283 、 Yaron Alliance
Solomon saluted at the entrance of the post road and watched Aesop's carriage leave. He did not recognize that the driver in the cloak was Amon, nor did he know that it was the only god he believed in. In fact, when Solomon saw Amon, he felt that this person was very familiar, but he did not even think much about it, because Amon came out of the Cloud Dream Shrine and had just sacrificed to the Goddess of the Marsh with a group of drivers.
…
The caravans passing through the Charcoal Marsh were particularly lucky these two days. The weather was neither cold nor hot, and it always made people feel very comfortable. Even the muddy pools in the swamp no longer emitted a rotten smell. The wild beasts that occasionally appeared in the jungle were now completely gone, and the annoying mosquitoes had also disappeared without a trace.
Two days later, Amon drove out of the Charcoal Marsh and came to the place where he captured King Lucier alive. This was the other end of the post road, and now it had developed into a large town. There was a newly built Temple of Great Light in the town, which worshiped the Holy Fire of Light that the people of Boz believed in, and another Temple of the Marsh Goddess.
After the fall of Enril, the Enril shrines in Hittite were still there. When Hittite was annexed by Boz, Cyrus and later Darius did not force the local people to demolish the Enril shrines, but the officials of the various provinces built the Temple of the Holy Fire of Light, and the object of official sacrifice became the Great God of Light, Mazda.
With the passage of time, Enril was gradually forgotten, and the Hittite Kingdom no longer existed. The new generation under the governance of several new provinces in Boz grew up, and the Enril shrines in various places were gradually abandoned. Since the Enril shrines had lost their official status, some people quietly dismantled the stones and took them back to repair their houses and courtyard walls.
Today, there were not many Enril shrines in the former Hittite and Assyr that were still intact and had people regularly offering sacrifices to them. There were mainly three types of people who offered sacrifices to Enril. One was the elderly who had devoutly believed in Enril since childhood, and the other was the young who inherited this faith because of family reasons. As for the third group of people, they did not believe in Enril or the Anunnaki gods at all, and were just expressing nostalgia or some kind of wish through this way.
On the contrary, the two temples of the Goddess of the Marsh, El Mar, still had an endless stream of people offering sacrifices to her. She had become a legendary local god.
Amon did not drive northwest of the former Hittite territory, but all the way south to the seaside. On the left was endless yellow sand, and on the right was a gradually lush grassland. This was the battlefield where he led the An-Ra Legion to fight against the Hittite Army of Nanar. Now the army was silent, and the yellow sand on the grassland was still the same.
Amon and Medanzo did not need to rest, but Aesop was just a mortal, and he was very old, so he needed to pay attention to his food and clothing along the way. Although Aesop claimed to be healthy and did not need the special care of the gods, Amon was like a mortal servant, arranging everything well along the way so that Aesop would not feel tired from the journey.
Aesop left his mansion and his fields in the city of Salem to his friends, but he did not return to his hometown empty-handed. He brought his savings, which was a huge sum of money, and his decades of life had made Aesop very rich. As for the water and food needed along the way, they were all carried by Amon in a spatial artifact, so there was no need for other supplies along the way.
When the seemingly ordinary carriage came to the edge of the blue sea, it finally showed its extraordinariness. The two horses pulling the carriage subconsciously wanted to stop in front of the waves on the coast, but the coachman snapped his whip, and the horses seemed to be urged by some force and galloped forward again.
Aesop lifted the curtain and looked out. The coachman was Amun, and no matter what kind of miracle appeared, he was mentally prepared, but at this moment he was still deeply shocked. The carriage galloped over the top of the turbulent waves, and the fresh sea breeze blew over with a slightly salty smell, but it gave people a very comfortable feeling.
How many mortals in the world could have such an enjoyment in their lives? Aesop gazed at the sea for a long time, then withdrew his gaze and looked at Amon's back, his eyes full of indescribable gratitude. There was an even more magical experience to come. After the carriage galloped over the sea, its speed was more than ten times faster than on land, as if it was being carried by an invisible wind to fly.
After an unknown amount of time, a few small dots appeared on the distant horizon, followed by another group of battleships in formation, and Medanzo could already vaguely hear the earth-shattering battle cries. With so many ships gathered together, a large naval battle of unprecedented scale was taking place ahead. Before those battleships could notice the carriage galloping over the sea, Amon shook the reins, and the carriage had already soared into the sky. The horses pulling the carriage galloped, clouds forming under their hooves.
Aesop's carriage passed over the battlefield, and what had broken out on the sea was a major naval battle that would decide the final outcome. Looking down from the clouds, the number of Potz warships clearly exceeded the warships of the Hilton Coalition Army, but the Potz Navy came from various provinces of the Great Empire, the warriors' languages were mixed, and there were too many ships, so the command was not smooth. The warriors of the Hilton Coalition Army were mainly sailors who had been sailing for many years, and their command was unified and dispatched well, and they broke through the ranks of the Potz warships.
This naval battle was known as the Battle of Salami, and in the end, the Hilton Coalition Army won a great victory. The main force of the Potz Navy suffered heavy losses, and after that, they were no longer able to launch an attack from the sea. Not long after the outbreak of this naval battle, the Hilton Army, with the main force of the Spartan warriors, also fought fiercely with the Potz Army in Prada, and also won a great victory.
The victory of these two battles marked the complete defeat of the invasion of the Potz Empire by the United Kingdom of Hilton, and the city-states were free from Potz rule. When Aesop arrived at Yaren City, the people here were shouting and celebrating their victory.
Aesop's carriage crossed the battlefield and landed directly on the outskirts of Yaren City. Medanzo even joked with Aesop, "You are really an auspicious sign. With your arrival, the Potz Army has finally retreated completely."
Yaren was a beautiful city-state, and the patron goddess they believed in was Yalina, the Goddess of Wisdom in the Olympian Pantheon. On a hill next to the residential area stood the magnificent Yalina Temple. The city-state still had the remains of the flames of war, and some of the white marble pillars of the buildings still had traces of gunpowder, but it was still very prosperous, lively, and full of vitality.
Medanzo said curiously, "I thought I would see a city-state with broken walls everywhere, ravaged by the flames of war. I didn't expect to see such a scene."
Aesop laughed and said, "I heard that the Potz Army set fire to Yaren City, and now I know that the rumors are not necessarily true. All the people in Yaren City withdrew at that time. I guess they set fire to a batch of things that they could not take with them. But the damage here is not small either. Don't you see that the walls and many of the buildings are newly built? "
Medanzo nodded and said, "Of course I noticed, the small city of Yaren has a lot of manpower, material, and financial resources, and it was able to rebuild the main city to this state in such a short time."
Amon, who had been silent all this time, explained: "The city of Yaren also benefited a lot from this war. It was the organizer and leader of the coalition army, and its navy played the most important role. The nearby city-states also attached themselves to it, and Yaren made a lot of money from the war. More city-state alliances are being discussed in the council hall, and Yaren has become the leader of the alliance. "
When Aesop entered Yaren City to be interrogated, he calmly revealed his identity and did not hide anything. He directly introduced that he was born in the city of Meduri in the Union Kingdom of Hilton, and that his father was a merchant. When he was very young, he followed a merchant ship out to sea and encountered pirates, and was kidnapped by the pirates and sold as a slave, moving to many places on the continent. Later, he gained his freedom and became the governor of Salem in the Plains of Duc, and now that he was old, he finally returned to his roots and took out the documents that could prove his identity.
The listeners were surprised, and some had also vaguely heard of the legend of Salem and the name Aesop, which was news brought back by sages who traveled far away, but they did not expect to see the legendary person in person today. Aesop's arrival even caused a small uproar, and the sergeants guarding the city carefully examined his identity documents and the items he carried with him, but did not find anything wrong with them.
When Aesop's carriage entered the city, the people around him cast surprised, envious, suspicious, and suspicious gazes at him, and there was a lot of discussion in private, saying all kinds of things. With Aesop's age and experience, he no longer cared about these discussions, and calmly faced all kinds of gazes as he chatted with Medanzo about the past and present of Yaren City.
Why did Medanzo say that this was a "small city"? This city was certainly not small in the United Kingdom of Helon, but compared to the famous cities on the continent he had seen before, it was indeed not grand or prosperous enough. Medanzo grew up in Bablon City, and later went to Montefiore. In terms of the size of a city, Yaren City was not even one-tenth the size of Bablon City, and it was far less magnificent than Montefiore City.
The history of the countries on the continent was more than a thousand years old, and their civilization was long, while the United Kingdom of Helon, like the Olympian gods, was only a rising star on the edge of the continent. But this city was full of vitality and vitality, and it had absorbed the seeds and nutrients of the civilizations of the countries on the continent, and developed very quickly.
The people here were more free in thinking, and many great scholars and sages were born, and Aristotle, whom Amon had met before, was one of them.
But many ordinary people in this city had a complicated mentality towards the countries on the continent. They used to be weak and learned, and when facing the powerful and rich Eygut, Bablon, Hittite, and other countries, they had a subconscious worship and even inferiority complex. When they gradually became powerful and rich, they gradually became arrogant and conceited, and the subconscious sense of historical inferiority transformed into an inexplicable sense of superiority and hostility towards foreign civilizations.
This complex gradually began to show after the people of Helon defeated the Potz army, so when people saw Aesop return, there would be all kinds of discussions with indescribable complex emotions. This was also the source of a civilization, and it might subtly influence many people over a long period of thousands of years, and Amon happened to arrive when the civilization of Yaren City had just risen.
When Amon arrived, it was the Helon United Kingdom, which had just defeated the powerful Potz Empire. It was an era where all kinds of ideas were rampant, and all kinds of ideas were colliding with each other from time to time, bursting out dazzling sparks from time to time. This was also a new country different from the countries on the continent. As soon as Amon entered Yaren City, he squinted his eyes and listened to all kinds of sounds coming from the city, not only the people around him were pointing fingers and discussing Aesop, but also the important matters that were being discussed in the city's conference hall –
During the Hippocratic War, the nearby city states had attached themselves to Yaren, and formed the Yaren Alliance. This alliance originally had 35 city states, and according to the agreement, they would jointly organize the Helon United Navy, pay the alliance money, and build warships for the city of Yaren. But after the victory of the war, more than 200 city states of various sizes had newly joined this alliance, and the alliance money paid by them became a kind of political tribute, which had the nature of an alliance tax, or more directly, a protection fee.
The alliance money paid by the city states was an unprecedented huge amount of money for Yaren City, and it was originally used by the allied forces to fight against the Potz Empire. After the victory of the war, the alliance money paid by the city states didn't decrease, but instead increased, and was used by the city of Yaren City to strengthen its own political and military forces, and to build a more magnificent Yaren City.
Yaren City wasn't a kingdom, but a city-state republic. The adult men of the city-state with citizen status established the Citizens' Assembly, which was a consultative body to discuss all kinds of affairs, quarrel, gossip, gossip, and spread all kinds of rumors. In addition to the Citizens' Assembly, there was also a Nobles' Assembly, which only the honorable nobles were eligible to participate in, and it was an important political body. On the basis of the Citizens' Assembly, the city of Yaren City also organized a Council of 500 people, which was the daily political body.
This was the first time that Amon came to such a city-state republic. When he entered the city, it was the day when the Council of 500 people of Yaren City was held. The main topic of discussion in the council hall was the matter of the nearby city states joining the Yaren Alliance.
The Council of 500 people passed a resolution with an absolute majority, and decided to increase the alliance money of the affiliated city states, open trade between the city states, establish a unified alliance army under the command of the Yaren people, and punish and suppress the city states that joined the alliance but didn't pay the alliance money or wanted to withdraw from the alliance.
The more Amon listened, the more interesting he felt. This system implemented by the Yaren people should be more popular and supported by the people than the monarchy of the mainland countries, but the mentality of the people here was very worth pondering. At this time, he also heard the conversation between Medanzo and Aesop, so he explained the recent war wealth of the city of Yaren City.
The discussion in the council hall continued, the first topic was about income, and the second topic was about debt.
During the Hippocratic War, Yaren had spent a lot of money on building a navy, and the recent reconstruction of the city was also a huge expenditure, so it was necessary to increase the alliance money of the city states. Now that there was a huge income, it was reasonable to say that the debt of Yaren City should be repaid first. This debt was mainly borrowed from the states outside the Yaren Alliance during the war.
However, the city of Yaren City did not want to pay it back, because their newly received alliance money needed to build a stronger army, more merchant ships, stronger fortifications, and more magnificent temples. So they thought of a way, which was to let the Citizens' Assembly vote on whether to repay the debt. If the Citizens' Assembly decided not to pay, then the city of Yaren City would not pay it back. In layman's terms, it was a vote to repudiate the debt.
The reason why the city of Yaren City did not want to repay the debt was also very clear. They borrowed the money for the war, and now they needed more funds to strengthen their strength. The philosophy and behavior of the Yaren people was a kind of protection and care for the surrounding states. This proposal was passed by the Council of 500 people, and it was waiting to be submitted to the Citizens' Assembly for a vote.
The third topic of this meeting was still related to finance. Some people believed that there were many wealthy merchants in the city of Yaren City who used various means to evade taxes, and that they needed to be strictly investigated. However, this proposal had already been rejected by the Council of Nobles, and this time it was rejected by the Council of 500 people, so it would not be submitted to the Citizens' Assembly for a vote.
The last topic of this meeting was about military arrangements. The Hippocratic War was obviously over, so why did the city of Yaren City still want to increase its expenditure? In addition to the construction of merchant ships and temples, the rest of the main expenditure was for the military, because at present there was a good excuse, and that was the struggle between Yaren and Gebados.
The city of Yaren City had established the Yaren Alliance, and Gebados, who had a very powerful military force, had also taken the opportunity to conquer many small states in the surrounding area, and established the Gebados Alliance to confront the Yaren Alliance in all aspects. The city of Yaren City hoped that all the city-states under the Gebados Alliance would attach themselves to it, so as to form a stronger Yaren Alliance.
Amon had been listening to the discussion in the council hall, and relayed these topics and the results of the discussion to Aesop. Finally, he said, "These people are really complicated. They vote and negotiate within the city, and although the decision made in this way is inefficient, it is easier to get support than the order of the Emperor. However, they are discussing how to blackmail other city-states, so that the Yaren people can get more wealth, and at the same time, they decide not to pay their debts in this way, and refuse to order a strict investigation of the Yaren merchants who evade taxes in the city-states. You are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaton, what do you think about this? "
Aesop smiled bitterly and said, "When I was young, Yaren was a city-state republic like this today. In terms of military strength, it was inferior to Gebados, and in terms of wealth, it seemed to be inferior to my hometown Meduri, but it became strong in this war, and became the leader of the Yaren Alliance. I don't know if you heard it, but a passerby who just passed by accidentally said, 'Yaren is the republic of the Yaren people, the empire of the Heaton people.' "
Amon just smiled and said nothing more. He then asked Aesop, "You are the guide, where should I drive this carriage?"
Aesop replied, "Go forward, I will show the way, and we will find an inn to stay for a while."
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
