When I finished the last chapter of "Ancient Greece, Hegemon of the Mediterranean," I felt both lost and relieved.
I still remember five years ago, after a period of boredom, I finally made up my mind to rewrite the ancient Greek story to make up for the guilt of not updating it. At the same time, it was also to fulfill a long-cherished wish that had always been in my heart.
At that time, I only had a rough outline and quickly started writing. I never expected that I would write for nearly five years (including the time I had to prepare the manuscript in advance), and the word count was close to four million. During this long period of time, my life and work have changed a lot, and I have experienced many difficulties in the process of writing. I have thought of giving up many times, but the passion in writing and the long-cherished wish in my heart told me that I must persist. Coupled with the countless lovely readers who accompanied me on the lonely road of writing, it is your constant encouragement and support that made me fight until now.
"Ancient Greece, Hegemon of the Mediterranean" is finally finished. You may think that it was a bit rushed, but in my opinion, it basically achieved my expected goal and completed the outline I had prepared in advance. It is the first work in my online writing career that has truly finished ("Campus Romance" doesn't count, it was broken twice in the middle and ended abruptly). It is also a big achievement, and it is worth celebrating!
However, as it is my first time to complete such a long novel, my lack of experience has exposed some shortcomings.
I think there are a few main shortcomings:
First, the characters are not depicted enough. Most of the characters are just symbols, and they did not leave any impression on the readers. Second, the process of Diónia's rise to hegemony was too easy. Some unprecedented new systems formulated by the protagonist had an impact on the ancient West, and the resulting conflicts were described too superficially. There was no more complex interpretation and deeper exploration. Third, I lack a comprehensive grasp of the entire grand historical process in the book. I don't know what should be written, what should be written in detail, and the countermeasures taken by various forces against the rise of Diónia and the armed conflicts that occurred were not described reasonably …
The reasons for these shortcomings, I think, are my lack of writing skills and talent. I can't plan and control the overall situation as well as those great gods, and at the same time, write tens of thousands of words every day. Secondly, I don't have enough time, especially after the manuscript storage is used up. I still have to work during the day and do housework at night. I can only rely on some fragments of time to update every day. Even if I complete the task, I don't have more time to carefully sculpt the characters and plot.
Another main reason was that he was not as energetic as before. Writing requires a lot of energy, and when I write, I like to put myself in the shoes of every character I create, to imagine their emotions, their conversations, and their reactions in battle … My entire brain is working non-stop. More than 10 years ago, when I was writing 'Campus Love Log', I could stay up all night writing without feeling tired. I could even immerse myself in it after I finished writing and couldn't come out for a while. Now that I'm in my forties, I'll feel tired after thinking for an hour. If I'm disturbed by patients or chores at home, I'll feel very annoyed. It'll take me a lot of effort to get back to the situation I've been thinking about. That's why I instinctively avoid making the plot more complicated so that I can complete my task more easily …
In short, I've finished this book, but I have a lot of regrets. These regrets will become the motivation for me to write the next book. I'll spend more time to think about the outline in detail, build the image and personality of each character, perfect the setting, and enrich the plot … I hope it'll be better than this book by then.
I've said so much because I have a lot of reluctance in my heart. I don't want to let go of the book that I've spent so much effort on come to an end, and I don't want to part with you guys who have always supported and encouraged me. I hope I can meet you guys again when I upload the next book. However, the interval may be longer, because before I prepare the next book, I need to rest for a while. After all, in the past four years, I haven't had a good time to relax, including during the Spring Festival.
Finally, I'll tell you a little secret. In my original idea, the whole book will end after Diónia defeats Persia and becomes the ruler of the Mediterranean Sea. There was supposed to be an epilogue, but after thinking about it again and again, in order to leave some space and not stand out, I deleted it.
Now, I'll tell you the general plot of the epilogue:
In 2020, when the city of Xianyang in Camino was vigorously renovating the old city, the construction team excavated an ancient tomb in the western part of the Wei River Plain. After the identification of the cultural relics in the tomb by archaeologists, they believe that the tomb came from the Diónia Empire, which dominated the West more than 2000 years ago. It's highly likely that it's the cenotaph of the founding emperor of Diónia, the Devers.
This news not only shocked the international archaeological community, but also the entire Western world.
In history, Diónia was a great empire that spanned across Europe and Asia, ruling the West for 300 years. At its peak, its territory not only included the whole of Western Europe, the whole of North Africa, the whole of Asia Minor, and more than half of the Near East. It even extended its influence to Eastern Europe and India. Although it eventually fell apart due to its own decline and the invasion of the barbarians, later generations of Western European monarchs with great talent and strategy dreamed of reviving its former glory. There were also countless Western literati who fantasized and eulogized the greatness of that era. However, no matter how hard they tried, the entire West was still divided by small countries, and it was difficult to unify them. The great achievements of Diónia have always been a beautiful vision of the later generations in the West, but because of this, the cultural relics of the Diónia Empire were highly respected by the West.
When the news spread around the world, it was met with angry questions from countless Western people. How could the clothes of the Emperor Devers, whom they respected as the Emperor of the Ages, be buried in Camino, which was thousands of miles away!
But soon, the current head of the Devers Family, the oldest and noblest descendant of the royal family in Europe, publicly announced that it was very possible. He also showed his grandfather part of the Diary of the Past Emperors of Diónia, which had always been kept secret. He emphasized that the founding Emperor Devers had repeatedly mentioned the faraway countries in the East to the second Emperor, Crotocatax, who was known as "the Compassionate." In his later years, the Devers also expressed his yearning for the faraway East to the third Emperor, Cristos, who was known as "the Wise." He also claimed that Hades had given him an oracle several times in his dreams, telling him that it was best to bury his clothes in the faraway East after his death, so as to ensure the long-term stability of the Empire.
Immediately after that, the most authoritative Association of Archaeologists in Europe also announced to the public that they had carefully searched through all the historical records of the Empire of Diónia and found that during the reign of the fifth Emperor, Salysius, who was known as "the Conqueror," had indeed sent out a large team of emissaries, claiming that they were going to search for the faraway East. However, there were no other historical records after that.
Therefore, the Western people were in an uproar. The people of every Western country even held demonstrations and unanimously protested that if this was really the cenotaph of the Emperor Devers, the government of Camino should return it to the West!
All the governments of the Western countries complied with the demands of the people and put pressure on the government of Camino.
In the face of strong international pressure, the government of Camino finally agreed that if this was really the cenotaph of the Emperor Devers, then it was the wealth of all mankind and should be shared by all countries.
Soon, the Western archaeological team led by the descendants of the Royal Family of Devers joined the archaeological team of Camino. At the request of the people of the world, the entire archaeological process was broadcasted live.
The rusty golden crown, the helmet, the golden breastplate, the sword, the rotting and tattered robe … After every item was taken out of the tomb, the head of the Family of Devers would vividly describe some historical anecdotes about the item. The audience in front of the TV was also fascinated by the story.
Now, it was completely confirmed that this was the cenotaph of the Emperor Devers.
The audience was looking forward to the archaeologists of the West and China as soon as possible to restore these items to their former glory with modern technology.
A few days later, the rusty spots on the golden crown, helmet, breastplate, and sword were all removed and shone brightly. Moreover, the Western experts also discovered that these items were engraved with the same inscriptions. However, the experts of Camino widened their eyes in surprise because these inscriptions were in the simplified Chinese of Camino!
…
Hehe, guess what these words are?
Dear brothers and sisters, let us meet again in the next installment!
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
