"Today's peace talks are only to restore peace and stability to the people as soon as possible. Therefore, I hope that both sides will show the utmost sincerity!"

Chu Qian glanced at both sides with a serious expression and directly stated his attitude.

Everyone present understood the warning in Chu Qian's words.

The King of Parthia spoke first: "The Chu envoy is right. The fact that we are sitting down already shows that we want a truce!"

“That’s right, it would be best if the problem could be solved through peace talks!” Marcus Aurelius echoed.

"Alright, let's begin!"

With that, Chu Qian turned to look at Marcus Aurelius and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, please state the conditions for withdrawing the troops first!"

"good!"

Marcus Aurelius nodded, then looked at the Parthian king sitting opposite him and said in a deep voice:

"The reason we are leading a large army on this expedition is because the Parthians have blocked the trade routes between the Han Dynasty and Rome, which has greatly affected our exchanges with the Han Dynasty."

Therefore, our first condition is that Parthia must open this passage and prohibit any further taxation of Han and Roman caravans!

Marcus Aurelius was clever; in his words, he directly tied the interests of the Han Dynasty and Rome together.

Upon hearing this, Chu Qian nodded unconsciously and turned his gaze to King Anxi.

The Parthian king said with a bitter expression, "Your conditions are reasonable. I can agree to open the passage, but can we discuss the matter of taxes? After all, this is one of our country's most important sources of income!"

Although he knew it was unlikely, he still thought he could try.

"No, there's no room for negotiation!" Marcus Aurelius shook his head and refused the Parthian king's request.

Chu Qian also spoke up, saying, "Rome's demands are reasonable, and Parthia should agree to them!"

As the mediator, Chu Qian's words were undoubtedly biased, but there was nothing he could do. Rome's conditions were what the Han Dynasty wanted, so he naturally had to support them.

Then, Chu Qian continued, "Once this trade route is open, your Parthia will not be without profit. You can build post stations along the way to receive traveling merchants."

Of course, you can also send people to join in the business; their profits will be almost as good as, or even greater than, the taxes you collect!

Upon hearing Chu Qian's words, the King of Parthia's expression shifted, and he nodded: "What Envoy Chu says is right, let's do it that way!"

Subsequently, Chu Qian drafted the first condition of the Roman army into the peace treaty.

After Chu Qian finished writing, Marcus Aurelius said in a deep voice, "Then let's talk about the issue of reparations!"

Upon hearing this, the Parthian king nodded, knowing that the issue of reparations was unavoidable.

In between, Marcus Aurelius took out a list and slowly read aloud: "This time, our army has dispatched a total of 400,000 troops and 700,000 laborers, and the journey is 1,700 li."

During the campaign, the cost of food, weapons and equipment consumed was approximately 100 million gold coins; the soldiers' pay, resettlement allowance and recruitment fees for soldiers recruited by our army for more than four months amounted to 30 million gold coins; the pensions for fallen soldiers and the resettlement fees for wounded soldiers amounted to 70 million gold coins!

The Parthian army is required to pay our army a total of 200 million gold coins in reparations!

"What? Two hundred million gold coins?"

Upon hearing the amount of reparations demanded by Marcus Aurelius, the Parthian king exclaimed in surprise.

Even Chu Qian couldn't help but twitch his eyelids and glance at Marcus Aurelius without leaving a trace. He didn't expect this guy to actually dare to speak up.

One gold coin here can be exchanged for ten taels of silver or ten thousand copper coins in the Han Dynasty, which is a total of two billion taels of silver. How many copper coins is that?

Two trillion copper coins!

This would be an exceptionally large number even in the Han Dynasty, enough to equal several decades of the Han Dynasty's income.

"No, this compensation is too much; we can't afford it!"

The Parthian king rejected Rome's demand for reparations without hesitation.

Even if you sold the entire Anxi, it wouldn't be worth that much money.

Chu Qian also looked at Marcus Aurelius and said with an impartial expression, "Is your asking price really too high?"

"I wonder, Envoy Chu, how many gold coins do you think would be appropriate?"

Marcus Aurelius also asked with a sincere expression, knowing full well that the price was too high and the Parthians certainly couldn't afford it.

The reason he asked for such a high price was simply to scare the Parthians into accepting the next conditions.

Chu Qian thought for a moment, then said, "Let's set it at twenty million. That's enough for the pensions of the fallen soldiers!"

"Well..."

Seeing that Chu Qian had reduced the compensation to 10%, Marcus Aurelius looked like he was considering it.

Although 20 million was not enough to fully cover Rome's expenses and losses, it was close enough when the looted goods were taken into account. They didn't make a profit, but they didn't lose either.

"Very well, let's do as the envoy Chu says!" In the end, Marcus Aurelius nodded in agreement with Chu Qian's suggestion.

Then, Chu Qian and Marcus Aurelius looked at the Parthian king together.

The King of Parthia said with a bitter expression, "Envoy Chu, I thank you for speaking up for us, but twenty million gold coins is too much. We simply cannot afford it!"

Previously, Parthia's annual income was at most three million gold coins. Now, the Han army has seized the most prosperous southern territories and ports, and large areas in the west have been devastated.

Today, Parthia can only levy taxes in the eastern region and from the Persians in the north. At most, they can only earn a little over a million gold coins a year, and it would take at least twenty years of income to cover the twenty million indemnity.

Marcus Aurelius glared at him: "For the sake of the Han envoy, we have already reduced our offer from two hundred million to twenty million, which is more than enough to show our sincerity. Yet you are so ungrateful. Do you have no intention of negotiating?"

"this……"

The King of Parthia was speechless for a moment, and looked to Chu Qian with pleading eyes.

"Ahem~!"

Chu Qian cleared his throat and said in a solemn voice, "Rome has indeed shown sufficient sincerity in negotiations. I hope your side can give me face and think about how to come up with this reparations, otherwise..."

Although the words were left unsaid, the threatening meaning was self-evident.

Seeing this, the Parthian king could only look at Sakki with a bitter expression.

Saksi hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "Your Majesty, the Han envoy is fierce and extremely concerned about his reputation. If we make him lose face, there's no guarantee he won't join forces with Rome to attack us!"

The Parthian king's face paled: "Then... what should we do?"

Sakqi thought for a moment, then lowered his voice: "Let's raise funds. The ministers and nobles in the country are all quite wealthy, raising ten million shouldn't be a problem."

Your Majesty, sell whatever you can in the palace. If that doesn't work, arrest some young Persian men, enslave them, and sell them to the Romans…!