Zhao Xin fled, with three hundred elite horsemen fled all the way to the Zuoxian Palace, the cold season lacked food and clothing, Zhao Xin relied on robbing the food and clothing of the small tribes of the Huns, and stumbled all the way to the Zuoxian Palace. o

King Zuo Xian was furious when he heard the news, Zhao Xin was a talent he valued for a long time, and his resourcefulness and talent were rare among the Huns, so he spent a lot of effort to dig up talents from under the account of King Youxian.

In the past, Zhao Xin was subordinate to the little king of Lou Fu, who was dug up by the king of Zuo Xian and completely separated from the king of the right xian, and he was also the number one person at the eastern foot of Yinshan Mountain.

The expansion of Zhao Xin's shrinkage department is also what King Zuo Xian likes to see, the first line of Yinshan is nominally the natural dividing line between the left and right Xianwang, but in fact, it belongs to the territory of the right Xianwang in Eilechuan, Yunzhong County is the natural dividing line of the left and right Xianwang, Yanmen County to the east is the main attack area of Zuoxian Wang, and Yunzhong County to the west should theoretically belong to Youxian Wang, but the Youxian Wangting has moved westward in recent years, and Yunzhong County is not very concerned.

King Zuo Xian wanted to avenge Zhao Xin, but when he walked outside the tent and looked at the heavy snow, he had no score in his heart, so that the Wang Tent cavalry braved the wind and snow to avenge his subordinates must bear huge pressure, and what was even more fatal was to deal with the cunning poisonous snakes on the Monan grassland, and the black armor soldiers of the Han people had the nickname of grassland poisonous snakes, because they were as cunning as foxes and as fierce as poisonous snakes.

The royal tent cavalry was reluctant to touch the black armor soldiers, especially on the grassland, it was rumored that the black armor soldiers never left a living mouth, most of the people who had seen the black armor soldiers died, and a small number of people who fled did not see the real people, they all heard the wind and fled desperately, the women and children where the black armor soldiers passed were taken captive, the men were killed, and the products were robbed. The horses that were taken away were robbed, and the cattle and sheep that could not be taken were killed.

The Huns hated and feared the black-armored soldiers. Especially in the area east of Yinshan, where the activities of the black armor soldiers were most intensive, the complaints of the Xiongnu tribes under the account of King Zuo Xian came and went. There are many self-organized capture teams in various departments, from the initial team of several hundred people who disappeared in the vast grassland, to the later dispatch of 3,000 herdsmen to search everywhere but there was no trace, and the black armor soldiers came out again to continue their activities within a month after the end of the operation, and the Huns paid a heavy price on the black armor soldiers.

Since last year, there have been a large number of Xiongnu tribes asking King Zuo Xian to send a large army to capture the black armor soldiers, and King Zuo Xian's royal tent cavalry has indeed been dispatched several times, squatting on the grassland and sweeping for two months, and even a single hair has not been swept to the end, and the result is less than two months. The black-armored soldiers began to be active again, and the revenge was even more brutal, and the Huns were about to collapse.

He has an army of 120,000 under his command, but the royal tent cavalry is only 30,000, and the other 90,000 Hun tribe cavalry can only be used temporarily, and the cost of large-scale assembly to sweep the grassland is too high, and the effect is not very good.

Since the king of Zuogu Li, Yi Zhi was obliquely placed by him. The pressure on King Zuo Xian increased suddenly, and there were almost no reliable partners in the court to help him, and King Li of the Right Valley had been active in the western part of King Youxian's tent for a long time, adjacent to the countries of the Western Regions. Basically, it is an unbeatable relationship with King Zuoxian, and it is unrealistic to rely on King Liwang of the Right Valley to bring down King Youxian.

King Zuo Xian was very angry, with his noble position above 10,000 people under the Xiongnu alone. But suddenly there was no reliable ally in the court of the Huns, and he suddenly felt that he was the one who was trapped. secretly scolded the Han people for being unreliable, and Zhao She, who gave him advice at the beginning, can now find no one at all. I heard that I was teaching the crown prince Yu Shan to govern the country recently, and I thought about the stomach ache of King Zuo Xian.

Zuo Xian Wang begged and hated: "The hateful Right Xian Wang Juli, the hateful Zuo Gu Liwang Yi Zhixian, the hateful Zhao She, and the even more hateful black armor soldiers, I must make you pay a painful price!" ”

It was not only the Zuo Xian King who was angry, but the Right Xian King was angry in the king's tent.

"Bastard! You sue me that the prince of Batusen and Wusun Kunmo has disappeared? When, where, and by whom did they disappear? ”

"Tell the king, the place of disappearance is in the south of Dawan Kingdom, and the last time he was seen was in the territory of Dawan Kingdom, and then he has never been seen again."

You Xian Wang angrily broke more than a dozen precious Han porcelain vases: "Tell me, is it the ghost of that caravan?" ”

The envoy shrank in fright, and said in a panic: "I don't dare to guess, only from the information I have obtained, the caravan should not be able to eat two strong thousand-man teams, it should be a certain nomadic tribe that took advantage of it and used 10,000 cavalry to take it." ”

10,000 cavalry!

The right virtuous king sat down slowly, the small countries in the Western Regions have a lot of thousands of horsemen, the large ones such as the Wusun country have 30,000 cavalry, even the right virtuous king sees the arrogance of Wusun Kunmo hunting to be polite, and then the Dawan country to the west has at least fifty or sixty thousand soldiers who can fight, Kangju has ** thousand cavalry, the Dayue clan has more than 100,000 cavalry, the Sai people have at least 100,000 cavalry, and the Parthian Empire further west has at least two or three hundred thousand cavalry, even if the Xiongnu Dashan Yu has no choice, not to mention that he is just a right virtuous king.

There are not many tribes that dare to make a move on the prince of Wusun Kunmo, there are not many tribes, you don't have to think about it to guess that it must be the defeated general of the Dayue clan more than 20 years ago, although it is a defeated general, but the Dayue clan is not weak, from the accession of Mao Dunshan to the westward migration of the Dayue clan, the Xiongnu have twice used the army of the whole country to crusade against the Yueshi country, and dispatched the strength of half the country three times, and it took a lot of effort to split the Yueshi people, and the Dayue clan moved west to ensure the absolute dominance of the right Xian Wang to control the zhì district.

Now the Dayue clan people have gone so far, the remnants of the tribe are gradually regaining their vitality, and the strength is not as good as half of the peak of the Yue clan, but the combat effectiveness has not been hit by a slippery slope, and it is very unrealistic for the Huns to deal with the Dayue clan people who are far away from the west, and the Youxian Wang's account is also 30,000 royal tent cavalry, and the western tribes are not very obedient to guide his total strength is only 100,000 cavalry, and it is more than enough to intimidate the small countries in the Western Regions with the huge military strength of the royal court.

Batusen is very important, and Prince Wusun is even more important, but how to get this field back?

King Youxian frowned bitterly: "Do you want to endure this loss?" That's not going to work! Batusen is a thousand cavalry commanders who are optimistic about Da Dan Yu, how can he explain to Da Dan Yu when everyone is missing? ”

Thousands of miles away.

The Parthian Empire of Ecbatana, an ancient city adjacent to the Caspian Sea, was an important transportation hub in northern Parthia. Every summer, the barbarian tribes around the Caspian Sea come to Ecbatana to sell their produce.

Stepping into the outskirts of the city, you are greeted by a surprising commercial atmosphere, with a contingent of nomads in fancy clothes walking down gravel roads. They looked around curiously like dirt buns in the countryside, and Parthian life was so different. It was amazing to see that there were wells in the villages outside the city, that the women were weaving cloth with strange looms, and that the men were digging and ploughing the ground, and that the climate was comfortable even in the cold winter.

Zhang Qian was dumbfounded: "Are we dreaming?" Crossing countless barbarian territories to the kingdom of civilization, it turns out that there is another kingdom of civilization in the world. ”

"No, you read that right, the Marquis of Pingyang told us that the Parthian Empire in the west is a half-farming, half-pastoral monarchy, and their emperor should be called King Assassis. We will shine on him and seek help from the west. The charcoal pen in Sima Tan's hand kept recording frantically, and he wanted to write everything he saw on the road into the book, and the Marquis of Pingyang told him that this had important strategic value.

"I welcome you, travelers from the East, this is Ecbatana, the capital of the Median kingdom, the palace of Cyrus the Great, and now the summer residence of the great Parthian emperors, you must not believe that the city is four thousand years old, and it is true. Do you see that old castle? That is the palace of Cyrus the Great, destroyed by Alexander the Great, rebuilt by the Seleucid emperors and added to it by the king of Assassis, and it was the third largest city in the country after Ctesiphon and Persepolisis. ”

The enthusiastic guide spoke Persian to introduce the group. Most of the members of the team remained blank, and only a few of them understood Persian during the more than half a year they had been in Parthia. Only Zhang Qian and Sima Tan can speak orally, especially Zhang Qian's spoken English is the most fluent. There are basically no obstacles to ordinary communication, which is related to the fact that he often asks for directions to visit the customs of Chapatia.

"Hello. We are far-away travelers to the East, and we have heard that the Parthian Empire has a long history, and the cities of four thousand years are incredible. ”

"Congratulations on finding the right man, I am a native of Ecbatana, my great-grandfather was a groom for the Seleucid princes, my grandfather was a soldier for the king of Parthia, my father was a good sailor, he traveled all over the Mediterranean, my ambition is to be the best guide, I am not only proficient in Persian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman, by the way I am learning Scythian (Cypriot) and Celtic barbarian, but I have not found a suitable teacher, my name is Pasassi."

Pasassi was a young man of twenty-seven or eighteen years old, with a black curly head, a high nose and sunken eyes, a very ordinary young man by Parthian standards, but it was really strange in the eyes of the Han people, his appearance was completely different from the Han people, the eye sockets were deeper than the Yue's, and his accent was more difficult to understand than the Yue's.

Zhang Qian chatted with Pasasi enthusiastically, and learned from him about the richness of Parthia, where they were rich in blue pottery, linen and all kinds of spices, because to the southeast of Parthia was Parthia, India, where spices were also abundant as the Magadha kingdom.

Coming to Ekbatana, the huge commercial area is shocking, and the strong commercial atmosphere from the Dawan country all the way makes the caravan members refreshed, it turns out that there are really people in the world who are mainly commercial.

The caravan is really a bit dazzling, Zhang Qian is not in the mood to see the flowers, he must be in a hurry to get rid of the horses in his hands one by one, according to the map of the identification through Parthia will be out of the desert steppe vast sand sea, continue to the west does not need a large number of horses to maintain fast progress, selling the extra more than 3,000 horses is a top priority.

Pasassi was a competent guide, and led the caravan to the nearby giant horse market, where he learned that horses were the Parthians' favorite means of transportation, and that good horses were usually very expensive.

It's a pity that the horses in his hands are not good horse breeds, and the pedigree of some dwarf Hun horses affects the selling price, and a small number of West Pole horses and sweat and blood horses are resolutely not sold, and the three thousand horses are only exchanged for a few thousand catties of spices and a bunch of strange seeds.

Spices were used as auxiliary currency in Parthia, especially in the Caspian Rim, where many tribes did not like to use gold as currency, and spices and cloth served as auxiliary currencies acceptable to both sides.

Zhang Qian was about to leave, but suddenly raised his head: "Huh? What kind of horse is that? ”

It was a fiery red war horse, with its head tilted and its mane waved majesticly, its limbs slender and elegant, its fiery fur gave a very strong impression, and a group of merchants patiently bid around the horse.

"That's the Arabic horse, the Seleucids liked it very much, and you like it too?" "But it is very expensive, a horse is worth ten good horses, and you can't buy three hundred bad horses for it," said Pasassi in an understanding manner, and it is very delicate, and it is easy to get sick and die, and only nobles will raise them to play." ”

Zhang Qian shook his head: "Then what breed is the other horse?" I look like it. ”

"The Berbu horse is the favorite of the North African sand pirates, it is characterized by excellent disease resistance and tolerance, but it is like a clown in front of the Arabyan horse, the price of the Berbu horse is very cheap, only about one-tenth of the Arabic horse, if you want to buy it I can recommend you a few famous horse dealers."

Zhang Qian didn't know about the Arabyan horse, the information given to him by Cao Shi was incomplete, and the name often did not match, but the Bo Bu horse was in the information, according to the information, it was the most cost-effective desert horse, and he shouldered a number of responsibilities to find good horses to breed horse breeds, from ancient times to the present Han people are not good at breeding good horses, the shortcomings of Han horses are not changed overnight, only the best way to choose a good horse to cultivate.

The merchants of the horse market were very shrewd, and when they saw people with unfamiliar accents coming to inquire about the price, they immediately raised the price, and it was only through Passasi who stood up to help negotiate the price to push the price back, and in order to reward Passasi for his hard work, Zhang Qian added ten more Parthian silver coins to the gratuity.

"Thank you, generous sir, for your reward."

"I'm going to hire you as my long-term guide, we're going to the Roman Republic, would you like to go?"

Pasassi was overjoyed: "I would like to study like my father, and if you are willing to go there, give me 1 Parthian gold coin every month." ”

At this time, a pair of Parthian soldiers appeared at the entrance of the horse market, took out a piece of parchment and read the order in Persian, and suddenly there was a shouting and scolding in the horse market, and the soldiers left without saying a word after reading the order, and the scolding in the horse market did not stop.

Zhang Qian was curious: "What's going on?" ”

"The new governor of Ecbatana is going to raise a special tax, as if the western front is rubbing with the Seleucids, and King Assasses wants to raise taxes to train more soldiers." Pasassi said worriedly: "It has been a hundred and forty years since the Diadochi War, and the Syrian War has not been fought seven times, and the Seleucids are too tenacious. ”

"Parthia, Seleucid, Rome, Ptolemy, this is the mission given to me by the Marquis of Pingyang, he wants to tell me that the Han Empire is in the wrong direction, and it should go west...... Wait a minute! A flash of inspiration flashed in Zhang Qian's mind: "To the west? East? Kuafu chases the sun all the way to the east, towards the place of the sunrise, that is to say, Kuafu comes from the west, I go west to follow the traces of Kuafu, what does the painting of Kuafu chases the sun portend? What is the significance of westward? (To be continued!)

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