Water Margin people

Red Sea.

Yue Fei was very satisfied looking at the completed camp.

This camp was previously the site of a city of the Fatimid Kingdom. It has a dangerous terrain, surrounded by water on three sides and a narrow plain on one side, which can be considered a natural barrier.

Yue Fei had to put a lot of thought into facing such a fortress at the time, and he couldn't defeat me easily even in a head-on attack.

So they attacked from the sea, and relying on their strong ships and powerful cannons, they directly broke down the fortress.

"General, there are a small number of enemy scouts on the periphery, and they seem to be coming from the north."

A soldier walked up to Yue Fei and spoke.

"North? Jerusalem, Saladin!"

Yue Fei nodded and said that the Fatimid Kingdom had been beaten so badly that it dared not show its head, and now the only one who dared to come was Saladin.

"General, do you want to be those scouts?"

The soldiers around Yue Fei said that they were special forces of Qi State and they would have no problem dealing with some enemy scouts.

"No, if we kill them, how can Saladin come here?"

Yue Fei shook his head and said, Ruan Li brought news that Saladin had already captured Jerusalem and now had a strong army.

"How is the slave recruitment going?"

Yue Fei looked at the people around him and asked.

"We already have nearly 50,000 captives and slaves, and our navy brothers have also sent over 30,000 men. With 80,000 men, we should be able to build a canal!"

A general spoke.

"Then start digging. Make it fifty feet wide and five feet deep! Dig through the hundreds of miles between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea!"

Yue Fei said.

“So deep and so wide?”

Several officials in charge of building the canal were somewhat surprised, as Emperor Yang of Sui's canal was only ten feet wide and several feet deep.

"This is His Majesty's request. This canal is not just a simple canal. In the future, our warships will have to pass through here. As you know, our warships are getting bigger and bigger. It's hard to say how many there will be in the future, so we must make it wider."

Yue Fei said that it would be best to repair the canal in one go, as it would be difficult to change it later.

“It’s just that with such a big project, I don’t know how long it will take to complete.”

Several officials said in embarrassment that if they continued to repair it in this way, the workload would be too huge and they didn't know how many years it would take.

"Don't worry, there are plenty of slaves, and machinery will be shipped in from China soon, so the construction will be completed quickly!"

Yue Fei waved his hand and said that although he didn't understand civil engineering, he knew that the project would be huge. Fortunately, there were enough slaves and mechanical assistance, and the soil nearby was easy to excavate.

"Yes, General!"

Several officials saluted and accepted the order.

Soon, a large number of slaves gathered between the Great Bitter Lake and the Red Sea.

These slaves included captured Arabs and nearby bandits, all of them young and strong.

"You are captives and should be executed on the spot! But my Majesty the King of Qi is merciful, and the doctrine of the Imperial Religion stipulates that anyone who surrenders to me can sincerely atone for his sins..."

An officer stepped forward and shouted to the slaves.

The slaves listened quietly and dared not speak. This land was originally a slave society, and the moment they became slaves, their tragic fate was doomed.

"Now, His Majesty the Merciful requires you to build a canal to atone for your sins. Those who are willing may come forward!"

At the end of his speech, the official pointed to a low-lying land beside the Great Bitter Lake.

The slaves reacted quickly. They didn't want to die even if they became slaves. Now they were willing to dig a canal to atone for their sins. The slaves quickly started working. The construction site was in full swing. This enthusiasm surprised the management officials. All the excuses they had thought of were useless.

"You gentlemen, you may not know that this labor is actually nothing. Going further west, there are the pyramids of Egypt. Their ancestors once built them, and many people died..."

A local said that in order to better manage these slaves, Qi State recruited some locals. Firstly, the language was mixed and translation was needed; secondly, Qi State did not have enough manpower.

"pyramid?"

Several officials asked in confusion.

The locals immediately covered up one pyramid and the Sphinx with sand.

“This is quite a large project!”

The officials were graduates of Liangshan College, where they specialized in civil engineering. After listening to and looking at the model, they had a general understanding in their minds. Digging the canal was just about excavating the earth, and the excavated earth would be transported away and stored.

But the pyramids require bricks and stones, and they have to be piled up high. The difficulty increases as you go higher. This is a huge project. You have to know how many people died when Qin Shihuang was building the Great Wall for those bricks and stones.

"That is the temple of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, but Egypt has long been destroyed by God, and now it belongs to the Fatimid Kingdom."

"Legend has it that in order to build the pyramids, the Pharaoh conscripted laborers from surrounding countries, and those people never returned."

……

Seeing that the officials were interested, the locals began to describe the local legends in vivid detail.

"If there is such a thing, we must go and see it if we have the chance!"

The officials said with great interest that they already had a general understanding in their minds that every pharaoh would build a pyramid for himself. Isn't this the emperor's mausoleum? The previous emperors of the Central Plains were the same. As soon as they ascended the throne, they began to survey Feng Shui and select the mausoleum.

However, they had no intention of robbing the tombs. The royal tombs had been extremely protected in all dynasties. Except in times of war, the country had almost no need to rob the royal tombs, even those from the previous dynasty.

The construction site was in full swing, and the slaves worked very hard. On the one hand, they would not die, and on the other hand, they could actually eat their fill, even if it was just very dry and hard bread and a bowl of very thin broth. These were delicacies they had not been able to enjoy before.

And everything was reported to Saladin by scouts.

"What did you say? They are digging a pit. Are they going to bury those people alive?"

Saladin frowned and thought. He didn't understand why they dug the pit. If Qi wanted to kill the captives, there was no need to go through so much trouble. It would be most practical to just kill them on the spot.

"By the way, how many people did you say were digging the pit?"

Saladin pondered for a moment before asking.

"Tens of thousands of people!"

The scout spoke.

"Tens of thousands of people! Not good!"

Saladin stood up suddenly.

"what happened?"

All the officials looked at Saladin in confusion, not knowing what was going on.

“They’re going to dig a canal!”

Saladin looked at everyone with a gloomy face and said that the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea were not connected. Even if the distance was only a few hundred miles, ships could not pass through.

"Impossible, the canal has been blocked for a long time!"

Someone immediately spoke.

The waterway from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea was actually noticed by the people who conquered this land very early. It is rumored that ancient Egypt once built a canal to facilitate the smelting of copper ore. Later, due to wars, the canal was abandoned several times.

Later, the Persians conquered this land and destroyed Egypt. The Persian Emperor Darius I dug canals on a large scale, connecting the water transportation of the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile River, and trade prospered unprecedentedly. (End of this chapter)