[Infrastructure] After being mistaken for a god

Yi Nan reached out and gently held the hand of the young girl who was disappearing.She wants to get to know this girl, her social relations, and all the information in her mind in the shortest possible time.

"Father, mother, sister, brother-in-law...the nanny..."

"Barren fields, dilapidated workshops...no one wants..."

"Ishtar, I don't want to... silently..."

Yi Nan spread his hands, watching the young girl's body gradually disappear into the air.

"You once existed in this world," Yi Nan prayed silently for her, "You should have enjoyed a funeral and people's thoughts, and you shouldn't have disappeared like this without a sound."

"But I will make your name more colorful and make your wishes come true one by one."

Finally, the body of the young girl disappeared completely, leaving only Inan—Miss Ishtar, now her new name—in the room.

Inan has already learned about Miss Ishtar's origin in the shortest time:

She comes from an "Averu" family—

"Aviru" was the highest of the three social classes in the ancient Babylonian period, referring to nobles or free people; and the family from which Miss Ishta was born was a "noble Aviru", which meant that she He is of noble birth and can own land under his name.There are also some ordinary "Avelu", most of them do not have much property, nor are they slave owners, and they mostly appear in society as small handicraftsmen.

Opposite to "Aviru", there is also "Mushchinu", which means civilians without rights. They are not qualified to own land ownership, but they are attached to the royal family, and as servants of the royal family, they take care of the royal family's property.

Although Mushchinnu could not own land, they could still become very rich because they served the royal family or cultivated land for the royal family.

As for the lowest class in society, that is the slave.Male slaves were called "Wardu" and female slaves were called "Amtu".Slaves could be bought and sold, and the "current price" of a slave was now around twenty shekels of silver.

Miss Ishtar has at least two hundred serfs under her name.

Yi Nan couldn't help feeling: Ishtar, you are a rich man now!

But the farm harvest in Ishtar's family was very bad.When her parents were alive, they had to sell some serfs—these serfs were very reluctant to leave the farm, after all, Ishtar’s parents treated them very kindly—but the land was indeed not enough to feed these people, and additional food was needed to feed them .

In addition, if the royal family wants to tax these farms that cannot make ends meet, the Ishtar family will be completely ruined.

In addition to the farm, the Ishtar family also owns a once glorious jewelry workshop - after all, this place is close to Uruk. When Uruk was the "mother of ten thousand cities", the craftsmanship of the jewelry craftsmen here was once famous all over the world.

But now, Uruk has declined, and the jewelry workshop of Ishtar's family has gradually become deserted.But Ishtar's parents couldn't bear to treat those jewelry craftsmen who have made a living here for generations, and insisted on paying them.Therefore, this jewelry workshop is completely unprofitable.

The most interesting thing is that Miss Ishta has a sister who is ten years older than her.The older sister had been married for many years, to a "Mushchenu".When Ishtar's parents passed away a few days ago, the sister and brother-in-law didn't even look back to visit.

No wonder, in Miss Ishta's heart, besides her parents, the person she misses the most and is most attached to is her deceased nanny—sisters, brothers-in-law and so on are irrelevant.

Of course, this may be because, according to the current rules, Miss Ishta, as the only unmarried daughter, is the only heir with the right to inherit all the property when there is no male heir in the family.

It is conceivable that the sister and brother-in-law are neither eligible to "inherit" the property nor to "own" the property. Why do they come back to visit because of this family relationship?

However, Yinan thought that the most important reason might be that they didn't like the barren land and dilapidated workshops.

She couldn't help feeling sorry for Miss Ishtar.But since she took over these properties from the "real" Miss Ishtar, it is imperative to support them all.

So she took out the robes and accessories from Miss Ishtar's closet, dressed herself up, and put on a veil—since it was Miss Ishtar's habit, if she changed suddenly, the people around her might not Faer immediately accepted.

"Apu, Apu!" Inan summoned Miss Ishtar's personal maid—this girl in her twenties was actually the youngest daughter of the nanny and the "Amotu" of Ishtar's family.

Hearing the sound, Apu cautiously poked his head in first, took a look, and saw Yi Nan sitting on the couch, all clothes were neatly dressed, the veil was well put on, but the pair of bright eyes had an unusual look.

Surprised and delighted, Apu jumped into the room and shouted, "Miss, your illness..."

"Bah, bah, bah, what's wrong with you like this?"

"I'm going to tell everyone!" Apu turned around and rushed out.Yi Nan wanted to stop her, but she thought it would be a good thing to take this opportunity to show up in front of people—she could announce to the serfs in the entire farm and the craftsmen in the workshop that her body had recovered and she would take on the responsibility of managing all the properties .

After a while, dozens of "Wardu" wearing skirts and "Amotu" wrapped in robes came, and the "Amotu" accounted for the majority.Gathered in the courtyard in the middle of the house, several other strong men in their 30s and [-]s also came together. They were all dressed as freemen Averu, wearing woolen robes and a sheepskin skirt that was more decorative than warm. hat.

Everyone saluted Yi Nan together.

A Valdu named "Boan" took the lead in greeting: "Miss Ishtar, it is very good that you have recovered from your illness."

Yinan's eyes swept over their faces one by one, and saw that the eyes of most of them were shining with sincerity. She was relieved immediately, thinking that Miss Ishta, and her parents, really gave her It has left a very good popularity and "mass base".

This way things are easy to handle.

She nodded slightly to greet everyone present.

Bo An didn't forget to explain to Yi Nan: "Miss, there are some other Valdu who are working in the fields. When the work is over, I will ask them to come over to say hello to you and congratulate you on your recovery..."

Before he finished speaking, he didn't know if it was because of the wind blowing in the spacious square courtyard. Anyway, the veil on the face of the "Miss" in front of him just fell silently like this.

Whether it was a serf or a craftsman, a man or a woman, they were all stunned by the appearance of "Miss".The whole yard was quiet for a while, during which only the sound of people's breathing could be heard.

Miss is really a rare beauty in the world!

No wonder the master never let anyone see her face when he was alive!

But it's a pity that such a beautiful beauty is now reduced to helplessness, and she has to rely on herself to support her family.

"Miss" was generous, nodded to all of them, and said loudly: "I have been ill a few days ago, and I couldn't ask about the affairs of the farm and workshop, but now I'm cured, so naturally I have to take care of everything. Ask about everything, and take care of it.”

She said with a sweet smile: "Maybe I can think of some good ideas to make everyone's livelihood better and life easier?"

The serfs and craftsmen all opened their mouths slightly, as if the spring breeze was blowing over their faces when Miss Ishta smiled, not to mention how comfortable they felt.

But to be honest, everyone didn't expect Miss Ishtar to give her any good advice. After all, the young mistress was always sick, and she hadn't even taken a few steps from the door, and no one had even seen her. s face.

But as long as Miss Ishta has this kind of heart, everyone's heart will be warm.Even if she can't come up with any good ideas, standing in front of such a beautiful girl can make people feel better, right? !

But Yinan didn't think like them. She lowered her head slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "Since many people are still working in the fields, I won't ask about the farm for now."

She turned to the robed Avelurs.On their woolen robes, you can see the small holes burned by the bursting sparks—Yinan judged that they should all be craftsmen working in jewelry workshops.

"I'll follow you to see the workshop!"

Several craftsmen were too shocked to speak, and after a long time, a leader reluctantly said: "Please, I can't ask for it..."

Not to mention Miss Ishtar, who has never shown her face in front of people, even when the lady's mother was alive, she never set foot in their workshop.Where is the workshop where the bitter craftsman stays, where is the place that women can bear?

Apu hurried forward, held Yinan's hand, and surrounded by those craftsmen, they went to the workshop together.

Apu seemed to be very worried that the lady would not be able to walk halfway.But who would have thought that after walking for more than half of the way, the young lady was fine.Apu was puzzled, but saw the young lady turned her head and gave her a grateful smile.Apu understood immediately, and gradually let go of the hand that was supporting the young lady.

Seeing that the lady was walking steadily, and she didn't look like she would fall in the middle, Apu was finally relieved, thinking that after all, the weak lady that my mother said was just a sick lady, but she...he's all right now .

A group of people came to the workshop.

This once prosperous jewelry workshop is now half abandoned, half of the shed has been closed, and now only some raw materials such as ores are piled up.On the other side, only three kilns are still burning, in which metals such as copper and tin are smelted, and a Valdu is pulling the bellows, trying to burn the fire.

Miss Ishta asked immediately, and the questions she asked were very specific.

For example, she would ask: where does the charcoal used in the kiln come from, and how much does it cost?

The craftsmen thought to themselves: How could the lady know that the charcoal was burned in the kiln?

From now on, they dare not underestimate the lady of the employer's family. After all, the kiln they are using now, the charcoal they burn, and the metal they smelt are actually theirs.

Yi Nan came to the scene to have a look, and after a few words and a few questions, he found out the crux of the matter.

First, the workshop is far from the target market.This workshop is very close to Uruk. When Uruk was still prosperous, it was a distribution center for jewelry, and merchants from all over the valley came to Uruk to buy jewelry.The finished products made by the workshop here are not worried about not being sold.

But now that Uruk has declined, it takes about three to five days to transport jewelry from this workshop to a new city, and the cost of the journey is very high. The price of finished products here is extremely low.

Secondly, all the jewelry made by this workshop are those so-called "high-end goods".It looks like those thin copper leaves and tin leaves are stacked one by one, but they are actually nothing new—Inan has seen such jewelry as early as Gilgamesh's time.

In addition, the cost of these jewelry is quite high.The ore shipped from other places is expensive.As for Miss Ishtar's father, it is said that he was a very talkative person—of course, this kind of person is not suitable for businessmen.He once bought a large pile of copper ore at half the market price, which was later smelted into brass.

The result is that the price of these brass is too high, and no one cares about the finely crafted jewelry.The craftsmen felt that using these brass was losing money for their employers, so they piled up all the brass in a corner of the workshop and dared not use it.

Yi Nan couldn't help sighing in his heart—those brass were already sunk costs, and if they were left alone, wouldn't it make them rust in vain?

She walked around the workshop with the respectful craftsmen, and for a while, she really couldn't think of any particularly good way to change the status quo of the workshop.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, I suddenly heard an exclamation outside, besides human voices, dogs were barking, cattle and sheep were croaking, chickens and ducks were croaking... and the sky was getting dark quickly, as if before a thunderstorm in summer, Cumulonimbus clouds quickly rose in the sky.

This is...it's going to rain?But the sun was still shining brightly just now.

Yi Nan followed the craftsmen to the side of the shed and looked up at the sky.She covered her eyes with her hands, but still felt the sun was glaring.A craftsman beside him shouted loudly: "Look, the dragon is out to eat the sun!"

Yinan: ...It turns out that the description of a solar eclipse as "a tengu eats the sun" turned out to be a dragon eating the sun in the Mesopotamian version in the 18th century BC.

There was a mess of porridge near the work shed, and the craftsmen knelt down to pray to the gods, begging the gods to bless them and prevent the "evil dragon" from eating the sun.

Apu next to Yinan, however, looked at the sun with his neck up for too long because of his youth and curiosity, and after a while his eyes began to burn, and he shed tears when he saw the wind.Yi Nan hurriedly told her to cover her eyes and stop looking.

But she herself was very interested in this solar eclipse.

So she called the leading craftsman and asked him to quickly find a pottery pot, and then put the charcoal ash formed after burning the charcoal into the pottery pot, and then poured water—making a pot of pitch-black "charcoal water" come out.

Charcoal ash was often used as a pigment in this era, and the craftsmen were no strangers to this. Immediately, according to the lady's instructions, they made "charcoal water", filled it in clay pots, and brought it to the open space.

Yi Nan warned them not to look directly at the shape of the sun in the sky with their eyes, but they can look at the reflection of the sun in the basin.

The craftsmen tried it, and sure enough, their eyes were much more comfortable.Moreover, the reflection of the sun in the basin is extremely clear, a round bright spot with a large black gap on it.

The craftsmen never thought that they could watch the battle in this way.After the curiosity faded away, the craftsmen became worried again: "If the sun is really gnawed by the dragon, what should we do?"

Yi Nan gave them a soft "shh", signaling the craftsmen to stay calm and continue to observe.

As soon as she made a sound, all the craftsmen immediately shut up, and it took a long time to realize why this "Miss Ishta", who had never shown her face in front of others, had such authority in front of others.Her words and gestures seem to be irresistible.

But the craftsmen immediately figured it out: Miss Ishtar was the master's only unmarried daughter, the heir of the workshop, and their legitimate employer, and they should have listened to what Miss Ishtar had to say.

So they all sat quietly around the pottery plate, watching the "battle" between the sun and the dragon in the sky.

Gradually, the sky has become extremely dark, like night.

Miss Ishta pointed to the earthen basin filled with charcoal water and said, "Look—"

At this time, a magical halo appeared on the black water surface in the pottery basin.It is dark in the middle, but it seems to be surrounded by a bright edge——

"It's so beautiful!" The craftsmen were all born in jewelry, and now they naturally thought of their jewelry, "Like a ring!"

"You're right when you say that, it's like a brass ring made of brass."

"Look, look, look, now the evil dragon is retreating, and it's getting a piece of it."

Now that the dragon "retreats", the perfect bright halo no longer exists.But the sky is getting brighter little by little.The roosters raised by the serfs started crowing.People rejoiced, clapped their hands and sang loudly, celebrating that the "sun" defeated the "evil dragon" under the protection of the gods.

At this moment, Yi Nan took the opportunity to retreat to the side.She felt the vibration of the watch, so she deliberately found a place where there was no one, and turned on the light screen on the watch.I saw a few small characters appearing on the light screen:

"Calibration complete!"

"1757 BC."

Yinan put away the light screen, and couldn't help but raise his head and smile at the increasingly bright sky.

What an annular solar eclipse!Helped her pinpoint the age she was in.

Before that, the "Retrospecting Civilization Project" determined that Yi Nan's generation was determined by carbon isotopes, and could only estimate a rough time range: about 7000 BC, about 6900 BC, and about In the 29th century BC... Even if the New Year is celebrated happily, the time displayed on her watch will not change because of this.

But now, an unexpected annular solar eclipse helped her locate the exact time and age.

At this moment, Yi Nan really felt that he was getting closer and closer to "modern times", and closer to completing the task.

Thankfully it was an annular eclipse - if it had been a partial eclipse, it might not have been possible to pinpoint the exact year.After all, the probability of observing an annular solar eclipse in the "Mesopotamia region" is much smaller than the probability of observing a partial solar eclipse.

After Daniel and the others got this information, they could naturally quickly calculate that she was at this point in time.

In addition, in 1757 BC... Yi Nan's smile turned into a hearty laugh, and the more she laughed, the happier she became-she already fully understood what Daniel meant, and she already knew that in this generation, she was required to perform observation tasks What is it.

In addition, the solar eclipse also gave her workshop a big gift—she knew what to do with the brass that Miss Ishta's father purchased at a high price.

As soon as the annular solar eclipse was over and the sunlight returned to normal, Yinan immediately called several jewelry craftsmen together.

"Everyone, just now the sun was covered by the shadow of the moon..."

She paused, then quickly changed her words and said, "The beautiful sun ring formed when the sun fought the dragon just now, can you make it out of brass?"

Several craftsmen looked at each other, and one of them said, "What's so difficult about it?"

Another asked: "Isn't it just an ordinary ring?"

Indeed, ring jewelry made of brass into the shape of a solar eclipse is a ring that can be worn on the hand.

"Miss Ishtar, do you want a ring? May I measure your finger?"

Yi Nan shook his head and smiled: "No, no, I don't want to make a ring. What I want to make is a sun ring-shaped amulet of completely uniform size."

"You don't need to consider the size of the copper rings at all, and make them the same. These amulets are tied with ropes made of flax and hung on your body."

"That's it!" The craftsmen looked at each other, and one of them came to his senses and nodded with great interest, "Yes, after all, it is the sun ring that defeated the evil dragon. As a talisman, it does have a very good meaning!"

Yi Nan smiled at him, thinking: Sure enough, there is a market.

The craftsmen understood it as soon as they heard it, and they all thought it was a good idea, and it happened to be able to use the high-priced brass that the master had purchased before.

"Just do it, come on, let's light the stove and swing the hammer, brothers, it's time to work!"

Not long after this solar eclipse, the jewelry workshop, which was about to be deserted, became lively instead, and the sound of clanging and knocking came from the workshop, which could be heard endlessly.The neighbors who are familiar with this workshop don't quite believe their ears.

The process of this kind of copper ring is very simple. After pulling out the copper wire of appropriate width, cut the copper wire into sections, and then beat each section of copper wire into a round copper ring while it is hot. The special fur is polished and polished, and an amulet is made.

Due to the simple process, the workshop produced this brass amulet very quickly.Many pieces were produced within two or three days.

The craftsmen were very curious: "Miss, what do you plan to do with these jewelry? Are you looking for a middleman to send them to Babylon for sale?"

Yi Nan was working with Apu at the moment, threading flax woven ropes on the amulets one by one, and tied them into beautiful bows.

Hearing this, she shook her head with a smile and said, "No, I'm not going to do that."

She picked up an amulet that had just been tied with a string, and put it around Apu's neck.

Apu opened his eyes wide and looked down at his first "jewelry" in his life, already moved to the point of crying.

Unexpectedly, Yi Nan grabbed another handful of amulets and handed them to the craftsmen in front of him: "Here, these are for you."

"You and your family, everyone wear it!"