Yanmen Pass on the Western Border

For foreigners seeking passage through the Han Dynasty, the best way was to travel with a merchant caravan.

With a caravan, they could sell their goods far and wide and purchase all manner of supplies wherever they went.

Wu Chao's status made it easy for him to pull together a trading caravan.

Whether the caravan made money was secondary. The important thing was to catch Zou Bugui and squeeze cultivation knowledge out of him.

"That's the Han Dynasty's Yanmen Pass. We have to go through that fortress to head south from here!"

Among the caravan's wagons, Wu Chao pointed to a massive gatehouse in the distance.

The Han Dynasty's Northern Border was sharpening its weapons and readying its horses for war, but it was perfectly normal for trade to continue on the Western Border. Such a vast nation would not grind to a halt because of fighting in one region, nor would it be led by the nose by a single war.

And according to Zhang Zhong, the Han Dynasty's current national policy was primarily defensive. Great generals such as Cheng Bushi held fast to the borders, and only the Flying Feather Army on the Northern Border occasionally launched raids into enemy territory.

At Yanmen Pass on the Western Border, Zhang Xuezhou could see no signs of an offensive.

Countless chevaux-de-frise stood densely packed outside Yanmen Pass to defend against cavalry charges, while tripwires were wound around enormous tree stumps.

Atop Yanmen Pass, the sight of more than a hundred repeating crossbows made the foreign merchants' scalps tingle.

And on the gatehouse stood rows of armored soldiers bearing shields.

Compared with the Northern Border, where one or two local wars broke out every three to five years, the Western Border was calm and peaceful, with few foreign tribes coming to