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

After Wang Mang's death, Liu Xiu inherited Wang Mang's will, reduced taxes and levies, rectified official corruption, and the Han Dynasty flourished.

In the tenth year of Emperor Guangwu of Han, another group of meritorious officials and relatives of the imperial family were sent out to establish their own fiefdoms, and the territory that the Han Dynasty could control expanded once again.

After Wang Mang's death, in recognition of Wang Mang's achievements, Emperor Guangwu of Han increased the resources allocated to the Wang family, enabling them to send Wei Hou to lead troops and directly annex the entire Yuezhi in the following years.

Today, the Wang family occupies the entire Heng River basin and its territory further west.

Following the instructions left by Wang Mang before his death, they decided to expand southward in search of the land that Wang Mang had described as a place where a single seed could be sown and yield three harvests a year without needing to be cultivated.

After heading south, they discovered a very strange religion called Brahmanism.

This religion was also mentioned in Wang Mang's letter. They never expected that such a bizarre religion actually existed.

The Brahmins turned all the hundred kingdoms in the southern part of the western continent into their subjects, and almost all their people became their slaves.

However, they are not called slaves, but Shudras.

The Shudras are the lowest of the four castes of Brahmins, serving exclusively the higher castes.

They engage in the most menial jobs, perform the most arduous labor, receive the meager income, and are subjected to the cruelest treatment.

Above the Shudras is the Vaishya, who are mainly composed of commoners engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, and commerce. Their primary obligations are to pay taxes and support the Brahmin and Kshatriya classes.

The Kshatriyas are the second caste in the caste system, holding political and military power and being the main ruling class in this land.

Brahmins are the highest caste in the caste system, responsible for studying scriptures, presiding over sacrifices, and providing education.

Enjoying the privilege of tax exemption, possessing the right to interpret the gods, acting as the gods' representatives on earth, and even calling themselves the descendants of Brahma, they can even knock down a Kshatriya with a single word, turning the Kshatriya into a Shudra.

What surprised them even more was that these four classes were completely rigid.

Each social class is determined from birth, and no matter how capable you are, you cannot change it throughout your life.

Intermarriage between different classes was prohibited; couples could only marry and have children with members of the same class.

The religious system horrified the people from the Han Dynasty, as it completely abandoned humanity.

These slaves did not resist at all; they only thought of offering all their possessions to the Brahmins in exchange for salvation in the next life.

It should be noted that even on the island of Wa, there are still occasional acts of resistance.

But in this place, the Brahmins ruled for hundreds of years, and despite the impact of Buddhism, they remained firmly in power.

"No wonder Prime Minister Wang said this is the best source of slaves. We can use these people to produce a continuous supply of resources for us, and use these resources to expand our territory."

"A group of people who believe they are guilty and need to atone for their sins through labor, and who are hopelessly addicted to it, will devote everything to us if we give them even the slightest chance, allowing a few of them to advance their social class each year."

Wei Hou sighed.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling a little reluctant?"

Wang Yu said with a smile.

Wei Hou shook his head. "These barbarians are not human."

"All we need to do is eliminate all these so-called Brahmins and then let the Han Chinese replace them."

"This place will be under our rule for generations to come."

"In addition to the high grain output, given enough time, I can raise an army of hundreds of thousands here."

"If you promise them that they can become Kshatriyas if they perform enough merits, I can't even imagine what kind of power they can unleash."

Wei Hou knew all too well the extent to which fanatics would go for their beliefs, because in the Han Dynasty, his Wei family had such fanatics.

"Do you think we can conquer the Parthian Empire within 30 years?"

Wang Yu asked.

"It's difficult."

"That was ultimately a peak empire. Once it mobilized its entire force, it was something we couldn't possibly mess with now."

"Only when we fully integrate this area will we be able to compete with the other side."

"We estimate that it will take a hundred years to completely assimilate this place, then a war between the two countries will begin, and with the help of other vassal states, it will take several decades to destroy it."

Wei Hou used the strength of the Han Dynasty a hundred years ago to estimate the strength of the Parthian Empire, then shook his head, thinking that he probably wouldn't live to see that day.

After leaving the Han Dynasty, his horizons broadened considerably.

When making plans, it is often done in units of several years or even decades.

He who does not plan for the long term is not fit to plan for the short term.

Those who cannot plan for the whole cannot plan for a part.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; a great river is formed from countless small streams."

"Let's begin in this decaying land!"

Facing south, Wang Yu and Wei Hou, leading the Han cavalry, began their sweeping conquest of the Brahmins.

In two other places, India and the Northern Xiongnu also began to be attacked by the first batch of Han vassal states.

The Han Dynasty officially opened its blood-red maw to the surrounding countries.

……

Under the rule of Emperor Guangwu of Han, the entire Han Dynasty developed at an extremely stable pace. Emperor Guangwu united various forces within the court and easily accomplished what Emperor Ping of Han could not achieve even with his entire life's efforts.

Time and life.

In the thirty-second year of Emperor Guangwu of Han's reign, the population of the Han Dynasty approached 150 million. Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu performed the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai, marking another peak for the Han Dynasty.

In the thirty-third year of Emperor Guangwu of Han's reign, Emperor Guangwu died in Chang'an. His son, Crown Prince Liu Zhuang, succeeded him, and he is known in history as Emperor Ming of Han.

During the reigns of Emperor Ming of Han (Liu Zhuang) and Emperor Zhang of Han (Liu Da), having never witnessed chaos in the world, they decided to implement a policy of recuperation and development, temporarily halting the Han Dynasty's external expansion.

During the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han, many powerful aristocratic families went to establish their own fiefdoms, resulting in a significant power vacuum in the Han Dynasty.

During the period of recuperation and development under Emperors Ming and Zhang, a large number of new talents filled the void, and the central government of the Han Dynasty gradually restored its rule.

The loss of cultural heritage caused by the enfeoffment system in the Han Dynasty was greatly alleviated.

This led to the Han Dynasty being able to launch a large-scale outward expansion once again during the reign of Emperor He.

After decades of development, the vassal states of the Han Dynasty had gained considerable strength.

Feeling the pressure, the Parthian Empire allied with the Western Xiongnu and also won over some surrounding smaller states, forming an alliance.

Due to the lack of resources and foundation of the Han Dynasty, it was unable to support the surrounding vassal states, resulting in these states being more capable of self-preservation than of making any significant progress.

This situation did not ease until the reign of Emperor He of Han.

Emperor He of Han dispatched Wei Liang, the current head of the Wei family's Wu'an Marquis lineage, to lead the Han's elite cavalry and a coalition of forces from various vassal states in Xizhou to ignite war against the Western Xiongnu.