A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

The many vassal states surrounding the Parthian Empire gathered in the new vassal state of the royal family and signed a blood pact under the witness of the Wei family.

When facing an attack from the Parthian Empire, if a country is attacked, the surrounding countries must immediately provide support, and other countries must simultaneously launch an attack on the Parthian Empire to force it to come to its aid.

Otherwise, if one were to confront a complete and vast empire alone, it would be destroyed in less than a month.

Only by uniting can they prevent the Parthian Empire from being distracted and from taking any rash actions.

These countries also spent a lot of money to invite a direct descendant of the Wei family, as well as the leader of the Mohist school and a descendant of the Gongshu family to construct the defenses here.

Even on the southeastern sides, there was a commander from the Wei family stationed on each side, leading the allied forces of various countries to guard against the Parthian Empire.

The Parthian Empire did indeed want to take the initiative, but as soon as they sent troops, other countries would launch a frenzied attack on the Parthian Empire.

In the ninth year of Emperor He of Han, the Parthian Empire decided to spare no expense to destroy several of the eastern states of the Western Xiongnu, taking advantage of the fact that their vassal states had just been established.

Emperor He of Han had anticipated this and allowed these people to bring their troops with them when they established their country.

These vassal states of the Western Xiongnu gathered a large number of troops that had destroyed the Western Xiongnu, plunging the Parthian Empire into a quagmire of war.

Other border states, in accordance with the alliance, jointly attacked the Parthian Empire's defenses from their respective directions.

The battle lasted for more than a year, ending with the arrival of Han Dynasty reinforcements from the Western Regions.

Both sides suffered heavy losses. The Han Dynasty's vassal states were crippled, while the Parthian Empire abandoned the corpses of nearly 10 soldiers, failing to completely eliminate any of the vassal states.

In the decades that followed, the Han dynasty's vassal states and the Parthian Empire fought small battles every month and large battles every two years, each suffering losses.

Some vassal states were destroyed here because they could not withstand the Parthian Empire's attacks, with only a few branches escaping back to the Han Dynasty.

Some of the Parthian Empire's territory was also encroached upon by the Han Dynasty's vassal states.

On the Han Empire's homeland, the struggles between scholars, imperial relatives, and eunuchs intensified, preventing the Han Dynasty from amassing sufficient strength to destroy the Parthian Empire.

This system continued until Emperor Heng of Han ascended the throne.

Emperor Heng of Han was an emperor with "lofty ambitions." The emperors before him were generally mediocre, and the power of the court was usurped by the maternal relatives.

Since Emperor Jing of Han, the imperial relatives had figured out the bottom line of the Wei family: they would only seize power and would never harm the people's livelihood.

Therefore, the Wei family would not prevent them from seizing power, whether it was the maternal relatives or the emperor, it didn't matter to them.

Emperor Huan of Han was determined to change all of this. He often compared himself to Qin Shi Huang, intending to gain the support of the Wei family, first eliminate the maternal relatives, and then pacify the vassal states within the country, turning the entire territory of the Han Dynasty into a unified dynasty.

To achieve a feat comparable to, or even surpassing, that of Qin Shi Huang.

After being rejected by the Wei family, Emperor Huan of Han relied on his own efforts to cultivate the power of the eunuchs and eliminate the Liang family.

Because the eunuchs made great contributions to his power grab, their power expanded rapidly after Emperor Huan of Han came to power.

Meanwhile, the eunuchs of Emperor Huan of Han embezzled and accepted bribes, and secretly used the money and grain they had embezzled to build a large army.

At the same time, he announced that he would destroy the Parthian Empire and expand the territory of the Han Dynasty once again.

Using this as a pretext, he dispatched his large army to the border. When passing through the State of Xiao, founded by the descendants of Xiao He, and the State of Han, founded by the descendants of Han Xin, he used the pretext of a route to attack Sui. His army of over 100,000 directly destroyed the two states and then stationed them there.

Emperor Huan's actions provoked all the vassal states. If Emperor Huan could destroy the states of Xiao and Han without any reason today, he could destroy their states at will tomorrow.

People in all countries were outraged, and even the students and officials in their own countries were in an uproar.

After more than 100 years of enfeoffment, the interests of many people were involved. Emperor Huan of Han not only blocked the roads, but also smashed the pots.

With the support of some relatives and vassal states, a large number of students and officials held demonstrations to protest Emperor Huan of Han's actions.

While Emperor Huan of Han was immersed in the excitement of expanding his territory, he heard that these scholars and officials were marching in opposition, and his anger directly overwhelmed his reason.

He ordered the army to imprison all these students and scholars.

This group included scholars from various schools of thought, members of the royal family, branches of many fiefdoms remaining in the country, some literati and officials, and aristocratic families who were still not entitled to be enfeoffed within the country, encompassing almost every aspect of the entire Han Dynasty.

Even the most lawless eunuchs felt a chill run down their spines. After Emperor Huan of Han calmed down and regained his senses, they persuaded him that since the Empress Dowager was about to celebrate her birthday, he should grant a general amnesty and pray for her well-being.

Emperor Huan of Han seized the opportunity to back down, sending the prisoners back to their hometowns, imprisoning them forever, dismissing them from office for life, and barring their family members and disciples from holding official positions.

This is historically known as the First Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions.

For various reasons, the Yuan, Yang, and Chen families were not implicated and even rescued and protected many party members. Their family power continued to expand, and they became new top-tier families.

These repatriated students and officials identified themselves as party members, promoting their literary integrity and fearlessness in the face of power, and became the object of admiration among scholars at the time.

The struggle between powerful families, imperial relatives, partisans, and eunuchs became increasingly brutal, with the forces of feudal states, imperial clansmen, and imperial clansmen also getting involved, plunging the court into chaos.

After Emperor Huan of Han sent troops to destroy the states of Xiao and Han, and arrested scholars and officials, both aristocratic families and partisans realized the importance of military power.

The border troops were always commanded by the Wei family, while the imperial guards were under the emperor's control, and the troops in various local prefectures and counties were under the jurisdiction of the prime minister.

Local powerful families began to place their people in the county soldiers and the imperial guards, constantly expanding their military power.

The current prime minister, Hu Guang, is a moderate, but he secretly favors the scholar-official class.

To prevent powerful clans in various regions from colluding with each other and threatening imperial power, Emperor Huan of Han promulgated the Three Mutual Laws, which expanded the scope of the recusal system for official appointments.

The Three Mutuals Law stipulates that recusal is required based on place of origin, kinship, and official position.

The governor of a prefecture is not to be from the prefecture itself; the prefect, chancellor, and military commander of a commandery are not to be from the commandery itself; and the magistrate and military commander of a county are not to be from the county itself. Relatives by marriage between two prefectures or commanderies are not allowed to serve as officials in the other prefecture or commandery. If a person from prefecture A serves as governor of prefecture B, then a person from prefecture B cannot serve as governor of prefecture A.