Chapter 36 Princess Sheba

Sheba is an ancient country. It is so old that they can't even remember how many years this country has been. Anyway, the songs sung by the poets are said to be ancient times. Even the most erudite scholars can't remember it.

But in fact, the current owner of the Kingdom of Sheba is not the original Sheba people. The Sheba people were originally from Sheba, but because they lived in Sheba, they called the kingdom that was later established. Now the Sheba people are Hemiyans. More than three hundred years ago, they defeated the Sheba people and became the new masters of Sheba.

Seba is a good place. On the desert-based Arabian Peninsula, Sheba is a place full of rain because it is close to the sea, and the Malibu dam built hundreds of years ago has accumulated valuable rain for them, turning this land into a rich place. In addition to having enough water to develop agriculture, what the Sheba people really rely on to get rich is business. Sheba is located at the southwestern end of the Arabian Peninsula (present-day Yemen) and is bordered by the Gulf of Aden. Whether it is merchants from the east to the Mediterranean or from the Mediterranean to the east, most of them choose to pick feet or exchange goods in the royal city. The Sheba people have gained a lot of wealth from it, and they have established their own The caravan bought goods from the oriental merchants who were unwilling to continue to move forward, and then used camels to transport them to the north for a long distance, even as far as the territory of the Germans and Gauls.

If sufficient rain allows them to live a stable life in the Arabian Peninsula, then business is the main way for them to live a prosperous life. The Sheba people were once proud of this and felt that they were the richest man in the world, and Tsefar was also the richest city in the world. When King Solomon became famous in the north, the queen of Sheba rushed to meet King Solomon with a rich gift. This meeting was so great that it was recorded by Christians. In their Bible.

But now Samhu, the king of Sheba? Ali? Beimu was very unhappy. He had succeeded to the throne for more than ten years. The Kingdom of Sheba has always been very good. The people's life is rich and peaceful and stable. The goods of all parties gathered in Caifar City. However, he slowly found that there are fewer and fewer merchants who have passed through Sheba in recent years, and most of them are scattered merchants, among which merchants from the Mediterranean Sea are Lord, and even if the merchants from the East rest in Caifar for a while, few people resell the goods to them. They often come to Caifal or other small towns in Sheba from the sea, rest for a while, and then return to the sea and enter the Red Sea, but they do not do business in Sheba, not to mention those lucrative silk. The spices were sold to them.

Without the goods of oriental merchants, the business of the Sheba people plummeted, and Caifar quickly showed a depressed scene. The bustling streets in the past have now become sparse. The inn that never worried about no guests has become crowded, and the camels who rely on reselling goods have gradually lost their jobs. They may go far away from home. Or disband the camel team and find another livelihood.

Samhu was very surprised. He immediately sent someone to investigate and soon found out the truth: everything was because of Han Shang.

Caifar has also been to the Han people before, but most of them are relatively small, and after arriving here, they are exhausted. In order to catch the return of the monsoon, they generally choose to resell the goods to the Shiba people, just like those Tianzhu merchants, but now it's different. They are sitting on a huge merchant ship, once. You can take a large amount of goods with you. You don't have to rush back. You can arrange your time calmly. At the same time, they also have a strong fleet protection. Pirates along the way dare not do anything to them at all. They can go all the way to the northern end of the Red Sea and transport the goods to the nearest place to the Mediterranean Sea. There is no need to resell them in Cefar, so they can make more profits. In this way, in addition to retaining the role of occasional rest, the role of trade transit has disappeared invisibly. Han merchants are large and have strong financial resources. They have mastered most of the business on this business road. They do not trade in Cefal, which is a very serious economic blow to Sheba.

What makes Sam more anxious is that those scattered Tianzhu merchants no longer trade in Tsar. They would rather take a Han boat all the way to the Mediterranean to do business. Not only can the goods be sold at a higher price, but they can also buy the cheaper Rome. The price difference between Persian goods is enough to make up for the cost of taking the Han boat, so they enjoy it one by one.

They enjoy it, but Samhu is very anxious. If it goes on like this, even if Sheba will not subjugate the country because of this, it is impossible to restore that rich life. Today, Sheba is only supported by agricultural income, and the richest commercial income has retreated to the last. It is not worth mentioning that it once flourished. The kingdom of Sheba no longer has the glory of the past, just like a pearly lady, suddenly faded her glory and showed her old age.

Knowing the reason, Sam Hu jumped with anger. He was furious, but he had no choice. First, it was natural for Han merchants to do business and pursue profits. No one stipulated that they would resell the goods to the Sheba people. Second, although Samhu was not a good family, he really wanted to rob - the Himians started their families by looting. Even the Kingdom of Sheba was robbed by them, and it was even more common for merchants to rob the merchants passing by - but he found that no matter how fast his horse was, the camel could carry the load to the distance, but he could not jump into the sea. In the face of the big ship of the Han people, they could only look at the ship and sigh. They had also organized pirates. Unfortunately, they were vicious when they came into contact with it. The extremely escort warships fought all over the ground - they didn't know how difficult it was for the Vietnam escort fleet to find a few pirates that could be regarded as opponents.

After several hardships, Samhu could only sit in the palace and curse the Han Chinese ship overturned by Poseidon, so that Sheba could regain its prosperity. However, I heard that the Romans allied with the Han people, and it is estimated that their Nephan gods will not be able to fight with the Han people.

Just when Samhu was helpless and helpless, Xia Hourong crossed the Red Sea and came to Cefal, the royal city of Sheba.

As soon as he stepped on the land of Sheba, Xia Hourong completely understood Sun Shao's intention. Sheba and Aksum are across the sea. It's so close that they can cross this narrow strait in just one day. If they can make friends with the Sheba people, when they go to war with the Sassanids in the future, it is impossible for the Sas to cross the sea from Sheba and go straight to Aksum's heart, but they can only travel long distances from the north, even their cavalry. It's very fast, and there is no sudden surname. From a strategic point of view, this is equivalent to establishing a frontier position in Sheba to block the Sassanians. From the perspective of business, making friends with the Sheba people is equivalent to an additional transit station, which is very convenient for replenishing fresh water, food and taking a break, which can greatly reduce the difficulties in supply.

Before he saw Sam Hu, Xia Hourong had an idea. He calmly came to the palace to meet him.

As soon as he heard that the Han messenger asked for a meeting, Samhu jumped up at that time, pulled out his knife and shouted to kill the Han messenger who was sent to the door to vent his anger. Fortunately, he was stopped by his favorite little daughter, Princess Adele.

Samhu has thirteen sons and four daughters. The 18-year-old Adele is the youngest and the most beautiful one. Because she loves it so much, although she has already reached the age of marriage, she has never been willing to let her get married. Adela is tall, with silk-like curly hair straight to her waist, her breasts are high, her waist is slender, her skin is white, and her face is beautiful, especially a pair of blue eyes are very vivid, and she bends like a crescent moon when she smiles. No matter how angry Samhu is, as long as he sees this little daughter, he can smile.

Adera said to Samhu that it was not too late to decide whether to kill him or not. Maybe the Han people felt that they had done something wrong and came to seek reconciliation.

Sam Hu calmed down and hummed angrily that it was rumored that Xia Hourong came in.

Xia Hourong heard Samhu's unhappiness from the tone of the messenger's waiter. He smiled and dusted off the already very clean cotton gown. The gown was cut properly, just enough to set off his strong body. Because he fought in the north for many years, his face was a little dark, but this did not affect his handsomeness. On the contrary, he was a little more masculine. And the elegance derived from the etiquette of small poems and books is even more unique among the Shiba people who advocate bravery.

He walked steadily into the palace and sat high on the throne. Sam Hushi, who was full of anger, said with a salute: "The messenger of the King of Han and Yue, the general of the North of the State of Wei, and Xiahou of Qiaojun visited the king."

Sam Hu listened to the translation of the translation and was suddenly confused. He stared at Xia Hourong for a long time, opened his mouth several times, and finally couldn't help asking, "Who are you? Is it a Han, a Wei, a Yue, or a Qiao county?

Xia Hourong smiled gently, waved his hand to the cold sweaty interpreter next to him, and said it in fluent Romanization. Sheba and Rome were too close to each other, and they were not unfamiliar with Romanese at all. After listening to Xia Hourong's explanation, Samhu patted his forehead: "You Han people are so troublesome. You have confused me for a long time. You are not only Han people, a Wei people, a member of Qiao County, and a messenger of King Yue."

Xia Hourong smiled and said, "Your Majesty."

When Xia Hourong came in, Adela's eyes had never left Xia Hourong. Xia Hourong's demeanor completely attracted her mind. Hearing Xia Hourong's fluent Romanization, her eyes suddenly lit up. The thick baritone seemed to hit her heart every word, beating her heart. A touch of bright red unexpectedly floated on the cheek of Bullying Frost Saixue.

"The messenger speaks Roman dialect." Adela blurted out praise.

"Exaggerate." Xia Hourong bowed to the court very gentlemanly: "Do you dare to ask the king, what is this beautiful girl?"

"She is my daughter." Samhu found that Adela's expression was wrong, and he couldn't help frowning involuntarily. Then he looked at Xia Hourong with a little more vigilance. As a father, he sensed a trace of crisis. Before Xia Hourong could ask again, he raised his voice and asked, "What are you doing here?" You Han people are so abominable that you monopolize the business and almost squeeze out the way of my Sheba people. Do you dare to come to me, aren't you afraid that I will kill you?"

Xia Hourong looked at Samhu and smiled and said no words. Samhu was a little guilty, but he refused to admit defeat. He had to pretend to be angry and stared back at Xia Hourong with a beard. Xia Hourong grinned: "If the king thinks that killing me can solve the problem of Sheba, I am very willing to sacrifice my life for the king and the people of Sheba."

"Well, I'll kill you now." Samhu stood up loudly and raised his hand to call the warrior outside the palace in. Adele looked at it and quickly grabbed him and said anger, "Father, what's the use of killing him? If you kill him, can you make those merchants come back to Tsfar? Besides, have you forgotten that he is the messenger of the King of Yue? The king of Yue destroyed the state of Funan for two merchants.

Sam turned his eyes in anger and sat on the throne dejectedly. He was not a fool. Of course, he knew that it was useless to kill Xia Hourong. He just wanted to say a few harsh words to scare Xia Hourong and relieve his anger. Unexpectedly, Xia Hourong was not scared, and his precious daughter was born. It's really frustrating to be out of the mind.

"Your envoy, please say that my father is just joking with you. Please don't mind." Adele turned her face and said pleasantly to Xia Hourong. Xia Hourong bowed and said, "Thank you, princess, but I believe the king will not do any harm to me. After all, I came with kindness. His Royal Highness the King of Yue heard that the king was in good governance, and the people lived and worked in peace and well. He had great respect for the king, so he sent me to discuss cooperation with the king. He paused and smiled, "We Han people have a saying that distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. Now Aksumm is already the territory of my Han Dynasty. Sheba is our close neighbor across the sea. We are very willing to be a harmonious neighbor with the king."

Samhu became interested. He sat up straight with his eyes and said repeatedly, "Say it, say it quickly."

Xiahou Rong said Sun Shao's conditions in an orderly manner, hoping that Samhu could use Sheba as a transit base for a huge Han Chinese fleet to provide food, accommodation and rest for the past merchants and escort fleets. In return, Sun Shao gave part of the business share deep into the Arab interior to the Sheba people. Priority will be given to the purchase of horses and camels provided by the Sheba people, and when hiring manpower, priority will also be given to the Sheba people and so on.

Sam Hu smiled, and the haze in his heart was swept away. Looking at Xia Hourong again, his eyes were obviously much more friendly, and even his daughter's obvious eyebrows were not so angry. He ordered a banquet for Xia Hourong to discuss the details further. Xia Hourong is good-looking and talented, and brings such good luck to Sheba. Maybe he is still worthy of his daughter.

Xia Hourong stayed in Caifar for a few days, and finally returned to Aksum with some of Samhu's requirements. Some of Samhu's conditions were beyond the scope of what Sun Shao had told him in advance, but after turning around Caifal, he found that Sheba had great potential to dig, so he did not refuse and brought it back to let Sun Shao consider. .

After listening to Xia Hourong's narration, Sun Shao pondered for a while: "Is Shiba really so important?"

"Yes." Xia Hourong nodded affirmatively: "Shiba's agriculture is very developed. Their Malibu dam has been used for hundreds of years, and now it is still in good condition, which makes people sigh. If they can be cultivated as intensively as the State of Yue, their grain production can be further increased. It is not a problem to supply 70,000 to 80,000 troops in the long term. They now have more than 30,000 standing troops, that is to say, they have left us a margin of 30,000 people.

Sun Shao nodded repeatedly.

"In addition, the Sheba people are brave and good at fighting. Many people often come and go in the desert. They are very familiar with the terrain of the desert and are the best guides. At the same time, they also like to plunder. If they go to war with the Sassanids, organize them, and disturb the Sassanids, it will be a nightmare for the Sassans. As long as they can stick to it for a period of time, these Sheba people may break down.

Sun Shao looked at the elopped Xia Hourong and noticed the change in his expression when he mentioned Princess Sheba, Adela. When he finished speaking, he suddenly asked, "Why do you know so much about Sheba? Did Princess Adela tell you?"

"Yes...yes." Before Xia Hourong finished speaking, he found that his mind had been broken by Sun Shao, and he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

"A man should get married, and a woman should get married. This is a good marriage." Sun Shao smiled and said, "You said that Shiba is so important. It seems that I can't agree. However, we can't take advantage of the Sheba people for nothing. Take a break. I'll send someone else to marry Princess Adela to you, and I'll agree to their terms.

"This...isn't it appropriate?" Xia Hourong was surprised and happy.

"Suitable." Sun Shao patted Xia Hourong on the shoulder: "You're right. Being able to make friends with the Shiba people is a good thing that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for us. Why do I choose to use alliance instead of conquest? It is because the soft is more effective than the hard one. Of course, no matter when it comes, the hard hand can't be released. If the soft one doesn't work, it will be hard, otherwise it will be treated as a big mistake by others. Although it is not as profitable as conquering, it is safer to compare it in detail. Even without you, I would have a contact with the Sheba people. It's not bad to earn an extra princess.

He paused and suddenly turned to Xia Hourong and said, "You Quan, do you think it's feasible for you, as my special envoy, to stay in the city of Tsfar and preside over the military affairs here?"

Xia Hourong was shocked and shook his head repeatedly: "Your Highness, how can I bear such an important responsibility? You'd better choose virtuous people.

"Sageous?" Sun Shao said to the corner of his mouth: "Who else can be more virtuous than you? Don't doubt yourself. I can tell you that although this is not a grassland, it is very important to build a strong cavalry to be strong here. The sub-text is the most suitable candidate, but he doesn't like political affairs. I'm worried that he is too strong and has a bad relationship with these people. If you can be good with Adela for a hundred years, it will be logical to sit in Shiba. Maybe he can still be the king of Sheba in the future. At that time, won't Shiba become the territory of our Han people?

"I'm from Wei." Xia Hourong was surprised and happy, but he also reminded him with some worries.

"The Wei people are also Han people." Sun Shao stared at him unhappily: "Do you think you are not a Han man?"

"Of course not." Xia Hourong smiled awkwardly and said, "I'm just worried that others will gossip a lot."

"Don't worry so much." Sun Shao laughed and said, "If you want to deal with Sashan, it is not what I can bear. Lu Xun was originally a general of the State of Wu, but he has been pulled over by me. What about you, the general of Peking University in the State of Wei and Ziwen? It is the cavalry general of my Han Dynasty. In addition to me, the king of Yue, we are also a multi-party alliance. If you really want to deal with Sasanne, your majesty will definitely reward you for meritorious deeds. It is not impossible to reward you with a Shebahou or something. What's the point of staying in the State of Wei? The Xianbei people have been dealt with by you. There will be no great contributions in northern Xinjiang for at least 20 years. There is also General Cao Zijian on the western line. You, the general of Zhenbei, have no business to do.

Xia Hourong thought for a moment and smiled strangely: "Your Majesty, although the Arab place is vast, there are only a few places where the real land is fertile. If you give me Sheba first, won't other generals in Vietnam have any problem? Do you give them the barren desert?

"You don't have to worry about this." Sun Shao said confidently, "I have enough land to reward them. As for the desert, I have to keep it myself. They are reluctant to give it to me."

"Then I'm disrespectful."

"Wait, I haven't finished my words yet. There is no such good thing as a beauty and a piece of land in the world. Listen to me. After you sit in Sheba, you should use the Sheba people to gradually develop to the north, conquer the coast of the Red Sea in turn, and open up the passage to Sassan. Now we are just in the layout, and we don't have the strength to compete with the Sassanians face to face, but this day will come sooner or later, and even one day, we will have to share with the Romans. Sun Shao put away his smile: "This is not an overnight thing. It may take ten years, maybe 50 years, maybe hundreds of years, but there are some things we have to start doing now. In addition, this is just our plan. The things in the world are not as good as eighteen or nineteen. We have the heart to seek people, and people also have the heart to seek me. Aldahir's generation of heroes, we should prevent him from preempting. Do you understand that Shiba should be built into a pedal that can be attacked and defended, the Ruxu dock in the Arabian Sea?

Xia Hourong responded with a positive tone: "I understand."

Sun Shao immediately sent someone to Caifar City to negotiate with Samhu. When he heard that Xia Hourong could stay in Caifar City for a long time, Adela did not have to leave himself. Samhu finally put down his last trace of worry. He agreed to Sun Shao's conditions with satisfaction and decided to build a new castle outside Tsfar City as Xia Hourong. The place to live with Adela after marriage. As soon as the news came out that Xia Hourong would marry Princess Sheba, the merchants along the way were very happy. They went outside the palace to congratulate Princess Adela. Samhu was so happy that he smiled all day long when he saw the swarm of merchants.

Just when Samhu was happy, Aldahir was exposed. He, who was preparing to requisition Armenia, suddenly received a report that there was a serious shortage of their weapons, and the recruited mercenaries were unwilling to sell him again because they could not get enough weapons. After further investigation, he found that this was actually a good thing done by the Yue people and the Guishuang people. They coincidentally interrupted the supply of Uzi iron. The Sasans had good craftsmen, but they suffered from the forging of no iron. Many skilled craftsmen left Taixifeng one after another and went to Tianzhu and Funan with the Yue merchant ships to make a living.

At the same time, a similar situation occurred in the Roman-controlled city of Damascus. The Roman emperor Alexander urgently ordered Quintus to go to Aksum to see Sun Shao, the king of Yue.

(to be continued)