Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2961 Peter the Great: Failure is Treason

Chapter 2958: Peter the Great: Failure is treason

Although Persia now dominates the two major regions of West Asia and Central Asia, its life is actually not easy. It is jointly targeted by surrounding forces such as the Seljuk and Ottoman forces from outside, and the remnants of the Parthian forces from within are always seeking restoration.

The reason why civil unrest has not broken out until now is only due to Darius' personal prestige and powerful army as a deterrent.

For a force, rule that relies solely on force to maintain its rule is obviously unsustainable.

Under such circumstances, if Darius suffered a major defeat, the Persian Empire that he had worked so hard to maintain would take a sharp turn for the worse and eventually collapse under the siege of internal and external forces.

Darius knew this, so he stopped the Eastern Expedition when his army was at its strongest. At the same time, he actively sought reforms internally and wanted to digest the territories under his command as quickly as possible.

But Parthia is, after all, an ancient country with a history of more than 400 years. Even though it has entered the final stage of its dynasty, it is still alive and well. There are still a large number of people who care about Parthia and want to keep it alive, just like the Han Dynasty and Rome. Therefore, it is not an easy task to completely digest Parthia.

Although Darius proposed various measures and achieved certain results, he still could not completely solve the problem until he met Xuanzang.

In fact, Xuanzang had no good impression of Darius from the beginning. After all, his act of usurping the country and disrupting the government was no different from Dong Zhuo's. However, the subsequent westward route was all in Persia, so he had to be nice to him. However, because he talked too much, he made the other party target him.

Xuanzang originally didn't want to waste time talking to Darius, but Darius was too enthusiastic, and since his food and drink were provided by Darius, he couldn't remain silent, so he objectively analyzed the situation in Persia and put forward some suggestions for the current predicament.

But what Xuanzang himself did not expect was that his casual remarks on paper were actually regarded as the golden rule by Darius.

Darius was obviously a connoisseur. He saw that Xuanzang's understated words actually contained the essence of Eastern politics, which gave him great inspiration and could really solve some problems. That was why he changed his target from Sun Lingming to Xuanzang, wanting him to assist him in deepening the reform of Persia.

However, the falling flowers are deliberately flowing and the water is ruthless.

"Let's put everything else aside. This Persian emperor is quite a man. He actually came here in person to apologize."

Ao Lie couldn't help but say that after all, he had taken Darius's paper spear, and he was grateful for the favor, so his impression of the other party improved a lot.

Sun Lingming, Zhu Tianpeng and Sha Juanlian stopped saying bad things about Darius. After all, the emperor was able to be so respectful and courteous to such a person. Even if there had been some unpleasantness in the past, the fact that he apologized in person was quite admirable.

But Xuanzang said: "That's because we didn't cause any damage to Persia. Otherwise, do you think Darius would apologize and send guns?"

The four disciples were silent upon hearing this. They all understood that if the other party's unscrupulous means really caused great losses to Darius, it would not be so easy to escape from Persia.

Facing both pursuits, Master Xuanzang and his disciples chose to fight hard when facing the Seljuks, but chose to endure when facing the Persians. The reason for this was naturally that the Persian Empire was stronger.

Even if they completely offended the Seljuks, the other side would not be able to do anything to them. But if they really offended Persia, Darius would really be able to keep them, so it was better to leave them a way out.

After finally getting rid of the Persian Empire, Master Xuanzang and his disciples headed north from West Asia and headed northwest. However, after entering the East European plains, the situation of the five masters and disciples became even more difficult than before. The reason was that the Eastern European region at that time was too desolate.

It was from the late 15th century to the early 16th century that later Russia gradually formed a multi-ethnic feudal state with the Grand Duchy of Moscow as its center, so Eastern Europe is actually still in the tribal era.

As we all know, plains are most suitable for human survival, and the top three plains in the world are: the Amazon Plain, the East European Plain and the West Siberian Plain.

The East European Plain ranks second, with an area of ​​about 400 million square kilometers, accounting for about 40% of Europe's total area. However, because it belongs to the mid-to-high latitudes, the average annual temperature is relatively low, especially the winter is very cold, so the living conditions are naturally extremely harsh.

To the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe was a piece of worthless land, and the people of Eastern Europe were even more barbaric, backward, and difficult to tame, equivalent to the barbarians such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan in the eyes of the Han people.

Rome was not without the strength to conquer the entire Eastern Europe, but even if it conquered it, what would it do? It simply could not digest it, and it had to continue to invest in order to maintain the most basic rule in Eastern Europe. It was simply not worth the loss.

It is also because of this that although the tentacles of the Roman Empire extended into Eastern Europe, they were limited to a few provinces in western Eastern Europe with better climates, while most areas with harsh climates adopted a laissez-faire attitude, as long as they recognized Roman rule and did not openly rebel.

Naturally, Eastern Europeans did not want to stay in the ice and snow, so their attitude towards Rome was basically the same as that of the northern grasslands towards the Han people. As long as they were strong, they would invade westward, and if they were weak, they would surrender. This cycle repeated for hundreds of years, constantly harassing Rome.

Therefore, the decline of Rome was due not only to its own reasons but also to the continuous bleeding by Eastern Europe.

The East European Plain covers an area of ​​more than 4 million square kilometers. Even if several western provinces were occupied by Rome and Persia, there are still more than 3 million square kilometers. However, the population of such a large area is less than 4 million, and the population is scattered among more than 100 tribes.

Eastern Europe has never been unified. At most, there have been more than 500 tribes. Whenever a hegemon appeared, the other tribes would temporarily submit, obey orders, and follow in his footsteps to march westward.

With Alexander's rebellion, the Macedonian Empire rose again, and the Roman Empire's deterrence was no longer as strong as before. Eastern Europe also welcomed the wave of rebellion and nation-building. The Kingdom of Moscow was not the first tribe to establish a nation, nor was it the strongest force in Eastern Europe, but due to its superior geographical location, it had the greatest development potential among all forces.

The King of Moscow was a monarch with ideals and ambitions. All Eastern Europeans hoped that a new overlord would emerge to lead them in counterattacking Europe, and he wanted to become that person, so he worked hard for decades and finally developed Moscow into a powerful force with a population of 300,000.

A population of 300,000 may not be considered large in other regions, but it is already the most populous force in Eastern Europe. However, it still cannot be considered a hegemon, because hegemony is not determined by population, but by fighting for it with swords.

The King of Moscow wanted to lead the country to a further step, but he was too old and his body could not support him to move forward. What was even more fatal was that he had no sons, only two daughters.

In order to prevent the country from falling into the situation of having no heir, the King of Moscow decided to find a son-in-law for his daughter and train him to be his heir. He finally chose a genius named Peter from a group of young heroes.

The two daughters of the King of Moscow and Peter are: Catherine I, Catherine II, and Peter the Great. After Baizhaoka was born, she was implanted as the daughter and son-in-law of the King of Moscow.

Peter and Catherine II are one of the only two "Great Emperors" in Russian history, and Catherine I and Peter the Great were husband and wife in history, so it is reasonable to have such an implantation.

The King of Moscow chose Peter as his son-in-law, and Peter, who had studied in Europe, did not disappoint his trust. He led 30,000 elite troops after two years of training and swept through more than 20 surrounding forces at lightning speed, pushing the Kingdom of Moscow to the position of overlord of Eastern Europe in one fell swoop.

But when Peter returned home, what greeted him was not a reward, but bad news. The King of Moscow, who was over 60 years old, had given birth to a son, and even intended to make the youngest son the crown prince.

This was the worst news for Peter. His son-in-law had always been trained as the crown prince, but now that there was a new candidate for the crown prince, it was obvious that he would not have a good ending.

Although the King of Moscow treated Peter with great kindness, the battle for the crown prince concerned his life and property, so Peter naturally could not sit idly by and wait for death. What's more, he had conquered more than half of Moscow's territory and made great contributions to the country, so he should be the crown prince.

Peter wanted to seize power through a coup, depose the old queen and make himself king, but his men backed off.

"Grand Marshal, the little prince is still young, and His Majesty may not make him the crown prince."

"Yes, yes. Your Majesty is in poor health. Even if you really make the little prince the crown prince, he may not live to see the day when he becomes an adult. When the little prince ascends the throne, you will still need to assist him, Marshal. Isn't the Kingdom of Moscow still yours, Marshal?"

Although the King of Moscow is old, his prestige is still very high. Although the generals under Peter are all his confidants, they are still very afraid of things like a coup. After all, whoever comes to power will not affect their status, so there is no need to take the risk of genocide.

Peter was naturally furious when he heard this, and he shouted angrily: "Foolish! If the little prince is really appointed as the crown prince, do you think His Majesty will retain my military power? I promoted all of you, and if I lose power, none of you will be able to escape."

After these words came out, all the generals were silent. They obviously understood that what Peter said was right, but some people still said with a struggling look on their faces: "But this is treason."

"If you fail, it's treason. If you succeed, it's destiny." Peter shouted angrily with a ferocious face.

In the end, after killing several opponents, no one dared to raise any more objections, and the coup went on as planned by Peter, causing a great turmoil throughout Moscow.

In fact, the King of Moscow had never thought of making his youngest son the crown prince. After all, the youngest son was too young, and he was very satisfied with Peter. After hearing rumors in the country that the eldest son would be deposed and the youngest son would be enthroned, he immediately realized that this was a divisive plot by Rome. However, he did not expect that Peter had resolutely launched a coup before he had the chance to explain.

Although Peter also realized that this might be a divisive ploy by Rome, he obviously did not dare to gamble. Moreover, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Now he can only go ahead with gritted teeth. Either he succeeds or he dies.

The old king was totally unprepared, and Peter's coup d'état was naturally unlikely to fail, but its success was not perfect, because the old king was angered to death after being captured, and the little prince was accidentally trampled to death by a servant.

Peter felt very guilty about this, but he could no longer stop and had to go on, taking back the military and political power while eliminating those who posed a threat to him, and Princess Catherine II who was away was naturally one of them.

It was in such a complicated background that Master Xuanzang and his disciples entered the Kingdom of Moscow and happened to meet Catherine II who was hunting outside.

With the spread of "The Travels of Marco Polo" in the West, many Europeans became interested in the East, naturally including Ye Er.

As a princess of a country, it was not difficult for Ye Er to get in touch with Marco Polo's travels, but the content recorded in a book was limited after all. She had finally met five Oriental people, so she naturally could not miss the opportunity to learn about the East from them.

Faced with Ye Er who had countless questions, Xuanzang patiently answered them. After all, the other party promised to give him a map of Eastern Europe, but he did not expect that he would be involved in the royal civil strife in Moscow because of this.

(End of this chapter)