[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

The people of Uruk soon got the news that Uruk and Eridu were really going to war.

"Shame, it's really shame—"

In front of Uruk's bakery, a Uruk man patted his thigh, frothing with emotion.

"Who would have imagined that our saint would go to Eridu's main god Enki to steal things? How could such a thing happen? Wouldn't it make all of us in Uruk feel ashamed?"

Everyone, including passers-by, glared at this rumor-spreading guy.

The aunt in the bakery said with a cold face: "I'm sorry, but anyone who slanders the saint in front of me, don't buy bread from me!"

"If you dare to say what the people of Eridu say, what do you believe?"

In a word, the previous guy was stunned speechless, blushed and held back for a long time, and then confessed: "...This, this is not what I said! It was passed on by the guy who trains the horse."

He pointed to the horse trainer squatting lazily on the side of the street: "He just came back from Eridu, and he said that."

All eyes were on the horse trainer, with doubts and doubts.

The horse trainer shook his hands and clarified quickly: "This is what the Eridu people themselves said. Now the Euphrates River is full of rafts from Eridu. They said they wanted to ask us Uruk for an explanation and to get everything back. go."

Aunt Bread was very angry, and slammed the rolling pin in her hand on the wooden table in front of her: "Believe it or not, I just don't believe it, you—tell me, what did our saintess take from them? Is it their wheat or theirs?" Home bread?"

"That is, Uruk produces so much, why does our saint need to get things from other people's houses?"

A group of people agreed, and no one would believe the words of the horse trainer.

The horse trainer had no choice but to explain: "They said that what the saintess took from Enki was a kind of treasure related to civilization, which is... difficult to understand. Things that don't let us figure it out."

Aunt Bread clapped her hands immediately: "So the saint is so pitiful? Our witch in Uruk is covering it so that no one will know, and she has to go to Eridu to 'steal'?"

As soon as the word "steal" was uttered, the auntie from the bakery said "Bah, Bah, Bah!", shook her head and said, "No, definitely not... This must be a misunderstanding."

She immediately turned to the horse trainer and asked aggressively, "Please explain clearly, what did our saintess take from Enki!"

The horse trainer was stopped by the question, stretched out his hand and scratched the back of his head: "What's that thing called?"

He scanned the goods displayed on the shelf in the bakery, and suddenly saw a jar of honey, and then he showed a "that's it" expression, and replied, "It seems to be called-'Secret'."

"'dense'?"

People in Uruk looked at each other: What kind of treasure is this?

Aunt Bread is still defending Yi Nan: "No matter what, the saint went to Eridu for the sake of Uruk! If it wasn't like this, if it wasn't like this..."

The aunt's tears fell.

"If it wasn't for this, it wouldn't be..." Many Uruk people sobbed along with her.

Had it not been for this, Venus would not have fallen so abruptly.

——Have they lost their goddess forever?

When people on the street heard this, they all looked sad.

"It doesn't matter whether the saint is for our good or not, now the people of Eridu have come to settle accounts with us," the Uruk man who first spread the rumor spread his hands and asked helplessly, "What should we do? Is that good?"

"There is no other way, but to listen to the witch, and see if the power left by Wizard Dan can help Uruk tide over the difficulties."

There was an atmosphere of mourning on the streets, and the pain caused by the "fall of Venus" far exceeded the sense of crisis that Eridu brought to the city.

Yi Nan, who was hiding at the end of the street, lowered his head, pulled down the linen robe that was wrapped around his head, walked briskly, and left from the alley at the end of the street.

People's reactions were in line with her predictions. The only thing she didn't expect was that the horse trainer casually called up a "secret" name when he was cornered—he had to find a way to say hello to Enki, Don't wear clothes.

As for the rafts that are said to have appeared on the Euphrates—the Eridians were not so quick, they were actually fishermen along the Euphrates.They had been communicating with Eridu all the time, and time was running out, so these fishermen responded to Eridu's request (indirectly also Inan's request), and propped all the rafts towards the river, which was also spectacular from a distance.

Just now I heard that many ordinary people in Uruk sincerely defended her and mourned her experience——Yinan was very upset: This city is like this, and every effort she makes will be seen by others. And reap the rewards.

After Yi Nan left the streets of Uruk, she raised her hand to look at her watch:

"40:17:33"

Almost 40 hours left.

Since returning to Uruk, Yi Nan did not show his face in public, but chose to sneak into the city secretly.All the tasks are temporarily done for her by others, and she can only stand in the shadow and measure the effect silently.

Yi Nan's goal is very clear: to let Wu show his true colors in front of the world.

There are still 40 hours-how she hopes to see the results she wants within the last 40 hours.

Uruk, in front of the warehouse of the temple.

The lapis lazuli merchant Rahal's face was black with anger.The high priest opposite him was as cold as ever.

"Rahal, you've let us down this time. Where's your former shrewdness?" the High Priest asked Rahal. "These stones are of no value to us."

Rahal held back his breath and said, "This is what the saint of Uruk promised me. She said that Uruk will need these stones, and they need a lot of them."

For Rahal, obtaining lapis lazuli requires a long journey and crossing thousands of mountains and rivers, but now the natural copper ore he sent to the high priest, although the surface is stained with a piece of verdigris, looks inconspicuous, but it must Come relatively easy.It took Rahal more than a month to collect a lot, and they were carried by ox carts to Uruk.

Unexpectedly, the senior priest in front of him actually said "no".

"Now Uruk is decided by the witch, and the witch has the final say. The saint... If you can find her, go find her!"

The high priest said indifferently, threw Rahal aside, and left by himself.

Rahal was sulking for a long time, but he knew that the high priest was telling the truth—the saint was not in the city, and he had heard that there were bad luck.

But he is a businessman, and he will not get angry on the spot. This account will only be kept in his heart silently, and he will slowly make up for it from the lapis lazuli trade in the future.

Unexpectedly, just as he was about to leave the hotel, a trainee priest came face to face.

There are many opportunities for merchants to deal with apprentice priests—and Rahal is no exception.He has always known that these trainee priests have low status and cowardly words, and they never even say much to others.

Unexpectedly, the trainee priest walked straight towards Rahal and even bumped him lightly.

Just as Rahal was about to swear, he heard the trainee priest whisper two words in his ear: Please go to a pottery workshop in Uruk, where someone will collect all these ores according to order— —

Of course Rahal was going, otherwise he would have lost a lot of money on this trip.

But the lapis lazuli merchant played tricks, he only brought a few samples of natural copper ore, and most of the ore was stored in a small hotel he knew well.

The address given by the trainee priest pointed to the largest pottery workshop in the city.Rahal has the impression that the young owner of this workshop seems to have competed with his son for the "Holy Wedding Groom".

But the person who came out of the pottery workshop was not the owner of the workshop, but the young shepherd from Tibila Village.

"You may not have an impression of me—my name is Dumuzi." The shepherd greeted Rahal generously, "The saint asked me to ask you, have you brought the ore?"

Rahal nodded: "I brought samples."

"Okay, please come in and talk." Dumuzi seemed to be the owner of this workshop, and warmly welcomed the lapis lazuli merchant inside.They found a place to sit near the pottery kiln, and there was a fire pond beside them, which should be used to keep the fire for firing the kiln, and the fire in the pond was not very prosperous at the moment.

Rahal turned his head and looked, and could see the father and son, the owner of the pottery workshop, taking out the fired pottery from the pottery kiln.

Uruk's pottery craftsmanship is unrivaled in the world - Rahal is itching to know what good things this pottery kiln has produced.

But first we need to discuss the matter of copper ore clearly.

So Rahal asked straightforwardly: "Is what your saint promised at the beginning still counts now?"

The shepherd nodded: "It counts, of course it counts. All the promises the saint made to you are now valid."

Rahal squinted at him: "What qualifications do you have to say this on behalf of the saint. I remember...you are just a shepherd?"

The corner of Dumuzi's mouth raised, and he smiled at Rahal: "I have won the full trust of the saint with my performance, so now I can make a promise to you on her behalf."

Rahal looked suspiciously at the young man in front of him: he didn't have a deep impression of this shepherd, but he also felt that in just a few months, the temperament of this shepherd had completely changed.

The current Dumuzi is still as honest and astute as before, but he has more air and determination out of thin air. It is not too much to say that he is completely different from before.

"I want to see the ore you brought first."

Rahal reached out, took out the pieces of natural copper ore from his bosom, and handed them to Dumuzi.

Du Muzituo weighed it in his hand, and was about to speak when he heard a commotion outside, followed by heavy footsteps, and someone rushed in.

"Search, search!" Someone yelled, "Don't move, don't move!"

Dumuzi reacted extremely quickly, loosened his wrist, and threw the stone straight into the fire.Rahal stared at him dumbfounded, and then realized: Anyway, the shepherd threw stones into the fire, and they just put out the fire later.

The owner of the pottery workshop and other workers were petrified by the sudden turn of events.People on the left and right stood where they were, not daring to move.

As for Dumuzi and Haral, who were outsiders, they were sitting beside the firepit calmly at this moment, as if they were watching a play.

——Who is the person who came in?What else are you searching for?

The answer came quickly. Most of the people who came in were middle-level priests, led by a high-level priest wearing a dark blue robe.They came in to search for weapons.

"Stone knives, stone axes, stone hammers... all that can be used as weapons, hand them over!"

"Weapon?" Rahal was also surprised, "Is this really going to war with Elidu?"

"But... isn't it good for ordinary people to keep some weapons in their hands? Could it be that Wu Neng can use these weapons to kill the enemy by himself?" Although Rahal has nothing to do with it, he still thinks it is quite strange.When he turned around, he happened to see Du Muzi sneering aside.

"Stand up and stand up—" The middle priests searched the workshop, confiscated several stone tools, and gradually found Dumuzilahal.The two were ordered to stand up and even frisked.

After the priests who found nothing let them go, another priest picked up a firewood and poked it vigorously in the fire pit.

"Bring some water!"

A bucket of water was brought up from the well and poured on the fire pond.

With a "hiss", the flames were completely extinguished, and the fire pit was filled with white smoke.The priest "dutifully" poked firewood again, and then loudly said to the senior priest, "The firepit has also been checked, and there are no weapons hidden in it."

All the people in the pottery workshop dared not speak out:

This is not requisitioning civilian weapons, it is clearly unwilling to allow ordinary residents to keep half a weapon for self-defense.

And those priests who flattered Shangfeng only knew how to cause trouble for ordinary Uruk people—the flame in the fire pit was extinguished, and the workshop would have to burn the kiln afterward, and it was necessary to start a new stove.

"Let's go!" The high-ranking priest glanced at the crowd, but did not recognize Dumuzi or Rahal. He took his men and carried the things that could be used as weapons from the workshop, and turned around. Walk.

Rahal saw that the two middle priests were still holding a big stone like a stone roller in their hands, so he couldn't hold back. He poked Dumuzi beside him and asked, "This stone can also be used as a weapon. ?"

Dumuzi nodded and said, "You may not be familiar with Uruk. In Uruk before, all boys have to practice throwing stones since childhood."

It turned out to be a stone throw - Rahal understood.

Speaking of throwing stones, Dumuzi couldn't help staring at the stones that had been carried away, wondering what happened again.

The owner of the pottery workshop came over at this moment, sighing as he looked at the fire pit that was directly extinguished by a pot of water.

"I'll build another firepit for you later on." Dumuzi quickly agreed.

The owner of the pottery shop shook his head: "No, no, it's none of your business, it's all the priests..."

It seemed that the ordinary people in Uruk had already felt resentment towards that witch and her priests, but they didn't dare to speak out, they could only express it with long sighs.

Dumuzi comforted the master a few words, then went back to find Rahal, and the two continued to talk about the ore.

Dumuzi, holding a branch, flicked back and forth in the dark fire pool, trying to pick out the ore that was thrown in just now.

He suddenly let out a "Huh", and found something in the fire pond that was still emitting white smoke.

When Dumuzi stretched out his hand, he was scalded with a "hiss".When he started to do it again, he learned how to behave, carefully fiddled with the embers in the firepit, and at the same time used two branches to take out a small piece of shiny things.

"Like gold," said the well-informed Rahal at once—he had seen deposits of raw gold in the wild.

"But it's not gold."

Dumuzi took a look at the small, round thing in his hand, and then handed it to Rahal.I saw that the surface of the thing was glowing with silver-white light, which was quite different from the color of gold.

Dumuzi immediately poked the firepit again, picking out the few pieces of copper ore he threw in earlier.Most of these ores were scorched black on the surface, but Dumuzi rubbed them with his hands, but they showed a bright luster.

"Do you remember the shape of these stones?" Dumuzi asked Rahal.

"Then you are really embarrassing me." Rahal: Who can remember this.

But Dumuzi stared at each piece, and asserted: "It seems to have been burned a little bit." He pulled Rahal, "Let's go!"

Du Muzi took the lapis lazuli merchant to find the father and son of the master of the pottery workshop.

"Can the pottery kiln be lit again?"

The owner of the pottery workshop almost obeyed Dumuzi: "Yes!"

People in the workshop came and went, perking up almost immediately after the priest's disturbance.The flames in the pottery kiln rose again, and the lapis lazuli merchant could feel the heat of the pottery kiln even if he was far away.

But Dumuzi and the owner of the pottery kiln both stood guard outside the pottery kiln, staring at what they had just brought into the pottery kiln—it was a vessel made of clay, a flat pottery dish with two handles , and there are two sharp beaks on the other two sides - they look very ordinary, and they are utensils used by ordinary Uruk people.

But the pottery dish held the few natural copper ores brought by Rahal earlier.

Rahal couldn't see what was going on in the kiln, and wondered if the stone could really be burned?

Unexpectedly, after a while, the owner of the pottery shop really cried out: "It melted, it melted, it all melted." The cry was both surprise and excitement, as if seeing an unheard-of spectacle.

Rahal was really surprised - he looked at the small shiny one in his hand, and thought: Is this also the product of the melting of the "stone"?

Reminiscent of when the saint of Uruk asked him to meet him, she specifically mentioned which two kinds of ores she wanted-could it be that she asked him to look for those stones because she knew that these stones could be melted in the kiln? commodity?

Rahal squeezed the small one in his hand hard, a little harder, and it hurt him a lot.

This means that those ores can change shape arbitrarily like water in a hot kiln?But will it harden again when it cools down?

In this way, wouldn't people be able to change the shape of the stone at will to make those shapes they want? ——Isn’t this thing better than those lapis lazuli and malachite?

Rahal is indeed a smart businessman. When he realized this, he stretched out his hand to cover his mouth so excitedly that he would not cry out in excitement——almost swallowed the silver object in his hand .

Rahal was so happy, and only then did he admire the "Saint" who had only met once.

"The saint of Uruk is simply a thousand times stronger than those priests!" Rahal couldn't help shouting loudly.He woke up suddenly after making a sound—he actually yelled out the most true opinion in his heart. If the priests in the city heard it, it would be really terrible.

Unexpectedly, when Rahal looked around, the people in the pottery workshop heard his shout from the heart, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Yes, that's it."

"Is there any doubt about this?"

Dumuzi didn't care about the compliments expressed by the lapis lazuli merchant.He and the owner of the pottery workshop were carefully picking out the pottery plate with two long stone sticks.

Sure enough, the ore in the pottery dish melted, and some impurities floated on the surface, but there was some liquid shining with metallic luster in the pottery pot.

The owner of the pottery shop put the pottery plate on the ground, and there was green smoke around the hot pottery plate, but the pottery plate itself was not broken—this made Rahal dumbfounded, and a little bit of admiration arose in his heart.

The artisans of Uruk are truly amazing.

He didn't know that the pottery plate was actually made of a special kind of clay on the banks of the Euphrates River. After two firings, it was extremely resistant to high temperatures. Even the copper ore melted, but the pottery plate was still intact.

At this time, Dumuzi pushed another prepared pottery fan with a branch near the pottery plate.The master of the pottery workshop carefully lifts the pot and tilts it sideways.The liquid in the pottery dish slowly flowed into the pottery fan and gradually filled up.

The pottery fan is in the shape of a "V", resembling a swallowtail. It is a common decoration shape in many Uruk households.The liquid formed by the melting of those copper ores was poured into Tao Fan, and it also became this shape.

Kneeling in the distance, Dumuzi and the master of the pottery workshop let out a long sigh of relief after finishing all this.Both of them were already sweating profusely, as if they had been fished out of the water.

The two embraced and shook hands in celebration - joined by cheers from the rest of the pottery.

It seems that this pottery workshop has completed a rather special handicraft.

But only a few people in the workshop understand what this "decoration" made of special materials means.

In the corner of the pottery workshop, Yi Nan sat in the dark and looked out. The cheers outside made her feel itchy. She really wanted to go out and celebrate with everyone, and also wanted to witness with her own eyes. Dart" looks exactly what it looks like.

But for the sake of the overall situation, Yinan still "pressed" this idea back.

She turned on the light screen in her hand, and whispered to the side:

"33 hours and 42 minutes left."

"In a pottery workshop in Uruk, artisans and shepherds tried metal smelting for the first time - they may have gotten a metal tin from the firepit by mistake before."

"Once they had metallic tin, they went on to put the natural copper in a clay crucible, which was pushed into a higher temperature pottery kiln - where charcoal appeared to be added to raise the temperature."

"After that they actually got the smelted copper and poured it into the pottery to make an artifact with an artificial form."

"I have just witnessed that human society has entered the age of copper and stone with its head held high."

Yi Nan could no longer restrain the pride in her voice.