Han official!

Chapter 185 Finale
The westward expedition to the Western Regions.

In the spring of the third year of Yuanfeng, the wind carried yellow sand and blew past the newly planted Zuo Gong willows at Yumen Pass.

Guo Jie's white hair was tied into a ponytail with wolf tendons, and the Dingjiang Sword in his hand held up the leather map of the Xiongnu scout.

The thirty-six water sources marked on the sheepskin perfectly coincide with the hidden stakes that Huo Qubing had planted three years earlier.

"Uncle, it's time to change the dressing." Huo Qubing lifted the tent flap, revealing pomegranate juice from Loulan Kingdom on his fish-scale armor.

The new jade sword from Khotan that he wore at his waist was a "Son of Heaven's Sword" specially bestowed upon him by Liu Ju when he ascended the throne.

The old general pushed aside the medicine bowl, and the terracotta figures on the sand table suddenly trembled.

A scout rushed in with an urgent report: "The Kingdom of Cheshi has rebelled! They've intercepted our grain supply wagons used for farming!"

Guo Jie crushed the pottery figurine, and the shards pieced together to form the shape of the Cheshi King's crown: "Qu Bing, you take the light cavalry to Bailongdui, and I will go to meet an old friend."

A lone plume of smoke rises from the vast desert.

When the beacon fires atop Loulan City illuminated the Peacock River, Huo Qubing had already traversed eight hundred miles of shifting sands.

The young general's red flag swept across the Yardang landform, startling the vultures that were roosting there.

As the rammed earth walls of the capital of Cheshi appeared on the horizon, he suddenly blew his bone whistle.

Three thousand light cavalrymen simultaneously set their horses on fire, and the startled warhorses neighed as they charged toward the city gate.

"Release the sluice gate!" King Cheshi brandished his golden sword.

The sluice gates of the moat remained unmoved, and the body of the city's garrison commander floated to the surface.

A willow-leaf dart, stolen from Guo Jie twenty years ago, was stuck in his throat.

Huo Qubing leaped onto the city wall using a cloud ladder, and with his Khotan jade sword, he cleaved open the crown of the Cheshi King: "Surrender to the Han or surrender to the Xiongnu?"

A sheepskin letter floated out from the shattered crown; it was a secret letter from the King of Wusun to the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu!
At the same time, Guo Jie rode alone into Wusun.

The snow-capped Tianshan Mountains reflected the old general's black armor as he unfastened his sword and threw it into the icy lake: "Thirty years ago, I drank blood wine with your father here."

Wusun Kunmo stared at the cold glint of the sword hilt rising from the lake, then suddenly drew his dagger and slashed his palm: "If the Han envoy can retrieve our tribe's sacred relic..."

Three days later, Huo Qubing led his elite troops to climb Khan Tengri Peak.

Beside the Wusun divine staff in the ice cave stood a golden statue of the Xiongnu people used for sacrificial rites to heaven!

The young general laughed and swung his sword, severing the bronze wolf's head from the left arm of the golden man.

It was the symbol of royal power that Yizhixie Chanyu lost during the Battle of Hexi.

When news of the surrender of Wusun and Cheshi reached Chang'an, Liu Ju was trying on Western Region tribute brocade at Weiyang Palace.

Huo Guang presented Guo Jie's blood-written letter: "Please establish a Protectorate of the Western Regions and open the Yumen Pass market."

Before the new emperor could even finish writing, another urgent report arrived: "The Kingdom of Dayuan has closed its markets and killed the Han envoy!"

When the snowmelt from the Qilian Mountains flowed into the Shule River, the banners of the Han people had already been planted on the Pamir Mountains.

Guo Jie and Huo Qubing stood side by side on the Pamir Plateau, with caravans coming and going below them.

Amid the sound of camel bells, the old general suddenly coughed, and the bloodstains on his palm soaked through the letter of alliance from the thirty-six nations.

"Uncle, look!" Huo Qubing pointed with his whip, and the soldiers stationed in Dunhuang lit beacon fires.

The newly built beacon towers stretched like a dragon, with soldiers fluent in both Mandarin and other languages ​​standing at each crenellation.

He was a descendant of a criminal official implicated in the witchcraft case years ago.

On the Shangsi Festival in the fifth year of Yuanfeng, Liu Ju personally welcomed the triumphant army.

Guo Jie, whose hair was already completely white, insisted on wearing armor to receive the reward.

When Huo Qubing lifted the gilded carriage curtain bestowed by the emperor, what was revealed was the desert sand table that Emperor Wu had treasured.

At this moment, the flags of surrender from various countries in the Western Regions are planted everywhere.

During the banquet, Huo Guang presented the seal of the Protectorate of the Western Regions.

Liu Ju suddenly drew his sword and slashed the imperial desk: "I wish to follow my uncle's example and personally lead an expedition against the Kushans!"

Before the words were finished, the familiar sound of arrows whistling came from outside the hall.

Huo Qubing, wearing a bronze mask, stood on the eaves, a golden pellet in his hand striking down the secret message from the mouth of the Bronze Sparrow Terrace in Weiyang Palace: "The Yuezhi are willing to offer three thousand Ferghana horses!"

As the waning moon set in the west, Guo Jie sat alone at the Jade Gate Pass.

The newly tied Khotan jade pendant on the Dingjiang sword tassel suddenly broke, revealing a Silk Road map with blood-like streaks within the jade.

The old general looked towards the western starry sky, where a silver-armored white horse galloped across the Milky Way, and the general's fish-scale armor on the horse was turning into the eternal snow on the Qilian Mountains.

……

Northern Expedition to Siberia
When the first blizzard of the seventh year of Yuanfeng bent the pines of Beihai, Guo Jie's black armor was already covered with three feet of icicles.

The old general plunged the Dingjiang sword into the frozen earth; the wolf tail tied to the hilt had long since frozen into a pillar of frost along with his beard and hair.

Huo Qubing rode out alone from the white-haired wind, with five heads of Dingling chieftains hanging on each side of his saddle; the blood droplets that fell to the ground turned into red jade.

"The Jiankun people are willing to offer a thousand reindeer, on the condition that..."

The young general breathed out a sword, carving a winding path on the ice, "and asked the Han army to help them drive away the giant beast from the North Sea."

On the seventh day after the Lena River froze, the Han army deployed their crossbow carts in a nine-palace formation on the ice.

Guo Jie frowned as he looked at the herd of beasts on the opposite bank.

Those hairy beasts, larger than rhinoceroses, are what the Jiankun people call "the evil spirits of the ice plains," which are actually mammoths.

Suddenly, a thunderous cracking sound came from the ice. Where Huo Qubing's crimson banner pointed, thirty armored reindeer dragging oil canisters launched a charge.

"Launch the rocket!" Guo Jie waved the command flag.

Three thousand whistling arrows swept across the icy plains, and ignited oil cans exploded in blue flames amidst the beast horde.

Amidst the sound of Jiankun Shaman's bone flute, Huo Qubing led his elite troops in a skating descent, their fish-scale armor covered by battle armor woven from ice shards.

This is a secret technique of the hunters of the North Sea: their ice armor does not melt when exposed to fire, but instead becomes thicker!
That very night, after defeating the beast horde, Guo Jie stormed into Jiankun's main tent alone.

The old general removed his armor and placed it on the table, revealing his body covered in old wounds: "This arrow scar was given to me by King Hunxie in the fourth year of the Yuanshou era, and this knife scar was left by the King of Dayuan."

Dingling King suddenly cut open the bearskin rug and took out a rusty Han sword: "Thirty years ago, a Han envoy buried this sword here as a vow."

The inscription on the sword caused Guo Jie's pupils to shrink sharply.

It turned out to be Zhang Qian's lost envoy's staff and sword!
He suddenly lifted the tent flap, and the moonlight shone on a certain spot on the snowfield, where three thousand Han soldiers raised torches and formed the Big Dipper formation.

Huo Qubing arrived on the ice, his banner planted beside Zhang Qian's sword: "Now that a Han general has arrived, we shall continue the covenant of the Marquis of Bowang!"

On the winter solstice, the eternal night enveloped the icy plains, and Huo Qubing suddenly developed a high fever.

Guo Jie applied ice from the North Sea to his forehead and discovered that there was natural kerosene in the ice.

The old general worked through the night to dig ice into a city and poured kerosene into the ice walls.

When the Dingling cavalry attacked with torches, the oil from the melting ice walls flowed down the slope, turning the hundred-mile-long ice plain into a sea of ​​fire.

"Uncle!" Huo Qubing, wrapped in a white bear skin, leaped onto the ice city. "The scouts say there's an island in the North Sea, and on that island are mountains that breathe fire!"

The young general pointed his red-hot iron spear northward, where the crimson sky could be faintly seen.

The Kamchatka volcano is awakening amidst a blizzard.

In the spring equinox of the ninth year of Yuanfeng, the banners of the Han dynasty were planted on the northernmost ice cliff of the North Sea.

Guo Jie's hair and beard turned completely white, and he used the sword that cleaved ice as a monument.

Huo Qubing used fish scale armor to carve inscriptions on steles, and the melted ice water from the hot iron revealed a line of ancient seal script: "The Han territory extends to this point, where the sun and moon shine together."

Before the monument to the White Wolf King, presented by the Jiankun people, Huo Qubing allowed him to tie the Han imperial staff around the wolf's neck.

On their triumphant return journey, they were caught in a blizzard, and Huo Qubing became separated from his army.

Three days later, when Guo Jie found the young general in the ice cave, he saw him sharing frozen fish with twelve white wolves, and the ice wall around him was covered with star maps from the Western Regions to the North Sea.

"Uncle, do you know," Huo Qubing's eyes gleamed with an aurora-like light, "that last night the Big Dipper pointed out that there was still uncultivated land further north?"

When Liu Ju received the news of the victory, it was the Shangsi Festival in Chang'an.

The young emperor smashed the sand table of Weiyang Palace and hung a rubbing of the Beihai Ice Stele on the high wall: "Issue an imperial decree! Establish the Beihai Protectorate and send convicted officials to guard the border every year."

The map presented by Huo Guang shows that the Siberian Reindeer Route and the Silk Road meet at Dunhuang, forming the "Ice and Porcelain Road" that traverses the continent.

That night, Guo Jie sat alone on the banks of the Lena River.

The jade tassel on the Dingjiang Sword suddenly cracked open, revealing a fragment of Zhang Qian's blood-written message hidden within: "To the north lies a vast sea, its name is Hanming."

The old general looked at the blizzard that had engulfed Huo Qubing, and in a daze saw the red flag transform into a white wolf, its long howl shaking the glacier to its foundations.

……

To conquer Japan.

When the monsoon of the eleventh year of Yuanfeng swept up thousands of piles of snow in the East China Sea, Guo Jie stood on the fifth deck of the warship, gazing at the outlines of the islands that were faintly visible in the sea fog.

The old general's black armor was covered with salt crystals, and the scabbard of Dingjiang held a newly made nautical chart by Huo Qubing.

The "Yamatai" circled in cinnabar is the sacred mountain of the thirty tribes of the Japanese.

"Uncle, the waves are coming!" Huo Qubing slid down the mast shirtless, the newly worn whalebone knife at his waist gleaming with a bluish light.

Before the words were even finished, a three-zhang-high mad dog wave crashed against the starboard parapet, instantly engulfing the twelve sailors in a whirlpool.

Guo Jie's hands, gripping the rope, bulged with veins, as the fierce naval battle against the Southern Yue twenty years ago suddenly flashed before his eyes. At dawn, the Chijian Pass Strait was pitch black.

Huo Qubing led thirty Mengchong fighting ships to sail stealthily with their lights off, the bow poles of the ships wrapped in oil-soaked linen.

As the torches of the Japanese watchtowers lit up, the young general blew the conch shell, and the moment the baton was lit, the Han army's unique repeating crossbows unleashed a rain of rockets.

"Heavenly fire! Heavenly fire!" the Japanese screamed as they fell off the cliff.

Huo Qubing leaped onto the reef using the burning battering pole, and cleaved through three layers of wooden fences with his whalebone blade.

This is a sword technique he mastered while fighting the white wolf in the North Sea.

The bamboo arrows shot by the Japanese fell to the ground with a clang, unable to penetrate the sharkskin water armor specially made by the Han army.

Guo Jie's main fleet broke through the strait at dawn.

The catapults on the warships launched earthenware jars, which contained oil from the North Sea that ignited upon contact with water, trapping the Japanese warships in a ring of fire.

The old general suddenly snatched the drumsticks and struck the war drum of the "Stork Formation" used in the surprise attack on Hexi back then.

The Han warships immediately changed formation to crane wings, and the crossbows fired a barrage of poisoned arrows that blotted out the sky.

On the third day after landing, the Han army was ambushed on Chikushi Island.

The Japanese soldiers walked barefoot through the bamboo forest, while poisoned blowguns attacked from all directions.

Huo Qubing cut down giant bamboo to make a shield chariot, only to discover poisonous scorpions hidden within the bamboo joints. Guo Jie smelled sulfur in the air and suddenly shouted, "Raise the shields!"

Hundreds of bamboo tube bombs exploded in the formation, and tattooed barbarian soldiers rushed out from the poisonous smoke.

The old general swung his sword to cut the fuse, and the moment the sword cleaved the bamboo tube, it revealed a bronze mechanism made in Silla.

These are the very weapons that went missing three years ago when the Wiman Joseon was pacified!
"Get rid of the disease! Burn the forest!" Guo Jie threw out a tinderbox.

Huo Qubing drew his bow and fired seven rockets in succession. The arrows pierced through seven hollow bamboo trees and ignited the rock grease hidden underground.

Amidst the towering flames, the deer antler crown of the Japanese priest burned into torches, and the Han army seized the opportunity to push out the Wugang chariot. The lime powder hidden inside the chariot turned into poisonous fog when it was exposed to the wind.

On the seventh full night of the Yayoi month, the Han army approached the sacred mountain of Yamatai.

The Japanese king, wearing a bronze mask, stood atop a thousand wooden steps, the Yata no Kagami in his hand reflecting an eerie moonlight.

Just as Huo Qubing was about to launch a strong attack, Guo Jie suddenly grabbed his shoulder: "Look at the altar!"

The boiling human blood in the three-legged bronze cauldron was exactly the same as the offerings made by the Xiongnu shaman in the fourth year of the Yuanshou era.

Suddenly, three thousand torches lit up at the foot of the mountain, and the reinforcements sent by Huo Guang formed their battle formation.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Guo Jie beat the war drums, the sound of which shattered all the bronze bells.

The King of Japan collapsed to his knees!

On the day of his triumphant return in midsummer, Liu Ju personally visited Langya Terrace.

The new emperor stroked the ancient inscription "Mandate of Heaven" on the jade disc, then suddenly issued an edict: "Establish the Protectorate of the East Sea, and dispatch fifty warships annually to patrol the islands!"

In the spring of the fifteenth year of Yuanfeng, when Guo Jie planted the Zuo Gong Willow at the old site of Yamatai, he suddenly saw the outline of a giant ship appear in the mirage.

The returning Huo Qubing warship bore an unfamiliar totem on its bow, and its holds were filled with gold.

The young general leaped onto the reef and laughed loudly: "Uncle, do you know that there are descendants of the Yin people at the far end of the East China Sea?"

……

He marched south to India.

In the seventeenth year of Yuanfeng, before the morning mist on the Lancang River had dissipated, Guo Jie's warships had already breached the water fortress of Funan Kingdom.

On the crocodile-skin map that the old general's Dingjiang sword had lifted, thirty-six hidden reefs in the Mekong River were marked in vermilion.

"Uncle, look at this tide!" Huo Qubing leaped barefoot onto the mast, his star-gazing tablet, used to measure the sun's shadow, suddenly turning. "At noon, the river will flood into Funan City!"

When the miasma from the Pyu Kingdom's jungles swept over the elephant formation, the Han army witnessed the true "ghost rain" for the first time.

Huo Qubing grabbed a banana leaf to catch the venom, while the ice armor he brought from the North Sea turned into steam in the humid heat: "Light the fire! Burn the vines!"

Three thousand flamethrowers, modified from Japanese bamboo tubes, fired simultaneously, instantly turning the rainforest into a labyrinth of flames.

Guo Jie, however, discovered bronze arrowheads in the scorched earth.

The pattern is strikingly similar to the scepter unearthed at Sanxingdui.

That night, the captured shaman of Pyu revealed a startling secret: "Three hundred li to the west lies the land of the Golden Staff, whose people are all descendants of the Xia dynasty."

When the water gate of Funan Royal City suddenly burst open, Huo Qubing was leading his elite troops to swim among the crocodiles.

The moment the young general cleaved the underwater iron chain with his sword, twenty Han warships slid downstream.

Guo Jieli stood on the observation deck of the tower ship and suddenly blew the bone flute from the Chu region.

This was the bugle call of Liu Bi, the King of Wu, for his navy when he quelled the Rebellion of the Seven States!

The King of Funan threw out his royal seal and surrendered.

Snow mountain.

When crossing the Kamarupa Pass, the Han army encountered Indian elephant troops.

Guo Jie's white hair was covered with ice crystals, but his Dingjiang sword pointed towards the clouds: "Qu Bing, do you still remember the North Sea oil?"

The young general laughed loudly, and with a wave of his command flag, three hundred "fire dragon cannons," modified from catapults from the Western Regions, fired simultaneously, and pottery jars coated with oil exploded in blue flames among the elephant herd.

The prince of Sindhu rode a golden elephant into battle, and the vajra he held was engraved with the Qin seal script "Eternally Guard the Southwest".

Huo Qubing drew his bow and shot down the elephant-shaped carriage canopy, from which half of a tiger tally rolled out from among the falling gems.

It perfectly matches the Xiongnu military tally that Jiang Chong had secretly hidden back then!

Outside Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha, Guo Jie rode alone into the Ganges River.

The old general removed his armor, revealing his body covered in battle scars: "This arrow scar was inflicted by Ichisai, and this knife mark was left by the Queen of Wa."

At the source of the Ganges, Huo Qubing was carving on the rock face with a ring-pommel knife.

Once again, they sealed the wolf's lair!

……

King of the Americas.

When the aurora borealis turned the Bering Gorge green in the twenty-fifth year of the Yuanfeng era, Guo Jie's black armor was already the same color as the glacier.

The old general plunged the Dingjiang Sword into the permafrost, and the fragments of Huo Qubing's battle robe attached to the hilt fluttered in the gale.

Three days ago, the young general passed away peacefully at the foot of a pagoda in Sindhu, pointing towards the East China Sea on his deathbed: "My uncle should continue the unfinished work of Marquis Bowang."

The Han dynasty's warships were covered in the skin of seals from the North Sea, and the sides of the ships were fitted with "ice-breaking plows" designed by Huo Qubing.

As the first rays of dawn pierced the icy fog, Guo Jie pushed open the astrolabe, and the copper nails of the Twenty-Eight Mansions pointed due east: "Send the order! Burn the oil in the North Sea to melt the ice and clear the way!"

Three thousand barrels of kerosene were poured into the cracks in the ice, and blue flames meandered for hundreds of miles along the veins of the frozen soil.

As steam rose, the ice layer emitted a roar like a dragon awakening.

The ships sailed eastward along the melting waterways, and the bronze bells towed by the fleet echoed through the icy gorges, the sound waves shaking down the snow on the cliff tops and revealing ancient rock paintings.

The black bird totem bears a striking resemblance to the Mayan solar calendar!

In front of the Mayan priest's pyramid, Guo Jie removed his armor and placed it on the steps.

The old general unfolded the "Four Extremes Map" drawn by Huo Qubing, and the missing outline of the Americas in the map matched the star map of the altar.

When the Maya presented him with the jade mask, he suddenly noticed the oracle bone script on the inside of the mask.

"Fu Hao conquered the Guifang, and her descendants fled eastward!"

"Bring me the wine!" Guo Jie cut his palm and dripped his blood into the wine.

The Mayan high priest suddenly knelt in worship according to ancient Shang Dynasty rituals, and three hundred bronze axes rose from beneath the altar.

The decorative patterns are identical to those on weapons unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao in Anyang.

The old general roared to the sky, and the Dingjiang Sword cleaved the giant stone of the altar, revealing half of a tortoise shell hidden inside: "In the sixth year of Wu Ding's reign, the Eastern Yi came to pay tribute."

When the Aztec Empire's Sunstone suddenly shattered, Guo Jie was standing atop the city of Teotihuacan.

The Han army's crossbows fired in volleys, their poisoned arrows piercing the pyramids, and the silk ribbons attached to the arrows unfurled into a giant "Han" character under the blazing sun.

The Aztec king presented a golden crown, the inscription inside of which was in Qin seal script: "The Yin people came here and performed the Fengshan ceremony at the East Sea!"

"What a fine descendant of the Yin people!" Guo Jie threw the crown into the sacrificial fire, and a golden navigation map emerged from the flames.

On the first day of the thirtieth year of Yuanfeng, Liu Ju smashed the He Shi Bi jade in Weiyang Palace.

Amidst the swirling jade dust, Guo Jie's nautical charts covered the main hall: from the Bering Gorge to the Amazon rainforest, three hundred Han dynasty beacon towers stretched out like a blue dragon.

The new emperor swung his sword and severed the tassels from his crown: "I hereby confer upon the Marquis of Zhi the title of King of the Americas, to forever guard the land of Guixu!"

When the edict reached the Mayan city-state, Guo Jie was scattering the ashes of Han soldiers into the Gulf of America.

The old general used his sword, Dingjiang, as a pen to carve the "Four Extremes Stele" on the cliff face.

As the final stroke landed, a tsunami suddenly erupted, and a mirage of the Great Wall appeared amidst the waves!

In the first year of the Tai Chu era, on the day of Jingzhe (Awakening of Insects), children in Chang'an sang a new folk song: "The Marquis of Zhi rode away on a whale, his red flag fluttering in the west wind."

In the Americas, a new Han Chinese dynasty was rising.

(End of this chapter)