Chapter 4: Arthur's Miniature Kingdom
At the end of the 5th century, it was an era of collapse and suffering for Westerners at that time.
- Poverty, sin, death, hunger, cold, drought, tyranny, war...... constitutes the main theme of despair in this dark age.
The Roman Empire, which once unified the Mediterranean, was now falling apart. Wave after wave of ethnic migrations shattered the original ethnic living areas of Shijie in the West. The fierce Germanic tribes easily broke through the fragile defenses of the Romans and stormed their way from the forested banks of the Rhine to the carthage of North Africa. And the Hun iron cavalry galloping through Europe, under the leadership of Attila Khan, the "whip of God", launched a fatal blow to the western shijie dominated by Greco-Roman civilization.
Thus, the Western Roman Empire came to an end more than twenty years ago, and the Eastern Roman Empire was also struggling with the frenzy of barbarian invasions.
The afterglow of the Greco-Roman classical civilization is quietly extinguishing, and the entire land of Western Europe has since entered a long dark age.
Cities were destroyed, fields were deserted, books were burned, scholars were killed, and knowledge was forgotten......
The fierce Germanic barbarians buried the civilization of the ancient Roman slave empire, but they could not come up with a new and more advanced civilization to replace it, and as a result, they could only drag the entire land of Western Europe into the wilderness.
The Christian monks of Western Europe at that time used such a pathetic tone to describe their own lives: "...... Have you heard the voice of the times? Have you seen the colors of the times? Have you ever heard the wail of the end of the age and the brokenness? - No, just because you never lived! ”
In these terrible times of pain and despair. The island of Great Britain, isolated on the European continent, is clearly not immune to this fate.
Before the Roman conquest of Britain, the aborigines of the island of Great Britain were the red-haired and famous Celts. They formed villages in the form of tribes and clans, believed in primitive Druidism, believed that all things were animist, and generally lived a backward life of unclothed and slash-and-burn farming.
When the Roman legions that shocked Europe first landed in Britain, the great Caesar described the life of these Celts in his Gallic Wars as follows: "...... All Britons dye their bodies with indigo. It makes people appear sky blue, making it even more terrifying in battle. They also have long hair and are covered with the exception of their head and upper lip. Shaved everywhere. Wives are shared by ten or twelve men in each group, and are most common especially between brothers and fathers and sons, and if a child is born among these wives, it is considered to be the child of the first person who approaches her when she is a virgin ......".
-- From the point of view of the Romans. The island of Great Britain at that time. It's a completely uncivilized land of beasts.
The invincible Roman legions conquered the more agriculturally friendly southern part of the island of Britain, England and Wales, making it the province of Britannia of the Roman Empire. The famous Hadrian's Wall was then built near the border between Scotland and England to protect the Roman-ruled British people from the barbarians of the Scottish Highlands in the north.
The centuries-old rule of the Roman Empire left not only the first cities on the island of Great Britain. It also allowed the Celts in southern Britain to be influenced by Greco-Roman civilization, and quickly got rid of the old customs of ignorance and backwardness. They were on par with the Romans in their way of life and production, and soon became very different from their Celtic counterparts in the north, who were still hairy and blood-drinking.
In order to distinguish between these "civilized people" and "savages", the Celts in the province of Britannia began to refer to themselves as "Britons", while the Celts north of Hadrian's Wall were called "Picts".
At the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman Empire, which had dominated Europe for hundreds of years, was rapidly declining due to internal and external troubles, and gradually became unable to maintain its rule in Britain. The Germanic people from the Black Forest in Central Europe not only repeatedly attacked the Rhine defense line, which was vital to the life and death of the empire, but also carried out tactical detours, constantly trying to cross the sea and sneak attack Britain - from the map, the island of Great Britain is actually very close to the European mainland, much closer than Taiwan to the mainland. In the narrowest Strait of Dover, the watery haode guy only needs to jump into the sea with a plank and swim for a few hours to Kent on the island of Great Britain, which is very conducive to smuggling. For this reason, the Roman garrison had to build a lot of forts on the eastern coast of the island of Great Britain to defend against them, but they were still not very defensible, and from time to time they were robbed, just like the Ming Dynasty attacked the southeast coast of China.
In 407 AD, the British governor of the Western Roman Empire rebelled, drained all the Roman garrisons on the island, and crossed the Channel to Rome. Although the ambitious and talented governor was soon defeated in Gaul and was completely defeated by the government forces urgently mobilized by the Western Roman Empire, this untimely rivalry still led to the collapse of the Roman Empire's Rhine defense line - taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity of several Roman legions that were still fighting in Zuihou, all busy fighting each other, many Germanic tribes crossed the river to the west, and soon quickly overwhelmed France and Spain like a raging flood that burst the embankment, and even further crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and made a detour all the way back to Tunisia in North Africa......
In this way, after losing most of its territory in an instant, Britannia was isolated from the remaining de facto territory of the Western Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula. Unable to recover even France, the Western Roman Emperor had to abandon Britain and withdraw the remaining administrators from the island in 410 AD - thus ending Roman rule in Britain.
After the departure of the Romans, the Celts of Britannia once again became the masters of the land, but instead of establishing a unified kingdom, they staged a great drama of warlords competing for hegemony, and many small states sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, each of which was divided and fought against each other. At the same time, it was invaded and plundered by the uncivilized barbarians of the north, the Pictts...... In short, it was chaos, so that the Germanic barbarians on the other side of the sea couldn't help but move their minds while watching the excitement.
Among these Germanic barbarians who invaded Britain. The three strongest tribes of Shili are the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They are tall, golden-haired, and quite ferocious and warlike. The Jutes were the least numerous, but the first to land - in 450 A.D., a Celtic king in Kent, southeastern Britain, went to great lengths to defeat his neighbors. A group of Jute mercenaries were recruited from the mainland, and as a result, these Germanic mercenaries, after coming ashore, rebelled and attacked their masters. The Kingdom of Kent was established in the Thames estuary region, laying the first foothold for the Germanic invasions. Immediately afterwards, the Angles crossed the North Sea in the north and landed at Norfolk, northeast of England; The Saxons crossed the strait to the south. Merge with the Jutes. Forthwith. They began to attack the scattered Celts from both the north and the south, and they were gearing up to take the island into their pockets.
Although the Celts in the province of Britannia were clearly more civilized than the Germanic invaders on the other side of the sea, the fifth century AD, when the Roman Empire collapsed, was a sad time when civilization was no match for barbarism.
So, in just a dozen years. London, Colchester, Lincoln and other major cities in eastern Britain fell one after another. The Celts soon lost half of the island of Great Britain and had to retreat to Wales in the northwest and Cornwall in the southwest.
A.D. 476. The Roman Empire, which once dominated the Mediterranean Sea and spanned more than 5 million square kilometers, finally ushered in the collapse of the Western Empire in the midst of storms. At the same time, a Germanic army attacked and burned the important towns of Bath and Gloucester on the west coast of Great Britain, thus cutting off the land link between Wales and Cornwall, the two main cores of Celtic resistance. In the east, most of England was home to a bunch of small Anglo and Saxon states, which competed with each other and joined forces to continue to seize the remaining Celtic territory.
Although the Celtic revolt was in full swing as the Germanic tribes moved in - according to the original history, the Celts would continue to fight the Germanic invaders in the mountains, fields and rivers for a century and a half, Zuihou finally could not hold on and had to abandon the most fertile England and retreat to the remote areas of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittania in France.
After that, the Anglo-Saxons, who originated in northern Germany and Denmark, will officially kick out the Celts and become the main ethnic group of Great Britain; The name of the United Kingdom will also be changed from "Britain" to "England", which means "land of the Anglos".
In the original history of England, this was a dark period before the dawn, and when the dark ages were over, a new kingdom of England would emerge from the ruins. As Winston Churchill said, "It is Britain that sleeps in the dark, and England that wakes up at dawn." ”
However, just as this dark age was about to enter the deepest midnight, and the fate of the Celts was about to fall to the most tragic bottom, a behemoth that did not belong to this era quietly descended on the southwestern corner of the island of Great Britain......
―――――――――――――――――
The year 216 A.D., or the early autumn of 500 A.D.
The location is on the southwest coast of the island of Great Britain, across the sea from the island of Ireland, near the spa resort of Bath City.
Two and a half years have passed quietly since the "Carmellot" Antarctic research station crossed here from the British Antarctic Territory as a whole.
At this moment, the entire island of Great Britain is still struggling in the abyss of misery. The bitter cold of the global Xiaoice period hit agricultural production throughout Eurasia, further exacerbating social unrest - famine, riots, pestilence, massacres, looting and fighting, all kinds of brutal, painful and ugly events, which took place almost daily on this unfortunate island. Entire villages were razed and burned down by Germanic warriors and all food was confiscated, leaving the remaining villagers to starve to death, and displaced refugees flocked helplessly to the remaining villages and towns, but there was not much surplus food anywhere, and it put a huge pressure on the local law and order.
All kinds of terrible rumors and horror rumors are gradually spreading in people's mouths. The proclamation of "prophets", druids, and Christian missionaries proclaiming that the end of Shijie abounded, casting a grey shadow of despair over all of Britain.
However, in the vicinity of the "Camelot" research station crossing the site. At this point, a completely different picture is revealed.
-- After more than two years of operation and hard work, a small mini-kingdom has been born with the "Camelot" scientific research station as the center.
The golden breeze of early autumn blows through the woods and wilderness, bringing the fresh smell of earth and turf. The vast field is lush and green, dotted with small golden, purple, and pink flowers, swaying in the wind. The sun at three or four o'clock in the afternoon is not scorching. Shine warmly on the skin. People just want to find a comfortable open space, and then do nothing, just lazily lie down and take a nap.
Since the summer has just ended. The low hedges of the shrubs and the forest in the distance are still verdant at this time, in stark contrast to the fields that have already been harvested. Many Celtic farmers, dressed in rags and furs, were being abandoned. But now the fields have been reclaimed to harvest crops. Although the farm work is also very hard. But the Celtic farmers were still smiling one by one, because the baskets and piles of fresh potatoes gave these people who had suffered from famine finally hope for abundant food and clothing.
That's right, this land is full of potatoes, one of the staple foods of the 21st century in the UK and a world-renowned high-yielding crop.
In general, the island of Great Britain, with its temperate maritime climate, is not very suitable for agriculture. The temperature here is on the cold side. There are many rainy days and little sunshine. As a result, many crops do not grow well, but the pasture grass is very lush, so many places can only raise cattle and sheep.
Moreover, the agriculture of Europe in this era was also very backward, and the harvest of wheat in medieval England was usually three to four times the amount sown, and the most haode annual harvest was only six times, and it was rare for ordinary people to fill their stomachs several times a year. But now that the whole of Europe has entered a cold period, food production has fallen further...... In comparison, these hardy and high-yielding potatoes were precious in the eyes of the hungry Celts.
With the sparsely populated expanses of Britain at the time, potato sowing would not have been starved for at least a few generations after the mass promotion of potato sowing.
-- Of course, potatoes that were native to this time and space should still be sleeping on the American continent on the other side of the ocean, and they will never appear in Britain on the other side of the Atlantic. Therefore, the hundreds of hectares of potato fields in this area belong to the sturdy and magnificent "Castle of Carmellot" not far away, and the Celtic farmers in the fields are tenant farmers attached to the castle...... Because Lord Uther is now leading his troops out on an expedition, his son, Master Arthur, is now patrolling the fields with Chief Merlin to check this year's grain and vegetable harvest.
More than two years have passed, Arthur. Weasley has grown from a bubbly college student to a convincing warrior. Dressed in body armor and wearing a steel helmet, he has an image of an automatic rifle hanging from his back, though not as dashing as those medieval knights
“…… Despite some pests and diseases and a lack of fertility, at least five tonnes of potatoes can be produced per hectare. ”
Merlin, who was regarded by the Celtic natives as the "castle master". Bennard, dressed in a black robe and holding a rough oak cane, pointed to the field as he introduced Arthur, "...... In order to reward these farmers for their hard work, I propose to reduce the land rent by 20%, so that each person can get about 50 kilograms of ......potatoes more."
Arthur immediately nodded in agreement, and Merlin turned and announced the good news to the farmers in Celtic vernacular. The peasants present were all smiling, their eyes narrowed into a slit, revealing the few remaining yellow teeth, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed again and again, thanking the two adults for their generosity.
In addition to potatoes, which are the staple food, onions, cabbages, tomatoes and turnips in the garden are also growing well, but the problem is ......
“…… Merlin, is this wheat or dog's tail grass? Pointing to the shriveled wheat in the field, Arthur sighed hesitantly, "...... After depleting the flour in the research station, do we have to live by eating potatoes for the rest of our lives? ”
“…… No way, that's the case with wheat today, and there aren't enough fertilizers and pesticides in the station. Merlin spread his hands, indicating that he was helpless, "...... And I'm not an expert at cultivating hybrid seeds...... There's really no way to increase the yield of these medieval crops......"
-- Although the greenhouses of the research station provided a large number of indispensable crop seeds for the pioneering work of this time and space. But in that small greenhouse, at best, some vegetables and fruits were grown, and no one would have thought of growing wheat, corn and rice in Antarctica. Even these potatoes in the field are all due to the large amount of potatoes that have been hoarded as vegetables in the research station, and a small part of them have sprouted due to poor storage......
In addition, hundreds of cattle, sheep and horses are scattered on the grasslands around the fields. Obviously, these things are not stored in the Antarctic research station, they are all support gifts from the surrounding allies, ransom for the capture of high-ranking prisoners of war, and voluntary donations from the people under its jurisdiction - thanks to the potatoes that can be called "the artifact of a strong country", as well as the guns of the traversers, many refugees saw that they were safe to eat, wear and wear in "Carmellot", and began to flock here one after another, volunteering to become tenant farmers, and in a short period of time, this wilderness has regained thousands of new people.
And inexplicably came to this Shijie's "Carmelott" scientific research station, and since then it has become the capital of a new mini-small country. (To be continued......)