At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 628: Heretics are more evil than pagans and surrender

November 45, 11th year of the Han calendar, at the camp of Yanzhou Governor's Office.

"Captain Liu, there is a letter for you!" a soldier came to the training square and shouted.

Liu Ruyi asked curiously, "Is there anyone here who writes to me?"

These few years are not only the golden time for the development of the railway industry in Dahan, but also the golden time for the development of Dahan's wired telegraph. It can be said that railways and telegraphs are a perfect match. Wherever railways are built in Dahan, telegraphs are built there. The speed of their development is even faster than that of railways. Now Dahan has achieved telegraph access to all counties. Except for a few remote and difficult areas, most counties have also achieved interconnection of telegraph networks. A huge industry worth tens of billions of dollars has been born.

Now the Han Dynasty's telegraph network has connected the Xiongnu Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, and all the way to the Yanzhou Governor's Office. It is thanks to the powerful telegraph network that the Han Dynasty's financial banks can be connected together. Now the interest rate on internal loans in the Han Dynasty has dropped to about 5%, and most of the deposit interest rates are below %.

At the same time, the telegraph network developed rapidly among the people. The number of caravans, factories, and even private telegraphs increased, and the revenue generated also increased.

The Liu family would usually send telegrams to communicate whenever they had something to say, and of course the price was not cheap. To contact the Yanzhou Governor's Office from Chang'an City, every word was worth a thousand gold coins. Even a vassal family like his dared not say too many words.

Liu Ruyi opened the envelope and found that it was written by his student Sobek. He briefly introduced what happened to him in the past year, and then wanted to get some arms from him. He wanted to buy 100 flintlock rifles and 20 muskets. He also emphasized that he would give money.

Liu Ruyi frowned when he saw the letter. The Ptolemaic Empire was in great chaos during this period, with slave uprisings and citizen uprisings one after another. This was related to the opening of the Suez Canal and the Ptolemaic Empire's loss of the Han Dynasty, its largest grain importer, as well as their chaotic politics. Memphis was still trying to collect grain taxes, but in Alexandria, asset taxes had already begun to be levied. Every Ptolemy who had worked for the Han Dynasty would be subject to an asset tax of 3000 coins. This was set by Ptolemy VI.

The largest number of citizens stranded were in Alexandria. After all, this city was the most prosperous place in the country and also had the most job opportunities. These citizens with certain savings wanted to stay in this city to make a living, but this city instead became their slaughterhouse.

The higher-ups wanted to collect 3000 coins, but only God knows how much the people below collected. Anyway, many people were forced to rebel. Of course, this was also related to the fact that the officials of the Ptolemy Kingdom were not human beings. He had never thought that a country would set tax rates so hastily. In order to collect taxes, they directly kidnapped their own citizens and asked them to pay ransom to release them. How could they be the rulers of a country? They were simply bandits.

These actions of the Ptolemaic State also made the Han Dynasty dissatisfied. The civilians who returned to the Ptolemaic State were all those who had been taught by the Han Dynasty for ten years. They might not be considered a big deal in the inland of the Han Dynasty, but for the semi-slave state of Ptolemy, they were all technical talents and high-quality talents who could improve the agricultural and industrial technologies of the Ptolemaic State.

As a result, Ptolemy VI killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. He killed, imprisoned, and forced the talents they had cultivated with great effort to rebel.

The governor and his men of Yanzhou were disappointed and extremely angry at the behavior of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. They had spent more than ten years with these civilians and had some kind of master-disciple relationship with them. But in the end, their own disciples were bullied by the Ptolemies. One can imagine the anger in the army.

After receiving the letter, Liu Ruyi immediately found the governor Ding He and asked, "Governor, can you ask your men to get some arms out?"

Ding He said helplessly: "You guys all really want the world to be in chaos."

Liu Yiruyi was not the first person to come to him to buy arms. Many Ptolemy people had already asked them for help.

Ptolemy VI was a bad person. These Ptolemaic citizens who had received Han education were not at the mercy of others as before. They were knowledgeable and skilled. A small number of people who had escaped gathered together, bought arms, made bombs, and retaliated crazily. Now, explosions and shootings happened frequently in Alexandria.

The Ptolemaic State is the Han Dynasty's largest ally in the Qin Continent. The Han Dynasty naturally does not want this ally to collapse, so it also wants the Ptolemaic State to be stable, but these people are useless.

Liu Ruyi said coldly: "It's not that I want the world to be in chaos, but Ptolemy VI and his people are not human beings. Why should we, the Han Dynasty, protect such tyrants?"

Ding He said: "This is not a small matter. Let's discuss it after Ambassador Zhang comes back."

The next day, Zhang Pijiang brought the staff of the consulate general back to the Yanzhou Governor's Mansion.

Zhang Pijiang said: "Alexandria is no longer safe. Our consulate will stay in the Governor's Mansion for now."

Ding He said: "Many officers below want us to support the rebellious soldiers of the Ptolemy Kingdom."

Zhang Pijiang said: "In principle, our governor's office cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the Ptolemaic Empire, but we ask them to be careful not to go to Alexandria during this period. There are too many explosives and firearms there, especially those lawless merchants of the Han Dynasty, who do not care about the international impact at all and import firearms on a large scale."

Ding He nodded in understanding, which meant that the weapons did not all come from the Governor's Office.

Zhang Pijiang was furious at this time and felt that the people of Ptolemy were a little unreasonable.

In recent years, the Great Harmony School has become a more fashionable school of thought in the Mediterranean region. In Rome, there is the Great Harmony Society, which expanded the territory for the Romans in the north. In Asia Minor, there is the Army of the Holy Word, and their ideas are related to the Great Harmony thought.

Alexandria has always been one of the academic centers in the Mediterranean region, and the idea of ​​Great Harmony has become a fashionable topic. It is inevitable to discuss the idea of ​​Great Harmony at gatherings of local scholars.

As a result, he never expected that the scholars of Ptolemy came up with the slave universal system, which said that each citizen should be equipped with ten slaves. These slaves would help citizens with farming and become slave workers in citizens' factories. In this way, within a few years, the citizens could become rich and even achieve a universal society earlier than the Han Dynasty.

There were actually a dozen Ptolemaic nobles who got thousands of slaves and intended to verify the slave system.

This made Zhang Pijiang furious. This was simply a tarnishing of the Great Harmony thought. He finally understood the truth of the saying that heretics are more hateful than pagans.

Originally, the Han Dynasty wanted to replace the slavery of the Ptolemaic Empire with a citizen system. But now it seems that without bloodshed and sacrifice, it is impossible for these parasites in the Ptolemaic Empire to give up slavery. So Zhang Pijiang planned to abandon the nobles of the Ptolemaic Empire and support these peasant uprisings to replace these corrupt nobles. On December 45, the 12th year of the Han Dynasty, Memphis City.

"Kill, kill, kill!" Since the tax farmers were killed, Sobek's village has become a huge military camp.

After killing the tax farmer, Sobek knew he had no way out. The lord of Memphis would never let him go. In order to win the support of the villagers, he distributed all the public land in the village. This immediately boosted the morale of the villagers. Before, they fought for Besok, and now they fought for their own property.

At the same time, he also set up a small gunpowder manufacturing workshop. Charcoal and saltpeter could be manufactured in the village, but sulfur had to be purchased outside. Fortunately, Alexandria was the largest trading city in the entire Mediterranean. All kinds of goods from Eastern and Western civilizations could be found here, not to mention sulfur. As long as Sobek could come up with money, he could buy sulfur.

With this simple black powder production line, they can produce hundreds of kilograms of black powder every year. It has even become the most important foreign trade commodity of Sobek Village. More than a dozen nearby villages have established contact with them to buy their gunpowder and grenades.

Sobek originally wanted to rely on this simple industrial chain to establish relationships with more villages, and even wanted to form an alliance with them. Now the Memphis countryside is in a state of chaos. After the heavy taxation and realizing their own military power, the leaders of each village no longer want to pay such high taxes.

But they did not dare to revolt and resist the city of Memphis or even the rule of Ptolemy. At this time, the leaders of each village were a bit like ostriches burying their heads in the sand, not daring to move forward or take a step back. They just hoped that the situation would remain as it is now.

But Sobek knew that this was impossible. The lord of Memphis would never allow the villages to break away from the rule of Memphis. If they did not find a way to unite, they would only end up dead. On the one hand, he asked Liu Ruyi to help him buy arms, and on the other hand, he wanted to form an alliance with other villages and towns to strengthen his strength.

But his desire to form an alliance was not recognized by other villages. The leaders of other villages wanted to replace the tax farmers and become the village elders in charge of a village. This was not something Sobek could give them. Sobek felt in his heart that he was not qualified to do this.

He could only think of ways to improve the strength of his village and wait for an opportunity. The only thing that made him feel fortunate was that Liu Ruyi's arms had arrived, greatly enhancing the combat effectiveness of their village.

And right here, his two younger brothers who were studying in the Cat Temple suddenly came back.

"Brother, are you rebelling?" Sobek's second brother Thor hesitated.

Thor is twenty years old this year, but the last time he saw his eldest brother was half a year ago, and the next time they met was ten years ago. He still remembers that their family was very poor at that time and had nothing. His deepest memory was that when he was a child, he was very hungry and was looking for food every day. It was his eldest brother who caught fish for him and made some barbecued small animals to fill his stomach. At that time, he felt that his eldest brother could do anything.

But one day, the king's messenger came to their village and said that he wanted to recruit five people to be laborers, and that the salary was very high. At that time, no one in the village believed it and dared not go, saying that those who went would never come back. Finally, the villagers selected his eldest brother after much deliberation. For this, he cried for a month, thinking that his eldest brother was gone.

However, he didn't expect that a month later, his eldest brother really sent his salary back. From then on, their family's life became better. They had more than enough food and new clothes to wear. He also recruited many younger brothers in the village. That period was the happiest time of his life. What disappointed him was that his eldest brother could not come back for many years.

Two years later, the family had more money and his father used his eldest brother's salary to buy two pieces of land. Their family income was higher, so his father sent him and his younger brother to the Cat Temple to be apprentices in worship.

But life as an apprentice was not easy. The apprentices in the temple were either the descendants of nobles or the descendants of priests. These people did not recognize him and his brother as descendants of fallen nobles. They slandered him and his brother as descendants of untouchables and said they were not worthy of studying with them, and often bullied him and his brother for this reason.

There were several times when he went home and told his father that he did not want to continue being a priest apprentice. As a result, his father flew into a rage and beat him with a wooden stick until he bled. He told him that he must die in the Cat Temple even if he died. From then on, he never dared to tell his father about the Cat Temple again.

He was counting the days, waiting to leave this difficult place when he came of age. A month ago, the priest of the Cat Temple found him and asked him if his eldest brother was called Sobek. Then he learned that his brother had rebelled after returning home.

Sobek looked at his brother and smiled: "This is not called rebellion, it's called uprising."

Then he said thankfully: "It's good that you guys are back. Big brother was really afraid that what he did would implicate you guys."

His third brother Willett said: "No, after my classmates heard about our eldest brother's deeds, they no longer dared to bully us."

Sobek looked at his two younger brothers with heartache. After he came back, he knew that his two younger brothers had a very bad life in the past few years and were bullied by the noble apprentices, but the only way he could do was to fight back in kind. From the tone of his third brother, it was obvious that they did not listen.

Thor thought for a moment and said, "The priest asked us to tell you, brother, that the city lord wants to hold a meeting in Memphis to resolve the current situation. But I think this is a trap set by the city lord. He wants you to go to the city and then arrest you."

Willett disagreed, "Our teacher said this is an opportunity. The city lord has already caught those corrupt tax farmers. The tax farmers were responsible for the arbitrary increase in taxes. Now these tax farmers have obeyed the law. The teacher said that this time he might appoint you brothers as tax farmers. This is a great thing."

West was also very excited when he said this. Although the tax farmer was a low-ranking position and was not even considered a formal noble, he was still considered a member of the upper class in Memphis.

If his elder brother became a tax farmer, not only would their family become wealthy in the future, but he would also be able to hold his head high among other classmates.

Sobek sneered, "The city lord is just shirking his responsibility. If those tax farmers are jackals, then the city lord is the lion. The tax farmers could not have done all this without the city lord's order."

He had attended night school in the Han Dynasty for ten years and had read the entire "Chronicles of the Han Dynasty". He was very familiar with the city lord's rhetoric. If they went to Memphis, it would be difficult for them to come back.

Willett was surprised: "But if we don't go to Memphis, our family can't be tax farmers."

Sobek said calmly: "If you can't do it, then you can't do it. Without the oppression of the city lord, our family can live a good life relying on our own fields."

(End of this chapter)