Molested Zulong at the beginning

Mo Xun on the side also nodded: "Although there is no shortage of sulfur in the land of Dongying now, due to the lack of labor in the area to mine it, it cannot be transported back in a short time, and the process is cumbersome."

"With the current capacity of the imperial workshop, even if it works day and night, it is not easy to produce [-] to [-] soldiers and horses."

Fan Kuai fluffed his hair, and said regretfully, "Can only 6 or [-] people be armed? This is too little."

Bai Su shook his head slightly: "As the saying goes, soldiers should be skilled rather than numerous, and generals should be brave but not resourceful. With the long-distance sailing capability of the Great Xia Fleet, it is already enough to cooperate with [-] to [-] elite troops who can fight far away from the Central Plains. A force to be reckoned with."

Although it is impossible to completely control every place if you want to conquer a country.

However, it is enough to achieve a victory, help the Central Plains sign some trade treaties, support a puppet, and hold the control of the Silk Road in his hands.

After pondering for a moment, he ordered: "This Anxi alliance with Rome often sends troops to provoke. I'm afraid Han Xin won't be able to deal with it for long."

"Quickly strengthen the training. As for the Mohists... they will go all out to produce guns and ammunition, as well as prepare logistics, food, medicine and other supplies, and be ready for long-distance voyages at any time."

"Yes."

The two bowed their hands in salute.

All of a sudden, the entire Moqijian became busy.

Chapter 470 Rome and Sabbath are pressing closer

Batqueria.

The golden sunlight fell down, and the white marble city wall was covered with a faint halo.

The girl was dressed in a jet-black skirt armor, gently stroking the long sword at her waist, her jet-black hair fluttering in the wind, and her elegant figure on the city wall was like a magnificent picture scroll.

The sun that was falling down reflected the girl's delicate and pretty face, a pair of eyes that looked like stagnant water without the slightest emotional fluctuation, looking into the distance.

The girl is none other than Han Xin who is now stationed abroad.

Han Xin has been standing here for half a day, and now it is autumn and winter, the weather in the morning is very cold, and ordinary people will feel shivering after standing for half an hour.

But she persisted every day, checking the surrounding terrain in case the enemy had any intentions.

Ever since the Great Xia pacified the Maurya Dynasty and bordered the Anxi Kingdom, the border has never been peaceful.

Basically, you can see any changes in the Anxi army at regular intervals.

She is in the farthest frontier from Daxia, and she has been under a lot of pressure recently.

A few months ago, the imperial court specially sent a letter to tell her that the Central Plains did not have the energy to dispatch large-scale troops to help in a short period of time, and asked her to find a way to hold this place without any loss.

With limited soldiers available, she must remain vigilant at all times, and must not show any flaws, and how long she can last.

After all, this Bactria is a strategic location, it can be said that it is the center of the entire Silk Road, it is too important.

In later generations it has another name, Afghanistan.

If the Central Plains occupies this place, it will be connected to the Protectorate of the Western Regions to form a whole with Tianzhu. Such a behemoth can continuously spread its influence to the west, and no neighboring country dares to compete with the Central Plains.

Once this place is lost, the connection between the Protectorate of the Western Regions and Tianzhu will be cut off, and the influence of the Central Plains in Central Asia will disappear.

As the army of the Central Plains retreated to the Protectorate of the Western Regions, their control over the land of Tianzhu would also be greatly reduced.

From a potential comparable to a world hegemon, to a great eastern country, losing control of the world's trade, the loss is more than a little bit.

Bactria, a seemingly weak small country, is the foundation for the Central Plains to become the world's hegemon in the future, and it must not be lost.

While she was thinking, a lieutenant came over quickly, cupped his hands and said, "General, something happened."

Han Xin's beautiful brows were slightly frowned, and he couldn't help asking: "What happened, with a panicked look on his face, could it be that Anxi and Rome have asked us for silk and tea again?"

Due to the order of the imperial court, let her be patient for the time being.

Therefore, during this period of time, facing the blackmail from Anxi and Rome, she generally agreed to any request as long as it was not too excessive.

For example, if you ask for silk, ten thousand silk for cloth.

Tea, porcelain, two hundred carts and so on.

The soldiers stationed here wanted to fight the Anxi and Roman armies more than once, but they were all temporarily suppressed by her.

Although this kind of blackmail is very annoying, compared to Bactria's important strategic position, this little effort is nothing.

After all, there are not many soldiers under her command now, just enough to defend the city. Facing the 70 million troops of the Two Kingdoms Alliance, it is meaningless to simply win once or twice.

Now I can temporarily stabilize the situation by agreeing to some conditions, and try to stabilize it as much as possible.

As long as you wait until the Central Plains side is ready for battle, and when your lord's letter arrives and you start a full-scale counter-offensive, sooner or later the two countries will spit out their capital and profits.

The lieutenant general smiled bitterly and said, "Yes, the conditions they raised are getting more and more excessive. Look, my lord, this is the condition proposed by their envoy..."

Han Xin took the letter and looked at it, his eyelids couldn't help jumping wildly, this... this is really a lion's mouth wide open.

I saw that Anxi and Rome asked to provide them with silk, [-] pieces of cloth, [-] carts of tea, [-] carts of porcelain, and [-] carts of sugar, otherwise they would face each other.

You must know that hard currencies such as silk, porcelain, and cane sugar in the Central Plains are almost indistinguishable from gold of the same volume.

Opening his mouth to ask for such a large sum of money is obviously treating her as a defeated country and asking for a tribute.

The deputy general glanced at Han Xin's dignified face, and asked tentatively: "My lord... what should we do, if we continue to be patient, I'm worried that the soldiers will have opinions."

Han Xin's slender eyebrows frowned. She knew that the adjutant had tried to be as tactful as possible. In fact, there was no objection. The soldiers in the city had long been dissatisfied and talked about her.

After all, the military virtues in the Central Plains have been too abundant for so many years. On weekdays, Baiyue killed the Xia envoys, slaughtered them into nine counties, and the Xiongnu occupied Hetao and killed them immediately.

He destroyed countless countries in his lifetime, and stepped on countless corpses.

It can be said to be a proper bully level. It is a common thing to go to the stalls of neighboring countries to eat melons without paying.

If it weren't for Han Xin's many military exploits over the years, he was able to suppress this group of arrogant soldiers, maybe something would happen, and the generals would not obey orders and go out of the city to fight.

After pondering for a while, Han Xin said: "Their appetite is getting bigger and bigger. Obviously they don't want to negotiate terms. They came here for us. It doesn't make sense to give them anything now. It's time to prepare for the battle. "

"In this way, you reply to their envoys that it will take half a year for us to transport such a large batch of goods from the Central Plains, so try to delay as much as possible."

"In the city, speed up the consolidation of the city walls, evacuate the people, clear the scorched walls, and prepare for battle at any time."

"At the same time, I will send someone to quickly send a letter to Xianyang to inform His Majesty about this matter. With Lord Bai, with our current strength, we can last for about five months at most. I will try my best to last until the last day."

"I believe that within these five months, with the ability of my lord, reinforcements will be sent to help. We only need to defend the city."

The deputy general heard Bai Su's name, the tension on his face dissipated a lot, he couldn't help laughing and said: "Master Bai is a talent in the world, he has defeated countless opponents over the years, I believe that Rome and Anxi are no exception .”

After all, the deputy general bowed his hands and went to carry out the order.

Looking at the back of the adjutant leaving, Han Xin sighed slightly, with a wry smile on his face: "I'm afraid we won't be able to wait for reinforcements..."

With her vision, she can naturally understand the logistical burden of dispatching hundreds of thousands of troops from the Central Plains to fight in this more distant Central Asia.

Even if Great Xia's national strength is strong, it can't afford such a big expense.

With the talent of an adult, it is natural that he will not understand this principle. At that time, it is estimated that a small-scale elite soldier who will not consume much money will be sent to help.

But in the face of such two big countries, is it really useful to rely on a single elite soldier to help them?

Han Xin bit the slender nail of her thumb. She pondered for a long time, but she couldn't think of any way to repel the army of 70 to [-] with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

In the end, he could only shake his head and pin all his hopes on Bai Su.

I hope that Daliang Zao, who is always unexpected and able to solve various problems, can use a method she doesn't know to solve this unsolvable dilemma.

All she can do now is to delay the imperial court's expedition as much as possible.

Chapter 470 Rome's Pretext for War

The land of Rome.

The huge bath is steaming, the ground is paved with white marble, and many beautifully carved statues of Hera and Venus can be seen everywhere, giving people a solemn and sacred feeling.

Da da da, there was a sound of crisp footsteps.

A woman in a gorgeous red dress and a white dress on her chest walked in. She had dazzling long golden hair, a fair neck, and a golden pendant on her delicate collarbone.

On her dignified and noble pretty face, there is a hint of a smile, her eyes are like lacquer, her nose is like a crescent moon, her lips are like dandelion, and her every move is full of nobility and arrogance.

Gong'e in front of the bath saw the woman approaching, and bowed and saluted one after another, with a very humble attitude.

The reason is very simple, the person who came was none other than Nero, the first emperor of Rome today.

Originally, she was only the daughter of the temporary dictator of the Roman Republic, but because of the Great Summer in the East, under Bai Su's suggestion, the Silk Road was opened in advance.

Compared with the original history, the timeline of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opening up the Western Regions was more than seven or eighty years earlier.

As a result, the exchanges between the world's major powers have become more frequent, under the butterfly effect of trade exchanges.

Rome also encountered various chain reactions. First, it was learned from the mouths of businessmen that there was an emperor in the far east who called himself the first emperor, commanded an army of millions, opened up territories everywhere, and commanded the surrounding countries.

This allowed Rome to open the door to a new world. I didn't expect that the world would have other directions besides a republic, and a powerful country could also be established. This made many intellectuals in Rome have the idea of ​​​​establishing an imperial system. .

Coupled with the large-scale production of silk, tea, porcelain and other commercial goods by Baisu, they are shipped in large quantities every year. While attracting countless countries in the area, it also gave Rome the impetus to expand.

After all, the goods transported all the way from the Central Plains are all solid currency. If you don't occupy the surrounding trade route, then other countries will act as middlemen and raise prices wantonly to exploit them.

After Rome was exploited several times by its neighbors, all the elites and businessmen in the country were filled with righteous indignation and were very angry with it.

So the Senate began to fully support the dictator, rapidly expanding the army, and constantly attacking neighboring countries, gradually controlling the golden commercial routes along the western part of the Silk Road in the hands of Rome.

Under repeated attacks, Rome began a series of expansions, continuously annexing neighboring countries.

Relying on reselling the goods from the Central Plains, the finances are very sufficient, and in less than a few years, it has become a behemoth.

But with the establishment of the empire, the dictator and the army have established a solid relationship, coupled with the huge prestige blessing, the Senate can no longer restrain the dictator.

Nero took over the position of dictator from his father and became the second dictator.

She led the Roman army, defeated the last powerful enemy in the surrounding area, and after controlling the entire Mediterranean area, she did not choose to step down as dictator, but chose to directly imitate the Eastern Great Xia and proclaim herself emperor.

Today, with the support of the army, she has become the first emperor of Rome.

Nero proudly opened his arms, and under the service of the maid, the long skirt gradually faded away, revealing a plump and beautiful body, with white and round thighs, constantly intertwined, and the body slowly soaked into the bath.

She felt the heat of the pool water seeping through the pores into her limbs, and couldn't help moaning||groaning comfortably.

At this time, Gong'e at the side came over with the brewed tea: "Your Majesty, the tea is ready..."

"Um..."

Nero opened his green eyes, responded softly, grabbed a small handful of sucrose from the small pot beside him, sprinkled it into the tea, and took a sip.

Feeling the sweetness, with a faint fragrance, she couldn't help sighing: "This Eastern Seris is so rich and rich, not only has cane sugar, silk, tea and other fascinating commodities, even a small The utensils can be made so amazing."

I saw that the blue and white porcelain teacup in his hand was as smooth as jade, and there were vivid cyan patterns of birds, beasts, insects and fish on it.

Although it seems to be painted, it can't be touched by hand, and it can't be washed off with water. It's really amazing.

At this time, a cold female voice came from the side: "Since your majesty knows that Seris is powerful, why did you agree to join forces with Anxi and take the initiative to provoke a powerful country like Seris? Within a month, a big country with 40 troops was defeated."

Looking along the prestige, I saw a woman in white dressed in sacrificial attire came in, frowning at her, obviously dissatisfied with her decision to declare war with Daxia.

Nero smiled and said with a smile: "The high priest, don't be angry, it is precisely because of the strength of Seris that I want to attack them even more."

The high priest was taken aback for a moment, and couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by your majesty's words?"

Nero stretched out his white hands, dragged his cheeks lazily, and said with a smile: "Just as Anxi is very worried, we Rome cooperates with Siris, and the two sides sign a non-aggression pact to share the territory of Anxi together."

"We in Rome are also very worried. Let Seris' power continue to expand to the west. Anxi can't stand the pressure and directly turns against Siris. Once the two countries join forces, the pressure we will face in Rome will be great. "

"Hence, helping Anxi to stop Bactria's westward advance is tantamount to fighting for a buffer state for Rome. As long as Anxi is not annexed and serves as a shield to resist the pressure from the east for us, then our Rome will always be in a safe range. "

"And because Rome is located at the end of the west and is too far away from Seris, the logistics of the expeditionary army can't be maintained at all, and sending a small army can't beat us."

"Therefore, no matter how angry the emperor of Seris is, he can't do anything to us."

"It can be said that this war is not at all risky for us."

"If you win, you can force Seris back to the east, and at the same time plunder the local area, bringing back a lot of goods and a lot of slaves to trade."

"Even if we lose, we will return to Rome at worst. Anyway, with Anxi standing in front of us, Daxia will hit them first, and we won't be able to hit us."

"Since it's a win anyway, why don't I agree?"

After hearing Nero's words, the high priest fell into deep thought for a while, and after thinking about it carefully, he realized that it was true.

With Rome's geographical location, there is almost no threat from the rear, and Anxi, the only threat in the east, is also bent on cooperating with Rome at this time. The current situation is indeed unprecedentedly beneficial to Rome.

If you win, you earn blood, and if you lose, you don’t lose money.

At this time, a palace lady came in, stroked her chest and said: "Your Majesty, Batkelia's Xia Jun Jiedu envoy, Han Xin sent a letter. She said that we asked for too many things, and it would take at least half a year to transport them from the Central Plains. We give them time to prepare slowly."

Nero sat up from the spring, his slightly damp golden hair sticking to his milk-white jade back.