Chapter 33: Calmness (Part 2)
David Anget was stunned for a moment, and then he vaguely felt something. He patted Pation and said that the defense of Yazda Fortress will be left to you for the time being. I will go to Cyrene quickly. There are some things that need to be done. Process it and find a way to send the stone as soon as possible. If that doesn't work, you can temporarily dismantle a section of the battlements in the north of the fortress and use it as raw materials. Because the Roman weapons were so good at destroying fleets and wooden fortresses, we must be extra careful. So here, a stone wall must be built to effectively resist.
Under the city of Cyrenaica, Dang stood in the middle of the street and stared blankly at the newly erected Jewish temple that was as luxurious as a royal palace. Then he understood something and walked in:
The pure bronze temple statue, the pure silver candlestick base, and the very eye-catching, heavy grape vine made of pure gold placed in the center of the hall, on the table in front of the high priest.
It turned out that after they successfully captured the treasury of the Cyrenaic city-state, David Anget was ecstatic for a time. He wanted to take out all the mountains of coins in it and buy more sharp and sophisticated weapons overseas—— Greek-style helmets and heavy armor, Macedonian-style spears, Spanish broad-bladed swords, Assyrian quivers, compound bows, and imported large quantities of stone materials to supplement and repair the zigzag city walls, which are stronger than those of ancient Nineveh. They even had to form a huge fleet to defend the hard-won Cyrenaica, the country of five cities.
Now, all dreams are gone like fragile clouds over Mount Zion.
No, David Anget stepped forward as if he was about to go crazy. At this time, he heard the voices of Jacob and several priests, and he turned his head. The eyes are a little bloodshot. Because of the rapid pace of the past few days. It was really hard work, and even though he asked knowingly, he still asked in a hoarse voice, "Where are the coins from the treasury?"
The expression on Jacob's face was also a little embarrassing, so he turned to the gold and silver magic weapons. Ankit scratched his eyelids in pain, pressing the golden grape vine with both hands without saying a word. Finally, it was proposed that the magic weapon should be sold off again in exchange for important strategic materials.
"This will delay the Messiah's reincarnation in this age." Jacob also protested uneasily.
"There is no reincarnation of the Messiah! You, me, everyone in the lobby, and the entire Hasidic sect are the Messiah." David Anget roared, "We destroyed the original city-state not because What is its original sin, but that it is out of time, so if you want to truly realize the temple in Cyrene, don't go against it, but follow it, overcome its weaknesses and move forward, doing better than the original. Like the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians, we need tax collectors, money, armies, and fortresses and fleets! Destroy these things, otherwise the Messiah will never come to the world." After saying this, the leader did not. Returned to the land and left.
"He is not an orthodox Hasidic at all. He was just a lecturer in a scholastic school." After David Anget left angrily, a priest said quietly to Jacob.
Another person added fuel to the fire, "More than that, he is not even a Jew. His ancestors are neither in Judea, nor in Samaria, nor even in Galilee, but in Edom, and that tyrannical Greece." King Lu was a fellow countryman, the meanest and meanest Edomite, but he was made the commander just by chance.”
Jacob glared at the two men fiercely, and the other murmured a few words to each other hurriedly and knowingly, then excused himself and went back to the inner hall to study. Then the high priest stared at the precious golden grape vine. This thing is worth it. One hundred talents, although not as big as the one that Pompey robbed from the Temple in Jerusalem (that one was worth eight hundred talents), does still symbolize the authority of the sect. Is it really necessary to give it to David in exchange for Those helmets and spears that are as black and dirty as the Greeks?
But the conflict between Jacob and David Anget was quickly "resolved" because even if Jacob agreed to sell everything, he couldn't find a new home - on the water of the entire giant harbor of Cyrenaica. , there is not a single trading ship. In the past, these ships from various "stepping stone" islands in the Mediterranean came loaded with obsidian, marble, cattle, gold and silver utensils, in exchange for local wool, salt, grain, olive oil, etc. The entire port is extremely prosperous due to the cargo, but now on the endless sea, except for the hovering seabirds making hungry calls for food, not even a single board can be found.
When they found the business district in the city, they found that it had either been reduced to ruins during the previous riots, or that the facade was boarded up with wooden boards, lifeless and without even smoke!
David Anget realized the seriousness of the situation, but he could not tell what exactly happened. Of course, if he knew modern vocabulary, he should be able to shout out that under the control of Lepidus, Cyrenaica was "trade banned." "Luck".
This was a kind of soft killing, which was different from the direct fleet blockade that was popular at the time. With the support of Lepidus and Adiana, the entire Eubotian Chamber of Commerce where Joseph belonged had made careful calculations before and paid a large amount of money to the sailors. and surveyors, changed all sea routes in the eastern Mediterranean via Cyrene, and all the great chambers of commerce in Crete, Cyprus and Egypt gathered in the gorgeous Alexandria Synod, and after a trivial, detailed and mysterious process After consultations, they unanimously agreed on almost all trade goods provided by Cyrene, found alternative areas, and re-planned trade routes. As for the ports of the Roman Republic, strict regulations were promulgated and no private dealings with rebels were allowed.
In this way, Cyrenaica completely became a dead port.
The Hashidi sect, which reacted, began to collect harvested grains in the suburbs and prepared to store them in the city and various fortresses. However, the farmers, that is, the naturalized natives, could not even take out coins, so they had to exchange them in kind. Their things were all local specialties, and the farmers were not willing to exchange them with precious grain and livestock. Soon conflicts ensued, and many villages and fields were emptied, and many people fled for refuge.
Not to mention expanding their strength, it was difficult to even gain a foothold in Cyrenaica. "It is better to give priority to allocating materials to the Yazda Fortress, hold on for half a year to a year, and wait for the situation to change." David Ankit made such arrangements. Soon, the elders of the Council of Elders found him and said that after unanimous consultation, he decided to go to the Yazda Fortress as the supreme commander.
Ankit remained silent, but still accepted the appointment. After he came out of the temple, he walked slowly along the deserted street to his house where smoke was curling. His black-haired wife was eating dried wild fruits with the children at the table. (To be continued...)