Destiny Only Han

Chapter 816 Liu Ying: It's still a flower played by the ancients...

Sinai Peninsula.

In the scorching sun and yellow sand, a team of more than 20 camel cavalry was galloping.

Behind them, dozens of chariots pulled by two horses followed closely. It's a pity that the road here is not suitable for chariots, otherwise the chariots would catch up with the camels in minutes.

The two sides in this battle royale were the guards of the Seleucid Palace who robbed Cleopatra and were going to send them back to the country, while the other side was the royal guards of Egypt.

There was a coup in Egypt a few years ago. The citizens of Alexandria expelled the murderer who murdered the mother of Ptolemy V, Arsinoa III. They bowed their heads and ears, and even his own authority fell into the hands of powerful officials.

As a result, even Upper Egypt, where Alexandria was located, fell into a state of anarchy.

And this is also the reason why a dozen warriors disguised as merchants were able to sneak into the large library and easily bring the queen of a country out of the royal city. They were not discovered until that night after the palace was locked.

But no matter what, the one who was robbed was the queen of Egypt, so it was natural to send someone to snatch it back!

This is national dignity!
But it is a pity that the wind is blowing again, and the yellow sand is flying all over the sky. Camels can jump like flying in this kind of weather, but horses can't, especially the horses that are dragging the carriage, and there are several people standing in the carriage.

So the Egyptian royal guards became cruel and decided to abandon their chariots and follow them on horses instead.

Before they came, they had already received the death order from Shangguan, if they couldn't get them back, then they wouldn't have to go back!
Therefore, although the dust is uncomfortable, but for the sake of the family living in Alexandria, they can only bite the bullet and chase it down!
After all, the Sinai Peninsula is also the territory of Egypt. Although the provincial governor here no longer obeys the king's orders, they can still get supplies here as royal guards.

Such as water, dry food, and horses for transfer.

But the robbers on the opposite side only have a few camels, and they will catch up sooner or later!

In this way, a day and a night passed.

But as the sun rose eastward and the land was golden, the Egyptian royal guards who followed the traces were stunned.

Not far in front of them is a huge army that can't be seen at a glance!

And above the sea, dotted with golden scales, there are countless Greek-style galleys, big and small, full of olive oil, wine and wheat.

After a few more glances, the Egyptian royal guards were overjoyed.

The flag fluttering in that army is clearly the symbol of Seleucus!
"Haha, let's see where those robbers are going!"

"When you catch them, you must crucify them!"

They talked and laughed, and began to prancing and whipping.

After all, Seleucus was the natal family of their queen. What would happen to the robbers who robbed their queen and fell into the hands of the Seleucids?
Tut tut...

They don't even dare to think about it!
After a while, the army continued to move forward, but there were more than a hundred men in the logistics convoy who were shaved and bald, with the brand of slaves on their necks, and their faces were full of bewildered tears...

..............................

"Hahahahahaha..."

"Hahahahahaha..."

Chong Zhong and Fan Kun looked at each other, and laughed wantonly with their heads raised.

One of them was about the same age as Liu Ying, and the other was watched by Liu Ying since she was a child, and she often listened to strange stories told by Liu Ying.

For example, who in the hall will sue this officer...

Now, it can be regarded as witnessing a live version...

But with a smile and a smile, they slowly let go of the previously hanging heart.

They have seen the Seleucid princess. Although they don't know if she is really the number one beauty around the Mediterranean, she can be called a stunning beauty!

In this way, they will not worry about committing the crime of deceiving the emperor again.

As for whether she is a virgin or not, they don't know, but it doesn't matter, anyway, she is a plaything with no status, as long as she guarantees that there will be no other men in the future.

Taking concubines and taking sex, for example, the mother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty gave birth to a daughter before entering the palace, but it did not hinder the favor of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, and gave birth to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and three daughters one after another...

Well, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty had a younger sister, who also entered the palace together as the concubine of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty...

When Antiochus IV ordered someone to escort Cleopatra back to Seleucid, Chong Zhong called a military officer of the Black Sail Knights and asked him to lead his army and horses to join the seeing-off team.

After all, this is the future imperial concubine of the Han Empire, and she must be under the watchful eyes of the Han people all the time!

Mrs. Fan slightly invisible nodded to express her praise, and at the same time looked up at the cloudless sky, frowned and asked, "How long will it take to get to that Egypt?"

Antiochus IV replied with a smile: "I have arrived a long time ago, this land full of deserts is Egypt..."

Fan Zhen shook his head: "It's so desolate, I don't know what the emperor's cousin wants here?"

Antiochus IV said flatteringly:

"The general doesn't know that this place seems to be deserted and desolate, but in fact there are a lot of gold and copper mines underground. If you can organize people to dig them out, you can sell them for a lot of money!"

"So, the emperor of the Han Dynasty really knows everything!"

"Of course!" Fan Zhen raised his head: "I don't even look at whose cousin it is!"

Chong Zhong was stunned for a moment, then turned his head silently, with a speechless expression.

Antiochus IV was silent for a moment, then said with a smile:

"If the general is tired of such a boring scenery, it is better to be patient. According to my estimation, we will have another day's journey to reach a city full of dates and palm trees. Just relax and relax!"

Mrs. Fan nodded, half embarrassed: "Are there any prostitutes in the city?"

..............................

Alexander port.

Although the queen was lost, the citizens in the streets and alleys were talking and laughing, but this did not prevent them from continuing their lives.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I was appointed Governor of Egypt under the names of Philip III and Alexander IV according to the Babylonian enfeoffment agreement, and then became the king of Egypt.

After his son Ptolemy II succeeded to the throne, many new ports were established along the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and Alexandria became the most important intermediate station for the transportation of goods between the East and the West.

Now it is summer, and the Mediterranean Sea is dry and rainless. It is the season when merchants use ships to transship goods from here to Rome.

Especially the wheat with full grains is full of galleys, waiting for the merchants to set sail immediately after paying their taxes.

But before the merchants left the port, countless galleys floated slowly on the distant sea.

This is a Roman ship!
The Romans learned from the merchants in Athens that Seleucus' army did not directly cross the Dardanelles by boat to attack Macedonia and Greece, but marched southward along the land route, trying to capture the entire Egypt!
mean!

You must know that the Apennine Peninsula is densely populated today, and the food grown on the island alone is not enough to meet the needs of all the people. Therefore, they need to import a large amount of wheat from Egypt every year so that it can be processed into bread and distributed to Roman citizens for free. .

After all, Egypt at this time can be called the granary of the Mediterranean, far from the Egypt that needs to import a lot of food in later generations.

For example, during the period of Augustus, Egypt had to hand over 12 tons of grain to Rome every year, and by the sixth century AD, this figure had risen to 21 tons...

Well, in fact, even in later generations, Egypt's per capita water resources are about 600 cubic meters, which is more than that in North China.

Standing on the warship at this moment, Marcus Polchius Cato, who had just been elected as the inspector, quietly breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the port where the Egyptian flag was still flying in the distance.

"Fortunately, there is still time..."

After all, Anthony once said that if I don't provide food to Octavian, half of Rome will starve to death...

Therefore, the Romans could not watch this Mediterranean granary being occupied by Seleucid anyway!
So amid the exclamation of the Egyptians, a full ten legions of Romans began to land.

They arbitrarily expropriated the food from the merchants, but at this time Rome was rich and powerful, and most of these merchants were inextricably linked with the powerful and powerful in Rome, so they only expropriated and paid.

Then, Cato, led by a team of guards, entered the Egyptian palace, and saw Ptolemy V sitting on the throne with a timid face.

"My lord, is there anything I can do for you?"

Ptolemy V repeated the words of the other party according to the reminder of the minister beside him.

Cato nodded slightly, satisfied with the humility of the Egyptian king at the moment, so he said with a smile: "Just give me enough wheat and olive oil."

As a result, all the ministers in Egypt breathed a sigh of relief.

They have plenty of these things!
Cato looked around and questioned, "Don't you know? The Seleucid army is marching towards Egypt, and it should have reached the Red Sea by now."

For a moment, the Egyptian was startled.

"what?"

"Didn't you say that you will never fight again after the marriage alliance?"

While they were discussing, another black-haired young man with a high nose and deep eyes walked in the door.

This person's name was Seleucus, and he was the eldest son of Antiochus III who was killed by Xu An.

When Antiochus III was defeated before, he was sent to Rome as a hostage in exchange for time for the whole army to fight again.

After all, he was a member of the nobles. At this time, the nobles rarely killed the nobles. No matter in war or on weekdays, the nobles killed the poor, and the poor killed the poor...

So as soon as Seleucus walked in, he immediately said loudly: "Our brother killed our father, and you need to defeat him with me to avenge our father!"

Ptolemy V froze for a moment, but some did not react.

After all, he is only a five-year-old child, and he still doesn't quite understand when he has another father...

But those ministers fully understood.

Especially after they linked this incident with the disappearance of the queen, they even guessed the true identities of those robbers!

Marriage is actually a very favorable condition for an alliance, especially since Cleopatra is such a beautiful woman, if it weren't for them to check and balance each other, I'm afraid someone would have been unable to help their king to impregnate the queen... …

Therefore, their queen must have been snatched away by the beast that killed her own father!

Who can bear this?
So there was a lot of discussion, which turned into outrage.

Especially the two ministers who actually controlled Egypt, Kavit and Diodorus, were eager to try and prepare to mobilize the army to fight the Seleucids to the death!

When Cato had just landed in Alexandria, they received a report that ten Roman legions had come off the ship!
You know, such a large-scale army is still unique in their known timeline!

Rome has never been short of manpower, what they have always lacked is actually the financial resources to equip the army.

After defeating the Carthaginians, Rome not only took control of a large area of ​​Spain, but also took over a large number of Carthaginian allies, and even demanded a large amount of war reparations from Carthage!

Unlike the extravagance and licentiousness of the Roman Empire in the later period, Rome, which was in the era of the Republic, was in the period of militarism. They did not squander the war reparations wantonly, but used the money to purchase a large number of armaments, so that they could be used during wartime. Mobilize more soldiers!

Today, they easily mobilized ten legions, and in the period of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, any one of them could easily mobilize more than a dozen legions!
Therefore, although Kavit and Diodorus did not know the subsequent development of Rome, they were very certain in their hearts.

Rome will win this battle!
Therefore, joining the Roman Legion to participate in the war at this time is not only to curry favor with the Roman Ombudsman who has iron fists, but also to gain military exploits and become acquainted in the army!
How did Ptolemy carve up the Alexander Empire in the past, then they can follow Ptolemy's example and carve up Egypt!

"Good! Good! Good!"

Cato clapped his hands and laughed loudly, said three good words in a row, and then asked, "How many troops can Egypt dispatch?"

Kavit and Diodoros looked at each other: "2000 chariots, 5000 heavy infantry, 1 light infantry, and [-] archers!"

"So little?" Cato frowned, but immediately felt relieved.

After all, he had known about Egypt a long time ago, and now under the leadership of the child Ptolemy V, the governors of various parts of Egypt no longer obeyed the instructions of Alexandria, but went their own way.

Therefore, being able to mobilize close to 2 people is already the limit of Egypt today!
Moreover, the Egyptians also had effective tactics, that is, archers go forward, heavy infantry press the formation, and chariots and light infantry wait for the opportunity to outflank.

Therefore, judging from the strength and types of troops, the Egyptians are also very sincere. With these 2 people, it is enough for the Egyptians to be responsible for maintaining a front when fighting!

Then Cato laughed and said:

"Since that's the case, it's a deal. Let's send troops together after the Italian city-state infantry arrives!"

"Don't worry, Rome never treats its allies badly!"

(End of this chapter)