Coming to Ephesus meant that the caravan was more than half formed, and all that was left was to cross the Aegean Sea and set foot on the land of Athens to enter the Roman realm.

Athens, the jewel in the crown of ancient Greek civilization, has long been conquered, although the ancient Greeks hinted again and again that the opposite side was just a group of barbaric and stupid nouveau riche Romans, but the shadow of defeat could not be erased after all.

The caravan took a three-day holiday, and sold Persian blue pottery, as well as precious spices and ornate dyes from Parthia, in exchange for capital for travel.

The merchants of Ephesus were very fond of guests from the East, and the items they brought were contraband that were not allowed to circulate by the Seleucid enemy states, and the ancient Seleucid enemy states were at war with the new Parthian Empire, and the goods of the enemy countries were never allowed to flow into their sphere of influence, although the Seleucid Empire was weak enough to suppress the former vassal kingdom of Pergamum, but the dignity of being a great empire still worried the daring merchants.

This is not the main reason for preventing merchants from taking risks, the Parthian Empire from the East did not trust the Seleucids and the Pargamon of the same species, and the Greek merchants who were good at business could not gain the understanding of the Parthians who were hostile to the Greek civilization, and in the past, as many Greek merchants were detained, and gradually no one dared to go to the Parthian Empire to steal this business.

The severance of commerce and trade is the most terrible, he will lead to the rise in prices, the shortage of materials to the sky-high price, so that the original wealth and poverty of the Pergamon Kingdom into a greater financial crisis can not extricate itself, when a commercial civilization into the dilemma of commercial decline, it will be irrepressibly caught in the poorer the more heavy taxes, the more heavy taxes will become poorer vicious circle.

The Great Seleucid Empire. The small kingdoms of Pergamon were in a similar awkward situation, only because of the sudden rise of the Parthian Empire in the east. The important trade routes to eastern India were cut off, and everything from the spices of stone honey, which was a favorite of the aristocracy, to the cheap grain available to the common people, disappeared without a trace. They were not part-ploughing Parthians, unable to give up commerce and only rely on grazing to feed themselves, and the depletion of social resources led to violent social contradictions, which was the fundamental reason for the decline of Greek civilization.

Zhang Qian and Sima Tan wandered through the streets of Ephesus with books on their backs, recording the bits and pieces of the ancient Greek city they saw for the first time in their lives, the buildings and streets leading to the aristocratic and academic districts were clean and tidy, but the civilian quarters, which occupied most of the area, were dirty and chaotic, and the streets were full of sewage and stench, giving people the feeling of living in hell.

The luxurious life of the upper class aristocracy was in stark contrast to the difficult predicament of the lower class residents. The aristocratic life in Ephesus reminded them of the nobility of Chang'an, the difference was that the Greek nobles had more seafood in their diet, while the nobles of Chang'an would use birds, animals, and fish to cook, the difference was in the life of the lower class residents.

"I have never seen such miserable civilians, who eat only the least amount of food every day, who live by collecting shells for seafood and as cheap laborers, and who are poor and hungry, and who live by begging everywhere, which is incredible! There are no beggars in our great Han Empire, and our countryside is neatly laid out. Our cities are designed in the same way as in the countryside, where all the Han people in the world do their part, and only a few natural disasters will cause displaced people, and our bureaucracy will properly deal with the poor people. ”

Hurley Heath acted as his guide, recording and chatting as he walked. Zhang Qian told Heryheath about his hometown, and when he talked about the military mobilization system of the Han people with great interest, Hellyheath's expression was very exciting. With indescribable surprise and reverence, she felt more and more the power of that strange civilization.

"Dear Qian. You tell me that your home country has a million standing professional legions and seven million military mobilizers. But what kind of country would that be I don't understand, can you tell me why? ”

"Holly, this is a great system handed down by our great ancestors, we call it ploughing warfare, with the free people who cultivate the land as the core, with Luli as the basic mobilization unit, relying on the mobilization power of the grassroots level to accumulate layer by layer to the level of the entire empire, our history has used 500,000 troops to destroy the country several times, 300,000 troops have been used dozens of times, 100,000 troops have been hundreds of times, many records from 2,000 years ago can no longer be verified, otherwise there will be more."

Zhang Qian happily told about his hometown bit by bit, when he said that Chang'an City, the capital of the Han Empire, had a population of 200,000, and there were six urban agglomerations with a population of 200,000 around it, and there were seventy-five counties and five million people under an administrative unit called Neishi County in Guanzhong, especially when this number was seven or eight years ago, Herys's expression was very exciting.

At the peak of the Seleucid Empire, the indigenous people of India thousands of kilometers away from Antioch were counted as 20 million people, and the total population of the area actually controlled at that time was 134 million, and the total population of the Seleucid Empire was 6 million today, and the total population of the Seleucid Empire was 6 million in one administrative region of the Han Empire, and it was not easy for her to maintain a calm attitude.

"Dear Qian, didn't you lie to me? Is there really such a big city in this world, a city of 200,000 people? As far as I know, there were only 50,000 people in Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Empire, and there were only 80,000 people in the city of Rome, and it was impossible for a city with a population of 200,000, and Ephesus had a population of only 20,000, and I can't imagine how big the city of Ephesus was ten times great, and I beg your forgiveness for not believing your words, because that's too ...... It's incredible. ”

Helly Heath covered her mouth and excitedly said that she really couldn't understand.

She didn't know that Zhang Qian wanted to tell him just now that Chang'an City had an area as large as fifteen Ephesus, and the Chang'an Weiyang Palace where he was on duty could accommodate two and a half Ephesus, Zhang Qian opened his mouth to give up his defense, it didn't matter if she spread her hands anyway, she would see her sooner or later, I hope she will still remain calm and calm at that time.

A group of seven people visited the narrow and low civilian area of Ephesus, came to the clean, spacious, bright and atmospheric academic area, and before they could rush to appreciate the famous cultural city with a strong academic atmosphere, they were stopped by a group of uninvited guests.

"Hello Oriental travelers, our teacher has been observing you for a long time, and I hope to exchange some oriental things with you."

The four guards nervously distanced themselves and stared at the three young Greeks in white robes, their friendly smiles and their hands stretched out to step back to show that they had no ill intentions.

Khlysis asked, "Are you Platonic, Stoic, or Epicurean?" ”

"We do not belong to any of the three schools, our name is the School of the Eye of History, or we can call the School of Herodotus, my common teacher is Herodotus, welcome to the Seris (Seres)."

Zhang Qian was slightly stunned and said, "You recognize the wrong person, we are not from Seris." ”

"It's okay, please follow me, our teacher is waiting for you."

Following the footsteps of three white-robed youths through the silent college district, they came to the inconspicuous building and saw a large group of white-robed men, women, and children, hundreds of people, all of whom were copying and recording the Greek characters on the parchment scroll.

The most striking thing is that there are a lot of women doing academics, at least 30 of the more than 100 people are women, this feature is also a major feature of Greek civilization, Zhang Qian feels very novel and does not feel very incomprehensible, the Han Empire inherited the customs and habits of ancient times without patriarchal sayings, the ancient legends of virtuous women are as many as bright stars, even in modern times, there are talented women Zhuo Wenjun.

He thought it was interesting and wrote it down, and unconsciously followed the three white-robed young men to a quiet room.

The room was very large, with countless parchment rolls on huge bookshelves, and three old men in the room were recording with simple pens supported by feathers.

"Well, here you are, my name is Lysis. Herodotus, as you might have guessed, my ancestors are Herodotus, and these are my close friends who helped me to complete the manuscripts of my ancestors: Carneades, the former leader of the Platonic school, and this one is Dear Agassar Kiddes. ”

The three old men and the gray-haired Greeks made a strange salute to them: "On behalf of Phoenicia, Ionia, and Greece, I welcome you, Seris. ”

"I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, we're not Seris, your pronunciation reminds me of another race, we do have in our caravan, but it's not me and my companions." Zhang Qian refused this title without hesitation.

"No, please don't refuse hastily, please believe in the eyes of Herodotus, his record has been tested by practice, and no amount of doubt or slander can change the existence of the eye of history, you are Seris or once called Seris, and now you just give up or forget the name Seris."

Zhang Qian shook his head and said: "I am proficient in linguistics, proficient in seven different languages, and can also use fifteen other languages for daily communication, I can tell you with certainty that this is not the case, our ancestors were called Xia two thousand years ago, Shang one thousand years ago, Zhou a thousand years ago, and Han now, it is definitely not called Seris, Seris reminds me of the Sai people, you know?" Sai is our nickname, and he should be called saka. ”

"You're basically right, in ancient Greek pronunciation there is also a kind of Seris (Seris), which was the colloquial language of the early ancient Greece seven hundred years ago and the earlier Ionian era, and no one in the Greeks today knows how to use it, just as it literally means that Seris is the land of the king." Agamel Kiddes stood up tremblingly and said.

"Even so, what does this have to do with us? We are not called Seris, but only a tribal civilization on our western border. Zhang Qian said suspiciously. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)

ps: In the very rigorous literature, it is basically limited to Central Asia and the Western Regions, and the descendants of the Sakha people live very well, such as Kazakhstan (also called Kazaka, Saka is saka).