Xiong Jing uses Wuji as his translation, and in Gluttony, Silanus and Wugou Chang use that comparative dictionary to communicate. With the confusion of Wuji, an extremely fluent translation of Greek, the group arrived at Yingdu, and Silanus finally found out where Wuji came from.

"Honorable king, he is from the Seleucid Empire of Bactria, and he is plotting rebellion, and I beseech you to expel him from your kingdom." Relying on the Chu Greek dictionary, Silanus struggled to spell out a sentence that he was not fluent in.

"As a civilized person, I can't drive away my guests." Xiong Jing spoke a Greek word slowly. This surprised everyone, except for a few smiles on his face. The meaning of the smile is twofold, the first is that the king of Chu rejected Silanus's 'rudeness' request, and the second is that he did not spend much effort to let the king of Chu learn Greek.

In fact, this is just Xiong Jing's English background at work. Both are Indo-European, Greek and Indo-Sanskrit have very similar grammar, and English is derived from Latin, which is also an Indo-European language. Although Greek differs from English in pronunciation, quantifiers, mood, tenses, and hypotheticals, the way of expression and the way words are stacked and combined are similar.

"Oh!" When Shi Shi glanced at each other before taking notes, Silanus sighed and called out to the sun god. "It's a miracle!" He muttered. Then he glanced at the smiling Wuji, and said, "If you insist on doing so, I can only inform the emperor himself of this: the envoys of the rebellious province of Bactria were received by the state of Chu. And, I refuse him to continue to serve as an interpreter in my negotiations with you, I do not trust him. ”

Even in English, listening is Xiongjing's weakness, and he only half-understood Siranus's words, and finally Siranus wrote down this sentence, and Xiongjing fully understood what he meant.

"I agree not to be the interpreter between me and my footage." Xiong Jing was not worried that Silanus would report the matter of Bactria's envoys to Seleucus II, because Chu and Seleucus needed each other.

According to the report, Seleucids only had bronze armor, and the iron relied on imports of Indian-made Seris iron—not because India's iron smelting technology surpassed that of other countries, but because the quality of India's iron ore was superior to that of other countries. These bronze armours were more than five millimeters thick, and in some places even more than a centimeter, weighed more than twenty kilograms, and protected only the chest, a wide metal belt at the waist, and a pair of bronze shin armor on the calves.

The heavy infantry fought in heavy bronze armor, with shields and sarissa spears in their hands, making every step extremely difficult. The ring armor is different, the ring armor made of huge iron is only one or two millimeters thick, which can protect the entire upper body and shoulders, plus the skirt armor, arm armor, and shin armor, the protection is all-round, and the total weight is only 14 kilograms. Because of proper quenching and tempering, although the thickness of one or two millimeters is inferior to that of bronze armor with a thickness of five millimeters or even one centimeter, it is completely sufficient on the battlefield.

The good protection of the soldiers directly reduced the casualty rate, and the casualty ratio of the Chu army dropped from the first five to one to three to one, or even below three to one, mostly due to Jujia. The low casualty ratio also encouraged the soldiers to fight desperately, increasing the fear and panic of the enemy army. Seleucus, who had been fighting on all sides since the founding of the state, was certainly well aware of this.

In addition to armor, the huge iron weapons of the Chu State are also superior to bronze weapons and various weapons made of Cyrisian iron. There are differences in iron ore itself, and more in the differences in heat treatment. It is rumored that in order to achieve the previous quenching effect, the American blacksmith specially transported the water of a certain river from England, because it was quenched with the water of that river before, and the United States found a different river with the same water quality.

If the importance of steelmaking is one, then the importance of carburizing is two, and the importance of heat treatment is five. Water quenching, oil quenching, salt water quenching, urine quenching, blood quenching, strong wind quenching, slave quenching (the red-hot sword is inserted into the slave's body to quench......), a variety of quenching methods, all rely on the experience of craftsmen, it takes several generations, more than ten generations of craftsmen to accumulate experience, in order to find a suitable quenching method for the steel produced by a certain iron ore.

Chu has Xiong Jing's guidance and the simple resistance thermometer, which can no longer be simple, and Jutiefu has accumulated a large amount of heat treatment data. Different iron ore, different smelting methods, different carbon content ......, before the production of Jujian Jujia, Jutiefu has carried out thousands of tests, mastered the experience of heat treatment (key parameters), and craftsmen can produce according to experience.

The Seleucid army was in desperate need of Chu's armor and weapons, and the iron army equipped with such armor and weapons would soon be able to defeat the rebellious Antiochus Aeeras and recover Anatolia (southern Asia Minor); The Iron Army could also easily defeat the Antigonians (who ruled Greece, Thraze, and northern Asia Minor), the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and the rebellious provinces of Parthia and Bactria.

Because of this, Seleucus II received 5,000 sets of armor and 'sent' sixteen stallions, and agreed to sell Nissa's horses to the state of Chu. In the ancient world, the Persian Nissama and the Sarmatian aristocratic horses (presumably the sweaty horses of Central Asia) were the only two high-quality horsehorses with a shoulder height of more than 150 centimeters. Of course, there are differences between the two types of horses: the Nissa horse is more robust and suitable for heavy armor, while the noble horse has a violent temperament, is generally castrated and ridden, and has a weaker weight-bearing capacity than the Nissa horse.

In addition to this, the Iberian horse (Sorea horse) mentioned by Silanus, which is the ancestor of the later Andalusian horse, as well as the forest horse in the north of unknown Europe and the Bobu horse (the ancestor of the Arabian horse), which may have been native to North Africa.

With a hurt expression, he withdrew from the Ming Hall in a huff. Although he did not know about the trade of weapons and horses between Seleucus and Chu, he could truly feel the threat of trade between Chu and Seleucus. He wanted to insult the stingy Sogdian merchants in the pigeon letters, and it was their refusal to provide stallions to the Chu that caused the Chu to send merchant ships westward to bring in the Seleucid Nissa.

Silanus was relieved by Wuji's departure, and after learning of Wuji's identity, he was worried that the Bactrian envoy would prevent Chu from selling weapons to Seleucus.

"Dear king, I believe that your vassals have reported to you his agreement with our emperor," Silanus wrote in Greek. "Seleucus sells you Nissamar, and you sell Seleucus weapons and armor."

"Yes." Xiong Jing nodded, and the Commander Wugou gave him a priority to inform him of the matter, and also submitted a proposal to transport horses by sea. It is not impossible to transport horses by sea, such as European immigrants to the Americas, where horses are transported by ship. But how to reduce the death of horses in transport - originally four stallions, twelve mares, is a very tricky matter.

The other is the price of the horses, Xiong Jing nodded and asked the people in the city: "Is there a price for the Seleucid horse?" ”

"The king, as he said, he didn't set the price." Not in a hurry. "I think one horse should not exceed the top five."

"Two and a half gold?" Xiong Jing asked again. A pair of ring pieces of armor costs half gold, and a high-quality Rong horse costs only one gold in Zhao State.

"Yes." He agreed.

"How many armor sets do you think a Nissa horse needs to be exchanged?" Xiong Jing asked Silanus.

"Your lord, if it were in Seleucus, an ordinary horse would cost only two hundred drachs, a good war horse would cost at least a thousand drachmas, and the most expensive one would be Buseverus, the mount of Alexander the Great, for which his father spent thirteen tarrants." Like the bear, Silanus only knew the price of horses in Seleucidism and the Mediterranean. "For this price, you can buy seven hundred and eighty sets of bronze armor......"

Silanus laughed without reading the words written on the paper, and he told Bujian and the others: "The most expensive horse, Alexander's mount, Busseflus, is worth thirteen tarrants, and can buy seven hundred and eighty sets of bronze armor. ”

"How can it be!" "The merchant of the port of Arakan Kuram said that the best horse in Persia is no more than a thousand drachmas. A set of bronze armor costs two hundred drachmas. ”

There is a basis for the proposal to exchange five horses for one horse, the port of Arakan Kuram is an international commercial port, and some Nisama and Greek-style bronze armor are also sold to India, Zara and Pandia, but the price is at least ten times more than doubled. The Seleucid envoy even gave the example of Alexander's mount, one tarrant is equal to six thousand drachmas, and thirteen tarrants are seventy-eight thousand drachmas, which is an expensive price that could not be more expensive.

"I've heard that Alexander's mount was so violent that no one could ride it at all, except Alexander himself. It's a ......" Xiong Jing paused, struggling to find the right words. "It's not a Nissa horse, it's a Sogdiana horse. The horses there are very violent temperaments, and only castration can control the ride. ”

Xiong Jing gave Hu Tanshaozhi's explanation for the original sacrifice of a eunuch horse, and he continued: "I have also heard that arming 1,200 cavalry, even in Greece, where there are no good horses, costs only 100 tarrants, and of course, these 1,200 cavalrymen need more than 5 tarrants per month to feed. With this money, a city-state could deploy about 20,000 hoplites on the battlefield, or equip a fleet of a hundred triremes. Only a rich country with lush vegetation can support the consumption of one of its cavalry......"

After Xiong Jing finished speaking, Silanus was stunned for a long time before cursing the Bactrians in his heart. He was absolutely right, and without an unscrupulous introduction, Xiong Jing could not have known the cost of the Greeks to purchase cavalry.

"Dear King, I need to point out that Nissama is the finest war horse in the known world, and there is no precedent for large-scale sales," Siranus said. "The Emperor considered that a Nissa horse was worth at least ten sets of armor and corresponding weapons."