The Seris people were not only able to treat common symptoms such as fever, rheumatism, and leprosy through herbal medicine, acupuncture, and scraping, but also successfully eradicated such terminal diseases as smallpox by planting cowpox.

What shocked them even more was that the Imperial Blood Red Cross University also knew how to anesthetize the patient with an internal anesthetic drug called Ma Boiling San, and then remove the decaying organs and tumors in his body.

The Romans were amazed by such a treatment that they had never seen before, and could not express their shock except for amazement.

While Roman and Greek scholars were immersed in a sea of knowledge, Maximin and Petronius were busy discussing rapprochement with the Drama Scholars.

The initial phase of the meeting was generally friendly and smooth. The two sides soon agreed on a fraternal alliance and signed an official offensive and defensive alliance jump.

For Maximin's suggestion that the Holy Chinese Empire and the Roman Empire should use troops at the same time as the rest, if necessary. On behalf of the Holy Chinese Empire, the Pope agreed, acknowledging the need to remove the stumbling block between the Holy Chinese Empire and Rome and realize formal trade between the two major civilizations of the East and the West.

In this regard, Maximin proposed to capture the territory after the Sabbath and divide it equally. Xi Zhicai rejected his suggestion, saying that although the Chinese Empire could use troops against Anxi, it was too far away from the empire for the empire to manage Anxi. In addition, the empire is now busy developing Australia beyond the ocean, and cannot afford to occupy rest for the time being. Therefore, the empire did not need the land of rest, but hoped that after conquering the rest, Rome would be able to cede several important ports in the bay of rest to the Chinese Empire, so that it could carry out maritime trade with the rest of Rome.

Maximin was naturally happy to accept such a condition, and immediately nodded in agreement.

Next, when discussing cultural exchanges, Maximin hoped that Seris would send someone to teach the Romans advanced textile techniques, new farming methods, and military skills such as metal smelting and gunpowder making.

Naturally, Xi Zhicai would not agree to such a request. However, he did not veto it sternly, but said euphemistically: "Since it is communication, exchange is a necessary part of it." As long as Rome could come up with advanced skills of equal value, the Holy Chinese Empire would not mind passing on important skills such as iron sieving and gunpowder formulas to Roman friends. ”

As soon as he heard this, Maximin searched his stomach for a long time, and found that everything that Rome had in his possession, Seris had, and there was really nothing to exchange with Seris. If we had to choose the best of Roman techniques, it would be to - "We are willing to exchange gunpowder for several methods of making sea-traveling ships." How is it? ”

"Oh?" Xi Zhicai smiled smugly, "So, your country is very good at shipbuilding?" ”

"That's nature." As the hegemon of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Maximin had every reason to believe that the Roman-built ships were superior in the Western world.

"How big is your ship?" Xi Zhicai asked.

"It is about seven zhang long and two zhang wide in your country, and it gallops in the sea like walking on the ground." Maximin said proudly.

"Seven zhang, two zhang?" Xi Zhicai smiled, "Forget it! We are not interested in the shipbuilding drawings of your country, and we will not exchange gunpowder. After saying that, Xi Zhicai patted his ass and left.

In the course of the next few days of negotiations, Maximin did not get a little favor from Xi Zhicai, but only signed a few innocuous trade agreements, and sent students to study at each other's non-confidential academic institutions.

These treaties seemed fair and reasonable, but for Rome, a country with no technical secrecy, the Cyris were able to learn everything they had, while in contrast, Ceris's chemistry, military, medicine, and other majors were not open to Rome, and only allowed them to study philosophy, mathematics, calligraphy and painting, architecture, and other subjects that could not produce direct value.

This was fundamentally unfair to Rome, and although Maximin knew this, it was better than nothing, and after some hesitation, he finally signed the Entente.

Just when Maximin and Xi Zhicai launched a round of verbal swords for the interests of their respective motherlands.

A Roman caravan that followed the Roman mission to Luoyang caught Guo Jia's attention. The members of this caravan not only had very different skin from the Romans, mostly bronze, but also several black slaves, who spoke not Roman or Greek, but another peculiar language of civilization.

According to careful investigation, not only did they not play and shop in the streets like other Romans, but they often sneaked around late at night and met secretly in the inn caravan leader's room late at night. During the secret meeting, the members of the caravan were respectful to the leader, and at first glance it was not a simple master-servant relationship, but more like a courtier saluting the monarch.

Guo Jiasui not only reported this information to Luan Yi, but also aroused Luan Yi's curiosity.

"Do you want to arrest them all?" Guo Jia asked.

Luan Yi shook his head, "They must have come to the empire for another purpose, but I don't know why, they have always refused to show their scheming." ”

"Your Majesty, according to the details, in addition to us, we also have a group of people who are also monitoring them."

"Oh?" Luan Yi looked up and asked, "Whose person?" ”

Guo Jia replied: "It seems that it is the people of Rome-Petronius. ”

"I see." Luan Yi roughly clarified the logic.

"What does Your Majesty understand?" Guo Jia asked.

Luan Yi stroked his goatee and said, "Eighty percent of these people are nobles from a certain province under Roman rule, if I guess correctly, eighty percent of them are from the Roman province of Syria or the province of Egypt...... The Egyptian province is more likely. They were exploited and oppressed by the Romans, but they failed to resist many times. So he ran to the empire and came to us for help. ”

"Huh? Egyptian. Guo Jia has listened to Luan Yi talk about Egyptian civilization and knows a little about Egypt, "Then is Your Majesty ready to help them?" ”

"Help, why don't you help? The Roman civil strife was in the interests of the Empire. ”

"But we just signed a treaty of alliance with them."

Luan Yi said disdainfully: "The covenant is just a piece of paper. Bonghyo remembers that there are no eternal friends between nations, only eternal interests. As long as Rome is good for the Empire, I will go to war for him, even if there is no covenant; It is in the interest of the empire to tear up the Entente at the moment, and it is happy to personally turn the Entente into waste paper. He paused, then continued: "Besides, if we don't help Egypt openly, it won't be a breach of the covenant." ”

"If you don't help on the surface, how can you help?" Guo Jia asked.

"We can sell weapons to the Huns and Xianbei as we did against the Huns and Xianbei back then." Luan Yi had a small calculation in his heart, "Not only can we exchange swords, guns, swords and halberds for a large amount of gold and silver, but we can also sell them artillery, cannonballs, and grenades." ”

"But didn't Brother Yi say that gunpowder can't be used by foreigners?"

Luan Yi joked: "Why is Fengxiao getting more and more stupid." We sell gunpowder, not gunpowder recipes. We sold them thunderbolts and cannons, and the supply lines of gunpowder for the stride were still in our own hands. The shells and grenades they released are one less than one, and if you want to replenish them, you can only ask us to buy them. If, on that day in the future, Egypt wants to be disadvantageous to the Empire, or if the Empire turns around and occupies Egypt, it is only necessary to cut off their source of gunpowder, and the cannons and thunderbolts in their hands are a pile of scrap metal. Do you think that's the truth? ”

Guo Jia laughed when he heard this, "Brother Yi, you are really getting older and more cunning!" ”

"Not only that. With gunpowder, the Egyptians were bound to be able to defeat the Roman army. Other: Syria, Macedonia...... When the Roman provinces saw the success of Egypt's rebellion against tyranny, they must have followed suit and came to the empire to buy gunpowder. That's a lot of money. When Rome was in civil strife, they would have condemned the Empire's sale of gunpowder, and it would be enough to say that there was no provision in the Entente that prohibited the Empire from selling gunpowder like the Romans. We have a reason, and the Romans have nothing to do with us. Instead of falling out with the Empire, they waged their tails and begged for mercy, begging the Empire to sell them gunpowder as well. At that time, the assets of the Roman provinces will continue to flow into the empire, and we will only have to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, waiting for the fisherman's profit. ”

"I only understood today what it means to be scheming."

Luan Yi and Guo Jia looked up to the sky and laughed at the same time.

Gathering his feelings, Guo Jiafu asked: "Those Egyptian envoys are still being watched by the Romans, how to deal with them?" ”

"If the Romans don't notice it, take the time to bring their leader to meet me."

"Don't worry! I'll leave that to me. Guo Jia took the order and left. For him, the empire's premier strategist, it was easy for the Romans to take the Egyptians without them knowing.

Early the next morning, a Roman soldier named Cleus stood at the door of the inn in Tianwai Village, as usual, and monitored every move of the Egyptian caravan.

At this moment, a slender woman and her maid walked in front of Keos, who smashed the body fragrance of the beautiful girl, and just as a beautifully carved quiver slipped out of the woman's sleeve. He hurriedly picked up the money bag, handed it to the girl, and told the girl in the Chinese he had just learned, "You ...... Target...... Money...... Bag. ”

As soon as he said this, he heard the girl exclaim, "Ah, catch the thief!" As soon as he heard this, the people around him immediately gathered around.

Keos panicked and hurriedly stuffed the money bag into the girl's arms, which was even worse, "The thief is indecent." ”

In the name of Guo Jia, the Luoyang Weirong guards who were guarding the street corner heard the code, and a burst of brains came out, rushed to Keos, pressed him to the ground without saying a word, tied him up and left.

Poor Nakeos didn't know that he was framed until he was caught by the county government, and at the same time as he was captured, Guo Jia personally walked into Tianwai Village and invited the Egyptian envoy who was guarding the inn into the Papal Palace.