[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

Gilgamesh is very famous to Inan——the protagonist of "The Epic of Gilgamesh", his story has even influenced the myths and legends of many nations.

However, as a history student who specializes in the history of Western Asia, Yi Nan understands him mainly because he is a person clearly listed in the Sumerian King List, that is to say, he is a person who really existed in history. King of Sumer.

Gilgamesh always appeared as a hero in various literary works of later generations, but unexpectedly, he was considered a "tyrant" by his contemporaries.

What is even more coincidental is that Sister Shahat, who was worried about Yinan being enlisted as a civilian husband, claimed in a hurry that Yinan was a child created by the gods. When she arrived, she was wearing the khaki off-road suit, which happened to be The color of sand.

In the Sumerian prophecy, the name "Enki" refers to the "God of the Earth" in the gods, but it means "creation of the earth" when it comes to humans.

So her nonsense name "Duo" was crowned with the words "created by the earth", and it became "Enkido"-at first glance, it was almost "Enkidu".

Isn't Enkidu the best friend of Gilgamesh, the beautiful young man who accompanied Gilgamesh to complete the great cause of the hero king, but died before Gilgamesh because of the sin of the gods?

Yi Nan thought: This must be just a coincidence!

She couldn't be Enkidu.

Because - she will not die.

The consul from Sipar was obviously very pleased to find a suitable husband, and gave Inan more time for a meal and asked her to pack her luggage.

Except for Aunt Shahat, the residents of the village are very grateful to Yinan—after all, only because of her stepping up to take over this task, the rest of the village can be saved.

But the villagers looked at Yi Nan as if they were parting from each other, and Yi Nan would never come back.Most of them have heard the rumors in the city of Sipar, saying that the construction of the city wall in Uruk this time was arduous and dangerous, and the casualties were very serious. Large-scale recruitment of peasants in small city-states.

"Duo, take care of yourself." Sister Shahat's eyes were shedding tears, making it hard to believe that she had only known Yi Nan for a few days.

Yi Nan could only pat Mammy's hand and said, "Don't worry, I'm so strong, I'm sure I'll be fine."

Sister Shahat gave her a gouging look, disgusted with her heartless appearance, and whispered: "You are a girl! Promise Sister, you will protect yourself and don't get close to that tyrant."

Yinan agreed casually, but she was thinking about what she would need to investigate after she went to Uruk: technological level, cultural level, municipal construction, political system and decision-making process...all she wanted to know.

Getting close to Gilgamesh... was inevitable.

Seeing Yinan's perfunctory, Sister Shahat was a little heartbroken, as if she had foreseen that her good cabbage would be raped by pigs, she slapped her leg fiercely, and said loudly:

"If one day I meet that tyrant, I must make him look good!"

In this way, Yinan bid farewell to the heartbroken Sister Shahat and the villagers who were mixed in joy and shame. He met the consul of Sipar at the entrance of the village, and followed other conscripted peasants to the city of Sipar first, and then Meet up with more civilians and take a boat to Uruk downstream.

For Inan, the rafts and sheepskin rafts of 5500 BC still seem to be in sight, and more than 2000 years later, relatively large boats have appeared on the Euphrates River.

This kind of boat has a long and slender body, and the side of the boat is not high above the water surface. It is about 50 centimeters long and can seat more than 30 people. It is divided into three rows, with paddlers on both sides and passengers in the middle. It actually looks like a flower planter's dragon boat.

The hull of this ship is made of a whole oak polished keel, and then covered with thick planks to make a mask. The mask is fixed with copper nails, putty is applied in the gaps, and a thick layer of paint Bitumen waterproofs.

Yi Nan boarded a boat with more than 20 civilian husbands and a recruiting official from Uruk.Seeing that Yi Nan was short and thin, the official shook his head and sighed, and seemed very dissatisfied, but he arranged for Yi Nan to sit in the middle so that she didn't need to paddle hard.

Little did they know that this decision was quite wise. If Yi Nan was allowed to paddle, she might destroy many oars.

Yi Nan was crowded with nearly thirty men for a long-distance trip at once, and it was inevitable that he would be embarrassed sometimes.

Fortunately, she has a special constitution, she will neither starve to death nor thirst to death, let alone... suffocate to death.

The journey was not too long. The fleet headed downstream for three days, and went ashore twice to rest. By the time they went ashore for the third time, the grand and magnificent city of Uruk had already appeared in sight.

Yinan was very impressed with the city of Uruk. When he saw it at this time, he couldn't help comparing it with the city that had just risen 2000 years ago.

I saw that the foundation of the current Uruk city has been raised a lot compared to the original one.This proves that in the past 2000 years, once the buildings deteriorated, they were pulled down on the spot and rebuilt on the original site.The city naturally "grows taller".

In the past, the city of Uruk was not entirely on the Euphrates River - Inan still needed two hours of riding from the temple to the river.But now I don’t know whether it is because the river has been diverted, or the city of Uruk has been greatly expanded to the Euphrates River, and the rows of buildings have been extended to the Uruk River.

The commanding heights of the entire city are still tall buildings. Judging from the architectural form, they are either temples or palaces.

Inan remembered what Sister Shahat said, that Gilgamesh was an "impious" king, so the highest building should be used as a palace instead of a temple.

The wharf near Uruk was extremely busy, and countless peasants from small towns and villages along the Euphrates River arrived one after another.

Officials in Uruk are counting the number of people and registering their names in a very methodical manner.

The consul from Sipar brought all the peasants from Sipar and called them one by one; the officials from Uruk quickly moved a reed cut into a special shape to scratch on the clay board.

"Enkidu!" cried the Archon of Sipar.

Yi Nan stood up with a dark complexion, and said in a deep voice, "My name is 'Duo'."

Sipar's consul said gloatingly, "Just write it down. After all, his family kept saying that he was a human being created by the gods."

The officials in Uruk probably memorized the three words "Enkidu" before raising their heads to look at Inan.

"Such a thin young man—are you really recruiting from the people to make up for it?"

"How many times have I told you that forced recruitment by the people is not allowed. Has he reached the age? Has his family agreed? —— Such a thin and weak civilian husband, if the king sees him, he will definitely lose his temper again!"

Sipar's consul repeatedly said: "He is strong, very strong!"

The Uruk official raised his eyes and glanced at Yi Nan, and pointed to his side—a few stone rollers were placed on the ground beside him.

"If you can lift one, you can pass the level. Try it." This official looked fair, quite different from Sipal's consul.

"Duo, come and try it, you can do it." The consul of Xipar looked expectant, and this attitude made Yinan unable to help but wonder whether this guy could get any benefits from recruiting civilian husbands.

So Yinan strode forward and weighed the stone rollers on the ground—there are six in total, and each stone roller has a handle carved out of it.The six stone rollers are the same size.

Yinan visually judged that these stone rollers may also be used as weight standards for weighing in addition to being used for physical measurements.

Amidst the urging sounds, Yi Nan stretched out his hand.

She easily lifted a stone roller with one hand.The people around him looked straight at him: You must know that even a strong and strong man may have to hold his breath and use both arms to lift one.

Unexpectedly, Yi Nan stretched out his hand again and picked up another one.

"it is good!"

There was a burst of applause all around.The civilian husbands who just arrived from other places are all looking here, not knowing what good things happened here.

Yi Nan held a stone roller in one hand, and the corners of her petite mouth rose slightly, she took a fancy to the third one.

"With this strength... it's fine!" Uruk's officials decisively drew a tick on the clay slab, affirming Yinan and joining Uruk's "Urban Construction Bureau" as a qualified "citizen husband".

Unexpectedly, Yi Nan was holding two stone rollers in her hands, and suddenly took two steps quickly, kicking her toes again, she kicked the third stone roller directly, and the heavy stone roller flew straight into the sky, heading towards the west. The consuls of Pal and the officials of Uruk fell from their heads.

Nasipal's consul looked up with such a huge boulder on top of his head, so scared that he couldn't even shout.

The officials in Uruk have been recording on clay tablets all the time, and when they find something is wrong, it is too late to hide.

At this time Yi Nan had already put down the two sets of stone rollers in his hands, and strode forward.The trajectory and strength of this stone roller kicked into the sky by her were calculated by her in advance.Yi Nan knew in her heart that this big stone roller would never hurt anyone—she just wanted to frighten the servile consul and Uruk officials who judge people by their appearance.

In fact, the kick she kicked just now brought a sense of strength, Shi Dun looked like it fell down with great momentum, but in fact it was not violent.Coupled with her current strength and agility, she will definitely be able to catch the stone roller firmly in her hand before it falls, and then walk away with it flauntingly carrying it.

She was absolutely sure that she would never let anyone get hurt, so she dared to play like this.

Unexpectedly, at the moment Yi Nan stretched out her hand, a person next to her ear suddenly shouted loudly: "Get out of the way!"

Of course Yi Nan couldn't dodge, and of course she had to catch the stone rollers she threw herself.She stretched out her white right hand, and reached out to shake the handle on the stone roller.

Unexpectedly, someone was faster than her. Instead of moving the handle, she easily put her right hand on the bottom of the stone roller, and with a little push, the stone roller changed its direction.The stone roller seemed to be firmly absorbed in the palm of his hand, and as his arm fell, he was lightly holding it with one hand, and played with it in the air.

Yinan: ...!

She had failed—something she had never thought of beforehand.

When she tilted her head, she saw a handsome young man's face in front of her, which was very close to her. The two of them were almost facing each other. Yi Nan could clearly see his own image reflected in those amber golden eyes. small face.

This is indeed a handsome young man, with a broad forehead, large and bright eyes, short dark chestnut hair, and a rather strong face line—you can even say that he is arrogant.

However, he does have the ability to be proud - he casually draped a wool-linen blended coat with gold threads on his shoulders, which was left open, revealing the wheat-colored skin and tight muscle lines of the upper body.A half-length robe of the same material was tied with a gleaming gold belt, hanging around his waist, covering his long legs.

This man was a full head taller than Yi Nan. Seeing Yi Nan raising his face and staring at him without any scruples, his brows were slightly wrinkled, his eyes narrowed, and he seemed to be asking sternly: Do you dare to look directly at him? I?

Yi Nan: ...Who are you?

But this man didn't seem to want to get acquainted with Yi Nan, a skinny guy dressed as a peasant with a dirty robe.

He casually handed the stone roller to Nasipal's consul, and the consul's arms immediately sank, almost lying on the ground.

"Did you throw that stone roller into the sky just now?" The tone of the question was sarcasm, as if she felt that Yi Nan's appearance did not match her behavior.

The official in Uruk answered with a bow: "Indeed."

The official's tone was nothing special, and he answered the question with a down-to-earth attitude.

"I can't see it!" The man glanced at Yinan again, dropped the four-character comment with care, and then turned around.

Yi Nan is angry: If you have the ability, don't make a move?Earlier, you didn't let others show your strength, but now you put on a bad face and make sarcastic remarks?

"But this kid's strength is not bad, transfer him to my team tomorrow." The man turned his head away, and casually ordered the Uruk official.

The official bowed down, took out the reed, and continued to scratch something on the clay board. After a while, he shouted to the man who had gone away: "It has been written down, on the clay board."

The man didn't turn his head back, but just raised his hand casually to show that he heard it.

"I'm going to see someone early tomorrow morning." He left a sentence, but didn't look back at all, and didn't even look at Yinan again.

The consul Sipar, who was just in shock, stood up from the ground with weak legs, and casually asked the Uruk officials beside him: "Who is that guy?"

"Our king, Gilgamesh." The Uruk official answered casually as he was carefully verifying the contents of the clay tablet.

Sipar's consul's legs gave way and he almost sat down again.

"Ah, is this the one, 'King of kings, King of kings, two-thirds gods and one-third human, leader, commander, and protector of Uruk and Eridu' ?”

The consul spoke loudly and protractedly on purpose, obviously trying to make up for the mistake of referring to the king of Uruk as "that guy".

Looking at the back of the man leaving, he seemed to be avoiding the consul, and walked a little faster.

The Uruk official felt that the man's departure was very unusual, and calmly agreed: "That's right."

The consul was sweating profusely, and he really didn't know how to make up for it.In the following time, he only walked around anxiously with his hands clasped, and the officials in Uruk completed the work of roll call, recording and grouping.When he saw Yi Nan by chance, he said with envy and jealousy: "You are lucky, that is the king, that is the king!"

Yi Nan did not expect that when he arrived in Uruk, he would have a face-to-face meeting with the legendary King of Heroes.

Thinking of the "King of Heroes", Yinan's heart skipped a beat: She couldn't forget what Dumuzi said when he said goodbye to her - Dumuzi once promised that he would become a "King of Heroes" in the end.

But now that Yi Nan sees a truly famous "Hero King" in history, his first impression is: ... what!

It is said that he is a tyrant. According to Yinan's opinion, this appearance is far from the famous "tyrants" in history, and it is difficult to compare.But the guy's mannerisms were really off-putting.

Gilgamesh did save someone just now, but his attitude was as if he saved only ants, and ants, what qualifications do they have to express their gratitude and respect to the king?

The episode here at the pier was quickly forgotten. The Uruk official completed the handover with the Sipar consul. The official took out a clay tablet and took out a pottery roller seal from his arms. , rolled it hard on the clay tablet, handed the clay tablet to the consul of Sipar, and said: "Okay, you take this clay tablet to the storehouse, and they will send the barley, wheat and iron tools for Sipar It's all paid to you."

"When you return to Sipar, distribute the items to the families of these peasants."

Yi Nan was taken aback: Sister Shahat never told her that Uruk would distribute things when she was recruited to Uruk.

According to what the official said, when the peasants came to Uruk, their families could get barley, wheat, and iron tools—these are the things that ordinary villagers need most. Will be so resistant to enlistment.

Before Yi Nan could say anything, several civilian husbands who came out of Sipar like her all asked in one go:

"There are really these?"

"Why have we never heard of it in Sipar?"

The officials in Uruk shrugged: "We only distribute things according to the number of applicants here, and how to distribute the things when they arrive at Sipar..."

The official stared at the consul who was trotting away humming a ditty and didn't speak.

Yi Nan was speechless. She had a little understanding of where the phrase "Uruk forced to conscript civilian husbands" came from, and where the crux was.

"Then... the consul took away all the food, what are we going to eat here?" A civilian husband was worried about the future.

The Uruk official burst into laughter: "You all came to Uruk, why are you still worried about this?"

"Tell me, what do you Sipar have, but Uruk doesn't have? My king is rich and famous all over the world, and the warehouse has already been filled with enough grain."

"You came to Uruk to work, not to starve. If you are not fed, who will repair this city wall?"

What the Uruk official said was reasonable, and the peasants all nodded in agreement: "Now we won't be afraid."

Who knows, let them be afraid behind——

Uruk's laborers recruited from various places, together with Uruk's local laborers, lived in temporary accommodation built near the construction site of the city wall.

After registration, Uruk officials led them to rest and eat first.A group of people were walking on the road when they suddenly saw dozens of people who looked like peasants coming from a distance. They all carried a simple stretcher made of tree branches and sent out more than a dozen wounded.

Yi Nan looked at the wounded carefully. The most serious one was covered with blood, but the blood was covered with thick dust.Seeing that most of the wounded on the stretcher had been bandaged to stop the bleeding, she knew that it might not be useful for her to come forward, so she just waited aside.

The Uruk official was also very surprised when he saw it, and asked repeatedly: "Did something happen again?"

The man carrying the stretcher replied repeatedly: "Yes, a section of the old wall was supposed to be used to build a new city wall, but who knew that the old wall collapsed as soon as people went up, and several of them were killed at once. The injured were rushed out first."

At this moment, all the newcomers panicked—when they were in their hometown, they did hear rumors that people would die when they were forced to work in Uluk—but hearing the rumors and seeing the wounded and corpses being carried out with their own eyes, they heard the rumors with their own ears. An experience like the wailing of the wounded is entirely different.They never thought that it would be so easy to die under the walls of Uruk, and so many people were killed and injured at one time.

Inan was silent.

The construction conditions in ancient times cannot be compared with modern ones, and engineering accidents are common.In history, many large-scale projects completed by recruiting civilian workers, such as the Great Pyramid in Egypt, were completed with considerable casualties.

As a civilian husband, one has to overcome the hardships of the living environment and also be on the lookout for various unpredictable engineering accidents—it is definitely a matter of luck to be able to live to old age in peace.

Now these civilian husbands were obviously frightened seriously, and they all hugged each other and cried.

"We're dying in Uruk—"

"I heard that all the civilian husbands of Uruk will be executed if they escape!"

"If you run, you will die, if you don't run, you will die!"

The Uruk official was both angry and funny: "Who told you that the civilian husband will be executed if he escapes?"

"Registered civilian husbands, if you run away, Uruk will go to your place of origin to pursue the things that were donated to your family at the beginning-is this justified? You have all run back, why should Uruk help you raise them? family?……"

Hearing the complaints of the Uruk official, Yi Nan understood: she knew how the "brainwashing bag" about Uruk came about.

Just look at the Sipar consul who was almost as beautiful as heaven just now to know what's going on.

The peasants risked their lives to work in Uruk, but the food and goods paid by Uruk fell into the hands of local bureaucrats.

If the peasants escape, these things will be recovered.The local officials naturally invented these "brainwashing kits" to describe Uruk as horribly as possible. No one dared to escape back, and Uruk had no way of recovering these supplies from them.

But once a "stereotype" is formed, it is difficult to change it.No matter how exhausted the Uruk official in front of him was, these peasants kept crying until they were threatened that "when the meal is missed, there will be no meal at night."

They shuffled forward, anticipating the dreadful fate of servitude at Ulu.

Unexpectedly, on the way to the campsite, they passed an old city gate in Uruk, and saw several decayed corpses and human heads hanging on the gate.

All the peasants burst into tears, and no one was in the mood to listen to the official's exhausting explanations.

Everyone only believes what they have already determined in their hearts, even if the truth may not be the case.

Inan shook his head slightly and sighed: In the eyes of these people, Gilgamesh is already a real "tyrant".