The ninth lunar month. After the Wu army captured the city of Susa, Qingji mobilized 50,000 iron cavalry of the Wu army, Sogdians, Khorezmians, Stecytes, Bactrian people, Parthians, etc., 80,000 mercenaries composed of warriors of various nationalities, and hundreds of thousands of people, and began to march towards the two river valleys.

Attack Babylon, to be exact! Babylon, located in the plains of Mesopotamia, about two thousand years ago, where people founded nations and kingdoms appeared, were for

One of the "Four Ancient Civilizations". Babylon was originally an Akkadian city, and its history can be traced back to about two taels, referring to the Euphrates and Tigris.

The world's first city developed on this plain, the first legal code was promulgated, and there are the earliest epics, myths, pharmacopoeia, peasant almanacs, etc., which are known as the cradle of human civilization.

In 539 B.C., when the Persians rose up and Cyrus II led an army to invade the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, the priests opened the gates to let the Persian army enter the city.

Belshazzar was killed, Nabonida was captured, and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom died without a fight...... To this day, the city of Babylon is the last capital of the Persians.

Xerxes mobilized a heavy army here to fight the Wu army for a final decisive battle. However, the battle of the Tigris River not only defeated the main army of the Persians, but also the courage of Xerxes I.

Therefore, although Xerxes gathered no less than 100,000 troops in the city of Babylon, he did not dare to fight the Wu army head-on, so he could only retreat in the city, waiting for reinforcements, or the Wu army ran out of food and grass and had to withdraw by himself.

"Go to war!" With Qingji's order, the mercenaries, who had long been ready to go, launched an attack on Babylon City without fear of death.

As the capital of the former Neo-Babylonian kingdom and the capital of the Achaemenid dynasty, the fortification of the city of Babylon speaks for itself.

Therefore, Qingji did not intend to let the sharp soldiers of Wu State die, but let the mercenaries attack the city. The mercenary died, and Qingji was not distressed.

Anyway, you don't even want a pension, just give a sufficient reward. Qingji is not short of money! …… For more than ten days, the Wu army failed to conquer the city of Babylon.

This city is indeed extremely strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Chaldeans, who had defeated Assyria, founded a new state in Babylon.

To distinguish it from the ancient Babylonian kingdom that was destroyed by Assyria, it was called

"The New Babylonian Kingdom". Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Neo-Babylon, built the capital city of Babylon into a fortress-like city.

The walls of Babylon were tall and thick, with a triple wall, with a circumference of 16 kilometers and an inner wall of 8,000 meters, surrounded by a deep moat under the wall, and a protective earth wall was built to the east of the wall, thus forming a triple wall.

The walls were made of bricks and paint, and a chariot drawn by four horses could gallop across the wide walls.

There were 100 gates made of copper throughout the city, and there was a deep moat around the walls. The Euphrates River flowed in from under the city walls and through the city.

In order to attack this city, more than 10,000 mercenaries died on the Wu army's side. Qingji is also a kind-hearted person.

For the mercenaries who died in battle, they were also given some pensions for their family rolls, and at the same time, they were given money to the mercenaries who were still able to fight, so as to encourage them to continue to attack the city of Babylon without fear of death.

Rao is like this, and Qingji has already begun to worry. Because there are too many men and horses on the front line, the front line is too long, and the food and grass supply in the rear has begun to be unable to keep up.

Just when Qingji was in trouble, a person came and solved the problem for Qingji.

"Your Majesty, there is a merchant outside the camp who claims to be a Hebrew, and he wants to see Your Majesty, saying that he can solve your Majesty's problems."

"Hebrews?" Qingji was a little puzzled. The so-called Hebrews are the modern-day Jews.

The Hebrews were originally a nomadic tribe of the Semitic people, who gradually moved from Mesopotamia to Syria and then to Egypt between 1900 and 1500 BCE.

During these few hundred years, a Hebrew tribe claiming to be descendants of Abraham's grandson Jacob began calling themselves by Jacob's nickname

"Israelites". They also had a glorious past, probably more than 500 years ago, when David established a unified Jewish kingdom of Israel, with King Solomon at its most powerful.

However, later the country was divided and destroyed by the Assyrian Empire and the Chaldean Kingdom. To date, it has been ruled by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom, the Persian Empire, and later by the Macedonian Alexander Empire, the Seleucid Kingdom, and finally the Roman conquest.

However, the Hebrews were very tenacious people. Nebuchadnezzar II of the former Neo-Babylonian kingdom twice conquered Jerusalem and captured its inhabitants

"Prisoner of Babylon". It rebelled against the Romans several times, but was repressed, with the Romans killing and selling many into slavery, and the Hebrews were forced to disperse...... Now, what is the matter with the Hebrews looking for themselves?

"Let him in."

"No!" Not long after, Qingji was in the big tent of the Chinese army and saw a middle-aged man dressed as a Western businessman.

His skin is slightly darker than that of Westerners, and comparatively, there is not much difference between authentic Hebrews and Persians, and he also has black eyes and black hair, but his upper body appears longer and his legs are shorter.

"Contemptible Seymour, see His Majesty the Great Emperor!" The man who claimed to be Seymour, after seeing Qingji, knelt down and kowtowed.

Qingji originally found a translator, but this Seymour is actually proficient in Wu language?

What a set! Qingji waved his hand and let the interpreter next to him step back, leaving only the imperial grandson Wu Ji to sit on the side, and then looked at Seymour's body and asked, "Seymour, you speak Wu so well, who did you learn it from?" ”

"Your Majesty, I won't tell you anything, my contemptible ancestors have been in business for generations, I have been in business for more than 30 years, and I have been to Jinling, Luoyi, Jinyang and other places in the Wu Empire, and even Linzi." Seymour smiled and replied, "The contemptible man is proficient in six foreign languages, and in addition to his own mother tongue, he is the most familiar with Wu. ”

"The contemptible people admire the culture of the Celestial Empire of Great Wu very much, and once lived in Jinling for five years, so they speak Wu fluently...... "Seymour began to flatter Qingji, and praised Wu's cultural prosperity and military strength, which made Qingji very comfortable to listen to, but he was a little wary in his heart.

"Seymour, don't gossip. You claim to be able to solve my problems, is it true? ”

"Absolutely." Seymour said slowly: "Your Majesty the Great Emperor, I can't hide it, including the contemptible people, all Israelis respect Your Majesty very much, and are willing to submit to Your Majesty's rule, and ask Your Majesty to accept it!" ”

"Is there sincerity?" "Yes!" Seymour said respectfully: "Your Majesty, I have recruited 10,000 warriors from my clan, as well as more than 30,000 young and strong people, as well as thousands of carts of milk, grain, etc., 1,000 cattle, and more than 7,000 sheep. You can give your majesty's support at any time! ”

"......" is so generous? Qingji was also a little shocked. He knew that the Hebrews were rich, but he didn't expect to be so rich and so generous?

You know, after the death of the Hebrews in history, they were scattered all over the place and still existed in the form of tribes.

However, they did have a talent for business, and when the Wu Kingdom opened the Silk Road decades ago, the Hebrews took the opportunity to start doing business extensively...... Butterfly effect?