The princess comes to court
The Hittite envoy's carriage raised a cloud of dust and disappeared outside the golden gate of Thebes, leaving behind a heavy covenant and a city-wide celebration.
In the palace square, a bonfire was burning, and the aroma of barbecue and the rich smell of beer intertwined, dispelling the haze brought by days of war.
People sang and danced, shouting the names of the Pharaoh and the princess, as if the glory of victory was enough to illuminate eternity.
Ding Wei sat on the high platform. Ramses beside her was still pale due to the residual wounds from the snake venom, but his brows were filled with uncontrollable joy.
He raised his glass to greet the cheering people and enjoyed the hard-won peace.
However, there was always an lingering shadow in Ding Wei's heart. The warning from Nefertiti a thousand years later was like a sword hanging over her head, preventing her from truly immersing herself in this ocean of joy.
Just as the atmosphere of the banquet reached its climax, a temple messenger stumbled through the crowd. He looked terrified and tumbled to his knees at the foot of the platform, his voice trembling with fear: "Pharaoh! Princess! God...a miracle has come!"
The noisy square suddenly became silent, and everyone's eyes were focused on the uninvited guest.
"Speak clearly!" Ramses's chief guard, Seti, stepped forward and shouted sternly.
The messenger gasped, nearly breaking down in tears. "South...southern oasis! Three altars dedicated to the god Amun, simultaneously...simultaneously, ignited. The fire burned fiercely, yet the altars remained unscathed! The priests used up all their holy water and prayers, but were unable to extinguish it! The livestock fled in terror, and the people said...said this was a sign that the 'Eye of the Sun' had awakened, that the gods were about to bring down divine punishment!"
Blue flame!
Ding Wei's heart sank suddenly, and Nefertiti's words in the dream instantly exploded in her mind - "The fire came from the Holy Land. It is not a punishment from heaven, but a man-made disaster!"
Sure enough, it happened! This wasn't a miracle, but a carefully planned conspiracy!
Whispers and suppressed exclamations were already heard in the crowd, and panic began to spread like a plague.
Upon hearing this, Ramses' already pale face became even more solemn. He was about to speak to comfort her, but Ding Wei gently held his hand.
Ding Wei stood up, her eyes swept across the room calmly, her voice clear and firm: "Hathol!"
"Here!" Hathor, the female officer, immediately stepped out.
"Immediately block the news in the entire city and strictly prohibit anyone from discussing this matter. Violators will be treated as those who undermine the morale of the army! To appease the people, just say... this is a special sacrifice offered by the Pharaoh to the gods to celebrate the victory." Ding Wei's orders were quick and clear, with unquestionable majesty.
Hathor took the order and left. Ding Wei turned to the messenger and said, "Take me to the temple. I want to see the so-called 'sacred fire' with my own eyes."
The temple's archives were covered in dust. Ding Wei dismissed her attendants and searched alone among the vast sea of papyrus scrolls.
She wasn't looking for an oracle, she was looking for traces of chemistry.
Relying on the vague knowledge from her previous life, she soon found the answer in an ancient scroll that recorded the misdeeds of alchemists - a mixture of sulfur and saltpeter powder, ignited with a specific oil, would produce a long-lasting green ghost fire.
Man-made disaster! A complete and utter man-made disaster!
At the moment when she confirmed her guess, news more deadly than the blue fire shot into the heart of Thebes from the northern border like a poisoned arrow.
A blood-soaked border messenger was carried into the palace council chamber by guards. With his last ounce of strength, he roared out a desperate message: "Pharaoh... the Libyan and Nubian coalition forces... with the covert funding of the Hittites' arch-enemy, King Thutmose, have assembled a force of 50,000 men and have... have breached the first line of defense!"
There was a dead silence in the conference room, and the color in all the important officials faded in an instant.
An army of 50,000 was a number that Egypt could only barely contend with if it put all its efforts into it!
However, the messenger's bad news was not over yet. Tears of blood flowed from his eyes, and his voice was as weak as a thread: "What's worse is... we... some of our border guards... defected... They shouted 'God has abandoned Pharaoh, and established another God', opening the passage for the enemy..."
"Bang!" Ramses punched the stone table, causing the wound to ache and causing him to cough violently.
Ding Wei quickly stepped forward to support him, but a cold fire burned in her eyes.
Everything is connected!
The "divine fire" in the south was a public opinion offensive that shook the foundation of faith; the invasion in the north was a military strike that went straight to the throat of the kingdom.
This was a long-planned collusion between the remnants of Amenhotep's priests and foreign enemies. They wanted to use the sharpest knife of "theocracy change" to completely bury the dynasty of Ramses!
"We can't wait any longer." Ding Wei's voice was not loud, but it calmed the panic in the entire conference room.
She looked around at the distraught faces and calmly put forward the countermeasures she had conceived overnight.
"First, immediately send envoys with a copy of our alliance with the Hittites to the tribes of the steppe. Tell them that the Hittite allies are their friends. If they are willing to send troops to harass Thutmose's rear, Egypt will reward them with food and weapons. This is 'cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron'!"
"Second, General Seti!"
Ding Wei looked at the captain of the guards.
"I command you to immediately select from the army those veterans who were demoted for following the previous king but remain loyal to the royal family. Form a new unit, the 'Royal Banner Guard.' They have been oppressed and harbor rage. Give them honor and opportunity, and they will become the most fearless warriors! This is 'destruction before reconstruction!'"
"third!"
Ding Wei's gaze swept over everyone, and she spoke word by word, "At sunrise tomorrow, a 'Fire Oath Ceremony' will be held in the palace square! Since the enemy uses fire to fabricate lies, we will use real fire to pierce them! I want all the people of Thebes to witness with their own eyes whose side the gods are on! This is 'getting back to the source'!"
As the three strategies came out, they were like three thunderbolts that split the dark clouds hanging over everyone's heads.
The originally desperate look was gradually replaced by hope and determination.
However, a most critical issue lies before us.
Ramses had a high fever and was too weak to preside over such an important ceremony in person.
"I'll do it." Ding Wei's voice was firm.
The next morning, when the first rays of sunlight shone on the Nile River, Ding Wei, wearing a double crown dress that symbolized the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, climbed up the high platform in the center of the palace square alone.
She looked solemn, her face holy and majestic in the morning light, as if the ancient goddess Isis had descended to earth.
Below the stage were tens of thousands of people who had heard the news, their faces filled with confusion, fear, and expectation.
Ding Wei didn't say much, but just ordered someone to present three papyrus scrolls.
She spoke loudly to the people, "Here are three oracles. Two, from the southern temple, foretell the Pharaoh's downfall. One, written by my own hand, records Pharaoh Ramses's achievements in expelling foreign enemies and signing an alliance. Today, let the god Amun tell us which one he approves of!"
After saying that, she placed a huge copper basin in front of her and lit the fire in the basin with her own hands.
Flames shot up into the sky and heat waves rolled.
She first threw two "oracles" from the southern temple into the fire.
The paper scroll touched the flames and instantly turned into ashes.
There was a commotion among the crowd.
Finally, Ding Wei picked up the scroll she had written and slowly put it into the flames under the watchful eyes of everyone.
A miracle happened!
The scroll recording Ramses' achievements rolled and stretched in the raging fire, but remained intact. The ink on it even had a faint golden luster under the firelight!
"Look!" Ding Wei's voice was like a loud bell, resounding throughout the square.
"If the gods truly wish to abandon us, why would they protect Pharaoh's name? If the gods truly wish to change their masters, why would they allow Pharaoh's achievements to be immortalized in the sacred flames? The so-called Blue Fire Heavenly Punishment is nothing but a lie told by traitors and traitors!"
The crowd was dead silent at first, then burst into thunderous cheers!
The shouts of "Long live the Pharaoh!" and "The princess is wise!" soared into the sky, completely overwhelming all the rumors and fears.
In the dark, several spies sent by the temple saw this, their faces turned pale, and they retreated silently into the shadows.
They will never know that Ding Wei simply mixed a mixture of beeswax and resin learned from modern chemistry into the ink used to write the scroll.
This special ink is enough to isolate the direct burning of flames for a short period of time, creating the illusion of "invulnerability to divine fire".
Just as Ding Wei turned the tide with her wisdom, Hathor's actions also made a breakthrough.
She was ordered to inspect the market and followed the clues to find several grain stores that were hoarding grain and raising the price of grain. The mastermind behind this was actually Amenhotep's exiled nephew - an inconspicuous low-level priest.
Hathor did not alert the enemy, but pretended to cooperate, promised a large sum of money, and claimed that he would purchase all the food for the royal family. This induced the other party to become complacent and reveal the locations of all seven secret underground granaries in the city.
That night, the royal guards launched a thunder attack, destroyed seven granaries and seized more than 3,000 stones of grain.
Hathor made the seized account books public on the spot. The account books clearly recorded that a full twenty carts of grain were secretly transported to the rebel camp in the south.
With both witnesses and evidence, the crime of treason is obvious.
The people of Thebes were completely moved and turned to be grateful to the royal family. People in the streets and alleys were saying: "The princess also has the wisdom of a princess!"
The internal troubles were temporarily resolved, and Ding Wei dragged her tired body back to the bedroom.
In a trance, she fell into dreaming again.
This time, Nefertiti no longer stood among the stars, but in front of a temple with flames rising into the sky. Her face was filled with unprecedented sorrow and solemnity.
"The blue fire is not the end, it is just the key..." Nefertiti's voice seemed to come from the distant past, with an echo of despair.
"It will awaken the 'Left Eye of Ra', dormant in a forbidden land, sealed by successive pharaohs. That is the true calamity of ancient times, a darkness powerful enough to devour everything..."
Before he finished speaking, the fire wave from the temple suddenly rushed towards Ding Wei!
She woke up screaming, covered in cold sweat.
Outside the window, a blood-red crescent moon hung strangely over the Nile River, dyeing the river water an ominous dark red.
"唳——"
The shrill cry of an eagle pierced the night sky, and a message hawk from the north flew exhaustedly against the window frame.
The guard took off the secret letter from its leg and quickly presented it to Ding Wei.
The content of the letter was brief but fatal: Thutmose, the old enemy of the Hittites, had officially issued a statement to all the countries, announcing that he would "fight the false king in accordance with divine oracle" and that his three armies had all marched south, with the vanguard troops only two days' journey away from the most important Aswan fortress on the border.
Ding Wei slowly tightened her grip on the golden dagger beside her pillow. The cold touch instantly calmed her troubled mind.
She looked out the window at the blood-red moon and whispered to herself, as if to Nefertiti in her dream, or as if to herself: "This time, I will no longer be the one guarding the situation - I will light a fire that belongs to us for this land."
On the other side of the bedroom, Ramses tossed and turned on his sickbed.
The high fever made him unconscious, but he kept repeating "Thutmose" and "Aswan".
The military situation in the north was like the most powerful fuel, burning his glory as a warrior and his sense of responsibility as a pharaoh to the extreme.
He struggled to get up, wanted to put on his armor, and face the 50,000 enemy troops in person.
He could not tolerate the fact that Egypt's land was trampled upon by foreign enemies under his rule.
The imperial doctors tried every possible method, but could only barely suppress his boiling body temperature, but could not extinguish the resolute will to fight in his heart.
Looking at Pharaoh's chest heaving violently with anger and anxiety, an elderly imperial physician's face grew paler and paler. He quietly retreated to Ding Wei's side, his lips moving in a voice so soft that it was almost inaudible.
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