"I confess that when the vast plain of Troy unfolds before my eyes, the scenes that once appeared in my childhood dreams come to life, and I can't help but be overwhelmed with emotion." - Heinrich, the German "archaeologist" who excavated Troy. Schlieman

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The remaining garrison on the city hurriedly threw torches and masonry at these things, but the thing wrapped in animal skins obviously did not eat fire, and the Medetier people with shields lined up this thing, and the city wall was getting closer and closer, what the hell was going to do, neither like a long-range ballista, nor like a ram's head hammer that hit the city defenses, and finally approached the city wall only twenty Roman feet away, and the Medetier people used torches to put a little into this cedar wood cylinder, and the pine resin, asphalt and sulfur in it burned violently, Then a few people shouted and began to use the tail blower to shoot out the flames, and the four fire dragons burned the linen used to shield the stone bullets in the air, and poured directly on the battlements, whirring and burning, and many people in the garrison were full of flames on their backs and waists, screaming and rolling down, not to mention guarding, even the craftsmen who repaired were frightened, and threw down their work and rushed towards the inner city.

Li Bida did what he said, and in this day, his army laid wooden planks on the ruins, and then pulled "bellows cannons" into it, spewing fire everywhere, and burning down a quarter of the temple street complex, although this was very troublesome, far less efficient than sending an infantry brigade in and directly ordering houses, but the use of bellows and cannons was obviously more deterrent. These monsters spew out tongues of fire. The walls of the temple, which are carved with frescoes and hieroglyphs, are blackened. The wooden houses burned down, and many priests fell between the collapsed pillars and floors.

The temple clerk was so frightened that he drew a pen from the papyrus plywood, recording the terrible deeds of the pagans who drove "great black fire-breathing monsters" with their evil power to burn down half of the city of Thebes, "as if the whole world of the gods was punishing Pharaoh and his army, as the high priest had said, but of Thebes." The priests of this city may have been too vain and greedy in the past years to be disqualified from serving the gods, and Abinus, the god of death, has reappeared with the evil god Amit (a god with a crocodile head, hippopotamus legs, and a lion body who devours the souls of the dead) to restore order to the god Matt on the basis of destruction. ”

As a result, these rebellious manuscripts of the document were bumped into by the high priest who passed by

The most rear. The grizzled envoy of the temple came to the barracks of Li Bida under the city. Ask for peace.

"I will see Pharaoh's priesthood, not the priest." So said the general.

The so-called holy service, that is, the officials directly under Pharaoh, who kept the corpses, tombs and statues for him, the envoys looked at each other, and then explained that there were no holy servants in the temple of Thebes, only the priests of the temple. ”

The envoys were embarrassed: Isn't this just a false promise, although they know that the Tao is true, but don't say it directly, everyone can't hold it on their faces.

After Li Bida lost his temper, he hummed and put forward conditions one after another, "Immediately build a fortress group on the west bank of Thebes, with the Temple of Serapis as the core, and you must not interfere in any way." ”

"The gods of Pharaoh's majesty are to enter the genealogy of Thebes, and enjoy the same right of worship as Amun and other gods, and participate in the feast of the valley and place them in the bow of the holy ship."

"This time, Thebes must pay two thousand Talents to compensate our legions, and for the attack on the Tomb Guards, the High Priest must go to Alexandra to apologize to His Majesty the Pharaoh of the Perfect God."

The last one, which shocked the envoy the most, was proposed by Li Bida, "Thebes must accept a new decree, that is, Pharaoh will then appoint Nome (prefect) to be stationed in the fortress, and once Nom receives the requirements of the superiors, in case of famine, disaster and military service, the temple of Thebes must unconditionally hand over half of the annual income of sacrifices and food to Nome." ”

The envoys were shocked, they were all priests of some culture, and naturally understood what Li Bida's condition meant, that is, Pharaoh no longer allowed Thebes to maintain the image of a "state within a state" with "extraterritoriality", and the huge temple empire was going to collapse? Do you want to accept the management of Noam, appointed by Pharaoh? But the general in front of him didn't seem to be joking at all, "I am now the Pharaoh's appointed overseer vizier (the prime minister of ancient Egypt), and I also enjoy the power of the chief of Thebesnom, and soon our army will go to the tribes of southern Cyrenaica to escort the return of Pharaoh's heirs, so the 'half-tax order' will take effect immediately, do you understand what I mean?" ”

The messenger's mind also turned, and he remembered the high priest Penmaat's instructions, "Try to make the normal demands of the other party temporary." "If His Majesty, Pharaoh, the son of Ramon, needs to go on an expedition, Thebes will naturally assist in praying before the gods and provide a very generous reward, which I hope the general can rest assured." ”

"Nope." Lybidaeus's face was like a knife cut, cold as ice, and he paused word by word, "Didn't I say it clearly enough before?" The half-tax order is a decree, not a temporary rise, half is half, a little more or a little less will not work! Now go back and give Thebes a day, and then give all the books, deeds, and books of accounts that are in the treasurer's possession. ”

The register is the name and family information of the tenants under the jurisdiction of the temple;

The contract is the farm and workshop under the temple;

The account book is a record of the temple's lending over the years.

If you hand these over, what is the value of the existence of the city of Thebes? But if you disobey the general now, it seems that there is no possibility of continuing to exist.

The temple butcher general then said, "Don't be foolish when you go back to sort these things, I have hundreds of low-level scribes to whom the pharaoh belongs, and I will send them to "help" you to sort them out together, plus ten centurions and three hundred Madjie guards.

Eventually, the temple succumbed, and while the heavily armed soldiers escorted the messengers into the inner city of Thebes, the army of Li Bida, who was stationed in the outer city of ruins, began to light a fire and cook, "Then, what are you going to do after handing over these?" Standing at the mouth of the tent, watching the soldiers carrying things to and fro, Sabo turned back and asked carefully.

"Don't panic, Sabo, I know that Egypt is a country where gods are much more powerful than Rome, and Rome pays attention to the contract with the gods, I sacrifice to you, and you repay me, and the Egyptians don't seem to know the difference between reality and the divine realm. Therefore, my measures will not be particularly radical, and immediately after the temple has handed over its human and financial resources, I will give a quarter of the tenants and property to Pharaoh's treasury, and henceforth these will be the direct property of the Ptolemaic royal family, and will be managed by Pharaoh's confidant treasurer. And for the rest, Saab, guess what I'll do with it? Li Bida said this, deliberately sold Guanzi, and came to Saab's answer. (To be continued......)