Parthia and Great Qin can be regarded as mortal enemies. Before Putimius, the Council of Elders, who held the real power of Great Qin, wanted to conquer Parthia several times, and the two sides fought and stopped, which lasted for nearly a hundred years, and the capital of Parthia, Ctesiphon, was twice attacked by the Great Qin. Therefore, Caracalla's mission to Parthia was a matter of routine and did not expect much to be achieved.

In Parthia today, Vologis is becoming more and more mediocre, and he has long been out of politics, and the power of Ctesiphon has fallen into the hands of his second son Aldaban. However, Ardaban had less than 50,000 soldiers and horses, and the entire Parthian military power was in the hands of his eldest son, Arshak, and the two brothers were basically in a state of rivalry.

Caracalla had already done some preliminary work and basically grasped the dynamics in Parthia, so he sent two missions to visit Arshak and Ardaban respectively, with the purpose of hoping that they would remain neutral in the future war between the Great Han and the Great Qin. If Liu Xin organizes an expedition against the army, logistical supply is a great problem, and if he can't get the support of these countries along the way, he will definitely be defeated before the battle.

However, Arshak did not appreciate the olive branch that Karaka had stretched. Because he had already heard that if Jia Xu had not insisted on his position in front of Vologis, all the proceeds of the Han concession would have gone to Ardaban. Therefore, Arshak did not want to turn against the big man. However, Arshak was also unwilling to take the risk of offending Daqin, and he promised to remain neutral between the two. However, this has served the purpose of Caracalla's mission.

The real harvest is in Aldaban. Regarding Jia Xu's disagreement to hand over 300,000 deputy soldiers directly to him, and disagreeing to hand over the income of the concession to him in the future, Ardaban always held a grudge and wanted to teach Dahan a lesson for a long time. Seeing the arrival of the Great Qin envoy, the two hit it off, and Aldaban not only formed an alliance with this long-time sworn enemy, but also married his daughter to Caracalla, in fact, Caracalla was three years older than Ardaban.

At this time, Liu Xin made a major decision to transfer back all the Second and Third Army Corps that were originally stationed in the Uzberi Fortress.

Since the beginning of spring, there have been severe droughts in the northern states one after another. Except for Hejian County, which was not greatly affected by the complete water conservancy facilities built by Liu Xin there back then, the rest of the place is a scorched earth. Although the development of commerce and trade has filled the treasury of the Han Dynasty, without the foundation of agriculture, it would be in vain to have money but not be able to buy grain. Although for two years the imperial court had been working to strengthen the infrastructure of the northern states, it was mainly focused on roads and some of the main ditches, where the water from the ditches had a long way to reach the fields.

In this era of relying on the sky for food, the most direct consequence of a major drought is that there will be no harvest in the fields. There is still a lot of grain stored in the treasury of the imperial court, which is fully capable of helping the people who have suffered from disasters, but Liu Xin will not bow to God like this. He put all existing work in other places on hold, and transferred the entire engineering corps to the northern states to urgently build the ditches that crisscrossed him.

It is difficult to quench the thirst of the near near by the water, and if we wait for the ditch to be completed, this year's harvest will be completely lost. Liu Xin decided to mobilize three main army corps to be stationed in the northern states, relying on his shoulders to carry a load of clear water to the fields.

This is a very difficult task, and the mighty army of water can be seen everywhere in the northern land. The young soldiers braved the scorching sun, shouted trumpets, and carried a load of water to the field. Many people are so thirsty that their throats are smoking, but they are reluctant to drink a sip of water from a bucket, and many people have worn out their shoulders.

Many people who had lost hope for the crops in the fields and were about to flee with their families were also deeply moved and spontaneously joined the ranks of carrying water. The wheat seedlings, which had almost withered, gradually turned a little green, and the fields were revitalized. This year's reduction is a foregone conclusion, but through unremitting efforts, it is always good to be able to recover a little loss, and it can also prevent the people from fleeing in all directions to form a large number of displaced people, which will play an immeasurable role in maintaining the stability of the entire society.

However, such a scene fell into the eyes of those who cared, and Lu Yi, who had just returned to Dahan, felt that the opportunity had come. Because after Liu Xin occupied the northern states, he dealt a blow to the scholars in these places, and the biggest impact was to confiscate half of their land. Land is the lifeblood of the scholars, so the scholars in these places are generally dissatisfied with Liu Xin. Under the impetus of Koji, some rumors began to spread.

Someone said that the position of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty was forcibly taken by Liu Xin, so the heavens will send a warning of disasters. Some people also said that Liu Xin did not even let go of his "biological son", and he was cruel by nature, so that he annoyed the sky. There are many other rumors, to name a few. At first, these rumors were only circulated among the nobles, but gradually they spread, and even among the merchants and the common people, some people whispered about them.

The news reached Liu Xin's ears, and he unceremoniously ordered a thorough investigation of the originators of the rumors. He doesn't believe in rumors that stop at the wise, and he must deal a resolute and thorough blow to these guys who are afraid of the chaos in the world.

In this era, there is neither the Internet, nor text messages or microblogs, and all rumors rely on word of mouth, and it is only a matter of more effort to find out, which is not very difficult. The emperor's decree was issued, and the officials of various counties poured out, and in just a few days, more than a dozen people who were most active in spreading rumors surfaced, and all of these people were from the northern scholars. They either spread rumors on their own or instructed their slaves to spread them everywhere just to vent their anger.

These scholar families can stand for thousands of years without falling, and naturally they have their own uniqueness. In the two years that Liu Xin unified the Han Dynasty, they have found relationships to connect with Liu Xin's cronies and civil and military personnel, and even married each other, including some people who were arrested for spreading rumors this time.

Liu Xin sneered: "Do extraordinary things in extraordinary times!" Now that the military and the people of the whole country are working together to fight the great drought in the north, but they are making untimely noises and disturbing people's hearts, how can I spare him? Kill! ”

This time, it was dealt with seriously and quickly, and before waiting for the autumn, some people who spread rumors were beheaded on the street, and the situation quickly calmed down. But the mastermind behind the scenes, Lu Yi, is still at large.

Liu Xin issued another holy decree, and Lu Yi was wanted throughout the country, and the city gates of all counties were posted with bounty revelations. Those who capture the righteous will be rewarded with 5,000 taels of silver, and those who provide important clues will be rewarded with 800 taels of silver.

In the latest Han law, there are very few such punishments, which shows how much Liu Xin attaches importance to Lu Yi's deliberate spreading of rumors. However, it was as if he had disappeared out of thin air, and he was nowhere to be seen.

Pushing the northern scholars to spread rumors unfavorable to Liu Xin was just a means for Lu Yi to disrupt the order of the Han Dynasty, and when the rumors began to circulate among the northern scholars, he quietly hid. Over the past year or so, Koji has amassed a small fortune by running a caravan, and Caracalla and Gaita have each sponsored him a large sum of money. With this money, Koji began to contact the old ministry and organize a small army.

This is the era of cold weapons, and you can kill people with a stick, as long as you have money and people, it is not too laborious to organize a team. But it took a lot of effort for Lu Yi to pull up a team of about 300 people.

Now is different from the time of the troubled times in the past, everyone has a stable life, who wants to do this headless thing? Even if there are those brave and ruthless people, it is much better to eat food and become a soldier and get a high salary than to rebel. More than half of these 300 people still came by the coy of Lu Yi. Lu Yi did not tell them the truth, but dragged the gang to hide in a deep mountain, set up camp, and practiced day and night, only saying that they would be the guards of the caravan in the future. At the same time, Koyoshi sent two of his henchmen to Rome to inform Caracalla and Gaita, respectively, that the time was ripe.

A month later, Liu Xin had gradually forgotten about the search for Lu Yi, and Lu Yi's messenger had arrived in Rome.

Ever since Lu Yi left Rome, Caracalla began to send people to pay attention to the situation of the Han merchants in Daqin, including their addresses, goods, and routes. When he received the letter from Lu Yi, Caracalla immediately ordered to take action, and a bloody storm broke out in all parts of Daqin.

Because Liu Xin has always focused on promoting the trade of the Han Dynasty, and doing business, especially engaging in trade between the East and the West, is indeed a relatively fast way to make money. Those who have the conditions organize their own caravans, and those who do not have the conditions form groups of three or five to form a group, going back and forth between Daqin and the Han Dynasty, and they have gained a lot in a year. In addition, with the last agreement, Han merchants can enjoy the same treatment as local merchants in Daqin, so there are more than 20,000 Han merchants who have been running in Daqin all year round.

On the first day of Caracalla's order, more than 3,000 Han merchants were slaughtered, and batches of goods were looted. The Han merchants hid in Tibet, but the faces of the East and the West were different, and few escaped with their lives.

However, the agents of the Han Foreign Affairs Service who were lurking in the city of Rome were selected aliens, and they were not the targets of Caracalla and Geta's purge. The day after the incident, they managed to sneak out of the city of Rome and send the news out.

The first to get the news was Jia Xu, who was based in the concession. In addition to being shocked, Jia Xu was in danger, and immediately sent two groups of people, all the way to report the news to Chang'an day and night, and all the way to Rome to ask Caracalla why he did not keep his word.