sweeping the world

Chapter 825 To Greece

The cradle of Caucasian civilization in ancient times originated from Greece, and they were also the high-grade civilization gathering point in Europa for a very long period of time.

The Greeks are very good at playing, such as the dictatorship system, the parliamentary system, the patriarchal system, the religious system... They have tried all kinds of systems, and it is impossible to say which system the Greeks use is the strongest. There was no unification, not even Alexander the Great could unify Greece.

The city-state system is the most deeply rooted in Greece, which is the foundation of the formation of the aristocratic system in the future. It determines that the nobles have mastered resources such as land, manpower, and financial resources, and have repeatedly used various means to deepen the noble thoughts of the nobles among the common people, forcing the common people to obey and be willing. Take the urge.

In fact, restraint and use of means to make civilians obey and be willing to be driven can be done in any system. It is interesting that Greece and Zhuxia have followed the same path, that is, to establish a professional warrior class, and only warriors can go The right to participate in the battlefield, civilians are only responsible for labor.

On the Zhuxia side, the professional warrior stage ended in the Warring States Period, and on the Greek side, it continued until the Romans destroyed the Greek city-states, and the Romans took the path of professional warriors again, and maintained it until the present stage.

"The waves here are small waves compared to ours." Douah actually suffered from seasickness before, and has experienced strong winds and waves like the Pacific Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea is not a problem at all: "That's why their deck level is so low. gone?"

The ships in the Mediterranean Sea are all similar in style. The big ships are actually enlarged versions of small boats. For example, the bow and stern of a Roman warship have no curvature at all, just a straight line.Furthermore, it is not very wide, so it will appear relatively slender. Except for the low flagship cabin at the stern, the whole ship looks bare.

"Their warships seem to be put together from two sides." Wang Meng stood by the window of the flagship room, looking at the sunken passage in the middle of the ship. If he jumped off, he would be directly on the first floor of the cabin. Hit in: "There are shields on the outside of the ship, which looks more like a product of patchwork."

Because of the prismatic ramming angle in front of the Roman warship, it is actually like a thick-backed sword with blood grooves. The passage in the middle has no top floor, but it actually has many ladders for climbing upwards. It can provide soldiers in the cabin to quickly climb to the deck.

On the deck, there are naturally guardrails all around. On the guardrails are the shields used by Roman infantry. I don’t want to mention whether they have any protective bonus effect. It seems that they have armor reinforcement, which actually increases beautiful.

"Why didn't you load the catapult or ballista?" Cai Mian asked uncertainly, "Has it been dismantled?"

"We only load equipment onto the ship on special occasions." Marcus Marca didn't think there was anything to hide: "Only large ships can be modified to install catapults, ballistas only need to be carried out fixed."

Cai Mian can somewhat imagine what the so-called fixation is. It should be to nail the ballista to the deck with wooden boards. He actually wants to say that it is enough to install a special base on the ballista, but there is no reason to do it in vain. Teach the Romans to be smart.

In fact, it is like that. People who know a thing or knowledge seem to be very simple, but people who don’t understand still don’t understand, but what is lacking in some things is just inspiration, and it’s not that they can’t create it with their own technology. .

The real situation is that the Romans were not stupid. They specially designed warship bases for ballistas, and the styles may be different from those of the Han people. For example, there is no large corner turntable.

The fleet set off from the port of Syria. Not long after going out to sea, they saw the land again. According to Marcus Maca, the land was a long and narrow island. , There is also a town, and at the same time the Romans built a stockpiling point on the island and stationed their troops.

That island was called Cyprus in modern times, and it is now the territory of the Romans. Because of its special location, it is often used as a forward base for troops from Europe to invade the Middle East. Take control of the island.

Seen from a distance from the sea, the town on the island is very small, most of the places are in a green shade, and the area around the island is mostly surrounded by stones. There is a bay that is not known whether it is artificially excavated or formed naturally. A pier was built and several ships, large and small, anchored.

Cai Mian pondered and asked, "Is it very windy for an island with low mountains like this?"

"I haven't been there." Marcus Maca said truthfully: "I heard from people that the environment above is not bad."

This is the Mediterranean Sea, not the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean. The wind is naturally windy, but the level is generally not that big.

Wang Meng thought of the Miaodao Islands. Some islands there looked similar to the island in front of him, but the island in front of him could see towering coconut trees and other tree species, which meant that at least it had not been affected by the storm for a long time. wreaked havoc.Islands such as the Miaodao Archipelago are subject to at least one storm a year, and it is difficult to have tall trees.

After passing the long and narrow island, they entered the middle of the Aegean Sea. On the way, they saw many islands, large and small. Some were purely uninhabited islands, while others looked like they were filled with towns or villages.

"There are a lot of islands in this sea area, most of which have natural freshwater resources and can be used for people to live in." Marcus Marka stared at the light blue sea water in the shallow sea area. It is really unique for an island to be independent in the open field of vision. Strangely beautiful: "Most of our sailors are from the province of Cyprus."

Rome has always used provinces as local administrative units. The province of Cyprus mentioned by Marcus Marca actually includes a part of the Greek peninsula and many islands on the sea.

The reason why it is called the province of Cyprus instead of the province of Greece is simply because of the stage of establishing the province. The strategic value of Cyprus is much more important than that of Greece.

The fleet was supposed to rely on the east coast route, but the problem was that the Han people wanted to visit Greece, so they directly crossed the middle of the Aegean Sea and changed to the route along the west coast.

"Greece does have many places worth visiting." Marus Utansis has always been on this flagship, but he rarely appeared before, and became active after he got close to the Greek peninsula: "There are many places on the coastline near the sea. Temples, we conquered Greece, we preserved those temples, and some are still worshiped."

Cai Mian asked with great interest, "Can you see the Olympic Mountains?"

The Romans, including Marus Utansis, didn't understand it. It was Cai Mian who said something in detail, such as the Olympic Gods, before they realized it.

"You should call it Olympus, that's the name of the mountain." After Marus Utansis came to his senses, he remembered that there seemed to be a place called Olympus under Mount Olympus, but he didn't understand. How do Han people know about Olympics but not about Olympus: "Although the Greek gods originated there, there were no temples built there, or the temples built in the long history were destroyed and disappeared?"

"The temples of the gods are all in some cities." Marcus Marka thought for a while, and then named the most famous place: "For example, Athens, where there is the largest temple of the God of Wisdom."

"We are now in the Sparta area. If you want, we can go ashore." Marus Utansis is still very happy to let the Han people come into contact with the products of Greek civilization, because Rome inherited Greek civilization, all of the Greeks have become Romans: "Here is the largest Temple of Ares in the world, and the Spartan Guard is still preserved. It is an army that can resist hundreds of thousands of troops with 300 people for three days army."

"The Battle of Wenquanguan?" Wang Meng had heard Liu Yan tell this story before, and he was a little interested: "If it is not too far away, we would like to go and have a look."

"Is it the Temple of War God, or Thermopylae Pass?" Marus Utansis lost his original enthusiasm when he heard that it was Thermopylae Pass: "Continue sailing, and we will see Thermopylae Pass in a short time. However, there It’s not really a pass, it’s just a passage with narrow terrain along the coast, and there’s nothing to see.”

It's really not a pass. The Spartans used to resist Darius' army there, and they built a stone wall with stones temporarily.No matter how high it is, or how thick it is, the stone wall has long since disappeared with the passage of time.

"Did Romans of Greek descent go to Seres?" Marus Utansis asked very curiously, "How do you know about the Battle of Thermopylae?"

Rome has repeatedly reformed. From the beginning, only the real Romans can take power, and later foreigners can also gain high positions in Rome. However, there is one basic policy that has not changed at all. No matter which ethnicity wants to be an official in Rome, it must be Roman. citizen.This also led to a considerable number of non-Romans being high-ranking officials or free men in Rome, and of course they had the conditions to go to Han.

Wang Meng knew about the Battle of Wenquanguan from Liu Yan, but he didn't know and didn't have the guts to ask Liu Yan where he knew about it.

In fact, no one dares to ask Liu Yan why he knows so many things. Each of them has their own ideas and understandings, and they will inevitably contact some gods and gods. Information from hundreds of thousands of miles away, and some knowledge of Europa's history.

They still didn't go to the Temple of War in Ares, mainly because they had to sail westward if they wanted to go, which would delay a lot of time to go to Constantinople.

The established route will pass through Athens, and the fleet also needs to temporarily stop for supplies, and the ships that everyone is riding on will also enter the docking area.

"It's a bit messy." Dou Ah told the truth: "Not only is the docking area messy and out of order, but the buildings in the port, including the booths, are also messy."

It was indeed very chaotic, there were crowds of people everywhere, all kinds of people crowded around, and the noise of hawking and all kinds of shouts formed a loud noise.

The Romans also noticed it. They sent their manpower to find the port officials first, but then the communication seemed to be unsatisfactory, so the fleet started to act recklessly.

"I'm sorry for letting you see this scene." Marcus Maca was a little ashamed and full of anger: "They blamed us for not notifying us in advance and using the tax amount for one day as an excuse, so we had to come by ourselves."

It looks like a commercial port here. There are quite a lot of merchant ships coming and going. Most of them anchor outside and enter the port by boat. A small number of ships with their own berths will enter the port. It is a public berth. Seats are already filled.

"There is no pilot boat or leading boat." Cai Mian said in disbelief, "Don't they know the benefits of having it?"

There seems to be nothing strange, right?Just like some countries only have consuls but no emperors, officials with many powers are missing in the system, and there are quite a few occupations to maintain order in the society. That is a normal phenomenon.

After a while of tossing, the port officials came to express a solemn protest, but facing the arbitrariness of the army, no matter how dissatisfied the port people were, they could only take it lightly.

"It's hard to imagine how the Daqin people became the overlords here." Dou'a said confusedly: "They have few official positions, how can they manage the country?"

There are indeed very few official positions in Rome, but a position has great power. For example, a tribune not only has civil power, but also directs the army. This army is not considered a national command line, but a kind of family private army.

"It seems that if you have money, you can do whatever you want..." Cai Mian was shocked: "It's unbelievable that they have been able to maintain unity without division for a long time."

Wang Meng didn't think there was anything strange about it. As long as the central government remained strong, it was strong enough to sweep away any dissatisfaction. Anyone who wanted to be independent would be wiped out. After forming a deterrent, no one would dare to rebel.

One thing that Wang Meng didn't notice is that the center of Rome is not always strong enough to sweep the place. It is the culture accepted by their environment that plays a key role, such as the hierarchical loyalty system. The big nobles have small nobles. The system of vassals maintains the unity of the entire country.

Most of the time, Rome will enter a state of family division, and the cost of war is too high. If you lose, you will have nothing, and if you win, there will be no take-all. At that time, their parliamentary system will play a role and maintain good communication channels. , win over each other's allies, and use political means to resolve differences. Only when words are completely useless will they choose to use force.

There are some things that Wang Meng didn’t say and didn’t dare to say. There is no such thing as a ruler in Rome who has to die. That is to say, the ruler cannot be domineering and do whatever he wants, so the supreme throne is not so attractive, isn’t it? The supreme ruler can also ensure that his own interests are not damaged, and no one will fight with his wealth and life unless necessary.

(End of this chapter)