Destiny Only Han

Chapter 812 Liu Ying: These Uneasy Guys (Laughs)

Asia Minor peninsula, Pergamon city.

Unlike what the Romans who hastily retreated from the Balkan Peninsula expected, the Seleucid army, which had won a big victory, did not go straight to Athens, but stopped at Pergamon on the other side of the strait, where it was repaired, and at the same time it was waiting for reinforcements and troops. The rear supplies food and grass.

But more importantly, it is to divide up the spoils.

After all, Machiavelli said that in time of peace, the common people are plundered by mercenaries; in time of war, the common people are plundered by the enemy.

Now that Pergamon was defeated, King Eumenes II became a prisoner of Antiochus III and was directly executed. The entire Pergamon became a fish on a chopping board and was slaughtered.

Well, the origins of the kingdom of Pergamon can be traced back to one of Alexander the Great's successors, Lysimachus.

After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus got a part of Macedonia, Thrace and West Asia Minor when he divided the huge empire, so Lysimachus's empire was also called the Kingdom of Macedonia, the Kingdom of Thrace or Lysimachus empire.

But Lysimachus lost to the founder of the Seleucid Empire in the Battle of Kurupedian in 281 BC, and another famous successor, Seleucus I, Lysimachus himself also died in battle.

After Lysimachus died, his empire fell apart.

It’s just that the city of Pergamum was handed over to a lieutenant named Phileteros by Lysimachus as early as 301 BC, and then this person took refuge in Seleucus I. Since then, Pergamum has become A vassal of Seleucus.

It is worth mentioning that Phileteros only surrendered on the surface, but in fact he supported himself in the city of Pergamum and became a powerful local warlord. the beginning.

Well, Phileteros is an eunuch. It is said that when he was still a baby, he was once hugged by a maid and squeezed into the crowd, and the thing was crushed...

A little bit of luck is that Attalus I, the successor of Eumenes I, is not the biological son of Eumenes I, but also an adopted cousin...

However, Attalus I was a strong man. Not only did he defeat the Galatian Gauls (a part of the Celtics) who had been asking them for protection fees, but he also smashed his suzerain country, the Seleucid Empire.

It's a pity that he was pushed back by the Seleucids, but, but, the general of Seleucids, Akaifus, who was the hero who supported Antiochus III to succeed to the throne, after defeating Attalus I, Immediately proclaimed himself king in Asia Minor, broke away from the control of Seleucus, and ceased war with Pergamon...

Subsequently, Attalus I and Antiochus III formed an alliance and jointly killed Acaevus, the force entrenched among them.

Then, Attalus I hooked up with the Romans to fight against the Macedonians who wanted to expand.

After all, the Macedonians are allied with the Carthaginians who just smashed the Romans in the Battle of Cannae...

After a series of long-distance and short-range attacks and maneuvers, the Pergamon and Roman alliances finally won. Satisfied, they put on scarves and picked up knives and forks, preparing to carve up the territory of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Until Han intervened.

As a result, [-] Romans died in battle, and most of the [-] allied troops in the Italian city-state were captured alive and sent to the place where the Anman Protectorate was located to build a port. Pergamon and other allied soldiers were either killed or captured, and they were also powerless. Antiochus III, who paid the bounty, used it to pay off the debt.

Then, the army marched west to Pergamon.

So in any case, Pergamon was once a vassal of Seleucus, so Antiochus III executed Eumenes II and sent troops to capture the city of Pergamon, which was also a just act to recover the lost land and execute the rebellion!

It's just that in many cases, people can share adversity but not wealth!

Right now, outside the city of Pergamon, there are two distinct armies.

The army camped near the west is Han mercenaries. After a period of continuous assembly, the total force has reached 1, and the number of elite cavalry accounted for nearly half, reaching an astonishing 5000. !
In particular, the Knights of the Black Sails, who are licensed to hold four-pound guns, are also here!
On the north side of Pergamum City, there is the Seleucus army. After the same period of time, the total force has reached 130, and the number of war elephants has increased to more than [-]!
However, unlike the tense swords outside the city, there was harmony in the Pergamon Palace.

Mrs. Fan was holding an Egyptian girl with big eyes in her arms. Just as she was about to talk to Antiochus III next to her, she suddenly saw his royal telegraph operator appearing at the door.

"Chang'an urgent call."

"Oh? What new ideas does the emperor's cousin have?"

Under Chongzhong's somewhat envious gaze, Mrs. Fan took the telegram and read it.

Then, when he looked at Antioch III next to him again, the expression on his face became relaxed.

After all, people eat soft mouths.

If they follow the previous decision of the overseas branch of Shangxiantang to ask the Seleucids for spoils, I am afraid that they will tear themselves apart with Antiochus III and be forced to destroy the country again...

But according to Liu Ying's instructions in the telegram, it was a happy ending.

So Mrs. Fan mercilessly pushed away the Egyptian girl lying on him, ignoring the deer-like eyes filled with tears, and called for an interpreter to communicate with Antiochus III.

"My emperor said that Han does not want the wealth in the city, but we only need the books in the library and the scholars in the city."

Antiochus III froze for a moment, then gave a thumbs up: "As expected of the king of the Han people..."

Fan Kang corrected: "That's the emperor, come on, read to me, long live long live His Majesty the Emperor..."

Antiochus III repeated it twice, his face filled with unstoppable joy.

But in fact, he also felt a little bit reluctant in his heart.

After all, Pergamon's library is huge, with 20 volumes of books in it, and more than 300 scribes copying books and repairing damaged books throughout the year!

It is no exaggeration to say that this place is comparable to the Alexandria Library in Egypt!
In fact, in order to suppress the Pergamon Library, the Alexandria Library even banned Egypt from exporting papyrus to Pergamon, and this also made the Pergamons point out the technology of parchment...

As for Antiochus III's reluctance, it was not because of the literary attributes of these books, but because of their value.

After all, the cost of manual transcription, ink and paper is also very high, and the books in the library can be sold for a lot of money if they are sold outside!
You must know that this is 20 volumes, such a huge amount is also equivalent to huge wealth!
But the crux of the matter is that there is a war going on at this time.

During the war years, the most valuable thing besides food and weapons was gold.

Antiochus III couldn't find a buyer who could buy so many books at once!
Therefore, Han Guo took away the books, and he took away the gold accumulated by the Pergamon Kingdom for so many years. It was a deal that neither party would suffer!

As for those scholars who can only talk about it, he also doesn't care!

What he liked more were the beauties in the city, and those businessmen who hadn't had time to run away.

The former is naturally used for enjoying and entertaining guests, while the latter can help him sell goods and relieve his tight financial pressure at the moment.

After all, he brought in 7 people in one breath, not only to prevent the Han army from staying away, but more importantly, to attack Macedonia and Greece across the strait across the sea!

Only by defeating them can the dream of rebuilding the Alexander Empire be realized!
He wants to prove to all the successors that only Seleucus is the sole successor of Alexander the Great!
But what Mr. Fan said next ruthlessly shattered his dream.

"My emperor also said that Greece and Macedonia belong to you, and Egypt belongs to us. To be precise, the entire Egypt including the Sinai Peninsula and the Alexandria region. After all, without the Nile River, Egypt has no value."

After Fan Fu finished speaking, he stared at Antioch III who was panting heavily without blinking his eyes, and at the same time, he did not forget to wave his hand to Chong Zhong who was looking at him.

The meaning is very clear.

Capture the thief first, and capture the king first. As long as Chongzhong captures Antiochus III, they may leave Pergamum safely.

Then, there is war!
Anyway, some time ago, the king of Macedonia and the people of the Greek city-state also found them, discussing the matter of hiring Han troops to fight.

Especially Philip V of Macedonia, even said that as long as the Han Chinese can help them get rid of the slavery of the Romans and rebuild the orthodox glory of the Macedonian Empire, they will give them what they want!
Antiochus III was silent for a long time, and asked with some pain: "Can't we discuss it any more?"

Fan Kang was stunned for a moment, then frowned and asked, "How to discuss?"

Antiochus III replied: "For example, if I buy Egypt with gold, what do you think?"

Fan Kang asked, "Do you still have gold? That's not a small place!"

Antiochus III said temptingly: "Yes! Although I don't have one now, the Seleucid Empire has gold mines! As long as Han agrees, I can still use Seleucid's income for the next 30 years as collateral!"

He was actually very sincere.

The Seleucid Empire inherited part of the system of the Persian Empire. It was divided into provinces and ruled. At the same time, all the land in the country belonged to the royal family.

But it is obviously impossible to satisfy Mrs. Fan. To be precise, he has no decision-making power.

After all, with telegrams, voices can be transmitted thousands of miles away, and the previous concept of being unaffected by others almost no longer exists!

So Fan Kang shook his head and said seriously:
"I'm afraid not. I'm just a mouthpiece. The will of His Majesty the Great Han Emperor cannot be distorted."

"Actually, if you think about it carefully, Egypt is just an extra place to grow food in your hands. Do you lack these places now?"

"Not missing!"

"But if it is in the hands of the Han Dynasty, among other things, my cousin of the emperor plans to build a canal at the narrowest point on the land... Well, it is not the river ditch that has been abandoned and silted up for a long time. After the canal is repaired, the freight will no longer be available. We need to go overland again, but connect the two seas through a canal!"

"Think about it, to what extent should this business develop?"

But listening to Mrs. Fan's bewitching words, Antiochus III remained silent again, and his eyes were a little more fierce than before.

In his opinion, the Han Chinese are really making progress.

He just hired the Han army to fight, and paid the bounty in full, especially the head of Lucasius, which was as high as 50 gold coins!
50, that's half of his treasury's wealth!

And now, the Han people still want Egypt, an extremely rich place!

After all, Egypt at this time was a large grain producer, and neither Greece nor Rome could do without the wheat produced in Egypt.

In fact, if it weren’t for Seleucus’ intention to get involved in Egypt, which threatened the food supply of the Romans, the dispute between Rome and Seleucus, known as the Syrian War, would not have happened...

When Antioch III raised his head again, the fierce light in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by a smile.

But this kind of smile made Chongzhong's back feel hairy.

At this moment, he recalled that when he was 16 years old, his father took him into a primeval forest in order to let him practice courage. On that night, they were targeted by a fierce tiger.

Although the tiger probably sensed the strength of Chongda, it just lingered beside them for a long time without launching an attack, but that kind of murderous aura that seemed to be real made Chongzhong dare not close his eyes all night!

So, his hand passed under the plump and soft thigh of Princess Pergamon in his arms, and touched something hard.

sword!
This is a long sword given to him by Chongda when he became the head of the Black Sail Knights.

Decisive, very sharp!
On the other side, Mrs. Fan, who also sensed the killing intent, also gradually froze.

Although he is only 15 years old, and he also drank a few sips of strong wine, but it will not prevent him from drawing his sword to fight!

After all, his father was Fan Kuai, who gradually became a general of a big man from a butcher who killed dogs, and was named Marquis of Wuyang!

Naturally, he also inherited Fan Kuai's courage to be the first in every battle!
But the more important thing is that he is poor and rich in martial arts. As the only son of Marquis Wuyang, he has been taught by a famous sword master since he was a child. It is a pity that Chongda cherishes himself with a broom and has no other apprentices with other surnames besides Liu Fei and Liu Ying. His swordsmanship is bound to rise to a new level!
But this is enough, after all, he grew up listening to the stories of the Hongmen Banquet, and this time he has not only a long sword in his waist, but also a firecracker!
At this moment, when he put his hand on his waist, the rough and hard feeling immediately gave him great confidence.

Within five steps, even a tiger will be shot down!
This is Dahan Juhe!
In the next second, Fan Kang saw Antioch III's hand raised upwards, and he immediately prepared to strike first!
But it wasn't Mrs. Fan who made the first move, but Xu An who seemed to be obsessed with the beautiful woman in his arms.

He abruptly withdrew his hand from the beautiful woman's chest, followed by a flash of white light, and when everyone realized it, there was a beautifully decorated silver handle on Antiochus III's throat.

Xu's Flying Knife never fails!
Antiochus III was stunned, and reached out his hand to touch his throat, only to feel it was slippery and his eyes were bright red. There were gurgling sounds from his throat, and the expression on his face changed from shock to pain and sadness.

He still has great dreams to realize!

He doesn't want to die yet!

But it's a pity that he didn't count on this matter.

Faced with such a drastic change, the first person to react was not the Seleucid guards in the palace, but the son of Antiochus III.

To be precise, it was his second son.

His name is also called Antioch!
"Don't move, it's a misunderstanding!" Antioch stopped the guard's move loudly, and at the same time, facing Chong Zhong who was sitting opposite him, he raised his hands with an uncontrollable smile on his face.

After his father Antiochus III was defeated last time, his eldest brother, Seleucus, who was called the man who loved his father by his countrymen, was sent to Rome as a hostage in exchange for his father's successful return .

In other words, the Seleucid Empire at this moment has only one heir like him!

Therefore, there are four paths before him.

The first one is to kill the group of Han people in front of you, and then make yourself king;
The second is to kill the group of Han people in front of him, and then support his brother as king;
The third is to let go of the group of Han people in front of me, and let the Han people support themselves as king;

The fourth also let go of the group of Han people in front of him, and then supported his elder brother as king.

Of course, there is another option, that is, he was killed by this group of Han people, and then several options were derived...

Therefore, after a while of brain-burning by Antiochus, he decisively chose to let the group of father-killing enemies go, and then with the support of the other party, he was crowned as the king of Seleucus!

So when a group of guards behind him didn't understand, Antioch suddenly shouted in Chinese: "Kill them all!"

Although the pronunciation of this Chinese sentence is very poor, it is completely understandable, and it is obvious that he must have said this sentence to Fan Chen and the others, as well as the Han guards who also rushed in and were at a loss. !
At the same time, Antioch rolled twice on the spot, far away from the guards.

"Let me go!" Chong Zhong stood up, posing in a posture similar to a sword drawing technique.

At this moment, those Seleucid guards all understood.

conspiracy!

Absolutely a conspiracy!
Their prince actually killed their king by the hands of the Han people!

Moreover, I want to kill them to silence them!
But they have already lost the chance to hunt down Antioch.

Because in front of them was a murderous Han warrior!

The opponent's posture of pressing the sword is undoubtedly sending a signal to them!
Kill me, or you die!
So, they can only fight!

Then, Antioch, who was hiding among the guards of the Han army, saw a very beautiful killing performance.

A boy with a horse face flashed from left to right in the crowd, his sword light was like a lightning strike, and was enveloped by dense sword energy everywhere, and the room was full of brilliance, but as the boy with horse face shouted in a low voice, the sword light suddenly spat out, At the same time as the Dao Jianhong was raised, it brought up a stream of blood.

And the point of this dance of killing lies in the fact that the Chongzhong sword seals the throat, and all the Seleucid guards lying there are clutching their throats and bleeding profusely. tragedy.

At this moment, Antioch was glad that he made the right choice.

Not to mention that there are still many Han warriors here, even with this horse-faced boy alone, his father-killing enemies can definitely escape from the city!

Moreover, he didn't think that the Seleucid army recruited hastily outside the city could defeat the Han army who had been invincible on the battlefield before!

On the other side of Antioch, Mrs. Fan and Xu An were equally shocked.

How many things does this grandson surnamed Chong hide from them?

After all, in addition to drinking and sex, men will also play some games such as sword fighting and fighting.

In the past, when they competed swords with Chongzhong, in the end, Chongzhong narrowly beat them with one move, which made them feel that the swordsmanship of the Chong family was nothing more than that...

But today, it seems that the clowns are actually themselves!

"Sun Thief!"

While Fan Kang and Xu An scolded in unison, Chong Zhong put away his sword and stood up, waved his hand and shook the long sword in his hand, then took out a piece of cotton cloth from his arms and wiped the long sword carefully.

After all, human blood will seriously corrode iron swords. The important thing is that if the blood stains are not wiped off completely, these blood stains will rot and stink in the scabbard...

"Don't look at me, don't you see life?" Chongda raised his head and said.

The guards of the Han army standing at the door woke up like a dream, and rushed into the hall to clean up the corpses and blood on the ground.

And Antioch also walked to Fan Kang's side, and whispered:

"You help me ascend the throne, and I agree to your Emperor's request!"

"And not only that, I also want to form an alliance with Han! I have a younger sister who is extremely beautiful. All the women here can't compare to her hair. I will give her to your Majesty the Emperor, so that This is to show my sincerity!"

Xu An frowned: "Isn't your younger sister married to someone from Egypt?"

Antioch smiled and said, "Yes, but Ptolemy V is still a four-year-old child, and my sister must still be a virgin. She will never embarrass His Majesty the emperor!"

When Xu An and Chong Zhong looked at each other in blank dismay, Mrs. Fan's focus was somewhat strange.

He looked at Antioch and asked, "Where did you learn Chinese?"

At this moment, Chong Zhong and Xu An realized that they had always used Chinese to communicate with Antioch!

But this is obviously not important, Fan Zhen waved his hand and said: "I have no right to agree to your request, everything still depends on the will of His Majesty the Emperor!"

ps: The Suez Canal was opened to navigation in 1869.

In fact, earlier, in the No.12 dynasty of Egypt, Pharaoh Senusret III (Senusret III, whose name is the source of the word "Suez") ordered the excavation of a road in order to conduct direct trade through land-based flat-bottomed boats. The "east-west" canal connecting the Red Sea and the Nile.

The canal existed at least until the time of Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, after which the canal fell into disuse.

Then came the time of Ptolemy II around 250 BC, and the canal was continuously improved, destroyed and rebuilt until it fell into disuse again.

Then came the eighteenth century, this time really related to Napoleon.

However, the French Fella was unbearable. Not only did he miscalculate the height of the sea level, but he was completely blocked by the British army. Napoleon basically fled back to France in a hurry, and then the Egyptian French army surrendered to the British army, but under Napoleon’s propaganda, He only has small wins, medium wins, and big wins. It's really hard to win...

pps: Antiochus III was nicknamed the Great Emperor. The real cause of death in history was that he was killed when he attempted to loot the local temple in Elimaida (Elam).

(End of this chapter)