king of ros

Chapter 444 Rebellion Storm
Anatolia, an ordinary Greek village on the side of the road.

For a long time, there have been no travelers visiting this village. At most, only merchants will come regularly. This village is famous for its grain production. Nicaean merchants will come here to buy grain and various handicrafts every harvest season. The locals So made a lot of money.

There are hills on both sides of the village, so this village stuck on the road is the most prosperous place in the vicinity. There is water and flat land here, which is very suitable for agricultural and commercial development, which can be said to be very rare.

In addition, this place is located on the only way to Nicaea. There have always been many business travelers on the road, and the village has become more prosperous and richer.

The peace of the Macedonian dynasty has nourished this village for many years. If it continues to develop like this, it will definitely become a town.

But now, this expectation has become impossible, because the village has been destroyed by the Rus in the rebel army.

Since Ankara set off, the biggest feeling of the rebels is that the closer they are to the coast, the richer everything they see. Since they have collected a lot of supplies, the Greeks will also be very interested in donating supplies.

In this way, most of the time, the rebels will not do anything to them, at most they will rape a few women and make them stronger, but there are always exceptions, and sometimes there will be many such accidents.

This is an exception right now. The whole village was engulfed in flames. Houses were set on fire and knocked down. Farmland was trampled by horseshoes and iron boots. The corpses and heads of rebels were stuck on the edge of the village. The women joined the rebel army as civilian husbands, while the women were sent to join the army as camp prostitutes after suffering unspeakable abuse.

"It's a sad sight."

Monomakh kicked the horse's belly. Looking at the miserable scene, he gave Oleg a look of displeasure, but Svyatoslavich just shrugged and looked indifferent.

"Everyone didn't catch up in the previous battles, and I was very angry. It wasn't my intention to develop like this, and I heard that the Normans burned all the way when they walked. Everyone couldn't help being very angry. It's normal. I really just left after confiscating supplies and young men, there is no way to do it, my Mr. Morality."

Oleg is telling the truth, there is really no way to do things by yourself. Does their combination of mercenaries and exiles have to talk about morality and righteousness, the teacher of the king?

"Forget it, it's nothing. At least after doing these things, no unsightly villages dare to resist. For us foreign mercenaries, fear is indeed more useful."

Monomacher didn't worry about anything, but just analyzed the pros and cons. There is no need to pursue what has happened, and continuing to pursue it will only destroy the relationship between everyone.

"I said what are you worried about? The Greek army was defeated by Russell. How could those guys resist us? I think Russell will have to sit on the throne of the imperial capital in a short time. He will be a foreign emperor. When we arrive You can also mix up the status of a military general."

Oleg really couldn't understand his cousin's caution. Now that the situation was going so smoothly, Russell's Norman army had reached the opposite side of Constantinople, but he was still worried.

How the situation developed into this is a long story.

In September 1072, the battle between Emperor Romanos and the new emperor Michael of the imperial capital came to an end.

Although it is said that after his release, Romanus summoned many elites of the empire scattered in Anatolia after Manchikett, but in the end he was defeated by the owner of the imperial capital and ruined this group of imperial troops.

The foreign mercenaries led by Russell did not accept the call of Emperor Romanus, because he seemed to have a better future with Mihail, and it was meaningless to rashly participate in the war, so he continued to hide his strength and bide his time, waiting for the situation to change.

And this allowed them to win the status of winners, allowing the imperial capital to continue to acquiesce in the Normans' control of Ankara-Ankara was snatched by Russell.

Emperor Romanus fled to General Antioch for a time, but was sent back in the end. Naturally, the next step was the traditional way of dealing with losers in the empire. Romanus withdrew from the political situation, the first eliminated in this imperial civil war. was born.

Russell felt very regretful for a time. If the new monarch of the imperial capital knows how to balance all parties, it will not be difficult to stabilize the situation. If the powerful are appeased and the interests are coordinated, everything will be fine.

And he has done all of these, but it is a pity that this emperor who is obsessed with literature and poetry only sees the empire, and cannot see the "external forces" of the empire—or despise it deliberately.

After solving Romanus, the new emperor of the imperial capital seemed to think that he didn't need mercenaries, and immediately began to default on the salaries of the mercenaries, and began to prepare to lay off the mercenary army.

This naturally aroused Russell's strong reaction. Originally, he planned to continue lurking like this, but now this situation has to be revealed, and because of the arrears of wages, the [-] brothers under him are completely one-hearted with him.

In January 1073, Russell summoned his allies—most of whom were also foreign mercenaries, and he had completely failed to win over the Greek dignitaries—to rebel and claim himself the Duke of Ankara.

Russell wants to reproduce the glory of the Hauteville family here, which has always been his desire, and now is the time for him to start practicing.

After coercing some troops, the strength of the rebel army reached a full 7000 people. Most of them were veterans who had fought for a long time on the battlefield. They were a strong challenge to the throne of the imperial capital.

And the imperial capital sent a large army to conquer them. This army was actually assembled to monitor and disband the mercenaries. That Emperor Mihail still had a brain, and now it just came in handy.

It's just that many things can't be done simply after arrangement, and it's not that you can sit back and relax after arrangement.

Russell's generals and ambitions were proved next. In the case of inferior forces, they defeated the army sent by the imperial capital, and the Greeks collapsed under the lances of the Normans. In front of the mercenaries, they were completely defeated and suffered an extremely tragic defeat.

They also captured Dukas, who commanded this army, and it can be said that they won a complete victory.

Russell's prestige was greatly boosted. For a while, I don't know how many people came to join this warlord, and the imperial dignitaries who had put away their cautious thoughts became restless again.

After bringing together some new allies, Russell marched towards the imperial capital. This bald Norman has also been in the empire for so long, and he is still very clear about the rhythm of the imperial civil war. If he can't bring down the capital quickly, he can only get fail.

So there was marching and looting, and right now this was just an ordinary looting on the way for the foreign mercenaries to advance towards the imperial capital.

"Military general? Maybe, Oleg, but I'm not optimistic about Russell's career." Back to the present, Monomakh completely scoffed at his cousin's optimistic remarks.

"Even if we won such a victory, none of the Greek dignitaries expressed their submission to Russell, and they didn't even send someone to cooperate. Big families like Dukas and Komnenos were not even willing to express their willingness to cooperate. , Oleg, this battle still has to be fought."

Then he considered his words for a while, "There are not many Greeks who succumbed to us along the way. Those peasants were all brought in by force. If it weren't for our strong army, they would have risen up and resisted. If our march fails, Then it’s clear what’s next.”

"...I also feel a little bit what you said, but Monomacher, why are you so pessimistic? Maybe things will come true. Let's see how many emperors become monarchs through adventures."

Oleg was silent for a while, and then continued to talk about his point of view. Why does Monomakh always think of things so badly?

And Monomacher hesitated for a while, and then spoke,
"But those emperors are all Greeks, and there is no record of foreign superiors... Forget it, it's useless to dwell on these. I joined because I saw that Russell still had a chance to ascend to the throne. Let's see what happens next. Where can this mercenary go?"

"Lord Monomakh! Lord Oleg!"

While the two Ruriks were discussing, a rider rode up and looked at his clothes. He was an Armenian, and he probably came from an Armenian noble family, otherwise it would be impossible for him to understand Russian.

Many Armenian lords and warriors joined the rebels thanks to the connections they made in Manchiket and in the years that followed.

Of course, they all participated in the name of individuals. After all, they were still vassals of the empire.

It is the existence of these Armenians that makes many Greeks in the occupied areas temporarily maintain a wait-and-see and cooperative attitude. The number of Armenians in the imperial army has never been large. Compared with those northerners, Armenians know how to communicate with Greeks.

"Master Anton has cleared the Greek army that was trying to stop him in front, and the road ahead is unimpeded and unobstructed. On Lord Russell's side, he defeated the Nicaean army, and those Greeks could only retreat into the city, also because of this victory , we have captured enough ships on the coast, and now our army can go to the other side and lay siege to Constantinople!"

The messenger's tone was full of excitement, and although his Russian language emphasized weirdness, he still expressed what he wanted to express.

"What order does Lord Russell have?"

Monomacher directly replied that this person was obviously from Russell's side. Since he could come from there, it meant that there was no Greek army on the road where the two armies converged.

"He wants the two to meet up on the coast immediately and prepare to go to Constantinople!"

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(End of this chapter)