Chapter 683

"Is this the first time we have set foot in the country of sinae?"

"Yes, we have long wanted to come here and have never had a chance."

Olus Setus Cicero was the envoy of Rome this time, and the person who spoke with him was Marius Ugri.

Just as successive dynasties called the distant area Daqin, so the "Daqin" mentioned by the Central Plains Dynasty did not only refer to Rome. All the dynasties in Rome called the Central Plains Dynasty cyris.

Cyris is a transliteration, which translates into "Silk state". The current Central Plains Dynasty in the western world is called "Silk state", of course, because of the relationship between silk.

It is a mistake for the contemporary Romans to think that none of them had ever been to the Central Plains Dynasty. In fact, in A.D. 100, a Roman business group arrived in Luoyang and was received by the then Emperor Han he (Liu Zhao). Such a thing is recorded in the book of the later Han Dynasty. He di Ji, which is also the first batch of Romans to come to the Central Plains Dynasty by land.

The title of cyris was named by the ancient Greeks. The Romans inherited some cultures of the Greeks. At the same time, they also inherited the title of cyris for the Central Plains Dynasty, which was changed to China until the Qidan Liao state and the Northern Song Dynasty. China actually refers to porcelain.

China... That is, the "porcelain country" refers to the Qidan Liao state, not the Northern Song Dynasty. It must be understood that the basic contact of western countries at that time was the Qidan Liao state. The Qidan Liao state cut off the communication between the Northern Song Dynasty and the outside world by land, which led to the fact that most countries in the West and Central Asia did not know the existence of the Northern Song Dynasty. It regarded the Qidan Liao state as a country that inherited the Zhuxia civilization.

In terms of geographical location, it is normal for Qidan Liao country to be mistaken for the descendants of Zhuxia civilization by Western and Central Asian countries. At that time, the western and Central Asian countries' title to Qidan Liao, that is, China, was fixed.

Therefore, both cyris and China are foreign names for certain products, which extend to the name of the country producing such goods.

Coincidentally, the Central Plains Dynasty also had its own way of naming foreign countries. In the earliest period, there was the name "Daqin", and the source of "Daqin" was the book of the later Han Dynasty and Wei Lue.

Later, in the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, although the people of the Song Dynasty were exposed to a wider world because of the prosperity of maritime trade, due to the rise of Confucianism, Confucianism was famous. It only regarded the Central Plains as the "world", and simply did not take the "world" seriously. In Central Asia at that time, it was a social trend to wear a uniform style of Robe because of the "religious 1 religion governing the country". The people of the Song Dynasty only looked at their clothes to distinguish, so there were inexplicable countries such as "white food", "green food" and "black food".

It has been six days since the diplomatic missions of Rome, frank, Burgundy and Alemanni arrived in the state of Han. They also landed at Jingkou. They continued to feel the exclamation of those diplomatic missions before. The same thing is going to the market to buy silk.

The silk in Jiankang market was bought up as early as the first batch of diplomatic missions arrived. The shops selling silk had not had time to replenish the goods, so the later diplomatic missions naturally did not buy it.

The second batch of embassies arrived at pingman Colonel's headquarters after a very difficult breakthrough. When they broke through the interception of Sasan Navy at sea, only a few ships sank and were captured, and most of the materials they carried were lost. Later, they came to Jiankang on a Han ship to learn that the first group of envoys took out the few goods left to sell, but they encountered the embarrassment of the first group of envoys. The Han people were not interested in their goods at all.

In fact, although frank, Burgundy and Alemanni have established their own countries, they have not been recognized. They were really recognized after the collapse of Western Rome, but it was at the end of the fifth century.

Among them, the Franks developed best. They expanded vigorously during the collapse of Western Rome and successively defeated the Huns, Later, they defeated the remnants of Western Rome in Gaul, occupied Gaul, established the merovian Dynasty, took Paris as its capital, and even repeatedly expanded and crowned as emperor, and established the Charlemagne empire.

The Charlemagne empire was divided into three parts in 843, namely the western, central and Eastern Frankish kingdoms. Until ad 870, after the adjustment of the Treaty of Merson, it became the embryonic form of the later three countries: the kingdom of France, the kingdom of Italy and the first empire of Germany.

Therefore, the later French Kingdom, the Italian kingdom and the first German Empire are actually branches of the Germanic nation. In the modern French part, the Franks merged with the Gauls, resulting in the real separation of the French from the Germans and Italians.

At present, although Rome has been divided, it still belongs to Rome as a whole in name. The Romans do not recognize that Frank, Burgundy and Alemanni exist as a country and are still treated as a tribal form. Therefore, the Romans brought them to Han. They do not belong to their own mission, but are included in the Roman mission.

In fact, the Hongru Museum, which receives diplomatic missions from various countries, does not know so much. They record according to their respective applications. If later generations read history books, they will not see the relevant records of frank, Burgundy and Alemanni, which are all covered in the records of the Roman diplomatic missions.

Compared with other countries, the Romans are actually more pleasing to the eye in the Han country. Both sides have black hair and black eyes, that is, there are obvious differences in the contour of facial features, but not only the color of hair and eyes in other countries is different from that in the Han country, but also the skin is obviously different.

"Cyris is an amazing country." Marius Ugri said that the construction of Kangcheng is huge, and there are more than one million people living in the same city: "this is a country with historical heritage that will not lose to us. They stand up again after the invasion of barbarians. Their emperor wiped out the barbarians in the north, trying to conquer more countries and occupy more land."

In fact, the Roman mission has left Jiankang. When taking the national road to the north, it was as shocked by the road as the first batch of missions. It was more strange to see the labor scenes of Han people along the way.

"Cyris' invasion of Gupta caused us great trouble." Olus Setus When Cicero said this, he did not show hatred for the Han state, but more worried: "in the first war between cyris and Gupta, cyris won, and Gupta will not give up."

The maritime trade between Rome and the Gupta Dynasty is very prosperous. The exporting country of the trade is the Gupta Dynasty. While providing luxury goods, it is mainly metals such as steel, iron and copper, and will sell a large number of finished weapons.

In contemporary times, Rome is the gold importing country of the Gupta Dynasty. The gold export from the Roman conquest is concentrated in the Gupta Dynasty. That is because Rome itself does not attract the goods of the Gupta Dynasty, which is equivalent to an unbalanced trade. However, the two sides do not think there is anything wrong. One is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer.

The Han state extended its tentacles to the third ocean, and the sea attack on the Gupta Dynasty greatly interfered with the sea trade. Until the first battle of the Han Gupta, in fact, Gupta's sea merchant ships were able to break through and go to Rome for trade. It was not completely terminated until the end of the first battle of the Han Gupta.

The suspension of sea trade between the Gupta Dynasty and Rome is only a matter of recent months. The impact on Rome is, but it has not been fully revealed. The previous trading materials have not been consumed, but there is no lack of understanding. People are worried.

The eastern part of Rome is not the home of the Romans. Some European regions such as Italy, Gaul and Spain are the home of the Romans. However, although Rome is a whole in political fame, The contemporary Augustus command can only work in Eastern Rome (Modern Turkey), which makes the Roman army fighting with Sassanian army really need materials from the Gupta Dynasty.

I want to say olus Setus What is the purpose of the mission led by Cicero to the state of Han? The primary goal is to mediate the war between the state of Han and the Gupta Dynasty, but they are not arrogant enough to think that they can order the state of Han or the Gupta Dynasty, but they must try.

At the same time that some envoys came to the Han state, Rome actually had another envoys who went to the Gupta Dynasty to seek mediation.

"In fact, geographically, Siris should choose our allies." Olus Setus Cicero has inquired about the news that bossasan wants to form an alliance with the Han state. The Persians don't keep it secret, and the Han state doesn't take it seriously at all. It's easy to inquire about the relevant news: "we're at the westernmost end, cyris is at the easternmost end, and the Persians are in the middle. Once we reach an alliance with cyris, we can carve up Persia in two directions."

In fact, the Romans really like to find allies. Every step of expansion is to find a country or tribe in the region as an ally to jointly carve up the strongest country or tribe in the region, When the countries (tribes) in the region are finished, they turn their faces and refuse to recognize people. They expand to the Mediterranean and become their inland sea. However, various countries and nationalities have been fooled by the Romans many times.

In oulus Setus Before Cicero and others set out, they were directly authorized by contemporary Augustus Constantius and had the right to form an alliance with any country or nation. Therefore, it was also one of their objectives to strive to become an ally with the Han country.

Compared with kianush Alta Persians such as aldasher think that the Han people will "renew the front edge" because of the friendship of their ancestors, olus Setus Cicero and other Romans want to be very rational. Alliance is an attempt. Of course, it is a great joy to be able to form an alliance. If you can't form an alliance, at least you should reach non-governmental trade.

Of course, what the Romans most wanted was to mediate the war between the Han Dynasty and the Gupta Dynasty, that is, they knew that they could not get any chips, and there was no way to threaten anything. The extended key issue became the trade with the Han country, such as seeking to purchase large quantities of metals or weapons from the Han country in addition to the extremely eager silk.

The diplomatic missions of all parties met in Shouchun. During this period, there were all kinds of troubles after the meeting between the Romans and Persians, that is, the two sides did not lose their heads and knew that the land of the Han country was under their feet. They did not like each other. At the same time, they kept their reason and did not have bloody conflict.

Under the personal leadership of Yuan Qiao, they went all the way north and saw the major projects being carried out in the Han state. At the same time, they also saw the Cang Yi people who should be there after the war.

For the construction of the national highway from Jiankang to new Chang'an, the segmented mode is adopted. No matter which mission is surprised after understanding this business, all the missions that produce words record it in words and regard this discovery as a treasure.

After a three-month journey, they can be regarded as entering Guanzhong. When they pass Tongguan, they will inevitably feel countless feelings about the steep Xiongguan.

"The land of cyris is too vast!" Olus Setus Cicero saw too many things along the way. It was confirmed that there was no facade project in the Han country. There should be prosperity. There should be ruins devastated by war. He thought he saw a real Han country: "I was most surprised by the organizational ability of the cyris people. They were able to manage millions of people to do the same work!"

Any outsider was surprised at the organizational ability of the Han state, especially there were a large number of slaves in addition to managing the free people. Someone asked yuan Qiao, and the answer was that there was no riot in all parts of the project. They still believed yuan Qiao's words. After all, they didn't see it all the way.

"The territory of cyris is close to 12 million square miles (not kilometers), which is similar to our land territory." Marius Ugri's source was yuan Qiao, and he didn't think it necessary for yuan Qiao to lie: "this is the territory that the son of Siris beat down in eight years."

Rome is expanding around the Mediterranean. Except for the western end of Europa, the rest of its territory is along the Mediterranean. It looks small in terms of land territory, but the actual control range is across Europe, Asia and Africa, which makes the Mediterranean an "inland sea".

On the Han side, the plateau is not the territory of the Han state. It stops in Shanshan in the west, Inner Mongolia in the north, and the forefront in the northeast is dense forest (da1qing). Although the southwest peninsula was captured, it is not local. At present, the total land area is about 5.9 million square kilometers, which is actually smaller than the land territory of Rome.

"The cyris are seeking more expansion. They spent three years destroying two countries and countless tribes in the South (Indochina Peninsula) and recently invaded Gupta." Olus Setus Cicero said this with a bitter look on his face: "we are constantly retreating."