ALL NOVEL Chapter 980 Trojan War
Liang En's theory convinced everyone at the meeting, so two days later, Liang En took Joan of Arc, a complete White Knight security team, and several members of the Golden Dawn to fly to Athens, and then changed to a ship to go straight to Athens. destination.
Because of Atlantis, the Golden Dawn happened to have a special expedition ship operating near Greece, and now this ship is being used to send supplies and Liang En and others to the excavation site.
The reason for bringing the White Knight security team is also very simple. After all, this time they are in direct conflict with the personnel of the Thule Association, so it is very likely that some violent confrontations will occur.
Because the voyage would take some time, Joan and Liang En came to the free activity area at the stern of the ship to get some air. At this time, Joan asked a question that she had been curious about before.
"To be honest, I'm very curious about what the Trojan War was like in that era." Joan of Arc asked while tying a ponytail on herself to prevent her hair from being blown away and looking at the sea in the northeast.
"There are very few books that can be seen in our time, and Homer's epic is one of the very rare books of that era. The first time I saw it was in the church after the Battle of Orleans. .”
"This book opened up a world that I had never been exposed to before. I also learned that besides my hometown and motherland, there is a larger world that is completely different from my hometown."
"And then after reading the book, I had a lot of thoughts, such as did Troy and this war really exist, did they really mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops each, and was Helen really so beautiful and worthy of a war? A decade of war.”
After finishing these questions, Joan turned to look at Liang En, her eyes full of curiosity. After listening to these questions, Liang En thought for a few minutes and then answered:
"Some of these questions already have answers, and some don't, but I can tell you all these things, and then you can judge whether these things are correct."
"Let's talk about the authenticity of Troy first. There is no doubt that this ancient city does exist," Liang En said while looking at the distant sea.
"At least from the clay tablets found in the ruins of the ancient Hittite country, we can confirm that this country did exist and was also a military ally of the Hittites."
"But in the time of Troy, the Hittite dynasty declined due to civil war. Therefore, as the Trojans were on the border of two ancient and obviously competing civilizations, the Hittites and ancient Greece, they were unlucky to be crushed between two huge forces. .”
"It makes sense." Jeanne thought about Liang En's analysis for a few minutes, then nodded with a clear expression.
"This war is a bit strange if viewed purely from an epic perspective, but if placed in the context of the overall situation in the eastern Mediterranean, this war is not only reasonable, but also seems inevitable."
"Yes, the overall situation at that time has determined that this war is inevitable, but it is absolutely impossible to reach the huge scale of the ancient Greek side dispatching 102,000 people and the Trojan side 50,000 people as mentioned in the epic."
After explaining the first question clearly, Liang En began to talk about the second question. In this regard, he firmly believed that the bards greatly exaggerated the size of the army.
At least the size of this army could not be sustained in the Bronze Age. If any party organized an army of this size, it would 100% be defeated by itself before the war started.
This can also be inferred from the size of armies in other parts of the world during the same Bronze Civilization. For example, the Hittites only mobilized 47,500 soldiers in the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC.
At the same time, Fuhao of the Eastern Shang Dynasty launched an army of 13,000 people to attack Guifang. Considering that she fought on the outside and the Hittites fought on the inside, the military mobilization capabilities of the two countries should be relatively close.
But both the Hittites and the Shang Dynasty were the top countries on the earth at their peak. Neither the Greek coalition with their own calculations nor the Trojans who were a group of city-state alliances could do this.
You must know that whether it is an analysis of the productivity at that time or the relics of the same period that have been found, the population of a city at that time was only between 5,000 and 10,000.
If all men between the ages of 18 and 50 were considered reserve soldiers before the Industrial Revolution, then the limit for conscription in a city-state would be between 1,000 and 200 men, and such an army would only be used to defend the city, so don't expect them to be able to fight in the field.
Of course, this population does not count the people on the surrounding farms or slaves, because these people in the Bronze Age were not qualified to be warriors at all, so there is no need to count them.
"So if we extrapolate this, the Greek coalition could probably mobilize 12,000 to 17,000 people in this war, while the Trojan side, including allies, would have 5,000 to 7,000 people." Liang En finally analyzed.
"There is a big difference in military power between the two, but considering that one of them is going on a cross-sea expedition, while the other has strong enough defenses, it is very normal for the war to turn into a long tug-of-war."
In the Bronze Age, humans had extremely poor ability to attack solid fortresses. In the absence of sufficient attack equipment, unless it was a surprise attack, they could only fight protracted sieges.
Therefore, the protracted siege of Troy in the epic is indeed real, but there is a high probability that it either started and stopped and then included all the conflict time, or it was an exaggeration, otherwise it would still be incredible in ten years.
"Okay, this is indeed a reasonable explanation." Jeanne nodded slightly, and then asked the last question. "So is the war really caused by Helen?"
"This question is yes and no." Liang En gave a Humphrey-style answer, because it is indeed difficult to give a simple conclusion to this question.
"On the one hand, royal marriages in that era were basically arranged marriages, and they had strong political implications. If it was a marriage, it represented an alliance between two forces, while disloyalty on the part of one party meant war."
It may be difficult for people to understand this now, but that was the truth at that time. For example, the Egyptian Pharaoh Ai murdered the Hittite prince Zananza who came to marry Ankhesenamun, the widow of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
This led the slain prince's father, Suppiluliuma I, to launch an attack on Egyptian territory in Syria and take thousands of Egyptian captives. It was only because he had enemies on both the northern and eastern borders that he did not launch a full-scale attack.
"In addition, Helen also took away a huge wealth equal to that of a queen, which must include such gold and silver products, jewelry, weapons and utensils inlaid with precious stones and gold and silver, etc." After talking about the political significance, , Liang En brought the topic to the economy.
"If Helen were compared to an American, it would be equivalent to her taking away all the U.S. gold reserves in Fort Knox before running away. This would trigger a large-scale war even today."
"What's more important is that the location of Troy not only allowed them to accumulate countless wealth, but also created a certain amount of economic competition with the ancient Greeks. Therefore, with Helen as the trigger, the war naturally broke out."