Chapter 7142 Extreme Route

Chapter 7142 Extreme Route
Due to the nature of the Roman Empire's citizenship system, many citizens enjoyed a relatively leisurely life, supported by barbarians and living comfortably. As a result, they had more time to engage in artistic pursuits such as sculpture and fine arts, achieving a truly remarkable level in these areas and leaving behind a considerable legacy for posterity.

But in Chen Xi’s memory, even Rome, which is famous for its stone carving, had to go through several innovations to reach the level of what Ganassis is presenting, and it was not until the 19th century that it had the ability to sculpt at this level.

It can only be said that in an era with extraordinary skills, it is indeed possible to transcend a thousand years by ignoring certain conditions.

"It is indeed miraculous." Chen Deng suppressed his shock and said with a complicated expression. When the Central Plains was powerful, its attitude towards imported goods was to take the essence and discard the dross. It would not resist the other party just because it was an imported product. On the contrary, it would become an important part or support of its own because it was useful.

Therefore, when Chen Dengsheng saw works of this caliber, he didn't think they were just clever tricks, but rather genuinely believed they were amazing skills, masterpieces, and divine craftsmanship.

After all, some artworks are purely for money laundering and to fool people, while some artworks, once you see them, even if you haven't studied anything about them, you know they are truly good.

The sculpture that Ganassis brought out is the kind that any normal person would recognize at a glance as a masterpiece of art!
The jade carving perfectly captures the feel of gauze, the hazy beauty, and the vivid sense of wind blowing through the gauze. Any normal person would be awestruck upon first seeing it.

Chen Deng wasn't the kind of person to say one thing and mean another, so he naturally praised him repeatedly.

“I had someone specially commissioned to sculpt it, and I thought it was quite suitable, so I brought it over,” Ganassis said with a hint of pride. At their level, jade was not scarce; rather, the craftsmanship of transforming jade into other everyday items was much rarer.

To be honest, this thing isn't as easy as Ganassis makes it out to be. Any skill that has been elevated to this level is basically at the very top. If Ganassis doesn't give you face, there's nothing you can do. The Duke is awesome, but even Severus would use this to show off.

Art can be highbrow and niche, but true art is what is universally recognized. And the thing that Ganassis has brought out now is known to everyone, regardless of age or gender, not because of the expensive materials, but because of the sublimation of his craftsmanship!

"That's really impressive. We can work out a trade agreement or something like that later. I reckon there are quite a few people in Sichuan who really need something like that," Chen Deng said with a touch of emotion.

Upon hearing this, Chen Xi glanced sideways at Chen Deng. The Chengdu Plain had been peaceful for over a hundred years, so it naturally tended towards eating, drinking, and having fun, and such luxuries were inherently suited to that kind of place.

As for why some local people can still afford to buy such things when all the major families have gone abroad to establish their own countries, well, having a long history and extensive connections only means having a deep foundation and assets. But when it comes to wealth, some people's accumulation in one lifetime is enough to surpass the accumulation of many families over dozens of generations. That's just how it is.

Ganassis nodded, showing great interest in the Shu brocade in Chen Deng's possession and willing to trade with Chen Deng later. As for the Jing brocade that had been purchased on a large scale before, it was fine; the Roman Empire had plenty of people who needed silk, and even in the midst of ongoing turmoil, it would continue to purchase silk.

Even if the rebels win, does that mean they'll stop wearing silk?
Given the climate of the Mediterranean region, what other suitable clothing is there besides silk?
So it doesn't matter, we should still buy it. Besides, smuggling silk is one of the biggest sources of revenue for their eastern border counties.

Well, it wasn't exactly smuggling silk; it was just about providing silk to more Romans through other affordable channels.

After all, even without Parthia, there were still the dukes of the eastern border counties of Rome, right? Surely no one thinks that the price of silk in the Roman Empire was higher than that of gold, but that was just a problem with the Parthian Empire? What a joke! Do you think the nobles of the eastern border counties wouldn't be exploited along the Silk Road?
That's definitely something that needs to be investigated. The price of silk can increase a hundredfold, and the responsibility of the Duke of the Eastern Border County is at least 30%. But there's no way to say it; you can't stop the Duke of the Eastern Border County from making money, can you?

"Lord Chen, my father Pompiannis sent me to give you his regards." Pompiannis bowed respectfully to Chen Xi, who returned the bow formally. He then asked Pompiannis to also convey his greetings to the Roman treasurer. As he had said before, there were very few treasurers these days who were as capable and conscientious as Pompiannis.

In terms of ability, Liu Ba may not be much worse than Pompianus, but in terms of conscience, Liu Ba is far inferior to Pompianus, so Liu Ba dug his own grave.

After the two Romans chatted for a while and finalized some matters, Chen Xi turned to Chen Deng and asked, "Yuanlong, I heard that you have once again proposed to waive taxes on certain mountainous areas in southern Sichuan?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Deng paused for a moment, then said solemnly, "Yes, I did indeed submit an official document, hoping that the country would understand the local situation and abandon the taxation of some mountain people in southwestern Sichuan. To be honest, the cost of transporting the grain out of the area is much higher than the price of the grain itself. But if we collect the grain and leave it there, the danger is greater than not collecting it. I think we need to weigh the two evils."

Chen Deng's words were not empty talk, but a fact that Chen Xi had to face. Unlike the situation in the eastern and central regions where the consolidation of villages and hamlets was completed and roads were built, the consolidation of villages and hamlets in the southwest region was not being implemented very well. On the one hand, there were questions about how to consolidate villages and hamlets, and on the other hand, there were questions about how to build roads.

These are all problems, because the eastern and central regions, except for a few places, do not have such complex mountainous terrain, but the southwest region has such terrain throughout.

In addition, given the complex forest areas and mountainous terrain, investing money in road construction in such places before the country's wealth reaches a certain level is truly a case of high input and low output.

After all, even if you build the road, the output won't be enough to cover the cost of building it. In essence, this kind of road construction is purely a matter of humanistic care.

The Han dynasty's development had not yet reached the point where it could provide the people with such meticulous humanistic care. Therefore, in the southwest, apart from the Chengdu Plain area which did meet Chen Xi's standards, the infrastructure in other places was relatively much worse. Even so, Chen Xi could honestly say that it was indeed much better than before, but it could only be compared to the past.

Of course, there are also some historical factors. For example, Sichuan was Liu Zhang's old base. He handed over Sichuan in a very dignified manner. If Liu Bei had resorted to violence to resolve the issue in a less dignified way, how could the two sides have maintained their constant contact?

Therefore, when promoting the consolidation of villages and the development of roads and logistics in Sichuan, there will be some other obstacles, and it is not easy to deal with them by violent means.

When Sun Qian was building the Southwest Passage, he helped Chen Deng solve many problems. He helped relocate almost all the villages within dozens of miles of the Southwest Passage, allowing them to finally leave the mountains. After all, a wide road was right next to them, allowing them to leave the isolated mountains.

In this respect, Chen Xi was satisfied with Chen Deng, because Sun Qian had also reported to Chen Xi throughout the process, saying that while he was building roads ahead, Chen Deng organized manpower and even personally went to persuade the people in the mountainous areas to relocate. In the end, he successfully relocated all the mountain people near the Southwest Passage to the side of this national highway and built roads for them to leave the village.

However, the Southwest Passage can only solve the travel problems of the mountain people near this passage, but cannot solve the travel problems of more mountain people. After all, even if Yan Yan and Zhang Ren led most of the Jiuli people in southern Yizhou out of the mountains and settled in central and southern China, there should still be 300,000 to 400,000 mountain people in southern Yizhou at this stage. If we consider these people as our own, then merging villages and adding roads to every village is imperative.

Chen Xi was also very troubled by this, but no matter how troubled he was, he felt it was necessary to do it. Even though the feudal era did not emphasize this level of humanistic care, Chen Xi was not born into the feudal era. He had his own morality and understanding, and he would help when he should. For Chen Xi, this was a basic moral principle.

Or to put it more directly, this is the foundational anchor of Chen Xi's morality. If one day Chen Xi were to ignore the situation in a certain region, knowing full well that the other party is suffering but turning a blind eye and a deaf ear, and artificially creating antagonism, then Chen Xi would have been completely assimilated by feudalism.

Therefore, no matter how difficult the situation is in the southwest, Chen Xi still has to push things forward. He has to fulfill all the promises he made back then.

“If that’s the whole idea, then it’s not bad.” Chen Xi pointed to the stool next to him and said to Chen Deng, “But we’ve known each other for more than ten years, and I know you well enough. Your answer is only one aspect.”

Chen Deng remained silent for a while after hearing this, and finally shook his head. "I didn't mean to hide it from you. What I said before was only part of it, but to be honest, this part is the majority. Besides, you really can't expect me to be as morally upright as you, Lord Chen."

“This is not a moral issue,” Chen Xi said very seriously.

From the moment Chen Deng formally submitted the official document to the government office for the first time, Chen Xi and others realized that Chen Deng's document should be viewed from two perspectives. On the one hand, Chen Deng was indeed reducing the burden on the people of Sichuan in the mountainous areas, and on the other hand, he was also preparing to eliminate these people when necessary.

If you don't pay taxes, then you're not our citizens. Since you're not our citizens, we can use some violent means. To put it another way, since you're not citizens, I can forcibly take over your village, turn you into slaves, sell you off from the mountains, and then transfer you to another village elsewhere. By forcibly merging villages, we can complete the relocation, meet the population quota, and solve the problem of feeding the former mountain people. It's a win-win-win situation!
More importantly, there's no way to sue in this situation. You're not a citizen; you've been exiled and relocated. How can you sue then? There's no recourse.

After the migration, the people were registered as households, and the population targets were met. Then, another round of "civilization" was carried out. The higher-ups came to review the information, and the people were completely Sinicized. They could get another quota. These were all political achievements! And they were all impressive achievements to show off.

It can be said that from the very first day that Chen Deng submitted this official document, he had already planned how to proceed. After all, with Zang Hong having already achieved such success, Chen Deng was bound to want to copy his methods. Moreover, compared to the situation in Bingzhou where Zang Hong's violent methods were difficult to justify, Chen Deng could genuinely claim that those mountain people were not citizens, thus allowing him to make a triple profit.

As it turns out, from what Chen Xi is saying now, this can't be done this way. The problem is that given the reality of the Yizhou mountain area, if you don't do it this way, those mountain people who have already settled in the valleys will never be able to come out.

"No, Lord Chen, how can I explain the situation in Yizhou to you?" Chen Deng said with a headache. "Let me put it this way, Yizhou can be divided into two parts: the Chengdu Plain and the rest. In the Chengdu Plain, the pace of life is slow, and the local landlords and tenants get along well. Moreover, the tenants are all long-term tenants, while the landlords only harvest once, or even never work in the fields at all. They live in the city and only go to check on things during harvest time because they are guaranteed a good harvest regardless of drought or flood."

“Yes, Dujiangyan, I understand.” Chen Xi nodded. Yizhou is home to a group of extraordinary families, descendants of Li Bing, the Qu family, the Zhou family, big shots in water power, big shots in agriculture and food, big shots in astronomy and climate, so Chengdu has its own local farming calendar.

In other words, since the establishment of Dujiangyan, life on the Chengdu Plain has been pretty good. Apart from the difficulty of getting in and out, there has been basically no pressure in other aspects.

Therefore, the landlords of the Chengdu Plain have never been corrupt since ancient times. Even in the mid-20th century, before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the landlords of the Chengdu Plain remained the same.

However, Yizhou, or later Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, was not just the Chengdu Plain. In fact, the Chengdu Plain only occupied a very small part. All the other places were in a state of struggling against nature. Many people survived, but they were all in the forests. The government's management capabilities were basically unable to penetrate into such places.

When Chen Deng was in Xuzhou, he found it hard to imagine the situation in Sichuan because it was mostly a plain. After entering Yizhou, he realized that this place was completely different from Xuzhou. This led to his relatively extreme, once-and-for-all plan: to capture those people, forcibly merge villages and hamlets, and reduce the need to build so many roads, thus greatly reducing costs.

“Although it’s a bit extreme, I think it’s the most reliable and feasible plan at this stage. More importantly, this method can solve the problem once and for all.” After Chen Xi pointed out Chen Deng’s thoughts, Chen Deng no longer hid them. He did indeed want to take drastic measures, just as Chen Xi thought.

“The problem is that this method is neither reliable nor a permanent solution. Just determining the location of all the villages and counting all the people is not an easy task. Also, if you send troops into the mountains to attack these villages, can you really take them all?” Chen Xi said helplessly. Over the years, he had become accustomed to the extreme behavior of the Han Dynasty, so he was not particularly angry.

"Thanks to my benevolent governance over the past few years, I have located all the mountain dwellers, and I have repeatedly sent people to persuade them. Those who are unwilling to relocate are simply stubborn and inflexible," Chen Deng said in a deep voice.

In recent years, Chen Deng has done a very good job in Yizhou. He has indeed relocated all the villages along the Southwest Passage to the area next to the Southwest Passage. Therefore, he has a certain reputation. The villagers who have completed the relocation and have truly felt the benefits of the relocation are also willing to point out the locations of other villages to Chen Deng.

People in the mountains have plenty of ways to find other groups of people in the mountains. Whether they have a grudge or a favor, they can always find them. Thanks to these mountain people, Chen Deng has managed to find almost all the families in the deep mountains and forests in the past few years.

In addition, salt was cheap in the country at that time. Chen Deng sent people into the mountains to use salt to open roads. The mountain tribes in those deep forests were still willing to communicate with Chen Deng. Considering that Chen Deng had gone there repeatedly over the years to try to persuade them, but had not taken any action, the mountain people had become much less wary of the people Chen Deng sent.

This led to Chen Deng's plan to wipe them all out in one fell swoop—first, announce that taxes would no longer be required, then send meat and salt to these people, hold bonfire banquets or something similar on the third day of the third lunar month, and then arrest them all.

Chen Xi listened to Chen Deng's plan and was speechless, but to be fair, it was very feasible. After all, the mountain people were also human. They had been eating Chen Deng's refined salt for several years, and maybe even some sugar. Even if they were still wary, they couldn't keep a close eye on the people Chen Deng sent.

After all, several years have passed, and Chen Deng has done nothing but offer advice.

However, Chen Xi still rejected the contraption Chen Deng had come up with.

"I'll have a professional calculate how much it would cost to arrange a regular two-lane road along the optimal route, based on your map of the mountain people's distribution. You might as well give up on this idea," Chen Xi said helplessly.

“No, Lord Chen, it’s true that the actions were a bit extreme, but if we forcibly relocate them, provide them with houses to live in, fields to cultivate, clothes to wear, and food to eat, most of the mountain people will be staunch supporters, except for those tribal chiefs who might harbor resentment.” Chen Deng was somewhat unconvinced by Chen Xi’s words. “I have plenty of ways to deal with those tribal chiefs, and without their instigation and guidance, with my methods, they will be Han Chinese in less than two years!”

The attached images are two jade carvings. The first is actually a jade sachet, and the second is a jade carving of a celestial music scene. Both were carved by the same person. More importantly, the first jade sachet was intended to win the championship, but it didn't.