[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

Inan certainly had no intention of buying Egypt.Even if she wanted to buy it, Pharaoh wouldn't sell it.

But she had huge estates, which provided her with plenty of opportunities to trade with the Egyptians.

In fact, even when the two countries were hostile and border conflicts, there was still a lot of trade between Babylon and Egypt.

The Egyptians imported all kinds of sophisticated handicrafts, ironware, and high-quality wood from Babylon; Babylon imported part of the food, flax crops and fabrics, animal skins, spices, and a certain amount of gold from Egypt.

These trades do not take place by land, but by sea.Most of the time, savvy Greeks will act as middlemen between two hostile countries and benefit from the difference in tariffs.

But since Yi Nan was there, the Greeks couldn't take advantage of it in the past two years.

Inan quietly let his own people take over the trade with the Egyptians, and suppressed the Egyptians' demand for military supplies such as iron.

The first king of Babylon died of illness, and the Egyptians did not take advantage of the danger and make a large-scale attack when Saar rushed back to Babylon for the funeral, but silently guarded the border, which is also for this reason.

As for the congratulatory gift of "truce" given by the Egyptians at the wedding of the new king of Babylon, it was the result of lobbying by Egyptian businessmen.

Yinan: Throughout human history, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.As long as Egypt needs to trade with Babylon, she has a way to bridge the dispute between the two countries and stop the war between the two countries.

Saar was a little furious at the beginning: Babylonian merchants were secretly conducting trade between the two countries when the two countries were at war.

When he heard that Babylon imported a considerable amount of grain and gold, he could understand the importance of this trade, so he had nothing to say.

In the end Yi Nan hugged his arm and pleaded softly.

It can stop the war, but there is no reason why Saar refused to agree. At present, the generals of the border garrison expressly hinted that within one year, they should take defense against the Egyptians and no matter what happened, they should not take the initiative to attack.

The frontier garrison is happy to cultivate the fields and enjoy all kinds of delicious food carefully prepared by the "cooking class".Hearing that the king ordered the war to stop, they all thought it was a matter of course. Originally, it was time for this land to recuperate.

It was rare that a few generals without eyesight went to the king to ask for a fight, but they were all reprimanded by the king and sent back.

However, the king of Babylon also promised them: If the situation between Babylon and Egypt does not improve after a year, then it is time for them to show their talents.

The generals of Babylon heard: one year, not long, is acceptable.

As a result, the two couples set the tone for the border issue with Egypt and began to enter a period of peace.

In the next three months, Inan simply let go.

Her huge business chain began to exert influence on Egypt.Many Egyptian merchants began to realize that trade with Babylon could allow them to obtain more profits - something that war could not give.

Egyptian businessmen began to lobby the ministers in the pharaoh's court and the priests of the temple, and even tried to give young ministers who were more inclined to "emphasize business" into the court, carve up the territory originally controlled by the military.

On the contrary, most of the main generals in the military have various "misfortunes" in their families, property damage or investment failure, resulting in a decline in their popularity in the DPRK, and there is no way to use some "unpopular" means To win the favor of Pharaoh.

For example, it is difficult for the military to do such acts as bribing important officials and directly offering generous gifts to the pharaoh or the high priest.

In addition, Egypt has said that it will not attack Babylon for the time being. They cannot enrich their pockets by plundering the territory of the Babylonian Kingdom. In desperation, they can only attack Nubia in the south.

Three months later, in the Egyptian court, the "Peace Party" who advocated peace talks with Babylon had already gained the absolute upper hand.

At this time, the original "temporary cessation of war" agreement had been automatically terminated, but there was no movement from Egypt.The defenders on the border of the two sides seemed to have a tacit understanding, and each silently guarded the border.Occasionally, the other party's lost sheep will be sent back.

By the seventh month, Egypt officially sent envoys to Babylon to negotiate peace with Babylon.

On Sal's side, it's okay not to be surprised.

Before that, he fought the Egyptians for two years, and even the late king was not able to accompany him for the last time.

But now, Yinan only took six months to settle the upper class in Egypt, and let the other party show goodwill first, expressing their willingness to cease the war and negotiate a peace—without compromising his dignity as the king of Babylon, but keeping it for Babylon. Lots of benefits.

The civilians who have been troubled by the war on the border between the two countries can finally recuperate and live a peaceful life now.

Everything was perfect: except Sal.

Saar: ...My desire to conquer has nowhere to rest!

As a young prince who fought north and south and grew up on horseback, he enjoyed the joy of victory very much.

But he still has a heart that belongs to the benevolent. It is impossible for him to sacrifice the lives of his subordinates and civilians and wantonly provoke wars to satisfy his desire to conquer.

Some people can't conquer on horseback, they conquer in the inner curtain.

Sal didn't have any interest in it.He has waited for so many years just for a shadow in his heart, and now even if he is forced to take another look at other women, he finds it troublesome.

But here comes the problem.

Saar is an energetic king. He is eager to try different things and reach boundaries that have never been reached... He used to always think that he could do it after he got power, but he didn't know that was not the case at all.

Even if he becomes king, he still can't do whatever he wants.

So what should he do?

Saar is also very capable-after he returned to Babylon, he became obsessed with another "new thing", which was shipbuilding.

The history of shipbuilding in the Mesopotamia was also developed by Yinan along the way: from completely flat rafts, sheepskin rafts, to canoes, and then to larger boats made of keels and masks... With the development of the times, Ships got bigger and bigger.

Inan and Sal went to the Phoenician region on the Mediterranean Sea during their "honeymoon".

Here, Saar saw all kinds of ships.Among them was a flat-bottomed boat rowed by two people--this one he had ridden and rowed himself--and had taken Inan to the island where they had a good night together.

In addition, Thrall has also seen sailing ships with high sides and deep water, used to transport goods, and paddle boats that rely entirely on human power.Most of the paddling boats he saw were narrow flat-bottomed boats with thirty or fifty oarsmen.

In fact, this is not much progress compared with the boats used to transport peasants on the Euphrates River in Gilgamesh's time.

After returning to Babylon, Saar also became attached to the ship for some reason.

His first thought was: Could the boat be bigger?Load more people, more cargo.

The conclusion is: of course you can.However, the larger the hull, the greater the resistance, and more and more power is needed to push the ship forward.

Sal wondered if it was possible to combine a galley with a sailboat—so there was a galley.

After having a galley, Saar still felt that there were too few oars on both sides of the ship.However, if according to Saar's idea, more paddle positions are added, the entire hull will be too long, and it will be inconvenient to move in the water.

Sal was puzzled by this, and would frown and think about this question every day, even when eating and resting.

Finally one day, when Yi Nan was feeding the most popular pet in the palace, the Saker Falcon Jiujiu, he stacked up the three plates for Jiujiu - even though there was a wooden spoon on each of the three plates .

Jiujiu was very dissatisfied, and called "Jiujiu" and "Jiujiu" at Yi Nan.

But Sal was standing aside, staring thoughtfully at the three stacked pottery dishes.

Suddenly, Sal jumped up, hugged Yinan, impulsively gave his queen a passionate kiss, then turned and ran away.Leaving the royal court, he jumped on his horse and headed straight for the dock outside Babylon.

Yi Nan raised the corners of his lips and smiled, stretched out his hand and rearranged the three pottery dishes for Jiujiu, and then used a wooden spoon to put the "delicious food" specially prepared for this Saker Falcon into the dishes.

Jiujiu was so anxious that he pecked down Yi Nan's hand.The bird itself became anxious, spread its wings, and called "chirp" several times.

Yi Nan didn't realize it.Ordinarily her finger would not be hurt, but it was painful.

But Yi Nan's mind is not on this at all, she is thinking about Sal——

On the night that Thrall proposed to her last time, she failed to complete the task of "observing 'free will'".Inan recalled afterwards, she also realized that she was impulsive at the time, thinking that she had not been able to see through the true meaning of "fate", but in fact she was too harsh on herself and Sal.

But in any case, the result of this incident was that her task could not be completed.

She continued to stay in the ancient society.

The "Retrospective Civilization Project" is still going on, and if the task cannot be completed, she will not be able to return to modern times.

In addition to the mission, Inan and Thrall finally combined, taking the most daring step in her entire "plan".In fact, during the time spent with Thrall, Yi Nan was filled with a little bit of rebellious pride——

She is a modern person who traveled to BC through the "time-space tunnel".She fell in love with the man from ancient times, so she broke free from all the shackles one by one, and crossed the river of love with him.

She vaguely remembered Daniel telling her that she could be "brave" in ancient times, but she guessed that Daniel was not referring to this aspect.

Yi Nan felt that he was brave enough.

But falling in love with Sal doesn't have to be the end of the whole thing.

After the prince and princess in a love story get married, life is often left with a boring period like "living together happily ever after".

But she is not qualified to do so.

She is a researcher at the Rediscovering Civilization Project.

If she indulges in her relationship with Thrall, she may face a dire situation later:

Saar grows old and dies;

And she won't.

She will live alone, alone, through the ages, a monster that never grows old or dies.

If she can never reach the end of the mission, she will die silently before she is "born".

Yi Nan's life will also become a closed loop.

In the final analysis, the key to breaking the situation is human "free will".She needs to promote the "free will" of human beings, so as to witness a new process of human history.

And Sal, can he help her complete this task?

Yi Nan stood up slowly, letting Jiujiu, who was full of food and drink, jump on her shoulders.This falcon has grown into an adult eagle, but it is full of attachment to Yi Nan just like when it was a child.

"Let's go, let's go to the dock and see what Wang is doing?"

Outside the city of Babylon, on the banks of the Euphrates River, the young king ordered the construction of a huge dock for various "experiments" in shipbuilding.

There is a shed near the dock.This shed is exactly the same as the shed under the Tower of Babel."White boards" painted with chalk are hung on all four sides of the shed, on which one can write or draw with a charcoal pen, and then wipe with a damp cloth to modify.

In addition, there are various models scattered in the shed.Most of these models are made of wood, some are complete ship models, and some are partial components.

When Yinan and Jiujiu arrived, Sal was sitting in the shed, gesturing with three pottery dishes in his hand.

When Jiujiu saw the pottery dish, he immediately "chirped", as if saying: It's my dish!

Sal was taken aback, and suddenly blushed slightly.But when he turned his head, he just saw Yi Nan's encouraging eyes, and his confidence suddenly increased, and he continued to explain to the craftsmen:

"The same row of oarsmen sits on the side of the boat, divided into three layers, that is, three people sit on different heights of different layers of the boat, hold the oars, and the oars extend into the water at different angles, and paddle at the same time..."

He explained in Babylonian, and he did not forget to draw the figures on the whiteboard with charcoal.

Some craftsmen understood, some didn't understand, but everyone rubbed their hands together and said, "Since the king said it, let's try!"

All of a sudden everyone moved.

Saar put down the charcoal pencil in his hand, came to Yi Nan, and whispered, "You... are here!"

Yi Nan looked at him with bright eyes, nodded, and said, "It's very clear, but... I don't know if it's practical in practice."

But she knew it was practical—because it was the famous trireme warship in history.

According to the official history, the original shape of this warship came from the Phoenicians, and later it was carried forward in the hands of the Greeks, and it shined in the Hippo War; then it was changed by the Carthaginians to a four-oared warship, and finally by the The Romans further changed it into a five-oared warship; as for the galley, this practical sea ship was used until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD.

When Yi Nan said this, in the final analysis, he still didn’t want Saar to feel that he got the “inspiration” from him, but it was entirely his own idea.

Saar was not shocked by her "doubt", but waved his hand casually: "This is an idea that came to me suddenly."

"If it works, let's try it; if it doesn't work, we'll think of other ways." Saar smiled and comforted Yi Nan, as if she was the one who was worried.

So, the king and queen of Babylon sat down comfortably in this simple shed.

A moment later, someone had already made a "section" of a three-oared boat according to Saar's description, and sent it to the king and queen.

Yi Nan was amazed that this thing was made so quickly.

Saar, however, was used to the craftsmen's speed, and explained to Yinan: "The model of the section of this ship has been available for a long time. They added three decks to the section, and then drilled a few holes on the side of the ship, so that the lower deck can A sailor can stick a paddle over the side of a ship..."

Yi Nan listened to his explanation with great interest, and even watched the craftsmen put three humanoid "sailor models" into the model.The models are so articulate that you can even sit on the deck to simulate paddling.

After thinking about it, Yi Nan decided to leave the shed to Sal and his friends.

She bid farewell to everyone, exited the shed, came to the nearby dock, stood on a high place, and looked at the busy labor scene in front of her.

Jiujiu saw the free sky, and with a sound of "Jiu--", he shot straight into the sky, leaving Yi Nan standing alone.

I don't know how long it took before Sal appeared next to her, gently touched her shoulders, and said, "Is it... the king is only concerned about shipbuilding recently and has left you in the cold?"

Yinan chuckled suddenly, "Do you think I'm that kind of person?"

As a researcher in ancient times, it would be strange if she could be free.

Saar was speechless, he gently held her shoulders, and said, "I've worked hard for you these days."

These days, Sal's interests are all about shipbuilding, while Inan's interests are all about politics—she's studying the impact of taxation on Babylonian commerce and daily life, as well as the organization of Babylonian grassroots politics.

As a result, the situation in the Babylonian court was almost completely reversed: the king was not doing his job, while the queen was acting as a substitute.

However, this is exactly the case, and the current Babylon shows a scene where the people live in peace and contentment, the country is extremely powerful, and all walks of life are full of creativity.

"Only you in this world understand me." Sal lightly patted Yinan on the shoulder and whispered in her ear.

Yinan certainly understands Saar's thoughts: the concern for people's livelihood and the desire for peace have suppressed the man's desire to conquer, and Saar no longer tries to expand the territory.It is indeed not his strong point and not his favorite to ask him to expand outward with the help of business like Yi Nan did.

So Saar devoted all his energy and ambition to the conquest of the sea—he wanted to sail to the end of the vast sea, and to explore those continents that the gods never allowed humans to touch.

Yinan certainly supports this: any attempt to challenge the existing territory is, to some extent, a manifestation of "free will".

It's just that Yinan doesn't know how far Thrall needs to go to prove that "free will" has taken root in people's hearts in this era-does he need to discover the New World?

Columbus discovered the New World of America in 1492.

Vasco da Gama led a fleet around the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in India from Europe in 1497.

In 1522, Magellan's companions completed his voyage around the world.

The era of Saar - 593 BC.

It was hard for Yi Nan to imagine that people in this era could use their sea navigation tools to explore any unknown areas on this earth.

As the saying goes, care leads to chaos.Sal's determination interfered with her judgment to a certain extent.She faced Saar's pursuit with conflicting feelings. She was proud and honored, but also deeply doubted and worried.

Saar breathed lightly in her ear, then smiled and said, "Are you worried?"

Inan nodded.It is impossible for her to say that she is not worried about this feeling that she has managed so hard to grasp.

Sardon smiled, stretched out his hand to brush her hair, and said, "Wang's water quality is very good!"

Inan had seen Sal swimming in the Euphrates before, and knew what he said was right.

However, the safety of navigation is not directly related to the quality of the water. What's more, navigation is more of an arduous journey completed by all crew members and the entire fleet.It concerns the life safety of every participant.

Seeing Yinan's expression, Saar knew that she didn't let go of her worries at all because of her words.

So Saar hugged Yinan's shoulders and whispered against her cheek, "Don't worry, the king is not such a ignorant person. Even if you really want to go on an 'expedition' by boat, there is still a long way to go." Walk."

He pressed an affectionate kiss on Yinan's cheek: "Because of you, the king cherishes his life so much."

"It's still a long time, let's prepare slowly."

With the great success of the construction of the trireme, the king of Babylon moved his shipbuilding base from Babylon on the Euphrates to Phoenicia.

There, in addition to building a large dock, he also invited many experienced captains and sailors who had been sailing the Mediterranean all year round to join his fleet.

At the beginning, people only practiced in calm harbors, and later they began to enter seas known for storms, waves and hidden reefs, to repeatedly test this new type of sea boat, and to exercise people's ability to navigate in bad weather.

During this time, Saar was only stationed on the west coast of the Kingdom of Babylon, while Inan was sitting in Babylon, the capital located in the east of the country, intervening in political affairs instead of the king.

At first, the Babylonians, like their neighbors, were astonished at the way the king and the queen separated things and managed state affairs together—in this case, it seemed that there were two "kings" in Babylon.

Two "kings" stand side by side, and the real king only thinks about sailing all day long. Isn't this...won't it really mess up the government?

As it turns out, it doesn't—

And the relationship between the king and the queen is surprisingly good: the king will return to Babylon every six months.When they were with the queen, the two were as close and happy as if they were on a "honeymoon" when they were newly married.

Most of the kingdom's government affairs are handled by responsible ministers, and the final decision is in the hands of the queen.The king will intervene in military and political affairs, but he has never questioned the queen's power.

A year after the king and queen were married, the king had devoted himself entirely to the sea to the west of the kingdom.He already owned more than a hundred triremes and a fleet of elite soldiers.

In the second year of the king and queen's marriage, the king sent the queen a generous gift on their "anniversary day": his fleet arrived at an island in the Mediterranean Sea safely, and he reached an agreement with the locals to set off on the There is the right to use the pier.

Saar also ingeniously purchased the "naming rights" of Yian Island, and named the island "Inan Island" as a gift to the queen.

Sal mentioned in the letter: The residents of the island mentioned that the island they were on was the birthplace of the goddess Venus.Because of this, he specially bought the "naming rights" to name the island after his wife.

Yi Nan saw the letter and immediately understood: it turned out to be Cyprus.

Once she figured out the location of the island, she didn't think about it any more.