sweeping the world

Chapter 829 Arrives in Constantinople

It took two days for the fleet to avoid the wind and waves on Lak Island. Not all the people in the fleet went to the island, but only 2000 people went to this island with only more than [-] villagers. Flying dogs jumped, and even consumed the food reserves of the villagers on the island to the bottom.

The food was gone, and instead of being unhappy, the villagers were very happy. Naturally, the guests spent money.They can go to the Greek peninsula to buy food anytime and anywhere, but they don't have to wait to starve to death after eating, and it's too late for people to spend money lavishly.

"Actually, it doesn't cost money." Marus Utansis has Greek blood, but he has always been ashamed of it, and has no idea of ​​getting close to the Greeks: "It is an honor for them to serve us."

In fact, it didn’t cost much, and the Han people left a good impression on the villagers on the island. One day, if there are more Han people coming to this island, I believe the villagers on the island will treat the Han people kindly.This is far more important than leaving a bad impression, but Wang Meng and others will not tell the Romans this reason.

After the fleet set off again, it still followed the previous route.This time, there were no islands with bad weather, and they passed through the sea area smoothly, and saw a lot of scattered islands along the way.

"There are so many islands in this sea area?" Cai Mian has always played the role of curiosity: "Are all the villagers on the island Greek?"

"It's not." Marcus Maca pointed to the north: "There is the province of Thrace, and next to it is Macedonia. The Mount Olympus you mentioned is in the southeast of Macedonia."

Macedonia?A once glorious country, their king once established a powerful empire spanning the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but this empire was so short-lived that it immediately fell apart with the death of the founder Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great had a great influence on world history. Not only did he almost unify Greece, he also left behind many Greek-style countries even after his death. Especially after the Eastern Expedition, the largest number of countries left behind was the Seleucid Empire, and even It is a large number of Greeks who established countries in West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia.

There has always been a legend about Bactria in the Central Plains Dynasty. The first generation of Bactria was actually the Kingdom of Bactria-Greek founded by Greeks. In other words, the Bactria in the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty were actually a bunch of blond and white-skinned people. A country ruled by men.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Great Xia recorded in history books changed and became a country composed of the Yuezhi people, the Sai people and the Asan people, which was the predecessor of the Kushan Empire.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty forgot about Daxia, which meant that it lost its ambition to march west of the Western Regions, and its conquests stopped in the Western Regions.

Thrace was originally a general name for a Greek-style tribal alliance. The skin of the people there will be yellowish, probably the appearance of the West Asian race, and the living habits and clothing are the same as the Greeks.They are a nation that was first conquered culturally by the Greeks. After the Greek city-states were settled by Rome, Thrace became a vassal of Rome without resistance. For a long time, once the Romans greeted them, they should leave People go to be cannon fodder.

At the beginning, Rome seemed to have no intention of completely conquering Thrace, but it did not prevent the Romans from training the Thracians in various ways, and armed them into the borders of Thrace to capture villagers as slaves.

Thrace is also an ethnic group that has produced great people. The first large-scale slave uprising in Roman history was led by a Thracian named Spartacus, but this uprising with gladiators as the main leadership The armed forces also troubled the corners of the Roman territory. A slight intrusion into the Roman provinces immediately attracted a large group of Roman legions to encircle and suppress, and Crassus directly rubbed against the ground with the strength of a family.

After the failure of the slave uprising led by Spartacus, the Romans could no longer tolerate the independent existence of Thrace. The Roman Legion swept Thrace very easily. After the conquest, the province of Thrace was established, and the rule has been maintained. Until now, and will continue to rule until Western Rome hiccups.

After reaching the sea area close to Thrace, you will enter a long and narrow strait, which is a passage surrounded by two continents.

"The southern continent is Asia Minor." Marus Utansis stared at the land that looked almost entirely yellow: "We said before that the Trojan War took place on this continent."

There are no cities to be seen along the coast, even if there are people, there are some scattered villages.It is rare to see patches of green in this area, as if all you can see is barren hills except for the Gobi.

"The Greeks washed up and landed at the exit of the strait." Marcus Marka pointed to a beach: "They camped here with boats and fought with the Trojans on the coastline for nearly ten years."

"In that place." The place Marus Utansis pointed to was nothingness: "It used to be the city of Troy, but now there is not even a single remaining wall."

Come on, the Trojan War took place in [-] BC, and it didn’t end until [-] BC. According to legend, the Greeks entered the city and started extreme burning, killing and looting, and then even set fire to it. An originally rich and beautiful city was reduced to ashes in the flames of war, and no one will rebuild it later.

A city that was abandoned more than 500 years ago, and the local climate is dry and full of sandstorms. Maybe people nearby will pry some bricks and stones to build houses. It is strange to leave any traces.

No kidding, just like the Great Wall, it was only a few decades from the late Qing Dynasty to modern times, some sections of the Great Wall from the establishment of the Ming Dynasty to the maintenance of the Qing Dynasty, the nearby villagers would use materials to build houses, and the result is that a considerable part of the Great Wall section remains No foundation remained.This has been the case for only a few decades. The city of Troy died more than 500 years ago. What can be left?
After going deep into the strait, the coastline scenery on both sides of the strait has been changing. Relatively speaking, the north bank is more green than the south bank, and at the same time, the north bank is definitely more populated than the south bank.

"Our predecessor Augustus once intended to build a bridge across the strait, but that was a fundamentally impossible thing." Marus Utansis gestured across the strait: "That's how ambitious it must be. thoughts?"

Wang Meng visually estimated that the width of the strait should be about ten Chinese miles. He didn't know the depth of the water, and the water flow was relatively gentle. He wondered whether it would be possible to build a bridge across the strait with Han's technological strength. The final conclusion was There will be difficulties, but it can really be built.

"If you are willing to spend money..." Cai Mian dragged on, attracting the attention of all Romans: "It's not impossible to make."

The Romans had their own demeanor, and most of them thought it was fantasy, but some people took it seriously.

"I remember that your Yangtze River and the big river (Yellow River) have river-crossing bridges." Marcus Maka has been to Han Dynasty and passed those bridges himself: "You can build river-crossing bridges on rivers with fast-flowing water. There must be no problem with such a smooth current."

Marcus Marca's words shocked all the uninformed Romans, and he introduced what he had heard and seen after being asked repeatedly.

"The bridge across the river is two miles at most, and this strait is more than seven miles." Marus Utansis said suspiciously: "Even if it is just one step, it will add countless difficulties, let alone so much more. The depth is not comparable to the depth of the river."

The Romans also used "li" as a unit of length, but one mile for the Romans was equivalent to the modern 500 kilometers, while the Han Dynasty used the modern length unit after Liu Yan's reform, one mile It is [-] meters.

Cai Mian smiled indifferently, he was just talking, the Romans believed it or not.

If a bridge can really be built across this strait, it will definitely be a great boon for the current Rome, especially for Constantius.

Marcus Marca has decided to take it seriously. Once he arrives in Constantinople, he will immediately ask Constantius to tell him about this. If the Bridge across the Channel can really be built, perhaps this civil war will be over. It would end sooner, or the war would end with Constantius' side winning.

The sails of all the ships had been furled early, and the sound of oars beating the water never stopped.The reason is that the wind in the current season is not favorable for them. Raising the sails against the wind is completely difficult for them. They can only rely on human oars to paddle the water to drive the boat forward.

They sailed from daytime to night. After night fell, Wang Meng and others who were staying in the flagship room noticed the movement outside, and Dou'a went out to investigate.

"They are throwing away the corpses." Doua returned to the flagship room not long after: "The oars continued without stopping, and some slaves died of overwork."

It is not the first time that people know about such a thing. It happened more than once during the voyage. In the sea, slaves are thrown directly into the sea.

"They claim to be the most civilized country in the West, but many of their behaviors are more barbaric than barbarians." Doua felt the night wind was a little cold, and pulled his collar with his hand: "Throwing dead bodies into the sea casually, if you are Fish and shrimp are clean after eating, and they are not afraid of causing plague if they are washed up on the beach or taken into the river."

"There have been several major plagues in the Qin Dynasty." Cai Mian is now a know-it-all: "I heard that one of their great figures, he seems to be named Anthony or something, and he has the title of 'Conqueror of Egypt'. He died of the plague. The big people can be infected with the plague, which shows how widespread it is.”

"Then they know how terrible the plague is, but they still don't take it seriously at all." Doua trembled and said in a disgusted tone: "We went ashore along the way and entered several towns. Each one seemed to be an oversized "You can see feces and urine everywhere in the restrooms, and the most outrageous thing is that the people living on the second floor don't even look to see if there is anyone below, and just pour down a basin of feces and urine."

Some Han people were caught in the trick, and they vomited on the spot. After vomiting, they directly fucked the guy up, and stabbed the guy who poured shit on his head to death with a sword in a rage.

The result of that time was that the Han people who killed people had nothing to do with it. No one in that city poured shit from the second floor before the Han people left.

The Han people who killed people were okay mainly because they had a title and wanted to have good relations with the Han Kingdom. Rome, they must respect the Han nobles.But in a place like Rome, the nobles should of course be superior to others, and the life and death of non-citizens is the same. If it really needs to be dealt with, the murderous nobles can just pay some money.

"Mian is very curious whether Constantinople will be a city full of excrement and urine on the streets." Cai Mian thinks it is quite possible: "A city is full of excrement and urine, and the number of mosquitoes and flies is beyond imagination. , They go out and come back home with their feet full of shit on the street, and they live like that?"

"Habits become natural." Wang Meng really didn't want to discuss this topic, but he also worried that Constantinople would also be a city full of excrement and urine: "If the capital of a country is like this, the big man will have to re-examine the Great Qin."

They had already crossed the strait, but what they entered was an inland sea environment like a super large lake. They learned that they would arrive in Constantinople in about half a day.

The strait, including this piece of inland sea, is very prosperous. You can see ships of all sizes coming and going at any time and anywhere. They all look like centipedes flopping on the sea.

After the fish white appeared in the east, the sleeping Wang Meng was awakened by a loud noise. He could understand some Roman languages, and he even guessed that he could already see the outline of Constantinople.

Looking east from their position, they saw another narrow strait from a distance... No, it's more like a gateway than a strait.Looking in their direction, the outline of a city can be seen on the left, and there are dense black spots on the coast. It should be various ships?
The waiting distance is getting closer and closer, and people on board can see more clearly.What they saw was a city with a city wall built on the shore. The height of the city wall should be about [-] meters. There were many triangular red flags flying on it, and many soldiers were standing guard.

"We'll stop here for the time being." Marus Utansis seemed to be a different person when he arrived at this place, his expression was more proud, and he even raised his chin slightly when he spoke: "Someone will go in first to inform , clear the channel, and then there will be a ceremony to welcome the Han envoy."

Wang Meng was watching a corner of Constantinople intently. The densely packed ships on the sea showed that the city’s sea routes were prosperous. The city wall made of bricks and stones and the soldiers standing guard on it showed that the owner of this city attached great importance to city defense. Seeing that obviously artificially modified gateway also shows that its owner is very aware of the importance of the waterway.

(End of this chapter)