I refuse to sew a wedding gown for someone else!
Huo Guang understood what the emperor meant. The Wusun Kingdom stretched a thousand li, with land fit for both farming and raising horses. It lay near the far west, possessed weapons and armor, and was five thousand li from Chang'an. For troops dispatched from the Central Plains to the Western Regions, the march alone would take a month or two.
That was enough time for a local ruler to stage a coup and take complete control of the situation. The empire's borderlands were naturally fertile ground for separatist rule.
Now the emperor wanted to develop the Western Regions, pouring population and technology into them.
Once these precious resources from the Central Plains entered the Western Regions, the Wusun Kingdom's strength would swell rapidly.
The King of Wusun held the court in such awe now because he was weak.
Once the Wusun Kingdom had a million people and more than ten thousand armored soldiers, they would certainly challenge the court, or even refuse allegiance. The warning offered by the Zhou State's Feudal Lords was not so distant.
Liu Xun could not possibly make such an elementary mistake as creating an enemy for himself.
And that was with the great Wusun state of the Han era still lacking sufficient strength. In fact, the Yi River Valley could nurture a mighty agricultural and pastoral state with several million people. If it truly reached that stage, it would be an opponent far more terrifying than Goguryeo.
One could even say that the Xiongnu's potential for war could not compare.
For a Central Plains dynasty to cross several thousand li to attack a great state with several million people, and then seek to destroy it, was almost impossible in an age without firearms.
Although there