The Silk Road Conquest Essay Example

without arousing suspicion. These officers will integrate themselves with the traders, assuming the role of ordinary merchants. Nevertheless, their objective is to ensure compliance while also gathering intelligence for my strategic moves. Additionally, regular army personnel will periodically patrol the routes to deter potential bandit activity.

In order to protect my ambition of building a powerful empire, it is crucial to address negative trade balances. Diplomatic negotiations with the traders responsible for this are unlikely to be welcomed. Therefore, I have decided to resort to raiding their territories. However, I intend to approach this situation peacefully, with my soldiers peacefully occupying the cities and confiscating their valuable possessions. Any resistance to these invasions will not be tolerated, and any cities that fail to cooperate will face extensive destruction (Elisseeff, 2001). I have instructed my soldiers to establish kill targets for rebellious cities, requiring each soldier to eliminate at least twenty men.

However, I will not persecute people based on their religion or social standings. Instead, I will adopt a policy of tolerance to exploit fear of persecution resulting from their religious views in a bid to sow discord in my rivals’ empires. Even though my loyal subjects may be very opposed to this given their strong faiths that mostly do not encourage tolerance, I will convince them considering the potential benefits to be realized from the approach. Men who surrender under the attack of my soldiers are to join my forces since I require a strong army for the empire to conquer many others.

I plan to protect and recruit individuals who are persecuted for their religious beliefs, including Christianity, Buddhism, Tengriism, and Islam. My intention is to

transform them into spies and distractions, placing them strategically in rival cities to gather crucial information to strengthen my empire. This will enable me to launch military attacks with ease (Boulnois, 2005). Once I successfully conquer these cities, all religions that are willing will be brought under my rule, further expanding my empire. To gain control over valuable trade items, I believe the most effective approach is to directly acquire them from China by sending envoys. For these diplomatic missions, I would opt for sea routes instead of the traditional land routes.

These routes are dangerous, time consuming and have low returns due to middlemen’s hefty commissions and corrupt officials Boulnois, L. (2005). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors ; Merchants. Hong Kong: Odyssey Books. Seamen would be ideal for this undertaking and hence would form my envoy. The sea routes will give me more control over the trade since they are easier, faster and leaner. There use will ensure I make higher returns since it allows me to bypass the middlemen Elisseeff, V. (2001).

The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. Berghahn Books.