At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 579: Eastern Boom in the Mediterranean

King Seleucus was furious when he heard this: "How can the Han people be so treacherous? Our country paid for the arms. They actually gave us some defective products."

Last year, in order to resist the Huns, the Seleucid Empire urgently purchased a batch of flintlock rifles and artillery from the Han Dynasty's maritime merchants. Because the situation was urgent at the time, the Seleucid Empire did not bargain and was almost like a Han Dynasty merchant, purchasing arms at the price the merchant asked.

But when the news came from the Han Dynasty, the Seleucid king was dissatisfied. It was a Han profiteer who sold them a batch of second-hand refurbished muskets, not to mention the cannons, and the price was increased by more than ten times. Although the king knew that he would be cheated by the profiteer at that time, he was still very unhappy when he knew that he was being cheated. After all, no one dared to cheat him like this since he was born. Now that he knew that the Han Dynasty was cheating him again, he was even more dissatisfied. He, the Seleucid Empire, was the hegemon of the Mediterranean after all, not a small jerk who let you cheat him.

Prince Antiochus smiled bitterly and said, "The Han Dynasty is much stronger than us. We cannot afford to offend them. Moreover, the muskets and cannons we need now require the support of the Han Dynasty. We cannot afford to offend the Han Dynasty. Otherwise, the Han Dynasty will sell the muskets and cannons to Rome, and then we will be in danger."

King Seleucus said coldly: "Is the Han really so powerful?"

Prince Antiochus said solemnly: "All the countries of known civilizations combined are not as powerful as the Han Dynasty. Its territory is several times wider than the Mediterranean Sea. We have been traveling on the territory of the Han Dynasty for three months, and we have only traveled half of it. This is the Han Dynasty's territory in Shenzhou. It is said that the Han Dynasty has two new continents on the other side of the sea. The breadth of its territory has exceeded everyone's imagination. Compared with our country, the Han Dynasty is an incomparably huge giant."

Prince Antiochus thought of the equipment of the Han Dynasty and the Huns' collapse at the first blow to the Han army. If his country had the same weapons as the Han Dynasty, sweeping across the Mediterranean would be a piece of cake, and even defeating its mortal enemy Rome.

But the Han Empire was not willing to give them such good equipment, which made him a little itchy. It was as if there was a magical weapon dangling in front of him, but he just couldn't get it. And this magical weapon was extremely important to the Seleucid Empire.

After the Syria-Roman War, the Seleucid Empire lost its hegemony in the Mediterranean. The vassal states conquered by Antiochus III the Great surrendered to Rome. The top leaders of the Seleucid Empire have always wanted to defeat Rome again and restore their hegemony.

Prince Antiochus said, "There is a saying in the Han Dynasty that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish."

"What do you mean?"

"What this means is that instead of giving someone a fish, we should teach him how to fish. Instead of envying the powerful weapons of the Han Dynasty, we should buy the Han Dynasty's arsenal and produce powerful weapons ourselves."

King Seleucus nodded, thinking that this made sense, and said, "Antiochus, I appoint you as a special envoy to go to the Han Dynasty and discuss with the emperor about introducing their arsenal. We in the Seleucid Kingdom must learn how to manufacture artillery and muskets."

Antiochus said: "The cost of building the Han people's steel mills and ice arsenals is not cheap. Take the steel mills needed to manufacture artillery as an example. The cost of building a small or medium-sized steel mill is 100 million Han coins."

After converting the units, he said, "That's 100 talents of gold. To build another arsenal that can produce the Han muskets, cannons, mortars and other weapons, even if it's just an extremely simple arsenal system, plus we need to invite Han craftsmen to teach us how to use the machines, it will cost more than 300 talents of gold."

Seleucid was shocked and asked, "It costs so much money?"

King Seleucus hesitated. There was no other reason. He could not afford the money. Although the Seleucid Empire was large and populous, it had not yet established a complete taxation system. Basically, the tax revenue was transferred to the tax farmers. In addition, it was a slave state, so the taxation situation was imaginable.

300 talents of gold were nothing to an industrialized country like the Han Dynasty, or even to a feudal country like the Xiongnu, where the main tax revenue was commercial and agricultural taxes. But for a slave state like the Seleucid Empire, it was an astronomical figure.

You have to know that the trading nation of Carthage and Rome once fought for supremacy in the Mediterranean. In the end, Carthage was defeated and the compensation was only 1000 talents. However, Carthage controlled the entire Mediterranean trade route and was originally the richest country.

More than ten years ago, the Seleucid Empire was defeated in the war with Rome and had to pay a high war reparations. His father wanted to raise the war reparations, so he set his sights on the temple. As a result, he died inexplicably on the way to the East. This means that the Seleucid Empire now has to pay Rome war reparations.

Prince Antiochus said: "The Romans have decided to purchase the Han Dynasty's steel mills and arsenals to manufacture firearms. If we don't keep up, we will no longer be Rome's opponent in the future."

After all, this era was a time when all major civilizations were born. The rulers of various countries were not hindered by the rules and regulations of later generations, nor were there anything that was not allowed by the gods. As long as it could make the country rich and the military strong, countries of this era were willing to do it. It has to be admitted that, on the whole, the quality of the rulers of this era was the highest in the past two thousand years.

King Seleucus gritted his teeth and said, "Even if I have to borrow money from the Temple of Zeus, I must get these 300 talents of gold. I would rather use the gold to buy arms than give the gold to the Romans for nothing."

This was the first period of prosperity for the major ancient civilizations. As the countries in the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean regions competed for hegemony, they were willing to learn anything that would enrich the country and strengthen the army. Moreover, the vitality of each country was extremely strong. Take the now-declined Carthage as an example. Even after the Second Punic War, Carthage still struggled for half a century. The Seleucid dynasty lasted more than 200 years from its establishment to its demise, and the Ptolemaic dynasty lasted nearly 300 years. Unlike the chaotic Middle Ages, when a country was established by a great ruler, it was common for the country to perish in the second generation.

But thinking of the 300 talents of gold and the high interest of the temple, Seleucus said, “Go to the Han embassy and ask if we can buy some of their second-hand and cheap steel mills and arsenals.”

The king, who originally hated second-hand goods the most, now had to find ways to buy some cheap second-hand goods due to financial pressure.

Prince Antiochus bowed his head and accepted King Seleucus's command.

Seleucid Empire, Han Consulate.

Following this group of envoys to the Mediterranean were Han Dynasty diplomats. They established consulates in the capitals of various countries to collect local intelligence information, folk customs and folkways, and to gather intelligence for the Han Dynasty to understand the Mediterranean front line.

As soon as the Han envoys arrived in Seleucid, they spent 200 pieces of high-end Shu brocade to purchase a noble manor in Seleucid as a consulate. There was no other way. Seleucid was much more backward than the Han, and the noble manor was considered a place to live for the Han people.

After the establishment of the Han Consulate, it quickly became a hot spot in the entire Seleucid Empire. Countless nobles rushed here to understand what the people of that extremely rich Eastern country were like. Of course, more people wanted to obtain silk, sugar, spices, and steel from them. Now these luxury goods of the Han Dynasty are circulating throughout the Mediterranean. As long as you can master one commodity, it is enough to make a family prosperous. Carthage, which had been suppressed by Rome and declined, has actually shown a trend of revival in recent years by transporting luxury goods from the Han Dynasty. It can be seen how great the benefits are and how much it can help a country reverse its decline.

The Seleucid nobles learned that the diplomat sent by the Han Dynasty to their country was actually the son of the Han Prime Minister. When they learned that the Han Prime Minister was almost equivalent to the Roman consul, these nobles were suddenly filled with pride. As expected, even the Han Dynasty knew that the Seleucid Empire was the overlord of the Mediterranean and the diplomats sent were no ordinary people.

Li Ji was a second-generation noble of the Han Dynasty. He was very familiar with dealing with nobles, even foreign nobles. If he wanted to carry out diplomatic work in the Seleucid Empire, he naturally had to find a way to make friends with these nobles.

In the name of a Han diplomat, he invited the nobles of the Seleucid Empire, and held a small banquet every 3 days and a large banquet every 5 days.

Throw a barbecue dinner and teach them how to use their precious spices.

Hold a dinner party to teach the Seleucid nobles how to properly use Han porcelain, and promote Han white sugar and MSG.

Teach them how to taste Han Chinese green tea, and give them Han Chinese silk clothes as gifts. In short, teach these people how to live like a noble Han Chinese. With Li Ji's strong promotion, it didn't take long for the Seleucid Empire to set off a Han Chinese trend, and countless nobles were proud to receive invitations from the Han Chinese consulate.

After this period of drinking and eating together, Li Ji chose several of the largest nobles in the Seleucid Empire as agents and began to import large quantities of silk, porcelain, tea, sugar, spices and other goods from the Han Dynasty.

That day, the guard said that Prince Antiochus was coming to visit, so Li Ji naturally invited him to the reception room.

Prince Antiochus saw Li Ji and said, "Our country wants to buy some of the Han Dynasty's steel mills and arsenals, but we don't have enough money. Can you help us contact some second-hand steel mills and arsenals in the Han Dynasty?"

When Li Ji heard that there was a big deal coming, he immediately became serious. In the past few years, the Han Dynasty had excess steel production capacity. In order to clear the production capacity, the imperial court blew up all blast furnaces below 25 tons. Countless officials, craftsmen, and workers shed tears at that scene. For the Han people who had not yet changed their mindsets, this was destroying wealth. Their political achievements, jobs, and wealth were all gone in the explosion.

But the blast furnace is easy to explode, but a series of equipment that is compatible with the blast furnace can only be left in the factory to rust. If these equipment can be used, it can save a lot of wealth for the Han Dynasty, and at the same time find a way out for the Han Dynasty's production capacity.

Li Ji smiled and said, "Brother, you don't know that I am known as the timely rain in the Han Dynasty. What do you mean by not having enough money? I will see if I can help you."

Prince Antiochus immediately felt that Li Ji was a person who could get along well, so he recounted the war between his father Antiochus III and Rome, focusing on the despicable behavior of the Romans, how his father was defeated and had to sign a sky-high war reparations agreement, and how his brother wanted to enrich the country and strengthen the army, so he could only borrow high-interest loans from the temple to buy steel mills and arsenals.

Li Ji said, "This is a big deal. I have a bank in the Han Dynasty that specializes in helping people solve the problem of insufficient money. The interest rate is only 20% a year. Brother, you don't need to borrow money from those temples. I will help you arrange for the manager of the Industrial and Commercial Bank to solve your financial difficulties."

"Twenty percent!" Prince Antiochus was extremely surprised. The financial leaders on the Mediterranean front line were the temples. These people were powerful and they dared to kill the king even if he owed them money.

Of course, this is a temple financier, and the interest rate on loans is extremely high. Even for the nobles, the interest rate is no less than 30%.

Li Ji said: "Of course it's 20%."

Prince Antiochus took Li Ji's hand and said excitedly: "If this matter can be handled successfully, I will ask my brother to appoint you as a knight to protect the country."

October 35, 1nd year of the Han calendar

During this period, envoys from the Han Dynasty in the East returned to their country one after another. They brought with them various silks, sugar, tea, mirrors, and spices from the Han Dynasty, causing a frenzy throughout the Mediterranean.

Among them, the travel notes about the Han Dynasty written by envoys from various countries were snatched up by nobles and merchants from various countries. The Han Dynasty had become a hot spot in the entire Mediterranean region. Anything related to the Han Dynasty would be snatched up. From nobles to civilians in the Mediterranean region, everyone was discussing the giant country in the East. The "Travel Notes of the Han Dynasty" written by Greek scholars was the most popular, and it was sold out in all Mediterranean countries.

At the same time, the knowledge of the various schools of thought in the Han Dynasty was also translated into local languages ​​by these Greek and Macedonian scholars. As a result, the knowledge of the various schools of thought spread wildly along the Mediterranean line, triggering heated discussions and studies among all Greek scholars.

Rome, Senate.

The three hundred Roman senators gathered here unprecedentedly. They all came to listen to Apatius' news about the Battle of Dayuan. Rather than hearing about the wealthy Han Dynasty, they preferred to hear about the war between the two giants, the Han and the Huns.

"That is to say, the Huns suffered an unprecedentedly tragic defeat, and the devilish old Chanyu also died on the battlefield." Senator Maxius asked with a serious face.

Given the current relationship between Rome and the Huns, although there has not been a head-on confrontation yet, the Romans obviously do not want to have to face a country more powerful than the Seleucid Empire after having just kicked it out of the throne of the Mediterranean overlord. This is why the Romans want to support Parthia. If the Mesopotamian Empire is unified, then the overlord of the Mesopotamian Empire will definitely attack the Mediterranean front line. This has been verified in the ancient Persian period. They do not want to face a new overlord of the Mesopotamia.

The Huns suffered a crushing defeat, especially the death of the terrifying old Chanyu, which was a great thing for Rome. However, if the Huns were defeated by an empire that was ten times stronger than the Huns, this was not what Rome wanted to see. Reality is not a game where bosses are stronger than one another. The physical experience of this game is not good. The Huns were already so strong that Rome could not bear it. It would take another empire ten times stronger than the Huns to appear.

Apatius nodded and said, "I saw with my own eyes that 50,000 elite Huns were defeated in one day. The Han army's muskets and artillery were more powerful than those of the Huns. They also had a kind of hot air balloon that could float in the air and monitor the entire battlefield. The Han army saw every move of the Huns. The commander of the Han army's attack on the Huns was called Han Xin, a duke of the Han Dynasty."

Apatius was worried that the senators would not understand, so he said, "Because the territory of the Han Dynasty is too vast, ten times larger than the Mediterranean Sea, even the emperor of the Han Dynasty would find it difficult to directly rule such a vast area. The dukes are the assistants of the emperor. They help the emperor of the Han Dynasty rule the vast empire. There are only ten such dukes in the Han Dynasty. This duke named Han Xin, in addition to being the military supervisor of the Han Dynasty, also has a principality that is not inferior to that of Rome."

"Wow!" The senators present exclaimed in amazement. Rome was already a hegemon in the Mediterranean. It was hard for them to believe that there were ten Romes in one empire. How huge would such an empire be? How powerful would the emperor who ruled such a huge empire be?

However, this war between Han and Xiongnu showed them a bit of the authority of the Han emperor. The old Chanyu, who was known as the king of kings in the Mesopotamian region, lost his life at the command of the Han emperor. He was just like a god-king in mythology.

Roman Consul Lucius frowned and asked, "Are the muskets and artillery we purchased from the Han army the same?"

Apatius shook his head and said, "We bought flintlock rifles like the Huns. Although this type of rifle shoots fast, it is not accurate. The Han people's musket is a newly developed rifle called the Trinity Rifle. Not only is the firing rate twice that of the flintlock rifle, but it is also very accurate. It can hit the enemy at a distance of 200 steps, while the Huns' flintlock rifles have to reach 30 steps. The Huns were defeated at this distance of more than 100 steps."

The Roman elders were dissatisfied and said, "We have just acquired our weapons and we are already outdated?"

Although Rome was not like the New Rome of later generations, where weapons could not fight without generation gaps, no one wanted their new weapons to be outdated, especially since these were not like cold weapons. The gap in combat effectiveness between firearms and cold weapons was much greater.

Apatius said: "If Rome wants to be strong and become a giant country like the Huns and the Han Dynasty, it must have its own factories, various meritorious officials, textile factories to make money, steel mills, and arsenals to build artillery and muskets. I heard that the steel mills of the Han Dynasty produce up to 260 million tons of steel every year, and even the Huns have more than tons."

"Tons?" The Roman senators had obviously never heard of this unit.

Apatius said: "One ton is equivalent to 40 talents. Converted to our Roman units, the Han Dynasty can produce 1 million talents of steel a year, and even the Huns can produce 600 million talents."

"Ah!" The Roman senators exclaimed in shock. The steel production capacity of Rome was not even one ten-thousandth of that of the Han Dynasty. In this era, steel was national strength. If calculated in this way, Rome did not even have one ten-thousandth of the national strength of the Han Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)