Kang Jing was taken aback, hurriedly prostrated on the ground, and kowtowed again and again: "Your Majesty, the minister does not dare to deceive, if anyone wants to be unfavorable to the Queen Mother, the minister will be the first to fight with him!" ”

All the ministers knelt down together, all with pious faces, and made the same oath as Kang Jing.

These people are all nobles of Kangju, and in their eyes, the Cleya sisters were originally just slaves, and in order to maintain peace, they can naturally make sacrifices.

Liu Xin also understood their thoughts, as long as they maintained respect for the mother and son of the class thief, Liu Xin would not embarrass them, just nodded lightly and said, "Get up." I tell you one thing, Dahan is also close to Kangju now, how can it be said that the whip is beyond the reach of the whip? Don't worry, with the big man here, no one can bully Kangju! Throw out the Parthian messengers, and let them tell Ardaban that the Queen Mother Kangju is about to celebrate her birthday, and ask him to send his daughter over to the Queen Mother as a gift! ”

Kang Jing and the others still don't believe it, there is still a Dawan between Dahan and Kangju, and Dawan is also a more powerful existence than Kangju. These Parthian envoys brought news that Dawan had become hostile to the Han Dynasty, which made them afraid. However, listening to Liu Xin's meaning, it seems that Dahan has destroyed Dawan.

Ban Thief was very angry, and said angrily: "What are you doing on your knees!" Get up, a bunch of unproductive things! Let me tell you, there is no Dawan country anymore, and Dawan has been completely incorporated into the territory of Dahan! Do you need to be afraid of Parthia? ”

In fact, when she left Khotan at noon today, Ban Thief already knew the news. However, she was in a hurry to meet Liu Xin at that time, and she had not had time to report the situation to her ministers.

That night, Liu Xin stayed in the Kangju Palace, and the ministers of Kangju also knew the secret relationship between Liu Xin and Ban Bao'er, and of course they also knew that it only took one day for the Han to completely destroy the Dawan Kingdom. These Kangju nobles are now both respectful and afraid of Liu Xin, and they respect that with the backer of the Great Han, they will no longer have to worry about the threat of Parthia in the future, and they are afraid that one day Kangju will also fall to the same fate as Dawan.

The same thought exists in Ban Thief's mind. After a night of entertainment, Ban Thief lay in Liu Xin's arms and asked faintly: "The Han people have a story called False Journey, if you want to conquer Daqin now, will you also take the opportunity to destroy our Kangju like you did with Dawan?" ”

Liu Xin Zhengse said: "I already feel a lot of debt to your mother and son. Kangju is your own family business, how can I come to rob it? ”

Seeing Liu Xin's solemn face, Ban Steal'er couldn't help laughing, and said coquettishly: "Okay, don't be so serious, people tease you, can you still be trusted?" ”

Liu Xin shook his head and said, "You reprimanded them at the city gate today and talked too much, I'm worried that they won't be able to stand it and rise up to resist." ”

"Afraid of what? Fare in my hand! Ben said nonchalantly, "Besides, isn't there still you?" If it really doesn't work, our mother and son will go to Chang'an to seek refuge with you, I'm afraid that you won't recognize our mother and son at that time. ”

Liu Xin said happily: "Really, I can't ask for it." ”

Ban Thief said: "If I went to Chang'an with you, would it still be me?" I'm not going anywhere, as long as you have our mother and son in your heart. ”

As he spoke, the sky was already bright. Ban Thief was tired and didn't know when she had fallen asleep. But Liu Xin couldn't sleep, he got up in his clothes and looked at Dongfang silently.

This time it was originally just a dispute between the Great Han and the Great Qin, and it had nothing to do with the surrounding countries. Great Qin wantonly slaughtered Han merchants, and as an emperor, of course he wanted to punish his teachers and seek justice for his people. If it is unrealistic to say that there is no relationship at all, the Han army will always have to borrow through these countries when it goes north.

But some things happened one after another, and there was a hint of conspiracy. Mozhiti has always been friendly with the Han, but he was suddenly overthrown, and the newly appointed Artike put on a posture of wanting to cut off relations with the Han. At this time, Caracalla proposed to marry Ardaban's daughter, and Ardaban put pressure on Kangju by asking for Sister Cleya, coupled with the recent disturbances of Wusun and Guishan. All of this is interlocking, and it indicates that there is a huge trap waiting for Liu Xin in the future.

Fortunately, Liu Xin's actions were fast enough and his methods were ruthless enough, and he destroyed Dawan in one day, ensuring the smooth passage between the Uzberi fortress and the Han concession in Parthia, otherwise there was really a possibility that someone would cut off the retreat.

Today's Great Qin is no longer the era of Putimius, who only knows how to conquer the world by force, Caracalla actually knows how to use the tactics of combining vertical and horizontal, so that Liu Xin has to re-examine this powerful opponent.

While Liu Xin was thinking hard about what other conspiracy Caracalla was, the city of Susa was already in chaos.

Under pressure from Liu Xin, Putimius had to return Ctesiphon to Parthia, which regained its position as Parthia's capital. But this time, instead of following in his father's footsteps, Ardaban chose to stay in the city of Susa.

In the war that ended not long ago, the Han army's devastating offensive left a deep impression on Ardaban. He had realized that in order to become the future king of Parthia, it was more important to have a powerful army of his own than to have his father's support.

So, when Vologis returned to Ctesiphon, Ardaban found a reason to stay in Susa. He knew very well that only by getting out of the sight of Vologis could he do whatever he wanted and develop his strength unscrupulously.

If you want to build an army that is loyal to you, it is not so simple, and you need to have strong financial resources to support it. Fortunately, the city of Susa was not affected by the war, and the local trade was still thriving, providing Ardaban with a lot of tax revenue, which is why Ardaban chose to stay here.

However, it is not enough to have money, but also to be able to buy enough armor. Of the 300,000 pairs of armor that the Han deducted from the rent last time, 100,000 were given to Arshak, Vologis himself left 50,000 pairs to form a guard, and the remaining 150,000 pairs were given to Ardaban, but he lost them in the war.

In desperation, Ardaban sent people to the concession to find Jia Xu and offered to collect ten years' rent in advance, which was also deducted by the Han with military armor. Who knows, Jia Xu refused. If you want armor, you can buy it with money, as long as you have money, you can buy as much as you want!

It's not that Ardaban doesn't have money in his hands, but his money still needs to be used to recruit soldiers, buy food, and if he buys armor, it will be a bit stretched.

At this time, Caracalla suddenly sent an envoy to contact Ardaban, willing to help him free of charge, but also made a condition that Ardaban was somewhat embarrassed, that is, Aldaban must marry his daughter Tagina to him.

Ardaban has two sons and three daughters, and Tagina is his youngest daughter, who is only thirteen years old this year. However, although Tagina is only thirteen years old, the interracial girl develops early, and she looks like a slim girl, coupled with her delicate face and white skin, she is already a famous little beauty in Parthia.

Originally, it was common for girls to marry at the age of twelve or thirteen in Parthia. It's just that Ardaban loves this little daughter the most, and secondly, Caracalla is a few years older than him, so Ardaban didn't agree.

Who knows, Caracalla was determined to marry Tagina, and sent secret envoys several times to urge him, and finally simply issued an ultimatum, if Aldaban refused to agree, he chose to cooperate with Arshak.

It turned out that when Ptimius captured Ctesiphon a few years ago, not only Vologis's concubines and daughters were taken prisoner, but also the wives and daughters of many Parthian nobles, including several wives and concubines of Ardaban, as well as his eldest daughter Caroline and second daughter Stasia. While Ptimius was sharing the spoils, Caracalla picked the sisters.

Caracalla was not short of women around him, but it was the royal girls of the alien race who were the most loved by him. Caracalla attended banquets and gladiatorial matches, taking the sisters with him and boasting about their beauty to those around him.

When the people wanted to curry favor with Caracalla, they inevitably praised them a few times, and said things like Parthia made beautiful women. Unexpectedly, a Great Qin nobleman was not convinced, and pulled out a newly acquired Greek beauty, and compared the two sisters.

At this time, the two sisters had already left behind the hatred of the country, afraid of losing Caracalla's favor, and even boasted of the beauty of their little sister Tagina in front of Caracalla, saying that there is heaven and earth, like the first beauty in the world. Hearing this, Caracalla's heart was itching, and he longed to fly to Parthia now to hug the beauty and save his face. It's just that Daqin and Parthia have always been at odds, and Tagina is the daughter of Ardaban and the granddaughter of Vologis, and Caracalla has to sigh with joy.

People are not as good as heaven. In order to deal with the Great Han, Caracalla tried his best to gather all forces, including Parthia. He sent three missions to contact Vologis, Arshak and Aldaban respectively, but Vologis did not care about political affairs for a long time, Arshak was quite disgusted with Daqin, and only Ardaban expressed his intention to cooperate. Moreover, Caracalla found that Aldaban urgently needed the support of Great Qin, so he made such a condition and used it as a threat.

Although this move is not clever, it just pokes at the weakness of Aldaban. His strength is not as good as Arshak, and if he loses Caracalla as a strong reinforcement, he will not be able to realize the dream of the Parthian king in this life. Weighing the pros and cons, Ardaban had to reluctantly agree to marry Tagina to Caracalla, who was older than him, and according to Caracalla's instructions, he asked Kangju for Sister Claya to be a dowry. In fact, Parthia did not lack women to marry, and Caracalla's move was to force Kangju to choose a side.