Chapter 93

The thick cloth was lifted, revealing a wooden platform about a丈 (zhang, approximately 3.3 meters) long and wide. The platform was surrounded by wooden boards, and in the center, there was a landscape made of soil, sand, and wood shavings, forming mountains and plains! Scattered on it were intricately crafted cities, tents, and other objects. Even more astonishing was the stream that flowed through the valley!

"This is Chang'an! This is the Wei River!" Liu Che's attendant, Wei Qing, blurted out, pointing to the city and river at the edge of the platform. Then his finger moved westward, "So these are the Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions?"

"Yes! This is the sand table we created based on the descriptions of Tang Yifu, Fumi Tuo, Hu Weishika, and others, depicting the area from the Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions!" Li You nodded, confirming that this was the item he had requested from Liu Che, crafted by the artisans under the Chief Constructor. It was a sand table model that was incredibly impressive for its time.

The earliest sand table appeared during the Qin Dynasty. When Qin deployed its forces to conquer the six states, Emperor Qin Shi Huang personally studied the geographical conditions of each state by piling up soil, with the assistance of Li Si, and sent the general Wang Jian to lead the unification war. Later, when Qin Shi Huang built his mausoleum, he constructed a large terrain model inside it, complete with mountains, hills, cities, and even rivers and seas made of mercury, which circulated using mechanical devices. Unfortunately, this most luxurious sand table was never revealed to the public in Li You's time!

After that, sand tables were not used in military affairs again until Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, campaigned against the local warlords in Tianshui and Wudu. The general Ma Yuan "gathered rice to form mountains and valleys, and drew the terrain," giving Emperor Guangwu the feeling that "the enemy is within my sight." This was the first application of a sand table in human military history!

In this world, Li You had advanced this technology by two hundred years, giving Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, the opportunity to witness this military marvel.

"Your Majesty, please look!" Li You pointed to the mountains and valleys on the sand table, "This is Chang'an. I set out from here last year, passed through the border, followed the Qilian Mountains westward, crossed the river to reach the territory of King Xiutu, then traversed the land of King Kunye to arrive at the Loulan Kingdom in the Western Regions, where Prince Fumi Tuo resides. I continued westward, passing through the Yanqi, Kucha, Gumo, and Shule Kingdoms to reach the territory of the Yuezhi, and then southward through the Shache, Yutian, Jingjue, and Qiemo Kingdoms to return to Loulan. I then retraced my steps eastward to return to the Han territory and reach Chang'an!"

Liu Che's gaze followed Li You's finger as it traced the mountains, rivers, deserts, and grasslands he had traversed, his heart unable to calm down. It was only after seeing this sand table that he gained a clear understanding of the vast territory of the Han Empire and the lands of the Xiongnu. After a long moment, he exhaled and sincerely praised, "Minister Zhang, your journey was truly arduous!"

Initially, when he heard the oral accounts, he only had a vague understanding of the difficulties of the journey. But seeing the sand table made everything clear. Chang'an only occupied a small part of the sand table, so the journey of the Han envoy must have been incredibly long and arduous!

"Minister Zhang, why is the top of this mountain white? It looks like it's covered in snow even in the summer!" Liu Che quickly noticed the anomaly on the sand table. He had been to the Zhongnan Mountains near Chang'an, but unless it was winter, these mountains were entirely green. Why was the top of this mountain white while the lower part was green?

Well, explaining the relationship between altitude and temperature might be a bit premature, right? Should I start with middle school physics? After a moment of hesitation, Li You decided to gloss over the real reason, "Your Majesty, this mountain is one we crossed before entering the territory of King Xiutu. The top of this mountain is covered in snow all year round! Therefore, I painted the top white. If our army is to advance westward from here, we must prepare warm clothing and other supplies to protect against the cold!"

"The world is truly full of wonders!" Liu Che marveled, hearing about the snow that never melts in summer. Then he pointed to the Taklamakan Desert between the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains, "Why is this place all sand? Why didn't you return directly through the middle when you came back from the Western Regions? Instead, you took a large detour to the south?"

"Your Majesty! This is a vast desert stretching for a thousand miles. There is no water or vegetation, only endless yellow sand! Anyone who enters will surely die of thirst and hunger. It is impossible to cross!" Li You answered truthfully.

"I see!" Liu Che, who grew up in the Guanzhong Plain, could not imagine what a desert was like. He stored this information in his mind and continued to ask, "Is this the territory of King Xiutu and King Kunye?"

"Yes! The Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu commands various tribes, and there are twenty-four leaders who govern different regions. King Xiutu and King Kunye are two of these leaders! Each has a population of tens of thousands and an army of over ten thousand! However, they have been dispatched by Chanyu Junchen to aid the Great Kunmi of the Wusun Kingdom in the Western Regions, making it difficult for them to return. The Hexi Corridor is now vulnerable, and this is the perfect time for our army to advance westward!" Li You raised his voice, "This western campaign will surely defeat the Xiongnu, erase the humiliation of the White Ascendancy, and enhance the prestige of our Han army!"

"With this, the enemy is within my sight!" Liu Che, excited, gripped the wooden edge of the sand table so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Summon Dou Ying and Tian Fen immediately! I want them to see this treasure of Minister Zhang!"

Compared to the Prime Minister Xu Chang and Grand Commandant Zhuang Qingzhi, who rose to power due to Empress Dowager Dou, Liu Che trusted the old ministers like Dou Ying and Tian Fen more. As soon as he understood the value of the sand table, he thought of them first.

"Where is the Xiongnu capital?" The eunuch hurriedly left to deliver the order, and Liu Che began to examine the sand table again.

Li You's finger traced north from Chang'an, all the way to the area near modern-day Ulaanbaatar, "Your Majesty, the Xiongnu capital is here! It is about three to four thousand li away from Chang'an!" The straight-line distance from Xi'an to Ulaanbaatar is 1,531 kilometers. Li You pointed to the vast blank area between Chang'an and the Xiongnu capital, regretfully saying, "Unfortunately, Tang Yifu has been away from the Xiongnu for over a decade, and his memory is somewhat hazy. Therefore, this part is not clearly marked! In the future, we will need to send envoys and merchants to gather more information and gradually fill in the details!"

"Currently, only the areas from the Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions and within the Han territory are relatively accurate on the sand table! Other regions need to be continuously supplemented!" Li You reminded, not wanting Liu Che to plan the Northern Campaign based on this sand table.

"Sand table? Is it named for the sand used to form it? That's a good name!" Liu Che nodded in approval.

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