Regarding Cao Xun's question, Guo Kang was not too surprised.

For the people of the Purple Horde, Egypt has probably two most obvious features.

First of all, of course, affluence.

The Nile is a very special river that floods every year at a fixed time. The time of the river flooding corresponds to the cycle of crop growth.

After harvesting, the river floods the surrounding farmland and then recedes at a fixed time, leaving a layer of fertile silt on the farmland. After that, the river will be very stable and people can return to the fields for the next round of farming.

As a result of these unique conditions, the Egyptians entered an agrarian society at an early age. The banks of the Nile have thus become the richest regions in the world.

- This "abundance" is not the result of the "terrible" comparison between various civilizations and agriculture in the Mediterranean world in the late Middle Ages, but a real praise.

In fact, until the 21 st century, where Guo Kang lived in his previous life, the place with the highest grain yield on the earth was neither in a large country in the western hemisphere where agricultural science and technology are very developed and the land is fertile, nor in a large country in the eastern hemisphere where the land has been cultivated for thousands of years and has been intensively cultivated to bring flowers to the flowers, but in the Nile River Valley, where science and technology and industry are very backward.

This was when the Aswan Dam was built and the Nile River stopped flooding regularly.

The Nile is like a diligent mother, personally delivering fertilizer once a year, laying it in the fields, drowning weeds, washing away the salinity, and maintaining the land for thousands of years.

The periodic flooding gave rise to a corresponding religion for the Egyptians, worshipping the rebirth after death. They also developed astronomy, which was used to determine the calendar and determine the time of the Nile's flooding.

And the "calamities" that these religions fear, the "calamities" brought by the rivers, may not seem worth mentioning to the people of the Purple Horde, because basically the flooding is not very punctual, or the silt brought with it is not so much.

Although it can cause some trouble, it is too gentle compared to some violent rivers that are also called "mothers" for some unknown reason.

And the second point is that the combat effectiveness is worrisome.

Generally speaking, some famous civilizations have their own high periods. In such periods, not only civilization is developed, but force is often strong.

For example, Persia, which is often disliked by everyone, has actually been strong more than once. Before the collapse of the Sassanid Persian Empire, it was also a great power that destroyed the Kushan in the east and wanted to annex Rome in the west. It's just that for some reason, they always drop the chain at critical times, which gives people the impression that the soldiers are weak and unbearable.

The problem with the Egyptians is that, in the Middle Ages, everyone could not find this kind of "highlight moment" of theirs.

Guo Kang himself knows that a long, long time ago, Egypt was indeed strong. The problem is that this "long, long time" is too long ago than the beginning of time commonly used in European folk tales.

At this time, the Egyptians could only judge that there was an ancient civilization here based on the ruins such as the pyramids. As for what it is and what it has to do with the current people, everyone is completely unknown.

Unbeknownst to these Egyptians, there was once Thutmose and Ramses. It was not until the development and perfection of modern archaeology that these things became known to everyone. Guo Kang was not a professional archaeologist, and he could not excavate and identify the important inscriptions on his own. Obviously, he can't change this by his strength.

And this kind of thing, if you think about it, can't even blame the Egyptians.

Under the influence of Seris culture, he has stayed for too long, and he has become accustomed to many rare things. But if you come into contact with other civilizations, you will find that a lot of "common sense" is anti-common sense.

In fact, the most common phenomenon is to forget the history of the past. If you haven't forgotten, it's a unique case.

The Persians next to him, too, could not figure out the history before Alexander, and only invented the legendary Lishdadi and Kaiyan dynasties to fill the gap before the Sassanid Empire. And they already belong to the category of "myths and epics that are still made up", and most other civilizations can't even make up stories at this time.

In this world, the history is a little more orderly, and there are only Seris and Greece left.

While the Greeks are often ridiculed for scribbling stories and wonder why others take it seriously, as the saying goes, "people are more angry than people." If you really compare it horizontally with other civilizations, the story of Homer and others is already relatively reliable.

The Greeks knew at least that before the classical era, there was a Tolian invasion. They remember that the invasion destroyed most of the city-states, including Mycenae, and only a few places, such as Athens, survived. In the face of the Spartans, who are no longer the "Spartans" in Homer's epics, the Athenians have always been proud of this.

Although this memory is not necessarily accurate, in this time period of 1000 B.C., there is still a general impression of history, which is already a very remarkable achievement. In the whole world, I'm afraid I can't find a third one.

This is also why there will be a situation in later generations where "words must be called Greece" - this is also not possible, because there is really nothing to talk about except Greece......

And the situation of the Egyptians was even worse than that of others.

They don't even know who they are.

Most Egyptians consider themselves Arabs, the descendants of Arab immigrants after the Great Conquest. Most of those who identify as indigenous are Copts who still believe in the early Christian church. There are differences in beliefs between the two, and there has always been a gap between them.

But in Guo Kang's time, people studied through modern technology, but found that the Egyptians after them were indeed the descendants of the ancient Egyptians.

In most civilized parts of the world, the ancestry of the natives is very difficult to change. The number of foreign conquerors was too small to make a noticeable impact. Therefore, the Turks of later generations are still the Minorians of ancient times, not the Turks; The Egyptians of later generations are still the Egyptians of ancient times, not Arabs.

Of course, the attitudes of the two sides on this issue are very different. The Turks were clearly reluctant to admit this result, but quite a few Egyptians wavered.

It's not hard to see why: Turks don't want to change their identity; However, the Egyptians always felt that the faithful would harm themselves, and there was a lot of resistance to the identity of the "Arab nation", and as soon as the evidence came, they were naturally willing to accept it.

Although they all claim to be based on blood, it is clear that this identification is not always based on blood. Or rather, they are just flexible enough to use blood as evidence. Recognizing this, we can understand the thinking of the Egyptians.

And in this era before molecular biology, how can ordinary Egyptians discern their own bloodlines? It's actually quite simple, because it's not needed at all.

The upper class of Arabs collectively referred to all the people who were engaged in farming here as "Fira".

The distinction between descent and culture is far less important than later generations think, and may even be meaningless.

The water of the Nile has flowed for thousands of years, and the people here have cultivated it for thousands of years. In the long history, some people have been Persianized, resulting in the "Nailuz Festival"; Some were Hellenistic and went into Alexandria; Some romanized, making statues of Anubis dressed in the armor of legionnaires; Others became Arabized and began to use the language of the Arabs.

But the rulers who come and go here probably don't care much about these "trivial matters". Because no matter what culture is used, Fira is still a Fira, and he will basically not be allowed to join the army, let alone enter the high-level.

They only had to pay taxes and labor, like the reeds on the reed fields by the Nile, which withered once a year. No matter how much you die, it will grow back.

To put it bluntly, who cares about the reed's pedigree, culture, and self-perception?

Therefore, it seems understandable that the Egyptians at that time were cold and numb to regime change and religious change.

And what is even more tragic is that the fighting power of the Egyptians is indeed as bad as the stereotype of others about them.

The farmers of the Han Dynasty also laughed at themselves with "leeks" and "chickens". But those who know history know that these people really have enough ability to act, neither "leeks" nor "chickens", but will give meat eaters a big "surprise" if they are not careful. And throughout the history of Egypt, these Egyptians really never did.

It's okay to say other things, but you can't beat people all the time, so there's really no way.

In the end, European scholars even put forward a set of theories that the state of Egypt was the end of the development of civilization. All civilizations will go from a vigorous age to prosperity, and then lose their vitality, to decline and mediocrity. This stagnant state of silence is typified by the Egyptians.

This theory itself is of little value, because it is also the product of the typical "unspeakable ice of summer insects". Researchers may not have seen the phenomenon of decline and prosperity cycles, so they take it for granted that this "one-off" civilization is the norm.

But then again, although the Seris themselves have always regarded the "periodic law" as a cursed rule and always want to jump out of it, for most civilizations, this thing should be called a blessing.

- Few civilizations are lucky enough to have multiple cycles. Even if it is relatively strong, it is often the confluence of the two to perish. And the vast majority, which does not even exist in the "prosperous period", disappears in the long river of history. From their point of view, the Seris complain and worry about the periodic law, which is the behavior of standing and talking without backache......

And the Egyptians, they have gone from nouns to adjectives.

In Seris, this situation is honestly rare, Guo Kang thought about it for a long time, and felt that it might be that Da Song had this potential. When they describe countries like Greece and Andalusia, they will euphemistically say that they are "like the Great Song". Perhaps, "very song" will also become an adjective in the future......

(End of chapter)