Chapter 368 Inspiration

"What do you mean, Qasim also received an oracle?"

In the palace, the red and white crown on the head of the Pharaoh who had just expelled Moses was shaking slightly.

Unlike before in front of Moses, his voice now was cold and icy.

In the human world of Hermenu, the Egyptians had always been divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, just like many countries in later generations were divided into east and west, north and south.

In more ancient times, the red crown was often worn by the king of Lower Egypt, while the white crown belonged to the ruler of Upper Egypt.

But since Upper and Lower Egypt were unified under the will of God, the Egyptian pharaohs in the dynastic era began to wear such a unique red and white crown. And in front of this symbol of authority given by God, the guard couldn't help but swallow secretly.

"Yes, Your Majesty, this is what the urgent report from the Holy City says. God gave an oracle, and everyone who was still in Heliopolis witnessed the miracle of the light of the sun... so Your Excellency the High Priest has sent a message, hoping that you can go to the Holy City to meet him."

"..."

There seemed to be silence in front of him, but the guard did not dare to raise his head.

Although most people in this era have almost no understanding of politics, it does not mean that they are not aware that the Pharaoh seems not very happy at this moment.

But why is this? It should be a good thing for the gods to send an oracle... The guard didn't quite understand, but as the pharaoh's loyal guard, he still waited for the monarch's instructions.

"Another oracle..."

Just as one was sent away, another one came, and this one is probably true.

With a calm expression, Ramses II didn't seem to have any more reaction to this, but he weighed it repeatedly in his heart.

At this point in time, with this weird celestial phenomenon... it would be best to have nothing to do with him.

"Did Qasim say anything else, such as the content of the oracle?"

Without haste or delay, Ramesses continued to ask.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"The oracle has a destiny. Those who shed sinful blood are the minions of the evil gods, and they are also disasters originating from chaos. Therefore, the supreme god Ra ordered the gods to bring down natural disasters to destroy these filth, and to admonish the mortals who have not eliminated them so far."

A respectful response was actually what the guard had planned to say before, but the Pharaoh's attitude made him a little nervous for a while, so that he forgot about it.

"The high priest conveyed the will of the god Ra and hoped that his majesty could carry out the order as soon as possible...and go to Heliopolis to explain his negligence to the god Ra in the temple."

"……dereliction of duty?"

He breathed a sigh of relief, but Ramesses' tone was very calm.

Some of the uneasiness in his heart dissipated. Although God did not directly convey instructions to himself as Pharaoh as usual, he quickly found an explanation for this.

Maybe it's true that he didn't do well enough in the past few years, and those Hebrews are just outside the city. Maybe this is the reason why Ra God is not willing to come here.

After all, the evil god...he really rarely hears such a name.

"Later, at this point, I will pray to God in my palace. As the Pharaoh who is the closest god on earth, my prayers can be heard by God anywhere. As for the Holy City... wait until God Ra comes again When he comes to earth, I will go to see you.”

Ramesses said calmly and walked past the guard.

He would not go to the Holy City to pray. That would be any different than admitting that the Pharaoh had less connection with God than the High Priest.

He didn't know whether the old guy who was as old as him made this suggestion unintentionally or intentionally, but he would not give the other party this chance.

As long as the contents of the oracle are completed, given the historical character of the Egyptian gods, there is a high probability that they will not care about this trivial matter.

"These old guys came quite quickly. They were much more diligent than before. I'm afraid they were all frightened by the celestial phenomena."

Walking outside the palace, dry and withered air currents roared in the sky, and the water vapor continued to disappear. There is no doubt that this is the power of Shu, one of the nine pillar gods.

Ramses II had met this god more than once, and the messenger of the god Ra admired him very much, so the pharaoh could roughly guess the effect of the natural disasters created by the other party.

Since the target is not yourself, everything will be easier to handle.

Not far away, the ministers who had been summoned before were getting off the carriage and approaching the palace. They came to report to themselves the recent movements of the Hebrews, but compared to the speed in the past, today they can be said to be surprisingly fast.

"Guards, tell them not to come over."

The Pharaoh gently waved his hand and ordered calmly: "Tell them that the high priest's prayer to God was answered. God was angry because of these sinners, so God Ra ordered the gods to bring down natural disasters."

"However, the power of God Shu is so powerful. Although he will punish these sinners, it will also affect the people of Egypt... Of course, as a pharaoh, I will definitely solve these things that are beyond the ability of the high priest."

"Order the people of Memphis to go to the Nile River to draw water. God Shu's power will dry up the well water, but the Nile River is the only mother river in Upper and Lower Egypt that will not dry up. As for the Hebrews who were punished by God...let them "Keep working, but also give them water to show our kindness."

"But remember, you only need to send one third."

As a monarch praised by later generations, Ramesses II is indeed much stronger than his descendants who have no other advantages except "hardness" according to some scriptures in later generations.

Almost instantly, he thought of how to use this divine punishment to successfully deal with the criminals without causing too much damage.

Although Egypt did not have a systematic military strategy, after summing up his life experience, Ramses II still knew what it means to "victory is inevitable" and "to surround three without one".

When attacking the enemy, you cannot force it into a corner, otherwise the dying counterattack will cause them great trauma, and may even allow them to find a way out in a desperate situation. Only by giving them a glimmer of hope, then provoking internal relations, and finally using the hilt of the knife can the problem be solved without bloodshed.

It would be the most stupid behavior to directly send out a large army to surround and kill. Not only will this cause huge losses, but it will also be easy for someone to spot you and run away into the wilderness. Hundreds of thousands of people are not easy to besiege after all, not to mention the leader who can perform witchcraft, but it is different now.

The benevolent Pharaoh did not forget to bring relief to these sinners during natural disasters, and he provided "sufficient" resources. As for why there is only one third...who knows, maybe it was stolen by your Hebrew leader himself. For example, the man named Moses who I just met is very likely.

This has nothing to do with Pharaoh anyway. Do you have to choose to face the sword of the army with your life, or snatch life-sustaining resources from your own people? I imagine that the vast majority of criminals will be able to make the right choice.

······

The Pharaoh's order was conveyed smoothly, and the brief chaos in Memphis was easily contained under the natural disaster.

Today, Egypt has a lot of grain reserves. Although the water level of the Nile River has dropped, the mother river that runs through the world has not dried up.

So when the Pharaoh stepped forward to pacify the people, and the ministers organized manpower to transport water, the riot was quickly calmed down.

The disasters brought by Shu's divine power to the human world are terrible, but after all, he is far away from the human world and shaking the world's weather on a macro scale. Although this simple natural disaster is effective, it is far from destroying a dynasty in an instant.

However, the fact that the Egyptians had no problems did not mean that the Hebrews outside the city had no problems.

Moses had fled from the city, leaving Aaron to quickly gather his people. He told them that the Pharaoh had rejected his request and would probably use force against them.

As a result, force did not wait, but increased labor and natural disasters followed.

So resentment arose among the people, some of which was directed at Pharaoh, but most of it was directed at Moses.

As slaves before, most of them had been forced to get used to this kind of life. If someone can take them out of trouble at this time, it will naturally make them grateful.

But if the perpetrators not only fail to get immediate relief, but instead deepen their suffering, then the vast majority of people are probably more willing to blame the good people who did not do a good enough job than the cruel perpetrators.

And this resentment only worsened in the days that followed, because as the wells dried up one after another, panic began to spread among the Hebrews.

At this time, Pharaoh unexpectedly extended a helping hand to them, but the people who had just breathed a sigh of relief soon discovered that their water was still not enough.

Gradually, doubts began to spread among the people... On this day, standing on a hillside outside the city, Moses looked at the Nile River in the distance and sighed in his heart.

"Aaron, what's the result of the negotiation?"

Without looking back, Moses knew who was coming behind him, and all he received in response was another sigh.

"The guard rejected my request. He believed that allowing the Hebrews to go to the Nile to fetch water was not only a blasphemy to the Egyptian gods, but also delayed the construction period. It was more likely that someone would take the opportunity to escape. They claimed that they had delivered enough supplies to us. raw resources.”

"I tried to tell them that it was totally not enough, and I tried to explain to the people, but you know, most people just saw buckets after buckets of water being pulled into the camp, thousands of them, but they The computing power cannot tell the difference at all. It seems that a lot of numbers are not enough for hundreds of thousands of people. "

"...I understand, Aaron, it's not their fault. Even I can't calculate on my own how many resources hundreds of thousands of people need."

With a heavy look on his face, Moses was actually not worried about this the most: "There is still a lot of water stored before, but Aaron, I heard that there have been some bad remarks among the people recently, and they are dissatisfied with the Lord."

"……Yes."

Nodding, Aaron confirmed what Moses said.

"This is what has to be stopped, Aaron, this is a disaster!"

Turning around, Moses looked directly into his brother's eyes: "The revelation God gave me tells me that if the Hebrews want to escape eternal slavery, they must first endure suffering. Devout believers may also die. devout--"

"I know, Moses, but the time you came here is too short. Neither God nor you have established enough prestige. There are even many people who feel that... before you and your faith came, they were clearly living. better."

"..."

Momentarily speechless, Moses knew that he could actually explain a lot.

For example, as a slave, how can you ignore your status as a slave just because your master throws a bone? For example, the current suffering is only temporary. As long as devout believers unite together, they will surely be relieved in the future. For example, how can faith in God be measured by short-term benefits... But Moses said nothing in the end.

Because he knows that some words are meaningful to those who have learned knowledge and seen the world, but they are meaningless to the vast majority of civilians.

Tell them this, why not give them a mouthful of rice and a bowl of water.

"...So, Almighty Lord, this is not their intentional blasphemy, this is just ignorance, the evil of human nature. They need to be taught to get rid of their wildness, and they need to listen to God's teachings to be good, so as to wash away the sins brought by ignorance, but I don't have so much time..."

"...So this is the future that God sees. He doesn't have to let us go through hardships to get rid of them. He just sees through the years and knows that everything will end like this."

Taking out the staff given by God, Moses felt the power in it.

Although it has become much stronger, it is still far from enough to give birth to real power.

He can't use it to call for heavy rain or attract tributaries of the Nile. He can knock on the stone to make the water hidden in the ground surge up, but at this moment, the power of the staff is far from enough to create a water source to satisfy hundreds of thousands of people.

At this moment, Moses seemed to understand the deep meaning of God again.

The power of the staff rises due to suffering. Similarly, those who are not pious and have weak minds will die in suffering.

God gave him great power and did not restrict him from using it, but in the end, he could only use it to save his most pious subjects.

"Think of a way," he said, "we will think of a way, at least, we can't let so many people die at the beginning."

"I'll try."

Shaking his head slightly, Aaron didn't know what else he and his partner could think of.

The dry wind blew in the sky, and yellow sand began to rise in the distance of the earth. If this continues, I'm afraid that one-third of the most fertile land on both sides of the Nile River will turn into loess.

In this case, what can be done...

"Huh? Moses, what's going on?"

With a sound of doubt, Aaron suddenly pointed to a small tree not far away.

With the rampant natural disasters these days, the vegetation has long been withered and fallen, but for some reason, there is only a green tree there.

Obviously, the two of them had never seen it when they climbed the hill before - and there was a figure under the tree.

A figure that was too beautiful to be human.

"Hey, it seems that you finally noticed me?"

"Then come over, under... well, under the inspiration of the 'Lord', I will guide you through this natural disaster."

As if sensing the gaze from afar, a smile appeared on the girl's face.

She spoke softly and invited Moses and the others.

She said that she was inspired, and it was not false. Because just a few days ago, when she saw the nine pillars rising in the sky and the huge chessboard covering the world, she was indeed 'inspired'.

As for the specific process... as a former god, she felt a ray of gaze from the sky and the world falling on the world.