When Alexander led his army into Egypt to drive out the Persian army, he promised the Jews in Egypt that they would no longer be discriminated against, that they would be treated the same as the Greeks, and that they would have the same rights as Greek immigrants. As a result, Jews from Syria and the Mesopotian plains rushed to Egypt, with the result that one-fifth of the Jews in Alexandria were in the city.

One of the main reasons for Alexander's commitment was that there was already a mercenary army of Jews in Egypt before he entered Egypt. The most appropriate means of conquering and enslaving a nation is to co-opt the warlike minorities around it, and at the same time to buy, exile, and strangle the elites of the main nation every few decades, and if they can also control their fertility, it would be perfect.

Dositheos was a Jew trusted by the Greeks, first as a retinue to Ptolemy III, then as a river transport officer, and now as a grand archivist of the royal court. In addition to his duties, he was the high priest of the emperor. This status allowed him to know all the secrets of the royal court - the most important secret for Egypt and the entire Greek world at this time was the thundering weapons of the Chuni.

More than two months earlier, the city of Alexandria had arrived in Alexandria with witch medicine sent by the envoy Meng Yi, escorted by Bactria's cavalry officer Zaras. Although the Qin State was extremely far away from Egypt, the Qin State had already controlled the north and south of the Yin Mountains at this time, and the horse team crossed the Yin Mountains to the Mongolian Plateau, and it only took more than three months to reach Sogdiana from Jiuyuan County.

By Sogdiana, it was only a matter of time and diplomacy to reach West Asia, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Aristotle IV, who knew that King Eutidemus had made peace with Seleucus, would not allow the horse caravan to pass through Seleucus, and he instructed Zaras to follow the Sogdian caravan down the river to the Caspian Sea, and then to Egypt by boat from the Black Sea over the Greater Caucasus Mountains.

Leaving in June last year, the planting season in Egypt arrived (there are only three seasons a year in Egypt): the planting season, the harvest season, and the flood season), which took less than a year. This was due to the fact that the Qin state took control of Jiuyuan Prefecture and expelled the Hu people north of Yinshan, while the Seleucid Empire did not yet control its own northern trade routes like the Persian Empire, and finally the Egyptian navy, although defeated by the Antigonians on the island of Kos (256 BC), still firmly controlled the sea power in the eastern Mediterranean.

Egypt was synonymous with autocracy, so Aristotle IV did not say anything about the power of gunpowder, but only asked his friend, Aradosei, the curator of the Library of Alexandria and the tutor of Ptolemy III, to study the composition of gunpowder and try to imitate it.

This alone was not enough to attract the attention of Ptolemy III, and on the tenth day of the arrival of gunpowder in the Library of Alexandria, more silk-wrapped gunpowder was sent by unknown sources. If Aristotle IV sent only a hundred dramaks, then two tarrants followed. In addition to gunpowder, there was also a hollow iron pipe about several cubits long.

There is no doubt that this is a salute by the Chuni people, who visited last year when a Chuni merchant ship fired it in Alexandria. Every time it is released, there is the sound of thunder and blue-white smoke. In the presence of Ptolemy III, Eradose, and others, a stone was inserted into the front of the iron pipe, but after the sound of thunder, ten shields overlapping each other were shattered and pierced. At this time, Ptolemy III realized that the salute that the Chuni people paid tribute to him was such a deadly weapon.

The request of the people who came was no different from the request of the Qinni people, which was also to study the composition of those powders and try to imitate them. The reward was a hollow iron pipe for the thundering powder—in addition to the one sent, four more could be given to Egypt.

Dóceos's mention of the thunderous weapon caused Ptolemy III to worry that even if Egypt helped the Mains recapture Shebwo and Timna, the army would not be able to defeat the Chuni.

"What's the secret? The secret of thundering? Lysimachos asked. As the chief minister, he wondered if there was something he didn't know.

"Yes." Lysimachus, after all, was his younger brother, and Ptolemy III intended to hide it no longer. "Last year, the Chuni merchant ship fired a salute, and it was a weapon."

"Weapons?" Lysimachus looked at Ptolemy III, then at Doceceos, and finally at Apollonius, who had pretended to be asleep but had actually pricked up his ears to listen.

"Yes, a god-like weapon." Ptolemy frowned as he thought of the roar of the iron pipes, the gunpowder that erupted, and the stones that pierced his shield, and Docetheos explained. "Qin Ni's envoy ......"

"Qin Ni's envoy?!" Lysimachus shouted again, he had never heard of any Chini envoys.

"Yes. The envoy was sent by a scholar from Bactria, who had traveled to the easternmost continent. He asked Eradosse to study the secrets of the Thundering Weapon, which was originally just an exchange between the Bachelors. Doceseos tried to downplay the description in order to ease Lysimachos's complaints. He was the chief minister and the younger brother of Ptolemy III, and he had the right to know the whole thing.

"A Greek officer sent by the Bachelor described the use of thunderous weapons, which when used they made thunder, spit out flames and fired iron round projectiles, with a range greater than the farthest giant ballistae, and were capable of destroying forts tens of cubits thick......"

Zaras had kept Aristotle IV's admonition not to reveal the secrets of the artillery to the tyrannical Egyptians, but when he and Meng Yi saw that the Egyptians miraculously launched a Chu artillery, there was nothing to hide.

Doceseos described the power of the artillery in an extremely exaggerated tone, and Apollonius, who was pretending to be asleep, widened his eyes at this time, and Lysimachus was first stunned, and then shook his head repeatedly, "This is impossible! Only Zeus can ......"

"Lisimachus!" Ptolemy III interrupted him. "Although I hate to admit it, this is indeed a weapon that only Zeus can have. It let out a thunderous roar, spewing out flames several cubits long, and the stone projectiles fired from the front of the iron pipe could pierce through the silver shields overlapping on ten sides in an instant! I can't imagine the person who made it, I can only say that even Hephaestus couldn't make ......"

Ptolemy III spoke with terrible memories, and he was glad that he had not drunk the Chuni envoys in the name of the banquet and robbed them of their merchant ships after betraying the friendship of bread and salt. Because the merchant ship exploded and sank during the battle, and the salvaged weapons could not be imitated, they could only be sent to Alexandria.

The Chuni will definitely take revenge. According to the descriptions of the Tryuni envoys, the Chini envoys, and the Bactrian cavalry officers, the Chini envoys had more than 200,000 troops, and the Egyptian army never exceeded 80,000; Chuni had hundreds of transoceanic merchant ships armed with thundering weapons, and Egypt had none.

Pretending to know nothing is the strategy of Ptolemy III at the moment. If the Academy Master could discover the secret of the weapon, he would not have kept his promise to share it with those people, which would become the wealth of Egypt. However, the concern is that if Egypt used such weapons, then Egypt would be suspected of robbing merchant ships. Fortunately, the Qinni people also sent gunpowder, which may be explained by the fact that the Qinni people sent powder from thousands of miles away, and after their own research, they discovered the secret of the powder, and then began to use it.

Ptolemy III's slightly frightened look finally calmed Lysimachus, and he continued: "The Chuni will surely take revenge on those who blaspheme the gods, and we can only pretend that we don't know anything. Doceos ......"

"Your Majesty?" Doxyceos bowed.

"Take the Chief Minister to the Research Garden, he should know about it." Ptolemy III commanded. "Also, prepare for a grand ceremony in which I will personally welcome the envoy of the kingdom of Qin, who will arrive in Alexandria in a few days. And don't forget to tell everyone that the Qini brought weapons that only Zeus could use. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Doceseos agreed.

"Your Majesty, what about spices?" The old Apollonius asked. Although he was not allowed by Ptolemy to visit Zeus's weapons, he learned the secret after all. It's also a form of trust.

"Send someone to tell the Maiinites not to make any more light attacks until the Egyptian army arrives." Ptolemy III had previously struggled with war or negotiation. In view of the current situation, it is impossible to negotiate and can only fight. In battle, it is necessary to study and discover the secrets of Chuni's weapons, and perhaps to unite with the Seleucids, otherwise no matter how hard you try, you will fail.

Although Apollonius and Lysimachus wanted to send troops to support the Mains in retaking the spice source, even the emperor was afraid of the other side's weapons, so he had to temporarily back down the matter of sending troops.

After the discussion in the palace, the carriage took Lysimachus to the Research Garden. The Library of Alexandria knows many people, but not many people know about the Alexandria Academy. In fact, the library is only a part of the whole school park, and the college also includes a botanical and botanical garden, and a research garden. The place where the carriage is going now is the Research Park.

The school garden in the West is the same as the school palace in the East, and the main difference is that the former is founded by private individuals, and the latter is set up by the imperial court; In addition to political issues, the former also pursues the truth, while the latter aims to educate the children of the nobility and solve the chaos in the world.

When the carriage arrived at the Research Garden, Elado Sejiuhou in a purple robe was waiting for a long time. In order to study the secrets of Zeus's weapons, he not only invited all the scholars and wise men he could invite, but also searched for similar objects in Egypt and beyond Egypt through Ptolemy III -

After the gunpowder was sent to the research garden, after understanding that it was a mixture, the next thing to do was to separate, sulfur and charcoal are very recognizable, and the two are insoluble in water, but the white crystals obtained by recrystallization after gunpowder dissolution are not named. It's not that the scholar and the wise man have never seen this kind of crystal, but there are too many similar crystals, and they must be compared and screened to know what it is.

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