101: Chapter 101 Formulating National Policy, Becoming a Bipolar Nation

Li Si suddenly found it hard to imagine what His Majesty the First Emperor's reaction would be if he saw this globe.

He remembered His Majesty the First Emperor once saying, "I want to conquer a vast territory."

Yet the territory His Majesty the First Emperor spent his whole life conquering was not even as large as the spheres of influence of the surrounding nations, making the whole group feel like frogs at the bottom of a well.

"So..."

Li Si swallowed hard, moistened his dry throat, and asked Zhao Fusu, "His Majesty the Head of State, do you intend to publish this globe on the front page of the first issue of our Great Qin Empire Weekly?"

"Yes and no."

Zhao Fusu's words left Li Si and the others bewildered.

They didn't understand what Zhao Fusu meant by that.

They didn't understand what Zhao Fusu's "yes and no" represented.

Everyone's eyes turned toward Zhao Fusu in unison, waiting for his explanation.

"The places I mentioned before are all regions we plan to conquer in the future."

"Further to the west, we would have to cross high mountains."

"The cost of crossing those high mountains is too high."

Zhao Fusu remembered that many of those mountains had harsh environments similar to the Hukawng Valley; forget about fighting, just marching would cause massive non-combat casualties.

"Even if we cross the mountains and occupy the land, it would be difficult to hold."

"Our future development, besides heading north to eliminate the threat of the Xiongnu people, will involve heading south to conquer the Nanyang."

Nanyang is a tropical region suitable for planting rubber.

However, Zhao Fusu didn't have rubber seeds.

If he wanted rubber, he would have to look for it in South America.

"This is a vast ocean."

Zhao Fusu pointed to the blue ocean on the metal globe.

"Look, we are extremely far from the land on the other side of the ocean, spanning more than half the globe."

"But..."

Zhao Fusu's tone shifted as he pointed toward the north.

"Beyond the Hetao Plain lies the territory of the Xiongnu people."

"Further north of the Xiongnu people are the territories of the Dingling and Sajiong people."

"North of the Dingling and Sajiong people's territory is the land of the Guligan people."

"Further north is a sheet of ice called the North Pole."

"Crossing the North Pole leads to another massive landmass."

"To reach this landmass, going east would mean crossing layer upon layer of oceans, but going north through the territory of the Buyeo people and continuing upward leads to the land of the Qudumei people, and further northeast is the territory of the Liugui people."

"By crossing the land bridge within the Liugui people's sphere of influence, we can reach the continent on the other half of the planet. It is called the Indian Continent, divided into the Yindian North Continent and the Yindian South Continent, and it is where the descendants of the Yin Shang Dynasty fled after their dynasty was destroyed."

Unofficial history said so, and that was how Zhao Fusu explained it to Li Si and the others.

Over a thousand years had passed from the Yin Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty.

Everyone knew that the remnants of the Yin Shang Dynasty had fled north, but they didn't care exactly where they had gone.

Zhao Fusu was thinking about plausibility.

This concerned the future direction of Great Qin's development.

Just as he said before, after conquering the surrounding powers of Great Qin, any further expansion would lead to either snow-capped mountains or the Hukawng Valley.

Crossing snow-capped mountains and the Hukawng Valley wouldn't be easy; countless lives would be lost. Even if they were stubborn and crossed at the cost of heavy casualties, logistics would be difficult to supply, making the land impossible to hold.

The cost-effectiveness of such an occupation would be very low.

Therefore, after conquering all the surrounding nations, Zhao Fusu's direction of conquest would be the north.

The north was vast and sparsely populated, with many areas being permafrost.

This was a land of bitter cold with few competing powers, so the cost of taking it would be relatively low.

When the King of the North took these territories, he only dispatched a few hundred or a few thousand men each time; it was incredibly easy.

Zhao Fusu didn't want this vast area to develop resources or anything.

It was freezing there, and the cost of development was too high.

Zhao Fusu wanted this area to use as a passage to the two continents on the other side of the ocean, which covered 41.8 million square kilometers.

These two territories were large enough, and the natives living there looked similar to them, making assimilation relatively easy.

If he said these people were refugees from the Yin Shang Dynasty era, the people of Great Qin would find it easier to accept.

If you said those blonde-haired, blue-eyed people in the West had any kinship with them, few would believe it.

Thus, Zhao Fusu's future strategic layout in Asia was basically the territory of the Yuan Dynasty plus the Chagatai Khanate.

Going south, it included Fusang, Nanyang, and that Southern Continent rich in kangaroos.

The expansion of these territories was the direction Zhao Fusu, whose physical age was already thirty, would strive for the rest of his life.

Although Zhao Fusu's soul was that of a college student, Prince Fusu was thirty years old.

Conquering such a vast territory was a very time-sensitive matter for Zhao Fusu.

If he lived to eighty, he would have fifty years.

After taking these territories, holding them would also be a major problem.

In his choice of government, Zhao Fusu did not use an imperial system but rather a form of regional autonomy. He hoped that over the next two thousand years, there would be excellent politicians to lead Huaxia in defending these territories.

Conquering a territory doesn't mean it's yours; only by turning it into your core territory does it truly belong to you.

Li Si, Feng Quji, Feng Jie, General Wang Jian, and Wei Liao remained silent for a long time; they finally understood why Zhao Fusu wanted to reserve the front page of the Great Qin Empire Weekly for a vertical map.

He was formulating a national policy of looking northward.

Huaxia's threats for thousands of years had come from the north; Zhao Fusu intended to conquer all the northern lands.

Then the northern lands would never threaten Huaxia again!

In Zhao Fusu's view, only a vertical map would allow the people of Great Qin to understand the world more clearly.

Therefore, the map he wanted to publish on the front page of the Great Qin Empire Weekly was not a horizontal world map, but a vertical world map!

The people of Great Qin had to look not only south but also north.

Exerting effort at both ends to become a bipolar state.

"Prime Minister Li Si."

After waiting for Li Si to calm down, Zhao Fusu said, "Find some painters to draw the geography from the globe into a vertical world map and create printing blocks. I want to print it on the front page of the first issue of the Great Qin Empire Weekly."

"Alright."

Li Si agreed.

"Has the content for the other sections of the newspaper been arranged yet?"

To Zhao Fusu's question, Li Si replied, "It has been largely settled."

"The second section is a column opened by the Legislative Yuan to collect judicial opinions from the common people."

"The third section is the Judiciary Yuan's judicial promotion column, promoting the qin law to the common people."

These were all done by Li Si according to Zhao Fusu's wishes.