Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 890 World War ([-]) (Please subscribe!)

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I won’t say much about the Paleolithic Age, Neolithic Age, Bronze Age, and even the Classical Age in Europe—there are too many histories involved, and I’m afraid I can’t finish it in three or five days.

The short section says.

Until the establishment of the Roman Empire, Europe achieved unprecedented unity and strength—the Romans expanded their territory to the whole of Italy, followed by the entire Mediterranean and Western Europe.

Later, Christianity was legalized under Constantine the Great.

Just a few generations later, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, which was divided in two.

Then the barbarian tribes began to invade the Western Roman Empire - the Visigoths were one of the first tribes to cross the Roman border to the south and west to enter the territory of the former Roman Empire, and besieged Rome three times in the early fifth century.

Later, the Visigoths established the Visigoth Kingdom in the former Roman Empire.

Decades later, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire was deposed.

Europe enters the Middle Ages.

At this time, parts of southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean were still under the control of the increasingly besieged Roman Empire, though Constantinople was ruled instead of Rome.

Under Emperor Justinian, Roman armies restored imperial rule over much of the Mediterranean.

But the territory of this expansion of the Roman Empire began to erode in the late sixth century.

Constantinople's hold on the western territories began to weaken, and more Germanic peoples invaded and established kingdoms.

This remnant of the Roman Empire is generally referred to as the "Byzantine Empire".

By the seventh century, the Arab Empire had risen, and the Arab Empire had become a staunch promoter of the Muslim religion.

With the support of the powerful Arab Empire, the provinces of the former Roman Empire in the Middle East and North Africa were occupied by the Arab Empire and quickly Muslimized.

In the eighth century, Charlemagne was crowned king by the Pope.

However, Charlemagne's territory was divided two generations later, and Europe was attacked by three groups: the Vikings in Scandinavia, the Muslims in North Africa, and the Magyars in Hungary.

Responses to these attacks have varied - some regions have united to fend off the threat, others have gone their separate ways.

At the end of the last millennium, the Near East has basically stabilized. A certain balance has been reached between the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs. The road to Jerusalem is also open and safe, and the Holy Land is in the hands of the Muslim religion. , is not only a holy place of the Christian religion, but also a holy place of the Muslim religion, attracting countless devout pilgrims.

But this balance was broken by the Seljuk Turks - after the death of Emperor Basil II, the empire fell into the struggle between the Dukas dynasty and the Komnenian dynasty, and more seriously, the Slavs in the north, the Mediterranean The Normans in the west and the Turks in the east began to pose a threat to the empire at the same time, especially the Seljuk Turks. After the collapse of the Arab Empire, they flooded into the Middle East in large numbers, converted to the Islamic religion, and established the In the Seljuk Empire, in the Battle of Manzikert in Asia Minor, the Turks defeated the Byzantine army and captured Emperor Romanus IV. Constantinople was under strategic siege by the enemy.

Moreover, the Turks are not as civilized as the Arabs. They made things difficult for European pilgrims to the Holy Land, imposed heavy taxes, and regularly robbed and insulted them.

After this situation was reported back to Europe, it aroused great anger in the Christian society.

Under the pressure of the Turks, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenius finally had to ask the Pope and the Western Church for help, hoping that they could give military assistance to defeat these pagan enemies - he wrote to Pope Gregory VII asked the West to send a team of mercenaries to help him regain his lost ground, and all the spoils along the way belonged to the mercenaries, and promised that the church would be reunified under the authority of the Pope.

Gregory VII was very tempted, and planned to lead the Christian army to march eastward to fight against the enemies of God until the tomb of God was located.

But soon Gregory VII fell into a long struggle with the German Emperor Henry IV, and later died of depression.

And this plan of the Eastern Expedition was inherited by Gregory VII's successor, Urban II.

The appeal of Emperor Alexios set Urban II on a grand plan: the Western Christian world would make great efforts to recover the Holy Shrine; Fighting each other endlessly, bringing peace to Europe; the idea of ​​religious unity can also be brought to the East, and eventually even the long-standing feud between the Eastern and Western churches can be reunified under the Pope.

This is how the First Crusade began.

The Crusaders crossed the sea near Constantinople and entered Asia Minor, captured Nicaea, the capital of the Sultanate of Roma, and then captured Edessa and Antioch, establishing the first few crusader states-Edessa County and Antioch. Duchy of Duke.

Soon, the Crusaders captured the holy land of Jerusalem and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Jerusalem.

After Li Yan defeated the Turks and occupied Central Asia, he did not provoke these crusader countries—before, Li Yan did not want to go to war with Europe.

But with the Crusaders' Second Eastern Expedition, as the Crusaders easily defeated the Turkic people who were severely injured by the Chinese army after entering Asia Minor, some Crusaders began to swell.

The crusaders led by Conrad II of Germany and Louis VII of France foolishly decided to attack the worthless target of Damascus.

At this time, the Muslim religion in Damascus was still a solid ally of the Christian religion.

More importantly, Damascus now has the surname "Zhong", and it is part of the "Tongguo" established by Li Yan's son Li Tong.

Therefore, the stupid claims of King Conrad II of Germany and King Louis VII of France were unanimously opposed by the Crusaders countries. They insisted that the Crusaders attack Aleppo, the biggest threat to the Crusaders countries, and regain the control of the Turks. Down Edessa.

King Conrad II of Germany and King Louis VII of France refused to listen at all, and stubbornly went to attack Damascus.

At this time, Li Yan decided to go to war with Europe.

in fact--

Li Yan's decision to go to war with Europe had nothing to do with the Crusaders' attack on Damascus. The main reason was that Li Yan wanted European territory and European beauties.

but--

The Crusaders' attack on Damascus gave Li Yan an excuse for the Western Expedition—the Crusaders suddenly attacked Damascus, and Li Tong was caught off guard. Unfortunately, Li Tong died in the process of resisting the Crusaders' invasion. In addition, after Damascus was captured, the Crusaders led by King Conrad II of Germany and King Louis VII of France also carried out a bloodbath on Damascus.

At that time, Yue Fei and Liu Kai, who had already left halfway, heard about this, and immediately raised the banner of avenging Li Tong and the people of Damascus, and rushed towards Damascus...

……

(End of this chapter)