Of the original four great empires, the Parthian Empire had already returned to dust, while the newborn Parthia blazed like the midday sun.
The Eastern Han Empire had been completely replaced. Only on bamboo slips and in people's conversations could glimpses of its former appearance still be found.
The Roman Empire had become a pot of boiling chaos: its imperial court's administration was paralyzed, uprisings erupted within, foreign enemies ran rampant, and it had officially entered a tripartite standoff... Huh? Why did that sound a little familiar?
In short, the only one still lingering on its last breath was the Kushan Empire.
But the Kushan Empire of today was no longer the ambitious empire that had dominated India, held Afghanistan exclusively, and controlled the trade routes.
It no longer even deserved to be called an empire... Its control in the south had vanished without a trace, while in the north, it was being battered in various ways by the successor to the Parthian Empire. It had lost vast territories and been driven back to its Royal City several times, forced to bow its head and submit.
The army was full of incompetent nobles. Officials had lost their fighting spirit and drowned themselves in wine and women, squeezing the people within their borders like mad, while the nobles' privileges kept expanding... Huh? Why did that still sound a little familiar?
The current Kushan king was Kanishka III.
This king was an unlucky man.
His father, Vasishka, had handed him a country plagued by troubles within and threats without, instructing him to fulfill his ancestors' dying wishes and restore their former supremacy.
Yet his father himself had been a notoriously inept ruler... In ten years of rule, he had not resolved the old abuses but instead intensified the conflicts within the country.