"Is this Cyrus?" Olus Setus Cicero didn't know how to feel: "what we saw with our own eyes is very different from the rumor."
In fact, the Central Plains dynasties that the Romans knew were basically second-hand and third-hand... Even several hands of data. After getting some information, they added their own imagination, either in a better direction or in a worse direction. That's what people who have not witnessed with their own eyes will do.
The Central Plains Dynasty imagined by most Romans should be that everyone can wear silk, and gold can be found everywhere on the road. The eye must be full of magnificent buildings and jade buildings, representing the extreme wealth of the world. This part of the Romans would imagine that the Central Plains Dynasty was simply because silk was too expensive after it was introduced to Rome. They subconsciously thought that the country that could produce silk should be very rich, and because of distance, beauty came into being.
The most representative one is Marco In fact, Polo's businessmen did not go deep into the Central Plains. He came to the east to travel. He didn't know whether to kneel and lick completely or with sinister intentions. Anyway, he wrote the travels of Marco Polo.
In the travels of Marco Polo, there is a country in the East where the ground is paved with gold. The rivers there flow not water but milk. Everyone can afford silk and anyone can eat delicious seafood.
Mark Polo was a figure in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. If he had really arrived in the Central Plains, he was also under the rule of the Mongolian Yuan. The Mongolian Yuan divided people into four classes. Of course, the first class was the Mongols. The following are Semu people, Han people and southern people. He happens to be the second level of the Mongolian Yuan fourth class system.
If you really get to the Central Plains, mark Polo naturally received various preferential treatment, but he could never see any gold everywhere, nor could he see the beautiful life of most people. It was time to see the Cang barbarians after the war. After all, the continuous invasion of the Mongols to the South brought endless destruction and murder.
Regardless of mark Has Polo really been to the east? Anyway, his travels of Marco Polo brings endless expectations to the east to the West. He may not think that the country in the East is very strong, but he thinks that the country in the East is extremely rich. I don't know how many generations have imagined the wealth of the country in the East, nor how many people want to find the "legendary country" and have made unimaginable contributions to the navigation of Europa.
For example, Columbus originally wanted to find the "legendary country", but he found America by mistake. This mistake is the beginning of the domination of the earth by the white skinned race. They developed and accumulated their own navigation technology in the continuous robbery, plundered endless wealth and species from everywhere, and the "robber" culture began to go deep into the bone marrow.
Olus Setus Cicero, of course, has not read the travels of Marco Polo, but like many people who have not been to the east of the world, they are more or less longing for distant countries. He saw the prosperity of this country in the Yangtze River Basin, which was more or less in line with his imagination of this country, but everything changed with going north.
A country that has just stopped fighting will never lack the destructiveness of the war that has just stopped. The trauma brought by the war can be seen everywhere. How can such a country see anything rich?
Han is really not very rich now, and even in some ways, most areas are quite poor, which is different from what they imagined.
From Jiankang to Guanzhong, it takes thousands of miles inland, olus Setus Cicero was fully aware of the vast territory of the state of Han. As the state of Han is vigorously building a national road from Jiankang to Guanzhong, almost everywhere you go, you can see a large number of people working. They also have the impression that "this country has a large population".
Construction means vitality. A country under vigorous construction is more than vitality. It means that the country has come out of the trauma of war and began to work towards the beautiful life it expects.
From Jiankang to Guanzhong, and then to Chang'an, no one can deny the greatness of this oriental country, that is, the Han country can organize the cooperative labor of millions of people, and can maintain a good order under a large number of people. To be honest, not every country can organize millions of people to work together. So many people have to have the ability to organize. Usually, countries with so many people don't have that ability to organize.
The higher the status, the clearer their understanding of organizational ability. It is order and ruling ability. Today, millions of people can be organized to work, and enough people can be mobilized to arm when needed. The ruling class treats the country differently from ordinary people. Whether they are rich or not is not the key. Whether the people are willing to listen to the assignment of the state is the key!
"So when there are ruins in seles, they can send troops to war." Olus Setus Cicero recalled what he had seen and heard in the captain's Department of pingman, and added: "the cyris are keen on war. Soldiers and civilians are eager for war."
It's not wrong to say that. The garrison of Colonel pingman's army is for war. Domestic soldiers envy their colleagues who can make achievements on the battlefield. The people know that the reason for going to war is to plunder food. Such a war is beneficial to anyone in the country, and most people will not exclude that kind of war.
The Romans had their own thinking in their contact with the Han people. The people they came into contact with were supporting the war against the Gupta Dynasty. They did not understand the deeper relationship, but felt terrible because of the cohesion of the country.
In fact, the former Roman citizens have always supported foreign wars because everyone can get war dividends. But now Rome is more and more disgusted with war, and it can no longer see the situation that Roman citizens fully support the war in the era of the big three. It is not that Roman citizens can not get war dividends, but that Roman foreign wars win less and less, sacrifice more and more, and gain less and less.
The Romans became strong because of the war, and their territory became more and more vast in the continuous war. There is no doubt that Rome was the best country to fight in ancient times.
Now Rome is in a period of contradiction. On the one hand, because there is a civil war in China, most Romans have a sense of exclusion from the war. On the other hand, they have to face up to the growing threat of Persian sassanne. The vast majority of Romans are looking for wise leaders to follow, hoping to end the civil war quickly and unite with the outside world.
Olus Setus Cicero followed Constantius not because of anything else, but because Constantius still did not forget to resist the Persians when other separatists tore at him at home. He believed that only Constantius, a monarch who had not forgotten his foreign enemies, was worth following, and only Constantius could restore the glory of Rome.
At present, Rome is dealing with Persian sassanne with partial strength. Everyone knows that Rome in a split state is not an opponent of Persian sassanne at all.
There is no possibility of peaceful coexistence between Romans and Persians. Even if there is peace, it will be quite short. No matter Constantius, Constantine (II) and CONSTANS, they all know this, but the division of Rome will not end peacefully, which leads everyone to need external help.
Compared with Constantine and CONSTANS, Constantius was in a worse situation.
Constantine controls the Italian peninsula, and North Africa and Egypt are also Constantine's control areas. He can be regarded as the most powerful "Princes". It has to be said that the Italian peninsula has always been the native land of the Romans, not to mention the most densely populated, and there are many workshops.
Constance is the part from Spain to Gaul, which controls Europe. It is an incomparably vast territory. Although it is no better than the Italian peninsula, it is really no worse. He also accepted the advice of his advisers and gave preferential treatment to some barbarians in Germanic and Celtic. For example, he acquiesced in the establishment of some countries such as frank, hoping to unite barbarians as a help in the civil war.
Constantius controlled the eastern provinces (Modern Turkey). Before, Rome did not pay attention to this side, so it could not be called any development or development.
In divided Rome, the monarchs of the three groups are the descendants of Constantine I. The relationship between the young son CONSTANS and the first two is more complex, and the relationship between Constantine (II) and Constantius is really very bad.
Olus Setus Cicero's ability to bring frank, Burgundy and Alemanni to the state of Han proved that Constantius had communicated with Constance, but there was no Constantine (II) in their mission.
"We certainly don't want to see cyris and Persia form an alliance against Rome." Marcus Maka knew that Han had formed a local alliance with Persian Sasan: "I hope the alliance between cyris and Persians is only limited to dealing with Gupta."
When Liu Yan visited the northwest, some envoys did not refuse to ask to travel with him. For example, important personnel accompanied them in Rome and Persia, but other envoys did not pay attention to it. Some envoys even ran to Jiankang, a prosperous place, with their consent.
"We also achieved results, didn't we?" Olus Setus Cicero stroked his horse's mane and looked at the endless plain. He was more or less relieved and said, "at least the cyris are willing to trade with us."
Rome... At least the group of Constantius tried to promote a truce between the two sides. Gupta's reply was that he was willing to accept Rome's mediation, but when Rome mentioned it a little, the Han state strongly said that it had nothing to do with Rome.
The tough attitude of the Han Dynasty made olus Setus Cicero realized that it was impossible for them to control the will of the Han state. They did not press foolishly. They stopped mediating after recognizing the reality and looked for new interests.
"In addition to food, the cyris are willing to trade enough goods with us." Marcus Marca was actually from Constance: "silk, weapons, armor... What you need and what we need, the cyris did not refuse."
In fact, what satisfied the Romans most was that the Han did not necessarily require payment of precious metals, and even did not need to pay before the Han's goods arrived in Rome. Some Han people will follow the Romans to Rome with goods. At that time, if the Romans are a precious metal tribe, they can also use food or things that the Han people think can pay the bill.
Olus Setus Cicero smiled in an instant. Their group was in great need of weapons. Even if the Gupta Dynasty could provide enough weapons, it had not been enough. Moreover, the weapons made by the Gupta Dynasty were not the most suitable for the Roman army. For example, the Romans were not very good at using knives, especially machetes.
The best and most used weapons of the Romans were swords and spears, and most of the weapons they purchased from the Gupta Dynasty were the same. When the Gupta Dynasty made Roman military purchases, it was impossible to use Uzi steel. In fact, it was also an ordinary iron product. The weapons that really used Uzi steel were all in the style of knives.
Olus Setus Cicero said to LV Yi that he wanted to buy arms. LV Yi originally refused in his heart and replied that he needed to discuss. Liu Yan's opinion was that he could sell arms to the Romans.
There are many kinds of weapons used by the Han people. The sword and spear that the Romans are best at are actually the best weapons of the Han people, which are quite different in length.
The Romans used short swords and spears, which were basically adapted to a shield warfare method.
The use of swords by Han people is a process of increasing the length all the time. Generally, swordsmen do not hold shields. In terms of spears, because the main enemy of the Han people is the cavalry of nomads, the pursuit of spears needs to be long enough. Spearmen are troublesome enough to only hold spears and will not require to bring shields.
"In fact, we are very similar to the cyris in many ways." Olus Setus Cicero certainly didn't say hair and eyes: "the cyris have been plagued by barbarians in a long history, and so have we."
Marcus Maka thought about it carefully. It seems that there are great similarities. On the one hand, their appearance and being troubled by barbarians are still leading the progress of neighboring countries and nations, and they have always been high-end civilized people.
"It can be seen that the cyris are very friendly to us..." olus Setus Cicero was silent for a moment and added: "not like the Persians, they cooperate with the Persians to deal with Gupta. Their friendship with us is more like a kind of... How to say? From looks or... Culture?"
"We are all in a remote corner of the world, with the same height of brilliant civilization." Marcus Maka smiled and said, "in fact, we and cyris are natural allies."
"You speak very well." Olus Setus Cicero said very sincerely: "we can't just think like that. We should let the cyris face it."