Chapter 51: Mission to Egypt (2)

"Lord, look there!" the captain shouted in surprise.

It turned out that an Egyptian herdsman drove a herd of cattle to graze on the tidal flats on the shore, but he didn't want a crocodile lurking there, and almost bit the calf. The herdsmen stepped forward in panic and wanted to drive away the crocodile, but found that the crocodile was not big, so he wanted to hunt it down. He drove his hound to harass the crocodile to prevent it from escaping back into the river. Great, start your attack cautiously...

This thrilling scene soon attracted passing papyrus boats and nearby farmers, who gathered around with pickaxes to watch the fun, and some shouted: "Hey, do you need my help?! But kill Score me one point after the crocodile!"

In the busy and boring work, farmers rarely have this moment of leisure...

At noon, Ancitanos and the others passed through a city, Naukrates.

This is an Egyptian town with a strong connection to the Greeks.

More than 200 years ago, the Egyptians, with the full support of Greek mercenaries from Ionia and Kalia, overthrew Assyria and gained independence. Pharaoh Psamaticus accepted these Greeks who had made great achievements, and built Daphnai Castle in the eastern part of the Nile delta for Greek soldiers to live in. He also issued an order: to open Egypt's trade to the outside world, and to allow Greece People live permanently in Egypt.

So the Milesians built a cargo processing workshop by the Kalobic River. With the continuous arrival of the Greeks, a Greek town gradually emerged around this workshop area, named Naukrates (and the meaning of the Queen of the Sea).

The colonial city has long been a common port for all Greek merchants, even under Persian rule now, where Alcibiades traded before.

Seeing the people in the port area of ​​the city wearing familiar Greek clothes made Ancitanos feel very cordial, but his boat would not stop here, but continue to move forward.

Finally, at dusk, the boat passed the Nile delta and entered the wider Nile River. At this time, the sky was dark, and the captain was not familiar with the river course and did not dare to go any further. He could only park on the shore and go to the shore to hire trackers.

Ancitanos and his subordinates spent the night on the boat, listening to the "rushing" water of the Nile and the strange animal sounds on the bank or in the river. This was a strange experience for young people, and For Ancitanos, who is in his 50s, it was a lot of torture. In particular, the mosquito bites made him suffer a lot, and he fell asleep because of exhaustion in the middle of the night.

The next day, he barely recovered himself,

move on.

A few hours later, the boat passed the ancient town of Giza.

When Ancitanos looked out on the west bank and could vaguely see the outlines of the tall pyramids on the Giza Plateau, his spirit finally rose.

At noon, the passenger ship finally entered Memphis, the capital of Egypt.

On the Nile River near Memphis, there are more boats, but the delicate papyrus boats are rare, and more narrow, pointed at both ends, with a canopy in the middle, equipped with many oars, captains from a few meters to There are wooden boats with dozens of meters, and of course, tall and spacious large passenger ships are occasionally seen.

When Ancitanos was on the boat, he was amazed at the tall outer city wall of Memphis. It was nearly 15 meters high, and the buildings in the city could hardly be seen outside the city, except for the towering obelisk and the palace in the center of the city.

Because the pharaoh had been summoned by the checkpoint of the Karabic River in advance, the Dionysian passenger ship was allowed to enter the inner city pier.

This is a good sign! Ancitanos thought.

Ancitanos got ashore at the pier, and a carriage was already waiting on the shore.

After getting on the carriage, under the control of the driver, the carriage galloped towards the palace.

The inner city is the gathering place of prominent Egyptian officials, high priests of various temples, wealthy nobles and members of the royal family, so you can see magnificent temples, luxurious palaces and mansions one by one along the way. The grandeur and luxury of the ancient capital.

The carriages were driving on a wide and straight avenue. According to Ancitanos' visual estimation, the width of the avenue was enough for more than a dozen carriages to drive side by side. At the end of the avenue, a towering city wall lay in front of the eyes, and that was where the Egyptian palace was located.

When passing through the majestic city gate, Ancitanos roughly estimated that the city wall was more than ten meters thick, showing that the pharaoh was concerned about his own safety.

If the carriage goes further, you can see dozens of towering golden statues standing on both sides of the avenue, each about 20 meters high. Although they are human bodies, they have animal heads attached. Ancitanos knew that these statues were supposed to be gods revered by the Egyptians.

At the end of these huge statues, a majestic and splendid palace stands tall, making Ancitanoston, who got off the carriage and stood in front of the steps, feel his own insignificance.

On the hundreds of steps and on both sides of the main entrance of the palace, there are huge statues of white sheep. They lie on their stomachs and look down at the visitors outside the palace with their eyes wide open, making the center of Egypt less solemn and mysterious. At the same time, it is also a little more elegant and peaceful.

An official led a team of mighty guards and walked down the steps with steady steps: "The messenger from the kingdom of Dionia, the great pharaoh is waiting in the main hall, please follow me to the audience!"

Ancitanos bowed and opened his hands, allowing the guards to check whether they were carrying any weapons.

Ancitanos went up the steps, walked through the huge pillars that would take three or four people to hug, and walked into the main hall.

The extremely flat four walls are supplemented with smooth plaster and painted with colorful flower and grass patterns; on the smooth marble floor, vivid lotus aquatic plants, birds and animals are painted, as if being in the The fresh nature; coupled with all kinds of peculiar and exquisite gold and silver utensils in the hall, the whole hall looks beautiful.

Pharaoh Nektanib sits high on the throne.

The general-born pharaoh was tall, strong, and dark-skinned. He usually liked to wear the red-striped Nemes headpiece that symbolized the identity of the pharaoh, which was simple and elegant. But he obviously valued this meeting very much, so he put on the most orthodox red and white crown, which symbolizes the unity of two powers, and decorated his forehead with the gold Eurahas (a kind of cobra from Egypt). He also wears a fake beard and holds a token in his right hand.

On his left sat the queen, with the golden geese-shaped crown lightly buckled on her head, and her open wings pressed down on her straight black hair, letting the long hair hang down on her chest. She wore an expensive pectoral ornament and a gorgeous dress, looking graceful and luxurious.

Although Ancitanos learned from the information that women in Egypt had a higher social status, especially the queen, who even participated in state affairs. But for the first time today, I saw a woman appear on a major state occasion, and I was a little surprised. He didn't know that it was precisely because the queen was not of royal blood that Pharaoh Nektanib made her appear frequently on state occasions to improve her status and stabilize his and his family's rule.

There were several ministers and generals standing on both sides of the hall, and they all looked at Ancitanos who walked into the hall with curious eyes.

Ancitanos calmly stood in front of the throne and saluted respectfully. As a Greek scholar, who wanted to study historical materials from all over the world, Ancitanos specially bought Egyptian slaves when he was young and studied the Egyptian script and language earnestly. At this moment, he said aloud in standard Egyptian: "Honorable Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, I bring the friendly greetings of King Davos of the Kingdom of Dionia, and at the same time offer a generous gift to express his sincere congratulations! Congratulations on being favored by the god Amon and becoming the master of Egypt!"

As soon as Ancitanos finished speaking, the minister closest to Pharaoh walked over and whispered a few words to Pharaoh.

When Pharaoh Nektanib heard that the gifts Dionia gave were a large number of spears, swords, shields, armors, and even a few three-tiered oars docked at the mouth of the river, he felt very Satisfaction: Egypt now has no shortage of food, no shortage of gold and silver jewelry, but more elite weapons and soldiers.

Therefore, he also had a smile on his face: "Thank you very much for the sincere blessings and rich gifts of King Davos from the west! Although Egypt and Dionia are far away, I have heard many times about the Kingdom of Dionysian. The prestige and the bravery of King Davos, I am very happy to be greeted by a king who also flows with the noble blood of the gods (the Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was the incarnation of the god, and the pharaoh often publicly declared himself to be the son of the god Ra), which makes me very happy! I A warm welcome to your visit, Messenger of Dionia!"

Pharaoh Nektanib stood up, stretched out his left hand, and made a welcoming gesture.

What he said was not polite, and indeed he knew a little about the Kingdom of Dionia. Although among these city-states and countries along the Mediterranean coast, the Egyptians are the most closed and conservative. They prefer to work with the land rather than do business with ships. Therefore, many Egyptian officials may not know that there is an additional Dionysian in the Mediterranean to this day. kingdom. But Pharaoh Nektanib was different. Before he became a pharaoh, he stayed in the town of Sais for many years. Sais and Naukrates were not far away, so he heard a lot of trade in Naukrates. Mysterious rumours about the kingdom of Dionia spread by Greek merchants.

"Honorable Pharaoh!" Ancitanos took Nektanib's words and continued: "Although Dionia and Egypt are far apart, because of this, there has never been any relationship between the two countries. Conflict of interests, on the contrary, can make up for each other's shortcomings, so King Davos hopes that Dionysus can establish more friendly relations with the country you rule by Pharaoh!"

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