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The city of Axum in May is bustling with activity, and the small country suddenly becomes the center of the world. At the beginning of the www.biquge.info, the Roman Emperor Alexander? Severu's envoy Quintus? Severus and the general of the Guards, Maximus, rushed to Axum, and declared to the king of Axum, Varag, that his kingdom would no longer be a Roman province from now on, but belonged to the great Yue kingdom, and ordered him to get ready, because the great Roman emperor and the equally great king of Yue would meet in the city of Axum, and more importantly, the envoys of the Sassanid king and the Kushan king would also arrive here to discuss the situation in the world in one fell swoop, and the city of Axum would become the first meeting place between the four great empires of the world, Forever in the annals of history.

Within a few months, the city of Axum had become a place of worldwide attention, and the Romans ordered Wallag to build four large military camps outside the city for the Praetorian Guards of the four kings who were coming to join the alliance.

On the first day of May, the Sassanid king's envoy Prince Shapur and the Kushan king's envoy Ma Ming arrived at Axum. Severus came to the city of Axum under the protection of 30,000 guards, and on the fourth day, the ship of Sun Shao, the king of Yue, arrived at the bay of Alamas outside the city of Axum, led by Quintus, and took Warag, Shapur, and Ma Ming to the shore to meet them.

At the sight of the huge ship on the seashore, Quintus smiled, and after several twists and turns, he finally invited Sun Shao to meet Alexandria in Axum, and although the meeting was not realized until May, the news was very shocking to the Sassanids. Originally, after the meeting period was delayed again and again, the Sassanids had doubts about whether the king of Yue was sincere in alliance with Rome, Ardashir, who had rested for more than a year, launched an attack on Rome again, and defeated the Romans in the battle of Asia Minor, and attacked until Nisippi, forcing Alexander's mother and son to fight again, and the two sides fought a bloody battle in Nisippi, and the battle-hardened Ardashir fought Alexander without the power to fight back, and at this time, the news that the king of Yue and Alexander met in Axum reached Nissipe, Seeing that he could not succeed in attacking the city in the short term, Ardashir simply accepted it when he saw it and negotiated with Alexander on the battlefield, which made Alexander, who was about to collapse, breathe again. Looking at the huge cargo ships now, thinking that they were full of supplies from the Yue Kingdom to finance Rome, Quintus couldn't help but be happy.

He glanced at Shapur, who was also smiling, but in Quintus's opinion, he was smiling a little fakely, a little reluctantly. Shapur is the son of Ardashir, and he was a brave general on the battlefield of Nissipe, but now, as Ardashir's envoy, he has to negotiate with Rome and Vietnam, and his mood is not ordinarily bad.

Shapur felt Quintus's gaze, and the corners of his mouth hidden in his beard inadvertently picked, and he owed a smile to Quintus. Quintus smiled slightly, nodded in return, and nodded to Ma Ming, who had been clasping his hands together. Ma Ming, the envoy of the Kushan King, was a master of Buddhism and a profound Buddhist attainment, and his main task in coming to the city of Axum this time was to unite Rome and the Yue Kingdom to jointly suppress the Sassanid attack.

"Two envoys, let's go and greet King Yue together." Quintus laughed.

Shapur and the others hurriedly walked up, walked side by side with Quintus, and stood respectfully on the dock.

After a while, the huge ship of Sun Shao, the king of Yue, stopped a hundred steps from the shore, and the sailors threw two huge iron strokes into the water under the command of the watchtower ship, and hit the water column several people high, and then, a medium-sized warship sailed to the sideboard, and from the boat came down a general in fiery red leather armor beside him, he held the knife, stood firmly in the bow of the ship, and sailed straight to the shore. After landing on the shore, he strode towards Quintus with a smile, and smiled from a distance: "Qin Jun, don't come to harm?" ”

Quintus hurriedly replied in Chinese: "General Zhou, I haven't seen you for a few months, and you are even more powerful. ”

Zhou Yin laughed, even said politely, then looked at the other three, first nodded in greeting, and then said, "Please also ask Qin Jun to introduce it on your behalf." ”

Quintus laughed, "It's my pleasure." General Zhou, this is Prince Shapur, he is the envoy of the Sassanid king and the most valiant prince of the Sassanid king. ”

Zhou Yin heard what Quintus meant, and looked at Shapur deliberately, and saw that he had a slender face, two thick eyebrows, deep eye sockets, and a particularly deep gaze. He bowed his hand and bowed: "It turned out to be Prince Shapur, and he has admired him for a long time." ”

Shapur touched his chest with his hand and returned the salute, but he smiled slightly, and said in a stiff Chinese dialect: "Shapur is just an ordinary prince of Sasania, and he doesn't dare to be praised by Lord Quintus, and General Zhou doesn't need to be polite." ”

His Chinese is not very standard, the pronunciation of the word "Zhou" is like "uncle", Zhou Yin wanted to laugh when he heard it, and said in his heart, when did I have a nephew? My sister has been in the palace for a few years, and there is no news at all so far, but it is a bit abrupt to have such a big nephew out of thin air. He was amused in his heart, but his eyes lit up: "The prince can also speak my Chinese?" ”

"Yes, if you want to do business with Han Chinese, if you know Chinese, you can pay less for the interpreter." Shapur smiled faintly again: "You Han people have a saying, it is called knowing the enemy, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles." ”

Zhou Yin laughed: "The prince is modest, I think Qin Jun said it well just now." The prince can use the art of war in business, but he is afraid that business is as clever as using soldiers, and he will have the opportunity to ask for advice in the future. ”

"Don't dare, accompany me at any time." Shapur didn't budge.

Quintus was overjoyed, and the Sassanids and the Yue people were more energetic as soon as they met, which was good for Rome. He looked at it quietly for a moment, and then pointed to Warag and introduced: "This is Warrag, King of Axum, General Zhou, you will be ministers in the same palace in the future." ”

Warag's eyebrows shrugged, and then he bowed in front of Zhou Yin, but his Chinese was much more proficient than Shapur: "Warag welcomes the king to the small city, and Axum will always remember the glory of today." ”

Zhou Yin glanced at the black Wallag, fortunately, there were many blacks in Temu City, and he didn't seem so rude, but somehow, he always felt that Warag's expression was a little unnatural. But after thinking about it, he was originally a comfortable king, but now he was given to Yue Guo as a gift by the Romans, and it is normal to feel uncomfortable at all.

"This special envoy of the King of Kushan, Venerable Ma Ming, is a man of the Dao."

Zhou Yin hurriedly clasped his hands together, saluted Ma Ming, and said two polite words, and then said: "The king has arrived, and the accompanying 10,000 Praetorian Guards will go ashore first, please don't panic the envoys." ”

Quintus and the others hurriedly nodded in agreement. Zhou Yin turned around and nodded at the captain behind him. The lieutenant raised the colored flag in his hand and waved it a few times, and the ten ships guarding the king's ship approached in an orderly manner, divided into two columns, connected head to tail, and lined up in two bridges to the coast, and then, two groups of silent soldiers went ashore along the two bridges, and as soon as they landed, they lined up on the shore in two long columns, and the outermost column stood facing outward, although there were 10,000 people, none of them spoke, only the sound of neat footsteps, and even the sound of weapons colliding was rarely heard.

Shapur's eyes narrowed and he praised: "Sure enough, it's elite." ”

Zhou Yin glanced at him and smiled modestly: "I'm ashamed, I can't compare with Sasani's Immortal Army." ”

Shapur was stunned. The main force of the Sassanid people is cavalry, infantry and chariots only play an auxiliary role, and the strength that determines the surname is heavy cavalry and light cavalry, and the strongest of them is 10,000 heavy cavalry, mainly composed of noble children, all of them are heavily armored spears, and every major battle is the absolute main force, and the number of dead and wounded is immediately replenished, and the number of 10,000 is maintained at all times, so it is also called the immortal army and the immortal army. Shapur saw that Zhou Yin's Praetorian Guards of the Yue Kingdom were compared with the Immortal Army, and claimed to be insufficient, and he couldn't help but feel a little proud, but then he was a little vigilant. Zhou Yin knew about the Immortal Army, but it was the first time he knew that King Yue's guards were actually so strong, and from the perspective of knowing the other, Sassani had already lost.

"General Zhou is modest, and each has his own strengths." Shapur disguised.

Zhou Yin was about to speak, Yu An held his sword, trotted all the way over, stood still in front of Zhou Yin, and gave a military salute: "General, General Ding, please take the envoys to meet the king." ”

"Got it." Zhou Yin answered, turned around and gestured to Quintus and the others. Quintus and the others didn't dare to slack off, and followed Zhou Yin forward. Lang Zhong ordered Ding Feng to stand with his hands in his hands, looked Quintus and the others up and down, turned around and left with an expressionless face. Quintus and the others followed, and walked straight to the seashore, where the ten building boats were already close together, and a passage was paved with thick planks on the two adjacent ships, and a red carpet was laid on them, leading from the seaside to the boat a hundred paces away, as if a bridge had been erected out of thin air.

Quintus sighed at the luxury of the Yue people, and at the same time carefully walked this passage, he was very worried, after all, he knew that the sea was below, not the ground. But as soon as he walked up, he found that the improvised road was no different from the ground, except for a slight swaying due to the sea breeze.

The four envoys, led by Zhou Yin, walked all the way to Sun Shao's royal ship, Sun Shao wore a crown on his head, a red special royal robe, a jade belt tied around his waist, and a piece of cyan jade inlaid on the gold belt hook, shining in the sun, flowing with a soft light. Qin Sai held the Han Festival given by the Son of Heaven, Guan Xing held the axe given by the Son of Heaven, and stood on both sides of Sun Shao's back.

Sun Shao sat on the red sandalwood backrest circle-shaped high couch, motionless as a mountain, and looked majestically at Quintus and the others who came over. Quintus caught up a few steps and turned over and bowed down: "Quintus, the messenger of the Roman Emperor?" Severu meets with His Royal Highness King Yue. ”

"Qin Jun, has it always been good?" Sun Shao showed a smile: "Your Emperor His Majesty is not in a hurry, is he?" ”

Quintus hurriedly smiled and said, "Although our emperor only arrived yesterday, he is already a little impatient to see His Highness. ”

"Hahaha......" Sun Shao laughed: "I'm ashamed, I'm late, I'm late, when I see your majesty, let's just talk a little more." ”

Quintus smiled and nodded, and then let Shapur and the others step forward in turn to salute. Perhaps seeing the majesty of King Yue, Shapur no longer had the arrogance on the shore, he respectfully stepped forward to salute, and then stepped aside. Ma Ming stepped forward and was about to kneel and salute, but Sun Shao raised his hand, and Zhou Yin immediately stepped forward to support Ma Ming and prevented him from kneeling.

"It is said that His Holiness and His Holiness Nagarjuna have a relationship?"

Ma Ming nodded: "As the king expected, I traveled to Ceylon when I was young, and I once discussed the essence of the Buddha with Venerable Nagarjuna. ”

"Venerable Nagarjuna is my friend, and since you know him, you can be regarded as my friend. You should act according to the rules of your Buddhism, and do not follow the etiquette of us laymen. Sun Shao said magnanimously.

Although Ceylon is now the world of the Sinhalese, mainly believing in Brahmanism, but before Buddhism in Ceylon also had a considerable foundation, after Nimar regained control of Ceylon with the help of Sun Shao, he once wanted to drive Buddhism out of Ceylon, and all Buddhist temples were converted into Brahmin shrines, so Nagarjuna, who had been preaching in Ceylon for many years, rushed to Temu City to ask Sun Shao for help, he gave Sun Shao a detailed introduction to the teachings of Buddhism, as well as the difference between Brahmanism, and corrected Sun Shao's many specious concepts. Although Sun Shao did not agree to him preaching in Funan, he helped him greet Nimar and told him not to kill them all, and at the same time funded Nagarjuna to spread Buddhism in the Tianzhu Continent. Nagarjuna also became Sun Shao's friend.

In fact, Ma Ming knew about this relationship, and the reason why King Bo of Guishan sent him a monk to be an envoy was because he took a fancy to this relationship, but he didn't expect Sun Shao to be so polite to Nagarjuna, so he actually looked at him Ma Ming differently, and saved him from having to find an opportunity to get close to Sun Shao again.

Wallag finally stepped forward and saluted, he was now Sun Shao's courtier, and his etiquette was more solemn, he not only knelt on the ground and kowtowed, but also kneeled forward, hugged Sun Shao's feet and kissed him twice, and then fell to the ground, and said in a trembling voice:

"Warrag, king of Axum, has come to see my king."

I don't know if it's because of nervousness or whatever, but his originally fluent Chinese was a little vague at this time. Although Sun Shao listened very carefully, he still didn't hear it clearly, but he could guess what the words were, and specially stretched out his hand forward, helped Warag up, and met Warag's worried gaze, he smiled gently: "How can Shao Hede, dare to be the king of King Axum?" Although this was the generosity of His Majesty the Emperor of Rome, I deserved it. Warag, I want your children and grandchildren to be kings of Axum. ”

Warag was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't understand, Qin Sai, who was standing behind Sun Shao, stepped forward and spoke in Chinese and Axum respectively. Suddenly he became agitated, and fell to the ground and kowtowed, knocking the heavy planks of the ship with a clatter. Sun Shao smiled and motioned for Zhou Yin to help him up. Valag's forehead was red, but his skin was dark and he couldn't see it much. Shapur, who was standing next to him, grinned: "Congratulations to the king." ”

Valag replied twice, speechless with joy.

At this time, Ding Feng asked someone to report that everything was ready, and the king could get up at any time. Sun Shao nodded in agreement, four Hans, four Funans, four Aryans, four Axumes, a total of sixteen tall and strong men carried a richly decorated chariot and walked over, knelt down in front of him, Sun Shao got up and got on the chariot, sixteen people at the same time, lifted the chariot on their shoulders, and walked forward along the red-carpeted boat path. Quintus and the others held their breath and followed behind with arched hands, following in unison.

They walked ashore on foot, and then walked towards the city of Axum under the escort of Ding Feng and others, and when it was fall, they arrived at the city of Axum, and Alexander, who had received the news, had already led people to meet him outside the city.

Seeing Alexander, Sun Shao's chariot stopped, he got down from the chariot, stood there with his hands behind his back, and looked at Alexander in the distance. The Severus family is not pure Romans, they are from North Africa, they look a little similar to the Wallag, and their skin is a little dark, but Alexander's grandmother and mother are real Romans, Alexander combines their blood, he is also beautiful, and his skin is not so dark, on the contrary, it is close to bronze, if it is not for the natural curl of short black hair, Sun Shao almost thinks that this kid is a Han.

Alexander is twenty-six years old this year, and years of training and years of fighting have made him look childish and heroic, but at this moment, the undisguised envy in his eyes somewhat betrays his youth.

Seeing that Sun Shao was not moving there, Alexander hesitated for a moment, flicked the purple daze, and raised his legs to walk towards Sun Shao. Just as he took a step, Sun Shao also took a step, and the hands behind his back also loosened and stretched forward, and the two quickly came to the point of facing each other, and they stopped together, Alexander breathed a sigh of relief, arched his hand with a smile on his face, and bowed to the end: "Can you meet the great King Yue here, is Alexander?" Severus felt a glorious experience in his life. ”

Sun Shao gently supported his hands, then touched his chest with his hands, and performed a Roman salute: "It is also my honor to meet the great Roman emperor here." First of all, I would like to thank His Majesty the Emperor for his generosity, allowing me to drink the quality coffee of my own territory. ”

When Alexander heard this, he couldn't help but laugh, and he couldn't help but say happily: "Compared with the generosity of King Yue, what I can do is really limited. He squeezed his eyes and smiled again: "And I also want to thank King Yue for his next hospitality." ”

Sun Shao was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that Axum was now his territory, and Alexander was already a guest like Shapur. He smiled: "I am waiting for Your Majesty's visit at any time." At the same time, please pay tribute to the wise Madame Momia on my behalf, for it is my greatest regret that I have not been able to meet the wisest of Roman goddesses this time. ”

Alexander smiled, but a little forcefully. The two had spoken a few words, and Warag and Quintus came to invite them into the city, and Warag had packed up his palace for Sun Shao to live in. Sun Shao then invited Alexander and others to enter the city together, and they left the army outside the city, and each brought 2,000 guards into the city to guard their residences, while Shapur and the others had their own residences, and the people they brought were also responsible for guarding them.

That evening, Sun Shao held a banquet at the Aksum Palace, and the imperial chef he brought with him showed off his skills, allowing Alexander and others to taste pure Han dishes. The next day, Alexander returned to him and invited him to eat Roman delicacies. After hundreds of years of development, although Rome has gradually had the trend of setting sun, but in the enjoyment of food has reached an unprecedented peak, once upon a time, the simple, hard-working Romans have become synonymous with hedonism, their wide variety of delicacies make Sun Shao, who has seen the world, also feel staggered, and the Romans like to bathe, but also let Sun Shao unexpectedly think of the famous leisure city in the previous life.

After a few days of banquets, the four countries began to negotiate, and such things naturally had to be handed over to the envoys to negotiate, and identities like Sun Shao and Alexander would not sit at the negotiating table, and they would occasionally meet to tell some stories about the wind and the moon, and they would not be on topic.

Alexander had heard a lot of stories about the Han Chinese from Quintus, and he had worked hard to learn the language, and could now read some simple texts, but if he understood the difficult classics, his Chinese language skills were not enough. He was very happy to meet Sun Shao this time, Sun Shao had risen from a suppressed identity, which was very similar to his situation, and he very much hoped to learn something from Sun Shao, in order to get rid of the embarrassing situation of being suppressed by the Sassanids on the outside and under the jurisdiction of his mother Momia on the inside. The former is easy to do, Sun Shao brought a lot of aid this time, especially food, enough for his 100,000 army to eat for a year, with Sun Shao's help, he will not always have to worry about food when facing the Sassanids in the future. He is most concerned about the latter, how to go from a powerless puppet character to a real emperor with great power.

Sun Shao understood what he meant, and retold him the story of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he naturally told it more thoroughly than Quintus, Alexander listened to it with relish, it was not enough to listen at that time, and when he went back in the evening, he had to pull Quintus, who had been negotiating for a day, over and then study it carefully, the more he pondered, the more he felt that it made sense, and the whole person became a hundred times more energetic, and his eyes lit up. He thought about it all night, and asked Quintus if he had any questions, but Quintus couldn't explain it, so he asked Sun Shao again, and the reason was, of course, to eat, bathe, play, and so on.

Just when Sun Shao and Alexander were talking, one night, Shapur suddenly walked into Warag's palace, was holding a woman, drinking the wine of the Yue Kingdom, Waragu, when he saw Shapur, he was taken aback, and immediately pushed the woman away, got up and took Shapur into a secret room, as soon as he entered the door, he first closed the door tightly, and then frowned and complained: "Prince, why did you come to me." ”

"I'll see if you're so drunk by Yue Guo's wine that you don't know who you are." Shapur didn't look at him, walked to a seat by the wall, took a golden cup, poured a glass of the half bottle of wine he had just taken from the wine table in Warag, and then carefully looked at the exquisite porcelain bottle for a while, and as soon as his hand was released, the porcelain bottle fell to the ground, and it was shattered with a "snap".

"You?" Valag cried out in distress, his hands shaking with anger.

"Yue Guo, just like this bottle, looks exquisite, but in fact it is vulnerable." Shapur pursed his lips as he looked at Wallag and smiled disdainfully.

Valagapi pulled his face with a smile: "I know that you Sassanids are powerful, but don't forget, with the help of the Yue people, you can't swallow Rome." ”

"Rome?" Shapur burst out laughing, his disdain overflowing: "Do you think the Romans are still the Rome of hundreds of years ago?" You're right, we can't swallow Rome yet, but we can swallow a Roman emperor and a king of Yue who traveled thousands of miles to send him to his death. He pointed to Warag, "Axum will always be yours for as long as you want, and then to Egypt." ”

(To be continued)