Outside Babylon, Alexander took Pelitas, Pegasus, and Arisdendros, Theophrastus, Stratus, Epicurus, Eumolpos, Patrocles, Laomedon, Abris, and Ares on a stroll through the city. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThis time, Alexander came to inspect the local agricultural production and business situation.

Babylonia is located in the valley of the two rivers and is rich in agricultural and livestock products: grains, oils, vegetables of all kinds, meat, leather, wool, flax and horn products. Grains include wheat, red wheat, barley, millet, etc., and barley is the main grain in ancient and modern times because it is adapted to the slightly saline soil of the locality. Barley malt has been used to brew beer, and humans have been using grains to make alcoholic beverages for nearly 6,000 years. The oldest known liquor document is the Babylonians' sacrificial beer making method carved from clay tablets around 6000 BC; Around 4000 B.C., there were already 16 types of beer made from barley, wheat, and honey in Mesopotamia; Bitters began to be used in 3000 BC; In the 18th century B.C., the ancient Babylonian king Hammurapi? ~1750 BC), there are detailed records of beer. The time when beer was highly developed was around 1300 B.C., for example, beer in Egypt was unified under the management of the state and became a very good industry, and later the brewing technology of beer was also transmitted from Egypt to Western Europe through Greece.

Wheat and barley are often ground into flour and baked bread, which is the main food of the people and an essential dry food on the march. Sesame has also been widely promoted as an important oil plant. Rich dates (commonly known as "Iraqi dates") are a delicacy for the people of the two river basins, a green tree commonly found in desert oases in West Asia and North Africa, which is drought-tolerant, alkali-tolerant, heat-tolerant and moisture-loving, so the hot climate and abundant irrigation in the south are very suitable for date palm growth.

The two long and wide rivers provide an abundance of fish and other aquatic products to the people who live here. Reeds are an important resource, and the poles are used to weave mats, baskets, and chests, and even for shipbuilding and building houses. Because the date palm tree belongs to the palm family, which is characterized by rough and soft wood, there is a lack of wood in the local area. There are only two types of stone: limestone and Mosul marble.

Although modern Iraq is known for its abundant oil reserves, the ancient people of the two river basins were only known about the bitumen deposits associated with oil. The richest area of bituminous ore is in the middle reaches of the Euphrates River, 150 km from Babylon, at Hith, and 100 km from the Ramadi line, near Lake Habbaniyah. They use asphalt as a bonding material between brick layers, waterproofing coatings for house construction and shipbuilding, connections for fuels and works of art, inlays, molding materials, and even for medicinal purposes. There are no metal deposits in the area, and there is a lack of stone and wood for construction, decoration and sculpture. Since the primitive period, many raw materials have been imported from other places, and a copper-stone culture has developed in this copper-free area. Of course, the commodity trading cycle at that time was very long. Copper is thought to have first been imported from Azerbaijan and Armenia in western Iran and the mountainous Caucasus. Later, copper from nearby Asia Minor, Cyprus, Dillemon (Bahrain) and Oman was transported to the two river basins. During the Assyrian Empire, the Phoenicians began to transport copper from Spain across the Mediterranean to the East; Tin may have come from Iran, the Caucasus, and Afghanistan; Most of the silver comes from the Taurus Mountains; Gold comes from many mining sites from Egypt to India; There are several places in Iran that supply hard stone and a variety of valuable gemstones; The shiny black diorite stele that has been commonly used by stonecarvers since the Third Dynasty of your comes from Magan (Oman or Egypt); Ordinary timber can be found in the forests of the Zagros Mountains, but the tall fir trees, cypresses, and cedars used to build temples and palaces must be taken from the Lebanese Mountains and Mount Amanus on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and other types of wood come from overseas in Meruha (India or Ethiopia).

The golden fields are full of farmers harvesting wheat, and this is the time of harvest of wheat, which is similar to the time of harvesting wheat in the ancient countries of the far East. Alexander suddenly thought of something, and asked a peasant: "Hello, uncle." ”

The old man turned his head and quickly knelt down: "Huh!?" My king, I have seen you, and just as you entered the city, almost all the people gathered in the streets to see the excitement. Oh no, yes, you're welcome. I don't know if there is anything I can do for you, just ask. ”

"I want to ask, what is the basis for your sowing and harvesting of wheat?"

"Oh, this is the experience left by our ancestors, everyone knows it, but it's not the time to plant anything, we can all handle it, my family grows wheat, so I don't know the rest."

"Teacher, do you think it is difficult for you and Stratu to carefully study the products of the two river basins, and summarize the experience of the peasants, study and make a suitable calendar?"

"Hehe, there's nothing wrong with summing up experience, I've been studying botany myself, don't you say I'll do it too, as for the calendar, it's not an overnight thing, but summarizing the experience of our predecessors can help us save a lot of effort, and the rest will take time to prove, spend a few years carefully verifying, and you can always slowly get closer to the truth."

"The teacher is out, there is anything that can't be done, you can rest assured." Strato said proudly.

"I intend to build a city in the middle reaches of the Tigris, east of Babylon, or Alexandria, the city of Alexandria in the valley of the two rivers." Alexander said coldly.

"Why did Your Majesty suddenly think of building a city, this is not something that can be built overnight, and it costs a lot of money!" Epicurus said.

"I know, it's not like I'm just on the rise, I've been thinking about it for a long time. Along the Tigris River, in addition to the Akkad dynasty established by Sargon I 2,000 years ago, with the city of Akkad as the capital, there has not been any decent city in the middle reaches, and the ancient city of Assyria in the upper reaches has declined, and Nineveh no longer exists, compared to the Euphrates, this is really miserable! ”

"Although the cradle of the civilization of the two rivers, the city on the Euphrates dates back to the time when the Sumerians lived, so it has a deeper heritage." Patrocles said.

"The valley of the two rivers is so rich that it should be able to feed more people, and now even the Euphrates is a big city in Babylon, and I think it is necessary to build a large city from a political, military, and economic point of view, and I have already thought of a large city, which is located at the mouth of the confluence of the Diyala and Tigris rivers, near the original city of Akkad. The Diyala River is an important tributary of the Tigris River, originating in the Zagros Mountains, and the basin is also very rich in products. At the confluence of the two rivers, the land was naturally extremely fertile, and it was relatively close to Babylon, so that the time of 3 Parasanga could be reached, and the materials needed for the construction of the city were transported from Babylon more easily. Of course, it is more convenient to transport wood and stone from the upper reaches of the Diyala River. ”

"That's right, Your Majesty is very thoughtful, it seems that you have already made up your mind. Now Your Majesty is vigorously developing commerce, agriculture and military forces, the development of commerce is conducive to the accumulation of funds, and the development of agriculture is conducive to the development of population and the collection of grain. Epicurus agreed, saying that he knew Alexander quite well.

"Everything else can develop rapidly, but the population cannot grow all at once, and it will take decades of development to be effective, but we must take a long-term and broader view, and it is very difficult to defend such a large piece of land with a population of less than 200,000 in Babylon, and it is necessary for us to build a stronger region of Babylonia, and to build a strong city. In this way, the two cities are horns of each other, and even if one city is besieged, the economy of the other city will not be cut off at once, it will still function normally, and it can provide the other city with troops and necessary supplies. Even after a city is breached, we still have the strength to buffer or even counterattack, and now, if Babylon is captured, it is basically equivalent to the fall of the whole of Babylonia, because in this region, where do you still have the strength to counterattack, you can only transfer troops from distant Medes, Elam, and even further away in Western Asia, how difficult and time-consuming it is. Alexander said meaningfully.

A horse's cry sounded, and a soldier jumped off his horse and ran near, saying, "Your Majesty, the general defeated Ptolemy outside the city of Gaza and forced him to retreat to Gaza City, but he did not pursue him with victory, but took the initiative to sign a peace treaty with him, and then returned north. ”

"What? Contract! It's obvious that he won the battle, so why should he take the initiative to sign a peace treaty with the other party. Did Ptolemy promise to give any good? Ares didn't understand this, so he was the first to jump up and cross-examine him.

The soldier pondered for a long time, and finally a few words popped out of his mouth: "No." ”

"Oh yes, how can you take the initiative to retreat if you don't get the benefits of winning the battle, what's wrong with the general, it's so cheap Ptolemy?!" Ares had a look of hatred on his face, which was really heartbroken.

"Ares! Don't comment on the General's way of doing things, he is the smartest man in the Empire, and his strategy is beyond the comprehension of a reckless man like you. ”

"Oh, by the way, the general seems to be marching on Jerusalem." The soldier finally thought of something.

"Now, then, it seems that the Great General is just trying to teach Ptolemy a lesson, and then take all the towns north of Gaza on the border of Gaza, and—" Patrocles analyzed, but was interrupted by Alexander.

"Then wave your army north to deal with Antigonus." Alexander snatched Patrocles' line and said: "He knows very well who is our greatest enemy, Ptolemy is at best an old fox, although the fox is cunning, but he only bullies the weak, and does not dare to challenge the animals stronger than it." Whatever I am, but Antigonus must be a lion, and is there a carnivore stronger than a lion? Although I have broken a few teeth with a punch now, his teeth have not yet fallen out, and he still has claws, and anyone who dares to challenge the lion will be subjected to its crazy revenge, it is the king, and one king replaces the other king that can only eradicate him, so we are not dead to death. Therefore, the great general would not have wasted the lives of his soldiers on Ptolemy. He needed to put as many troops as possible into the Anatolian battlefield. It would be very unwise to fight Ptolemy, it would be troublesome if the dog jumped off the wall in a hurry, and now it hurts him so that he can know that this bone is not easy to gnaw, and he should rest for a while. ”

"Your Majesty, you are always extremely wise, and you have seen everything so thoroughly." Yabris praised from the bottom of his heart.

"Let's go back, it's time to work on the next step."