Chapter 22, Cyrenaica Colony (Part 1)
Crete, Knossos city, an open-air balcony of the Minoian palace
Under the cloudless sky, the young king in rich clothes leaned on the railing and looked up at the sky, watching the huge airship gradually go away with a melancholy look on his face.
The golden daughter of the Nile and the gods who brought countless magical goods finally said goodbye to this island country.
The Queen Mother, who was also dressed up, looked at her son who had just recovered from health with a little worry, "... I'm sorry, dear Minos. I know what you are looking forward to in your heart. If it is just the daughter of the Nile, I would rather fight for it. In order to offend King Memphis of Egypt, I want to keep this blonde girl and make you a princess. Although the Egyptians are the kings of the desert, they are unable to compete with our country on the sea. But the problem is..."
"...I know, mother. We must not offend those gods who can soar in the sky and create countless miracles."
Minoa waved his hand and said to the Queen Mother very calmly, "...not to mention that they not only saved my life, but also brought huge benefits to our country. Our country cannot be so ungrateful. As a leader of Minoa, King, I will not harm the country for my own selfishness.
Please don't worry, dear mother. I have known since I was a child that everything in life cannot be perfect. I should be very satisfied to be able to recover and leave my hospital bed. Being able to spend these days with the daughter of the Nile whom I have missed for a long time, and seeing so many new things that I have never heard of, is an unexpected joy for me. I really shouldn’t be greedy and ask for more... What’s more, I am grateful to those who Because of the generosity and thoughtfulness of the gods, even if the Daughter of the Nile returned to Egypt, she would still be able to chat with me often to relieve her boredom..."
"...Even if she returns to Egypt, she will still chat with you often? How is this possible?" The Queen Mother frowned in confusion. Just as Minos was about to explain, he heard a golden gadget on the stone table not far away suddenly starting to make a sharp "beep-beep-beep" sound.
Then, at King Minos's signal, a flaxen-haired palace maid held up the video communicator that was screaming "Beep-Beep-Beep" and walked over cautiously. Minos reached out and pressed a red switch at the bottom of the thing, and Carol's bright smiling face appeared on the screen.
"...Yo! Minos! Are you happy to see me calling so soon? After I leave, you must continue to be energetic! By the way! I am currently at sea, and there are still people below. You can see the dolphins! Now move the camera over..."
Looking at the smiling and charming appearance of the blond girl on the screen, the young and ignorant His Majesty Minos could not help but be fascinated for a moment...
At the same time, Wang Qiu, who was in the airship cab, also saw with satisfaction that there was a new line of writing on the "Book of Time Travel":
"...End the plot of Minoa Kingdom early and get 1,500 reward points. The total points are now 47,000 points, please continue to work hard."
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After about a day's air journey, the travelers' airship flew smoothly across the Mediterranean Sea and arrived at the Nile Delta coastal fishing village in Lower Egypt. But then, they did not continue to return to the Egyptian capital Thebes in the south. Instead, they allowed Princess Carol and her entourage to land here and transfer to a local Egyptian ship to go home. He took off again and sailed westward along the coastline of North Africa.
What you see along the way is the ocean on one side and the desert on the other.
——The scorching sun burned the hot gravel. Looking up, in addition to the sand dunes, there were countless sand dunes. The undulating and continuous sand dunes formed this boundless vast desert.
This is the Sahara Desert, the vastest thirsty place on the planet. It stretches from the savanna in the south to the Mediterranean Sea, forming a tawny coastline. In this barren desert, only a handful of nomads riding camels can survive.
Everyone who looks at North Africa on a map should first think of how big it is. It seems that this place is larger than the entire Western Europe. Combined with the historical fact that North Africa and Europe were separated by the Mediterranean Sea and competed with each other for more than 2,000 years, it is easy to give people the wrong impression that this is a region with great potential. It is even possible to become a chess player in global competition and play the leading role in the world’s geopolitical game.
But if we take a closer look at the map, we will find that the hinterland of North Africa is marked with five big characters "Sahara Desert" running east to west - that is to say, the entire hinterland of North Africa is basically covered with this kind of desert. Covered by arid land uninhabitable. This geographical structure of "embroidered pillows and a bag of straw" is somewhat similar to Australia, Siberia, and Canada. Apart from exciting those fanatical expansionists who only look at administrative maps, there will probably not be much change in the past and in the foreseeable future.
Like those flashy extreme places, if humans want to build large-scale settlements in North Africa, they can only choose a small part of them. In other words, there are only a few small areas in North Africa that can meet the minimum requirements for the survival of human civilization.
Obviously, due to the extremely hot and dry conditions of the Sahara Desert in North Africa, the first factor that determines the value of its geographical location is "water" - where there is water, there will be a large number of human beings living there. Wherever there is plenty of water, it will be the center of geo-civilization. From this perspective, human settlements in North Africa can only exist on a large scale in two areas: one is the northeastern part of Africa, the Nile River Basin that nurtured the ancient Egyptian civilization; the other is the northwest edge of North Africa, where the towering Atlas Mountains.
Relying on the Mediterranean water vapor intercepted by the majestic Atlas Mountains, the ancients obtained a long strip of green land for survival on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean. This is the hometown of Carthage, the famous maritime power in history, and was also The province of Africa, which was classified as the ancient Roman Empire, has now formed the three countries of Morocco, Algeria and France... Of course, in the fourteenth century BC, this land in North Africa was still in the midst of barbarism and ignorance. Sleeping in the endless darkness, not yet enjoying the light of civilization. The Phoenicians, who would establish Carthage in the future, were still trying to build ships and go to sea in their hometown in Palestine. Among the ravines and vegetation of the Atlas Mountains, there were only a few barbarian peoples wandering around.
Between the Nile Delta and the Atlas Mountains lies the arid and barren Libyan Desert. At first glance, this coastline without the protection of tall mountains cannot intercept enough ocean water vapor to ensure an adequate supply of surface water; it is also difficult to protect the coastal plain from the invasion of southern sandstorms. So except for a few scattered oases and the nomads living there, almost everywhere is dead and lifeless. But if you look carefully at the satellite map, you will see that on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea with thousands of miles of yellow sand, between the Nile Delta and the Atlas Mountains, there is a tiny green space - this is where the ancient Greeks once crossed the sea to colonize. Cyrenaica, or modern Benghazi.
In the North African battlefield of World War II and the Libyan civil war in the 21st century, it was a battleground that was repeatedly mentioned by the news media.
This is how Wang Qiu, Ma Tong, Doraemon and other time travelers, after careful inspection, careful selection and repeated discussions, gave the Japanese refugees in the apocalyptic world of "School Apocalypse", in this ancient era, Choose a place to stand.
——Of course, strictly speaking, this place doesn’t seem to be a good place.
Therefore, after the more than 200 Japanese immigrants arrived here, they were severely shocked by the harsh natural environment.
——The gray dust filled the air, which was slightly choking. The summer sun penetrated the dust and shone on the gravel road, evaporating the dry earth. The scenery in the distance was twisting and shaking violently due to heat radiation... Miyamoto, the leader of the immigrants, spat on the ground with caution, spitting out the sand in his mouth, looking down from the top of the mountain, and found that in this damn place In the Gobi Canyon, nothing but desert is stones, nothing but stones is sand, and at the end of the horizon, there is a golden sand dune. Only on the Mediterranean coast behind, there is a touch of intoxicating green, which forms a sharp contrast with the khaki hot purgatory just a few feet away, drawing a clear dividing line.
"...Is this...our future home? It's so desolate! Is this still a place where people can stay?"
The former Japanese police officer snorted from his nostrils with some dissatisfaction and complained to Wang Qiu, Doraemon and others angrily.
——Indeed, compared with the rainy and humid green mountains and forests of the Japanese archipelago, the environment in Cyrenaica is really quite miserable.
Cyrenaica was the only place on the African coast between ancient Egypt and Carthage that could sustain significant human habitation. To its south is a true sea of sand of death, a forbidden zone for life. In addition to the occasional scattered bones, there are also huge sand dunes up to seven or eight hundred feet high. Almost not even a gerbil, a scorpion or even a thorn can be found. Its northern part is basically a plateau. Because some evergreen shrubs and other plants grow on the plateau, it is also called Green Mountain. This is also the only place in Cyrenaica with vegetation that can support human survival.
But even in the Green Mountains, the natural environment is still pretty harsh. The climate here is complex and changeable, basically divided into dry season and rainy season. The annual rainfall is 500 mm, which is barely enough. But the problem is that precipitation is generally concentrated in the three months of winter, resulting in short and violent thunderstorms and flash floods. This mountain torrent rushed down and broke out countless river beds. Unfortunately, the water dried up and no water could be retained. Not long after, even the river beds dried up!
——The dry riverbeds of Cyrenaica, like the fjords of Norway and the lakes of Finland, are the greatest feature of this land.
As a result, the Green Mountains and its coastal plains are covered with countless dry river beds and wadi valleys, cutting the land into fragments and filled with huge gravel and pebbles. Until modern times, it was impossible to build a mountain road, and residents only had to Can rely on camels and donkeys to maintain land transportation.
In addition, in Cyrenaica, the northwest wind blows all year round, making it hot, dry and uncomfortable. But it pales in comparison to the hot wind blowing from the hinterland of the southern desert—the terrible hot wind that occurs all year round, blowing yellow sand from the Libyan Desert and turning the green mountains and coastal areas yellow. The sand covered the sky and the sun, and even blew all the way across the Mediterranean Sea, blowing sand to Italy and France! In Cyrenaica, anything exposed, no matter how tightly you cover it, including watches, will be blown into layers of fine sand by this hot wind.
Moreover, there is frost and snow in Cyrenaica in winter, but the temperature in summer can climb to 40 degrees Celsius, which is not a suitable place for recuperation. In many areas of the Green Mountains, no other trees grow at all except the Mediterranean juniper, a drought-tolerant and wind-resistant tree.
In short, this is a land that tests human perseverance - it is not impossible to survive, but it is absolutely impossible to live comfortably.
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Therefore, after witnessing the barrenness and harshness of the land of Cyrenaica, Miyamoto Masaru began to retreat.
——Although civilization in West Asia is now very developed, there are owners along the Eastern Mediterranean coast from Egypt to Türkiye. But at this time, the European continent was still very empty, and no other countries in later generations had been born. Even the Greek civilization had just emerged in its rudiment. From Britain to France to Italy, there is vast land everywhere that can be cultivated and built. Why do we have to stay in this poor place in North Africa and eat sand?
Therefore, logically speaking, the fear of hardship in the minds of Japanese refugees cannot be said to be completely wrong.
After all, the environment in North Africa, with its scorching sun and thousands of miles of yellow sand, is really very different from the Japanese archipelago, which has four distinct seasons and is humid and rainy.
Relatively speaking, it seems that the natural environment on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, and the European side, looks more beautiful in the eyes of the Japanese.
However, in this barbaric era where there is no law and order and everything depends on force, other humans are sometimes more dangerous than nature.
For the more than 200 Japanese immigrants, who were few in number, weak in strength, and without any support, plus the more than 100 newly purchased female slaves from various countries, with their little power alone, they could survive in this wild and turbulent world. There really is no safer colonial location than Cyrenaica.
——"...Mr. Miyamoto, I know that the natural environment in Cyrenaica is indeed very different from your hometown. And the European continent on the other side of the Mediterranean does have a better natural environment. But the problem is, Can you stand there?" Wang Qiu persuaded very sincerely, "...You know, for a small group like you, safety is the first priority!"