I am Da Song

The war in Nanyang, from the overall planning to the start of the war, could not be fought in less than two years.

The current territory of the Song Dynasty is really too big. The area directly under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty is more than 800 million square kilometers, and the area of ​​​​the vassal state is more than 3000 million square kilometers. In the whole of Asia, the Song Dynasty has three out of four.

With such a vast territory, it would take half a year just to travel from north to south.

There is no [-]-mile rush, and most things will take years to be effective.

In terms of the ruling ability of the feudal small peasant economy, this is the extreme rule of the feudal dynasty. With such a large territory, the cost of ruling may overwhelm the finances of the Central Empire.

But fortunately, the industrialization of the Song Dynasty has begun the process of faltering, and the strong finance is enough to stabilize the situation, and there is still a thriving trend.

Now the Great Song Dynasty is short of the steam engine from the take-off of the industrial revolution, but fortunately, when every empire on which the sun never sets was formed, it did not rely on the steam engine to rule the vast territory.

Whether it is the Spanish Armada or England's Lobster Soldiers, they all traveled around the world on sailing battleships.

The army uniformed in red in the Song Dynasty can also take warships and go on expeditions thousands of miles away.

This scene is not in the future tense, but in the present continuous tense.

The war in Nanyang has not yet started, and the siege of Constantinople in the west has really started.

Tens of thousands of soldiers of the Shenwu Youjun, wearing the vermilion robes of the Song Dynasty, were fully armed and carried muskets. They crossed the Wusili Canal on more than a hundred warships, crossed the West Dashi Sea directly, and arrived at Constantine. Sea of ​​Marmara on the south coast of the fort.

With the arrival of the imperial navy, it means that Song Dynasty's blockade of Constantinople is completely completed.

Since defeating the Crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire, the Empire's navy has been cleaning up strategic locations along the Aegean Sea coast. The Song army personally participated in the battle to seize the island and siege the island's defenders, like Cyprus. Clean it all up.

The Byzantine navy had retreated into the straits to the east.

The south has been completely ruled by the Song army, and there is no threat to logistics supplies.

With the turbulent waves of the Song army besieged from all sides, the atmosphere inside Constantinople was extremely depressing, as if black clouds were pressing down on the city to destroy it.

Today, the center of the storm in the city once again gathered at the Hagia Sophia Cathedral.

The Hagia Sophia is known in the West as a paradise on earth.

A large number of Christian relics are stored here, such as a stone from the tomb of Jesus, the milk of the Virgin Mary, the shroud of Jesus and the bones of several saints.

This church has a sacred status in Christianity.

But despite its great reputation, the area of ​​this church is not large. It is only more than 70 meters from east to west, north to south.

What is more commendable is that the height of his dome is 54 meters, which looks magnificent and majestic.

But even so, when a large number of people gathered in this church, it still seemed a bit cramped, especially when countless people gathered together, making noise and making people feel oppressed and out of breath.

It was the Frankish Crusaders who gathered here.

When the French Crusaders set off, it was Christmas. Due to sufficient supplies, the army was filled with a festive atmosphere.

France is located in the European plains, where it is affected by the warm Atlantic current and has a mild climate, which is very suitable for agricultural development.

Therefore, Frank has always been a strong agricultural country in Europe, and their food self-sufficiency rate from the founding of the country to modern times is world-class.

Therefore, the Frankish knights developed a natural romance in this rich background. In the early stage of the holy war, they set off from France to enter the Greek peninsula. They were always high-spirited, confident and cheerful.

So much so that their queen Eleanor was so proud of herself along the way, dreaming of crossing the Greek peninsula and retaking Antioch.

She has a completely different feeling for Antioch, which was once the domain of her uncle Raymond.

Duke Raymond died in the battle against the Red Tide. She should regain the lost land and let the Aquitainians be crowned with honor again and rule the land.

The ideals of the Franks are very romantic, but they are quickly defeated in the face of the bleak reality.

They walked to the Thrace Plains as if they were celebrating a festival, only to be informed by the Byzantines that the Crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire had been defeated.

The army of the Holy Roman Empire was defeated too badly, far away from the Asia Minor peninsula, causing their defeated soldiers to be chased and killed by Song cavalry and Turkic cavalry all the way, and few escaped.

The Byzantine Emperor Manuel deliberately concealed the news of the defeat of the Crusaders, so that the Frankish Crusaders were completely kept in the dark, and plunged into the Thrace Plain, which was already close to Constantinople.

In fact, it was impossible for the Byzantines to completely block the message.

The knights of the Franks had seen a fleeing soldier or two, and had heard from them the news of Holy Rome's defeat.

But the undisciplined and proud Frankish knights didn't believe such things at all. They regarded these people as a means for their opponents to deliberately spread rumors.

Even because they didn't want to be swept away by them, the Frankish knights kicked their asses hard.

But these knights would never admit that it was their own mistakes that caused the situation to become so passive. They yelled around King Louis.

"These Byzantines are despicable liars! They are scum!"

"That's right, they are all vicious scumbags. They deliberately hid the news of the Holy Roman Empire's Crusade defeat in order to trick us into helping them defend the city!"

"They maliciously deceived their allies, and they stink!"

Queen Eleanor was also full of complaints, saying: "We shouldn't have marched so recklessly. We are now besieged by the red tide in Constantinople. It is simply too passive."

King Louis' eyes were full of anger, and now the queen dared to complain about marching too fast.

But you must know that she was also the one who urged the march on the road. She was afraid that the army of the Holy Roman Empire would enter Antioch first, causing the Aquitaines to lose their claim to rule here.

As a result, now that the army was in trouble, she complained about the others instead.

Louis knew that this was actually because everyone in the army was already guilty and terrified.

Since the Red Tide Expedition to the West, the entire Christian world has not played a slightly better record in their hands.

The queen's uncle, the Duke of Antioch, had died in battle, and the crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire were wiped out immediately.

These people are all forces closely related to the Frankish Crusaders. They died in battle, and their deterrence is very significant.

In particular, these two armies were not defeated in ordinary battles, but completely wiped out.

This made everyone feel anxious.