Silk Road

the Silk Road is a large network of commercial and mercantile interchanges, which connects the Great Tang Empire to the Western Regions, this network of trade at the same time, connects the Great Tang other great empires and civilizations outside the Central Plains ...

the journeys of the caravan routes can last many months, the territories of the Silk Road, are often desolate, arid and desert territories, composed of great deserts, mountain ranges and arid plains ...

these routes are crossed by large and immense caravans of merchants, traveling between the Great Tang Empire, the Sassanid Empire and the nations of the Western Regions

but many regions of the Silk Road are not protected and are lawless areas, no man's lands, dominated by gangs of thieves and bandits, who attack the great merchant caravans, to plunder their riches ... immense riches ...

cyclically, the Great Tang Army, conducted annual military campaigns, to clean up the territories of the Silk Road, from the numerous bands of bandits, but the Bandits are like weeds, every time they were swept away, they recreated instantly,

in the Great Tang Empire, the Silk Road and under the jurisdiction of the ***Chamberlain of Dependencies***

the Great Tang Empire, under the leadership of Wang Chong, became very active in the interior of the Silk Road, guaranteeing military protection to the great merchant caravans and fighting the numerous bands of bandits who terrorized the Silk Road

*The Silk Road was an extremely narrow and long road linking Great Tang and the Western Regions by a journey of several months. Along the path, there were many barren locations such as deserts, mountain ranges, or barren plains...*

*A huge portion of the road was completely unguarded, making it way too easy for bandits to intercept and rob merchants traveling along this path.*

*And yet, the Hu merchants who were traveling to Great Tang just had to carry great wealth with them. The commodities that they carried with them were valuable goods such as pearls, agates, gemstones, spices, gold, and even ravishing Persian dancers.*

*These targets were simply too attractive to the bandits. Just one successful raid, and they would obtain wealth they could have never earned through honest means in their entire life.*

*As such, the Silk Road had also drawn the attention of many bandits and thieves. Operations were constantly organized against them, and the wealthy Hu merchants also didn't sit obediently to wait for the bandits to claim a slice of their pie, either. They hired powerful experts to guard their parties, thus making it difficult for those bandits to succeed.*

*But despite the dangers and difficulties involved, the allure of immense wealth was simply too great. Even if the bandits were slain, more would just emerge to take their place very soon.*

*And if only that was all...*

*The situation on the Silk Road was extremely complicated. Initially, most of the bandits were Han, but very soon, some of the Hu, Persians, and Arabs who were proficient in martial arts also noticed the mountain of wealth traveling through the Road everyday, and thus, they decided to join in as well.*

*Many times, the Hu, Arabs, Persians, and Han would be found sharing an intelligence network and working with one another to raid the merchant caravans. Their ranks gradually buffed up as time went by, and their scope of targets also swiftly expanded.*

*Initially, the operations were mainly directed toward the Arabs and Persians, but eventually, they no longer differentiated among their targets. It made no difference to them whether one was a Hu or a Han.*

*And eventually, there was even one bandit group who dared to rob a party of officials of the royal court.*

*The entire royal court was enraged over the matter. It was then that they began viewing this matter seriously and organized periodic cleanups...*

(Chapter 327-Chapter 328)