chess moves without a trace
The night is darkest in Thebes before dawn.
Deep in the Temple of Amun, the black fire holy lamp that had burned for hundreds of years struggled to flicker a few times before suddenly going out as the priests gazed in horror.
The old face of the high priest Amenhotep looked particularly solemn in the darkness. He stared at the ancient murals on the wall depicting the Pharaoh's conquest of the Hittites for a long time. Then he turned around and took out a roll of papyrus with cipher text tied with thin linen rope from the secret compartment of the shrine, and carefully sealed it in a simple pottery jar.
He summoned his most trusted priest and said in a hoarse and urgent voice, "Send it immediately to the western border and hand it over to General Thutmose. No mistakes."
Almost at the same time as the pottery jar was sent out of the temple, the magnificent columns and lights in the diplomatic hall of the palace could not dispel the eerie atmosphere.
The Hittite envoy Meten, holding a golden scepter and with his attendants behind him holding gift boxes full of gems and spices, earnestly requested Ramses, who was sitting on the throne, to sign a "Ten-Year Peace Treaty".
The golden book of covenant flickered with an alluring light in the candlelight, as if peace was within reach.
Ramses' young face showed no emotion, and his fingers tapped rhythmically on the lion-head armrests of the throne.
Before he could speak, the Prime Minister Seti rose and bowed, seconding his opinion: "Your Majesty, years of war have emptied the treasury, and the granaries along the Nile are nearly empty. The war hasn't even begun, and the food and fodder are already depleted. Ten years of rest and recuperation would be the best option."
As soon as he finished speaking, voices of agreement arose among the court officials.
Ding Wei stood quietly beside Ramses, her long eyelashes drooping, concealing the sharpness in her eyes.
Her gaze did not linger on the dazzling golden book, but swept inconspicuously over the Hittite attendant holding the gift box.
The scabbard of the dagger worn by the attendant was engraved with a pattern of a twisted scorpion's tail and a crescent moon intertwined - this pattern was exactly the same as the mark used in the urgent report sent by General Thutmose from the border three days ago, describing the group of bandits who crossed the border and looted the village!
Her heart sank instantly.
The atmosphere at the luncheon was lively.
The Hittite envoy, Meten, raised his glass and reiterated his sincerity in seeking peace. He proposed that "mutual trade" be the cornerstone of the peace treaty and made a generous promise: "As a token of our sincerity, within ten years, we, the Hittites, are willing to supply the great Egypt with 3,000 carts of iron to help the Pharaoh repair his temples and forge weapons."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room was amazed.
Ironware was the most scarce material for the Egyptian army.
Ding Wei raised her head at this moment, a faint smile on her lips. Her voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard throughout the banquet hall: "As far as I know, your country's Anatolian Plateau is poor in iron ore, and smelting technology is not strong. I wonder where these 3,000 carts of iron tools came from?"
Mei Teng's smile froze for a moment, then returned to normal. "Princess, you may not know that we can go through Assyria and ship it from them."
"I see." Ding Wei nodded, seeming to accept the explanation.
She calmly took out a small silver coin from the pouch at her waist, and with a flick of her finger, the coin drew a graceful arc in the air and fell accurately into the copper plate in front of her with a crisp "ding" sound.
"Please look at this, Your Excellency!" She picked up the silver coin and handed it to Meiten.
"Hittite silver mines often contain tin ores, resulting in silver coins containing 30% tin and a darker color. This coin in my hand, however, is as pure as refined salt extracted from Egypt's salt lakes, free of impurities. Silver coins of this purity are the most favored hard currency among Assyrian merchants. If your country had not already stockpiled a large amount of goods at our border trading stations in preparation for trade with Assyria, how could the envoy have so casually taken it out and given it to the palace servants as a reward?"
At that moment, all the noise in the banquet hall disappeared.
Everyone's eyes were focused on the small silver coin.
Beads of sweat began to form on Mei Teng's forehead. He forced a smile and said, "Princess...Princess, you are truly discerning. This...this is indeed preparation for trade."
His defense seemed pale and powerless at this moment.
That night, the moonlight was like water.
Ding Wei secretly summoned Isis, the priestess of the temple, to her palace.
Isis was her confidant and was in charge of the transaction records of all foreign caravans of the temple.
By the flickering candlelight, Ding Wei carefully compared the records of the past three months, and a suspicious point quickly surfaced: there were a total of seven large-scale caravans that went north under the pretext of "transporting spices to North Africa" and reached the western border, but there was no record related to the iron trade in their declared cargo lists.
The spice trade did not require such a large camel caravan and guards.
"They are not transporting spices." Ding Wei's tone was cold and certain.
She immediately ordered her personal guards to disguise themselves as fur traders from Thebes and infiltrate the most chaotic market on the border.
The order was simple: find out the true purpose of those "spice caravans" at all costs.
Two days later, a dusty bodyguard returned to Thebes late at night.
What he brought back was not some earth-shattering news, but a seemingly ordinary beeswax cake.
In front of Ding Wei, he put the beeswax cake into hot water, the wax melted, and a tightly rolled parchment painted with waterproof ink slowly unfolded.
On it was a hand-drawn sketch of the defenses around Thebes by a Hittite officer!
From the watchtower on the east bank of the Nile to the location of the granary on the west bank, even the rotation time of the palace guards are clearly marked.
Ding Wei carefully put the fatal sketch into a black lacquered wooden box and did not sleep all night.
The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight pierced the sky, she personally presented the lacquer box to Ramses' desk.
"They don't want peace!" Her voice was calm but powerful.
"They want to have our throats cut while we are in our sweetest dreams."
The diplomatic hall reopened, but the atmosphere was completely different.
The Hittite envoy Meten was still standing in the hall, but the arrogance and confidence on his face were gone.
In front of all the princes and ministers, Ding Wei personally opened the lacquer box and slowly unfolded the defense map.
The moment he saw the contents of the picture clearly, Meiten's face suddenly turned as pale as paper.
However, Ding Wei did not immediately scold him harshly.
She simply pushed the map to the center of the hall, looked calmly at the Hittite envoy, and slowly spoke, "If your country truly seeks peace and resolves the misunderstanding, how about... sending your eldest prince to Thebes to temporarily reside there as a witness to the alliance?"
The whole room erupted in uproar when these words were spoken! Taking a prince of a country hostage was a huge diplomatic humiliation.
Meiten's fear was instantly replaced by anger. He laughed in anger: "Princess, you are humiliating the great Hittite Empire!"
"Humiliation?" Ding Wei raised a cold arc at the corner of her mouth and her voice suddenly rose.
"Compared to your 'sincerity' of secretly gathering 5,000 heavily armored infantrymen on our border, allowing the prince to enjoy wealth and glory in Thebes is already the greatest favor the Pharaoh can offer!"
Five thousand heavily armored infantry!
This number was like a thunderclap, exploding in the ears of all the peace-loving ministers.
Ramses, who had been silent the whole time, swept his eyes across the room like a hawk, and finally fixed his gaze on the deathly pale face of the Hittite envoy.
He slammed the armrest of the throne with a deafening bang.
"The peace treaty is postponed!" Pharaoh's voice was filled with unquestionable majesty.
"From now on, the entire country is under martial law! Thutmose, I order you to immediately take over the entire defense of the three major fortresses on the western front. Anyone who appears suspicious will be killed on the spot!"
After the court was dismissed, only Ding Wei and Ramses were left in the empty hall.
The young pharaoh stepped down from his throne and came to her side, gazing deeply at the sketch in her hand that changed everything. "When did you start to doubt them?"
Ding Wei whispered, "It started from the first time he entered the temple and didn't dare look directly at the high priest Amenhotep. A true envoy may not fear the pharaoh, but he will never be afraid of the temple. Because God is a boundary marker that lies cannot cross."
Ramses was silent for a moment, and the emotions surging in his eyes gradually subsided, replaced by an unprecedented light.
He suddenly chuckled, his laughter filled with relief and wonder: "I used to think you were my shadow, but now I understand that you are the light that existed in my world before I even opened my eyes."
At this moment, Prime Minister Seti stood quietly in the shadow of the columns outside the hall.
He took it all in and slowly spread out his palms. A slender bamboo piece engraved with Hittite secret characters that he had just taken out of his sleeve was crushed into powder inch by inch between his fingers.
The gentleness and submissiveness in his eyes faded away, and an undisguised murderous intent was slowly rising.
Ramses turned his gaze back to Ding Wei, his expression becoming extremely serious. "There's something wrong with Seti. The military intelligence on the border, as well as the Hittite deployment, are too precise. There must be an insider. General Thutmose is more than brave, but he lacks the wisdom to deal with this conspiracy of collusion between insiders and outsiders."
He paused and looked at her.
"Do you dare to go?"
Ding Wei raised her head, met his gaze, and said without hesitation: "For Egypt."
Ramses nodded, turned, walked over to the map, and pointed his finger heavily at a strategic location at the junction of the desert and the oasis. "That is the center of the storm and the convergence point of all conspiracies. I will give you the highest authority to mobilize all the resources you need."
He pulled his hand back, his voice low and powerful.
"Come back alive."
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