Chapter 260 The whip of God is here again [Please order the full version]
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However, the power of the Holy See is too great. Anyone who dares to oppose too fiercely will be punished by the Pope and expelled from the Catholic Church, becoming a public enemy that everyone in the Christian world shouts about.
At that time, the tyrannical emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were excommunicated by the Pope and ended up betraying their relatives. Finally, they came to the Pope in person, begged the Pope, knelt on the ground and called Dad (really Dad, European monarchs called the Pope Father).
Only then did he save his endangered monarch status.
Therefore, the kings and lords everywhere were unable to check and balance the Holy See. In the end, they could only pinch their noses and admit their weakness, allowing the Catholic Church to issue indulgences in their territories to make money.
All the money obtained through indulgences naturally fell into the hands of the Holy See.
This time, the issuance of indulgences planned by Pope Innocent VI was unprecedented.
In order to ensure that the military expenses to maintain a hundred thousand troops for the war could be raised in a short period of time, Pope Innocent VI personally signed and sold this batch of indulgences.
In other words, all the indulgences issued this time are the highest level "Papal Merit Vouchers".
Catholic churches in various places claim that these indulgences are of great benefit and that criminals can forgive all their sins after buying them.
After ordinary people buy it, they can accumulate merit on themselves, and any sins they commit in the future can be offset in advance. If they buy enough merit coupons, they can go straight to heaven when they die!
Although the Black Death that raged not long ago has clearly shown that the Catholic Church is not as holy and efficacious as they claim.
But these medieval Europeans are still very superstitious in religion.
Whether they were poor or rich, after seeing the Vatican promoting the issuance of indulgences, they all eagerly bought them.
Even if they only have one copper coin with them, they will buy an indulgence note of the smallest denomination to save more merit for their ability to enter heaven after death.
By selling indulgences, the Holy See quickly collected a very considerable sum of money.
The Crusade organized by Pope Innocent VI also took action immediately.
This time the Crusade was divided into two groups, one consisting of the German Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary. They marched along the land route, passing through the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia from north to south, and entering the Balkans of the Eastern Roman Empire.
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The other road is composed of the Kingdom of France, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Pisa, the Principality of Savoy and the Republic of Genoa. They advance by sea, first meet in the city of Rome, and then go to the Eastern Roman Empire.
John V, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, returned with the fleet of the Duchy of Savoy to defend his throne.
The Crusade against the Mongols kicked off with great vigor.
The news spread to the Eastern Roman Empire and caused great panic.
Although Pope Innocent VI declared that the enemies of this Crusade were the Mongols, the combat areas were all within the Eastern Roman Empire.
The citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire have not forgotten how these barbarians from Western Europe burned, killed and looted on their land during the Crusades more than a hundred years ago!
At that time, even the capital Constantinople fell to the Crusaders' attack, and hundreds of thousands of residents in the city had their property robbed, leaving an indelible tragic memory for Roman citizens.
Therefore, this time when news of the new Crusade came, countless residents of Eastern Rome began to try their best to escape from their homes.
They wanted to escape from those prosperous and prosperous towns, because the more prosperous and prosperous the towns were, the more often these brutal and greedy Crusaders were the first to attack and rob.
Faced with the chaotic situation in the country, the Orthodox Patriarch Alexius was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.
He never thought that Innocent VI of the Holy See could be so bachelor that he launched another Crusade even after a disagreement.
Now the Eastern Roman Empire's local army is not less than 30,000 people, and the Roman army is extremely lacking in training and unified command.
After hearing the news that the Crusaders were about to attack again, the governors of each military region all expressed their support for John V to avoid becoming the target of the Crusaders' attack.
Only the Constantinople area, where Patriarch Alexius was personally in charge, still insisted on his position.
Obviously, the final destination of the Crusaders this time is the thousand-year city-Constantinople!
Patriarch Alexius was so anxious that he immediately sent an envoy to the Crimean Peninsula to see John Timur, asking him to come to Constantinople to take charge of the overall situation and comply with the wishes of Roman citizens and become the Eastern Roman Empire.
The emperor, safeguard the sacred and inviolable orthodox status of the Orthodox Church!
This is a matter of life and death for the Orthodox Church!
Patriarch Alexius was ready to die as a martyr.
If the Crusaders reach Constantinople before the Mongols, all bets are off!
At that time, Patriarch Alexius could only prepare to be humiliated to death by the Roman Catholic Church!
Crimean Peninsula, Kaffa.
Tens of thousands of Mongolian troops surrounded the city of Kaffa.
Wang Baobao personally led the Mongolian and Yuan armies to arrive outside Kaffa City, preparing for this offensive!
In this war, the main force was still the 20,000 Mongolian Guards.
In addition, there is an army of 50,000 servants composed of Slavs, Kipchaks and Caucasians.
After a month of marching, the Mongolian and Yuan armies led by Wang Baobao reached the Crimean Peninsula from the banks of the Volga River at an astonishing speed!
Pedro, the commander of the Genoese army in the city of Kaffa, never expected that the Mongols could reach the city in such a short period of time.
However, fortunately, the city of Kaffa has strong walls and elite mercenaries. The commander of Kaffa City, Pedro, is not very worried about the safety of the city.
In particular, when he saw these Mongols arriving outside Kaffa City, they did not build siege equipment, but placed all their troops outside Kaffa City.
It seems that the Mongols are preparing to use their flesh and blood to attack the solid walls of Kaffa City.
Pedro sneered at these barbaric Mongols and Slavs.
In his opinion, in order to attack the city of Kaffa, in addition to having a large number of troops, a giant catapult is also necessary.
Otherwise, I am afraid that even the first wall of Kaffa City will not be able to be breached.
Kaffa City has two walls, front and rear. The first wall is built with stone and volcanic ash. Although it is not very high, it can completely prevent the enemy from approaching the core of Kaffa City. Even if the attacker captures the first wall,
Then they will also face condescending shooting from the defenders on the second wall.
The height of the second city wall is twice that of the first city wall, and the height advantage can be used to shoot the attacking soldiers at will.
With the sound of horns, the Mongols began to capture all the small fortresses and strongholds outside the city.
These small fortresses and strongholds were insignificant to the Genoese people in Caffa City. They were just some checkpoints set up by the Genoese outside the city. The Genoese soldiers inside had already given up their defense and retreated into the city.
Although Pedro, the commander of the Kaffa City garrison, looked down upon these barbaric Mongols and Slavs, he still followed the principle of caution and did not relax at all in his defense work.
He personally wore armor and patrolled back and forth on the city wall, supervising the defenders of each section of the city wall and preparing his soldiers for battle.
For Europe in this era, the most common method of attacking strong cities and fortresses was to use trebuchets to first smash the city walls, and then use elite soldiers to swarm up from the gap, and use brutal hand-to-hand combat to exhaust the defenders' strength, thus achieving the goal.
The goal of capturing the city.
Therefore, in order to defend the city, the Genoese defenders prepared a large amount of grease and boiling water on the city of Caffa.
Any enemy that comes close will be attacked by hot oil and boiling water from above.
However, the enemies outside the city behave very strangely!
Pedro stood on the wall of Kaffa and saw that the Mongols outside did not cut down wood to build trebuchets, but instead rolled out three huge carriages.
These carriages were very large, and each carriage was pulled by forty powerful draft horses.
Because the distance was too far, Pedro couldn't see clearly what was being transported on these carriages.
He could only guess what was inside by the shape of the cloth covering the carriage.
"Such a heavy thing, could it be an artillery piece?"
Pedro has a lot of experience in the battlefield. He made his own judgment after comparing the rough outlines and shapes.
However, just after this idea came up, Pedro shook his head and denied it.
Because he thought this idea was too ridiculous.
How could there be such a big artillery?
For Europe in this era, casting artillery is still a very advanced high technology, because their casting technology has never been up to par. Once the size of the artillery casting is too large, many problems will occur.
Such as the distortion of the artillery shape, internal trachoma cracks, etc.
No matter which problem it is, once it occurs during casting, it will be declared that the artillery casting has failed, and the previous huge consumption will be lost in vain.
Therefore, on the European battlefields of this era, artillery was often dominated by small artillery, and most of its functions were to kill infantry and cavalry.
As for large artillery that can destroy city walls, no European country has yet built it.
In other words, they have this idea, but they don’t have the strength yet!
However, for Meng Yuan and Wang Baobao, using artillery to attack cities was a very important war experience they learned from the Ming army.
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Each of the artillery in the hands of the Ming army can be called a magic weapon.
Under the bombardment of the Ming army's large-caliber artillery, no matter how strong the city wall was, it could not hold on.
Therefore, Wang Baobao tried his best to make the siege artillery forged this time as powerful as possible!
As the sun reached the highest point in the sky, under the dazzling sunlight, the Mongols finally pulled the three large artillery pieces to the appropriate position.
Hundreds of strong gunners cooperated with each other to deploy the artillery on the carriage.
When these brand-new artillery pieces, shining with metallic light, suddenly appeared in front of the Kafacheng defenders, they caused a great commotion among the city defenders.
They never expected that the Mongols would actually display three such terrifying super-large artillery pieces!!
Pedro was also shocked!
As a native of Genoa, Pedro has traveled all over Europe and is well-informed.
He had fought against the Muslims in the Imbilia Peninsula. Pedro knew that the Muslims had the ability to forge large artillery, and he had personally experienced the power of Muslim artillery bombardment.
However, compared with the giant artillery of the Mongols in front of them, the artillery equipped by the Muslims of the Imbilia Peninsula were just fire sticks.
"Oh God! How is this possible!"
"This is a weapon only the devil can possess!"
Pedro was extremely shocked.
However, in order to appease the defenders' emotions, Pedro still pretended to be calm.
He smiled and explained to the Genoese soldiers around him, "These Mongols don't know how to make artillery at all. Bigger is not better. Such a large artillery needs to be loaded with a lot of gunpowder to be powerful! However, there is too much gunpowder.
, there must be a terrible explosion accident!"
The artillery casting technology in European countries has not yet ushered in an era of great development.
The bigger the cannon they cast, the higher the probability of it exploding.
Therefore, it is almost a consensus among European soldiers such as Pedro that large artillery can easily explode.
But not long after Pedro finished speaking, he was brutally slapped in the face!
Wang Baobao looked at the three giant artillery pieces that were pushed to the front of the battlefield, his eyes filled with infatuated admiration, as if he were looking at a peerless beauty.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Wang Baobao has high hopes for these three giant artillery pieces!
He gave an order and ordered the Mongolian artillery to start attacking the Kaffa city wall.
As a series of preparations were made, the three giant artillery roared one after another!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three artillery pieces were aimed at the same position on the walls of Kaffa.
As all three shells hit the Kaffa city wall, there was a loud noise.
The city walls made of solid granite and volcanic ash were reduced to ruins in an instant!
On that section of the city wall, there were a few poor unlucky guys who had no time to escape and disappeared along with the collapsed city wall!
"Oh, God!"
"Devil's artillery!"
"The messenger of hell! What is this?"
The power of these artillery was so great that the city wall built by the Genoese could not withstand it.
In less than two hours, the first wall of Kaffa City was blown to pieces by Mongolian cannons.
"Oh, God!"
"We have lost the first wall!"
"Commander, what should we do?!"
The defenders of Kaffa City were already in chaos.
Most of them are not Genoese, they are just mercenaries who are paid to work. Faced with a certain death situation, they will definitely panic.
After all, there is no property or family to protect in Kaffa City.
"Abandon the first city wall completely. I don't believe the Mongols can bombard the second city wall!"
Commander Pedro immediately issued the order.
The defenders of Kaffa City had no chance of holding on to the first city wall and could only rely on the second city wall.
The second city wall should be taller and stronger and should be able to support it for a longer period of time.
Moreover, Pedro felt that if he voluntarily abandoned the first city wall, he would be able to lure the Mongols to capture the city wall and kill a large number of their soldiers.
