sweeping the world

Chapter 959
More than 140 miles to the north after leaving Mayi, you will enter the grassland ecological environment. You can see grasses that have turned slightly yellow everywhere. When the wind is strong, there are always countless grass clippings flying with the wind.

The grassland is not completely flat terrain, but compared to the mountainous areas, the slopes of the grassland are not steep. Many peaks even have an inclination of no more than ten degrees from the bottom to the top of the mountain, which makes people see It is impossible to tell whether the road you are walking on is a mountain road.

At the same time, there were not many forests on the grasslands of the northern border of the Han Empire, and even if there were forests, it was only a small piece.

"It's so shocking!" Flavis looked at the endless grassland, the ground and the sky were only separated by a line. Since he had never seen a similar scene, he couldn't help but exclaimed.He said in a guessing tone: "If this place is cultivated, what a rich grain-producing area it will be!"

Among the borders of the Romans, only Egypt has an endless plain, which has been reclaimed by the Egyptians since 5000 BC and became a grain-producing area. With repeated reclaiming, it has become increasingly rich, and it has been known to the Romans until now. One of the largest grain-producing areas, there are not many grain-producing areas comparable to it.

What Flavis didn't know was that the plain he saw could indeed be reclaimed as farmland, but it was not a high-quality farming area in terms of soil quality. Soon the soil quality will become saggy in some areas, and if it is serious, it will slowly turn into a Gobi state.

There are not many places in Zhuxia that belong to high-quality farming areas. The Yellow River Basin is also in the middle and lower reaches. Because the river water has brought fertile soil from the upper reaches for a long time, after an unknown amount of time, the course of the Yellow River has been diverted again and again to form a soil that is conducive to farming. , making the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River a slightly commendable farming area.

In other places, the Yangtze River Delta region is also due to the continuous diversion of the riverbed and the excellent soil brought by the river. Compared with the lower reaches of the Yellow River, the local soil quality is also good, so it has become a high-quality farming area.

It is extremely rare for any point in the world to produce a strong civilization with limited high-quality agricultural areas. It was in such an environment that Zhuxia developed and grew stronger, and has been ranked first among the world's nations for a long time. , many times even at the pinnacle of the forest of nations in the world.

In addition to the Zhuxia civilization, many civilizations that can develop and survive are all due to the huge advantages of the geographical environment itself. Individual geographical environments are suitable for multiplying and the nation itself is good enough. The world's strongest sequence, but more because of the superior environment and no threats around it, the level of civilization has stagnated.

If we observe the development history of various civilizations, we can find that the habitat environment is not very good, but the nation itself is good enough. As long as it can survive the first hurdle of civilization development, such as defeating powerful enemies in the surrounding area, or developing advanced technology that is ahead of its time. Technology will inevitably leave a heavy mark in the history of the development of the earth.

"When we observe the geographical environment of the Han Empire, we really don't have too much of a unique advantage." Julian understood that this is because the Romans robbed enough documents from the Greeks, and some Roman scholars studied and interpreted the relevant knowledge , It took a long time to come up with a set of theories belonging to the Romans: "They are on a mountainous continental shelf, and there are almost no large-scale plains. The only thing worthy of praise is that they have two rivers that are long enough."

"Asan and the Persians both developed by relying on the rivers in their habitat." Flavis also knew some geography: "The same is true for the Han Empire. Their civilization development is very similar, with slight differences What matters is the difference in thinking after the initial period.”

Asan civilization cannot be said to be a low-level civilization. On the contrary, it should be evaluated as a high-end civilization. It’s just that their geographical environment is more complicated than that of Zhuxia. Except for the Ganges and Indus rivers, the surrounding area is difficult to cross. Surrounded by high mountains and vast forests, it is far more difficult to expand outward than the ancestors of Zhu Xia.

At the peak of the expansion of the Zhuxia civilization, they encountered either the vast Gobi and deserts, or insurmountable mountains, seemingly endless grasslands, swamps, and even the surrounding bottomless virgin forests and seas. The only What is slightly better than Asan Civilization is that the "basic market" area is larger.

A civilization unable to expand outward due to the surrounding geographical environment, they conquered the challenges of the known world. The lack of contact with the outside world inevitably made it difficult to collide with other civilizations. The level of civilization stagnated, and it became a matter of course to stand still.

The Zhuxia civilization and the Asan civilization are both in a similar situation. They are also self-confident in their glory, and civil wars broke out during the time of self-proudness, and then they are bullied by foreign civilizations, so that they can stand among the nations of the world during certain periods of time. Lin's peak, but due to foreign invasions, the civilization repeatedly experienced faults, and was gradually surpassed by other civilizations.

What makes the Asan civilization worse than the Zhuxia civilization is that when they found that they had nothing to do, they became extremely interested in religion and created a religion that was beneficial to the ruler. After the foreign invaders conquered them, they continued "Religion, religion, shackles and shackles governing law" has made Ah San one of the most conquerable nations in the world.

"What is strange to me is the attitude of the Han people towards religion." Flavis didn't know how to describe it, and stated in slightly confused words: "They are naturally devout towards religion, but they are also easy to abandon Faith. They are more inclined to worship real gods (ancestors), and many myths and stories tell about man's determination to conquer the sky, not just praying for the blessing of the gods after encountering disasters."

The Romans once only believed in real gods (ancestors), but after they conquered the Greeks, they changed their belief system and replaced their belief in ancestors with "virtual gods".

Looking at those nations that believe in "virtual gods", no matter what gods they believe in, once they encounter a disaster, the first choice is to kneel down and pray to their gods for rescue, completely forgetting that they have hands, feet and thoughts (wisdom) If one cannot do it, everyone will unite to tide over the difficulties.

"Because their gods are real!" Julian was very surprised by the Han people's attitude towards the emperor: "The emperor of Han is not only the god of all Han people, but also their patriarch."

Flavis was speechless for a moment.

In the history of Rome, there was also the matter that the ruler was a god, but it did not become a tradition like Zhuxia, and no one was even qualified to be the patriarch of all Roman beings.

It took them a long time to understand the truth. A long time ago, the rulers of the Han people took into account the two highest identities, first as the patriarch (the emperor) and then as the administrator (the king, the emperor).

According to the understanding of the Romans, the identity of the emperor was far more important than the identity of the emperor. The simple reason was that the tribesmen needed to unconditionally obey the instructions of the patriarch, which was constrained by morality, clan, social relations, etc.The emperor uses a law to restrain the people, which can usually be classified as legal, which is basically a kind of power restriction.

In most other countries, the supreme ruler only masters the "law", because the relationship between patriarchs and the lack of "reason" is equivalent to a state of lack of legal principles, and naturally does not have the "rationality" of the family and the world.

So it can be found that the ruling family of Rome is challenged all the time, and that kind of challenge is still an established rule, unlike challenging the "Tianjia" in Zhuxia, which is a violation of ethics and betrayal. Loyalty, something that triggers the wrath of the gods.

In Zhuxia, if you want to challenge the supreme ruler, the precondition you need is that the emperor will play off himself first, which will cause the people to be disappointed with the ruler's family.

In terms of data flow, Tianjia's public opinion is reduced to 30.00% or below, and only when someone challenges Tianjia can they succeed.If Tianjia's popular support is at least 50.00%, anyone who challenges the imperial power has no possibility of success.

In many countries, it doesn't make much difference whether the ruler wins the hearts of the people. The reason why they can secure the throne below their buttocks is that their own force is strong enough, and what they are playing is the competition between the major nobles. It is difficult for civilians to participate even if they want to become a soldier.

In layman's terms, the class in most countries is solidified, and it has always been the pattern of dragon begets dragon and phoenix begets phoenix. If you want to participate in the game of power, you have to have one of your ancestors get lucky and become a nobleman.

"It took the Han people thousands of years to form the current social structure." Julian is not so sure whether the civilization of the Han people is good, let alone whether Rome can learn it: "Even if we want to learn, we will never Difficult to do."

Christianity was supported by the Constantine family, and it became a behemoth in just a few decades. With a private army and entanglements with many nobles, Augustus would have to have theocratic power and imperial power in one hand. First go through a game of hell difficulty.

Flavis was hard to talk to.Their Valentinianus family is one of the families that has a deep connection with Christianity. It is not impossible to cut off the entanglement with Christian interests, but it must be hurt.

There are too many situations similar to the Valentinianus family, and it is hard to imagine how Christianity can achieve this step after decades of development.It is not that no one among them thought that once Christianity continued to grow, Rome would fall into a state of imbalance between imperial power and theocracy, but the Constantine family is the current ruling family in Rome, and they thought it was Constantine who had to worry about it. It's not their turn to worry about the Ding family.

"We can't do it, and the Persians can't do it either." In fact, Julian himself had a lot of entanglements with Christianity. He was able to return to the core of power in Rome, and Christianity did not make less effort: "They are more thankful than we should be that Zoroastrianism is a relatively moderate religion."

Zoroastrianism in Sassanid is a religion that depends on the ruler. They seem to be satisfied with the current state. When they encounter differences with the ruler’s ruling philosophy, most of the time it is Zoroastrianism. The church chose to back down, unlike the already strong Christianity that dared to challenge the Constantine family in all aspects.

If Julian has discovered that Christianity has a trend that cannot be lost, then he must not believe that one day, the Christian Church will be so powerful that it can control the imperial power anytime and anywhere, even waiting for Christianity to have Without its own pope, countries including Rome need to be crowned by the pope to have the legitimacy to rule the country.

"The military expenditure of the Persians has been increasing every year in recent years, and we have to follow up." Julian looked at Flavis, and then at Bishop Childe in another carriage: "Our The increase in military expenditure is not as large as that of the Persians, but it is far more difficult to increase taxes than the Persians. In this matter, Christianity has helped a lot.”

It is not wrong that the Constantine family is now the ruling family of Rome. The key is that a considerable number of Roman nobles are deeply disgusted with the Constantine family because of historical reasons. It is not easy to maintain the unity of the country. If you want a national character It is impossible to follow the policies formulated by Constantinople.

"Our military expenditure has tripled, reaching as much as 4000 million gold coins per year from this year." Julian clearly knew that it was because Rome was too far away from the Han Empire, and most of the military expenditure was not used to form the land army. It was used in the construction of the navy: "In addition to purchasing directly from the Han Empire. For example, your Valentinianus has received a lot of orders, right?"

"It only accounts for a very small share." Flavis said truthfully: "The share left in the country is all research funds, and it is used to purchase from the Han Empire, which accounts for [-]% of the military expenditure."

Rome urgently needs sea power to ensure the safety of its sphere of influence. Under the premise that it cannot build ocean-going ships, it needs finished warships in a short period of time to buy from the Han Empire.

As an empire that has been passed down for thousands of years, the Romans also knew that armaments could not be bought alone. No matter how difficult it was, they had to figure out how to make them, and then study how to update them after knowing how to make them, otherwise they would always fall behind others.

"Actually, I have communicated with the Ministry of Rites of the Han Empire." Flavis didn't hide it: "Buy blueprints from the Han Empire, or pay the total cost in one lump sum, or pay separately based on the production output."

Julian really didn't know such a thing, and asked expectantly, "How do they reply?"

"The Han Empire didn't refuse, it's just..." Flavis shook his head with a wry smile, "I can't afford the price they offered."

"How many?"

Julian is not familiar with that aspect, thinking that a family can't afford it, can't they purchase together?
(End of this chapter)