Back to the Warring States Period as Zhao Kuo

Zhao Kuo stopped his horse and stared at the Nile River in front of him.

Wherever there is a civilization, there must be a big river, such as the Nile River in ancient Egypt, the Indus River in ancient India, the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in ancient Babylon, and the Yellow River in ancient China.

This river comes from the East African Plateau, all the way north through the eastern part of the Sahara Desert, forcibly flowing out a life zone in the desert.

Even in later generations of Egypt, more than 95% of the more than [-] million people still gathered on both sides of the Nile River, which is enough to prove the importance of this mother river to the Egyptians.

As a Chinese, although the Nile River is not the mother river of China, it does not prevent Zhao Kuo from respecting this river that also nurtured human civilization.

After a moment of contemplation, Zhao Kuo raised his head and stared at the west.

There, the walls of Alexandria were already in sight.

Zhao Kuo said lightly, "Send a vassal into the city to tell the Ptolemys in the city that they still have one last chance to choose.

Surrender or die, I want to get their answer before sunrise tomorrow at the latest! "

It's time to end this war.

Chapter 1238 Ptolemy's Death Knell

Zhao Kuo's ultimatum was soon known to Ptolemy II in the city.

At this time, almost a month has passed since the Battle of Jerusalem, but this month seems to have had a ten-year effect on Ptolemy II, making the supreme ruler of the Ptolemy dynasty It looked extremely old.

Ptolemy II looked around at everyone present, and said slowly: "Now that things are up, everyone just speak up and speak freely."

Arsinoa II, who was sitting next to Ptolemy II, sighed, and said calmly: "From the current situation, I am afraid that His Majesty the Emperor from the East, his soldiers and horses are beyond our capabilities. blocked.

It seems that this is what the gods meant, and the fate of the Ptolemy dynasty may only end here.

Surrender now, the Eastern Emperor may allow us to continue to rule this land, collect taxes and provide soldiers for him. If we continue to resist, I am afraid that we and this city will be horrified by that Emperor. The weapons were razed to the ground. "

When Arsinoah II said this, many people present suddenly showed terrified expressions on their faces.

These people have personally experienced the Battle of Jerusalem, and they are also very impressed with explosives.

But not everyone wants to surrender.

The eldest prince stood up and said in a very unhappy manner: "My queen, what you said is very unreasonable.

Our Ptolemy family followed Alexander the Great from birth to death, and bravery is engraved in our blood. Even if we fight to the last moment, we should not choose to bow our knees and surrender! "

Of course the eldest prince would object. If the Ptolemaic dynasty could continue, then the eldest prince would be able to become the new king of Ptolemy in the future, but if the Ptolemaic dynasty perished, then the eldest prince would have nothing.

The grand prince's loud opposition obviously resonated, and some people also stood up, clearly wanting to coexist with the Ptolemaic dynasty until the last moment.

An extremely violent quarrel ensued, and this quarrel lasted for a long, long time.

Until the next morning, Zhao Kuo, who still had no reply, calmly issued an order.

"Let's attack the city."

The mighty Han army began to attack the city.

This time the siege operation was actually relatively lackluster.

You must know that the Ptolemys concentrated 15 troops of the entire dynasty, and they did not hold on to Jerusalem, let alone the city of Alexandria, which is now only guarded by a group of defeated soldiers.

An hour later, when an earth-shattering loud noise resounded at the gate of Alexandria, Zhao Kuo couldn't help but slightly twitched the corners of his mouth.

There is a good saying that explosion is a man's romance.

In the evening of that day, the entire city of Alexandria fell under the control of the soldiers and horses of the Han Dynasty.

At nightfall, Zhao Kuo arrived at the palace of Ptolemy, surrounded by countless soldiers from the Han Dynasty.

In the palace hall, a person sat on the throne, quietly waiting for Zhao Kuo.

This person is none other than the eldest prince.

Zhao Kuo's gaze did not lock on the eldest prince, but looked at the eldest prince's feet.

There, there were two old corpses lying quietly, having been dead for a long time.

Although Zhao Kuo didn't know him, he could also guess that the two corpses should be King Ptolemy II and Queen Arsinoa II.

Zhao Kuo spoke slowly: "It turns out that this is the reason why you are unwilling to surrender."

The eldest prince smiled and said, "From today onwards, I will be the third king of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. You can call me Ptolemy III."

Zhao Kuo shook his head, and asked back: "It's just an illusory throne. You should know that you can't keep this throne."

The eldest prince laughed loudly and said, "Even just being a king for a day is enough for me."

Zhao Kuo looked at the eldest prince and said, "So, what are you going to do next?"

The eldest prince smiled, touched the armrest of the throne with some nostalgia, and said slowly: "I really can't keep this throne, so I choose to die on this throne."

After saying these words, blood gushed out from the corner of the eldest prince's mouth.

Then he died.

Looking at this scene, even a well-informed person like Zhao Kuo was a little dazed for a while.

This guy is really a ruthless person.

Zhao Kuo was silent for a while, then slowly said: "Bury them well, just bring those who surrendered here."

Those who were unwilling to surrender were basically killed by the Han army during the battle, so the rest were naturally those who were willing to surrender.

Men and women, old and young, knelt in front of Zhao Kuo tremblingly, waiting for Zhao Kuo to judge their fate.

Zhao Kuo narrowed his eyes, and said lightly: "I will not kill you, and I may employ you, but you must remember that you will no longer be loyal to any Ptolemaic dynasty, but to my great Han country." .

As long as you can serve our country and the Han Kingdom well, your descendants will praise your wisdom.

But if you are here to lie with me just to survive, then you will never have any descendants, understand? "

For Zhao Kuo's warning, all the Ptolemys present were silent, and then kowtowed in agreement.

After the city of Alexandria was conquered, the conquest of the next Ptolemaic dynasty became a very simple matter.

As I said before, most of Egypt is desert, and the place without desert is the Mediterranean Sea, and the sea water is not drinkable.

Therefore, most of the Egyptians are concentrated on both sides of the Nile River, and Zhao Kuo only needs to send an army to go upstream along the Nile River if he wants to conquer the rest of Egypt.

Naturally, Wang Jian was in charge of this upstream action, and he would lead [-] Musketeers southward to complete the conquest task assigned by Zhao Kuo.

As for Zhao Kuo himself, he stayed in Alexandria.

This is not for laziness, but as His Majesty the Emperor, Zhao Kuo naturally wants to establish the order of the Han Kingdom here.

Although it is said that Egypt has a large territory, in fact, the place where people can live is very small, so Zhao Kuo established a county here, called Egypt County, and the capital of this county is still Alexandria.

Further east, the Sinai Peninsula and the Palestine area form a county called Sinai County, with its capital in Jerusalem.

Sinai County went north, with the city of Antioch as the center, forming a Syria County.

To the east of Syria, with the city of Babylon as the center, a Babylonian county was established.

In this way, the entire Seleucid Empire and the territory conquered by the Ptolemaic Dynasty were divided into twenty counties.

These [-] counties are obviously relatively few compared with the [-] counties in the Han Kingdom, mainly because most of these counties are of the type with vast land and sparse population, such as plateaus, deserts, etc. Naturally, it is impossible to set up as many prefectures and counties as densely as in the Central Plains.

In fact, these twenty counties are not the end, because you must know that Li Mu's conquest of the Antigonian Empire is also in full swing.

This time, Zhao Kuo gave Li Mu the task of conquering at least the entire Asia Minor peninsula, and if possible, cross the Bosporus Strait and invade the Balkan Peninsula.

Originally, Zhao Kuo hoped that after the demise of the Ptolemaic dynasty, he could obtain the navy of the Ptolemaic dynasty to facilitate cross-sea operations.

But what Zhao Kuo didn't expect was that the navy of the Ptolemaic dynasty had already left before Zhao Kuo killed Alexandria, and they went directly north along the Mediterranean Sea to Greece.

After all, Greece also came from the Alexander Empire. Speaking of which, everyone is from the same family, and they can still deal with the enemy Zhao Kuo together, right?

Therefore, Zhao Kuo still has to face a problem, that is, he still does not have a sufficient number of naval ships in his hands.

If there are no ships, crossing the sea will become a big problem that is out of reach.

"I hope Li Mu can gain something."

At this time, Zhao Kuo could only pin his hope on Li Mu.

Of course, even if Li Mu couldn't succeed, Zhao Kuo didn't really care too much about it.

To be honest, the Great Han Kingdom wiped out the Ptolemaic Dynasty and the Seleucid Empire, and robbed all the land of the Antigonid Dynasty in Asia in just two years. This is actually very amazing.

As the saying goes, people will be supportive if they eat too much. With the strength of the Han Dynasty, it is also somewhat supportive to swallow so much territory in one go.

Now that you are full, you have to digest it slowly.

In Zhao Kuo's view, if there is no navy, then wait for three to five years, while slowly looking for craftsmen to manufacture ships, while digesting these conquered territories, wouldn't it be a perfect thing?

The death knell of the Ptolemaic dynasty has already sounded, and the next thing to do is to wait for the news from Li Mu, the Antigonian Empire.

Chapter 1239 Li Mu is in trouble

When Zhao Kuo led the army to fight against the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Li Mu and his deputy Sima Shang also led another army and entered the southeastern region of the Asia Minor peninsula.

As can be seen from the map, the Asia Minor Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula of Europe are separated by the Bosporus Strait. In the north of this peninsula is the Black Sea, in the west is the Aegean Sea, and in the south is the Mediterranean Sea.

This place is an out-and-out traffic artery, a battleground for military strategists.

Li Mu went all the way north along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Even so, he had to first enter the plateau mountains in the southeastern region of the Asia Minor peninsula.

"This mountain looks high, but it is far behind the Taihang Mountain."

This is Li Mu's evaluation.

"This place looks high, but it is far worse than the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau."

This is Sima Shang's evaluation.

Obviously, the two commanders of the Great Han Kingdom did not think highly of this stretch of peninsula plateau and mountainous area.

Li Mu glanced at Sima Shang, said with a smile: "It seems that you have a deep impression on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau."

Sima Shang said with a chuckle: "The Taiwei didn't know something, when the general was on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he discovered a pass leading to the South Asian subcontinent.

It’s just that His Majesty said later that our large troops should mainly go to Central Asia, which is the eastern part of the Seleucid Empire we just conquered. Otherwise, the next time the Taiwei might have the opportunity to go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. "

Li Mu waved his hand and said with a smile: "I heard those guys say that after going to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, what kind of reaction will you have?

Yes, it is lack of oxygen. I don't want to suffer that. If I can go to the South Asian subcontinent with your Majesty in the future, I'd better choose the route in the direction of Central Asia. "

The two talked and laughed all the way, but they didn't know that in the mountains ahead, the army of the Antigonid Empire was already in full swing.

As a neighbor of the Seleucid Empire and a strong neighbor in the north, the Antigonian Empire, together with the Ptolemaic Dynasty, had attacked the Seleucid Empire from behind when the Han Kingdom launched an attack on the Seleucid Empire. Wave backstab.

It's just that the Antigonian Empire is still smarter. They didn't directly attack Antioch, the capital of Seleucid like the Ptolemys, but chose to attack the city in the northwest of Seleucid, which is the Asia Minor peninsula. Seize the city and seize territory in the southeastern region.

After some wars, when the Seleucid Empire fell, the Antigonian Empire also seized a lot of land and annexed several small countries that were originally subject to the Seleucid Empire.

After the annexation, Dmitri II, the king of the Antigonid Empire, who was very alert, did not relax his vigilance because of this, but continued to send a large number of spies to the land of Seleucid to actively spy on all the information of the Han Kingdom.

Therefore, when the soldiers and horses of the Han Kingdom gathered in Antioch, Demetrius II had already heard the news, and also gathered the courtiers of the Antioch Empire.

"According to the current intelligence, the emperor of the Great Han Kingdom will target either our Antigonus or the Ptolemaic dynasty in the next attack.

In any case, sooner or later we, Antigonus, will become the target of the Han Kingdom, we must be more vigilant about this! "

Dmitry II's voice is very resonant. He is just 40 years old now, which is the time when a man is at his most vigorous and enterprising.

At this time, Dmitry II will not be afraid of any challenges, and even wants to take the initiative to meet these challenges!After hearing Demetrius II's words, most of the courtiers of the Antigonid Empire fell into deep thought.

A minister said: "Your Majesty, perhaps we should unite with the Ptolemaic dynasty and launch an attack on this great Han country."

Dmitry II nodded slowly and said, "It is inevitable.

Today's Great Han Kingdom is even more terrifying than the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucids were destroyed by the Great Han Kingdom with almost no resistance. If someone still feels that they can fight alone when facing such an opponent If he wins, then this person is definitely an idiot. "

Another minister said: "Your Majesty, if the soldiers and horses of the Han Dynasty really come to invade us, what should we do?"

Dmitry II laughed: "What else can I do?

Of course it is to fight back against them and beat them back! "

Dmitry II's voice was full of firmness and confidence.

The self-confidence of Demetrius II undoubtedly infected the ministers of Antigonus, making them all show excited expressions.

"Your Majesty is right, we are not the trash of Seleucus, we will definitely win this time!"

"If we can defeat this vicious Han army, then we can regain the land and regain the glory of Alexander the Great!"