503 A.D., Castle of Carmellot, southwestern Britannia

Under the fluttering red dragon flags, a large-scale and imposing fortress towers over the hillock, and the momentum is extraordinary.

After several years of construction, the Castle of Carmellot, where the "Red Dragon King" Arthur Bixia is stationed, is no longer just a defenseless Antarctic research station, but has formed a defensive fortress with military value. Around the original research station complex, two new defensive stone walls were added, as well as a forest of guard towers, and a circle of trenches with sharp wooden stakes at the bottom. In addition to the main body of the fortress, several beacon towers and auxiliary fortresses were built to defend the "royal city" of Camelot, relying on the topography and mountains.

By the standards of modern Shijie, such a defensive facility could not withstand a round of artillery bombardment, but in the dark Middle Ages of the Cold Weapon Age, the defensive capabilities of Camelot Castle were enough to discourage tens of thousands of troops and return in vain.

What's more, on the island of Great Britain, where the total population is now only a few hundred thousand, no one can afford to assemble tens of thousands of troops.

With a clear sound of horns, the suspension bridge chained to the stone wall was slowly lowered, and two silver aluminum alloy gates burst open, and Arthur with a crown rode out, while Wang Qiu stumbled behind on a three-wheeled motorcycle - although he had been wandering around various ancient planes for a long time, he still hadn't learned to ride a horse, and he didn't really want to learn it, because this skill was completely useless in modern time and space.

At this time, it was a bright spring, and the soft afterglow shone with a faint gorgeousness and a golden halo. The island of Great Britain in the north is also in bloom, the mountains are full of flowers, and the shallow streams along the road are shaded by weeping willows and wild flowers.

It's a pity. Arthur and the others are not here to go on a trip this time, and in the face of this vibrant spring beauty, there is no joy on the faces of the laity who do not understand elegance - because there are too few arable land and farms dotted in this natural mountain scenery!

Ever since Arthur received the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus. The legacy of Augustus, after marrying Princess Theophanus, the only surviving descendant of the emperor, ordered the complete abandonment of the secluded north. The easily fortified city of Gloucester relocated the remaining 20,000 or so inhabitants to the vicinity of Carmellot Castle, which was cut off from the central part of the island of Great Britain due to its location at a critical point of transportation. After the confrontation between the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons stabilized, the city of Gloucester became the hardest hit area by barbarian invasions, and frequent wars were ignited for many years. Although the emperor won many glorious victories, his own losses were not small. Even zuihou was boiled to the point of exhaustion. So much so that he can only give the foundation to others.

Moreover, although the wormhole can be moved at will, the Carmellot research station cannot be moved, and Arthur and the other time-travelers stranded in this era do not want to lose this comfort zone, and do not want to live in a place without heating, running water, and electricity.

Princess Theofanus agrees with this - as a descendant of the wealthy of the Eastern Roman Empire who has seen many scenes in the prosperous places of Constantinople and Athens, she has long been fed up with the filthy streets, dilapidated palaces, poor food, poor clothing, and monotonous life in Gloucester...... The father's cremation ceremony (cremation was popular in ancient Rome) ended. She couldn't wait to get into the cozy bedroom of the Carmellot research station, cuddling her fluffy penguin pillow. While listening to the music of the combination stereo, I rolled on the soft Simmons bed.

- Don't say that what she did was unfilial, after all, the ancient Romans and the ancient Chinese had completely different moral concepts, simply put, except for the unequal status of men and women, everything else is similar to the open atmosphere of modern Western European and American countries, or even better. For example, the husband with a slave girl at home, the wife has an affair with a gladiator in the arena, the good friend exchanges wives with each other to deepen the relationship, and the good friend strips and joins in front of his father's grave...... Such strange things as this were common in the history of ancient Rome and were taken for granted.

If in the time of the Romans, there really was a filial son and daughter who wore white clothes and built a straw hut in front of their parents' graves to cry and sacrifice their filial piety, then others would suspect that they were mentally ill, or even more exaggerated, thinking that they were engaged in some kind of black witchcraft and should be burned at the stake.

Due to the difference in the time flow rate of seventy to one on both sides of the wormhole, when more than two years have passed on Camelot's side, Wang Qiu has only been in modern Shijie for less than two weeks, but, judging from the opportunity to meet and contact, Arthur and Princess Theophanu, or Princess Gnevael, the couple's married life seems to be quite harmonious - Arthur specially commissioned Wang Qiu to get a lot of Latin and Greek books from a foreign bookstore in Shanghai to relieve Princess Gneevil's boredom, In addition, a lot of film and television programs with ancient Roman themes were also obtained, which were screened using the video room equipment of the scientific research station.

Seriously, that scene is really embarrassing to look at - the freshly baked King Arthur and the princess of the Western Roman Empire, while admiring "The Erotic History of the Roman Empire" and "Spartacus - Blood and Sand", while discussing whether Emperor Tiberius is as perverted as in the movie, whether Emperor Caligula is as absurd as in the movie, and what is the real gladiator competition scene......

Well, in general, according to Princess Gnevelle, the scenes in the movie seem to be very different from the history she knows.

In addition, if it was an ordinary succession to the throne, Arthur's identity would probably be questioned by the old Shili of Gloucester City, and even rebelled and challenged. But now in front of the rockets, machine guns, and grenades that the Traveler kindly sponsored...... Those careerists and the like still washed and slept.

For the residents of Gloucester who moved to Camelot, the short move was not too strenuous. Anyway, they had nothing to do, and even the grain in the suburban farms was robbed and burned by the barbarians. Since Camelot was in charge of food and clothes to wear (the old military uniforms that had been hoarded in the strategic material reserve for thirty years), he remained in place with nothing. They naturally know what choice they should make.

Moreover, among them, quite a few belonged to lowly serfs. Even life and death are not up to them, and moving and relocating can only be decided by the owner. There are also many residents of Bath City, the spa capital, who only moved to Gloucester because Emperor Romulus had contracted his line of defense and abandoned Bath City. Now that I just move back in, it will naturally be easier to accept the reality.

zuihou, between these two places. In fact, it is only 40 kilometers away, and a modern car only needs to drive for half an hour, even if it is completely on two legs. A day or two is about the same, and it seems that the sorrow and sorrow of being uprooted from home are not talked about much.

In short, relying on the relief food distributed by the traversers and the original food savings in the city. After barely surviving the harsh winter of 500 AD. The Roman remnants and Celts of Gloucester City began to slowly migrate to Camelot in the south. And the Anglos and Saxons also knew each other and did not come to make trouble—although no matter how many they came, it was a dead end, but the cost of ammunition consumed was enough to make Wang Qiu feel distressed to death.

After the country moved south, a small number of these people scattered around Camelot Castle, cultivating fields and grazing sheep. Most of them moved to Bath City, the hot spring capital of the "castle town", to restore the city's former prosperity, and some were assigned to the mouth of the Avon River. The future Bristol Harbour area was responsible for building the harbour with a small number of fishermen. Develop overseas trade.

Relying on the high-yielding seeds, agricultural fertilizers, excellent poultry varieties, advanced farming jishu and other golden fingers provided by the traversers, plus the perfect geological and hydrological data of the future shijie, this small kingdom soon appeared a thriving scene.

However, the good times did not last long, just in the autumn harvest of 501 AD, when the subjects of the Camelot kingdom, who had just built a new home, sang and danced, drank and feasted, welcomed the potato harvest and the fat chicken barn. A terrible catastrophe has quietly befallen this paradise.

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“…… After the immigrants from Gloucester moved into the country, according to the statistics of the previous spring, the total population of the Kingdom of Carmellot reached 29,345 people, and since then several groups of Celtic immigrants have come to defect. But ......"

Looking at the still somewhat empty and sparse cottage, Wizard Merlin, who was holding the accounting book, smiled bitterly, "...... Since the outbreak of the first plague, the population of the kingdom has declined instead of increasing, and during the outbreak of the second plague, there was even a large-scale exodus - Zuihou gradually stopped the trend of fleeing because the epidemic in other surrounding areas was more serious and there was no supply of specific medicines. There were even many serfs and freedmen who fled because their masters and lords fell ill and died. Overall, however, the country's population has fallen to less than 25,000 people......"

——After crossing the wormhole naked and breaking into the women's bathroom, experiencing some twists and turns of the light festival, and finally successfully returning to the modern Shijie, Merlin originally didn't want to go back to the desolate British island of the dark Middle Ages, but was anxious to take a plane back to see his wife and children. Helplessly, the British Ministry of Magic was overjoyed when it learned of this, and the cabinet secretary, Harry. Mr. Gordon personally wrote an official letter, strictly urging Mr. Merlin to stick to his post, and through this rare learning opportunity, he will accumulate various experiences and lessons for the possible development of the British Empire's trans-temporal colonial cause in the future...... Therefore, for the sake of the promised public office and future pension, Mr. Merlin was reluctant to return to King Arthur's command and fulfill his duties as a civil official and a wizard.

“…… Plague, plague again! It's as if no matter where we traversers go, there will be a constant outbreak of plague! This was true in the Aztec Empire in Central America, in Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the island of Great Britain in the time of King Arthur! Well, where are we going to raise the labor to develop the mines? Do you want to sleep underground with a silver mine? ”

For such a tragedy that has happened more than once, Wang Qiu is helpless at the moment - there is no way, the body of every modern person is a colony of countless modern germs, and the danger of biological pollution after coming to ancient times is naturally conceivable. And this time, 2,000 future travelers came at once, and they couldn't be checked very strictly in advance, and many of them were carrying all kinds of modern germs and viruses......

Influenza first appeared, followed by tuberculosis and smallpox. There are also typhoid fever, dysentery, plague...... Zuihou even discovers AIDS, which appears to be that some vampire hunter who lives an unruly life has infected him while prostituting himself in the "Celestial Camp Kiln" in Gloucester City, and then uses these prostitutes as intermediaries. Soon it spread to a large group of people, from the Celtic kings to the slave women on the farm...... It seems that Zuihou also allowed this terrible AIDS to spread out of the island of Great Britain and all the way to the European continent through the footsteps of caravans and troubadours......

Alas, let's hope that this incurable and deadly venereal disease will change the terrible customs of the Romans and barbarians in their absurdity!

Although the time-traveler was in ancient time and space, he was often infected with various ancient germs in turn. But the treatment capacity of modern regular hospitals is not comparable to these traversers who only know how to distribute antibiotic pills indiscriminately - therefore, in this two-way exchange of ancient and modern germs. It was by far the ancient natives who suffered the most, as did the American Indians, who were destroyed by the Spaniards with smallpox in the sixteenth century.

Of course, if the ancient natives under their rule were infected with the modern plague, the travelers could use antibiotics to sterilize them. Restore good health. But antibiotics are not a panacea after all. And after a long period of use, germs will develop resistance. Not only will the antibiotics fail, but the primordial herbs of this plane will probably also fail as well—in that case, it means that another Black Death frenzy has entered the countdown!

But the problem is that even if they know the dangers of indiscriminate antibiotics, there is really no other way for them to quench their thirst than to drink water to quench their thirst - they can't watch these precious strong laborers pray for God's blessing while waiting for their bodies to die without medical treatment!

In fact. In the whole of Great Britain at the moment, King Arthur's territory is the birthplace of the plague. However, thanks to the availability of a large number of modern medicines and the adoption of the recommendations of modern public health experts, the mortality rate of the population was already the lowest among all plagues.

And the Celtic countries in the western part of Great Britain, because they respected Arthur as their leader, after sending people for help, they also got some medicine back. In addition, they have also been influenced by the classical civilization of Greece and Rome for many years, and have learned the custom that the Romans like to bathe, and they pay more attention to cleanliness and hygiene, so the mortality rate is still so-so - anyway, natural disasters, wars, and famines have been endless in this year, and the mortality rate has never been low.

But on the other hand, the Anglo-Saxons, as invaders, did not have such good luck - these ignorant barbarians, who did not bathe all year round, covered in dirt and filth, like small mobile garbage heaps, although their skin and flesh were thick and durable, but in the face of tiny germs, even copper skin and iron bones were useless. Therefore, with the repeated invasion of the plague, these unhygienic barbarians soon began to die en masse, and even the druid's spells were powerless against it. Many Anglo-Saxon tribes and kingdoms collapsed on their own as a result.

For example, in the face of the menacing compound plague, the Kingdom of Kent, which once had a population of 100,000, died in one breath with only 40,000 people. The Franks on the other side of the strait saw that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, so they crossed the sea to grab the territory, but as soon as they landed, they contracted the plague and dysentery, and then had to go back the way they came, taking with them a bunch of modern germs to plague their fellow citizens......

In short, because so many people died of illness and could not gather soldiers to fight, the fighting on the island of Great Britain subsided a lot in the past two years.

But the problem is that the spread of plague has also led to the severance of overseas trade. Although King Arthur conscripted a large number of laborers to build the port of Bristol at the mouth of the Avon River, the distant merchants seemed to be deterred by the "plague island", and even spices, porcelain and ironware were not enough to bait - the current port of Bristol had no merchant ships willing to come to Gallic and Spain across the sea, except for the short maritime trade with Ireland, Wales and the Cornish peninsula, let alone the more distant North Africa and Italy.

On the other hand, it seems that it was a blessing in disguise, out of fear of plague and death, and a thirst for life-saving medicine, the Saxons entrenched in southeastern Britain took the initiative to ease relations with the Celts and re-establish commercial relations - because it was so difficult to transport large quantities of timber up the Thames, the Saxons generally traded furs, gold, silver, crystal, and amber, and rowed small boats up the Thames, and then landed in upstream boats, Travel overland to the markets of Bath City in exchange for medicine and food.

In fact, in order to obtain life-saving antibiotics, the Saxons have already taken out all their old foundations, and all kinds of bear skins, wolf skins, and deer skins are being shipped to the Bath City market, and they are worried that they will not be able to sell them. But in the eyes of the traversers, this little bit of goods is nothing - if it is put into such a huge market as more than a billion people in modern China, not to mention price fluctuations, it will not even make a splash. (To be continued......)