Two kings coexisting
Ding Wei's pupils suddenly contracted, and the familiar outline pierced into her mind like a poisonous thorn.
Her fingertips slashed across the rough sheepskin map, and she trembled: "No, □□!"
The sound was not loud, but it was like thunder exploding in the makeshift command tent.
"The dam's strongest middle section remained intact, but it was the weakest rock joints at the edges that collapsed. This technique... was incredibly clean."
Ding Wei's eyes were as cold as ice.
"Using the least amount of gunpowder, detonating it at the most precise location, causing the largest possible chain reaction. This was the work of the same person who caused the 'Green Fire' incident that burned the granary!"
For a moment, everyone in the tent held their breath.
This is not just a flood, this is a long-planned war!
"Seti!" Ding Wei turned around suddenly, there was no trace of weakness in her eyes anymore, only the determination of iron and blood.
"Immediately lead five thousand elite troops and block all important roads downstream to Thebes! Not a single bird is allowed to fly over!"
"Yes, sir!" Seti took the order and turned around like the wind.
"Pass on my orders!" Ding Wei's voice became louder and louder, drowning out the sound of rushing water outside the tent.
"Conscript five thousand civilians from all counties along the river, and rush to the east bank immediately! Bring all the tools you can find!"
Orders were passed down like flowing water, and the entire camp instantly turned into a high-speed war machine.
Ding Wei grabbed a new piece of parchment and wrote quickly on it with a reed pen dipped in ink.
In just a moment, a new "diversion map" was formed.
She pointed to a large depression on the east side of the map and said to several solemn-looking veteran officials, "Please look, everyone! This low-lying area has three long-abandoned farms. We must immediately dig a flood diversion channel here to divert the floodwaters into this depression. Sacrifice these three wastelands to save the 200,000 people and fertile farmland downstream!"
An old official with white hair and beard stood up tremblingly, his face filled with disbelief. "Your Highness! Absolutely not! Although that land is deserted, it is still the royal hunting ground designated by the previous king and protected by the temple. To tamper with ancestral land without permission is the greatest disrespect! Ancestral rules cannot be violated!"
"Ancestral rules?" Ding Wei sneered, her eyes sharp as knives.
"Which is more important, the rules of our ancestors, or the lives of these 200,000 Egyptians?!"
Without waiting for the old minister to answer, she lifted the curtain of the tent, and strode towards the civilians who were gathering outside, facing the smell of mud and the cold wind.
The rain mixed with mud instantly soaked her luxurious robe.
Under the astonished gazes of thousands of people, the princess from another world suddenly felt her knees weaken and she actually knelt straight into the cold muddy water!
She snatched a shovel from the hands of a stunned laborer and dug the ground in front of her with all her strength!
“Puff!”
The first shovelful of earth was turned up.
Ding Wei raised her mud-covered face, her voice hoarse but clear across the riverbank: "I, Ding Wei, swear an oath here today! If our ancestors are still alive, they would surely want us to protect their people, not just defend a few acres of wasteland! The sin of digging up the land today will be borne solely by me! If the gods wish to punish you, feel free to target me!"
She paused, looked around at the deeply shocked faces, and roared word by word: "Two hundred thousand lives are behind us! Dig!"
silence.
After the deathly silence, there was a thunderous response!
"dig!"
"Defend our home!"
An old peasant threw away his headscarf, jumped into the mud with his upper body bare, grabbed a shovel, and shouted, "Her Royal Highness is willing to sacrifice her own life, so why should we care about our worthless lives! Dig!"
"dig!!"
Thousands of civilians and soldiers were in an uproar. They waved their tools and charged towards the depression like crazy ants.
The old worker who had been stubborn before stood there, tears streaming down his face, but he eventually picked up his tools and staggered to join the crowd.
At this moment, a royal carriage broke through the rain and galloped over under the escort of the guards.
The car door opened and Ramses walked out with a pale face.
"Pharaoh!" Ding Wei's heart tightened and she stepped forward quickly.
"Why are you here? It's too dangerous here!"
Ramses pushed her hand away and started coughing violently. A trace of blood flowed out from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't care. He just scanned the bustling construction site with his still sharp eyes.
He walked to the highest point of the temporary embankment, letting the strong wind blow his royal robe. His existence itself was an unshakable flag!
When the people on the construction site saw their Pharaoh, they erupted in thunderous cheers: "Long live the Pharaoh!"
Ding Wei supported his shaky body distressedly, but heard him say in a voice only the two of them could hear: "I must come... to show them that their king has not abandoned them."
Ding Wei's nose felt sore, and she turned around, shouting with all her might to the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians below, "Did you all see that?! Our Pharaoh, the great Ramses II, would rather vomit his last drop of blood and die on this riverbank than retreat a single step! How can we, the people under his protection, retreat?!"
“Never retreat!!”
"Fight for the Pharaoh!!"
Morale reached its peak at this moment!
That night, in the temporary tent, Ding Wei wrung out a hot towel, carefully wiped the blood from the corner of Ramses' mouth, and changed his wound medicine.
Her movements were gentle, but her voice was filled with suppressed reproach: "You are playing with your own life!"
Ramses suddenly reached out and held her busy hand.
His palms were burning hot, and his eyes held a gentleness and stubbornness she had never seen before.
"You once told me that you were the reason I wouldn't let you die." He stared into her eyes and said word by word, "Now, I am yours too. You can't retreat either."
Meanwhile, back home in Thebes, the king's sister, Hathor, displayed remarkable talent.
She ordered all women and children to be moved to the higher ground in the city and quickly set up dozens of temporary medical clinics.
When news of food shortages reached her, she opened her jewelry vault without hesitation and used precious gems, enough to buy a city, to exchange for mountains of food from greedy merchants.
When there were insufficient evacuation ships, she used the "Princess's Order" to forcibly requisition all private ships. The arrangements were carried out in an orderly manner, and no one dared to disobey.
An old noble who once ridiculed her in public as "just a vase in the Pharaoh's harem who only knew how to compete for favor" saw with his own eyes that this princess, a princess of the golden branch and jade leaves, actually carried a frightened child on her back in order to send the child across a puddle, and did not stop even though the mud and water soaked her gorgeous gauze skirt and her whole body was wet.
The old nobleman was filled with shame and kowtowed to her on the spot, saying in a trembling voice, "Your Highness the Princess is a model mother to the nation. This old minister... is guilty!"
Hathor simply handed the child to its mother, wiped the rain from her face, and replied, "I don't want to be anyone's queen. I just want to be this country's sister. When my brother and the queen are too busy to take care of the rear, I will protect them."
Egypt, which was in turmoil, miraculously stabilized its position with the support of three core figures.
However, the real crisis has just arrived.
Seti's messenger, covered in mud, crawled into Ding Wei's tent and brought a secret letter intercepted by the enemy.
The content of the letter made Ding Wei feel like she was falling into an ice cave - Thutmose in the north not only knew that the flood was coming, but even regarded this natural disaster as "divine help". He had ordered the entire army to carry rafts, ready to take advantage of the people downstream fleeing and the chaos in the defense line, and go straight into the heart of Thebes along the flood!
"God is helping me!" Ding Wei's eyes flashed with coldness.
"He thought this was his chance, but I'm going to turn this opportunity into his grave!"
A bold and crazy plan instantly formed in her mind.
She acted decisively, changing all plans. "Seti, listen! Immediately send someone to leak false information to the north, claiming a devastating flood, that the main force of the palace has escorted Pharaoh south, and that Thebes' defenses are vulnerable!"
"What?!" Seti was shocked.
"Follow the order!" Ding Wei did not allow any doubt.
"Also, immediately send men to the dry salt marsh outside the city! Drain water into it overnight. It doesn't have to be too deep, just enough to cover the horses' hooves! Then, cover the surface of the water with hay and loose soil to create an indistinguishable fake ground! I'll prepare a grand welcome ceremony for Thutmose there!"
She turned to another general and said, "Order all the elderly, weak, women, and children left in the city to hold a torch each. Starting tonight, march along the southward retreat route all night long to create the illusion that our main force is evacuating overnight!"
A series of shocking gambles, one after another, begins!
Thutmose fell into the trap.
After receiving the secret report that the "royal palace was empty" and seeing the endless "retreating" fire dragons in the south, he no longer had any doubts and immediately ordered the army to launch a surprise attack on Thebes in the middle of the night.
The dark army surged like a tide towards the flat salt marsh outside the city.
However, when thousands of war horses rushed in, a horrific scene occurred!
The seemingly solid ground collapsed in an instant and turned into a deadly quagmire!
The war horses neighed in terror, their hooves sinking deeply into the mud. The more they struggled, the deeper they sank. The entire army's formation collapsed in an instant, and they were unable to advance or retreat.
"Shoot!"
Seti, who was lying in ambush on the high ground on both sides of the salt marsh, issued a cold order.
In an instant, a rain of arrows covering the sky and the earth fell from the sky, accurately covering the immobilized enemy troops.
Screams and roars resounded throughout the Death Swamp.
The good news was transmitted back to the tower in Thebes like snowflakes.
Ding Wei and Ramses stood side by side on the top of the tower, looking into the distance at the northern night sky that was illuminated red by fire. That was the place where Thutmose's army was destroyed.
The cold wind blew her long hair, and Ramses could feel her body trembling slightly. He whispered, "Are you afraid? You're betting tens of thousands of lives on this."
Ding Wei leaned her head gently on his shoulder, absorbing the unique warmth and strength.
"Afraid." She answered honestly.
"But I cannot retreat. You said we are the two kings of Egypt. If one retreats, all will fall."
Before he finished speaking, something strange happened!
In the east, at the end of the endlessly flowing Nile River, a strange red light shot up into the sky without warning, instantly piercing through the thick night sky and dyeing half of the sky blood-red.
In the reflection of the red light, the surging flood seemed to be split apart by an invisible giant hand.
Deep in the heart of the river, an ancient temple that should have been submerged underwater for thousands of years slowly emerged from the rapids with endless pressure and desolation!
On the stone gate of the temple, there is a pair of huge stone eyes carved.
As Ding Wei and Ramses watched in horror, the eyelids of the giant stone eyes that had been closed for a thousand years began to tremble slightly, as if they were about to slowly open from eternal slumber.
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