All in all, three and a half years after being admitted to university, Wang Qiu once again returned to his high school alma mater - as a chengguan.

And the Fourth Independent Squad of the Traverser of the Chengguan Dogtooth International Column (the semi-official number given by Captain Xiao Se) also entered the High School Affiliated to Longkong Mountain University and settled down in the student union office that had been idle for a long time on campus.

The main reason for this situation is, on the one hand, Cai Rong, who has the physique of attracting wormholes, has taken a year off from school, and she really can't continue to skip school, so as not to delay her life, and others can only follow this vitality Lori to act together; On the other hand, the city's urban management headquarters building was demolished, and the new building was located in the suburbs, so the traffic and life were not very convenient, so Wang Qiu and they found another place to work.

Obviously, since Cai Rong has to stay in the school all day, it is the best choice to move the chengguan office into the school together.

In order to prevent this incident of "urban management entering the school" from becoming too strange, the relevant departments tried to cover up their identities for Wang Qiu and the others -- Ma Tong was appointed as a legal propagandist at the high school affiliated to Longkongshan University because he had a teaching certificate...... Although this simple and crude guy is estimated to only teach a bunch of violent maniacs; Professor Yang is a respected veteran in the education field, and he was given a vacant position in the school's party organization; Wang Qiu has an additional title of "public security supervisor" on his head, ostensibly tasked with expelling the hawkers who gather at the school gate to obstruct traffic, but in fact he does not have to worry about performance appraisal at all, as long as he has free time to go around the school gate to ensure that these hawkers carrying large bags and small bags can run faster than anyone else.

As for the wolf female commissar Sonia...... First of all. Her positions basically overlap with the old political commissar Professor Yang, and it is inevitably a little awkward to meet each other; Secondly, she often had to play Anubis, the god of death, on the ancient Egyptian side. Every time I come back, I will be so hot that I will lie on the ground and stick out my tongue like a dog, and I really don't have the heart to mix it with other things, so I usually shrink up in Wang Qiu's house to drink, watch TV and play games, and rarely haunt the high school affiliated to Longkongshan University.

Then, the relevant departments instructed the school to give Cai Rong the title of vice president of the student union, responsible for handling the non-existent "student union affairs". and "liaise and coordinate" with the urban management personnel stationed on campus...... Finally, the problem of covering up the identity was barely solved.

As an old-fashioned person, Professor Yang felt awkward about dealing with the supernatural in the student council office. But the young people who have been influenced by Japanese anime think that this is normal - you don't see those alien bases. Huge robots, demon kings, breast-busting female demons, milk-sucking alchemists. Not all of them are based in the student union room of a certain university. Are you planning to destroy or save Shijie?

Of course, although the office has been moved to the school, as a "big boss" who trades dozens or hundreds of tons of goods every day, Wang Qiu is not interested in having too much interaction with his younger brothers and sisters, and their main work is still around cross-time and space trade.

But it is a pity that the current situation of cross-time and space trade they are engaged in is both good and bad, and there is good news. There is also bad news.

The good news is that it has been connected since the end of last year. The wormhole connecting modern time and space and ancient Egypt in the first century BC is still unblocked after being maintained for nearly three months, and there is not even any sign of energy attenuation, far breaking the previous record of wormhole maintenance time - except for this wormhole, the exit of the remaining recorded wormholes on the modern Shijie side can usually only last for more than ten days to more than a month, and the longest record is only 63 days (due to the difference in time flow rate, It's possible that the alien shijie on the other side of the wormhole has passed for several years).

The reason is that in this crossing, there was a phenomenon of "one soul and two bodies" that had never been seen before: the source of the wormhole, the zombie witch Sanae Rika after the soul crossed into Cleopatra, her original body was actually carried by Wang Qiu again, and it was successfully activated, becoming a strange situation of two doppelgangers of one soul, and this doppelganger has also passed through the wormhole many times and returned to modern time and space......

As a result, the zombie witch Sanae Rika, or Cleopatra Cleopatra, logically became "Schrödinger's cat", neither crossed nor crossed, neither came back nor returned, so the wormhole caused by her should and should not disappear - this series of analyses may make people a little dizzy, in short, according to the online video conference of several "senior time-travelers" in China, this wormhole has become permanent nine times out of ten...... The premise is that Cleopatra on the other side of the wormhole cannot die.

In this case, Wang Qiu's cross-plane trade in this plane finally no longer needs to engage in the short, flat and fast way of getting a vote and leaving, which is neither disciplined nor jishu content, but can set up a stable trading station and trade network, and even build a colony across time and space.

The bad news is that the trade and development situation in ancient Egypt has encountered a bottleneck that is difficult to break through......

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“…… On the other side of the wormhole, the entire Mediterranean is full of wars, whether it is the remnants of the Caesar faction, or the leaders of the republican faction, or the rest of the shili with ill intentions, such as the king of Pontus in Asia Minor, the Jews of Israel, the Parthians entrenched in Persia, and the kingdom of Numibia in North Africa, all of them are trying to squeeze all the resources in their own jurisdictions and throw them into this vigorous war......"

On the floor in the center of the student union office, Wang Qiu spread out a huge map of the ancient western shijie around the Mediterranean region, using colored pens of various colors and chess pieces and small flags representing the army shili to introduce the "latest international developments" of ancient Egypt to people who have not traveled much recently...... However, the sharp-eyed senior sister Ma Tong noticed that this map seemed to look like it was cut from the CG of the "Total War" game......

“…… Now, Shijie on the side of Queen Cleopatra has entered the summer of 47 BC. The civil war in the Roman Republic was still in full swing, with soldiers from all walks of life competing against each other. After Caesar and Pompey were killed by us. This war seems to be fighting more intensely!

Among the two camps that were directly at war, the republicans of the Senate were based in the North African province, which is modern-day Tunisia. There are still remnants of Shili in Croatia in the north of the Adriatic Sea and Syria in the east; Caesar's old ministry was relatively firmly in control of Gaul, Italy, and Greece, while Spain, which had already been conquered by Caesar, broke out again in civil strife, and the various soldiers and horses fought there into a pot of porridge, which could be ignored for the time being.

On the surface, although Caesar is dead, his old ministry still has an absolutely superior overall strength. It controls the core of Rome's most elite territory: Italy and Greece. The Republicans, on the other hand, had only a small area of territory in North Africa, plus two enclaves that they could not count on at all—the Republican fleet in Croatia, which was lone behind enemy lines and lacked land forces. Just like the 'Red Women's Army' of the Qiongya Detachment during the Chinese Liberation War, it was isolated from the main battlefield, and it was not easy to maintain its own survival, and it was difficult to have much impact on the strategic situation.

As for the republican army in the Syrian provinces...... It's the remnants of the Roman robbers we ran away not long ago. By the original assassination of Caesar, the same Marcus. Brutus commanded. With a total force of only a few thousand men, they were about to face a massive attack by Pontic King Pharnasis, and it was feared that it would not last long before it would be destroyed, let alone split his forces to support the republican leader of North Africa, Cato the Younger, unless he abandoned his province and fled. ”

“…… In this way, although we changed history and killed Caesar, the decaying Roman Republic was still doomed to retire from the stage of history? ”

Ma Tong first looked around the Caesar-occupied areas marked in blue, and then at the Republican-controlled areas marked in red, and found that the former had several times the area on the map than the latter. And the pawns of the soldiers, who represent the legions, are also more owned by the former. So he muttered.

“…… On the face of it, it seems that Caesar's remnants still had a strong chance of winning after his death, thanks to the foundation laid by his previous victories. ”

Wang Qiu pretended to be deep and nodded and shook his head, "...... But the problem is that the republicans still have a leadership core in North Africa, and Caesar's old ministry was completely disbanded after Caesar's death—Antony, entrenched in Rome, with ten legions in his hands; Vatinius, who was in southern Italy, and Lepida, who was quelling the rebellion in Spain, each had three legions; Gabinius, who had fled to Greece, had two legions left; Several generals who stayed in the Gaul base camp also had some troops in their hands, and all of them did not obey anyone, just like the Beiyang warlords after Yuan Shikai's death.

Therefore, the republicans of the Senate, who are at an absolute disadvantage in military strength, are currently the party that has the ability to take the initiative to attack. According to information gathered by Queen Cleopatra in Alexandria, Cato the Younger had already led three legions north from Carthage in April, landed and occupied Sicily, and confronted Vatinius' three legions deployed in southern Italy across the strait. Another republican army launched a counterattack against Spain, intending to take advantage of the chaos there to recruit rebels and expel Caesar-appointed Spanish governor Lepida to the north of the Pyrenees. ”

“…… The strategy of the Roman republicans is obviously a bit big! They only had a total of six legions in North Africa, less than one-third of Caesar's remnants, but they actually wanted to give up their geographical advantages and take the initiative to attack! Regardless of the Spanish battlefield for the time being, in the Italian battlefield, Cato Jr. is using three legions against the thirteen legions of Caesar's remnant! This guy is only a politician and moralist in history, so he shouldn't be very good at fighting! ”

Professor Yang pushed his glasses, pointed to the Italian theater of operations on the map, and said, "...... Judging by the information available, I am not very optimistic about the prospects of the Roman republican military bloc. Of course, civil wars are different from foreign wars, and many times we can't just look at the comparison of forces, but also all kinds of behind-the-scenes deals and conspiracies, so I don't dare to make a conclusion about how this war will develop in the future......"

“…… Who won and who lost the Roman Civil War between the Republicans and the Caesars did not mean much to Egypt ruled by Queen Cleopatra. In fact, if the Republicans win, it may not work in our favor. For it meant that the Roman Republic had been stabilized for the time being, and perhaps if we licked our wounds, we would come back to Egypt for trouble, after all, we had killed Pompey the Younger, and Brutus had been beaten in the head. And after the victory of Caesar's old army, they may have to fight with each other again to determine who is the boss...... Wait until the fire of this endless war is finally extinguished. Rome's hegemony is probably almost crumbling. Wang Qiu commented.

“…… So, what impact did this fratricidal war between the Romans have on our trade across time and space? Ma Tong interjected.

“…… The direct impact of the Roman Civil War on trade across time and space. It is because the wealth of the entire Mediterranean Shijie is being consumed by this protracted war, even the rich dare not share the pleasures, not to mention the many famous cities and commercial ports that were once prosperous and prosperous, all destroyed in the war, and this was originally an excellent market where we could dump silk, cotton, glassware, porcelain and spices......"

Wang Qiu sighed and replied, "...... The worst thing is. As a result of the forced expropriation of a large number of merchant ships for military use, the conversion of many defeated regular navies into pirates, and the blockade of hostile ports. Trade across the Mediterranean was shrinking, with only a handful of merchant ships entering Egypt each month. Moreover, even the merchants who came to Egypt mostly only wanted to buy grain and cheap cloth. Reluctance to buy luxury goods in large quantities. As a result, the luxury market that is open to us is very small, and as long as you put a little bit of goods into it, it will quickly become saturated.

Beginning in March 47 B.C., an average of only ten to fifteen merchant ships arrived in Egypt every month, and they were all small merchants with little capital. Although they were enthusiastic about the silk, pepper, mirrors, matches and chemical fiber cloth we provided, these people still preferred to buy the wheat and barley that their homeland desperately needed. After about three thousand meters of silk, the silk we sent was slowly unsellable, and now it had to be used to pay the salaries of soldiers and officials. Other matches, silk, fabrics, etc. After the initial short sales peak, there was also a slow-selling phenomenon......"

Speaking of which. Wang Qiu couldn't help but sigh again, "...... At the same time, we had to advance money to buy food, to finance Queen Cleopatra's relief for refugees, to stabilize the situation in Egypt, and to purchase weapons and equip an Egyptian army...... Overall earnings are still in deficit so far......"

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“…… Strange, how could this happen? This is completely unreasonable! Senior Sister Ma Tong wiped her glasses and said in confusion, "...... The goods we dumped in the past, although some of them were flashy luxuries, but there were also many very practical daily necessities, far better than the crude things they knocked out of the handicraft workshop, and the price was not too expensive, how could they not be sold? I hadn't had this kind of trouble before in the fifteenth-century Eastern Roman Empire and the sixteenth-century Aztec Empire in Central America......"

“…… Hey, you young people, have you returned all the modern Chinese history you learned in high school to your teacher? I don't understand such a simple truth! ”

Hearing Ma Tong's question, Professor Yang first looked up at her in surprise, then shook his head hatefully, turned around and picked up a high school history textbook from the table, and stuffed it into Ma Tong's hand, "...... Flipping through this part, between the First Opium War and the Second Opium War, the resistance of China's traditional natural economy to the dumping of foreign goods, and then by analogy with the situation in ancient Egypt, you will understand what is going on! ”

“…… Foreign goods, dumping ......" Ma Tong and Wang Qiu put their heads together, looked at the textbooks that had long been vaguely impressed, and muttered these words, "...... Could it be that the sales bottleneck we are encountering now can also be understood as the resistance of the ancient natural economy to the dumping of modern industrial products? ”

“…… In my opinion, it should be more or less the same. Professor Yang replied calmly, "...... Truth be told, it is not enough to open a treaty port to dump industrial products against a traditional agrarian society, and to make a steady stream of violence -- you must not forget that when you dumped industrial goods in Central America, you also encountered the problem of the Indians not having enough gold and silver on hand......

-- As Professor Yang said, the self-sufficient traditional natural economy of ancient societies had a strong resistance to the dumping of foreign goods.

In the mid-nineteenth century, after the Opium War ended, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, and the gates of the Qing Dynasty were opened by strong ships and cannons, Pu Dingcha triumphantly returned to London and declared to reporters in Parliament that the British Expeditionary Force had opened a new market for British merchants in the East. The market is so vast that as long as every Chinese uses an extra inch of fabric for the back of their shirts, the Lankshire factory will be busy for decades!

As a result, the ecstatic British merchants "seemed to all go crazy at the thought of opening trade with 300 million or 400 million people" and immediately rushed to ship all kinds of foreign cloth, foreign fires (matches), clocks and watches, and other industrial products to China, without considering the needs of the Chinese market or the actual purchasing power of the Chinese people...... As a result, they were all gorgeously tragic.

-- At that time, China did have a vast market of 300 million to 400 million people, but among these people, the vast majority of them were extremely poor peasants who could not find a few pennies in their pockets and had difficulty even having enough to eat. As for those rich people in the Qing Dynasty, they did not develop the habit of drinking Western wine, smoking Cuban cigars, and using French perfumes, although many people were very interested in Western clocks, but usually as long as they had a pocket watch in their pocket, a pendulum clock at home was enough, so why buy a lot of them?

As a result, after the Opium War, the amount of foreign goods imported into China soared for a time and then quickly declined, and a large number of cotton cloth and matches were piled up in warehouses and could not be sold, and knives, forks, pianos and other things were left unattended, causing many British merchants to lose their pants......

Now, in the 21 st century, a similar commercial dumping problem has been placed in front of Wang Qiu and others. (To be continued......)