Mythical Three Kingdoms

"I see, then let’s go, approximately when?" Fan Chou frowned and asked, "It’s already March, did the state documents say when?"

"Yes, in July, the other party said we don’t need to worry about provisions like supplies or grain. Vologases V also promised us land near the Caspian Sea in advance, saying they have been neglectful in managing the East side, and if we have the time, we can occupy it." Li Jue said quite helplessly. They felt a bit embarrassed as the other side treated them so well.

In fact, Li Jue had no idea that the places east of the Caspian Sea could be considered Parthian, which they once were, and could also be considered Kushan’s, since Kushan also occupied them before. To be precise, the Han Dynasty also occupied them a hundred years ago.

However, that place was too far for the Han Dynasty, while for Kushan, there were the Han Dynasty squatters, and for Parthia, it meant facing Rome, so the land east of the Caspian—which corresponds to today’s Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan—became a nominal land of no-mans.

Of course, due to their strength, the Han Dynasty barely maintained some influence on the eastern side of what is now Kazakhstan. Beyond that, their influence was completely nonexistent.

Vologases V’s action was entirely about shedding burdens. To be precise, the premium lands previously gifted to Li Jue were basically of this nature. However, due to Li Jue’s strong combat power, after chopping down several waves of bandits and mountain bandits, the place actually became peaceful.

So in a way, Vologases V wasn’t really talking nonsense, and indeed, with a grand gesture, he gifted Li Jue more than a million square kilometers of land.

For the Huaxia people, money isn’t a problem, nor are people; the biggest problem is land. As long as it’s good land, once taken, others can forget about taking it back. This is a nation with a deep love for land.

Li Jue himself also inherited these values, so when Vologases V directly gifted him a piece of land even larger than Yangzhou, and of exceptional quality—either pasture or excellent farmland—he was more than willing to lend a hand when the other party asked for it. Even though there might be some bandits or rebels on it, this was not a serious issue.

Isn’t the army precisely for dealing with these bandits and mountain rebels? Besides, with the other party’s state documents, he could freely operate on this land.

"This emperor indeed has a noble spirit," Guo Si praised with admiration, "When the time comes, we won’t have any issues leading troops over. How many troops are they deploying?"

"They said they assembled seventy to eighty thousand soldiers, with dozens of Inner Qi Manifestation," Li Jue said with some silence. Upon seeing this state document, he felt it was inexplicably odd that Parthia had suddenly become so strong; it just didn’t seem scientific.

"How is that possible?" Fan Chou was shocked. Back then, they had visited Parthia’s capital Taysi Sealed, and it was in such a terrible state. How could there suddenly be so many Inner Qi Manifestations?

"I also find it impossible, but would you write nonsense in a state document?" Li Jue said helplessly, "So regardless, I plan to go and see, even if just to understand our ally’s combat power."

"If it really is like that, we have no choice but to go. However, let’s wait a bit; the large army dispatched by the think tank will arrive soon, and our forces can unify, so we won’t be underestimated." Guo Si suggested thoughtfully and then said firmly.

"That works. Since the mobilization is only in July, we can wait. Oh, and what do you mean by sending a substantial number of civil officials to us?" Li Jue asked Guo Si.

Guo Si recounted what he knew, "Actually, I also had my men abduct some people in Liangzhou. We might be able to bring over two hundred thousand people, with the slogan that each household gets three thousand mu of land, five hundred mu of which is tax-free."

"Hm, is deciding on tax exemption within our control?" Li Jue suddenly realized.

"Whether to allocate three thousand mu of land is up to us, isn’t deciding on tax exemption just as easy?" Fan Chou commented casually. To him, Guo Si’s proposed slogan of three thousand mu per household was irrelevant since nobody was farming anyway.

"Makes sense." Li Jue stroked his beard, agreeing, without realizing this already represented the independent judicial power only the Feudal States possessed.

"Alright then, we’ll wait until people are brought over, and let those from the Chen Family, Sima Family, and Xun Family handle matters. We need to at least be self-sufficient, relying on collecting from the various states of the Western Regions doesn’t seem sustainable." Li Jue decided, given none of them had an administrative capability over fifty, they were currently relying entirely on the tributes from the Western Regions for logistics.

"The think tank’s disciple is coming to be our think tank. Turns out you have to practice in this field." Fan Chou contemplated and stated, "It seems we’ve suffered a lot of mindless losses without the think tank, having no smart person is indeed a big problem."

"That’s right, after all, he’s the apprentice of the think tank, it should be no problem at all. Correct, we must show respect. But who knows what he likes?" Li Jue was quite in agreement with Fan Chou, as Li Ru’s status in their minds was still very high, so, relatively speaking, even before Zhuge Liang arrived, Li Jue and his people considered him one of their own.

"How about a jade from Kunshan?" Duan Wei thought for a moment and said.

"No, no, this kind of thing is completely like a fool’s trick. We just gave Zijian a piece not long ago, intending to send it to the think tank, and recently we found another piece even better than that, which would be completely insincere." Fan Chou immediately rejected it, as this kind of thing was too common in the Western Regions.

"Why not send a golden camel, I saw one in the Kangju palace." Guo Si pondered for a while and said.

"That’s too tacky, right? He’s not some random person, but the think tank’s apprentice, not you. Just a golden camel, I could melt one down myself any day." Li Jue directly dismissed it, finding Guo Si’s lowly suggestion proving what he thought—Guo Si’s IQ was indeed quite low.

"What do you have? Let me give you some advice. I’ve met Zhuge Kongming many times." Hua Fei frowned as he saw the four guys repeatedly proposing ideas only to be rejected by the others and spoke up, suspecting they were just being stubborn.

"Oh, right, I haven’t thanked you, sir, for helping Zhongming reattach his arm yet. Feel free to take anything you like from our government treasury later." Li Jue casually said, thinking anyway that the things in the government treasury were items they didn’t want.

Hua Fei showed interest in Li Jue’s government treasury and, seeing the four people arguing again, decided not to linger longer, took Li Jue’s handwritten seal ribbon, and went to the treasury. Inside were various treasures, even weapons and armor. However, except for the weapons and armor being constantly polished and maintained, the rest were covered in dust.

"These guys," Hua Fei sighed, seeing indeed many fine items inside, but just seeing the layer of dust covering them made clear that they were things this group had abandoned; otherwise, it wouldn’t be like this.

Hua Fei spent considerable time in the treasury and found many local rare herbs reputed to have miraculous effects. At this time, Li Jue and Guo Si finally reached a reluctant agreement, as Li Jue, having read books, knew some classical literature, which made him successfully defeat Fan Chou, Guo Si, and Duan Wei.

"Offer a map, offer a map! Look at how Jing Ke assassinated the King of Qin with just a map of Yan, even fooled the First Emperor of Qin, showing this is indeed a precious gift." Li Jue lashed out at the other two, including Duan Wei.

Li Jue turned religious mid-way, although having read books, he basically was not clear on the inner actuality. Guo Si and Fan Chou were even worse—one a bandit, the other a commoner. Even on the worst end, Li Jue was a bit higher than these two.

Moreover, the three were not Feudal Lord Kings and didn’t understand the meaning of offering a map, they just felt this gift seemed sophisticated and upscale, even fooled the First Emperor, surely suitable for gifting to their future think tank.

"But offering a map seems quite ridiculous, feels like it’s without sincerity." Fan Chou and Guo Si complained even after being crushed verbally by Li Jue, expressing their dissatisfaction, "Just a piece of silk, after all."

"I think something else needs to be added." With Fan Chou’s instigation, Guo Si started to jump again, anyway, from his view, Li Jue’s act was completely insincere.

"Add, add, add, what do you suggest to add? This forsaken place doesn’t have any beauties, alright, we’ll go buy a few princesses from the Western Regions." Li Jue said without any limits.

"Um, let me ask first, we don’t have a map, do we?" Duan Wei suddenly raised his hand to inquire, they have been wandering around relying on guides, right? To be precise, none of them could draw maps.

"No, but we have no one to draw!" Li Jue yelled back directly, not waiting for Guo Si and Fan Chou’s mockery, "Tomorrow, I’ll find someone who can draw maps and make a map with me, drawing all our territories. Besides, isn’t there two more months until the think tank’s apprentice arrives? Isn’t two months enough for us to draw a map? Tomorrow, we’ll recruit someone good at cartography from the Western Regions."

"Alright then." Duan Wei decided not to speak anymore.

While Li Jue and others were making plans on what to send Zhuge Liang, in the Northern part of the Western Regions, having gone through the cold winter, Yuan Tan and his entourage finally reached their destination.

By this time, not only did Yuan Tan’s followers not decrease in number, but instead, through their westward advance, starting from the East Coast and conquering everything they encountered, their strength had swollen significantly, especially since there were far more barbarians under his command.

Due to Yuan Tan’s excessively northern route, they wiped out quite a few tribes of Chukchi People, Koryak People, Itelmen People, Yukagir People, and Kete People, these were indigenous people of Siberia, one of the sources of the Warrior Nation lineage.