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"Uncle, where did you get this ostrich?" Zhou Fan asked with some curiosity. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Ma Teng couldn't help but froze, but he immediately remembered it, and replied: "I bought it from a small merchant, saying that it came from the Rest Empire, by the way, Yuanyang, do you know what this Rest Empire is?" ”

"Hey, rest in peace!" Zhou Fan couldn't help but be a little surprised, but there was also a hint of surprise on his face.

Although Zhou Fan didn't know much about the Rest Empire, he had at least heard of it.

The Anxib Empire has always been known as one of the four major empires in Asia and Europe along with the Roman Empire, the Kushan Empire, and the Han Dynasty, and this alone is enough to show the strength of the Anxi Empire.

The Anxi Empire is located on the Silk Road between the Han Dynasty and Rome, and in terms of time, it is about the same as the existence time of the Han Dynasty, which appeared a few decades earlier than the Han Dynasty, but it was a few years later than the Han Dynasty, and it was one of the few empires at that time.

In fact, the Han Dynasty and the Anxi Empire are more or less connected, in the past, Zhang Qian went out of the fortress, although he couldn't help but open up a Silk Road for the Han Dynasty, but in fact, Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions, looking for the then Dayue Clan, which was part of the Anxi Empire, to seek unity, trying to fight against the Xiongnu Empire at that time, but unfortunately it was rejected in the end.

The Rest Empire can become one of the four major empires, and its strength is naturally not weak.

At that time, it had a population of more than 10 million, although it was not as good as the 50 million population and more than 100,000 troops in the heyday of the Han Dynasty, but it also had hundreds of thousands of troops.

But if you really want to talk about it, the Han Dynasty in its heyday was definitely the first of the four empires, followed by the Roman Empire, the Rest Empire, and finally the Kushan Empire, which only had a population of four or five million.

But the big **** has always been such a strange country, and when it is unified, it will be awesome and about to go to heaven. It's like the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and other periods, but once there is civil strife, it will be weak and pitiful.

And now we are in this period. There was such a big turmoil at the end of the Han Dynasty, and the strength of the Han Dynasty naturally declined greatly, and now I am afraid that it is no longer comparable to the Roman Empire of the same period, but compared to the rest and Guishan, I believe it is still slightly better. At least with the strength of Zhou Fan's current command, he already has this confidence.

However, fortunately, the Rest Empire has never had much contradiction with the Han Dynasty, but it was fighting with the Roman Empire at that time, and in recent years, the connection between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions has been much less, and it is normal for Ma Teng not to know that the Rest Empire is not clear.

The relationship between the Anxi Empire and the Han Dynasty has always been good, and before the connection was broken, there was trade between the two sides, and the Anxi Empire often sent some strange animals to the Han Dynasty.

It's like a lion, the original Han Dynasty definitely didn't have it, but a long time ago, the Anxi Empire paid tribute to the Han Dynasty a lot of lions. And the lion that Zhou Fan caught near Jizhou a few years ago may not have been outcast and bred at that time.

What Zhou Fan didn't know was that in fact, ostriches were not unique to Africa, and there were also ostriches in Asia.

There is a description in the "Guangzhi" of Guo Yigong, a native of the Jin Dynasty, "Rest in peace the national tribute sparrow." The goose has a camel's hoof, pale, with a head seven or eight feet high, wings and barley. Its eggs are like urns, and its name is an ostrich. ”

"Tang Shu Tocharian Biography" "Tocharo, the first year of Yongzheng dedicated a big bird, seven feet high. Black, legged camels, wings flapped, three hundred miles a day, can be iron, commonly known as ostrichos. ”

And this Tocharo. That is, the name of a tribe, which is actually the descendants of the former Sabbath Empire.

It can be seen that there were many ostriches in the original Rest Empire, but at this time in history, there may have been no tribute, or perhaps there has been no record, so there is not much understanding.

And now that Zhou Fan has the heart to collect animals unique to other countries, it is not surprising that Ma Teng can get ostriches.

"This Rest Empire is a huge empire on the Silk Road in the past, and its strength is not weak, at least it can be as big as half a big man." Zhou Fan explained.

"In addition to our big Han, there are other countries?" Ma Chao looked at Zhou Fan with wide eyes, his face a little surprised.

Hearing this, the others couldn't help but show a somewhat playful smile, this Ma Chao, the question he asked was really idiotic enough.

Ma Teng also covered his face a little unbearably, how could he have such a simple-minded son, but fortunately, his limbs are still developed, well, his face is also handsome, otherwise he would really have no face to see people.

Zhou Fan laughed twice and said: "Meng Qi, you don't think that there is only one country in the whole world, not to mention that there are some countries that are not weak and our Han Dynasty, let's just say that the Western Regions is a lot of small countries, there are not a hundred, then it is estimated that there are seventy or eighty." ”

Ma Chao was also stunned, and then realized that he had made a mistake, how could he not know that there were other countries, and hurriedly explained: "My lord, you misunderstood, I mean that in addition to our Han, there are countries that can be comparable to our Han." ”

Zhou Fan nodded, this question was okay, and explained: "In addition to this Rest Empire, there is also a Kushan Empire, but the strength of this empire is weaker than the rest Empire. However, if you go a little further along the Silk Road, there is a larger Roman Empire there, and the comprehensive strength is not weaker than our Han Dynasty at all. ”

Hearing this, let alone Ma Chao, even Zhou Yu and others smashed their mouths, and their faces were full of shock.

If Zhou Fan didn't lock it, how would they know that in the far west, there were still three such powerful empires, and their knowledge was really too shallow.

"Then will these countries ......," Ma Teng asked with some hesitation.

Zhou Fan smiled, he didn't know what Ma Teng was worried about, and said: "Uncle, don't worry, those three empires are thousands of miles away from us, not to mention that they are not peaceful between them, and there is constant civil strife, where will they come all the way to attack our big Han." ”

When the Roman Empire was at its strongest, it spanned three continents in Europe, Asia and Africa, but it never attacked the big ****, why is this, but it is not because it is too far.

In this era of difficult transportation, this grain and grass is the biggest problem, it is estimated that they have not been able to attack the other party, so they will starve themselves to death first, after all, this is not the era of convenient transportation in later generations, there are too many restrictions.

"That's good!" Hearing this, Ma Teng breathed a sigh of relief first, he was really afraid that they had not yet calmed down internally, and there were already enemies outside to covet them. (To be continued.) )