"The golden water (Zeravshan River) is the bridge to the world."

This is a sentence that the Sogdians who lived on both sides of this river believed in. Their hometowns connected India in the south, Persia in the west and the "Seris" in the east, and the country of silk.

But this land also moved between various empires and forces: the first to control the place was the Persian Empire, then Alexander and Seleucus among the successors, and later the Great Xia (Bactraya) became independent and extended its power into Sogdian.

Decades ago, the westward migration of the Great Yuezhi triggered a series of great ethnic migrations. The Yuezhi people and the Sai people rushed over like a tide and destroyed the Great Xia. However, the five Sogdian city-states on the Jinshui also miraculously survived, and paid tribute to the Yuezhi and Kangju in exchange for protection.

Now, after the nominal master of Sogdian King Dayuezhi hurriedly returned south, the lords of the five cities of Sogdian gathered in Suza (Samarkand) and held a meeting to determine the fate of the Sogdians at the invitation of the city lord Shibodao.

Samarkand is located in the oldest and most prosperous city of the Sogdians. The Sogdians who are good at doing business built this into a beautiful small city. The walls surrounded the inner city where the nobles lived, while the outer city of the handmade area was outside the city wall, and in the suburbs were cemeteries where special funerals were held. The main materials of the building were mud bricks and wood. The aristocrats' residences were often two or three floors high and decorated with Zoroastrian murals.

Five gorgeously dressed Sogdian nobles sat cross-legged on the Binbin blanket, whispering to each other.

They all have short hair flush or middle part on their foreheads, steep hats with pearls or rubies inlaid, round neck tight silk robe, hem rim decoration, length over the knee, and cloak tied to their chests with gold jewelry. The boots are pointed and pearls are embedded on them.

The fat old man in the long robe with a bead pattern was Shi Bodao. More than ten years have passed, and he has transformed from the original caravan leader "Ssabao" and has become the lord of Samarkand.

Thanks to Ren Piqi's support, Sogdian is a polite businessman. The boy was educated at the age of five. When he became an adult, he had to leave his family and make a living by doing business and travel around abroad. The Sogdians' more powerful methods were also very rude, just to compare who had more money.

The Sogdians had the custom of Chen Bao fighting for wealth. During the gathering, everyone sitting there took out the treasures they brought around and fought for each other. Those with many treasures would wear hats and sit on the seat, and the rest were divided into the amount of wealth.

The city lord was also chosen in this way. After all, the richest people could bring the Sogdians in the city to make a fortune. After the old city lord died, those who were interested in competing would invite the Sogdians in the city to have dinner and drink. Shi Bodao won by inviting a thousand households in the city to one piece of silk. He himself did not have such a large amount of capital, and most of the silk was funded by the Marquis of Xi'an.

And the debt is paid for by the flesh - Sogdian merchants risked their lives to inquire about information for the Han army and lobby for King Hu.

Now that he heard that the Han army had won the Battle of Dayuan, Shi Bodao was so happy that he had regarded himself as the leader of the five Sogdian cities, and promoted them what he had been instilled with as a cavalry for more than ten years.

"I said a long time ago that the Huns represented darkness, and the Han Dynasty represented light, and were blessed by God!"

On the mural behind Sberklade, they painted their faithful Zoroastrian doctrine: the showdown between darkness and light.

In Zoroastrianism, Ahuramazda is the incarnation of light, and Angelaman is the incarnation of darkness. The former creates all good, the six good gods, the universe, the world and the creatures, while the latter creates all evil and opposition.

"The evil gods continue to invade the world, corrupt morality, and fight against the good gods, and the two sides fight on earth."

"When good and evil are finally in the final battle, every country in the world will join in, helping the former to eventually defeat the latter and usher in permanent light!"

There is no need to mention the examples of the past, just look at the actions of the Xiongnu Zhizhi Shanyu who went to the West for years, blocking trade routes and disrupting Kangju, making the Kangju kings who had originally had a specific alliance with Suo unable to restrain their subordinates and often robbed the Sogdian caravans that passed by, and the silk trade volume was reduced by at least half.

The Sogdians have clear distinction between love and hate, and the worldview is a simple binary opposition: "What hinders the trade route and delays the Sogdians' trading is evil and darkness."

"What opens the trade route and helps the Sogdians make money is good and light!"

In this way, weren’t the Huns just the evil servants of the Silk Road? They never produce and only know how to destroy. On the contrary, the rapid prosperity of Sogdian began after Zhang Qian opened up the Western Regions. During Ren Hong’s time as a gubernatorial master, he encouraged business in the Western Regions, turning the robbery-like Qiang people into the guards of caravans. Compared with the Huns, they were simply the incarnation of light on the Silk Road.

In this decisive battle between the Han Dynasty and the Huns, the Sogdians had long stood on the Han side.

They walked through the Western Regions and frequently provided information for the Han Dynasty. During the Battle of Dayuan, Shi Bodao even sent his own son to lobby the Dayuan nobles for the Ren Cavalry. Now that the Han army has won a great victory, he naturally wants to bring in the other four cities to welcome the king's army together, and let Sogdie change his master.

"But Yuezhi chose darkness." Shi Bodao became serious and revealed the purpose of today's rally, taking the opportunity to break with Yuezhi.

After speaking of faith, he began to talk about profit.

"As long as you surrender to the Han Dynasty and pay it to Kangju in the past, the two tributes from Yuezhi will be handed over to General Ren, and it will be reduced by one quarter. Five city-states can still maintain autonomy, and only receive the seal and ribbon of the Han Dynasty, and become the marquis of the Han Dynasty."

"As long as you become a minister of the Emperor of Han and a Sogdian merchant, you can walk out of Hexi and arrive in Chang'an!"

This was a dream for the Sogdians. In addition, Shi Bodao told the city lords about Ren Hong's deeds, what is the defender of the Silk Road, the friend of the Sogdian caravan, the hand of Niu Jing Gursuwan, the most important thing is...

"Ren Dupu agreed and will never interfere with the Sogdians' blood relative holy marriage!"

...

After following the promise of Ren Dudu, the Sogdian city lords, who had doubts about the arrival of the Han army, became firmer and agreed with Shi Bodao's opinion, expelled the Yuezhi envoys from various cities, and when the Han army moved south from Dayuan to Jinshui, they sent people to welcome them and provide food.

In addition to Shi Bodao, the other four city lords are Fumo, Chen Mai, Qicheng, and Aohu, which probably correspond to Anguo, Heguo, Cao, and the United States during the Tang Dynasty.

They whispered and beaten the land to welcome Ren Cavalry and Han Army into Samarkand, and the Sogdian girl braided her hair into small braids sang and danced.

Ren Hong remembered that Alexander's wife Roxanna was rumored to be a Sogdian.

But Sogdian had a very poor view of the Adi, because after the Greeks invaded Persia, they destroyed a large number of temples and holy fires of the Prajna, burned down the ancient Persian scripture "Avesta", killed and expelled the monks of the benevolence, forcing them to flee to Sogdiana.

During the more than two hundred years when the Greeks ruled Persia and Bactricia, the Hokage was suppressed there. Instead, the remote Sogdians preserved the Hokage's fire.

Therefore, Alexander was regarded as a "cursed" by the Zoroastrian monk who lived in Sogdian, and shared this title with the evil god of darkness.

Ren Hong did not intend to believe in any religion, but was happy to start a dispute between Sogdian Zoroastrianism and Buddhists in the southern Bactricia region.

Shi Bodao didn't know what Ren Hong thought, and after the grand ceremony, he also presented the local specialty: Jin Tao.

Ren Hong looked at the "golden peach" a bit similar to the yellow peach, but it was bigger and particularly sweet in the mouth. The peach meat was tightly stuck to the peach pits. I ate one and wanted another one.

Shi Bodao said that this kind of peach matures very late. Because it is extremely sweet and easy to be eaten by insects, it is necessary for warlocks to chant mantras during its growth, so it can eventually be as big as a pea egg and its color is as gold.

He also told Ren Hong a story.

"In ancient times, there was a shepherd in Sogdian. When she was grazing sheep, she found that one was missing. It was not until the sun set that the sheep came back slowly, but the appearance, color and screams changed. The shepherd was very surprised."

"The next afternoon, the sheep was separated again, and the shepherd quietly followed behind. He came to a mountain and followed the sheep into a small hole hidden by a vine."

"When I first entered the cave, it was dark all around me. I was hiding for five or six miles, and then I suddenly realized that the flowers and trees were not owned by the world. I looked at the sheep again, eating grass not far away. The shepherd walked in the cave and suddenly found that the golden light was flashing in front of me, and the fragrance was everywhere. He quickly stepped forward and saw that it was a fruit tree..."

Ren Hong raised the golden peach in his hand: "Is this thing that has been knotted?"

"Of course." Shi Bodao continued: "It was the golden peach. The shepherd picked one, but a giant beast suddenly appeared beside him. His face was ferocious. He wanted to seize the fruit. The shepherd could only escape the same way. After finally getting rid of the giant beast. When he was about to reach the entrance of the cave, he smelled the fragrance of the golden peach. The shepherd couldn't help but eat it. As a result, his body grew rapidly. Although his head was drilled out of the cave, his torso was stuffed inside..."

"Is this the effect of the golden peach?" Ren Hong laughed. If he really turned into a giant, he should have gone to the wrong plane.

However, looking at Shi Bodao's smile without saying a word, Ren Hong reacted: "You mean, this thing can strengthen... body?"

...

After Shibodao retreated, Ren Hong sat on the Samarkand city tower and looked at the sparkling golden water outside.

This river will eventually inject into another big river in Central Asia, the Amu River, known as the "Guanshui", and the Sir River, which originates near Dayuan, form this land called "River", which is the land of several Stans in Central Asia in later generations.

More than a thousand miles southwest of the river, there is the border of Mulu City of the Anxu Empire. Although Zhizhi was destroyed, he did not bring all the Huns into Dayuan. There is also a "Zuo Yizhizi King" who fled west with Zhizhi's son and the Xiongnu Zhibao Yuezhi King Touyinqi. The destination was Mulu, probably to seek refuge.

This war is finally about to disturb the behemoth in West Asia.

And south of the Amu River, it is the future imperial cemetery, the country of the Great Yuezhi people.

Now the Yuezhi is completely in chaos, and the conflict between the five Xihous was originally aroused in advance. Wen Zhong came back to report that the Kushan occupied the Lan family city and called himself the Kushan King. Xiumi and Shuangmi also made trouble together. The Dayuezhi King hurried south to quell the rebellion.

Ren Honghui tried to extend the civil war. The Han army watched the Sogdian walls and let them have fun. When the time is ripe, they went to the south to pick up peaches. It would be best to divide the Great Yuezhi into five.

He tasted the taste of golden peaches and asked the army to come here to inquire about local historical stories and legends. Yang Yun, who started writing the biography of the Records of the Grand Historian, came to do his job and wrote a memorial to the country.

Although Ren Hong was independent, he was still a minister of the Han Dynasty in name, and he had to ask for money, food and talents from the country in the future, and he still had to do a good job in form.

He wanted to repay his merits to his soldiers. Zheng Ji, Wen Zhong and Feng Fengshi's merits were enough to be granted the title of marquis. Ren Hong also mentioned his plans for the future of this land.
Chapter completed!