Chapter 27 The Road of Silk and Color (Part 2)

Cleopatra's face was cold as ice at this moment, and she also calmed down all the local chieftains who had originally intended to take advantage of the opportunity of the Ptolemaic Dynasty being destroyed by Rome to attempt to establish themselves. All the people in Nubia, Aksum, and Aden lowered their heads and signed the peace treaty on the tablet. It should be difficult for Parthia or Rome to reach out to this remote area for the time being. They can only obey the food chain in this "small ecosystem"

Then, Cleopatra was very satisfied to hand over the tablet with the peace treaty to the clerks in the palace for safekeeping. Then she slowly comforted everyone present and said: "Don't worry about anything unnecessary. Remember that you are just sending the sea The port will be rented out to you. I will pay you generous rent on time every year. You will soon be richer than the kings and nobles, and you will definitely not live worse than the Parthian and Roman nobles. You don’t even have to bear the cost of repairing the port and ships. I will immediately send three legions to follow the route of the former Pharaoh’s expedition to Punt until all the ports are controlled. "

The following is an extremely huge project. Lepidus also invested heavily. Anyway, the favor was given by Caesar. He used the remaining 60 talents after building Troy and the 800 talents donated by Bisso to pay for the army’s expedition and the first three years of port rental fees.

The Egyptian river transport guards, led by the well-placed treasurer, became a vanguard team looking at the goal. They first took reed boats, carrying convenient weapons such as bows and arrows, hammers and axes (easy to cut roads in the bushes, and low-intensity conflicts with local barbarians), and came to the end of the Nile. Walk out of the river valley. Follow the ancient remains. The road formed by the dry riverbed called "Waj-Hamamat" came to the site of the old castle of Gassus, and then the river transport guards began to spend money to recruit guides, mules, donkeys, supplies, and a large number of manpower around to pave a more complete road, and renovated Gassus, dug wells, and added warehouses and stables. Then Rufio led two legions and Achilles led two legions of Pontus, following the route followed by the scouts, and continued to build a more solid road, which was what Roman soldiers were best at, and dug wells and military garrisons for shelter from rain and wind along the way. When they also reached Gassus, they were like a diverging spider, linking Nubia, the Nile Valley and the large and small ports along the Red Sea coast of Punt. All together.

This Punt trade route, which has been famous since ancient times, was soon dredged.

Then. On the vast sea, about forty ships of various colors were sent to the local ports of Aden and Aksum. The legions and technicians cut down trees locally, and Alexandria had a large number of boatmen and technicians who went along the newly opened wide road to the city of Gasus and began to build docks.

Cleopatra had never enjoyed the benefits brought to her by a powerful legion like today - the pirates in Cyprus and Crete had been wiped out by Pompey, and the trade routes were restored. In addition, after becoming a vassal state of Rome again, there was no need to waste money and manpower to resist the invasion of the overlord. Cyrene was as safe as her own backyard under the control of Lepidus, and the border trade with the desert nomads had also reached a prosperous level; so the little queen only ordered General Shekebehu and General Serapion to lead the team originally under the jurisdiction of the "Nomadic Border Chief" Five, stationed in the Pelusium Fortress, guarding against the threat of a single line in the east, and the south became a vassal of Ptolemy Egypt again, and then Cleopatra borrowed the "half-tax order" established by Lepidus before, and the so-called "road construction", and severely levied a large amount of wealth and land in the city of Thebes. The priests had no way to deal with the army - all the people in the east, south, west and north were under the command of Cleopatra, and they had no choice but to obey. Many tenants and craftsmen were taken back by the state and became Ptolemy's direct households, and taxes and corvée were greatly increased.

At this point, Cleopatra realized how much benefit Lepidus's painstaking arrangements could bring to her or the other party. Sometimes, there is no right or wrong in political exchanges, and there is no need to mix personal emotions into it. There are only win-win and single win, and the former is always more stable and effective than the latter.

Finally, after the Saturnalia, in Gasus, the open-air warehouse in front of the dock was piled with mountains of treasures, most of which were specialties from Egypt and Aksum. "We need some that are not produced in the Seres Empire, which can make the emperor there feel novel." So ivory, tortoise shells, and rhino horns are the main items, and there are also rare birds and animals kept in cages, such as giraffes. "When you go there, you can say it is a unicorn, just say it is a unicorn - listen to my pronunciation, unicorn, and then tell the Seres emperor that this is called auspicious, called auspicious - listen to my pronunciation, auspicious. As long as he hears this, the emperor will be very happy." In Lepidus Castle, Otacilius, who had just been ordered to come, happened to be the envoy of the expedition. He was surrounded by documents with ring seals, and Lepidus carefully taught him the pronunciation of two words, "unicorn" and "auspicious". Otacilius had a talent for language and quickly memorized the words.

In another month and a half, he would first take a ship to Alexandria, then arrive at Aksum in Punt, and then take a ship across the ocean to achieve communication between the two worlds. This communication may bring peace, prosperity and joy to the two worlds in ten, twenty, or even three hundred years. "Otacilius, your mission is so great!" Lepidus shouted for him and advised him, "You must write a masterpiece that will be passed down from generation to generation to describe what you see and feel along the way."

"Just hope I can return safely!" Otacilius looked a little nervous and excited, but he didn't have such a big vision at the moment. Then he put his hands behind his back and muttered about Qilin and auspiciousness.

Just before Otacilius was about to set sail, Caesar's letter suddenly arrived, "Requesting the city's expatriate legal officer, Lepidus, to return to Rome immediately to preside over the first National Tebris Assembly and discuss the re-establishment of the Knights' Court."

Caesar used the term "National Tebris Assembly", implying that the participants in this assembly were not just the original 35 clans of Rome, and the aristocratic oligarchs could no longer use bad omens, busy farming and other means to prevent people from holding meetings and voting, and the order to close the market was also cancelled, because the four-month celebration was coming to an end, and Caesar's direction in the letter was also very clear: Rome and even the whole of Italy participated in the assembly, you are the model, and the purpose of asking you to preside over it is for this, the core issues are the elimination of Pompey's remnants, the expedition to Parthia and Dacia, and the passage of the two bills of immigration and the Knights' Court, "Remember, what I need is the approval of all members, not the vote that delays time and months." (To be continued...)

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