Five hundred years ago, the Han Empire and the Roman Empire were thousands of miles apart, and it took three or four years to travel back and forth between each other. The distance between the two countries makes it impossible to threaten the other, so armed confrontation is absolutely unthinkable.

But the great war five hundred years ago made the two great empires entrenched in the East and the West realize that it seems that the distance between the two is not so far~~

Of course, the decade-long world war ended with the Han and Rome working together to divide up the known world, and neither of them took much advantage, except for the death and wounding of countless soldiers, but neither really hurt the vitality of both sides.

In that war, the Han Dynasty implemented a rotation battle system, the first-class legion took turns to participate in the battle, and the second-class legion also fought in turns, but only the flying cavalry guards really fought from beginning to end, and only in the most important battles, the first-class legion and the second-class legion of the Han Dynasty would appear and make the most critical blow.

And the usual small-scale tug-of-war, attrition war, and reconnaissance cavalry war, which are the most life-consuming and cruel, are actually done by those vassal legions.

Afterwards, everyone could see that this was actually the consideration of weakening the combat power of the newly occupied areas by Han Shengzu, so he forced those who had just surrendered, such as Yueshi, Guishuang, Dawan, Mojie, and even later Shiguo, Cai Xian, Tushi, etc., to send young and strong to participate in the war, so as to reduce the resistance of the local people on a large scale and lay the foundation for the assimilation of these areas in the future.

Similarly, in the great war of the Roman Empire 500 years ago, it was the Red Coats and the Citizen Legion that fought from beginning to end, and like the Great Han, in the other most abrasive battles, Rome used the Legions of Servants and the Legions of the Colonies. And given the fact that the authority of Augustus in Rome was already shaky at that time. Many legions that were at odds with the Roman consuls were also transferred to the Asian theater of war in turn.

It should be said that the great war was actually the solution of the two great empires of the East and the West to their own problems. and invariably launched a war. In particular, the Caspian Sea Battle and the Red River War, known as the "meat grinder", both sides invested millions of troops and suffered more than 700,000 casualties, but according to later statistics, the Han Dynasty and other legions only lost thousands of people, and the Roman Empire was even more dramatic, and the official record was "one hundred and seven citizens killed"!

What a great irony!

Postwar. Augustus of Rome maintained his authority and outnumbered the provincial legions with the power and size of his legions, leading to a series of reforms. Solidified the rule of the Roman Empire.

Similarly, the Han Empire used this war to kill millions of newly subjugated tribes, and the Han army continued to maintain its combat effectiveness through this war of rotation, thus smoothly sinicizing these regions. The next 500 years of domination were laid!

One more point. The real Romans were actually a "big Chinese" race. It is recorded in the Hanshu Bangu Biography: "...... Its people grew up and were upright, and they were like China, so they were called Great Qin. ”

In fact, the modern people who lived in Italy were not the true Romans, but the Gaul, Gysai, and Viking races, and the true Romans disappeared from the European continent after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

A real Roman, with black hair and black eyes, and the contours of his face are not so deep. And the skin is not the kind of bloodless white, and some people even doubt it in later generations. The Romans were actually descendants of the Asian race.

Of course, this is just wishful thinking.

The only plausible explanation is that people all over the world actually came out of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago and began to migrate around the world. In addition to migrating to the east, and finally settling in the Yellow River Valley, and developing the Chinese civilization that lasted for 10,000 years, there was also a group that migrated to Rome, where it stood at the pinnacle of Europe after tens of thousands of years of development!

Whatever the final explanation, there is no doubt that the similarities between the Romans and the Han Chinese are high. But this did not allow the Han Chinese and the Romans to truly merge.

At that time, after the Battle of the Caspian Sea, Ma Chao said to the Romans: "This is only a 500-year truce!" ”

Now, after 500 years of reproduction and development between the East and the West, the two countries have become infinitely close geographically, their interests have begun to conflict with each other, and the populations of the two countries have also multiplied to the extreme of the Cold Weapon Age: the population of the Han Empire has reached 600 million, the entire Roman Empire has a population of 400 million, and the Caliphate, the smallest of the borders, has a population of 100 million!

With such a dense population, the pressure of survival is unimaginable in the agricultural era. Under this pressure, there are only two options: first, to develop science and technology, to move from the agrarian age to the industrial age, and to feed the growing population through technological innovation, as later generations have done in modern times.

Second, it's war!

The pressure of weakening the population through war. Complete the metabolism of the population through the bloody slaughter of war, so as to give the world new opportunities for development.

It's cruel, but it's reality!

In addition to the above practical pressures, the hardware conditions that prevented the Roman and Han from directly engaging in armed confrontation in the past have also been met.

The first is the road. After the reform of the Holy Ancestor, cement or Han-style road construction methods have been known and used all over the world, and the straight road of the Han Empire is simply a modern highway. In the past, it took three or four years to travel from Rome to the Han Emperor, but now it only takes a year to travel without detours. If it is an urgent official document, it will be transmitted through the post station, and it will only take nine months to travel from Rome to Luoyang!

Of course, it is still an extremely long time compared to later modern times, but for this era, it is enough to carry out the necessary transmission conditions for war!

The second is geography. Between the Han Dynasty and Rome, there were only six small countries, three of which were slightly larger, Cai Xian, Tu Shi and Shi Guo, while the other three were all small countries with a "three-day round trip across the border". The geographical borders of the two countries are already too close to each other, as long as the logistics can be supported, it is enough to fight a war.

Then there is religion. Although religion drives people crazy, it is undeniable that if there were no religions, humans would have gone crazy long ago. Rome did not have a state religion, but the lower Quikiism was the first religion. Needless to say, the extremist religion is now the state religion. As for the Han Empire, after the reform of the Holy Ancestor, Confucianism was the orthodox state religion. However, this Confucianism is not the other Confucianism, the Confucianism preached by the Holy Ancestor is the ram Confucianism of great revenge, great unification, and emphasis on "the revenge of the ninth generation can be especially repaid", not the Lu Confucianism who takes the words out of context and pays attention to "repaying grievances with virtue".

The apostracy of Rome made the Romans, especially the people at the bottom, slowly fall out of control. You must know that the most important role of religion is actually to "educate the people", or "foolish people", and only when the people are obedient can they be managed. And areligionism will only make more and more people not know where they are fighting, and thus lead to a more chaotic original sin of human nature - well, that's a bit of a stretch.

In short, it was the non-religionism of Rome that made the people at the bottom ready to move, and the Roman aristocracy could no longer use the same methods as in the past to control more and more people, and more and more ideas. Rome was in dire need of a war to defuse the pressures of religion. Under the idea of Ram Confucianism, the Han Dynasty was extremely aggressive, and it was not completely degenerated into the Lu Confucian doctrine, and the Han Empire and the Han people were still a "cannon war" character at this time.

Don't mess with my brother, if you're in a hurry, my brother will beat you.

Finally, there is business. Business is always the driving force for the survival and development of society. Not one of them. The form of society without commerce is unscientific and unsustainable, and will perish sooner or later. And now in the three kingdoms of the world, whether it is the Han Dynasty, Rome or the Caliphate, commerce is the bulk of taxes. The caliphate, in particular, was almost universally businessmen. And in the commerce of the agrarian era, the Han people are definitely the first party!

The silk, porcelain, tea, and even ironware, coins, and all the things that can be used as commodities are the best of the Han Dynasty! Because it has not entered the industrial age, these things do not need OEM or global production, and they are truly "only this one, no other semicolon"!

To use a concept from the old history books, the trade deficit is too large!

Almost all of them were Romans and caliphs who exchanged raw materials for the finished products of the Han Dynasty, and the prices were also depressed countless times.

Although Rome and the Caliphate continued to learn and succeed, this trade deficit was not broken, and the Han Empire always occupied the dominant position in the world. In fact, if it weren't for the agrarian era, it would have been a miracle that this trade deficit would have lasted for 500 years!

In the post-industrial era, not to mention 500 years, 500 days is a miracle!

Look at the period when the Industrial Revolution had just begun, when the trade deficit was only a dozen years old, and the Opium War broke out.

Marx's Capital is definitely one of the greatest works ever written. Because he speaks to the fundamental quality of a merchant: profit, which can make a merchant sell anything, including the rope that hangs himself!

The merchants of Rome needed the goods of the Great Han, they needed more goods, and they could not get more in times of peace, so what should they do? Provoke a war! It doesn't matter if you burn yourself to death in the end!

The caliphs also want the goods of the Great Han, but they can't make more profits, what should they do? Provoke a world war, let order be chaotic, and the merchants can get more!

In fact, according to this theory, it seems that the Han merchants are not eager for war, right?

Wrong!

As the existence at the top of the merchant food chain, the Han merchant is precisely the one who is most eager for war!

Why?

Or because of profit!

War represents disorder, and in a period of disorder, the merchants of the Han Dynasty do not need to obey all the rules and laws set for them by the Han Empire!

Who doesn't know that the silk and porcelain of the Han Dynasty are the most valuable? If I could monopolize the buying and selling of these goods, wouldn't my profits be even greater?

Or, if I could sell how silk and porcelain were made and what materials were used to make them, wouldn't I be able to make more money?!

Don't expect merchants to be honest, for the sake of profit, they will sell anything, as long as the price is high enough.

This is also the history of later generations, the Ottoman Empire monopolized Central Asia, monopolized the Silk Road, occupied the transit point of trade between the East and the West, and resold Oriental products to make a fortune, which led to the Westerners having to open the Age of Exploration and find the road to the eastern silk power from the sea!

……

In fact, from the characteristics of the merchants, it is not difficult to find the internal reasons why the Xiao family in Xihai wants to rebel. Although Xiao Ning, Li and Wu may not be aware of this, they cannot systematically and theoretically say this internal cause. But the merchants' thirst for profit is actually the original motivation for them to rebel and want to cede land and establish a country! (To be continued.) )