In the Yongcheng Dazheng Palace, after a few days of recuperation, Liu Xiayue was finally able to speak the Central Plains normally, and he told Zhao Wuxian about his experience in the past eight years......

"After separating from the Zhao caravan in Wushi eight years ago, the minister first crossed Longshan to the west and arrived at the land of Xiqiang......"

"Xiqiang is located in the west of Longshan, eight hundred miles west of Yongcheng, is another species surnamed Jiang, lives near the Jiuqu River, hundreds of tribes, and the ethnic groups stretch for thousands of miles. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoIt's just that the land there is barren, the grains are not easy to grow, and the Qiang people mainly rely on animal husbandry and have no fixed residence, so they migrate with water and grass. There is no ruler in each tribe, and when the power is strong, it divides into races and becomes chieftains, and when the power is weak, it becomes a subordinate tribe of others. They plundered and invaded each other, and they dominated each other with violence, and there was no other prohibition in the tribe except killing for their lives. The Qiang people are good at fighting in the valleys and hills, daring to charge into battle, and regard death in battle as auspicious, while death from illness is unlucky. Able to endure cold and hardship, completely like animals, even if a woman gives birth, she does not hide from the wind and snow......"

Because Xiqiang and Qin were enemies, the ministers were able to safely pass through the Qiang land and enter Hexi. Hexi is 1,500 miles away from Yongcheng, it is sandwiched by the Qilian Mountains and the desert in the north, a long and narrow corridor, the Yuzhi people (Yueshi) are nomadic here, the water and grass here are abundant, the cattle and sheep are herded, the livestock is rich, and the Daibei is similar. ”

After leaving the Yu branch, the minister arrived at the canal search, the canal search is Rong species, there is a small city, because there is a spring in the city to make wine, so it is called Jiuquan, Jiuquan is three thousand miles west of Yongcheng. In the vicinity of Quso, there is a river called weak water, east of weak water is Yuzhi, west of weak water is Wusun. Wusun is also a Hu seed who lives in pursuit of water and grass, but he is quite friendly to the arrival of his ministers. ”

"After Wusun, the Hexi Corridor will come to an end, and further on there will be the vast desert snow-capped mountains. Just to get here, it took the minister a whole year, and the distance he walked was about the same as walking from Yongcheng to the East China Sea, but fortunately, there were tribes or small towns from time to time along the way, so that the minister could carry the gold and constantly replenish food and water. But then, after entering the Gobi, for a month, the ministers and others did not see people again, under the guidance of the Wusun guide, it was not easy to walk to an oasis and found a Hu people's city, which was named Loulan ......"

"The people of Loulan are blonde and blue-eyed, with a high nose bridge, and many beautiful women, and the city is on the verge of salt, and they live by farming and animal husbandry. After more than a month in the local area, the minister learned the words of the locals, and learned that there are states of cities in all parts of the Western Regions, and the language of each state is similar. ”

After that, Liu Xia Yue said that he traveled towards the Tianshan Mountains again, during which he found the Chiwu country in the "Legend of Mu Tianzi", which is probably located in the Turpan area, and he drank the local wine, and also saw grapes and courgettes, which were not found in the Central Plains. Then, he continued into the Tianshan Mountains and met a dog country that raised large dogs and lived in the snow of the Tianshan Mountains.

However, from the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains to the northern foothills, and even all the way west to the Ili River Valley, he still did not find the legendary Western Queen Mother Kingdom, so far, Liu Xia Yue has been away for two and a half years. In the process of searching for sweat and horses, they were also involved in disputes among the local Cypriot tribes......

……

"The Cypriot people are of the Hu race, the language is similar to that of Loulan, Chiwu, etc., their ethnic groups are widely distributed, occupying more than a thousand miles of territory between the Ileshui and the Chu River, calling themselves the Isedun people, and there are hundreds of tribes in it, and the chiefs of each tribe then elect the king of Sai, and the king of Sai divides the water, grass and herd of each tribe. The king of Cyprus is supreme, and every time after the death of the king of Cyprus, a solemn funeral is held. The corpses were first coated with sesame oil and loaded into special carts and paraded among the Cypriot tribes, where the inhabitants of the various tribes were to mourn by mutilating themselves in various ways, cutting off an ear, or mutilating their foreheads and noses, or piercing their left hands with arrows, or scratching their faces or eyes. After the procession, the bodies were sent to the royal burial ground, where the graves were excavated. The corpses were placed in tombs, wrapped in blankets, and spears were piled on either side of the corpses, before dozens or hundreds of people were killed for burial. ”

"The Cypriots are a Western power, they can smelt iron, they have big bows and arrows, they are good at riding horses, they can shoot two hundred paces, and they have tens of thousands of bow-drawing pawns. They were brave and warlike, and the young men drank the blood of the first man they slain, and used the heads of their enemies as drinking vessels. To make it, the part below the first eyebrow is sawed off, the rest of the skin is scraped off, wrapped in cowhide, and gilded with gold, and then used as a cup. As for the scalp, it is made into a handkerchief, and the more handkerchiefs a person has, the more heroic they are. ”

After describing the terrible customs of the Cypriot people, Yanagi Yue smiled bitterly: "The minister was almost made into drinking utensils and human skin turbans." ”

Fortunately, he had been walking in the Western Regions for many years, and had learned some Cypriot vocabulary, and offered the silk beloved by the Cypriots as a gift, so that he could not die and was detained by the side of the Cypriot king as a slave. After this, Yanagishita ran around with these Eseton riders on horseback, and they happened to bring Yanagishita to his destination, a basin where the various Cypriot tribes gathered, Dawan......

At this point, Liu Xia Yue has left the Central Plains for three full years, here, Liu Xia Yue saw the sweat and blood BMW he dreamed of, but he has become a slave at this time, and his entourage is also scattered, and there is no way to buy famous horses to return to the Central Plains......

After Dawan was detained for half a year, it coincided with the death of the king of Sedon, the chaos of the various tribes of Iseton, and the slave rebellion broke out in Dawan, and Yanagishita finally found an opportunity to escape. For fear of being pursued, he did not dare to go east, so he could only go southwest first, and without impartiality, he entered a region called "Bactria", which he later learned was also called "Great Xia", a frontier province of the Persian Empire......

"Great Xia, thousands of miles away from Yongdu, its place is thousands of miles, and most of its inhabitants are Cypriots, ruled by the Persians. Unlike the Cypriots and other tribes, the Persians were quite similar to the Central Plains, settling in one area to cultivate fields, grow rice and wheat, and in many places produce wine. ”

"The nobles of Persia like the silk of the Orient very much, but they can't establish contact with the Central Plains, so they can only trade through the transit of various states along the way, and a common silk silk in the Central Plains can be sold for sky-high prices in Persia!"

Therefore, the minister thought that the two countries might be able to establish trade, so he wanted to visit his king. The minister was in Daxia for a few months, learned the Persian dialect, and relied on a sweaty horse stolen from Dawan when he fled, in exchange for a good clothes, bought gifts, claimed to be a messenger from the Eastern Silk Country, and asked the governor of the province to take me to the capital of Persia, the governor of the province is a relative of the king of Persia, and he will be suspicious of the minister's words, but he was surprised by the appearance of the minister and the Hu people, so he was willing to introduce it, after all, he had also heard the rumors of the Eastern Silk Country. ”

"It was not until the governor of the province sent men to escort him westward that he realized that Persia was far greater than I had imagined. Its country is divided into dozens of provinces, and the minister estimated that if all the provinces are counted together, I am afraid that it will be ...... larger than the Zhao, Qin, Chu, Yan, and Yue countries in the entire Central Plains combined."

"There were hundreds of small and large towns under the jurisdiction of each province, and there were bazaars in the cities, and the Persians were fond of merchants, and they used chariots and ships to conduct business, and they could be transported thousands of miles to another province by means of the six thoroughfares. They made money out of silver, and coins were minted in the form of the king of Persia, and when the king died, they changed the coin. Persia also has a written word, a book of poetry. ”

After arriving here, Yanagi Yuecai encountered for the first time a huge empire with a level of civilization comparable to that of the Central Plains, and even surpassed the Central Plains in many places, and everything he saw in Persia amazed him, and at the same time, he was also shocked that there were mountains beyond the mountains, and the Central Plains may not be the only center of this heaven and earth.

"There were several capitals of Persia, and the one to which the courtiers were brought was called Persepolis, which was located under a great mountain, and was imposing, almost entirely of stone, with wide roads and statues everywhere. The common people believe in Zoroastrianism, believing that there are two great gods in the sky, one black and one white, and they must cross their legs when worshipping. Folk barefoot, men cut their hair, clothes without plackets, blue and white scarves, and the sides are decorated with brocade. Women braided their hair hanging down the back of their heads. When the nobles traveled, they rode elephants, followed by hundreds of slave attendants......"

Yanagishita was amazed by the layout of the great city, and he also remembered the splendor of the Persian palace, where he met the Persian "King of kings".

……

"The king of Persia was called Xerxes, his stature was very tall, up to a zhang, his face was full of thick beards, and he wore a golden crown, and after learning that the minister was a messenger of the silk kingdom, he was arrogant, and he called himself the king of kings, and asked the minister to kneel down and worship him in the palace, and asked the minister a question......"

Hearing this, it was already night, but Zhao Wuxian was still relishing, and hurriedly asked, "Then what did Xerxes ask you?" ”

"Xerxes asked, which is bigger, Silk Kingdom or Persia?"

This question is a bit embarrassing, and Zhao Wuxian knows very well that although the Central Plains civilization is brilliant, it is still a rising star compared to the ancient Lianghe civilization in terms of age. The Persian Empire, which inherited the civilization of the two rivers and Egypt, is the culmination of these two civilizations, and is also the world's first truly large empire across three continents......

"And how did you answer?" Zhao Wuxian asked.

Liu Xia Yue said with a smile: "Seeing that the Persian king has an arrogant attitude, he feels that he can't fall behind in terms of momentum, so he doesn't have to look down on the Central Plains and have bad intentions." Anyway, no one in Persia has ever been to the Central Plains, so the minister said, 'Persia is the Son of Heaven at sunset, the land is thousands of miles, the Silk Country is the Son of Heaven at sunrise, the whole world is not the king's land, the coast of the land is not the king's minister, the land is also thousands of miles, and the size of the two countries is almost the same'. ”

"Then Xerxes was not convinced, and said, Persia has a million land and water army, but can the Silk Country have it?"

"The minister replied, the silk country has 100,000 horses, 10,000 cars, the capital is called Yecheng, there are 70,000 households, everyone is practicing martial arts, once something happens, each household has three men, and there are 210,000 people! There are no less than a million soldiers in the country! ”

Zhao Wuxian pointed at Liu Xia Yue and laughed: "Ziqian's cowhide is really big enough, listening to you say this, that Xerxes is pretentious, empty-eyed, he must feel that Persia is the world, he is also the king of kings, and his favorite thing in life is to conquer other countries and make the monarchs of other countries submit." If you are so humble or arrogant, he will not give up. ”

"Yes, yes." Yanagishita took a sip of water and continued:

So Xerxes was furious, and in order to let his ministers know the strength of Persia, he insisted on taking his ministers and commanding hundreds of thousands of land and water armies to conquer a small country that could not submit to Persia for a long time. This small country is located on the coast of the Western Sea west of Persia and is called the Greek ......"

"The Polish-Greek War ......" Zhao Wuxian smiled dumbly, he really unintentionally inserted willows into the willows, and Liu Xiayue actually encountered such a big incident.

Yanagi Yue didn't know what the lord was thinking, and he was still describing what happened on that expedition.

Greece was divided into dozens of small states, among which Athens was the richest and Sparta was the strongest. Athens defeated the father of Xerxes with a small victory, and Xerxes was ashamed of this, and decided to set foot on Athens and turn the small Greek states into provinces. At that time, the Persian army was more than 200,000, divided into sea and land, Xerxes ordered people to build a rope bridge on the West Sea, the bridge was just repaired, and suddenly the wind blew the bridge off. Xerxes had intended to show off the skills of the Persian craftsmen to his courtiers, but when he saw this, he was furious and felt that he had lost face, so he killed the craftsman who built the bridge first, and threw the iron rope into the sea, saying that he wanted to lock the sea, and ordered someone to hit the sea 300 times with a whip, and his arrogance can be seen......"

In the end, the Persians still built pontoon bridges, and more than 300 large ships were lined up, and the boats were paved with wooden planks, and it took the Persian army seven days and seven nights to cross the strait, and they stood everywhere on the shore. Seeing this, Xerxes was extremely arrogant, saying that he would attack the city with this, and if the city was not conquered, and the country would be destroyed by this, and the country would not perish? As long as Sparta was destroyed in one war and Athens was destroyed in one war, Greece would be in the palm of your hand. He also threatened that after the destruction of Greece, he would lead a large army to the east to see if the Silk Kingdom was as big as the minister said, and whether there were many Persian soldiers......"

"The minister was also worried, for fear of bringing disaster to the Central Plains, the Greek states were only tens of thousands, and the hearts of the people were not aligned, how to resist Persia? At that time, Xerxes will be determined, if he really moves his army eastward, although it is thousands of miles apart, the prince can be at ease, but if he can expand his territory to the Western Regions, establish a province here, and take it step by step, it will be a troublesome matter. “

"After landing, the Persians were first blocked at a dangerous pass called Thermopylae......"

PS: There is only this chapter today