Mythical Three Kingdoms

And during this period, Guo Si and others received new information; the vanguard units of the Chen Family, Xun Family, and Sima Family had already reached the actual territory ruled by Li Jue and his allies.

It is said that these three families set out the earliest, encountered Guo Si when he was going to the Central Plains, and also ran into him on the way back with 5,000 Xiliang Iron Cavalry. At that time, Guo Si even considered directly bringing them back in a package, but was refused.

It could be said that the delay was entirely because after reaching the Western Regions, these people began to investigate all the way, collecting hydrology, geography, population, culture, and other intelligence, while estimating population capacity limits.

Of course, the main thing was to calculate which country they could eliminate the most efficiently with their combined abilities, how many resources they could gain after eliminating it, and whether they could manipulate everything from behind the scenes in other ways. To these three families, this trip was simply a journey of losing morals.

Finally, the leaders sent by these three families had no choice but to admit that with some effort, they could indeed steadily control these small Western Regions countries, achieving comprehensive control and even gradually infiltrating and swallowing them one by one.

Although the heads of the three families verbally disdained this shameless and bottomless method of rooting and absorbing nutrients by leaning on the state to give back to the family and country, in their hearts, they generally felt that this method was the correct way to strengthen their families.

Even halfway along, the Chen Family, in a capricious move, tested their hands by relying on their noble Han Dynasty birth, plus the terrifying deterrence of Li Jue and Guo Si. It was simple for the Chen and Sima Families to meet the King of Kucha and quickly connect with many Kucha nobles.

At this stage, to the Chen Family, their experience was rich beyond comparison. By giving one family things here and sending treasures there to build mutual connections, and understanding how to utilize their deterrence, in less than a month, Kucha nobles began vaguely selling out their allies.

If not for the Xun Family pulling back the Chen and Sima Families from further chaos, these two families would soon have started pulling factions to release each other’s black materials, with the ensuing outcomes easily imaginable.

Despite this, after the Xun Family forcibly removed these troublemakers from Chen and Sima Families, the Kucha nobles, stirred by them, unsurprisingly erupted into conflict after these two families left.

Although suppressed by the King of Kucha, barely preventing internal war among the Kucha nobles, at this stage, both sides had torn apart the facade; the ultimate result was obvious. Thus, after a few years, when the Xun Family returned, they casually picked up Kucha.

Admittedly, due to the Xun Family being such an influential household, they no longer paid attention to small countries like Kucha. If not for the fact that Kucha indeed had a substantial population, the Xun Family wouldn’t even have wanted to pick up such a country.

However, exactly due to this outburst along the way, this crowd arrived two months late at Li Jue’s territory. Nonetheless, this allowed the Chen, Sima Families, and the always mediator yet main instigator Xun Family to have clear realizations about their power.

The components of their power were no longer solely from the family but were based on both themselves and the country’s comprehensive power behind them. By combining their own intelligence with the country’s strength, or in other words, by reasonably utilizing the country’s power, they could effortlessly gain enormous benefits abroad.

By feeding a portion of these benefits back to the country, they could enlarge the shadow behind them and continue this situation, quickly growing stronger.

Whether they had any doubts before or not, those dispatched here by the elder generation of the three families were not fools. Now they were excited, for what could provide more amusement than political strife? They were about to use the country as a playground to build their ideals!

Compared to the previous small fights within the family, joining forces with their main family to found a country of their own, solving the issues of nation-building bit by bit, just like ancient sages who founded countries on barren lands, what could be more immortalized in history than this?

"Where is this?" "This is the country I created!" Just thinking about it, one could feel the power in these words.

Imagining oneself old and lying on the sickbed, pointing out the window to the descendants, saying, "Founded the country here, established the capital here, and took pride in it!" What a profound sentiment that would be.

Recorded in history? Ha, founding the country here, building the capital here, my name would naturally share capital with the country, and no amount of destruction in the records could erase our achievements; what a status this is!

Harboring this mentality, those who initially had doubts had already dispelled their cowardice. For those born into aristocratic families, nothing awoke them more than being on par with their ancestors.

Yet as this group charged heroically towards Li Jue’s station, they collectively stumbled about a thousand meters away from his quarters...

Fortunately, Li Jue knew these people were civil officials, so he couldn’t act recklessly. He ordered transportation for them, but even with Hua Fei’s medicine, those who went could only lay in bed during that time.

In short, it was basically a wipeout. However, instead of being discouraged, they adapted energetically to this harsh place and adjusted to this place before Li Jue, Guo Si, and others led the troops to Parthia.

Once the Chen, Sima, and Xun Families arrived, Li Jue eagerly awaited Zhuge Liang.

It was almost June by then; Vologases V had already sent word: they had assembled an additional 50,000 troops from domestic forces, totaling 120,000 troops, essentially urging Li Jue to come quickly, as they planned to march against Rome in July.

Speaking of which, Rome essentially has a Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot summers and mild winters. Even at the hottest point, it was about twenty-five degrees in this era, and hardly snowed during the coldest times.

Thus, Parthia’s decision to strike in July implied Vologases V was ready to go all out. With such a climate, they could fight for the upcoming ten months, clearly showing Vologases V’s determination not to return without taking Mesopotamia.

Li Jue admired Vologases V for this, seeing as the opponent produced 120,000 troops and 19 Inner Qi Manifestation Generals; with such power, Li Jue expressed that his presence would be purely as a spectator, as there wasn’t much left to fight. Hence, he confirmed his participation, assuring he’d go even if he were late.

Li Jue was determined to await Zhuge Liang, not moving without him, resolved to take their little military advisor to open his eyes, showing they hadn’t wasted their time in Central Asia these years.

Of course, Li Jue didn’t know that what he thought was Ganasis was now vigorously defeating Germanic barbarians with Severus; with four Dukes of Border Commandery and Severus, the Roman Emperor, having conquered nearly all barbarians north of Rome within the past year.

It was precisely due to these accomplishments, Severus firmly established his position as Roman Emperor, leaving no one doubting him.

Since saying "nearly" suggests there are still some barbarians in northern Rome not yet subdued by Roman iron.

By now, only three major barbarian tribes remain in northern Rome: the Germans, Celts, and Slavs. These three barbarian tribes have considerable combat power; historically, several emperors died in Rome’s attempts to subdue them.

Ultimately, these three are particularly combative, and there’s no need to say the Germans are Rome’s top barbarian enemies; although the other two also conduct raids like the winds of autumn, just as the Huns are the top enemy of the Han, the others, although warrior nations, bear less animosity.

Particularly regarding the Celts, Rome holds slightly lesser blood ties, generally, while Rome battles the Germans, the Celts still undermine the Germans, for driving the Celts from their homeland forged blood vengeance. Nonetheless, the biggest problem now is Rome’s serious behavior!