11 Going on a journey or collecting the first data

Morning ... Li Ban sweetly stretched, it's time to get up, the hour of the "Mao" hare has already struck, which starts from 5 am to 7 am.

Dara was waiting for him in the yard. But Sogdian custom, you had to wash your hands with soapy water three times, then it was thought that the hands would receive light and the power of water.

After that, wiping his hands with a towel, Lee Ban, went to the gazebo for a snack. On the table lay dishes with bread, grapes, peaches, apples, figs, pears, sea buckthorn berries and raspberries. There was a teapot with brewed herbal tea of ​​mint, deer grass, thyme. He had a healing effect. In the villages, they were treated for heart, bronchitis, toothache, and it was also a sedative and painkiller, and he instilled vigor and confidence.

A dish of nomads was also served here - milk brewed on green tea, along with the addition of lamb fat, with crumbled stale bread. The peculiarity of this dish was that after eating it in the morning, at the hour of the hare, I did not want to eat until the hour of the sheep "wei" from 13 to 15 hours That in the upcoming journey for LeBan and Dara it was very convenient, they could not eat for 10 hours!

Before the trip, Dara treated the barley with a special compound, which he fed the horses to the escort, he allowed the horses to not tire for 20 hours and cover a distance of 324.5 li per day, whereas an ordinary horse could walk an average of no more than 132, 2 while the caravan traveled a distance of 59.5 li per day.

During the meal, as is customary in the East, he began to discuss the route of familiarization for Li Bang.

Dara told Lee Banu that their principality 'HE', part of the kingdom of the CAO. In the event of war, the kingdom gathers warriors from all principalities, their total number can be from 120 to 220 thousand.

Available weapons consisted of bows with arrows, which could be a distance of one. Iron swords and daggers. According to Dara, Sogdov five centuries ago, warriors had iron swords. Over time, the quality of iron swords improved. Now our blacksmiths have found a new compound to create good iron swords. Whereas our neighbors still have bronze-iron swords.

The length of our swords is 4.5 chi (one chi in the Tang Empire was approximately 0.24 meters). Daggers for 1.5 - 2 chi.

Tactics of warfare - our swords are not only designed for delivering a thrust, but more of a slashing. This is a more effective use of the sword on the battlefield.

Our wars have leather armor with iron inserts. We have infantry and cavalry, archers. Each local ruler has his own small army, from 500 to 1000 soldiers can gather at the first alarm. They are all well trained and armed.

Our population is sedentary farmers, but there are also our nomadic vassals.

We also have fortresses-cities. In each of which lives from 5000 to 6000 people. They are all independent possessions, but united in alliance with our kingdom "CAO". Although intrigues and factional struggles are frequent within this alliance.

Therefore, the union appears when there is a threat of invasion of nomads and crumbles when the threat disappears. In general, there is still something to work on. All these unions are concentrated in fertile oases in the river valleys. Mad River, River of Fire, Sarmatian River, Gold River, River Clean. Small cities about a hundred, large several dozen.

The most important supreme king, the second after him is the king of Small An, the third king of Big An,

Only three large unions, the First in Small AN, the Second - in the Big An, the third in Kāngjū. In each alliance there was a main clan, and four clans that supported the main one. In Small AN, I have already told you the balance of power - Banem - dear, Behruz - lucky, Derosh - rich, Headar - the lion, well, we, Shedi, are simply happy.

In the Big An, the main clan is Behnam's house - with a good reputation, dear, the second clan is the Cambyz house - lucky, the third Kevan is the universe, the fourth - Ruzbe - the lucky one, the fifth - Sahin - falcon.

In Kāngjū, the main clan is the house of Kavus, the second clan is Shahab a shooting star, the third Shayan is worthy, the fourth is Foruhar is essence, meaning, the fifth is Farshad is happy.

Well, you just write it up, apparently you will not face them personally, if I need to write to Sir Pei in a memorandum, I will write about their strengths and weaknesses. So why talk about them in general, if you don't even remember about them later. It's like writing in a chronicle about the main character alone, in great detail, and then never again contact him, during the whole narration.

As you understand, all those who had a name associated with happiness or birds are clans - which collect information, intelligence officers and counterintelligence in each of the unions. At the same time, there is also the main center in the kingdom of "CAO", the Kamyar clan - success, luck. He collects information from all the principalities, systematizes it, they have all the information about the situation inside the country and what is happening in neighboring countries and even empires, including yours. Everywhere they have their agents and spies. Money is everything. You and I are dancing, allies, I have already received permission from Clan Kamyar to tell all the subtle points.

But to the north of us, in the west, lies the really strong kingdom of Kyat, they are both strong and rich, well, that they are our allies.

In structural composition:

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in the first place is the Tsar of the Central Administrative District,

in the second is the King Small AN,

in the Third King is Big An,

in the fourth place is the King Kāngjū.

Level Five - He is followed by the Chief Minister of the Kingdom of the Central District,

The sixth level - the main minister Small AN

Seventh level - the main minister Big An

Eighth level - the main minister of Kāngjū

The ninth level - the ministers of trade, the minister of defense, the minister of rituals, the minister of the secret police, the minister for the collection of customs duties and taxes of the kingdom of the CAO.

Tenth level - the same list of ministers but already the Small AN

Eleventh level - the same list of ministers but already the Big AN

The twelfth level is the same list of ministers but already the same list of Kāngjū

Thirteenth level - for chiefs of water management, agriculture, mining of minerals and ores, medicinal plants and treatment of the kingdoms of the Central Administrative District

Fourteenth level for all chiefs of other kingdoms without exception.

Fifteenth level - the princes of small possessions, governors, heads of the city gates

Sixteenth level - assistants. Governors, chief ministers of the principalities

Seventeenth level - ministers of the principalities

Eighteenth level - the Landowning nobility, fire-worshiping monks and merchants, large merchants having exits and their trading houses in other empires and kingdoms.

Nineteenth level - the chiefs of the city guards. This is all aristocracy.

There are also levels of ordinary people:

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The first level - artisans, traders, scientists, scribes

Second level - free peasants and nomads.

There are also levels but slaves:

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Level One - City Slave - Servant

Second level - rural slave

The third level is a military slave

The fourth level - the miner slave

We have troops from both free men and mercenaries and military slaves.

In the cities there are a couple of thousand people, in the small principalities - 2000, in the kingdoms from 20,000 to 40,000, in the kingdom they can gather up to 300,000 soldiers. In large villages up to 300-500 people, in small up to 50 people.

The cities are surrounded by stone walls, they have from 5 to 10 gates, each of the gates is looked after by his boss, with his guards from 100 to 300 people. These are archers and infantrymen from among the city guards.

In the villages, the walls were made of clay or wooden, sometimes there were observation towers, in the center there was a fortified building of the village headman. It has permanent guards up to 30 people, ordinary peasants are also trained to fight if necessary, then the number of soldiers reaches 120 people.

The local governor issued orders that were followed by landowners by aristocrats, who also collected taxes and duties from the land, and from free-standing peasants and nomads. They took money and fruits, grain, sheep, skins, nuts, herbs. He also handed out duties. From which, in other matters it was possible to pay off.

The world was clan, patriarchal. The clan included not only aristocrats, but also simple peasants, nomads, warriors, and domestic slaves. Right now we have new formats, we are moving away from the old slaveholding and moving to new, progressive, feudal ones!

Free peasants work on their land plots, but sometimes they lack it and they rent it from us, one-fourth or one-eighth of the crop. But we have progressive people, so in our principality they take, aristocrats only one sixth of themselves, but in other principalities, the situation is harder, there the peasants are left with only one sixth or one fourth of the crop. If not him? So what to repay?

Gradually they became slaves. Are these new formats? Alas, yes. Life is not easy!

Those who could not cope with new challenges, from free people turned into slaves, but we have new methods of farming and agriculture.

What we have is growing, well, this is wheat, barley, several rice varieties, cotton, twenty varieties of grapes, apricot, red and white plums, cherries, alfalfa, pears, figs, peaches, apples, mulberry.

We have already learned how to produce your silk, we ourselves produce cotton fabric, from the northern lands we have learned how to weave woolen fabrics, we can make fine dishes from clay by firing and pouring ceramics. The water in it remains warm in winter and cool and fresh in summer. There you are, Lee Ban, this is a real human miracle! You say, a coin, a coin, Taoists, enchanted magic!

Ordinary craft, skill, human mind, hands, this is true magic! Skills do not steal, like a coin, skill, knowledge, if they are constantly updated, they will always help, stay full and have a roof over your head, do not get wet under the canine, do not fry in the sun! Learn from the experiences of others, Li Ban! This is what Sir Pey wanted!

We have good tanners, and artisans, make excellent armor, with iron inserts, mail from Bosa, what arrows, beat on one, iron swords, not only they prick, but also cut, sharp daggers.

We have beautiful gardens, and our peasants skillfully use knowledge in order from the large rivers to draw channels for irrigating the land.

Our mountains are full of gold, silver, copper, iron, precious stones, our blacksmiths can create unprecedented alloys of copper and zinc. We get salt, both in the mountains and lakes in the desert, it differs in taste. One more delicious, the other less. But cheaper.

We make iron hoes, nails, staples, sickles, axes, shovels, knives, belt buckles, door locks and keys to them, iron lights.

There are complex and there are simple bows, swords, spears, maces, axes. Shield, chain mail, armor, helmet.

In the caves, rivers and seas find pearls!

We can also weave combined fabrics of silk and cotton. Can produce up to 200 types of fabrics from silk, cotton, wool!

We teach our children from an early age to write, and after doing business, the ability to handle poisons and drugs, archery. One person and forty crafts will be enough. We teach them to speak in the languages ​​of our neighbors. Who knows a lot of languages, he knows the whole world!

Due to this, we have our own trade districts in Byzantium, Bosa, the Tang Empire.

We can use not only the land route, but also the sea, through the Bosa and the great ocean we go to India and further along the coast and to Tan. We buy red and blue sandalwood in India and sell it in the Empire. Favorable business. A profit of 600 percent covers all risks. Our warriors and seafarers, they are also at war with the pirates at sea.

By the way, on the other way, we can call in the principality of Shi, I'm storming there, we will buy each horse for 3 silk pieces! For a present! Hold on to me and everything will work out for you, Li Bang!

The young man was amazed at the new opening opportunities, and most importantly with steel mail and armor.

Also along the way we will receive money and coins of each principality, gold, silver, copper, bronze, in separate principalities go and just nuggets of gold.

They sell gems in the markets, but you cannot find the best ones in the bazaar, you need to know the clans, who keeps them, there is a choice for what to see. Fortunately, my clan has an epithet "happiness", so I know where to find them.

So today we will go on a small route with you and there will be four of them in all.

The first is 311 li north-east of Maliy An, a mountain canyon called "Stone Trees"; there are drawings of wizards and monks, there are also workshops, mines of silver, gold, and turquoise.

From it, 150 li northwest, lies the fortress "Light" and there is a famous, ancient, magical spring that heals all wounds and cures many diseases, quenches thirst, the water does not spoil for 100 days!

From him, at 120, along the secret road, to the east, lies the village of "Masters", there is a furnace where gold is smelted and next to it there is a mine with spiritual stones, they are very beautiful, there is also a mine with gold.

From him in 140 li to the northeast lies the old fort, in the ruins, where native gold is mined.

At 170, to the northeast, lies the mountain gorge "Seven Waters", where native gold is also mined.

In the desert there was an ancient salt lake in 376; stone arrowheads were found there, beads from pomegranate, some ancient people lived in sight. There is just gold there and iron and salt are mined. Its is very tasty.

In 259, it lies on a plain to the east of the lakes, a workshop, it goes to 20 bu (1 bu = 1.23 meters in the days of the Tang empire). They dig gold and there is a smelting workshop.

In 432 whether to the northeast of that place, near the Fire fortress there is a mountain pass it leads from Small An to the Shi principality if you go to the north-west. But we will turn to the southwest, walk 268 along the mountain valley "The Serpent has passed" and will leave to the fortress and capital of Small An. If we turn east on 1146, then we will get into the mountain fortress that controls the trade route to Shule and Hebanto. If we go through another 925, we will find ourselves in Shule.

But it is too early for you to leave our kingdom, so from this turn we will go not to the mountain fortress, to the south, we will pass 811 more and we will be in the kingdom of Mu. If you want, we can go through 2161 more and find ourselves in the empire of Bosa, in the ancient city of Meshe, this is a very good bazaar! If you go from there to another 2634, then you will be able to see the southern end of the sea "Leahy". From there to 7605 li to Shule ...

From Shule to Gaochanya to3562 li and from Gaochanya to Chanan 6154 li ... a lot ... almost 5 months of travel.

So we will just return to Small An and then, if there is a desire, we will check other mountain passes, see the bazaars, check craft workshops, weapons, go on other routes to the mountains and valleys.

In the meantime, our route will take 21.5 days!

In total, 50 guards from me will travel with us, 70 people from King An, 90 people from the Tsar of the CAO and your guards 100 people. A total of 310 people, plus you, me, and a couple of my servants.

All right, we go ...