Huang Ting

Yancheng is built on the Tianshan Mountains, and the Kucha Palace is on the mountainside of the Tianshan Mountains. Kucha has the richest products among the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions, so the palace is built to be magnificent, solemn and grand.

In order to cope with the wind and sand in the Western Regions, the appearance of the palace is rough and not too much decorated. It can only be seen that the palace is very grand, with each floor being two feet high.

But there is something else going on inside the Kucha Palace. The candlesticks used to place candles in the palace corridors are all made of gold, and the surface of the candlesticks is also carved with intricate patterns.

Various lifelike murals are painted on the walls of the corridor. The murals record the creation of the Kingdom of Kucha by King Kucha in the Cook Oasis.

However, the content of the mural is obviously distorted and has some artistic processing.

King Qiuci has been deified. He is simply a god who blocks and kills. He is invincible in battles and invincible. He also knows how to use people and has great talents and strategies. If you only look at the murals, you would think that King Qiuci established a kingdom that spans the Eurasian continent.

huge empire.

Anyway, after Gao Lu saw these murals, he curled his lips in disdain. Although he hadn't met King Qiuci yet, he already had a preliminary impression of him.

King Qiuci is really thick-skinned.

It was the first time for Gao Lu to see these exquisite murals, but Gao Gu had seen them many times. He sighed in Chinese:

"These murals are the same as when I came last time. There is no change, but the colors seem to have faded."

Gao Lu looked at Gao Gu in confusion, unable to understand why Gao Gu suddenly said this to him.

Isn’t it normal that the content of the mural has not changed?

Looking at Gao Lu's confused expression, Gao Gu sighed:

"Time is still too late, Lin Heng has not grown up yet."

Being in the palace of Qiuci, there were also attendants and guards from Qiuci around, so Gao Gu did not teach Gao Lu here for the time being.

In order to maintain the content of the murals and their bright colors, the murals need to be maintained every year. Western churches will hire painters to add color to the murals in the church every year.

The murals in the Kucha Palace are no exception, but these murals are the same as those seen by Gao Gu a few years ago, which shows that the finances of Kucha Kingdom have been very pessimistic in recent years, and they have not been able to waste financial and material resources on details.

It seems that Queen Jingjue has pushed Kucha hard in the past few years. In order to meet Jingjue's request for offerings, the money Kucha has accumulated may be exhausted.

The maid who led the way brought Gao Gu's uncle and nephew to the entrance of a main hall, then turned to Gao Gu and said to Gao Gu in Qiuchi language:

"Sir, I can only send you here. The king is waiting for you in the palace."

"Trouble."

Gao Gu replied in Qiuci language.

The maid smiled sweetly, returned the greeting to the two of them, and then left.

Gao Gu straightened his clothes, stretched them out, and smoothed out the wrinkles:

"Let's go. Don't lose your etiquette in front of King Kucha, but don't be too humble and let him look down upon you."

"Here."

Gao Lu imitated Gao Gu's movements, but he was still not as free and easy as Gao Gu and seemed a little nervous.

The two of them walked into the palace, and the only one left in the palace was the smiling King Zeluo of Kucha, who was sitting on a golden lion throne with a brocade belt on his head, a narrow-sleeved robe with folded lapels, a treasure belt around his waist, and long boots.

Although Zeluo is nearly eighty years old, with white hair and a wrinkled face, his eyes are as bright as smoke, which makes it difficult to look directly at him. He is also tall and muscular, and his condition looks better than that of a man who is only in his thirties.

Gao Gu is even better.

Needless to say, King Zeluo of Kucha must be a strange person, and only a strange person with full innate energy can still maintain such a state at the age of eighty.

Most of the kings of the thirty-six countries in the Western Region are strangers. The Western Region is vast and sparsely populated. As long as you have force, you can gather a group of followers, find an oasis, and establish yourself as a king.

For example, the Pulei Kingdom with a population of just over 2,000 was established in this way.

Kucha was like this at the beginning, but King Zeluo of Kucha was very powerful. Relying on his own bravery, he led his men to occupy an oasis with the most abundant products. After more than 50 years of operation and construction, he finally built an oasis with a population of 80,000.

, the Kingdom of Qiuci defeated thousands of soldiers.

Kucha’s music is not only moving and unique, but its swords and halberds are also sharp.

If Queen Jingjue hadn't been born out of nowhere, Qiuci would have been the most powerful country among the thirty-six countries in the Western Region.

Kucha was a small country, and Yiren's advantages were even more prominent. King Kucha knew that if his heir was not Yiren, he would not be able to secure the throne.

However, the proportion of aliens is one in 150,000. Although the chance of aliens giving birth to aliens is higher, the odds are not optimistic.

Therefore, in order to continue the Kucha Kingdom, the King of Kucha could only cast a wide net and scatter seeds everywhere.

Some people even jokingly say that if there is a fight between the nobles of Kucha, the prince of Kucha will take half.

But even so, when Gao Gu came last time, he still didn't hear that there was a stranger among Zeluo's descendants.

Gao Gu led Gao Lu to visit King Zeluo of Qiuci and greeted him in proficient Qiuci dialect.

Zeluo laughed, walked down from the throne, and personally helped Gao Gu:

"Sages don't need to be polite. The last time the sages advised me to divide the work among the craftsmen, the forging speed of the ordnance has indeed increased a lot. Last year, I even fully completed the requirements of Jingjue."

Gao Gu cupped his hands and said: "That is your contribution to King Qiuci. If it were not for your hard work, Qiuci would not be what it is today, so I just made some suggestions."

It can be seen that Gaogu and Zeluo have a good personal relationship. This is the reason why Gaogu made suggestions for Zeluo before. Before Gaogu, the Zakrama tribe only regarded Kucha as a simple place to stay.

Like Gao Ji, when he and his elders came to Kucha for the first time, he keenly discovered the advantages of Kucha. The transportation here is convenient and the materials are rich. If they can get help from Kucha, it will be great for them.

It is said that it is even more powerful than a tiger.

After a few days of visits, Gao Gu discovered a problem in Qiuci Kingdom.

In the barbarian land of the Western Regions, the official system was chaotic, the responsibilities of officials were unclear, and their authority was unclear. If King Qiuci did not appoint someone to do the things he ordered, no one would do it.

Because they didn't know whether he should do it or not.

It is said to be a country, but it is more like a large bandit den with many hills.

After returning to the Han Dynasty, Gao Gu went to a large county with 100,000 households. With some money, he entered the county government and became the chief bookkeeper, helping him process documents and familiarizing himself with the organization of the county government.

structure.

Although Kucha is known as a country, it has a population of 80,000 and its territory is no more than a county in the Han Dynasty. As long as a complete county government can be built, it will be enough for Kucha.

After staying in the county government for a period of time, Gao Gu had a detailed understanding of the operation of the county government, so he resigned from his job in the county government. After coming to Qiuci again, he tried his best to meet the King of Qiuci.

, presented a complete set of Kucha official policies to the King of Kucha.

There has never been such a complete and strict official system in the Western Regions, although some people, even those from some countries in the Western Regions, do not understand what Gao Gu said.

However, Zeluo discovered the benefits and asked Gao Gu to help him implement the perfect official system from the Han Dynasty in Qiuci.

From then on, Zeluo's edicts could be delivered to every corner of Kucha.

Zeluo was very happy, thinking that Gao Gu was a wise man given to him by God, and even wanted Gao Gu to be his prime minister, but Gao Gu declined.

Gao Gu declined the position of prime minister, but the Zakrama tribe still had unimpeded access to Qiuci. No one dared to stop them. Even Zeluo's sons were very polite to Gao Gu.

The last time Gao Gu came to Yancheng, Zeluo specifically asked Gao Gu about Jing Jue and asked him if he had any good ideas.

However, this was a gap in hard power. Gao Gu had no idea at the moment, so he could only teach Zero to Xian Qin how to make crossbows in a timely manner, so that he could deal with the ordnance requested by Jing Jue first.

Zeluo and Gaogu exchanged a few words, and Gaogu introduced Gaolu to Zeluo. Zeluo nodded to Gaolu, saying that he would pay attention to him in the future, and then he couldn't wait to say to Gaogu:

"Sage, in the past few days, the Jingjue Kingdom has sent envoys to convey to me Queen Jingjue's orders."

Gao Lu on the side was a little surprised, because King Zeluo of Qiuci now actually spoke Chinese.

Ever since Gao Gu told Zeluo about the affairs of the Central Plains, especially after he brought him the advanced official system of the Central Plains, Zeluo respected the Han Dynasty very much and even learned Chinese from Gao Gu for this reason.

Zero took a piece of parchment from the stone table in the palace, with portraits of three people printed on it. He showed the parchment to Gao Gu:

"Well, they said they asked me to search for these three people across the country, and they also left envoys in Yancheng, saying they wanted to supervise me."

Pooh!

Speaking of this, Luo spit on the ground to express his disdain.

Gao Gu frowned as he looked at the vivid portraits on the parchment. Except for one person whose face was blurred, he happened to recognize the rest of the men and women.

Hu Xiuwu and Chen Duo.