A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

The soldiers of Loulan dared not act rashly because of these words. The Han Dynasty had a precedent for this; Nanyue had killed an envoy and massacred him, turning the area into nine commanderies.

Fu Jiezi was very satisfied with the soldiers' performance when he saw how obedient they were.

He raised it high as the ceremonial staff of the Han envoy, causing all the troops to retreat.

Due to the intimidation of the Han Dynasty, these soldiers obediently followed Fu Jiezi's orders.

Fu Jiezi found the son of the King of Loulan and made him the new king.

The new King of Loulan trembled when he saw Fu Jiezi; he was a murderer.

"King of Loulan, are you willing to safeguard the borders of our Great Han Dynasty and protect Han merchants within Loulan's territory?"

Fu Jiezi stared at the new King of Loulan and said.

Even though it was just a normal stare, the new King of Loulan felt as if Fu Jiezi was examining his neck, making it feel chilly.

"Of course I'm willing, Xiao Wang is willing!"

The newly appointed King of Loulan quickly said.

He was afraid that if he was any later, his head would no longer be on his shoulder.

Fu Jiezi nodded in satisfaction, and then returned to Chang'an City unharmed with the old Loulan king's head and 11 followers.

Emperor Zhao of Han enfeoffed him as the Marquis of Yiyang, with a fief of seven hundred households.

Afterwards, Fu Jiezi made several missions to the Western Regions, leaving a deep impression on the various kingdoms there.

On this day, news came again from the Western Regions.

A caravan went missing near the Wusun Kingdom.

After the news reached Chang'an, Wei Zhong summoned Wei Qi to his home.

"Brother, those small countries in the Western Regions are really courting death! They don't take our Great Han seriously at all, and have repeatedly caused problems for our caravans there!"

Wei Qi was quite indignant when the topic of the vanished Han merchant caravan in the Western Regions came up.

Even if it's just a caravan, they are still subjects of the Han people.

How could those barbarians from the Western Regions possibly harm us!

"I called you here precisely for this matter."

"His Majesty's intention to divide up my Wei family is now plain for all to see."

"The reason I didn't stop it is because it suited our purposes perfectly."

"Our goal has never been to seize the court, but to spread like wildfire, to protect the development of all people, and to draw fortune from the common people of the world."

"Now I realize we've overlooked a very important area, and that is the Western Regions."

"The Western Regions will eventually be incorporated into the Han Dynasty, so we need to make plans as soon as possible."

"Based on my speculation, transforming barbarians into qualified descendants of the Chinese will bring great fortune to our Wei family."

Wei Zhong reassured Wei Qi, as he already had plans regarding the Western Regions.

"Brother, the barbarians fear power but do not cherish virtue. It will not be easy to educate them into qualified descendants of the Chinese nation."

Wei Qi was somewhat puzzled. Surely Wei Zhong could have considered these things?

"I know."

"If it's difficult, then we'll have to resort to some special methods."

"Everything is for the development of civilization, so that those barbarians can bask in the spring breeze of civilization."

"All the sacrifices were worthwhile!"

Wei Zhong said slowly.

Wei Qi sensed the impending bloodshed in Wei Zhong's words.

"Once you arrive in the Western Regions, you will..."

The look of horror in Wei Qi's eyes grew stronger as he listened. Sure enough, military generals only killed people, while scholars killed people without knives, not only killing them but also destroying their spirits.

"Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Wei Qi kept everything Wei Zhong said in mind. He knew he couldn't outwit Wei Zhong, so he would just follow Wei Zhong's orders.

The next day, Wei Qi suddenly submitted a memorial.

"Your Majesty, the kingdoms of the Western Regions are far from the Han Dynasty and many of them have committed acts of rebellion."

"The people of Han China suffered greatly from this."

"Furthermore, since the end of the reign of the late emperor, after the witchcraft incident, our dynasty's attacks on the Western Xiongnu have gradually slowed down, allowing the Western Xiongnu to recover a great deal of strength."

"Your Majesty, I request that you establish the Protectorate of the Western Regions, formally incorporating the Western Regions into the rule of our dynasty."

"Your subject wishes to volunteer to serve as the Protectorate General of the Western Regions, to educate and civilize the Western Regions."

Civilizing the Western Regions?!

This is a tough job.

The Western Regions are not a good place. The road is a vast stretch of Gobi Desert stretching for thousands of miles. The area is full of small kingdoms and is extremely complicated.

Completely subjugating that area would be an impossible task that could be accomplished in a single generation.

Are you sure?

When Emperor Zhao of Han spoke, his gaze fell upon Wei Zhong.

"I am willing to move my entire family to the Western Regions, and I am confident that I can completely Sinicize the Western Regions."

Wei Qi bowed again to express his firm resolve.

The whole family moved to the Western Regions.

Is the Wei family leaving themselves a way out?

Was I being too obvious?

Ah, since ascending the throne, he certainly hasn't bothered to hide it.

Emperor Zhao of Han made the same mistake as several previous emperors of the Han Dynasty: he thought he had seen through the Wei family's intentions.

"What are your plans after we arrive in the Western Regions?"

"Your Majesty, I hope you will grant me the power of life and death. I will then promote the standardization of writing, cart axles, weights and measures, ethical norms, land boundaries, and currency in the Western Regions."

"Only a nation that can achieve this can exist; otherwise, it is not loyal to our Great Han, and is naturally a colluder with the Xiongnu, and should be destroyed."

Wei Qi replied.

"Your Majesty, you mustn't."

Immediately, someone in the court jumped out to dissuade Emperor Zhao of Han.

"This action is contrary to the will of Heaven and should absolutely not be taken."

"Our great Han Dynasty governs the world with propriety; how can we easily attack vassal states!"

A minister from the Confucian Guliang School jumped out and started criticizing Wei Qi.

He hoped that by doing this, he could gain the attention of Emperor Zhao of Han and thus achieve great success.

"Bullshit!"

Members of the Gongyang School also stepped forward and started swearing.

"These barbarians fear our might but do not cherish virtue; they are unwilling to even abide by the rules and regulations of our Great Han. They must have already submitted to the Xiongnu. How can they not be punished!"

"And then there are the Wusun, who have repeatedly harmed my Han people. This blood feud is so deep that it cannot be appeased without killing them, cannot restore the prestige of our nation, and cannot bring peace to the souls of the dead. We must destroy their country to avenge them!"

"What are you, Guliang, thinking, defending those small states that have sided with the Xiongnu?"

"The blood of those Han Chinese who died in the Western Regions isn't even cold yet?"

"The spirits of the people who died with their eyes wide open are still watching us from heaven, and tens of millions of people outside are waiting for our actions. Doesn't your Guliang School feel uneasy?"

As expected of the Gongyang School, which advocated great revanchism, it's a pity that this school declined in the late Han Dynasty.

Otherwise, later generations of Confucianism would definitely not have been like that.

The Five Barbarian Invasions are very likely not to have occurred.

Even though the Three Kingdoms period depleted the essence of the Han Dynasty, the remaining powerful clans still highly valued the distinction between Chinese and barbarians and advocated revenge.

They could squander their entire fortune to attack those invading alien races, how could they possibly lose?

Even if only a few million Han Chinese were united, they could wipe out those nomadic peoples.

After all, the nomadic tribes of that time were not very powerful even after being attacked by the Three Kingdoms.

The minister from the Guliang School was rendered speechless.

With such fighting prowess, it's no wonder that even when the emperor personally intervened to intervene, he couldn't defeat the ram, which had lost an arm and a leg.