The empire and Bactria are currently separated by the Western Regions, in fact, the distance between the two sides is not as far as imagined, if you strictly detect from the flat map, from the northwestern territory of the empire to Bactria is definitely not more than three thousand miles.

People don't look at a flat map when calculating the route, after all, there are many geographical locations that are not suitable for walking, so the difficulty of going straight to a certain place is much more difficult than imagined, and each person will calculate the distance according to the choice of the road to get different values.

Parthia and Bactria went round and round before entering the empire's borders, and they calculated that the distance was more than seven thousand miles. No one on the Empire's side has yet tried to get to Bactria or Parthia, and the calculation of the distance is still a blind spot.

Lu Zhe never refuted the calculations of Parthia and Bactria, which included ideas that were not necessary, and most importantly, he had already regarded the two countries as countries that would inevitably invade, and did not want to think that unnecessary things would make the two countries alarmed.

The empire's recent goal is to conquer the grasslands, and the next goal is to enter the Western Regions, Lu Zhe will not substitute his modern geographical understanding into this era, more than 2,000 years of changes may not be anything to the terrain, but the northwest of the empire is mostly desert and Gobi ecology, a place in modern times may be green, but in the current era may be a desert, only field investigation is the most real.

In fact, the expansion of the Chinese nation has limitations, and the biggest limitation is the national characteristics. For example, the understanding of land is also unique to the farming people, and the Gobi and the desert have no occupation value for the farming people.

What is it simply? It is the era that the pre-Qin period of antiquity has just ended. The Chinese ethnic group is not a completely agrarian nation, and a considerable part of the nomadic habits have been retained among the ethnic groups, and this habit has the greatest influence on the people in the northern and northwest regions.

If the two Han dynasties were in the period after the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty had absolutely no intention of occupying the grasslands, and these dynasties were not without nomadic habits, but a kind of ideology that arose from the two Han dynasties.

What thoughts? It was not that the two Han Dynasty did not go deep into the steppe and occupy the steppe. However, regardless of the Western Han Dynasty or the Eastern Han Dynasty, the occupation of the grassland only gained territorial expansion, and had no actual economic value and production value at all. In some ways, the grasslands even play a role in pulling back the legs.

During the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, it was determined that the damage value of the grassland was much higher than the value of occupation, and the product of the pro-pro-policy also produced an illusion that the Hu people could be used for their own use, and the grassland became the largest to settle and belong to nomadic tribes, so as to achieve the goal of "captive" Hu people to become thugs.

The Southern Xiongnu, who were annexed at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, rebelled again. The failure of the Han Empire's "captivity" policy was proved by facts. After the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the princes fought chaotically to the collapse of the two Jin dynasties, and the Southern Xiongnu became the main force of the cholera world in the early stage.

The alien races who had been more or less helped by the Han Dynasty became gravediggers when the Central Plains Dynasty was weak, and they became the masters of the Central Plains in the dark ages of Wuhu Chaohua.

Countries need allies, and that is the stage of reducing the enemy and helping them in the moment of weakness, but the friendship between people does not last long. For countries, there is no such thing as eternal friendship.

Relatively speaking, before the advent of strategic weapons of mass destruction. The deterrence between any country only depends on whether it can remain strong for a long time, and if each other is strong, it is natural to maintain friendly relations, but once one is weak, the former allies will immediately open their bloody mouths.

In the era when there were no nuclear weapons, it was difficult for anyone to pull someone together for burial, and it was not the kind of convenient transportation where "the earth became a village", in which one country invaded one country, and the rest of the powerful countries could intervene very quickly, then the risk of strong countries invading weak countries was infinitely reduced, and strong countries were strong and easy to be strong in the continuous invasion of other countries, and countries without self-protection could only be eliminated by the cruel law of the jungle.

A strong country should constantly conquer the enemy, occupy all the land it can occupy, absorb any population it can absorb, obtain all the resources it can get, and have enough strength to ensure the eternal survival of the country.

So far, Lü Zhe does not feel that the empire needs allies, at least not long-term allies, the empire is not only vast and populous, no country in the present era has a deeper war potential than the empire, and the existence of allies is only a product of moral constraints that hinder expansion.

"Huh...... Those fools of the academic dynasties, for the vanity of having such a kingdom to come to the dynasty, gave up so many nutrients that can be eaten and digested, and those who really know how to do this kind of thing don't know how to work hard from a time-traveler to become an imperial master. Lu Zhe was listening to Apollodas in his ears, but in his heart he was thinking about the future direction of the empire.

The Kingdom of Bactria is not a powerful country in Central Asia, but the Kingdom of Bactria is by no means a weak country, but it is really not enough for the Seleucid Empire, the overlord of Central Asia, otherwise it will not come together with Parthia, Kashmir and other countries.

The Seleucid Empire was the absolute hegemon in Central Asia, and Seleucus I of the Seleucid Empire and Antiochus III were both wise kings, and successive monarchs were committed to pioneering, so that they could invade the vast territory of the Seleucid Empire.

Parthia and Bactria are actually separated from the Seleucid Empire ~ split and independent ~ from the Seleucid Empire, the two countries were separated in 245 BC during the Seleucid Empire Antiochus II period, and so far they are considered to be independent ~ 33 years of statehood.

Because Parthia and Bactria were separated from the Seleucid Empire, the Seleucid Empire was actually very hostile to Parthia and Bactria. It was only because the Seleucid Empire needed to cope with the counteroffensive of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt that the liquidation was not carried out for the time being.

If the development of the original history is followed, the Seleucid Empire will continue to defeat the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt, and the Seleucid Empire after defeating Egypt will move eastward. The army of the Seleucid Empire was still dominant in the early stage, but with the intervention of ancient Rome, the Seleucid Empire had to transfer the elite who were at war with Parita and Bactria in the east to the west, and the Seleucid Empire was also defeated by Ancient Rome, and was finally divided between Ancient Rome and the Parthian Empire.

The current Seleucid Empire is not only a behemoth, but also the absolute hegemon of Central Asia, whether it is Parthia or Bactria, they dare not provoke the Seleucid Empire. However, both countries knew that sooner or later they would be liquidated by the Seleucid Empire, and from the moment they were founded, they were like someone behind them with a horsewhip and a whip to expand and strengthen them.

In the past thirty-three years, Parthia has defeated and annexed many countries and ethnic groups. But it was Bactria that got more.

From the time Theodotus I proclaimed the independence of the Kingdom of Bactria~, in thirty-three years from nothing, Bactria defeated and annexed far more enemies than Tiridates I, who ruled Parthia.

No country would dislike that its territory was too large, and to the west of the Kingdom of Bactria was the Parthian Empire. The alliance between the two countries made it clear that the Kingdom of Bactria would not be able to expand westward until relations with the Parthian Empire were broken. Then if the kingdom of Bactria has ambitions for the land, it can only choose to go east or south.

To the south of the Kingdom of Bactria is Indochina, near the Kingdom of Bactria are Kashmir and Araksia, at present Kashmir is an ally of the Kingdom of Bactria, although Alaksia is not an ally of the Kingdom of Bactria, but Araksia and Kashmir are allies, and the allies of the allies are obviously not good to fight before the Kingdom of Bactria does not plan to fall out with Kashmir.

To the south of the Kingdom of Bactria lies the borders of the Kingdom of Bactria, in addition to Alaksia and Kashmir, Palpasemes and Rakshashira. Palpasimas has a lot of ties with Alaksia and Kashmir, but it is an ally with a powerful country in the south. If the Kingdom of Bactria doesn't want to provoke a behemoth, it's best not to move a little finger of Palepamaises.

That behemoth is the most powerful country in Indochina at present, the Mauryan Empire, which dominates the vast territory of India. Although the Kingdom of Bactria was separated from the Seleucid Empire ~split and independent~, it seems that it is a legacy of Alexander the Great's invasion of the East.

The former emperor Alexander the Great had a black head in the face of the Mauryan Empire, as the Bactrian Kingdom that claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great, it really did not have too strong confidence to be the enemy of the Mauryan Empire, so the repeated trade-offs could only turn their eyes to the east.

Several countries worried that the Seleucid Empire would settle Egypt and liquidate their armies eastward, and for almost three years they continued to invade eastward, defeating and destroying many countries and tribes that could and could not be named, and finally stepped on the land that Lü Zhe named the Western Regions.

There were almost 50,000 coalition troops of various countries, and when they just entered the Western Regions, they encountered a head-on attack from the Wusun people, and the long-distance and exhausted coalition army was defeated by the 100,000 cavalry army gathered by Wusun in just one face.

If history had not deviated, the coalition forces that had failed once would not be discouraged, and they would have made a new build-up, and several countries had gathered an army of about 130,000 to rush to the Western Regions again, and then they were defeated by the Wusun and the Otsuki clan together.

The second defeat made the Parthian and Bactrian states finally understand that the east was not a piece of fat, but rather an iron plate that could break teeth, but they did not give up completely, and just as the Third Coalition was about to be formed, the movements on the side of the Seleucid Empire forced these countries to turn back to fight against it.

"So, there is a country called Seleucus to the west, and their homeland is hostile to that country?"

"Yes, Your Majesty the Emperor, we have always been in a state of hostility with Seleucus."

"So Seleucus is now at war with the Egyptians, and you want to increase your strength before the outcome of the war between Seleucus and Egypt, and all preparations are for the purpose of fighting this country called Seleucus?"

"Your understanding is correct, all our efforts are aimed at continuing to survive the upcoming war with Seleucids. So, we entered the Western Regions to gain access to the population that had fled from the west, at least until we knew of your country's existence. ”

"Now your idea is to open up trade routes, exchange what you have, and better prepare for the war with the Seleucids before the outbreak of the war?"

"Yes, you understand absolutely correctly, what we need is more resources, more resources that can be used for war, than the claim for land."

A war between Parthia, Bactria, and the Seleucid Empire was bound to break out, and once the war was first placed, it could only be stopped by the elimination of one of the sides, which was the idea of Parthia and Bactria, the weaker side so far.

Miras and Apollodas kept repeating the idea that whether it was Parthia or Bactria, there would be no conflict between the two countries and the empire under the rule of Lüzhe, and that the three parties would definitely achieve a win-win situation after the trade routes were opened, which would be beneficial and harmless to either side.

In fact, Lü Zhe was not worried that Parthia and Bactria had territorial ambitions for the Western Regions, and he even hoped that the two countries would be able to enter the Western Regions.

It's not that Lü Zhe needs the strength of the two countries to help the empire start a war against the Xiongnu and other Hu people, but that the closer Parthia and Bactria are to the east, the shorter the distance for the empire to enter the two countries in the future, and if the trade route is really opened, it will also be beneficial for the empire to explore the route to Central Asia.

The deeper issues are not something that can be addressed now, and today's meeting is merely a tentative.

Waiting for the envoys of the two countries to be sent away, Lu Zhe greeted the ministers who had been waiting for a long time, and Yan Bi relayed everything that had just happened.

After listening to the paraphrase, Kuaitong smiled and asked, "Can you believe their words?" ”

Yan Bi asked rhetorically: "Which aspect?" ”

Kuaitong smiled unabatedly: "It's that the current expansion and plunder are to resist the invasion of a powerful country. ”

Yan Bi replied directly: "Our tentacles are not so far away that we can't confirm it. ”

Xiao He interjected: "In fact, what's the use of studying so much, no matter how many true or false the words of the envoys of the two countries are, we will firmly implement our national policy and move forward towards the predetermined goal." ”

Kuaitong said: "That's what the ruling government says, but maybe it can be used? As for the alliance......" he said and looked at Lu Zhe.

Lu Zhe's response was the word "hehe". (To be continued......)