A few days later, when Queen Cleopatra once again led 3,000 soldiers from Alexandria to Memphis, all organized resistance was gone.

-- Seeing the flying beast and the queen's royal chariot coming at the same time, the noble officials in all parts of the country trembled and watched the scenery, and sent the people all the way to eat pot pulp, and offered food, wine, cattle and sheep to the queen's army as a sign of allegiance and submission. Even the Upper Egyptian army, which had been routed in the bombardment, had once again assembled and sent emissaries to the queen to negotiate the terms of treatment for Zhao'an and reorganization.

Although the old master's bones were busy changing the flag, it inevitably seemed a little undisciplined. However, in this era, the armies of Western countries, regardless of their establishment and combat effectiveness, have one characteristic in common, that is, they all belong to private armies. Soldiers are usually loyal only to their chief, not to their country. For example, the ongoing Roman Civil War was essentially a great infighting between Pompey and Caesar's private armies, and the prize was the domination of the entire country. And the civil war between Queen Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII is the same reason and logic.

Conversely, when the supreme leader is killed, the soldiers will switch to the banner of other powerful men without any psychological barriers.

-- Don't you see, in the original Roman history, after Caesar's assassination, many veterans who had followed Caesar in the southern and northern wars and had made outstanding achievements turned around and turned against Brutus, the leader of the Roman republicans who assassinated Caesar, so that the originally unarmed Roman republicans quickly gathered a huge army of 17 legions. Able to wrestle with Antony and Octavian on the battlefield...... Although Zuihou still lost.

Therefore, after the disappearance of Ptolemy XIII and Princess Arsino, it was natural that the nobles and armies who had been loyal to them defected one after another. And the Bedouin nomads who were originally hired by Ptolemy XIII to attack Alexandria. Seeing that his employer was defeated and killed, he had no money to take anymore, and was shocked by the queen's "air monsters", and he also scattered to his hometown in the desert, no longer posing a threat to the hinterland of Egypt under the queen's rule.

On the outskirts of Memphis, a group of Egyptian priests who had narrowly escaped the massacre had already greeted them with a large number of believers on the Nile-bank avenue. Queen Cleopatra was presented with two "rebel chiefs" who were bound with a lot of flowers: Theodorus, the king's teacher, and Potinus, the eunuch of the court. But Ptolemy XIII and Princess Arsinoe disappeared forever into the Nile, and no one knows their whereabouts.

For these two culprits who had tried to murder themselves and successfully banished themselves to Syria. Queen Cleopatra immediately revealed her cruel colors and did not hesitate to sentence their entire family to death, crucified and bloodied. When Theodorus and Potinus knelt in the dust, scolding or pleading, and a bunch of people interceding beside them. The queen immediately waved her whip and scolded:

“…… Smack! I am the whip sent by the gods to chastise you. Because no one knows how to atone for you bastards except me. You're all wicked and wicked, but I'm so much more cruel than you! So shut it all up! Die obediently! ”

After the initial shock of the execution of Theodorus, Pothinus, and some of their henchmen, Queen Cleopatra summoned the 3,000 surrendered troops who had been conscripted from the Faiyum region and had not yet fled, and ordered them to return to the Faiyum colony as soon as possible to stabilize the defense of their homeland and prevent the Ptolemaic dynasty from developing this rich land after more than two centuries of painstaking development. Taken by the indigenous rebel army of Upper Egypt.

And the abandoned border towns further down the Nile are now out of the question. I can only swallow this dumb loss.

Then the queen had to face a troublesome but unavoidable problem: how to deal with the relationship with the Egyptian priesthood?

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

In Egypt, surrounded by desert, the most terrifying time of the day is the scorching midday sun.

At dawn, a rare cool breeze knocks open the window and pours into the room, refreshing the spirit. However, the good times were short-lived, and as soon as the morning breeze blew away the slumber and lifted people's spirits, the scorching heat soon followed from the windows—the walls of the houses reflected a dizzying white light, and the clear sky was like a sea of fire, so that people could not open their eyes. Even if you stay on the banks of the Nile, you don't feel much coolness, because the glitter of the waves on the surface of the river is like a raging fire, and it is impossible to look directly at the sparkling waves.

Due to the tropical desert climate of Egypt, it is often not yet noon, going out has become a kind of torture in purgatory, and staying in the house is sleepy, and the sandman with the sultry heat is even more sleepy, and it is not until dusk that people can wake up from their slumber and feel a little more comfortable. Therefore, if it is not necessary, most of the modern urbanites like Wang Qiu and others who are lazy and hard-working choose to cross the wormhole and return to southern China of modern Shijie before the weather here in Egypt is unbearable - it is the winter vacation just after the Spring Festival, which is absolutely "cool"!

However, on this day, they did not return to the modern time and space to "escape the heat", but wandered among the columns of the Memphis Temple, admiring these magnificent monuments with a history of thousands of years. Towering roofs and stone pillars shelter from the scorching sun, bringing a rare ray of shade. The afternoon sun slanted into the temple's main hall from the west. Let the gorgeous columns drag out a long shadow on the ground, and the colorful murals and reliefs on the surface of the building, although they have peeled off and faded under the invasion of wind and sand, but in the light of the scorching sun, standing under the blue sky, it shows a simple and vicissitudes after thousands of years of wind and sand, as if solidifying the long-term ode to this ancient civilization.

Although they had been sacked by Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII not so long ago, they were at least far more intact than the rubble ruins of modern Shijie twenty centuries later. Except for a few buildings that were burned and collapsed, most of the temple's megalithic gatehouses, oracle platforms, altars, statues, and obelisks are still available. The gold leaf and jewels that adorned it were stolen and excavated, but the beauty and magnificence of these buildings were not damaged.

On those colonnades, frescoes, obelisks and imposing megalithic statues, hieroglyphs are used. Pictures, sculptures and other forms tell the story of the time of the pharaohs: wars, trade, festivals, harvests, balls, feasts, hunting, and the construction of pyramids...... Although the hieroglyphs on it are basically incomprehensible, visitors from 2,000 years ago can't help but want to be amazed......

Moreover, the images of the Egyptian gods in the temple are also very distinctive - the ancient Egyptians believed in polytheism, and the number of mythological gods was huge, as many as 2,000. Basically, every city and town has its own protector. There are also some powerful gods who are worshipped throughout Egypt, and the relationship between gods and gods, gods and humans is intricate, and there are three or four sets of creation myths alone...... The confusion of Egyptian mythology is well illified.

Furthermore. Perhaps because the ancient Egyptian civilization was relatively precocious and could not completely break away from the totem worship in the obscurantist era, almost half of the Egyptian gods were beast-headed and human-human, half-human and half-animal. It embodies the simple Shijie view of the ancient Egyptians - for the Egyptians in the age of ignorance. They were imprisoned almost all their lives in the isolated Nile Valley, on which they depended for all their livelihoods. Therefore, the gods who really had a profound influence on their lives and beliefs were not so much people as animals on the banks of the Nile.

-- In this small world on the banks of the Nile, all kinds of animals are integrated into the life circle of the Egyptian people in their own way. Crocodiles, hippos, jackals, etc., for example, are formidable animals -- scheming crocodiles will hide in the shadows by camouflage, waiting for an opportunity to attack fishermen, dogs, or children who are caught off guard; Hippos, on the other hand, climb the river bank in groups of three or five and destroy the crops and crops on which the people on the river bank with their beaks and huge hooves. Jackals will sneak into homes. Picking up children, lambs and cats...... Therefore, in the mythology of the ancient Egyptians, the crocodile god Sobek, the hippopotamus god Tavelit, and the wolf god Anubis are all evil gods.

Opposite. The cats of the cat god Buster are responsible for the elimination of rats for barns and dwellings, the dependents of Horus the Condor can also eliminate rodents to ensure grain production, the god Hartol provides meat, milk and labor for humans, and the male god Knum is the male ancestor of sheep, who also brings a good harvest to humans, providing meat, goat's milk and wool. Therefore, in ancient Egyptian mythology, they were both gods of abundance and goodness.

In general, in the ancient Middle East, or in the Shijie of the Egyptian civilization and the Lianghe civilization, the gods they worshipped were not as unearthly as the Eastern Shijie generally believed, let alone holy, pure, great, loving, and selfless. From the Sumerians, who created the first civilization of mankind (the "most ancient king" of the "Golden Flash" in the cartoon "FATE/NIGHT" is a Sumerian, of course, the real Sumerians are all black-haired), to the later Akkadians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Mitannis, and Hittites, all believe that people must rely on God. The fear of God, but God also depends on human needs, and the so-called faith and sacrifice are nothing but a special transaction. God created human beings to be served, and human beings serve God in order to obtain God's favor and reward. According to the priests, the purpose of man's existence was to perform labor, to provide food, clothing, shelter and service to the gods, and the gods relied on the service of men to live an aristocratic life without work. The gods needed space on the ground, so they built temples for the gods, carved idols out of precious wood, and the gods lived in them (but not completely fixed to them).

The gods had to eat, dress, and bathe (in fact, the "servants of the gods" had to eat, dress, and bathe), so the state set aside a large area of fertile land for the gods (temples), and the production of agriculture and animal husbandry was developed into a large-scale temple economy; At the same time, there were a large number of clergy who specialized in serving God's daily life, including high priests who specialized in delivering oracles and interpreting scriptures, musicians and singers who recited hymns and carols at festivals to praise God and comfort God, cooks who made food for God, people who bathed God, and attendants who accompanied the idol to sleep in the bedroom...... Wait a minute. And those glamorous and charming priestesses first evolved from the waitress who accompanied the idol to sleep in the bedroom.

-- In the ancient Middle East, where society was hierarchical, the highest priestesses were usually of noble blood. Many royal princesses were priests themselves. They were considered earthly wives to serve the gods and serve as brides in sacred wedding ceremonies—women priests were not required to maintain physical purity as the male priests did. Having a joyful physical fellowship with them is often seen as a blessing from God. For example, the famous Babylonian temple prostitute. It is to bring the style of "meat futon" to the extreme. In order to better reflect the "divine authority of kings", monarchs in the ancient Middle East often married priestesses as concubines, and queens, queen mothers, and queens often gave themselves the title of high priestess.

For example, Queen Cleopatra herself was the High Priestess of the goddess Isis – the goddess of motherhood and fertility in ancient Egypt and the greatest magician in the universe, who was in Egypt the same place as Guanyin Bodhisattva in China. The queen of Egypt would often add a sentence to her edicts, "I am in the name of the goddess Isis", just like the Chinese emperor's holy decree "Carry by heaven." The emperor said, "It's the same."

At this moment, Wang Qiu and the others were accompanied by a group of quite sexy priestesses, serving as interpreters for the "divine envoys". They wore black wigs. Necklaces strung with emeralds, lapis lazuli, agate, amethysts and colored glass pieces hang out. Dressed in white linen and a knotted white linen - a tubular bodice that runs from chest to ankle. Accentuate their graceful curves – with brightly coloured eyeshadows, dark and inky eyeliners, and flaming red lips, they create a particularly seductive and exotic look. And their intentional or unintentional teasing and head-scratching postures made Wang Qiu feel a little flurry for a while.

――――――――――――――――――――――――

On the other hand, the bald old priests who accompanied Queen Cleopatra made the queen feel like a fight, although the situation forced the remaining priests to put away those unrealistic delusions. Ostensibly swore an oath to the rule of Queen Cleopatra. But in reality, they still haven't given up on their ambitions. Always cheeky to pestering the Queen, chattering and fighting for various interests, especially to make Memphis a country within a state...... And this is something that Queen Bixia can never agree to!

Ancient Egypt before the Ptolemaic Dynasty was a theocratic state, with pharaohs exercising royal power as "living gods" and agents of gods on earth, strengthening their divinity and strengthening the foundation of rule with the help of religious propaganda, and the priestly group actively promoted the divinity of pharaohs for their own interests or for the interests of the ruling class; In return, Pharaoh gave the priests and temples rich rewards, and thus the power of the priestly group gradually increased—first with large tracts of arable land and herds of cattle, and then with gold and copper mines, and taxes from certain cities, and if you add in the offerings that the pious people regularly gave to the temple, these monks were far more rich than anyone else in Egypt, not even Pharaoh!

With such a strong economic power, the temple and the priestly group naturally had the capital to interfere with the secular regime. More advantageously, in ancient Egypt, the priests occupied the moral high ground and mastered the propaganda position, because they were the mouthpieces of the gods and shouldered many responsibilities such as spokesmen and image spokespersons for the gods. In short, in the age of theocracy, the priests were able to sway the electorate with the same tongue as modern politicians...... Oh no, it's the public sentiment of the common people of ancient Egypt that easily set off "mass incidents......

By the end of ancient Egyptian civilization, the priesthood had become the greatest rival of the royal power, exerting economic pressure on the pharaoh and thus swaying the regime. Zuihou even managed to make a large number of temple privates...... In this case, Pharaoh would not be able to sit in his seat! If one day you turn your face with the high priest and slap the table, then if you don't get it right, there will be a danger that a large number of mobs will be induced by the monks to break into the palace and cut off their heads!

In view of the above historical lessons, the Ptolemaic dynasty always exercised strict control over the Egyptian temples, and tried to control the activities of the temples and the priestly groups through the appointment of temple priests, the convening of temple councils, and the appointment of officials to exercise general management of the temples. At the same time, he spent a lot of money to build a luxurious temple, and deprived the tenant farmers of the fields attached to the temple as much as possible, so as to prevent the priests from gaining power and threatening the rule of the dynasty.

At the height of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Egyptian priests in Memphis were largely subservient. But when the dynasty was in decline and turmoil, they immediately reverted to their old ways, once again controlling the vast tracts of rural farmland around Memphis by various means, and even initially established a de facto semi-independent "church state", with the ambition to seize power with the Ptolemaic royal family...... Thankfully, the priests' caution was shattered once again through a catastrophe - but the germ of danger was not completely eradicated.

Therefore, Queen Cleopatra was entangled in this issue: on the one hand, she tried to implement indigenization reforms, absorb some of the indigenous Egyptian leaders to share power, expand the power base of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and eliminate the revolt of the indigenous Egyptians, so as not to drive them all to the side of the Upper Egyptian rebels; On the other hand, she had to prevent the infinite expansion of the power of the priests, which would once again form a cancer that threatened the royal power...... (To be continued......)