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The billowing smoke and dust are a sign of death and the clarion call of war.
Almost at the same time, an urgent message from the south, like a poisoned arrow, suddenly pierced the tranquility of Thebes.
The messenger's voice was hoarse with fear and exhaustion, but the news he brought was like a bolt from the blue: the rebel leader Anubis had joined forces with the bloodthirsty Nubian mercenaries, and under the cover of the night, they burned down the three crucial floating bridges on the Nile River with lightning speed!
That is Thebes' lifeline!
Once cut off, food and supplies from the south would no longer be able to reach the capital.
Panic spreads faster than the plague.
Even more deadly, a vicious rumor quietly spread throughout the city, like a ghost entering everyone's ears: "The Pharaoh has been imprisoned in the Temple of Amun, the oracle has been changed, and Egypt will soon change hands!"
The delicate balance between divine power and royal power was broken in an instant.
At this moment, the people's awe of the gods turned into suspicion of the pharaoh and fear of the future.
A riot broke out in the city of Thebes. In the market, desperate people began to frantically scramble for food, and the once prosperous streets fell into chaos and trampling.
Inside the palace, the atmosphere was as heavy as iron.
Just when all the ministers were at a loss and could only shout "God, please calm down", Ding Wei was unusually calm.
Her cold voice pierced through all the noise and panic: "Pass on my order. Open the royal granary immediately. It's right in front of the Karnak Temple. I will personally supervise the release of relief grain!"
When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked.
The royal granary is the last reserve and a symbol of the pharaoh's power. Using it easily is like drinking poison to quench thirst.
Dante Wei's look left no room for argument.
Not only did she want to release the grain, but she also wanted everyone in the city to see that it was the Pharaoh, not the temple, who was saving them.
At the same time, she issued an order that puzzled everyone: "Call all the craftsmen in the city and make one hundred 'river lanterns' overnight."
She described the style in detail: tough papyrus wrapped in oil-soaked linen, with a small copper bell hanging inside the lamp.
"Queen, what...what are you doing?" an old minister asked in a trembling voice. "What we need right now isn't lights, but troops and food!"
Ding Wei looked out the window at the Nile River, a mysterious smile on her lips. "Who says lights can't be an army? Let the Nile River deliver a message for us."
Three days later, Ramses personally led the main army and marched south along the west bank of the Nile to meet the enemy.
Ding Wei, contrary to her usual behavior, insisted on going with the army.
She stood on the chariot, dressed in tight clothes, with sharp eyes, standing shoulder to shoulder with the majestic Pharaoh beside her, not inferior in the slightest.
The army reached a dangerous canyon in the middle reaches of the Nile River, where the river suddenly narrowed and there were steep cliffs on both sides.
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the cliffs blood red, and the atmosphere was weird and depressing.
Suddenly, a sharp sound of breaking air pierced the sky!
"There's an ambush!" Seti's roar resounded through the sky.
Before he could finish his words, countless tar-coated rockets came pouring down from the cliffs on both sides, like a deadly rain of fire, accurately shooting at the warships crowded in the narrow river.
The flames instantly engulfed the sails, and the hot smoke choked the soldiers so much that they couldn't open their eyes.
The way forward was blocked by sunken ships, and the way back was blocked by fire arrows. Egypt's most elite fleet was trapped like a turtle in a jar!
On the cliff, the Nubian mercenaries howled like wild beasts. They knew that after tonight, the Pharaoh's army would be burned to death.
"It's over... We are trapped!" a young soldier shouted in despair.
"Why are you panicking?" At this critical moment, Ding Wei's voice poured into everyone's heart like an ice spring.
She didn't look at the rain of fire in the sky, but stared at the rushing river.
"Light the lamps! Light the lamps!" she ordered sternly.
Although the soldiers were puzzled, they immediately carried out the order out of trust in the queen.
One hundred "river lanterns" that had been prepared long ago were quickly lit, and the dim flames seemed so insignificant in the thick smoke.
"Put them all in the river and let them float downstream!"
One, ten, a hundred... the river lanterns soaked in oil burned extremely vigorously on the water. They were carried by the rushing river and drifted downstream with crisp bell sounds.
From the perspective of the rebels downstream, the endless flames formed a long fire dragon on the dark river surface. The jingling bells were amplified by the water flow and the canyon, and it sounded like the clamor of thousands of troops crossing the river!
"It's reinforcements! It's the main force of Egypt's reinforcements!" The rebels downstream who were responsible for the rearguard were in chaos.
They thought it was just a perfect encirclement and annihilation, but they didn't expect that they would be trapped in a double-team situation.
"Hold on! It's just a lamp!" The rebel general roared at the top of his lungs, but fear had already spread and the formation was in fatal chaos.
“Now!”
A terrifying gleam flashed in Ramses' eyes: "Seti! Take your men and seize that high ground for this Pharaoh!"
Seti had been ready for action. He led the most elite royal guards and took advantage of the enemy's confusion. Like a sword drawn from its sheath, he forced his way onto the ground and launched a desperate charge towards the enemy on the top of the cliff along a hidden path.
An encirclement and annihilation battle was turned into a counterattack with Ding Wei using a hundred lamps!
After the war, the cold moonlight sprinkled on the devastated battlefield.
Ramses walked back to the main ship and grabbed Ding Wei's hand. The hand that had just commanded thousands of troops now felt a little cold.
His voice was deep and powerful. "They say the heroes of Kadesh are swords, but I know now that you are more deadly than the sharpest sword in the world."
Meanwhile, deep in the royal palace of Thebes, another storm was brewing.
Queen Isis followed Ding Wei's instructions and counted the documents sent from the temple, trying to find any flaws in them.
In the interlayer of a heavy golden box used to hold sacrificial parchments, she found a secret letter sealed tightly with wax.
She opened it carefully, and when she saw the contents clearly by candlelight, she felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave.
It turned out to be a handwritten letter from Amenhotep, the high priest of the Temple of Amun, to Anubis, the leader of the southern rebels!
The letter recorded in detail how he tampered with the previous king's will and forged the oracle, intending to support a puppet of questionable bloodline after the death of Ramses and turn the entire Egypt into the private property of the temple!
Isis felt cold all over, and her instinct was to report the letter to the Pharaoh at the front line immediately.
However, as soon as she walked out of the secret room, two strong men dressed in temple warrior costumes blocked her way like ghosts, with fierce eyes and murderous intentions.
"Your Majesty, it's late at night. Where are you going?" The leading warrior spoke in a hoarse voice, and the scimitar at his waist flashed coldly in the candlelight.
Isis' heart sank, knowing she was exposed.
At the critical moment, she caught a glimpse of the huge incense burner burning on the altar next to her.
In a flash, she used all her strength to smash the heavy bronze incense burner against the wall covered with flammable linen!
Sparks flew and flames rose!
Taking advantage of the moment when the two warriors retreated in shock from the sudden fire, Isis lifted her skirt and rushed out of the temple like crazy.
She didn't dare to take the main road and could only rely on her familiarity with the palace to navigate the chaos.
She knew that this letter must not fall into the hands of anyone.
In desperation, she stuffed the secret letter into the deep of a flower basket that was about to be sent to the Temple of Hathor for blessings when passing by a small shrine.
When the High Priestess of Hathor, who symbolized love and protection, opened the unexpected "letter," all the color drained from her elegant face.
Without any hesitation, she immediately sent her most loyal guard, taking Isis with her, to rush towards the southern front.
When this secret letter condensed with blood and fire was delivered to Ding Wei, the war situation in the south had been initially stabilized.
After reading the letter, she handed it to Ramses beside her.
Pharaoh's face instantly became colder than the ice of the Nile River. The murderous aura emanating from him made the air in the entire tent seem to freeze.
"Amenhotep... I will tear him into pieces!" Ramses' voice was filled with violent rage.
"No." Ding Wei held down his hand that was holding the hilt of the sword and shook her head calmly.
"Clearing the temple now will only plunge Egypt into a civil war of faith, which is exactly what Amenhotep wanted. The fact that he dared to do this shows that the temple's influence has penetrated to a degree we cannot even imagine."
"Then what should we do? Allow this thief to manipulate everything from behind?"
"No!" There was a heart-pounding light of wisdom in Ding Wei's eyes.
"We don't fight him, we play a game with him. A game... that the gods will decide."
She proposed a plan that was bold and almost crazy - to hold an unprecedented "Oracle Retrial Ceremony", inviting the seven most famous high priests of the seven major temples in Egypt to come to the front-line military camp together to witness the truth before the army.
"How to testify?" asked Ramses.
"Use fire."
Ding Wei's voice was calm but powerful.
"I personally designed the ritual, in the name of the Pharaoh, to draw the sacred fire. We will place the scroll of oracle forged by Amenhotep and the one that truly belongs to you upon the sacred fire. If it is bestowed by the true god, the miracle will manifest, and the writing will be indelible. If it is a forgery by a mortal, it will naturally turn to ash."
This plan not only gave an explanation to all believers and solved the problem in the way they believed in most, but it was also a trap tailor-made for Amenhotep.
If he didn't come, it meant that he was guilty; if he came, facing the blazing fire and thousands of eyes, how could his forged parchment not be destroyed?
Ramses stared at her for a long time before he spoke slowly, his tone complex and difficult to understand: "Ding Wei, you are not fighting a war, you are reshaping the rules of this country."
However, the venomous fangs of conspiracy always bite at the most unexpected moment.
On the night before the grand ceremony, in the military tent in the middle of the night, Ramses suddenly groaned in pain in his sleep.
He sat up suddenly, feeling a heart-wrenching pain in his chest, and then a mouthful of black blood spurted out, staining the bed in front of him red.
The imperial physician arrived and, after a diagnosis, fell to his knees with a pale face. "Pharaoh... Pharaoh has been struck by 'snake venom'! This poison... seems to be mixed in the holy water from the Nile you've been drinking lately!"
Ding Wei stayed up all night, staying by his bedside. Using what she knew, she ordered people to bring a large amount of vinegar and honey, mixed them together, and fed them to him little by little in an attempt to neutralize the poison.
At the same time, she ordered the entire camp to be blocked and the water source to be tracked down closely.
Finally, they found a small bag of residual white powder on a servant who was responsible for delivering water to the Pharaoh.
After identification, it was found to be the temple's secret poison - "Tears of the Styx", a deadly substance that only the highest-level priests could touch.
The evidence is already conclusive.
Ramses' breathing grew weaker and weaker. He struggled to raise his hand and tightly grasped Ding Wei's wrist, his eyes filled with pain and unwillingness. "Ding Wei...if I...if I die tonight, can you...protect this country?"
Ding Wei leaned over, tears streaming down her face for the first time. However, her voice was remarkably firm as she whispered into his ear, word for word: "You must not die. Because you said I am the only king you recognize."
Outside the tent, the eastern sky was just beginning to show a hint of paleness, and the morning light dispelled some of the night's chill.
However, it was also in this nascent light that in the north, at the end of the road they had come from, a larger and faster cloud of dust was sweeping towards the main camp, covering the sky and the sun.
That was Anubis's last trump card. He personally led 30,000 of his most elite rebels, abandoned all detours and strategies, and rushed straight to the Pharaoh's weakened main camp like an arrow!
There is a deadly poison inside and a massive army pressing in from outside.
The shadow of death loomed from all directions, covering everything tightly.
Ding Wei slowly stood up and wiped the tears from her face. Her eyes, which were originally full of tenderness, were instantly replaced by a cold and resolute edge when she looked at the billowing smoke and dust outside the tent.
She turned around and gave a brief and clear order to the guards at the entrance of the tent in an unquestionable tone.
"Send Seti to see me immediately."
Deep in those calm eyes, an even crazier storm had already ignited.
The decisive battle has just begun.
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