Solomon saluted at the entrance of the post road and saw Aesop's carriage leaving. He didn't recognize that the driver in the cloak was Amon, and he didn't know that it was the only god he believed in. In fact, Solomon saw Amon and felt that this person was very familiar, but he didn't even think about it, because Amon came out of the Yunmeng Temple and just sacrificed to the swamp goddess with a group of chariot drivers.
…
The caravan passing through the Blackfire Swamp has been particularly lucky these two days. The weather is neither cold nor hot and always makes people feel very comfortable. Even the muddy puddles in the swamp no longer emit the smell of corruption. The beasts that occasionally appeared in the forest were nowhere to be seen at this moment, and the annoying mosquitoes also disappeared without a trace.
Two days later, Amon drove out of the Black Flame Swamp and arrived at the place where he captured King Lucier alive. This is the other end of the post road, and now it has developed into a large town. There is a newly built Great Temple of Light in the town, which is dedicated to the Holy Fire of Light believed by the Potts, and there is another temple of the Swamp Goddess.
After the fall of Enlil, the temples of Enlil in Hatti were still there. When Hatti was annexed by Poz, Cyrus and later Darius did not force the locals to demolish the temple of Enlil, but the official officials of the provinces The Holy Fire Temple of the Great Light was also built, and the official object of sacrifice became Mazda, the God of Great Light.
As the years passed, Enlil was gradually forgotten, the Kingdom of Hatti no longer existed, and a new generation of people grew up under the governance of several new provinces divided into Poz, and the temples of Enlil in various places gradually fell into disrepair. . Since the Temple of Enlil lost its official status, some people quietly demolished the stones and took them back to repair their houses and courtyard walls.
Today, there are not many temples of Enlil that are well preserved in the original Hatti and Assyria, where people often offer sacrifices. There are mainly three types of people who offer sacrifices to Enlil. The elders in Seoul, and the young people who have inherited this belief because of family and other reasons. As for the third type of people, in fact, they do not believe in the gods of Enlil and Anunah at all, but express nostalgic thoughts or certain wishes in this way.
On the contrary, it is the two temples of Yunmeng, the goddess of the swamp, and there is still an endless stream of sacrifices today. She has become a legendary local god.
Amon did not drive northwest to the former Hatti territory, but drove all the way south to the sea. On the left is the endless yellow sand, and on the right is the gradually lush grassland. This is where he led the An-La Legion. On the battlefield where the battle against Hatti's Nannar Legion was fought, there is now no sound of gold and iron horses, and the yellow sand on the grassland remains the same.
Amon and Metatron don't need to rest, but Aesop is just a mortal and very old, so he needs to pay attention to food, clothing and daily life along the way. Although Aesop claims to be in good health and does not need the special care of the gods, Amon is like a mortal servant, arranging everything well on the road so that Aesop does not feel tired from the journey.
Aesop left the mansion in Salem and his fields to his friends, but he didn't return home empty-handed. He brought his savings, which was a huge sum of money. Suo became very rich. As for the drinking water and food needed on the road, Amon carried them in a space artifact, and no other supplies were needed along the way.
When this seemingly ordinary carriage came to the blue sea, it finally revealed its extraordinary. The two horses pulling the carriage subconsciously wanted to stop before the surge on the coast, but the driver made a sound Whip, the horse seems to be urged by some kind of force, and it raises its hooves and gallops forward.
Aesop lifted the curtain of the car and looked out. The driver was God Amon. No matter what kind of miracles appeared, he was mentally prepared, but he was still deeply shocked at this moment. The carriage was running on the top of the rough sea, and the fresh sea breeze was blowing in, with a slight salty smell, but it felt extremely refreshing.
How many mortals in the world can have such enjoyment in their lifetime? Aesop looked at the sea for a long time, then looked back at Amon's back, his eyes filled with indescribable gratitude. There was an even more miraculous experience in the back, after the carriage sailed across the sea, its speed was more than ten times faster than on land, as if being wrapped in an invisible wind and flying.
After an unknown amount of time, several small dots appeared on the horizon in the distance, followed by another patch of warships in formation, and Mei Danzuo had already faintly heard the thunderous shouts of killing. With so many ships gathered together, an unprecedented sea battle is breaking out ahead. Before those warships noticed that there was a carriage rushing on the sea, Amon shook the reins, and the carriage had already taken off into the sky and rushed into the sky. The horses pulling the cart are galloping, with clouds forming under their hooves.
Aesop's carriage passed over the battlefield, and what broke out on the sea was a sea battle that would determine the final outcome. Looking down from the clouds, the number of Potts warships obviously exceeded the warships of the Heaton coalition army, but the Potts navy came from various provinces of the Great Empire. The soldiers had mixed languages, and the command of too many ships was not smooth. The fighters of Heaton's allied forces were mainly sailors who had been sailing for many years. The command was unified and dispatched well, and they smashed the queue of Potts warships.
This naval battle is called the Salami naval battle. In the end, the Heaton coalition forces won a big victory, and the main force of the Potts navy suffered heavy losses. After that, they were no longer able to attack from the sea. Shortly after the outbreak of this naval battle, the Heaton Army with Kibata fighters as the main force also fought fiercely with the Pozi Army in Pradaya, and also won a big victory.
The victories of these two battles marked that the United Kingdom of Heaton completely repelled the invasion of the Potts Empire, and all the city-states got rid of under the rule of Potts. When Aesop arrived in Yalun City, the people here were shouting and celebrating their victory.
Aesop's carriage crossed the battlefield and landed directly on the outskirts of Yalun City. Medanzo also joked with Aesop: "You are really an auspicious sign. With your arrival, the Potts army has finally completely retreated."
Yalun is a beautiful city-state. The patron saint they believe in is Yalunna, the god of wisdom in the Olympus pantheon. On a hill next to the residential area, stands the beautiful Yalunna Temple. . This city-state still bears the remnants of the war, and some buildings have traces of gunpowder smoke on the white marble pillars, but it is very prosperous, lively and full of vitality.
Mei Danzuo said curiously: "I thought I would see a city-state surrounded by ruins, which had been ravaged by war, but I didn't expect it to be like this."
Aesop said with a smile: "I heard that Potts' army set fire to Yalun City, and now I know that the rumors may not be true. The people in Yalun City were all evacuated at that time. I guess they set fire to a group of people and couldn't take them away. things. But the damage here is not small, don’t you see that the city walls and many buildings are newly built?”
Mei Danzuo nodded and said, "Of course I have noticed that the small Yalun City has a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and the main city has been rebuilt like this in a short period of time."
Amon, who had been silent all this time, explained: "The city-state of Yalun gained a lot from this war. It is the organizer and leader of the coalition forces. Its navy played the most important role. The nearby city-states are also attached to it. , Yalun made a large amount of war money. More city-state alliances are being discussed in the conference hall, and Yalun has become the leader of the alliance."
When Aesop entered Yalun City for interrogation, he frankly revealed his identity and did not hide anything. He directly introduced that he was born in the city-state of Midori in the United Kingdom of Heaton. His father was a businessman. When he was very young, he went out to sea with a merchant ship and met pirates. He was hijacked by pirates and sold as slaves. Later, he gained freedom and became the city lord of Salem in the Duke Plain. Now that he is old and has finally returned to his roots, he has taken out the documents that can prove his identity.
Those who heard it were very surprised. Some people also vaguely heard the legend of Salem City and the name of Aesop. It was the news brought back by the sages who traveled to the distant continent. They did not expect to see the real person in the legend today. Aesop's arrival even caused quite a commotion. The sergeants guarding the city carefully checked his identity documents and the items he carried with him, but found nothing wrong.
As Aesop's carriage entered the city, the people around cast surprise, envy, suspicion, and suspicion, and talked about it in private, saying everything. With Aesop's age and experience, he no longer cared about these discussions, and calmly faced all kinds of eyes, chatting with Medan Zuo about the past and present of this city of Yalun.
Why did Medanzuo say that this is "Little Yalun City"? Although this city-state was not small in the United Kingdom of Heaton, it was indeed not grand enough or prosperous enough compared to the famous city-states in the Tianshu Continent he had seen. Medanzuo grew up in Barron City, and later went to Memphis City. According to the size of the city-state, Yalun City is not even one-tenth of Baron City, and it is far inferior to Memphis City. Vigorous atmosphere.
The history of the countries in the Tianshu Continent is more than a thousand years old, and the civilization has a long history, and the United Kingdom of Heaton is just like the Olympus gods, just a rising star on the edge of the continent. But this city-state is full of vigor and vitality. It has absorbed the seeds and nutrients of the civilizations of the Tianshu Continent and developed very fast.
People here have more freedom of thought, showing a state of blooming flowers, and many great scholars and sages were born. Aristotle, whom Amon had met, was one of them.
However, many ordinary people in this city-state have complex attitudes towards the countries of the Shitianshu continent. They used to be weak and learners. Subconscious worship and even inferiority complex. When they gradually become powerful and wealthy, and gradually become arrogant and conceited, the historical inferiority complex in the subconscious is transformed into an inexplicable sense of superiority and hostility towards foreign civilizations.
This kind of complex gradually began to appear after the Heaton people repelled the Potts army, so when people saw Aesop's return, there would be various discussions with indescribable complex emotions. This is also the origin of a civilization, and the accumulated bone marrow may subtly influence many people over thousands of years, and Amon came just when the Yalun city-state civilization was just emerging.
Amon arrived in the United Kingdom of Heaton, which had just repelled the powerful Potts Empire. It was an era when various thoughts were flooded and various ideas collided with dazzling sparks from time to time. This is also a different country from the Tianshu Continent. the new kingdom. As soon as Amon entered the city of Yalun, he squinted his eyes and listened to the various voices in the city-state, not only the people around him pointing and talking about Aesop, but also the important matters being discussed in the city-state conference hall—
During the Hippo-War, the nearby city-states attached themselves to Yaron one after another and established the Yaron Alliance. This alliance consisted of thirty-five city-states at the earliest. According to the agreement, everyone jointly organized the Heaton United Navy and paid the alliance money to be built by the Yaron city-state. battleship. However, after the victory of the war, as many as 200 large and small city-states newly joined the alliance, the alliance money paid became a kind of political tribute, with the nature of alliance taxes, or more directly It's the protection fee.
The alliance funds paid by the city-states, which are in the nature of political donations, are unprecedentedly huge for the city of Yalun. It was originally used by the coalition forces to fight against the Potts Empire. After the victory of the war, the alliance funds paid by the city-states did not decrease but increased, and they were controlled by the city-states of Yalun, which were used to strengthen their own political and military power, and built a more magnificent city of Yalun.
Yalun City is not a kingdom, but a city-state republic. Adult men with citizenship in the city-state set up a citizens' assembly, which is a consultative body for discussing various affairs, quarreling, chatting, nonsense, and spreading various rumors. In addition to the citizens' meeting, there is also a nobles' meeting, which is an important institution for participating in politics. Only nobles with honorable status are eligible to participate. On the basis of the citizen meeting, the city-state of Yalun organized a meeting of 500 people, which was a daily deliberative body.
It was the first time for Amon to come to such a city-state republic. When he entered the city, it was the day when the meeting of five hundred people in Yalun City was held. The main thing discussed in the city-state meeting hall was that the nearby city-states had newly joined the Yalun Alliance. things.
The meeting of five hundred people passed a resolution with an absolute majority, deciding to increase the membership fees of the affiliated city-states, to open trade and trade among the city-states, to form Yalun people to command the army of the alliance, and to punish and suppress those who joined the alliance and then repented A city-state that does not pay the alliance fee or wants to withdraw from the alliance.
The more Amon heard it, the more interesting it became. The system implemented by the Yalun people should be more popular and supported by the people than the monarchy of the continental countries, but the mentality of the people here is worth pondering. Just at this time, he also heard the conversation between Medanzo and Aesop, so he explained the recent war fortune made by the city-state of Yalun.
And the discussion in the city-state's meeting hall is still going on. The last topic is about income, and the second topic is about debt.
During the Hippo-Persian War, Yalun spent a lot of money building the navy, and recently rebuilding the city-states was also a huge expenditure, so the membership fees of the city-states had to be increased. Now there will be a huge amount of income, and it is said that the debt owed by Yalun City should be repaid first. This debt was mainly borrowed from states outside the Yalun Alliance during the war.
The city-state of Yalun didn't want to pay it back, because they had to build a stronger army, more merchant ships, stronger city defenses, and more magnificent temples with the newly received joining funds. So they thought of a way, that is, the citizens' assembly should vote on whether to repay the debt? If the Citizens' Assembly decides not to pay back, then the city-state of Yalun will not pay back. In layman's terms, it means voting bad debts.
The reason why the Yalun city-state does not want to repay the debt is also very clear. They borrowed the money for war, and now they need more funds to enrich their own strength. protection and love. The proposal was passed at the meeting of 500 and awaits submission to the Citizens' Assembly for a vote.
The third topic of this meeting is still related to finances. Some people think that many rich merchants in the city-states of Yalun who are engaged in maritime trade evade taxes by various means in the city-states, and they need to be strictly investigated and supplemented. However, this proposal had been rejected by the aristocratic meeting before, and this time it was rejected by the meeting of five hundred people, so it will not be submitted to the citizens' assembly for discussion and voting.
The last topic of this meeting was about military arrangements. The Hippo War was clearly over, so why did the city-state of Yalun increase such a huge expenditure? Except for the construction of merchant ships and temples, the rest of the major expenditures are for the military, because there is another good excuse at present, and that is the hegemony between Yalun and Kibata.
The Yalun city-state established the Yalun League, and Kibata, with a very strong military force, also took the opportunity to conquer many small neighboring states and established the Kibada League, which opposed the Yalun League in all aspects. Yalun City hopes that all the city-states belonging to the Kebada League will attach to it, so as to form a stronger Yalun League.
Amon has been listening to the discussion in the city-state's conference hall, while relaying these issues and the results of the discussion to Aesop, and finally said: "These people are really complicated, they vote and negotiate within the city-state, although the decisions made in this way are inefficient , but it is easier to get support than the emperor's order. But they are discussing how to blackmail other city-states, so that the Yalun people can get more wealth, and at the same time decide not to repay the debt in this way. The behavior of tax evasion by various city-states is unwilling to order strict investigation. You are from the Kingdom of Heaton, what do you think about this?"
Aesop smiled bitterly and said: "When I was young, Yalun was the city-state republic it is today. It is not as good as Kibata in terms of military affairs, and it seems to be inferior to my hometown Midori in terms of wealth. became stronger and became the leader of the Yalun Alliance. I don’t know if you heard a sentence that a passer-by just passed by inadvertently said-"Yarun is the republic of the Yalun people and the empire of the Hidonians .'"
Amon just smiled, didn't say anything more, and asked Aesop: "You are the guide, where should I drive this car?"
Aesop replied: "Go forward, I'll show you the way, let's find an inn to stay for a while."
Mei Danzuo was a little puzzled and asked, "Isn't your hometown in Midori? Yalun City is just passing by. Why do you want to stay here and not rush back?"