At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Chapter 1374. One thousand two eighty four He thinks the Roman Empire is no big deal

According to the interpreter, people within the territory of the Roman Empire, no matter what origin or ethnic group, as long as they are granted such an identity, they are Romans.

At the same time, the translator also told Guo Peng that before there was an emperor in Rome, there was a period when many people ruled Rome together. At that time, Rome often used a method of election to choose the main ruler.

Later, such Rome fell into chaos, there were power struggles, and then it became an empire, with emperors.

But the political situation of the Roman Empire was not stable.

The interpreter said that Roman emperors had been assassinated and died many times, and it was often the troops around them who did such things.

The translator had heard in his hometown that the army around the Roman emperor was very greedy and violent, and could even manipulate the life and death of the emperor.

And the emperor often needs to give the army huge benefits to win over the army, let the army support him, and thus become the emperor.

It feels like the emperor bought the throne from the army.

Even so, this is not a very proper way. He also heard that some people paid huge sums of money to hire troops to assassinate the emperor because they were dissatisfied with the emperor, and there were not a few emperors who died because of this.

Guo Peng was quite surprised by this, and then expressed his disdain.

For the Roman emperor's child's play inheritance situation, it reminded him of the state of the emperors in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period who took turns to come to my house next year.

It is also the army that controls the power of life and death of the emperor and the ownership of the throne. Whether the emperor does it or not depends on what the army thinks. To be an emperor, you must have the support of the army and give the army huge benefits.

As a result, countless emperors died in the hands of the army and died in coups. The emperor's surname is Liu today, Wang tomorrow, and Zhang the day after tomorrow. It feels like a mascot.

That purgatory-like tragedy also happened in China, but it was finally brought to an end.

"Emperor, how can he be held hostage by the army? Being manipulated and abolished so frequently by the army, does the emperor of the Great Qin Kingdom still have authority? Can he still command the army and officials?"

"Yes, with money, as long as it can satisfy the army, anything can be done, so the Roman emperor always wants to start a war and let the army get the spoils, otherwise the army will be dissatisfied."

The translator replied.

"Is this still the emperor?"

"It's the emperor, but it can't be compared with your majesty. His majesty's power is beyond the imagination of the emperor of the Great Qin Dynasty."

The translator came to the Wei Empire for several years, and saw with his own eyes the powerful power and stable status of Guo Peng, the emperor of Wei.

He felt that the Roman emperor was far from being comparable to him in this regard.

Among other things, the imperial guards of the Wei Empire are completely under the control of Emperor Wei, and cannot affect the ownership of the throne.

The Imperial Guards in Rome are different. Those emperors who are not military leaders themselves have to be recognized by the Imperial Guards to become emperors, and they have to pay the Imperial Guards a lot of money.

Otherwise there is no army protection.

Without the support of the army, how could the emperor order those large and small military leaders on the empire's territory?

Guo Peng further asked why the army around the Roman emperor had such powerful power. Was it like this from the very beginning?

The interpreter said that he didn't know either, maybe it was because the Praetorian Guards were stationed too close to the Roman emperor.

Just next to the city of Rome, a huge Praetorian stronghold, all the Praetorians are there, under the command of the Praetorian General.

"All stationed together?"

"All stationed together."

The interpreter affirmed it, saying that he had been to Rome and had seen the Praetorian Guards stronghold from afar.

"Interesting, interesting, that's it."

Guo Peng clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Give such a huge army and military power to the general, and arrange all the troops together. The general knows the soldiers, and the soldiers also know the general. The leader and the trainer are the same person. That's the problem. Fundamentally."

The interpreter said he didn't know why.

"Under my command, the people who stay with the army on a daily basis are not the generals who command the battle, but professional military training officers. Their status is not high, and they are often retired veterans, but they can get in touch with these soldiers on a daily basis and guide them. train.

Soldiers do not live together with the general who commanded the battle, but live alone in the training camp. When the general wants to fight, he gets a soldier talisman from me and orders him, and then he goes to the training camp to deploy troops and go to war. After the war, the soldiers Or back to the training camp. "

Guo Peng shook his head: "How can a prestige general live with the soldiers under his command for a long time? They must be separated. It is not during a war, and soldiers cannot get along with the general day and night.

Otherwise, the soldiers only know the general, not the emperor, and feel that the general is the one who controls their life and death, not the emperor. The emperor's authority will gradually disappear and become the authority of the general. With this kind of authority, the general can threaten The emperor. "

The translator has a feeling of seeing the sun behind the clouds.

"So that's how it is..."

"Not only did the troops not divide up, but they were all arranged in a large camp, and the officers who trained and commanded the troops were the same group. It's good that the emperor has prestige, but if the emperor doesn't have prestige, he will definitely be held hostage by the general.

The troops under my command, even if they belong to the same commander, have to be stationed separately, stationed at different main roads, stationed on the edge of different cities, and as time goes by, they will continue to rotate and change stations. A whole. "

Guo Peng said disdainfully: "If the emperor is changed so frequently, what prestige does the emperor talk about? Without prestige, the emperor would not be able to sit firmly in the world without relying on the central army, and it would be impossible for the emperor to gain the allegiance of those local forces.

Without the support of the central army, the emperor would not be able to sit down for a day. If he wanted to be an emperor, he had to give money to the army and let the army support him. If he wanted to stabilize his power, he had to control the dominance of the army from the army.

To do this, the army will definitely not agree, so the emperor will be changed. If the emperor is changed, he still needs to rely on the army and pay money. It goes on and on, a vicious circle, and the situation will get worse and worse.

The Great Qin State insisted on such a rule that either the emperor would eventually destroy the army, or the army would eventually destroy the country, and the two were no longer compatible.

Like this, the emperor is not like the emperor, the general is not like the general, the army is not like the army, what kind of country is it?What future is there?Great Qin is no big deal. "

Sensing the Chinese emperor's blatant contempt for the Roman Empire, the translator's mood was a bit complicated.

Although he also hates the Roman Empire, because the Roman Empire always invades his hometown.

But because of this, he felt the power and inviolability of the Roman Empire.

The powerful army and powerful force allowed the Roman Empire to do whatever it wanted in his hometown, unscrupulously, which made him and his family and friends very sad.

As a result, in the eyes of the Chinese emperor, he thought the Roman Empire was no big deal.

"Does Your Majesty think that your army can defeat the fierce Qin people?"

"My country will definitely be able to defeat the Great Qin. If we directly break out into conflict, I will never lose. Great Qin looks huge and powerful, but in fact, there are dark tides raging inside. The powerful factions in various places do not listen to the emperor's orders at all, just because the emperor has a central government. Army support is required to accept the situation.

Once a national war breaks out and the central army is defeated, what do you think the local power factions will do?Of course, I think this possibility is very small, because the distance between us is too far, it is basically impossible for a war to break out, and none of us has the ability to send a large number of troops to the other side. "

The interpreter nodded in disappointment.

"My hometown is often attacked and invaded by the Great Qin State. They wantonly slaughtered my friends, which made me very painful. I hate them very much, but I am powerless to resist, because our force is very different."

Guo Peng looked at the translator.

"If it's just this problem, maybe I can solve it."

"what?"

Guo Peng laughed.

"It may not be completely resolved, but at least, it can reduce the number of wars you break out. Of course, you and your family may be happy, but your emperor and nobles may not be happy, and maybe they will be very angry."

The more the translator listened, the more confused he became, and he didn't understand what Guo Peng was talking about.

The reason why the Romans repeatedly invaded the Parthian Empire was that the Central Asian countries such as the Parthian Empire and the Guishuang Empire controlled the trade routes between Rome and China, and increased the price of goods several times or even dozens of times, causing the Romans to bleed. Can not accept.

If there is another channel that can avoid these intermediate costs and realize direct communication between Rome and China without middlemen, the problem will not exist.

Of course, the Romans will not spend huge sums of money to find trouble with the Parthians.

Don't you need money to fight?

If more money is made through trade, the emperor will have the money to bribe the army. It is not necessary to fight. In this way, the emperor and the army will be happy.

But the Central Asian countries should be very crazy.

Although the sea route cannot completely replace the land trade, it will still take a large share. As time goes by, such a trade share will continue to be transferred to the sea instead of the land route.

The continuously decreasing income will definitely make them very crazy, but they dare not and cannot offend two world powers at the same time by sea.

They can only exploit internally.

There will be a relatively large drop in their living and economic standards. I don't know what these businessmen will think when the time comes.

But it doesn't matter, the translator is already an official on his side, and it's not certain whether he will return to his hometown in the future, and Anxi Kingdom probably doesn't have much life span to worry about.

Guo Peng learned about the situation of the Roman Empire through these translators who were businessmen who were familiar with the situation in Central Asia and had been to the Roman Empire.

He didn't understand it at first, knowing the existence of the Roman Empire and some of the past history of the Roman Empire, it was no longer easy for him.

Some details of this era, when and what happened, he really doesn't know, and he can only provide him with information through people who know.

For example, he knew that Sassanid Persia would be established during this period, but he didn't know exactly when.

It is definitely not an easy task to search for information through the backward traffic of this era, to identify the authenticity of these information, and to find the trace of history.

But this does not prevent him from doing business with those huge countries.

Because no country can refuse the luxury goods of ancient China, such as silk, as well as the iron pot he created, and tea. He wants to use these high-end products to drain the oil and water of the Roman Empire.

To this end, he took the initiative to launch a voyage to find a way to directly communicate with the Romans by sea.

In the fourth year of Yande, the route and strongholds along the way began to be built. By the seventh year of Yande, the naval fleet encountered Roman merchant ships and Roman merchants in the Indian Ocean region.

And carried out exchanges and the first trade, connected to the Indian Ocean trade route of the Roman Empire.

However, due to the depletion of supplies, the fleet was forced to return, and it took Yande eight years to return to the Indian Ocean region.

In the eighth year of Yande, when the navy established a living base in the Arabian Peninsula, it encountered resistance from the local indigenous people. A Roman businessman also provided the navy with route help and assisted the navy to eliminate the resistance of that tribe.

In the ninth year of Yande, an official fleet of seven large ships arrived in Egypt for the first time and entered the Egyptian region under the leadership of Tai Shici's admiral Wang Wei.

In this way, the two fate lines of the empire, which would never meet, got rid of the parallel fate and became intertwined.

Chapter 1375 One thousand 280 five Roman emperors want to see Wang Wei

In 211 AD, the ninth year of Wei Yande, the destiny lines of the two overlord empires of the East and the West intertwined for the first time.

Through the Roman maritime merchant who helped the Wei Empire army defeat the native raids, after Wang Wei led his team to land, he had the first official communication with the Roman officials in Egypt.

Officials of the Wei Empire and the Roman Empire never had any communication. When an army landed at the very beginning, the Roman officials in Egypt were also quite nervous.

They tried to mobilize an army to be on the alert, and if there was any hostile action by this landing army, they would immediately attack, vowing to drive them into the sea.

Wang Wei was not hostile. He restrained the army, logging and camping in the Linhai area, and did not go further. He only let the army station there, and then let the Roman maritime merchant and his translator go to mediate.

In order to ensure the success of the mediation, Wang Wei also asked them to bring fifty bolts of silk as a meeting gift, so as to maximize the favor of the other party.

Then the mediation was successful.

The Roman officials successfully dispelled the hostility with fifty bolts of silk, determined that Wang Wei was a peace envoy rather than an invader, held a welcome ceremony for them, and gave them a lot of water and food.

Through the guidance and communication of these translators, the Roman officials in Egypt confirmed that Wang Wei and others came from the country of silk, the rumored [Qin].

Wang Wei told the Romans through an interpreter that Qin is in the past tense, and that the Wei Empire is now called Wei, and sometimes it also calls itself China, which means the central state.

Remember, Wei, not Qin.

The Romans also told Wang Wei the name of their country.

Wang Wei couldn't understand what they said, and the translator tried to translate it again and again, but he still couldn't get the point.

So Wang Wei asked the Roman official to say it a few more times, listening to the pronunciation, it was a bit like [Loumo] (I found the foley in ancient Chinese, read it like roma), and the [Daqin] he learned before going to sea It doesn't matter much.

The two sides exchanged each other's country names and updated their understanding of each other.

The Wei Empire ended years of war and was established nine years ago. The current emperor is the founding emperor of the Wei Empire.

The emperor of Rome is also alive, or the new emperor, who has just ascended the throne not long ago.

Therefore, in the ninth year of Yande, Roman officials also knew that the fleet from the ancient eastern country of China had arrived at the southeastern border of the empire and entered the Egyptian region.

There are soldiers, merchants and a lot of goods in their fleet, including silk, iron pots, porcelain, lacquerware and other very exquisite handicrafts. These are very popular in Rome, and the prices are high.

Carrying the goodwill and greetings of the Chinese emperor, this fleet came to communicate with the emperor of the Roman Empire, hoping to reach an agreement and realize mutual trade on the sea.

The local Roman officials were very shocked. When Wang Wei showed the Jieyue he held as the emperor's special envoy, although the Romans didn't know what the purpose of this thing was, it looked very powerful.

Moreover, Wang Wei and the soldiers were wearing military uniforms and holding sophisticated equipment. At first glance, they couldn't possibly be some Yeluzi team. Even if they weren't the special envoys of the Chinese emperor, they should be the special envoys of some powerful figure who could influence the Chinese emperor.

The Roman government attached great importance to this, and immediately sent people across the Mediterranean Sea, sending the news all the way from Alexandria, Egypt, to Rome, Italy, and handed it over to the current Roman emperor Caracalla.

At this time, Caracalla had just assassinated his younger brother, Gaita, who was also the co-emperor, cleared his party members, and became the only emperor of the Roman Empire.

However, due to the killing of his younger brother, Zhu Lian has a large number of powerful forces attached to his younger brother, and his reputation is at a low point. His position is still unstable, and the situation is very dangerous.