The Red Sea is not red, but bluer than the ocean outside.Of course, in the title of the Han people, this sea is called the "narrow sea", Chu Shaosun saw that the two sides of the strait are steep and cliffs, and there are no ports on land and water for hundreds of miles, because the conditions of the anchorages are extremely poor, and there are desert herdsmen riding camels wrapped around white scarves on the cliffs.Chu Shaosun heard from the sailors that if there were no warships to escort them, these natives would row rudimentary boats to rob and use shipwreck survivors as slaves.Therefore, they had to sail northward in one go, and on the first day of the fourth year of Liuhe 48 B.C., they had gradually moved closer to the west of the coast.Now the wind was a little unfavorable, the sails fell, and the blades on both sides of the ship continued to slide forward at a rapid pace, until to the west of the Narrow Sea, a small and small harbor was in sight.The Han soldiers on deck cheered, and after a month of arduous sailing, they finally saw the end."
Something isn't right."
But Captain Chen Tang, who was standing at the bow of the ship, frowned, and he raised his hand high, making people blow a signal to signal the vigilance, and two warships sailed out of the port in the distance and rowed towards this side.In addition to the poisonous man who rowed the oars, more than 40 Han soldiers on the Lelang appeared on the deck with armor, most of them were crossbow machines, and even opened the sedan crossbow that had been covered with cowhide and linen, which was the killing weapon of the Han army at sea.The same is true of the Liaodong, which makes Chu Shaosun a little nervous.Fortunately, the Egyptian warship in the distance raised a flag and waved, as if it had good intentions to lead the way.Wu Zaihan said: "You can use a small boat for pilotage, why use a warship, two at a time?"
”Chu Shaosun guessed: "Could it be that I heard that the messenger was coming, and the task force came to greet him?"
”Wu Zaihan shook his head and said that he could not be careless.But the Egyptian warship was indeed focused on pilotage, and it stopped far away, leading the Lelang, Liaodong, and the merchant fleet in the rear to the port.Chu Shaosun observed that the ship system was completely different from that of the merchant ships that sailed on a long voyage, the hull was slender, the bow and stern were raised high, and the bow could be seen to have huge ramming angles, which should be wrapped in bronze, and the hull was painted black and covered with some kind of waterproof paint, and it could be seen that the shell was very strong, and it must have been made of good wood, which may have been oak or beech.Countless long oars stretched out from the hull of the ship, and counted more than a hundred, divided into three columns, rowing very neatly, like a huge centipede crawling on the sea.These ships were called triremes, and they were the backbone of the Ptolemaic Egyptian navy, but the large fleet was in its capital, which was another sea, on the other side of the desert and land, unconnected to the Red Sea.The fleet slowly entered the port, Chu Shaosun returned to the deck, and could see the barren desert Gobi around the port, I heard that this port is called "Bereniki Port", which was named after his wife by the first Ptolemaic king, and is the main anchorage for Egypt to go to the poison, and more than 100 merchant ships depart from it every year.Chu Shaosun had already learned that the relationship between the Greeks and Egypt was the same as the relationship between the Han people and the poison now, in which outsiders became rulers.However, since the time of Emperor and Ptolemy I, the Greeks have been in charge of Egypt for 300 years, and this port was newly built during the Ptolemy period, so the buildings are all in Greek style, and even the typical temple of the Egyptians is not seen.He also heard sailors describe the desire for silk countless times in this country, Egypt was hot, and the Greeks liked to wear their clothes on their bodies, the thin silk made people feel cool, and the price was expensive, which could show status, and both Great Qin and Egypt were very interested in this object.In recent years, the queen of Egypt personally brought the goods and wore the precious purple silk robe sent by the hussars, she was simply the fashion vane of the Egyptian aristocratic circle, and for a while, Ptolemaic Egypt was even more crazy about silk.However, it is said that the queen's enthusiasm for silk made Egypt's already difficult finances more and more difficult, and the political situation in Ptolemaic Egypt was turbulent, and the previous generation of kings was known as the "Pied Piper", which was supported by General Pompey of the Great Qin State, and now Egypt is still a subject state of Great Qin, and a large amount of grain must be paid in tribute every year to pay off debts.But this did not stop the aristocracy from being extravagant, and in the past, whenever the fleet returned from the East, the port would be crowded with merchants dressed in all kinds of clothes, cheering.Today, however, there were no merchants in the port, but instead a group of Ptolemaic soldiers, led by a round Charchis helmet with a nose shield.Due to the hot climate of Egypt, except for the officers, who wore muscular cuirassals, the rest of them wore only cloth clothes, and behind them there was a long line of topless Egyptian archers.Surrounded by the soldiers in the center was a Greek official, in his fifties, with a bald head and a blue and white robe, who greeted him with a smile after the two Han ships docked, and saluted Wu Zaihan who had disembarked.Wu Zaihan said to Chu Shaosun on the side: "This is one of the three princes of Egypt, the prince of the king of Ptolemy, whose name is Diodiotus, who is good at rhetoric and is also proficient in many languages. ”"A Han envoy from afar."
Theodotus was a teacher of rhetoric, and without a translator, he could speak Chinese, albeit a little stumbling, and was far less fluent than the other foreign languages he had acquired.He apologized to Wu Zaihan: "Recently, there have been pirate raids near the Red Sea, and slave riots near the port, and the Pharaoh and the queen have sent me to meet them at the port with soldiers, and to take the Han envoys through the desert to Alexandria. ”Chu Shaosun stood far away, and saw Wu Zaihan and Theodotus talking happily, but when he turned around, he saw Captain Chen Tang standing at the bow of the boat with a smile, behind him, there were heavily armed soldiers, which made him feel that the situation was not as good as it seemed.As more merchant ships docked one after another, Theodotus and Wu Zaihan also made an appointment, and Theodotus said that the Ptolemaic royal family would buy all the silk and other luxury goods brought by the Han ship.He was sealed and transported by camel caravan to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, and then sailed along the Nile for ten days by a fleet to Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom to the west of the delta, where the Han envoy could go with him.Sailors from Dahan lived in camps near the port, and they were only able to return after the summer monsoon turned the direction.Everything was as usual, but when Wu Zaihan and Diodotus high-fived and said yes, and when they returned to the ship, their faces changed."
There's a fraud in this matter!"
It was already dark, and the Greeks and Egyptians on the Ptolemaic Egyptian merchant ships came ashore one after another, while the Lelang, Liaodong, and ten Han merchant ships were still docked in the harbor.On the candlelight-swaying Lelang, Chen Tang and Wu Zaihan and a few others were talking in a low voice."
This Ptolemaic Egypt, like the Great Han and the Great Qin, also has three dukes."
Wu Zaihan understood foreign institutions according to the Han Chinese way of thinking, and he considered Theodotus, Ptolemy XIII's minister and royal teacher of rhetoric, to be the "Egyptian Taifu".And Potinus, the eunuch whom Ptolemy XIII trusted very much, is considered to be the "Edict of the Middle Book".There was also an Achillas who was in control of the Egyptian army, which was understood as a "captain".These are the three ministers of Ptolemaic Egypt, and there is one person, Wu Zaihan has a relationship.He was a close confidant of General Pompey of the Great Qin State who stayed in Egypt with two thousand mercenaries to supervise the payment of the pharaoh's debts for the Great Qin State.Wu Zaihan said: "Although Theodotus is the third prince, it is reasonable for him to come to welcome us on behalf of the pharaoh.But when I was in the capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom, I found that Pharaoh and the queen were not at peace.We came specifically to answer the queen, why did it be Pharaoh's cronies and old lady Di to greet them, and from the warships to the soldiers, they were all like facing a great enemy, this is unreasonable, and where are the queen's cronies?
”He told Chen Tang that although the Queen of Egypt and Ptolemy XIII ruled together as husband and wife, they actually had their own set of teams.The queen of Egypt also has two cronies, one of whom is called Apollodorus, the most loyal, Wu Zaihan last time in Egypt, the greeting and sending are all done by this person.There is also a female guard captain named "Aya", who is of mixed Greek and Egyptian descent, and protects the queen closely, never leaving her side.The queen even sighed in the Chinese dialect she had only learned a little bit when she met Wu Zaihan, with a hint of melancholy.I also heard that the queen ascended the throne before Pharaoh, but now the three princes are all around Pharaoh, trying to overthrow her.Chen Tang understood: "Doctor Wu is saying that the queen may have been harmed?"
”Wu Zaihan said: "This can not be said, there are clouds in the record of etiquette, there are no two days in the sky, there are no two kings in the earth, there are no two masters in the family, and there are no two respects."
The Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty and the hussar generals naturally understood this truth, but the Ptolemaic Kingdom did not practice rituals and music, and incest could not be done, so there were often fathers and daughters fighting for power. ”"Now the trumpet player of the Pharaoh and the Queen's father was expelled by the previous queen and fled to the Great Qin Kingdom for several years before borrowing Qin soldiers to restore, and similar things may be repeated again."
They had to figure it out as soon as possible that if they followed Theodotus through the desert to the heart of Egypt, they would be completely in someone else's territory, and it would be difficult for them to get out.The captain of the Lelang had an idea: "Send the Egyptian merchant and the Greek translator of Bactria on the ship to buy one or two people on the shore and ask them, won't it be clear?"
”There were three kinds of coins in Ptolemaic Egypt, gold, silver and bronze, all called dramak, and there were many on the ship, and it was okay to go directly to someone with silk, which was more expensive than gold in Egypt, so I don't believe they were not moved.Chen Tang shook his head and said: "This port is on the border of the Ptolemaic country, and it is inconvenient to travel and the news is blocked.Even if something happens in the capital, thousands of miles away, it won't be able to spread for a while.Not only can you not inquire about it from ordinary people, but it will startle the snake, so that Na Di Taifu will be surprised, but it is not beautiful. ”"It's better to be" At this time, the captain of the Liaodong laughed.He patted the ring knife on his waist: "Since it is not easy to buy with gold, silver and copper, then use the iron guy to pry open the mouth of the other generation, others don't know the reason, then Di Taifu, always know something?"
”Wu Zaihan was still a little hesitant: "It's still not appropriate, in case I expected it wrong, in case there is another hidden situation here, wouldn't it lead to a provocation between the two states?"
”While several people were discussing, Chen Tang stood up and shouted outside the cabin: Who?
”"Captain, Mr.
Chu has to come to see you."
Chen Tang and Wu Zaihan were surprised, Chu Shaosun had to go to the port in the afternoon, so Theodotus probably wanted to appease them, and agreed, but let the Ptolemaic officials and soldiers follow.After Chen Tang asked Chu Shaosun to bring in, Chu Shaosun handed out a note written on his sleeve: "When Shaosun was walking outside the port before dark, a person suddenly squatted from behind the bushes and jumped over, and suddenly stuffed this note to me, and then blinked, but there was no one missing.It is strange that the soldiers who followed me looked elsewhere and did not notice it. ”"It's not paper, it's just cut sedges and flattened and dried."
Wu Zaihan frowned and looked at it after taking it, and found that it was all Egyptian characters, full of some strange patterns, and a symbol with an eye at the end, I don't know what it means.He shook his head and said, "I can speak Greek and know Greece, but Egyptian books are complicated and incomprehensible, and I can't understand them." ”But in the fleet, there was an Egyptian merchant who had been hired by the hussar general for a lot of money, and the man named Ruida knew this kind of character, and Chen Tang asked him to quickly find it, and asked Chu Shaosun what the person who gave him this thing looked like."
Not a Greek, but an Egyptian, dark and with divine eyes, whose age I cannot tell because he is a foreigner.""
He was dressed in white, with a hood on his head, which covered half of his face."
Chu Shaosun raised two fingers: "With a weapon, two bows and a wooden shield on his back, if I read it correctly, there is a sickle hanging from his waist." ”"Scythe?"
Wu Zaihan was a little dazed, could it be a farmer?
The appearance and disappearance of this person are all momentary things, walking quietly, riding the haze of dusk, as if it is invisible, it is really strange.It so happened that the Egyptian merchant Reda had arrived, and he was also very dark, with braided hair, a large back exposed, a feather cloak on his shoulders, and leather sandals.After taking the papyrus, Reda's face changed, and she stared at the eyes on the back and said, "It's the Eye of Horus!"
”It turned out that Nahorus was the patron saint of the pharaohs, with the head of a human eagle.The Eye of Horus is the symbol of the Pharaoh's "Guardians", but this guard has been obsolete for many years, and is said to only operate in the western Siwa Oasis.Chen Tang didn't care about the symbol, he was concerned about the content of the note.Nareda stammered, and her hands trembled: "It says that there was a coup d'état in Alexandria. ”"Pharaoh, together with three ministers, has driven the queen out of the capital and is missing!"
PS:There's only more today.,There's more than ten chapters to finish the book.,The information you want to see is also big.,It's not going to make up.,In the end, I owe a few chapters to make up a few extra articles.。