Chapter 1287
Amidst the cheers of the Egyptian people, the Devers boarded the carriage and drove into the governor's palace in Naukratis.
The next day, Dyvers led the Second and First Legions to the north. Under the suggestion of Asistes and Amun Hetapu, he did not take the warships. Instead, he took the land route. He took a luxurious carriage, and under the lead of a group of Egyptian priests led by Amun Hetapu, they advanced along the southern bank of the Nile in a grand manner.
For other parts of the Mediterranean, it was the season of sowing, but in Egypt, sowing had already ended. When the Nile's flood waters receded in August and September last year, the huge pools that the farmers had built to prevent the water from flowing away too quickly were almost dried up. Instead, green wheat seedlings grew along the banks of the Nile. In addition, the banks of the Nile and its tributaries were also lush with green papyrus, causing the entire Nile Delta to look like a green sea. In this refreshing green sea, small patches of yellow could occasionally be seen. Those were the villages that the Egyptians had built with mud bricks.
However, outside of this huge oasis was an extremely dry and dusty, boundless desert.
The Devers sat in the carriage and traveled between the yellow and green worlds. He was also quite amazed.
While he was leading the army to Memphis, his speech at the port of Naukratis had already been spread by those who were interested in it. As if it had grown wings, it quickly spread to both sides of the Nile. The Egyptians heard three main meanings from his words. First, the Devers wanted to be the new pharaohs of Egypt. Second, the huge army that Diónia had stationed in Egypt was not to continue the war in Egypt, but to attack Persia and protect the peace of Egypt. Third, Diónia would not come to snatch the land of the Egyptians. Egypt would still be managed by the Egyptians.
The Egyptians knew that Diónia had always kept its promises. Back then, when there was a war with Greece, it still sent a large number of troops to help Egypt defend against Persia. Moreover, this was a speech made by the King of Diónia in front of the Egyptian people. It was very unlikely that they would break their promise.
After the Dionysian Army had put down the rebellion in Egypt, they had remained in the country. Over the past month, there had been rumors that "Diónia wanted to annex Egypt". Now that the King of Diónia had personally admitted that he wanted to be the Pharaoh of Egypt and had even received the support of the priests of the Temple of Amon, many Egyptian officials and local forces had mixed feelings. At the same time, they were also relieved. They personally went to visit the new Pharaoh, hoping to leave a good impression.
For ordinary Egyptians, land, faith, and peace were what they craved the most. Since the Devers had made a promise in public, most of the people were not angry that an outsider was about to become the Pharaoh of Egypt. Instead, they showed a certain amount of enthusiasm. Instead, they wanted to know what the king of the Dionysian Army who could fight against the fierce Persia looked like.
This season was temporarily a slack period for the Egyptians. In the past, when they had nothing to do, they would go make mud bricks, catch birds, and fish. At this time, they brought the old and the young to the roadside to welcome the arrival of the new Pharaoh.
At the suggestion of Amonhotep, the Devers changed his appearance in the city of Naukratis. He officially put on the red and white crown that represented the rule of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as the fake beard that represented the identity of the Pharaoh. Then, he put on a golden one-piece armor and sat in a magnificent carriage. Along the way, he looked solemn and did not pretend to speak.
The Egyptians, who had always worshiped the gods and feared power, saw the new Pharaoh sitting in a magnificent carriage from afar. They were in awe and cheered loudly. The towns and cities they passed by also opened their gates to welcome them, and the officials competed to show their loyalty.
The Devers comforted the people along the way. The whole team did not move very fast, and they even took a brief tour of the pyramids of Giza. Finally, after ten days, they arrived in Memphis.
Memphis was located south of the Nile Delta and north of Upper Egypt. It happened to be in between Upper and Lower Egypt, so it was called the "balance of the two countries." In the early days of Egypt, the capital was in Thebes. From the beginning of the Middle Dynasty to the present day, more pharaohs set the capital in Memphis because it was more conducive to ruling over Upper and Lower Egypt.
When the Devers entered the city of Memphis, he immediately understood why Calsidis had been able to easily capture the capital of Egypt, which was occupied by the rebel army. It was different from other Mediterranean city-states. It did not surround the entire city with thick walls, but only built walls in three places. One was the Temple of Ptah, one was the Temple of Osiris, and the last was the Pharaoh's palace and the residential area of the nobles. It was almost impossible to resist the siege of the Dionysian Army with such a small city area and a lack of soldiers, not to mention that the internal situation was very unstable.
The handicrafts and metalworking industry of Memphis were famous throughout Egypt. Half of the city area was occupied by handicrafts and residential areas. Therefore, the patron gods of these two industries, Ptah and Osiris, were highly respected here. Not only did the people worship the Three Pillar Gods of Memphis, Ptah, Sykmet, and Nephalem, but they also worshiped the god of the underworld, Osiris. Even the monks worshiped the Apis bull as a sacred object in the temple.
In fact, the Devers had also imagined that Osiris would be the incarnation of Hades in Egypt, replacing Amon and becoming the highest faith of the people of Egypt, but it would obviously take a very long time.
Among the officials who came to greet them, of course, were the priests of the Temple of Ptah and Osiris. The Devers promised them that they would make time to worship and leave with satisfaction.
After appeasing the officials of Memphis, the Devers did not immediately go to the palace. Instead, he went to the Diónia barracks outside the city to greet the soldiers. For this, he specially took off his fake beard, took off his red and white crown, and put on a golden crown, entering the barracks as the king of Diónia.
At dusk, he drove into the palace of Memphis. The palace guards quickly took up the task of protecting the palace, while Heniboris took over the internal affairs of the entire palace. He also asked the royal chefs who came with him to prepare a safe and delicious dinner.
The Devers invited Asistes, Tapirus, Calsidis, and the various army commanders who had arrived in Egypt one after another to thank them for their efforts during this time.
The atmosphere of the banquet was not very warm, because the Devers were not allowed to drink.
After the banquet ended, the Devers asked them to stay and held a meeting.
"Now, all of our troops have entered Egypt. With such a large number of soldiers, I'm afraid it will be difficult to fully meet the needs of the logistics provided by the faraway kingdom. Does Egypt have the ability to provide long-term and sufficient logistical support for the army? Asistes, you have been in charge of the administrative affairs of Egypt for the past few months, and you have a sufficient understanding of the situation in Egypt. What do you think? " The Devers raised the question that he was most concerned about. After all, the real purpose of his personally leading the army this time was to defeat Persia. Annexing Egypt was just a matter of convenience.
"Your Majesty." The Asistes was already prepared for this. He answered seriously, "If we only rely on the food reserves in the Nile Delta, it will indeed be difficult to meet the needs of the entire army. You have to know that just the provisions provided to the army led by Commander Calsidis have already emptied the granaries of the towns in the Nile Delta, and there are still two to three months before the harvest —"
"Isn't Egypt known as the granary of the Mediterranean? Isn't there an endless supply of food?!" Matonis, the commander of the First Legion, interrupted.
"This is because Niketani Persia started a rebellion a few months ago, which caused the situation in Lower Egypt to become unstable. In order to protect themselves, the various towns had to urgently recruit troops, which led to a huge increase in the consumption of food. If it weren't for Commander Calsidis's quick actions and quelling the unrest in Egypt in a short period of time, I'm afraid the army that arrived later would have completely relied on the logistical support of the kingdom." While explaining, the Asistes also praised Calsidis. As the head of the military and government of Diónia in Egypt, the two of them had been working well together for the past few months.
Calsidis smiled at the Asistes to show his gratitude.
The Devers saw this, but he did not feel too disgusted. When fighting outside, only by working together could they win. This was the philosophy that he had always emphasized. He asked calmly, "Asistes, although you make it sound like it's very difficult, you don't feel nervous at all. It seems that there must be a way to solve the food supply problem."
"Your Majesty is wise!" The Asistes smiled and said unhurriedly, "Egypt has always been mainly agricultural, so it attaches great importance to the cultivation and storage of food. Like the kingdom, it has granaries in the big cities to store the food they collect in case of famine (the famine referred to by the Egyptians is when the Nile floods in June and July are too small, so when the floods recede, the area of arable land will obviously decrease, resulting in a significant decrease in food production), or they can wait for the price of food in the Mediterranean to rise before selling it …
Other than that, there is another force in Egypt that stores a lot of food, and that is the temples. The monks of the Egyptian temples owned a lot of land and slaves, especially in Upper Egypt. These monks did not take on administrative responsibilities. They only took out a small amount of food to share with the believers during temple celebrations. Therefore, their food reserves were far greater than the granaries of the towns …
It is precisely because the monks of Egypt are too rich and have too much power that when Jeho was in power, he issued a decree to suppress the power of the monks. " Although in order for Diónia to smoothly annex Egypt, the Asistes had no choice but to cooperate with the Egyptian monks, led by Amon Teppe, as an administrative official, he could not bear to see these monks being so arrogant in Egypt, so he could not help but say something more.
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