Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1685 Alexander
"So you mean to say that there will be another pantheon in China?"

Shangluo shook his head: "Let me be frank—there is no Pantheon, no fusion. We demand that you treat the Water God and the Sun God as myths, as myths. Confucius said, 'I do not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits; what is beyond the six directions is left undiscussed.' How you worship the Sun God is your business, but you cannot say things like 'the Sun God is supreme.' Because the Emperor is the supreme one."

"Then our Pharaoh."

"This is the key point," Shangluo emphasized. "To revive the extinct and continue the interrupted is the consistent principle of the royal army. Rare species like Egypt—cough, I mean ancient culture—will be protected like pandas. We will build huge museums to house the original Egyptian culture. We will also ensure the richness of the museums—allowing a large number of tourists to visit and learn, ensuring that Egyptian culture can continue to be perceived by people."

"And what about the Egyptians? I mean the Coptics?"

"I'm asking you, would you want to be kept as an animal in a zoo?"

"That's naturally impossible."

"That's fine," Shangluo said, spreading his hands. "What we aim to build is a society where the elderly are cared for, the able-bodied are employed, and the young are nurtured. Leaving aside the elderly and children for now, the so-called 'able-bodied being employed' means that we fully respect everyone's freedom to develop themselves. Therefore, all of you have the right, and should be, to become part of modern civilization. We will gradually provide you with electricity, running water, and internet access, so that all of you can live like modern people. And if someone is committed to promoting their traditional culture, they will also receive ample support—in other words, they have the freedom to become modern people, and also the freedom to preserve their own culture. This is the right path for the world, this is the ideal world of Great Harmony."

"..." He looked up at Shangluo, "You know, you're not the first people to do this kind of thing."

"I know who you're referring to. But I'd like to hear your perspective. After all, you were there, right?"

The last person to do this was Ptolemy—or rather, Alexander and his legions. This was Alexander's most effective means of conquering the "East."

Alexander built numerous cities called Alexandria in the territories he conquered, including Alexandria in the Caucasus, Alexandria in Thrace, Alexandria in Arachosia (Afghanistan), and Alexandria in the Far East. The one in Egypt should technically be called "Alexandria of Egypt," but the other Alexandrias have been lost to history.

Although this sounds like some kind of "city within a city built in a key strategic city for certain people to live in order to consolidate rule", the cities built by Alexander were fundamentally different from these cities.

Alexander's determination was even stronger. He was not content with building a parasitic city within a city, but rather wanted to build a new city independently in ports, strategic locations, and other key areas. Even if a city already existed in the area, Alexander's legions would rather build a new one than share space with the existing city.

More importantly, these cities of Alexandria did not reject non-Greeks at all—they warmly welcomed locals to live in the city, using the city's high-quality services to attract the local upper class to assimilate into Greek culture. At the same time, they did not prohibit Greeks from living elsewhere, nor did they restrict the freedom of Greeks, because Greeks going to various places would consolidate the Greek regime's rule in those areas.

After all, whether it was the Ptolemaic, the Seleucid, or other successor regimes, they were all small tribes ruling over large countries. The Greeks lacked a population advantage in the region, and even Macedonian politics itself was not suitable for ruling large countries. Therefore, they adopted this method to govern the territories they conquered. The priest before Shangluo was, in fact, an Egyptian who grew up in this environment.

"It seems I can't hide anything from your eyes. Since you can see into my past, you should also know my opinion."

Shangluo shook his head: "I still want to hear the person involved's opinion on this."

“I,” he hesitated for a moment, “I think this is the highest level of invasion, a destructive invasion. Assimilation can never bring peace; only modernization can. In our time, modernization meant running water, theater, philosophy, and prosperous city life. It was very successful, and the Egyptians who were assimilated no longer wanted to go back to their past lives because the countryside could not meet their spiritual needs.”

In some ways, this is similar to the Dan dog that Shangluo had seen before.

Once the Danish dogs gained intelligence, it became very difficult for them to return to a dog-like lifestyle—from this perspective, pandas are among the few who, despite experiencing intelligence, still choose a simple life. For example, Longlong in the Royal Garden dislikes an overly "urbanized" life because the next step in evolution would mean going to work.

[Actually, this is true for many pandas. For example, have you seen many panda documentaries? They feature pandas with cubs, courting pandas, and so on. You might not know this, but most of the pandas featured in those documentaries are actually the same one.]

"what?"

Yes, that's a panda named "Yi Mao," a wild giant panda from the Qinling Mountains. It rejects zoo life but is very friendly with people, and doesn't get angry even when the camera is right in its face—when filming panda documentaries elsewhere, sometimes they can't get enough shots, and sometimes they need some close-up shots. So after filming other pandas, the crew comes to Yi Mao's place to reshoot.

There is only one true heroism in the world: to see life as it is and still love it.

Most creatures in this world don't have the temperament of a panda, but there are always some heroes. Boudica, the Celt who challenged Rome in Britain, grew up in a Roman colony. Arminius, the Germanic who decisively defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Teutoburg, grew up as a hostage in Rome.

The yearning for civilization and a better life is a fundamental human instinct. Only true heroes can transcend this instinct and do what is necessary for their families, people, and nation. This requires immense courage, because countless others lived similar lives during the same period, yet very few stood up to fight against Rome again.

(End of this chapter)