let those big-headed soldiers get even a piece of copper!"

Zhao Kuo couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

While speaking, a powerful door appeared in front of Zhao Kuo, and there was a very eye-catching sign on the door.

"The First Weapon Factory of the Great Han Kingdom".

Zhao Kuo looked at the signboard and nodded with satisfaction.
Chapter completed!