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

Parthian Empire.

Under the immense pressure of the Han Empire, friction between the royal family and the seven noble families intensified.

The seven noble families, led by the Sassanids, are increasingly dissatisfied with the weakness of the royal family. Now the Parthian Empire is on the verge of collapse, and only a sufficiently powerful royal family can lead the Parthian Empire out of its predicament.

Under the machinations of Ardashir's grandfather, the Sassanids, the Sassanid family gathered the power of the seven noble families, learned of the internal turmoil in the Great Han, and decisively launched a rebellion through Ardashir.

In order to resist the attacks from the various vassal states of the Han Empire, the royal family and the seven noble families moved their bases to adjacent areas, away from the front lines, so as to facilitate mutual support.

The Parthian royal family never imagined that with such a powerful external enemy so close at hand, someone would choose to rebel and deplete internal strength. Therefore, they paid extremely little attention to the empire's internal defenses.

Ardashir led the armies of the seven noble families and easily breached the royal palace.

Ardaban IV glared at Ardashir with eyes wide with rage. "Ardashir, what do you want to do?!"

"The Great Han Empire is watching us like a hawk, and yet you still dare to rebel at this time, wasting the already limited strength of the Parthian Empire!"

"You will become the sinners of the Parthian Empire!"

Ardashir looked at Ardaban IV with a sneer, "The Parthian Empire needs a wise leader, not a weak and incompetent monarch."

"Only I, Ardashir, can lead the Parthian Empire to victory. Continuing to let you bunch of useless fools rule this empire will only allow it to be gradually devoured by the Han!"

"I'm doing this to save the empire!"

Ardaban IV's eyes were filled with resentment, and a strange smile appeared on his lips.

"Ardashir, I'll be waiting for you in the world of the dead. You'll be down here soon to wait for me."

"snort!"

Ardashir let out a cold snort and decisively swung his sword, beheading Ardaban IV.

"I will prove with facts that I am more suitable than you to be the king of kings in this empire!"

Ardashir, carrying the head of Ardabai IV, used his powerful personal charisma to persuade all the royal forces to surrender.

Before the vassal states of the Han Empire could react, Ardashir quickly consolidated the resources of the entire empire.

Intelligence agents from various vassal states used various channels to transmit the message from the sealed-off city of Taixi.

But Ardashir had anticipated this and set up various traps along the way, greatly hindering the transmission of messages.

By the time the various vassal states received the news and sent troops to attack the Parthian Empire, Ardashir had already consolidated the Parthian Empire's resources and deployed a large number of troops to defend the border.

After being reorganized by Ardashir, the Parthian Empire burst forth with a vitality completely different from its previous decay. With the morale of Ardashir personally leading his troops into battle, it once repelled the Han Dynasty's attack.

He even launched a counterattack on cities occupied by various vassal states, recovering much of the land lost by the royal family, which greatly increased his prestige in the Parthian Empire, or rather, the newly established Sasanian Empire.

The more Ardashir's prestige increased, the higher his utilization rate of the country's resources became, and the stronger the army's combat power became, directly initiating the shift from strategic defense to strategic offense.

This situation continued until Yuan Shao arrived. With the help of Yuan Shao's powerful forces who had fought their way out of the chaos in the Central Plains, a coalition was formed under his leadership. Together with the generals of the Wei family who were guarding the western provinces, they began fierce battles with the Sasanian Empire's army from the south and east.

Ardashir truly lived up to his reputation as the man of the third century AD, managing to hold off both the armies of the Wei family and Yuan Shao.

The Sasanian Empire was, after all, a vast and unified empire, whose war potential far surpassed that of other nations.

As Ardashir's performance became increasingly outstanding, the war potential of the entire Sassanid Empire was constantly being unleashed. Even with Yuan Shao's addition, the fighting was still extremely difficult, and the battle lines continued to retreat.

Therefore, the various vassal states had no choice but to reluctantly invite Dong Zhuo back.

After all, Dong Zhuo was targeting powerful families within the country. Although they had many connections with these vassal states, they were not exactly sworn enemies.

As long as the interests are sufficient, there is nothing that cannot be discussed.

Not to mention the Western Regions Protectorate, which was secretly acting as a go-between.

As a ruthless figure capable of single-handedly confronting the entire world, Dong Zhuo dealt Ardashir a severe blow as soon as he arrived on the battlefield.

Through Jia Xu, Dong Zhuo made contact with the descendants of Ardaban IV.

In order to demonstrate his magnanimity and better and faster unite the entire Sasanian Empire to organize a counterattack against the Han Empire and snowball his advantage, he did not completely exterminate the bloodline and power of Ardaban IV.

As it turned out, it was precisely because of Ardashir's actions that he was able to so quickly unite the nation's forces and launch a counterattack.

By leveraging the success of the counter-offensive, he gradually built up his prestige, united the entire empire, and unlocked the empire's war potential.

If he had eradicated Ardaban IV's bloodline and influence back then, before he could quell the domestic unrest and unite the nation's forces, he would have faced attacks from various vassal states, and the snowball would have rolled back against him.

Every victory achieved by the various vassal states brings him more doubt and less power, which in turn leads to even greater victories for the vassal states, creating a vicious cycle.

However, Ardashir's actions ultimately had hidden dangers, which Jia Xu astutely seized upon.

With the help of the remnants of Artabanus IV's forces, all of the Sasanian Empire's power and attention were drawn to the other two armies. Dong Zhuo's Xiliang cavalry, taking advantage of the gates opened by the remnants of Artabanus IV's forces, stormed into the Sasanian Empire.

It's important to know that Dong Zhuo was located on the Arabian Peninsula, which was right in the rear of the Sasanian Empire, only 200 kilometers away from Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sasanian Empire.

With the help of an inside agent, Dong Zhuo's Xiliang cavalry was invincible, capturing ten cities in a few days and directly threatening Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sasanian Empire.

Ardashir was forced to lead his troops back to the capital to defend it. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yuan Shao and Wei Pan launched a full-scale counterattack and recaptured many cities.

But Ardashir hadn't expected it to be a feint. He disregarded the Sassanid capital and risked splitting his forces into three. The main army pretended to return to Ctesiphon, while he personally led an elite force to ambush Yuan Shao on the way. He also had his most trusted general, Tiridates, lead another elite force to ambush Wei Pan.