Parthia and the Qin Dynasty can be regarded as mortal enemies. Before Putimius, the Council of Elders, who had the actual power of the Qin Dynasty, tried to conquer Parthia several times. The two sides fought and fought for nearly a hundred years.
Ctesiphon, the capital of Thia, was captured twice by the Qin people. Therefore, Caracalla's mission to Parthia was just a routine matter and did not expect to achieve much results.
In Parthia today, Vorogis has become increasingly obsolete and has long since stopped caring about political affairs. The power of Ctesiphon has fallen into the hands of his second son Artaban. However, Artaban only had less than 50,000 troops at his disposal.
The military power of Parthia was in the hands of the eldest son Arshak, and the two brothers were basically in a state of rivalry.
Caracalla had already done some preliminary work and basically grasped the domestic dynamics of Parthia, so he sent two missions to visit Arshak and Ardaban respectively. The purpose was just to hope that they would be better in the future war between Han and Qin.
Maintain neutrality. If Liu Xin organizes an army expedition, logistical supplies will be a huge problem. If he can no longer get the support of these countries along the way, he will definitely be defeated before the battle.
However, Arshak did not appreciate the olive branch offered by Karakala because he had already heard that if Jia Xu had not insisted on his position in front of Wologis, all the profits from the Han concession would have gone to Ardaban.
. Therefore, Arshak did not want to fall out with the big man. However, Arshak was not willing to take the risk of offending Da Qin. He promised to remain neutral between the two. However, this had already achieved the purpose of Caracalla's mission.
The real gain was with Artaban. For Jia Xu’s refusal to hand over 300,000 auxiliary soldiers directly to his hands, and his refusal to hand over the income from the concession to him in the future, Artaban always held a grudge.
I just wanted to teach the big man a lesson. When the envoy from the Qin Dynasty arrived, the two hit it off. Aldaban not only formed an alliance with this sworn enemy for many years, but also betrothed his daughter to Caracalla. In fact, Caracalla was older than Aldaban.
Ben will be three years older.[
At this time, Liu Xin made a major decision and transferred back all the Second Army and Third Army originally stationed in Uzbeli Fortress.
Since the beginning of spring, severe droughts have occurred in the northern states one after another. Except for Hejian County, which has not been greatly affected because of the complete water conservancy facilities built by Liu Xin, the other places are a scorched earth. Although the development of commerce and trade has made the Han Dynasty
The national treasury is becoming increasingly full, but without the foundation of agriculture, it is useless to have money but not be able to buy food. Although the imperial court has been committed to strengthening the infrastructure construction of the northern states in the past two years, it has mainly focused on roads and some trunk ditches.
The water in the ditch still has a long way to go before it reaches the fields.
In this age of relying on the weather, the most direct consequence of a severe drought is that the fields will be harvested. The imperial court also has a lot of grain stored in the treasury, and is fully capable of providing relief to the people who are affected by the disaster, but Liu Xin will not
Just like that, he bowed his head to God. He suspended all existing projects in other places, and transferred the entire engineering corps to the northern states to urgently build crisscrossing ditches.
Water from afar cannot quench thirst nearby. If we just wait for the construction of ditches to be completed, this year's harvest will be in vain. Liu Xin decided to mobilize three main armies to station in the northern states, relying on shoulders and handbags to deliver buckets of clean water to the fields.
This is a very arduous task, and vast armies of water delivery can be seen everywhere in the north. Young soldiers braved the scorching sun, shouted slogans, and delivered loads of clean water to the fields. Many people
Their throats were filled with smoke from thirst, but they were reluctant to take a sip of water from the bucket. Many people's shoulders were already worn out.
Many people who originally had no hope for the crops in the fields and were preparing to flee with their families were also deeply moved and spontaneously joined the ranks of carrying water. The almost withered wheat seedlings gradually showed a little green.
", the fields are full of life again. This year's reduction is a foregone conclusion, but through unremitting efforts, it is always good to recover some losses, and it can also prevent people from fleeing everywhere and forming a large number of refugees. To maintain the stability of the entire society,
It has an immeasurable effect.
However, this situation fell into the eyes of those who were interested. Qu Yi, who had just returned to the Han Dynasty, felt that the opportunity had come. Because after Liu Xin occupied the northern states, he carried out a series of attacks on the nobles in these places. The biggest impact was the seizure of
Half of their land. For the gentry, land was their lifeblood, so the gentry in these places were generally dissatisfied with Liu Xin. Inspired by Qu Yi, some rumors began to spread.
Some people say that Liu Xin took the position of Emperor of the Han Dynasty by force, so God sent a warning of disaster. Others said that Liu Xin did not even spare his "biological son" and was cruel by nature, which angered the heaven.
There were many other rumors, to name a few. These rumors were only circulated among the nobles at first, but gradually spread, and even merchants and people began to talk quietly about it.
The news reached Liu Xin's ears, and he unceremoniously ordered a thorough investigation of the originator of the rumors. He did not believe that rumors were limited to wise men. These guys who were afraid of the world's "chaos" must be dealt with resolutely and thoroughly.
.
In this era, there was no Internet, text messages, or Weibo. All rumors were spread by word of mouth. It only took a little more effort to investigate, but it was not very difficult. According to the emperor's decree, the government officials in each county
They all came out and followed the clues. In just a few days, more than ten people who were most active in spreading rumors surfaced. These people were not from the northern gentry. They either spread the rumors themselves or instigated their families to spread the rumors.
Slaves are scattered around, their purpose is just to vent their anger.
These gentry families have been able to stand for thousands of years without falling, which is naturally unique. In the two years since Liu Xin unified the Han Dynasty, they have found connections with Liu Xin's cronies, civil and military officials, and even got married.
, including some of the people who were caught spreading rumors this time.
Liu Xin sneered and said: "In emergency times, you should do extraordinary things! Now the whole people are united to fight the severe drought in the north, but they are making inappropriate noises and disturbing people's hearts. How can I spare them? Kill them!"
This time, the matter was dealt with harshly and quickly. Some of the people who spread the rumors were executed on the streets before the autumn, and the situation quickly calmed down. However, the instigator behind the scenes, Qu Yi, was still at large.
Liu Xin issued another imperial edict, and Qu Yi was wanted across the country. Rewards were posted at the gates of every county and county. Anyone who captured Qu Yi would be rewarded with 5,000 taels of silver. Anyone who provided important clues would be rewarded with 800 taels of silver.
Anyone who fails to report or conceals the information is guilty of the same crime as Qu Yi, and will implicate the three clans.
In the latest laws of the Han Dynasty, there are very few penalties for involvement, which shows how much Liu Xin attaches great importance to Qu Yi deliberately spreading rumors. However, Qu Yi seems to have disappeared out of thin air, and he is nowhere to be seen.
Motivating the northern gentry to spread unfavorable rumors against Liu Xin was just one of Qu Yi's methods to disrupt the order of the Han Dynasty. When rumors began to spread among the northern gentry, he quietly hid. For more than a year, through business
Through the caravan, Quyi also accumulated a small amount of wealth, and Caracalla and Geta each sponsored him a large amount of money. With this money, Quyi began to contact his old troops and organized a small armed force.
This is the age of cold weapons. You can kill people with a stick. As long as you have money and people, it is not too difficult to organize a team. But it took a lot of effort for Qu Yi to organize a team of three hundred people.
A team of people.
Nowadays is different from the "chaotic" times in the past. Everyone has a stable life. Who is willing to do such a thing that kills his head? Even if there are those brave and ruthless people, it is much better to eat food and serve as soldiers and get high salaries than to rebel.
Most of these three hundred people were tricked by Qu Yi. Qu Yi did not tell them the truth. Instead, he took this group of people to hide in a deep mountain, set up camp, and practiced day and night. He only talked about the future.
Let them serve as escorts for the caravan. At the same time, Qu Yi sent two of his confidants to Rome to inform Caracalla and Geta respectively, telling them that the time had come.
A month later, Liu Xin had gradually forgotten the matter of hunting down Qu Yi, and Qu Yi's messenger had also arrived in Rome.[
Since Quyi left Rome, Caracalla began to send people to pay attention to the situation of Han merchants in Daqin, including their addresses, goods, and routes of travel. After receiving Quyi's letter, Caracalla immediately
After giving the order to take action, a bloody storm broke out across the Qin Dynasty.
Because Liu Xin has been focusing on promoting the commerce of the Han Dynasty, and doing business, especially the trade between the East and the West, is indeed a relatively fast way to make money. Those who have the conditions organize their own caravans, while those who do not have the conditions will work together in small groups.
Traveling between Da Qin and Da Han, one year later, the harvest is quite fruitful. In addition, with the last agreement, Han merchants in Da Qin can enjoy the same treatment as local merchants in Da Qin, so the Han merchants who have been traveling in Da Qin all year round have already
As many as 20,000 people.
On the first day when Caracalla's order was issued, more than 3,000 Han merchants were massacred, and batches of goods were looted. Then Geta also joined the massacre of Han merchants. The Han merchants hid.
In Tibet, it is surprising that the faces of Eastern and Western people are different, and only a few people escaped with their lives.
However, the Han foreign affairs officers lurking in Rome were all selected foreigners, and they were not targeted by Caracalla and Geta. They managed to sneak out of Rome the next day after the incident, and
The message was sent.
The first person to get the news was Jia Xu, who was stationed in the concession. Although he was shocked, Jia Xu stayed calm in the face of danger. He immediately sent two groups of people to report the news to Chang'an day and night, and all the way to Rome to ask why Caracalla didn't