Marvel Book of Magical Events

Chapter 1710 Chapter 1706 Eridu

The language of the Ubaids is primitive.

This ancient language could not pose any hindrance to the Imperial Guard Hammurabi, and the golden superhuman could write and speak the language fluently without even needing a translator. Captain Miller saw that the forbidden army Hammurabi exchanged the supplies in the caravan for all the excess grain in the tribe that should have been used for brewing, and then continued to move forward without hesitation. The southwest monsoon wind passes through the moist and fertile plains and turbulent rivers, carrying tiny grass seeds and water vapor towards the low hills in the distance. Captain Miller is sitting on the shaft of the caravan. Although he has accepted the status quo, AD He was still a little intoxicated at the moment when the breeze of more than six thousand years ago hit his face.

After nearly two days of travel, they finally caught up with the emperor's motorcade with the children. Although a little panicked, these children were attracted by the scenery on the road and became cheerful. They rarely get far away from their villages and see the scenery outside. Now they can still see the scene of the forbidden army hunting lions at close range. The power of the "angel" has imprinted awe into their souls, and they also have a lot more awe for their current only guardian, the "high priest".

Captain Miller did not see the Emperor. Although he knew that the Emperor was in the convoy, and the sparkling soul fire emanating from the Emperor's body was still dazzling under the gradually darkening sky, neither he nor the Emperor came back again. The idea of ​​meeting - the events he had experienced before were too supernatural, there was a lot of information for him to digest alone, and the Emperor seemed to think that he did not need to know more - even after experiencing the horror of the Event Horizon, he could not fully accept the Emperor Ideas and plans for the future of humanity. The Emperor told him that there were predators behind the curtain that were eyeing all intelligent races in the universe. Even though he personally was not afraid of those terrors, he did not agree with the Emperor's request for all mankind to stand with him, even if the Emperor had the power to realize his idea. ability.

He always believed that humans should be allowed to be weak.

The emperor refuses the human race to accept weakness, which will only make the emperor a tyrant. Just like he does not think that the emperor's imperial guards have the right to kill enemies in this era, he does not think that the emperor has the right to kill those who oppose the plan, even if it is It is also the only feasible means - he sadly realized that all the irreconcilable contradictions, disputes, ambitions and grievances in this world will only stop under the threat of violence. War does not stop because of peace but because of nuclear bombs - this The crazy and terrible reality stung him like a flesh knife. Even if the Emperor could stop the war between humans and force all humans to put aside their differences and unite, he would be able to gain the hatred of humans. History has proven that the so-called pioneers will not end well regardless of whether they are correct or not, and this pioneer also has a crazy idea and the ability to realize this idea that no one has ever had since ancient times. Whenever he thought that this was not something he should care about, he could always breathe a sigh of relief. He was glad that he had no ability to change this fact, let alone bear this crushing psychological pressure.

He couldn't imagine how any human could be crazy enough to bear such a terrible prophecy.

"Scribe," Hammurabi said to him.

This was his official position title. He was the emperor's clerk, and in this era was called a scribe. He has a roller seal made by the emperor, which can print his official position and name on the clay tablet. This is his job before boarding the battleship promised by the emperor. Although the name High Priest is only given to him by the Ubaid people, praise, but whether he is performing priestly or official duties, he needs to follow the emperor to record - in the future, the roller seal will serve as a symbol of his and every citizen's identity and exercise of power in a legal sense. Legally valid clay tablet documents require a roller seal as proof.

"You need to keep the rolls, Clerk Miller. Number them and make files, but we don't have enough paper."

He saw that there were many more humans of this era in those convoys. Adult men were holding stone spears and stone axes on both sides of the convoy, while adult women were walking on foot in the middle of the convoy carrying grain wrapped in animal skins and simple pottery. Farmed goats and wild boar calves clutter at the end of the convoy, leaving droppings and footprints on the tracks. The prized cattle pull the heavy vehicles and are snacked on sweet berries that make children hungry.

Captain Miller thought that his relationship with Hammurabi had improved a lot. At least he no longer thought that Hammurabi was as cold and ruthless as other forbidden soldiers, so he spent most of his time with Hammurabi. Murabi was also very happy to explain to him the characteristics of civilization in this era - these humans did not own many linen clothes, almost all adult men and women wore different styles of clothing made of sheepskin, and some children might only use stone spears. Leather bags tied with straw rope after stabbing - in this hot and humid alluvial plain, airtight leather is not the best choice for making daily clothing, but it is the most easily obtained by a nomadic tribe and does not require extensive processing. Materials, they may have forgotten how linen fabrics and looms were made.

Whether it is rough clothing, dull pottery or scarce staple food reserves, it is clear that the civilization development of this nomadic tribe lags far behind the farming tribes he encountered before. In contrast, the wealthy farming tribes not only had sufficient food and beer brewed by the double brewing method, but the gifts presented to the "high priest" and "angels" were two pieces of dark purple dyed with murex growing on the Syrian coast. Linen, this dye was still valuable thousands of years later in ancient Greece and Rome.

"This tribe is a wanderer of the Hasuna civilization. They have forgotten how to farm and weave, and can only tame wild horses and become a nomadic tribe. The location of the ruins of the Hasuna civilization will be called Nineveh in the future. You will see it, ha. The Suna civilization does not really continue, everything will be absorbed by the Ubaid civilization.”

"Are we going to the north?" Captain Miller asked, "The center of civilization in Mesopotamia should be in the south. I have read the books on the data pad. The civilization in the north of Mesopotamia is not That’s too much.”

"We need to travel throughout Mesopotamia and collect enough labor to establish an operational base. Establishing an operational base requires a lot of supplies. In this era, there is already offshore trade, and the monarch's order will follow the footsteps of merchants along with Ubaid and pottery. Communicate to everyone, and more people will come to the Monarch's base of operations to escape the increasingly frequent floods, eventually building a city."

The imperial army brought these frightened children of the farming tribe to meet the emperor.

Captain Miller performed his duties and registered each returning child. If there was no name, he named and numbered the children according to the vocabulary provided on the data pad. All the information was registered in the data pad and waited for one day. was copied onto clay tablets. These children have calmed down a lot. Although their faces still remain in a trance caused by meeting the emperor, their mouths are stuffed with candies that cannot be produced in this era, which calms their emotions well. The candy was a gift from the maid, and every child regarded Dinah as a god, especially when she appeared next to the emperor - beauty was an extremely expensive asset. Even in the 21st century, any working woman cannot have the smooth, soft white skin of Dinah, and it is even less likely that her body will smell of carefully selected perfume. Sunlight and sweat will cause damage to any pleasing skin - —To humans of this era (especially when she stood beside the emperor), a dizzyingly beautiful woman like Dinah was a god, and some might even call her Inanna.

Men would commemorate her with the barley growing cycle, and women would brew wine in her name as a type of beer. When the entire tribe and even the entire city lit bonfires in honor of the emperor and offered beer and food to the sky, winds and floods, they would drink beer brewed in Dinah's name from the first harvest of the year. Perhaps humans in the 21st century or even further into the future will never know that when they enjoy cold and refreshing beer on hot summer days, the pronunciation of certain words printed on the bottle label can be traced back etymologically. Human civilization began with a dizzyingly beautiful maid.

Miller curiously asked every child who had seen the emperor, but every child could not fully describe the emperor's appearance - some children only remembered a dazzling light, and some children only remembered a tall, luminous figure. and the emperor all over the place, as if they were walking not into a caravan made of wood but into a vast palace built of gold and gems, and there were even children who thought they had spent a whole day walking from the door to the emperor, This statement made Captain Miller's hair stand on end - they could not fully recall the entire interview process. Apart from the candy in their mouths, the only thing that could prove that they had experienced this almost supernatural phenomenon was their fingers pricked by needles. This is a genetic testing procedure used to ensure that these children do not inherit genetic diseases. In the eyes of these Ubaids and Hasunas, having their fingers pricked with needles should be some sort of ritualized procedure. Selected children from the nomadic tribe were not mixed with other children. They could sit in the caravan and follow the convoy instead of completing the long journey on their own feet. Captain Miller also found that adults in some families had obvious respect for their chosen children. This respect came from power, and power came from the powerful violence displayed by the Advocate.

A sociological experiment unfolds in front of Captain Miller.

He saw some children holding their fingers up in the air, showing a clear sense of superiority over their unselected peers. They showed off their fingers as if they had been deified by power, and the blood-plucked fingers became a symbol of their own deification. The Imperial Guards and the Emperor paid no attention to the situation. The Imperial Guards all believe that this is an inevitable situation that can only be solved through education rather than oppression. As long as the emperor's ideal has not been achieved and humans cannot get rid of base desires, this inequality will always exist. Captain Miller felt that he had been taught a good lesson. The knowledge that the universities had refused to teach in the past was confirmed by the emperor's writings.

The month-long journey did not make the nomadic tribes who had left their homes restless.

Not only because the emperor provided ample food reserves, but also because all adults and minors who were not summoned spontaneously drove the caravans and armored vehicles in which the emperor was located. No one wants to expose themselves to the light of supreme power, which will make them feel that they have no secrets. But this unequal situation still made Captain Miller feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, the education of the selected children and all adults under the age of twenty has been handed over to the scribes, and the children who are not selected will be trained as scribes (the profession of scribes is not divided into men and women, but there are more men. ), children who have undergone genetic testing will receive more rigorous training after basic education. Captain Miller believes that he will soon be able to get these children out of these bad habits.

According to the teaching process on the data board, he asked the children to collect clay, beat the clay with a wooden hammer and put it into a wooden mold to press it into a clay tablet. At the same time, he also asked the children to pick reeds along the way to make pen holders, which were placed on the soft clay. Press to form cuneiform writing. When the clay tablets placed on the top of the caravan were dried in the sun and fired into shape, the world's first set of pinyin rules and a systematic language of more than 800 standard letters were formed. This set of rules will apply to future Semitic languages ​​such as Akkadian and Ebraic, Hurrian, Indo-European Hittite, Iran's Elamite and Old Persian, Asia Minor, Urartian, and even Aramaic still spoken by Assyrians in the twenty-first century.

The convoy's first long-term stop was in the plains adjacent to several Ubeid villages.

The land in the alluvial plain is fertile, but due to perennial flooding, there is not as much land that humans can settle and cultivate as imagined. This place is located in the south of the Euphrates River, close to the outlet. Although it is just a sand dune, it is adjacent to multiple villages. It only takes a day's walk to get here from several nearby Ubeid villages. It has gradually evolved into a trading place. Coupled with the freshwater aquifer here, whether it is food, beer, fruits, vegetables, handicrafts, catches or fabrics, it can be found here, so the first humans to settle again were born.

This place once belonged to the Samarra culture, but the Samarra culture has gradually been replaced by the Ubeid culture further south. When the caravans came here, the local residents did not resist at all. Although Captain Miller believes that this is entirely the Emperor and the Imperial Guards walking in front of the convoy, just like all the villages the caravan passes through, as long as the Emperor and Imperial Guards appear, all wariness and hostility towards strangers will disappear, and everyone who sees it will Their Obaid people would regard them as gods. The emperor and the imperial army were immediately surrounded by nearly 4,000 settlers in the city and entered the temple.

This is not the mudbrick and thatch architecture of the Ubeid villages.

As one of the earliest commercial districts, almost the entire Ubeid civilization’s commercial wealth was gathered here. The temple is built on a 25-meter-high mud brick platform. In front of the platform, there is a long slope with the same length as the temple for walking. The temple is 45 meters long and 60 meters wide. Even the walls with 10-meter sleepers are nearly 3 meters thick. The entire palace is decorated with stone carvings, stone pillars, gold and lapis lazuli. For humans in this period, this is undoubtedly a palace. Fortresses and the most splendid palaces, the whole city was built around this temple.

The temple itself, dedicated to the worship of the Mother Earth, now has a new owner.

Some of the Ubaid believed that the emperor was Enki, the god who built the city, because he came to the city of sweet water.

"They regard the emperor as their ruler, and think that this city is the city of the emperor." Hammurabi said, pointing to the man kneeling at the emperor's feet. Compared with other Ubeid people, the settlers in this city also wear linen clothing, but some have an extra dark purple shawl and gold jewelry, which is enough to illustrate the wealth of this city. "They dedicated all their land and property in order to become the king's ministers and priests. Some were brewers, some were grain merchants, and in addition there were merchants who monopolized linen in nearby cities and land in several nearby villages. owner."

"Alulim, why do they call your master that?"

"The king's power descended from heaven first to Eridu, that is, here, eridu," said Hammurabi. He is responsible for the peripheral security duties. Mesopotamia was not safe in this era, and a week earlier the emperor's tarot divination ceremony had revealed the challenges they would face. "As long as they believe that this city belongs to the monarch, and the monarch has ruled here for a long time, then the monarch has an obligation to fulfill the king's power, which is to protect them."

Captain Miller saw the Emperor reaching out his hand and lightly touching a merchant kneeling at his feet with his armored fingers. Judging from the conversation overheard by the Imperial Guard, this merchant seemed to have presented a lot of dark purple linen. "There is war in this era, right? I remember you said that this place once belonged to the Samarra culture, but the Samarra culture has not completely died out. These people want your master to protect their lives, and your master also agreed to this Deal, right?"

"Eridu means the place of strength, the place of protection. The king became their guardian, and the city lived up to its name. After this, you will hear these people declare that the king has ruled the city for a long time. , with the legal principles of this city, people will find reasons to convince themselves that this is religion, and they will not be stupid enough to try to use their own power to deny the rule of the monarch. From now on, this will be our first stronghold. ”

The eyes of the imperial guards swept over the kneeling businessmen. All the Imperial Guards held a brief meeting on the communication channel, and the Emperor agreed to their decision. They were going to cleanse the city and make sure that what happened next did not come from Eridu - humans in this era had been exposed to the Veil, and no one could guarantee that there wouldn't be a statue from a mud-brick house. A shrine behind the curtain, or some words that existed before the birth of human civilization—anything may become a way for the spiritual entity behind the curtain to come to reality. Even if humans are not aware of what they have, they will suffer from behind the curtain. Poison.

"Things don't go exactly the way they imagine, Captain Miller, and I'm sure you know that."

Recently I have been obsessed with writing the story of Conrad Coates in Gotham, and I have finished this chapter intermittently.