318: Chapter 318 The Strategic Passage to the West!

In just two and a half days, he had traveled from Cixi Port to Xianyang.

Upon receiving the news, Zhao Fusu personally came to the Xianyang Railway Station to receive Xu Fu; even the First Emperor came along.

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Paramount Leader!"

"Greetings, Your Majesty!"

Xu Fu bowed to Zhao Fusu and the First Emperor in succession.

The First Emperor's complexion was much better now.

Over the past two years, crates of milk produced in the Southern Desert had been transported to Xianyang via steam train.

Under Zhao Fusu's slogan of "half a kilogram of milk a day to make the people of Great Qin strong," the nobles of Great Qin were all drinking milk.

Driven by these nobles, commoners also saved money to buy milk for their children.

At Zhao Fusu's request, the First Emperor had also started drinking milk.

The reason Zhao Fusu had the First Emperor drink milk was that he knew the First Emperor had consumed a large number of alchemical pills.

These pills contained heavy metals, which were very harmful to the human body.

Pure milk is rich in protein.

This protein is rich in an amino acid called cysteine, which can play a certain role in detoxifying heavy metals.

After years of drinking milk, a significant amount of the heavy metals accumulated in the First Emperor's body had been expelled.

He often worked in the fields and sweated profusely, and the toxins were also expelled from his body along with his sweat.

Most importantly, he no longer had to review a vast number of memorials.

The First Emperor had obsessive-compulsive tendencies; he had set a goal for himself to review one dan of memorials every day, and he would not rest until he finished.

Even if he was ill, he would still finish reviewing that one dan of memorials.

Years of high-intensity work had also left his body in a sub-healthy state.

The hidden crises of the empire also filled him with heavy worries, which added to his mental stress.

Another point was that nobles loved using auspicious metal for tableware and wine vessels; this auspicious metal was bronze.

The metal content proportions in bronze varied across different periods, but generally: copper accounted for 80-90%, tin for 5-10%, and lead for 1-5%.

Copper and tin elements increase the burden on the human liver, but the body can gradually eliminate excess copper and tin through metabolism.

The primary toxic element in bronze is lead.

Lead greatly affects human health, and the body's metabolism of lead is extremely difficult, especially since the half-life of lead in bones can reach more than 10 years.

The invasion of lead destroys the nervous system, digestive system, and male reproductive system, and affects the hematopoietic function of bones, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, vertigo, sleepiness, insomnia, anemia, low immunity, abdominal pain, constipation, and body aches.

Zhao Fusu now prohibited the use of auspicious metal for making tableware and wine vessels, using stainless steel for tableware instead, while wine cups and bottles were made of glass.

"Your Majesty the Paramount Leader."

Xu Fu said to Zhao Fusu, "The General did not disappoint Your Majesty's high expectations; he has already found the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine for Your Majesty and is now searching for a deep-water port."

"Very good!"

Zhao Fusu was very satisfied upon hearing this.

Only by obtaining a large number of silver mines could he implement economic warfare against the Western Regions and the West.

He looked forward to the arrival of that day.

The Western Regions were a place Zhao Fusu had to conquer.

His strategic goal was to take the Western Regions first, then attack the Northern Desert.

The geopolitical importance of the Western Regions to Great Qin far outweighed that of the Northern Desert.

If Great Qin wanted to become a major land power and be able to advance westward into Central Asia and exert influence over Central Asian countries in the future, it had to take the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions to serve as a strategic corridor for westward expansion!"}],