In the Dazheng Palace of Yongcheng, after several days of recuperation, Liu Xiayue was finally able to speak the Central Plains dialect normally. He listened to Zhao Wuxi carefully about his experience in the past eight years...

"Eight years ago, after I separated from the Zhao State caravan in Wuzhi, I first went west over Longshan Mountain and arrived at the land of Xiqiang..."

"Xiqiang is located to the west of Longshan Mountain and eight hundred miles west of Yongcheng City. It is a different species of Jiang surname. It lives near the Dahe Jiuqu. There are hundreds of tribes, and the tribes stretch for thousands of miles. It's just that the land is barren and the grains are not easy to grow. The Qiang people mainly work on animal husbandry, they do not have a fixed residence, and they migrate with water plants. There are no rulers in each tribe. If the power is strong, they will be divided into races and become chieftains. If the power is weak, they will become subordinate tribes of others. Violence reigns supreme. There is no other prohibition in the tribe except killing people to pay for their lives. The Qiang people are good at fighting in the valleys and hills, and dare to charge into battle. They regard death in battle as auspicious, and death from illness is unlucky. They can endure cold and hardship, and are completely the same as beasts. In general, even if a woman has a child, she does not hide from the wind and snow..."

"Because the Western Qiang and Qin were enemies, the minister was able to safely cross the Qiang land and enter Hexi. Hexi is 1,500 miles away from Yongcheng, but it is sandwiched between Qilian Mountain and the desert to the north. It is a long and narrow corridor. (Yuezhi) is nomadic here, the water and grass are abundant here, cattle and sheep are in groups, and livestock production is rich, similar to Daibei.”

"After leaving Yuzhi, the minister arrived at Qusou. Qusou is a kind of army. There is a small city. Because there is a spring in the city that can make wine, it is called Jiuquan. Jiuquan is three thousand miles west of Yongcheng. Near Qusou, there is a town named Jiuquan. The river called Ruoshui is Yuzhi to the east of Ruoshui, and Wusun to the west of Ruoshui.

"After passing through Wusun, the Hexi Corridor comes to an end, and further ahead is the vast desert and snow-capped mountains. It took me a whole year to get here, and the distance traveled is similar to walking from Yongcheng to the East China Sea. Fortunately, there are tribes or small towns along the way from time to time, so the minister can bring out the gold he carries and constantly replenish food and water. But then, after entering the Gobi, for a month, the minister did not see any people again, led by the Wusun guide. Going down, with great difficulty, I came to an oasis and discovered a city of Hu people, the city's name is Loulan..."

"The Loulan people are blond and blue-eyed, with high nose bridges and many beauties. The city is on the edge of salt swamps, and they rely on farming and animal husbandry to make a living. The minister spent more than a month in the local area before he learned the words of the local people, and learned that there are many places in the Western Regions. The languages ​​of the cities are similar, and it is with the language learned in Loulan that the minister can barely move forward along the way.”

After that, Liu Xiayue said that he was heading towards the Tianshan Mountains again, during which he found the Chiwu country in "The Legend of Mu Tianzi", which is probably located in the Turpan area. . Then, he continued to enter the Tianshan Mountains and met a dog country who raised big dogs and lived in the snow of Tianshan Mountains.

However, after crossing from the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains to the northern foothills, and even all the way to the west to find the Ili River Valley, he still did not find the legendary homeland of the King of the West. So far, Liuxiayue has left for two and a half years. Misfortunes do not come singly, they are still involved in the disputes between the local Cypriot tribes in the process of searching for sweaty horses...

...

"The Sai people are of the Hu race, their language is similar to Loulan, Chiwu, etc. Their races are widely distributed, occupying an area of ​​more than a thousand miles between the Ile River and the Chu River, and they call themselves Isetun people. Hundred tribes, the chiefs of each tribe then elect the king of Sai, who divides the water plants and herds of each tribe. The king of Sai is supreme, and every time the king of Sai dies, a grand funeral is held. The body is first smeared with sesame oil and put into Special carts traveled among the various tribes of the Cypriots. Wherever the corpse carts went, the inhabitants of each tribe had to mutilate themselves in various ways, or cut off an ear, or mutilated the forehead or nose, or pierced the left hand with an arrowhead, or Scratch your face or eyes to express your condolences. After the parade, the corpse is sent to the royal burial site. The graves dug are very large. The corpses are placed in the tombs, wrapped in blankets, and spears are stacked on both sides of the corpse. , and then killed dozens or hundreds of people for burial."

"The Cypriots are a powerful country in the West. They can smelt iron. They have big bows and arrows. They are good at horseback riding. For the blood of a person, the head of the enemy is also used as a drinking vessel. When making it, the part below the eyebrow of the head is sawed off, the remaining part is scraped off the flesh, wrapped in cowhide, and the inside is plated with gold. Then use it as a cup. As for the scalp, it is made into a handkerchief, and the more handkerchiefs a person has, the more heroic he is considered to be."

After describing the terrifying customs of the Sai people, Liu Xia Yue smiled bitterly: "I was almost turned into a drinking vessel and a human skin turban."

Fortunately, he has traveled in the Western Regions for many years, has learned some Cypriot vocabulary, and presented the silk that the Cypriots loved as a gift, so that he could not die, and was detained by the King of Cyprus as a slave. After that, Liu Xiayue ran around with these Iseton riders on horseback, and they happened to bring Liu Xiayue to his destination, a basin where all the Cypriot tribes gathered, Dawan...

So far, Liu Xiayue has been away from the Central Plains for three full years. Here, Liu Xiayue saw the sweaty horse he dreamed of, but he has become a slave at this time, and his entourage has also been scattered, and there is no way to buy a famous horse to return to the Central Plains...

After Dawan was detained for half a year, just as the current King of Sai died of illness, all the ministries of Iseton were in chaos, and Dawan broke out in slave riots, and Liuxiayue finally found the opportunity to escape. For fear of being hunted down, he did not dare to go east, so he could only go southwest first, impartially, and entered an area called "Bactria", which he later learned was also called "Bactria". Daxia" is a frontier province of the Persian Empire...

"Daxia is thousands of miles away from Yongdu, and its locality is thousands of miles. Most of the residents are Sai people, and they are ruled by Persians. The Persians are different from the Sai people and other tribes in the country, but they are quite similar to the Central Plains. They settled in a farming field. Rice and wheat are grown, and wine is produced in many places.”

"The nobles of Persia like the silk of the East very much, but they cannot establish contact with the Central Plains. They can only transfer trade through the countries along the way. An ordinary silk and silk in the Central Plains can be sold for sky-high prices in Persia!"

"So the minister felt that the two countries might be able to establish trade, so he wanted to visit the king. The minister spent several months in Daxia, learned the Persian language, and relied on a sweaty horse he stole from Dawan when he fled. In exchange for good clothes and gifts, I claimed to be an envoy from the Eastern Silk Country, and asked the governor of the province to take me to the capital of Persia. The governor of the province was a relative of the king of Persia. The appearance is quite different from the Hu people, so he is willing to introduce him, after all, he has also heard the rumors of the Oriental Silk Kingdom."

"It was not until I continued westward under the **** of the governor of the province that the minister knew that Persia was far beyond my imagination. The country is divided into dozens of provinces. I'm afraid it's bigger than the Zhao, Qin, Chu, Yan, and Yue countries in the entire Central Plains combined..."

"There are hundreds of towns and cities under the jurisdiction of each province, and there are markets in the cities. The Persians like merchants, and they use vehicles and ships to do business. Through the six roads, they can travel thousands of miles to another province. They use silver as coins. , coins are cast in the appearance of the Persian king, and when the king dies, the coins are changed. Persia still has writing and poetry.”

After arriving here, Liu Xia Yuecai met for the first time a huge empire with a civilization comparable to the Central Plains, and even surpassed it in many places. There are mountains outside the mountains, and the Central Plains may not be the only center in this world.

"Persia has several capital cities, and the one the ministers were brought to is called Persepolis. This city is located under a big mountain. It is a majestic city, almost all made of stone. It is believed that there are two great gods in the sky, black and white, and they must cross their legs when worshiping. Folk customs are barefoot, men cut their hair, and their clothes are not cut off. When the nobles traveled, they rode an elephant, and the elephant was followed by hundreds of slave attendants..."

Liu Xiayue was amazed at the layout of the big city, and he also had fresh memories of the splendor of the Persian palace, where he met the "King of Kings" of Persia.

...

"The king of Persia was named Xerxes. His stature was very tall, reaching a height of one zhang, with a thick beard on his face and a golden crown on his head. When he learned that his minister was the envoy of the Silk Kingdom, he had a arrogant attitude. Kneeling down to worship him, and asking the minister a question..."

Hearing this, it was already nighttime, but Zhao Wuxi was still interested, and he quickly asked, "Then what did Xerxes ask you?"

"Xerxes asked, who is the bigger country of Silk or Persia?"

This question is a bit embarrassing. Zhao Wuxi knows very well that although the civilization of the Central Plains is brilliant, it is still a rising star in terms of age compared to the ancient civilization of the two rivers. The Persian Empire has inherited the civilizations of the Lianghe and Egypt. It is the culmination of these two civilizations. It is also the world's first big empire that truly spans three continents. China, which has not yet been unified, cannot be compared with them. what……

"Then how did you answer?" Zhao Wuxi asked.

Liu Xiayue smiled and said: "I saw the arrogant attitude of the Persian king, and felt that he could not be inferior in his momentum, so that he would not underestimate the Central Plains and have unruly intentions. Anyway, no one in Persia has ever been to the Central Plains, so the minister said, 'Persia is where the sun goes down. The Son of Heaven has a land of ten thousand li, and the silk country is the Son of Heaven who rises from the sun. There is no king’s land under the whole world, and no king’s ministers are on the coast of leading the land.

"Then Xerxes refused to accept it, and said, Persia has a million army of water and land, can the country of Silk have one?"

"The minister replied, the silk country has 100,000 horses and 10,000 chariots. The capital city is Yecheng. There are 70,000 households, and everyone is practicing martial arts. If something happens, there are three men in each household, and there are 210,000 people! The soldiers are no less than one million!"

Zhao Wuxi pointed at Liu Xia and laughed: "Ziqian's **** is really big enough, listening to you say that, Xerxes is pretentious and arrogant, and he must feel that Persia is in the world, and he is also the king of kings. King, what I love most in my life is conquering other countries and subduing the monarchs of other countries. If you are neither humble nor arrogant, he will definitely not give up."

"Of course." Liu Xiayue took a sip of water and continued:

"So Xerxes was furious, and in order to let his ministers know the power of Persia, he insisted on taking his ministers and commanding hundreds of thousands of land and water troops to conquer a small country that could not submit to Persia for a long time. This small country is located on the coast of the West Sea west of Persia. , the name is Greece..."

"The Bosch War..." Zhao Wuxi burst into laughter, really unintentionally interjecting willows and willows, and Liuxiayue actually encountered such a big event.

Liu Xiayue didn't know what the lord was thinking, and was still describing in detail what happened during that expedition.

"Greece is divided into dozens of small states, of which Athens is the richest and Sparta is the strongest. Athens once defeated the father of Xerxes with less, and Xerxes was ashamed of this and decided to conquer Athens. Turning the small states of Greece into provinces. So he ordered a large army to cross the sea on an expedition, and the minister was also fortunate to go with the army. At that time, the Persian army was more than 200,000 people, divided between sea and land, and Xerxes ordered people to build a rope bridge in the West Sea. ~lightnovelpub.net~ The bridge had just been repaired, but a sudden gust of wind blew it off. Xerxes had intended to show off the skills of Persian craftsmen to his ministers, but when he saw this, he was furious and felt that he had lost face, so he killed the bridge-builder first. The craftsman also threw the iron rope into the sea, saying that he wanted to lock the sea, and ordered people to beat the sea water 300 times with whips, which shows his arrogance..."

"In the end, the Persians still built a pontoon bridge. More than 300 large ships were arranged in a row, and the ships were paved with wooden boards. It took a full seven days and seven nights for the Persian army to cross the strait and stand everywhere on the shore. Seeing this, Xerxes Spartan is extremely arrogant, saying that this city is attacked, which city cannot be conquered, and the country is destroyed, and which country will not perish? As long as Sparta is destroyed in one battle and Athens is destroyed in the first battle, then Greece can be brought into the palm of his hand. He also threatened, After destroying Greece, we will bring a large army to the east to see if the country of Silk is as big as the minister said, and whether there are many Persians in the soldiers..."

"The minister was also worried, for fear of bringing disaster to the Central Plains. There are only tens of thousands of Greek states, and people are not in harmony. How can they resist Persia? When Xerxes succeeds, if he really leads his division eastward, even though they are separated by thousands of miles. , The lord and lord can wait for work, but if he can expand his territory to the Western Regions and establish a province here, it will be a troublesome matter."

"Who knew that after landing, the Persians were first blocked in a dangerous pass called Wenquan Pass..."

PS: Only this chapter today