[Egyptian doujinshi] The legend of flattery and misfortune

Akenami, as the great concubine of the royal family, and because of her own noble blood, is actually comparable to the power held by the pharaoh Senasa.Because the empress dowager wanted to isolate them, after the cohabitation period ended, Akenami had to learn the duties that she had never had the opportunity to perform, so as to prevent the embarrassment of getting along with the pharaoh from being fulfilled.

Every day when the sun rises, Akenami will be surrounded by wig artists, makeup artists and manicurists. The professional quality and attentive service of these people ensure that she is more beautiful every day than the last.She had to take this god-given perfect face to inspect the imperial concubine's territory and the female executives in the territory, the clerk in charge of the documents, and the priests and priestesses from all over Egypt who lived in the temple one after another.

She was taken to strange places one after another. Akenami, who had lived in Thebes for ten years, did not know that Thebes would be so big. Even with a sedan chair for transportation, she felt that she was too tired out of breath.Sometimes in the hall of Luxor, she had to meet hundreds of people at a time, so the imperial concubine's peerless appearance began to be passed on from word to mouth. In the people's concept at that time, beauty was bestowed by the gods in the sky. There is only one explanation for the imperial concubine's appearance like this, she was born to be the darling of the gods.

Her fame gradually spread, but Akenami didn't feel happy, but became more and more exhausted.Thankfully, Montali confirmed that she is not pregnant for now, and she can't imagine that she will be able to stay healthy and healthy under such a high-intensity workload.

Akenami breathed a sigh of relief, the day of the religious meeting was approaching, and Norman seemed to be planning to repay Senasa's generosity, and he sent a plan for the expansion of Karnak in the next ten years.This temple will be 100 cubits long, and because Sai Nasha returned from Nubia’s victory, the priests approved a new construction plan. In short, the construction site at that place has not stopped in the past 100 years. Years will not stop.

The drawings show that the priests will build a temple of similar scale next to the temple of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, but the difference is that the temple dedicated to Sai Nasha will have two floors and the number of rooms will be larger. A little more is not a blatant way to please the living ruler.On the pylons that enter the temple, a statue of the pharaoh will be carved to protect the territory of the gods. The statue of the pharaoh will face the obelisk engraved with the inscriptions of victory. .

Sai Nasha sneered, didn't he pay the fee himself?The Temple of Amon will learn to use Pharaoh's money to curry favor with the deity. Although he is now piled full of gold, he has no intention of taking advantage of others. If he can save money, he points to his two statues Said: "Since it is my temple, why should I guard the gate myself? No more!"

The architect brought by Norman blushed. Norman took a huge golden ring on his middle finger and tried his best to gesture on the drawings, but failed to persuade Sai Nasha to change his mind. In the end, both parties took a step back and compromised, replacing the statue with Relief of pharaoh thrashing his enemies.

"If it's a relief, include the imperial concubine." Sai Nasha thought for a while and then ordered: "It's the same as mine."

It stands to reason that when the imperial concubine and the pharaoh appear together in the building, unless the imperial concubine receives extremely high courtesy, her appearance will be slightly inferior in terms of shape and size, but obviously, this rule does not appear here on the couple.Norman glanced at them and left with the architect.

Facts have proved that the architect has shaped Akenami to be the most beautiful among beauties, just like the enlightening star that symbolizes the flooding of the Nile River. people.Thousands of years later, although it is mottled and broken beyond recognition, the inscriptions recorded by the monks still allow future generations to imagine her beauty endlessly.

In front of Sai Nasha, there was a Nubian slave kneeling, who was pulled by the hair of the Pharaoh, making a pleading appearance.This was just the beginning, and as Senasa's reign continued, the entire temple wall would eventually be filled with victorious reliefs and the beauty of the imperial concubine.

When the temple was laying the foundation stone, the royal couple saw the hundreds of spokespersons of the gods they called in the Karnak Temple. Sai Nasha wore the red and white double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and wore a linen robe that seemed to carry the sun with him, except for the large sleeves. , He used a golden loincloth, and a huge necklace of nine rows of gold beads hung on his chest, not to mention the armband inlaid with huge amethyst and the ring of onyx chalcedony.

Norman's eyeballs nearly popped out.

The priests, both from the big cities and the country, came forward to greet them in droves, the new couple's match was truly pleasing to the eye, and the young pharaoh was heroic and worthy of love, if he could reconcile himself and the gods relationship, it will be even better.If not, what could he do?

Sai Nasha cleared his throat and announced the start of the meeting: "I specially called everyone here because I hope to choose an upright and trustworthy person to manage a very important temple for me. He must be loyal to Pharaoh and obey Responsibility without losing prestige among the subjects is very important to me, if there is a suitable candidate, please speak out loudly."

Some priests belonging to Karnak started to commotion, and Senasa could clearly see it sitting on top. These people obviously thought they understood what he meant, and even Akenamei became anxious, and began to wink at Senasa frequently .She couldn't believe that Sai Nasha would be so stupid to choose such an occasion and say such ambiguous words about nominating a candidate for the high priest!Even Norman became suspicious, because Senasa had clearly promised him a lifetime tenure.

Heh, Sai Nasha laughed at himself in his heart, it was only a matter of the overall situation, Akenami was finally willing to look him in the eye.

As he expected, no one would rush to contribute their opinions because of Pharaoh's ambiguous proposal.Once you offend the high priest of Karnak Temple, which has the greatest power, there is no need to expect to get out of Thebes alive. Even if you take refuge in Pharaoh, Pharaoh is not fully sure that he can protect himself.

"It's a pity that no one is willing to take the initiative to provide services for the pharaoh. Even the common people will respectfully praise me as the son of the sun, but you are relying on your own status." Sai Nasha's tone was a bit harsh: "I just prepared a new one for the princess. The temple needs someone to take care of this gift, Princess Akhenamei is the most noble woman in Egypt and my most important wife, is this how you treat her?"

Akennamei is not calm anymore, if Sai Nasha wants to build a new temple, it is impossible for him not to know.The enormous financial resources required, the many labors to drive, and the land use that had to be approved made it impossible to build in secret.

While everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they also looked a little embarrassed. Could it be that Pharaoh was to be blamed for not speaking clearly?Naturally, it was impossible, and an old priest with a strange face took the initiative to ease the embarrassing atmosphere: "Last year, the Temple of the Best Cat Goddess in the city of Bubasti, Lower Egypt, was destroyed to a certain extent due to the flooding of the Nile River. , the priests there are struggling to get by. As far as I know, the priests who serve the goddess of love, Best, are upright and guarded priestesses. suitable."

The Pharaoh reached out and stroked Akennamei's black hair hanging outside the golden eagle's crown, his brows showed tenderness: "What do you think?"

She didn't even know where the temple was or what it looked like, and in public, Akenami couldn't ask Sai Nasha thoroughly, so she nodded cooperatively and said, "Then do it this way."

Sai Nasha then ordered: "Then ask someone to take this priestess there."

The imperial concubine didn't even ask where it was, and the priests below couldn't even open her mouth.Norman didn't think that Senasa's purpose was to show the love between husband and wife or to get to know these hundreds of priests, and then treat them to a meal. He took the initiative to ask whether Senasa agreed with the expansion plan, and hinted This may require more funding.

Sai Nasha narrowed his eyes and asked, "Have you used up the five boats of gold?"

Norman hurriedly summoned several capable senior priest assistants under his command to report. Senasa's purpose was to clarify these four people, and now the opportunity finally came.As the high priest, he must manage 65 employees of the temple, 100 towns, 450 million men and women who directly or indirectly work for the temple, [-] livestock, [-] vineyards and orchards, and [-] ships.The pharaoh was responsible for providing the sacrificial supplies, food, oil, incense, balsam, clothes and land, while the high priest was responsible for collecting taxes on goods and fish. Like the pharaoh, his subordinates will also have similar ministers.

As for those taxes, from the files of the Tutankhamun era, Sai Nasha has never seen any records of confiscating the treasury. This huge asset seems to have become the private property of the temple. By acquiescing to the behavior of the temple, he also got huge benefits.Even the families of Ayi and Homeheb prospered because of this, which is why Ayi's eldest son would still work for the temple after the family fell, and almost messed up Sai Nasha's ascension to the throne.

"So it's you four," Sai Nasha showed admiration. These four people were responsible for supervising the construction site of the temple day and night, all the items in the warehouse, all the administrative affairs of the temple, and all the precious documents and documents in the archives room. Clay tablets, and their cronies and workers under them, and finally everything will be reported to the high priest Norman: "How are the successors of the Karnak Temple selected?"

Norman was very proud of seeing his capable subordinates gaining appreciation, and he even felt that the new pharaoh had succumbed to it: "These four high-ranking priests are all year-round service to the temple and are extremely capable people. Who will be the high priest after me will be determined through public selection."

"That's how it is." Sai Nasha still felt that four were too few, and he prepared many gifts, as many as he wanted: "I should thank them for their hard work, and give each of them a golden scepter and a golden scepter. ring."

Akenami knew that Senashat carried a box of that kind of thing, and the specification of that kind of thing was just a little bit worse than that worn by Norman's high priest. Sure enough, Norman saw that his subordinates were getting exquisite rewards , a bit unhappy on his face.And those four people have been fighting for Norman all the year round, but in the end, they are nothing more than the supreme position with unlimited wealth and power. Sainasha's reward stimulated their ambitions.

Sai Nasha never planned to move the Karnak Temple from the very beginning. The efforts of several generations of pharaohs have been wasted. He does not think he will succeed. Even if he achieves short-term results, he may pay a huge price. For example, Ah Kenami's father.All he can do is to use the shortcomings of the temple itself to divide its strength as much as possible during his lifetime.Those priests are clerics, but how many of them have no interest in their hearts.

As long as people still have ambitions and desires, there will be opportunities to take advantage of. Sai Nasha has a lot of patience.

Senasa left Karnak with a moderate bane, and passed a new temple priest setting regulation. With the permission and approval of the high priest, he can set up an unlimited number of temples for himself. When the high priest is unwell or away from home, he acts in a legally recognized capacity.This avoids the election process and gives the high priests of each temple a higher right to appoint and remove personnel. It is also a special case for the consistent and normal operation of the temple, and does not violate the law of Maat, the god of fairness.

Norman felt that he had more freedom to act, and he could appoint and remove more confidants to fight against Pharaoh and obtain greater personal benefits.This pharaoh was so fierce on the foreign battlefield, but so sensible and gentle in his domestic policy, probably because of the lessons learned from the past, he has self-knowledge.Norman was only thinking about where he would place his own people, but he didn't notice the ambition of his subordinates.

These four people were fighting openly and secretly for the position of their successors. How could the high priest be allowed to choose other cronies, or even override his own position. The struggle was nothing but a matter of imminence.

Sai Nasha's arrangement is very far-reaching, and he didn't even think about realizing it while he was alive, so no one was on his guard, not to mention the fact that the opposition between kingship and theocracy couldn't be worse.

Even Akenami wasn't so sure.But her experience taught her that if the mother only gave birth to one or two princesses, the relationship between the sisters would be better.But the mother gave birth to six, and there are too many people in the same position, which is not a good thing.

She looked at Sai Nasha hesitating to speak, but Sai Nasha knew that he had successfully achieved his goal, and he was going to ignore the temple from then on, but it was only a large sum of money spent every year, which was not unbearable.

The focus of his life for a period of time in the future is to win Akenami, and then successfully give birth to a child.

Senasa suddenly reached out and touched Akenamei's flat belly: "Since Meng Dali confirmed that you are not pregnant, then..." Akenasha looked at Senasha nervously, she seemed to feel nothing. Seeing that her husband has changed his attitude recently, he admits that he still loves her, but his actions are not as active as before, as if he has already woven a trap, waiting for Akenami to fall into it by himself. Sure enough, Sai Nasha said: " The domestic affairs in Xitai have calmed down, and the signing of a peace agreement between the two countries has been put on the agenda as usual, I hope you will go with me, even if it is to meet my relatives."

"Already... calmed down?" Akenami was very surprised. Is it so easy to clear the charge of murdering the emperor?

Sai Nasha was silent for a while, but for people in the royal family, such things were commonplace, but it was just a little bit of embarrassment: "It was a female official next to Xili who took the blame."

Akenami recalled hearing the cold and cruel words of Irbonni before she died: Dite, Prince Senasa, Urusla and even His Royal Highness Prince Mali, all died for the great concubine who was about to be born in the Xitai Empire. Death, I have no way out at this moment.

Not everyone is so lucky to be the one who can save each other's fate like she and Sai Nasha.And their fate, life and death, was inexplicably tied to Xili Ishtar. Even Akenami found it ridiculous, but fortunately she had gotten rid of it.

Akenami's heart softened, and she said with a rare gentle attitude recently: "Then I will tell the empress dowager, and I will go with you."

Sai Nasha was very satisfied with her softening, although she didn't know why: "This is the best, the gift I promised to give you, then you can see it with your own eyes."

The author has something to say: The struggle between Senasa and the temple forces is like this. History has proved that the pharaoh cannot win. Then only through internal division, the more people who legally share power, the power will be fragmented and effective. Weaken the power of the temple.But this is a long process, just like the Tweeting Order of the Han Dynasty, this is all Sai Nasha can do in this world.

But his tricks don't end here...

The victory relief of Seti I, the one he grabbed is from Xitai... well, there is a sense of sight of pulling a carrot, and the enemy is going to be vilified