sweeping the world

Chapter 828 Did You Think Too Far
Basically, people need a spiritual sustenance, which can be a relative or a pet, but generally they choose religion as their spiritual sustenance.

After modern times, it is obvious that various legends have long been shattered, such as the palace of the gods above the clouds, or the moon as the palace of the gods, but the planes fly back and forth long distances every day, and no one has seen any palaces of the gods. There are only dust and rocks on the earth, but religion has not died out because of this.

Even people with superb scientific knowledge, they will believe in a certain god. For them, what they believe in is not a god, but a sustenance deep in their hearts, longing for comfort.

For a long time, there are too many things that people don't understand, and it is because they don't understand that they think in the direction of gods and gods, and the religious atmosphere is naturally strong.

The people of more than one country believe in the existence of gods, even if no one has actually seen the gods, they still believe that there are great beings in the world, and because of this, they are afraid and admired, which gives some rulers an excellent opportunity to use The gods deter the ignorant in order to make their rule more stable.

Athens is indeed a big city, and there is no shortage of beautiful places, especially some naturally formed beaches.There are gorgeous manors in the city, wide and clean gravel roads, beautiful and charming fountains, but there are more messy alleys full of shit.

"The people of Daqin ruled the land they conquered very generally. For example, in this big city with 10 people, they appointed a city lord, built a parliament, and formed a garrison, but..." Cai Mian looked around, and the surrounding area There are no Romans: "The lord of the city is a big local tyrant, the councilors are also rich in the city, and even the army is mostly local residents. They just control the positions of tribunes and financial officers."

To say what position the Romans valued most, it was actually not the lord of a city, but the tribune who controlled the army and the quaestor who controlled the finances.

"What I heard is that the people of Daqin contracted out the tax collection." Doua never understood what was going on: "The city sets a tax share, and some rich people collect taxes from the citizens. Can you do this?"

Wang Meng knew better. For example, Constantinople required Athens to pay a tribute of [-] gold coins every year, and Rome required Athens to pay a tribute of [-] gold coins. Other than that, he didn't care anymore.

The so-called no control also includes the right not to conscript Athens. On the contrary, once Athens is attacked, Constantinople and Rome are obliged to send troops to support, so those tributes are equivalent to a kind of protection fee. The result is that Athens is only nominally shared by Constantinople and Rome, but Athens is actually an autonomous state.

"There are many cities like Daqin." Wang Meng's understanding is: "The people of Daqin broke out in civil war for the throne, which made them lose their control over the conquest of foreign races. If the three parties do not decide the winner, it is foreseeable that those foreign races will surely die. To gain true independence, the people of Daqin will also lose a large area of ​​territory."

Wang Meng was not wrong. It was this civil war that caused Rome to form a real division. Europa became part of Western Rome, but this Western Rome actually only left a sign of Rome. Although there were still Romans in the ruling class, the Germanic People and Franks are the real masters, and later they simply discarded the name of Rome and directly established the country in the name of Frank.The Romans in the true sense were driven to Eastern Rome, and later Eastern Rome was simply lost and rebuilt into the Byzantine Empire. (Western history only has Byzantine records, not the name of Eastern Rome)
They visited Athens for two days, and re-boarded the ship early in the morning on the third day.

The trip to Athens has brought a lot to the Han people. On the one hand, I have seen a lot of strange things. On the one hand, I have purchased goods (mostly plant seeds) and slaves that I have never seen before. The most important thing is to learn more about it. to the real situation in Rome.

After the fleet leaves the Greek peninsula, they will no longer rely on the coastline, and they will pass directly through the middle of the Aegean Sea.

The Aegean Sea is very famous in Europa, and many stories revolve around it. One of the more famous stories is the Trojan War.

"The Greeks used to follow this route. They gathered more than 2 people to cross the ocean in order to get back that stunning woman named Helen." Marus Utansis pointed to the ocean. In the past, it was larger, and the shape of the ship determined that slightly larger waves would make the ship bumpy: "Actually, it was ten years since Helen eloped with someone and the Greeks sent troops. At that time, Helen was already in her 40s. year old woman."

A war for the sake of profit had to find an excuse to get back the woman. As a result, Helen became famous, and whether she was a stunning beauty became irrelevant. The number of people killed in the two countries was only a number. It has been passed down through the ages, and a very famous warrior was also buried.

The waves are getting bigger and bigger, the deck is too low for sea water to rush in through the guardrail made up of tower shields, the terrible thing is that there is a channel in the middle of the Roman-style deck that leads directly to the first floor of the cabin, so that even if you stay on the first floor of the cabin Layers will also get wet.

"We might have to turn around." Marcus Maca looked ahead, feeling the blowing wind: "Turn back to Lak Island temporarily, and head to Asia Minor after the wind and waves subside."

Asia Minor is the Turkey of the later generations. Rome has established several provinces there. Asia Minor is the continental plate closest to Europa. Troy used to be in the southwest of Asia Minor near the strait.

The Han people expressed their helplessness. If the ships of the Han state came in, they would not be able to return to the sea in the face of such storms.

Rak Island is one of the islands in the northern Aegean Sea. There are several other large and small islands around it. There are several small villages on the island. Look at the boats and boats tied to the coast, and then look at the punts. Fishing nets are set up to dry on racks, and fish are also dried in the yards of every household. There is no doubt that they are all fishing villages.

Seriously speaking, most of the inhabited islands in this sea area are fishermen.That is because there is too little arable land on the island, or there is no arable land at all, and survival naturally depends on the sea.

"Most of our sailors come from this side." Marus Utansis took off his helmet with a broom on his head, and reached out to stroke his long golden hair: "Most Greeks have experience in going to sea, and their Fishermen are experienced sailors."

The Han people have seen those Greek sailors along the way, and they have to admit that the Greek sailors look really good.

Those paddling at the bottom will be more mixed. There will be no shortage of fair-skinned people with blond hair and blue eyes. There are more dark-skinned people with dark skin. You can even see Romans, but they all have one thing in common. status, that is slaves, not sailors.

Don't think that an island should have white sandy beaches, and don't think that the scenery of the island should be very beautiful. Most of the beautiful islands are artificially transformed. Otherwise, even if there are beaches on the shore, in fact, apart from the colorful In addition to the sand that is mostly yellow, there are more rocks that have been beaten smooth by the waves.

Lak Island has obviously not been artificially transformed, there is no beautiful beach, and there are no rows of coconut trees or any kind of greenery. On the contrary, there are all kinds of debris on the beach, like broken fishing nets, or they don’t know where they floated. The rotten wood, and even the wreckage of the ship that was obviously pushed up after the wreck.

This fleet is not docked at a port or pier, but is actually docked directly on the beach.This also made the Han people understand something. It turned out that the Romans' ships were mostly flat-bottomed boats, so they could sail into shallow waters, and they were so brave that they drove the boats directly onto the beach.

"It's no wonder that such a little wind and waves make the hull so bumpy." Doua said with a sneer, "They have a big heart to use flat-bottomed boats on the ocean."

That was determined by the sphere of influence of the Romans, and they had been sailing around the Mediterranean Sea for a long time. It is not surprising that they did not understand the difference between flat-bottomed boats and sharp-bottomed boats.

As far as Rome is concerned, the Mediterranean coast is full of shallow waters. It is worse to have a ship with a draft of six or seven meters at every turn. The water depth of the piers and ports in most areas is really not that deep, and it will become a problem for ships to dock.

"I got a piece of information from Marus Utansis." Cai Mian squatted down and took a picture, but no one could clearly see the terrain of the known area.He gestured and said: "This is their Gaul area. There is a super big island on the opposite side of this strait, called... Saxon or something?"

In fact, it is the British Isles, but when the Romans fought in the past, most of the local people were Anglo-Saxons. According to the Roman habit, after beating Gaul and occupying the territory, they called the national name the name of the place.

"It took them a lot of money to conquer the southern part of that big island, and the central and northern parts have not been conquered for a long time." What Cai Mian was talking about was not the war between the Romans and the various tribes on the island: "They called the strait It’s Devil’s Strait, do you know why it’s called this?”

Isn't it just that the weather in the English Channel is too bad? One moment it was sunny and sunny, and the next moment it was stormy. When the Romans conquered the British Isles, it was because of the climate of the Channel that many ships were fed fish, and even the army was often in the sea. The Strait suffered heavy losses.

The weather in the strait is uncertain, and there are not enough means to predict it. Every time the Romans transport supplies, there is a huge risk. It was difficult to maintain the garrison, so the construction of the Great Wall had to be done there.

"The biggest reason is that the people of Daqin didn't build sharp-bottomed boats." Cai Mian didn't know whether to laugh or despise: "The people of Daqin are either stubborn, or the people in power are out of their minds. There is frequent trade with the Gupta Dynasty, so it is impossible not to know the existence of sharp-bottomed boats, but it is not clear that sharp-bottomed boats are more beneficial for sailing at sea.”

Who knows what's going on, anyway, the Romans don't like sharp-bottomed boats, and they will soon be unable to maintain supplies to Britain, and then the Roman garrison over there is constantly harassed, and several thousand commanders are waiting to die He even voluntarily retreated, and the southern part of the island was no longer owned by Rome.

"Maybe it's not stubbornness or anything else..." Wang Meng knows that any reform is not easy, and reform will always affect interests. Only when greater and more interests are driven, will there be a driving force for reform: "It should be that the island is not There are no materials that the people of Daqin must obtain."

The Han Dynasty set its sights on the Wa Islands. At first, the courtiers couldn't resist Liu Yan, and wanted to satisfy Liu Yan's desire to open up territories.Later, the whole country discovered that the Wa Islands not only have sufficient human resources, but also have so much gold and silver reserves. There is nothing to say, even if it becomes Liu Yan, even if he wants to stop it, one of them will shout that he must enter the Wa Islands archipelago.

In terms of exploring the ocean, the Han people also discovered the benefits of the ocean. Seafood is only a small part of it. The continuous discovery of precious resources on each island is the driving force. Undoubtedly, the discovery of spices is one of them, not to mention the discovery of storage. There is an astonishing amount of copper mines, as well as luxury goods such as fragrant wood, gemstones, and emeralds.

"If there are gold mines, precious stones, spices and other resources on that island, believe it or not, the people of Daqin will swim there even if they swim?" A gourd dares to travel to the Japanese Islands: "Man dies for money, birds die for food, it is reasonable!"

What they said was not wrong at all. The Romans really didn’t find any precious resources in Britain. The barbarians above were so arrogant and fearless. The benefits they obtained were less than expected, but the cost was beyond expectations. No wonder The Romans paid little attention to the British Isles.

"Actually, there is an abundance of resources on it." Cai Mian kept asking, and subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "I heard that there are black stones everywhere on it, and you know what they are."

Black stones can be anything other than coal, but coal is useless to most countries at present, and Han has improved smelting, so a large amount of coal is needed.The temperature of coal burning is much higher than that of wood, which is beneficial to remove more impurities during smelting. As long as more material formulas are found, coal is an indispensable strategic material.

"The big man also has a lot of coal, but there is never too much." Wang Meng smiled and stroked his chin beard: "That island is too far away from the big man..." He stopped mid-sentence, thought for a moment, and tried He asked, "Perhaps we can purchase large quantities from the people of Daqin to give them the motivation to continue conquering that island."

After sailing hundreds of thousands of miles, he bought nothing else but a shipload of coal to return to Han?It sounds unreliable, but for the purpose of letting the Romans continue to bleed, that's another matter.

(End of this chapter)