In 312 AD, in the sixth year of Yongjia, Constantine defeated and killed Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, unifying the Roman West. The following year, Licinius defeated Deya, which held Egypt and part of Asian territory, and unified the Roman East.

In 314 AD, that is, in the second year of Jin Jianxing, a fierce conflict broke out between the Western Emperor Constantine of Rome and the Eastern Emperor Licinius. Soon after, the Battle of Cibale ended with the defeat of Licinius and forced to abandon all European territories except Thrace.

Two years later, in 316 A.D., four years after Jianxing, Licinius again clashed with Constantine, only to lose again at the Battle of Madia.

Due to the kinship between the two sides, a reconciliation was reached between the east and the west, and Licinius temporarily retained his throne on the condition that he executed Valens, the trigger for the entire conflict, and gave up part of his territory.

When the news of the signing of the peace treaty between the east and the west reached Byzantium, the nobles and generals of the senate in the city began to look forward to the era of peace with joy, not realizing that the contradictions between the eastern and western emperors had already intensified, and there was no possibility of peaceful coexistence at all, and the immediate peace treaty was only to postpone the war for a few years.

In Byzantium, the only person who feared the might of Constantine in the West was Augustus Licinius, who ruled the Roman Empire in the East. Constantine had taken control of Rome, Britain, Gaul and other large western territories, which made Licinius feel like a fish in his throat, but he was powerless to deal with it.

Licinius controlled less than one-third of the entire Roman Empire, and he issued edicts against Christianity, which led to a large number of landed families in the Byzantine city and the Western Emperor Constantine.

Coupled with two successive defeats to the Western Emperor Constantine, the Eastern Emperor Licinius realized that he was far from Constantine's opponent. And because of the endless wars, the treasury was empty, and it had to be temporarily allowed to accept a humiliating peace treaty.

Despite the apparent efforts of both sides to maintain a fragile state of peace, Licinius never gave up his intention to take revenge on Constantine, and secretly continued to accumulate strength and find excuses to attack the other side.

Under pressure, Licinius felt that he could not sit still. In order to further increase fiscal revenues, Licinius intended to expand the scale of trade with the East. It was only because Rome did not have good relations with the Sassanid Persian Empire that the Persian dynasty was not interested in the proposals he made.

In desperation, in the fourth year of Jianxing, Licinius had no choice but to open up the Maritime Silk Road and send a fleet to the East to find the legendary mysterious country of the East that produced silk and porcelain.

The only thing that made Licinius happy was that the porcelain and silk produced in the East were quite popular in the West, and they were luxury goods sought after by the aristocracy. As long as he can find the legendary and mysterious eastern country through the sea, it means that he will have an inexhaustible amount of wealth.

In fact, the Western Roman Empire has been actively looking for a way from the sea to the East, and in the late second and early third centuries AD, the knowledge of Greco-Roman writers about China had penetrated into social customs and etiquette.

Badsana, who lives in Syria, wrote: "Among the Seris, killing, stealing, and idolatry are strictly forbidden by law. In this vast country, one sees neither temples, nor prostitutes and adulterous women, nor thieves at large, nor murderers and murder victims...... The Seris are giving birth every day, even every moment. ”

Among them, there were three aspects that were basically in line with the reality of Chinese society at that time: First, in terms of territory, the scale of the expansion of territory in the west and south directions from the Qin and Han dynasties was unprecedented, and "vast territory" was the most basic fact.

Second, after the Han Dynasty, the harsh laws and punishments of the Qin Dynasty were abolished, prohibiting casual killing, and stipulating that "the murderer dies, and the person who injures and steals is punished"; Ideologically, he "deposed the hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", established the formal status of Confucius's doctrine, and abolished other idolatry.

Moreover, during this period, Buddhism, which originated in India, had not yet penetrated into China and flourished, and monasteries did not yet exist. At the same time, Confucianism has a strong contempt and condemnation of prostitution and adultery.

Third, the Chinese population is large and values family reproduction. During the Han and Han dynasties, due to the population decline caused by the war, policies were adopted to encourage population growth. The rapid growth of the population must have made a great impression on foreign visitors.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Kang Tai, a native of Wu, sent an envoy to Funan, and heard the following words from the locals in Funan: "Foreigners call the world three people: China is the people, Daqin is the treasure people, and the Yueshi is the horse people." ”

The last recorded interaction between Roman merchants and the East was in 226 AD. At that time, there were merchants of Great Qin who took sea ships to Jiaozhi, and Wu Miao, the Taishou sent them to Jianye to visit Sun Quan.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wu had the advantage of expanding overseas, and at the same time, because the communication with the Western Regions by land was blocked by Wei, it was unable to obtain foreign specialties, so it was the most active in developing overseas transportation and made the greatest achievements.

Sun Quan attached so much importance to the arrival of the merchants of Great Qin, personally inquired about the customs of his country, and appointed officials to send them off, showing his strong interest in the Great Qin State. When the Great Qin people came, they passed through Jiaozhi, indicating that they came around the Indochinese Peninsula; And his return to his homeland seems to mean that he returned to the Roman Empire by land through the "Burma Road".

In order to show the importance he attached to this voyage, Licinius sent a large contingent of missions, far to the east. At the same time, Licinius began to purge the Byzantine city of opposition.

When the envoy boarded the fleet and left, some families in the Byzantine city had an ominous premonition, but they could not understand the reason for this ominous premonition, although Licinius had shown a certain talent in military affairs, but lacked sufficient political skills, which was the reason for his successive defeats to Constantine.

Constantine always took advantage of some internal contradictions within Licinius to contain the other side, which led to military defeat. Licinius's military talent was not much weaker than Constantine's, but unfortunately his political methods were far inferior to Constantine's.

On the Mediterranean Sea, the Roman navy escorted the missions, and they once had a glorious history and glory, but since the outbreak of civil strife, the development of the Roman navy has stagnated, and it is far less than it was in its heyday.

……

In the fourth year of Jianxing, in mid-November, Shile's delivery to Chang'an caused an uproar. Many people rejoiced and thought that it represented the prosperity of the Jin Dynasty, and they all asked Suo Qi, Lu Yun, and Sima Ye to accept Shi Le's surrender. Only a few sober people, such as Liang Fen and others, realized that this was nothing more than a delaying tactic by the Hu people.

In recent years, as the Liaodong Army has become more and more powerful, Hulu has been defeated in successive battles in various places, and it is no longer the limelight that was rampant for a while during the Yongjia period. As the only Hulu entrenched in Hebei, Shi Le was in a difficult situation under the pressure of the various Jin clan towns, so he had to deliver the surrender table to the Chang'an court.

Suo Qi was originally reluctant to let Shi Le go, but Shi Le's envoy Xu Guang not only sent him a large number of jewels, but also told Suo Qi that as long as Suo Qi was willing to accept Xiangguo, Shi Le was willing to serve Suo Qi as the head of the horse in the future.

And Suo Zheng felt that the strength in his hands was not enough to deal with Wei Shuo, and at the same time, Sima Bao was not very obedient, and suddenly he was very excited to get Shi Le's surrender. He immediately sent a letter to Emperor Sima Ye, asking the court to accept Shi Le's surrender.

Suo Qi's proposal was naturally strongly opposed by Da Situ Liangfen, and as a third-party force, Lu Yun was a little hesitant for a while. From the bottom of his heart, he didn't believe much in Shiler's sincerity. Intellectually speaking, Shi Le's surrender was conducive to fighting against Liaodong Weishuo.

As a result, Suo Qi and Lu Yun finally let the imperial court accept Xiangguo Shile, and as soon as the news came out, it immediately caused an uproar in various places. No one thought that the Yongjia Rebellion had only passed for four or five years, and with Shi Le's 'surrender', at present, in the entire territory of the Great Jin Dynasty, except for the southern part of Qinzhou, there are still Di tribes separating Wudu, Li Xiong separating Shudi, Hanzhong and China, and the world has almost restored 'unification'.

After the news of Shile Toucheng reached Jicheng, Wei Shuo immediately realized that the situation in the outside world had changed again. The Chang'an court accepted Shile, which meant that Xiangguo became the same Jin feudal town as him, and as long as Shile no longer rebelled openly in the future, he could not attack Xiangguo at will without the will of the imperial court. (To be continued.) )