Chapter 1160 Postscript 16 The Situation in the West
Chapter 1160 Postscript 16·The Situation in the West
What is the Pope doing at this time?
He was contacting the king of the Han Dynasty, hoping that "Priest John" could truly convert to Christianity.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, a priest visited Rome, claiming to be from distant India and bringing news about Nestorianism (Nestorianism).
So Europe began to have the legend of "Prester John", that is, in the far east where pagans were everywhere, there was a Christian emperor who also served as a priest and ruled a mysterious country for hundreds of years.
After Yelu Dashi defeated Sanjar, he was mistaken for "Priest John" by Europe.
Marrakech is now also called Chang'an City.
Lucius, the envoy sent by the Holy See, was taken to the palace of the Han Dynasty with great fear.
The old Yang Wenhu was still energetic. He sat on the throne left by the Caliph and glanced at the Roman monk in front of him: "What did the Lord of the Cross send you to do?"
Lucius first bowed down to greet, and then said: "His Majesty, the great Pope, has received the news from Iberia. Hearing that you are kind to the Christians, the Pope is very pleased. If you are willing to formally convert to Christianity, the Pope promises to personally
Crowning you."
Yang Wenhu sneered: "How many troops does he have in his hands?"
Lucius was speechless.
The current Pope has already had a falling out with Emperor Shinra. The reason is that Emperor Shinra's territory has surrounded the Papal States.
The conflicts between the two sides became increasingly intensified, and a war even broke out.
The Pope's army was defeated by Emperor Shinra.
Even the Pope did not dare to excommunicate the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. Instead, he went to France first. He was afraid that once he excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, the other party would rush into Rome and capture the Pope alive.
Today, relations between the two parties have eased on the surface, and excommunication has long been cancelled.
Because the excommunication has not been lifted, Emperor Shinra will really send troops to level Rome!
Lucius said: "As long as you convert to Christianity, the Pope can order a truce to the King of Castile."
Yang Wenhu looked disdainful: "This is a war started by the King of Castil. He can make the decision when he wants to fight, but he can't do it when he doesn't want to fight. Apart from ceding territory and paying compensation, the King of Castil has no idea of ending this war."
!”
Lucius threatened: "I heard that your country is also at war with the Caliphate, fighting on two fronts in the north and east at the same time. This is not a good phenomenon. If you reconcile with Castile, you can go east to defeat that man.
Young Caliph."
"Blast out!" Yang Wenhu was too lazy to talk anymore.
Lucius was dragged away by two Berber soldiers. These Berber soldiers were all orphans adopted by Yang Wenhu.
After being thrown out of the palace, Lucius was a little embarrassed.
Today's papal authority has reached an unprecedented peak.
Although the Papal State army was defeated, it led to a superficial reconciliation with HRE.
In order to lift the excommunication, Emperor Shinra agreed to many of the Pope's demands and granted more privileges to the clergy.
Thanks to the cooperation between the two parties, the pope's prestige has greatly increased, and he has taken the opportunity to enhance religious privileges in other countries.
This time the Pope sent envoys to the Han Dynasty because he wanted to continue to expand the territory of the Cross. What if the King of Han Dynasty really converted?
Within the palace.
Yang Wenhu remained silent. He already understood Emperor Dingtai. It would be a headache for civil and military officials not to be controlled.
It had only been 20 or 30 years, but none of the nobles that Yang Wenhu entrusted were very obedient. They were procrastinating in gathering troops to fight, crying about poverty, and even saying that they had no food to send troops.
In desperation, Yang Wenhu could only promise more benefits.
He even told the noble lords in various places that as long as the enemies in the north and east were defeated, all the newly occupied territory would be divided according to military merit.
The war in the north is going quite smoothly so far.
The Kingdom of Castile has been expelling Desert Christians and Jews for decades.
The Jews took the initiative to seek cooperation with Yang Wenhu, saying that they were willing to be the leading party. Moreover, they could also contact the Jews in Castile, who were willing to provide internal support for the Han army.
With the help of those Jews, the Han army had conquered two major cities.
As for the Caliphate in the east, a young man actually dared to take the initiative to send troops to provoke the Han Dynasty while the main force was heading north.
Now, the Han army relies on city walls and fortresses to conduct defensive operations in the east.
As long as they defend for another six months, the morale of the Caliphate's soldiers will be completely gone. When the Han army launches a massive counterattack, they will definitely destroy the Caliphate in one go!
The real problem of the Han Dynasty is that there is too much racial and religious confusion.
Yang Wenhu was worried that after his death, the Han Dynasty would soon fall apart.
Not to mention splitting apart, but at least it will split into two countries, one country dominated by desert religion, and the other country dominated by cross religion.
After all, the number of the navy brought by Yang Wenhu was too small.
While they influence the locals, they are also gradually assimilated by the locals.
Especially those Han lords who were enfeoffed were surrounded by foreigners and did not even have many opportunities to use Chinese.
The sons of the lords became locals from birth and had only a vague idea of the distant Ming Empire.
If things go on like this, it won't take two or three generations to completely forget their ancestors.
Yang Wenhu also tried to promote Chinese teaching, but it was of no use. This was something that even the Desert Sect could not do. At first, the desert believers spread their teachings in Arabic, but as a result, all the people were pseudo-believers. Because most of the people could not understand Arabic at all!
It was not until a hundred years ago that the local language was used to preach, and all the foreign desert believers were assimilated by the Berbers.
What Yang Wenhu can do is to continue to adopt war orphans and teach them to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters.
Today, Chinese has become the language of the aristocracy, and Chinese characters have become the writing language of the aristocracy. Only by mastering Chinese characters can one be able to read scientific books and be qualified to learn how to make firearms.
In addition, local agriculture has also developed, all of which are agricultural technologies brought by the Han people.
…
Shinra, Imperial Palace.
The panting messenger was brought in, knelt on one knee and said: "Your Majesty, the Seventh Crusade has failed!"
Frederick II was expressionless: "How did it fail?"
The messenger said: "The enemy still used artillery, but this time it was installed on a battleship. The Crusaders' fleet was defeated by the enemy's fleet with artillery before it could reach the shore."
"I understand, go down." Frederick II said.
This Crusade was led by France, so even if everyone died, it would be none of Shinra's business.
In another time and space, Frederick II should have died three years ago.
But history has long since changed. It is hard to say whether the Frederick II in front of him is the same as before. It is possible that they just have the same name.
The emergence of firearms led to an earlier marriage between HRE and Sicily.
So this Frederick II was born a full two years earlier than in history. He who was supposed to be the only child even had a younger brother.
This series of huge changes begins with the Third Crusade.
The three kings of Britain, France, and Sicily personally led their armies to Jerusalem, and encountered firearms raids during the battle.
The Crusaders were in chaos, and Saladin took the opportunity to charge with his cavalry.
The King of Sicily was killed on the spot.
The French king fled quickly.
King Charles I of England was so stubborn that when his friendly forces fled, he actually led his troops to launch a counterattack. Soon he was surrounded by heavy siege. His soldiers broke through the encirclement many times without success, and were all massacred in despair.
You cannot surrender, because surrender is also death.
Charles the Lionheart was seriously wounded and captured, and Saladin personally ordered his execution. (This led to great changes in British history. John I succeeded to the throne early and fought many fewer wars. The king was not forced by the nobles to sign the Magna Carta.
)
The then HRE Emperor Henry VI took advantage of the death of the Sicilian king in battle, led his army to seize the throne of Sicily, and forced the Sicilian princess to marry.
It was also because of this that the relationship between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Holy See deteriorated, and the territory of the Holy Roman Empire encompassed the Papal States.
In the subsequent Crusades, firearms technology gradually spread to some European countries. However, they did not have muskets yet and could only make relatively primitive bronze cannons.
In comparison, the Crusaders' enemies had much more advanced firearms.
Frederick II called his cronies over: "Go as an envoy to the Greek Empire (Byzantium) and ask them if they have any plans for marriage."
The confidants were surprised: "Do you want to resume marriage with the Greeks?"
Frederick II did not explain: "Go and do it."
The HRE and the Eastern Roman Empire often had marriages in the past, but they fell out completely a few decades ago.
Frederick II's grandfather launched the Crusades, but in the end he launched a false campaign against Guo. The real purpose was to conquer Byzantium.
Then, his grandfather was killed by the Byzantines because the Byzantines also secretly hid firearms!
However, life was not easy for Byzantium. The country was under suspicion, princes rebelled, dynasties changed, and civil war resumed. The neighboring Roman Sultanate took the opportunity to expand and took away all of Asia Minor.
Immediately afterwards, civil strife began in the Sultanate of Roma, and the Byzantine Empire took the opportunity to counterattack, and finally recovered Asia Minor more than ten years ago.
Now, the real overlord in the Middle East is Egypt, the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin's father.
The Zanji dynasty was also very powerful for a time, eating up the legacy of the Seljuk Empire and even deposing the caliphate in Baghdad. But when they expanded eastward, they fought a bloody battle with the Dawan Kingdom in the Khorasan region.
In the Battle of Khorasan, Ju Ming's grandson (King of Dayuan) personally went into battle, and Sultan Zanji was killed on the spot. From then on, the Zanji dynasty fell into pieces.
In order to stop the endless killing of the Crusaders, the Ayyubid Dynasty, which believes in desert religion, and the Byzantine Empire, which believes in Orthodox Christianity, have been in an alliance for decades.
The Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt tried to unify the Middle East and West Asia, swallowing up all the forces that had split off from the Zanji dynasty, and would not stop expanding until it bordered the Kingdom of Dawan.
The Byzantine Empire planned to destroy the Sultanate of Roma first, and then march westward to regain its territory in Bulgaria.
Frederick II knew that his time was short, and the Pope had deeply penetrated the HRE, so he now wanted to repair the relationship and marry Byzantium.
In addition, Khwarezm has been destroyed for many years.
The reason for the destruction of the country was that he dared to play tricks on Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty!
Today, on the original territory of Khwarezm is the Kipchak Khanate established by descendants of the Turks.
The Kipchak Khanate has always been a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. It relied on the Northern Silk Road to accumulate wealth and gradually expanded further west.
To their west is the Cuman Khanate, and the two khanates have been fighting for decades.
(I was very tired to write this chapter, so I finished it today.)