king of ros

Chapter 522 Empire Crisis
At first, Alexios thought that defeating the invading nomads would end the nomadic invasion, but after he did it, he discovered that this was just a small beginning.

In June 1090, after nearly two years of fierce fighting, Alexios cooperated with General Pecheneg's troops and finally surrounded the Pechenegs, the main force of the nomadic invasion.

The Pechenegs formed a solid line of defense with their nomadic carts, but even then it was only a matter of time before their demise.

Although they are several times more than the surrounding Greek army, it is because most of them are old, weak, women and children, and have no combat effectiveness on the battlefield, not to mention that they are still short of food and clothing after this period of fighting , the fate of being wiped out is not far away from them.

Alexios was preparing to hold a grand celebration ceremony to celebrate the inevitable victory, but at this moment, the situation changed dramatically.

The Polovets, or the Cumans, crossed the Danube in a large force, and attacked the emperor's camp at night before the emperor's army could react.

Due to the long-term siege, all the troops in the camp slacked off. Facing such a surprise attack, they were completely caught off guard. They were beaten into a panic, and collapsed without much resistance.

That night was an extremely terrifying night for the Greeks. The entire imperial army collapsed, even the Varangian Guard, which has always been known for its bravery and skill in battle, was no exception.

There are deserters everywhere, and people are scrambling to escape for fear of being captured. The news about the cruel treatment of prisoners of war by the nomads has always been spread in the barracks, and now it has played a role.

But how can two legs run faster than four?Many people were finally captured unwillingly, and many more were ruthlessly killed. The imperial army with a total of [-] was finished like this. game over.

Even the Emperor himself had to flee alone, and at one point Alexios was frantically pursued by the Cuman cavalry until he was forced to throw off his armor and jump into the river, swimming to the other side amidst a hail of arrows, thus escaping the pursuit.

Alexios was awakened some memories he had forgotten. It was the memory of him being chased by the Normans. At that time, he was extremely embarrassed. Now he did not expect that these nomads actually reminded him of the situation at that time.

The emperor ran all the way to Adrianople before stopping. Here, Alexios was able to regroup his troops and wait for other fleeing troops to join. Three months later, Alexios sadly found out that The original [-] troops have now shrunk to less than [-].

One thousand of them are the Varangian Guards, and the loss of the Ross people this time is also huge. The number of Vasili Guards has been fluctuating in recent years, and the number has stabilized at around 3000 until now. Although the number of Ross people is gradually decreasing, But it is still the main body, and the Varangian guards directly lost [-] people in this battle, which can be said to have hurt the root.

Vasilko's escape along the way was also extremely difficult. Although he was not forced to jump into the river like Alexios, he was also forced to disguise himself as a Greek fellow and ride a donkey.

When Vasilko ran to Adrianople, those subordinates who arrived before him couldn't imagine that the old Greek farmer in poor clothes and bare feet was actually their captain of the guard.

It can also be seen that the loss was huge this time. Even a victorious general like Vasilico has encountered such a situation, so there is no need to say more about others.

The defeat shook the situation of the empire. The last time such a disastrous defeat was five years ago, when the emperor was defeated by the Normans in a row, but fortunately, the situation was finally reversed. In the past five years, the empire has been defeated one after another. A victory came, and the production and life of the past gradually resumed everywhere.

But just when everyone thought that the empire would be peaceful in the future, the emperor suffered such a disastrous defeat in the north, and the impact would naturally be disastrous.

But those who have some conditions are taking refuge in nearby cities, and those who are more qualified are running to the capital with all their strength. The result is that the land that has finally resumed production is thrown away again, and the land begins to go barren again.

The actions of the nomads exacerbated this situation. Originally, the nomads did not expect that they could obtain such a victory, but they did not stay in a daze for long after winning, and immediately began to plunder the empire's territory.

The nomadic cavalry took advantage of their quick mobility to plunder the land of the empire like locusts during the three months when Alexius assembled his army in Adrianople. Nomads can be seen everywhere from the Danube to Adrianople. Army activities.

The nomads were like wild bulls, rampaging on the land of the Eastern Empire, reducing the villages and towns in front of them to ashes one by one, and then leaving a forest of skulls—— A forest of skulls.

They also formed an alliance with the Paul faction heretics. With the cooperation of these locals, their plunder and destruction went more smoothly, and the panic they created was more numerous.

In fact, purely talking about killings, whether it is the Pechenegs or the Cumans, they don't create a lot, but the panic that a massacre can create is innumerable, and this is exactly the effect the nomads want. With each massacre they spared enough survivors to spread the word.

And the Paulists also assembled a large army in this process. This heretical sect moved from Armenia has been insisting on preaching in the Balkans for a hundred years. In fact, there have been Paulists all over the Balkans. The official forces of the empire are isolated from each other, but now they can be connected smoothly.

Paulist believers are particularly numerous among the Balkan Slavs. In the mountains of the Balkans, there have never been many Slavs who are Hellenistic but still maintain self-awareness. Leaving the mountains, came to join the Paulite army.

Together with the hostage people and the family members of the believers, the number of Paul's army soon exceeded [-]. Now they are like the Pechenegs and Cumans, rampaging on the land of the empire, because no matter in the Balkans Wherever they go, they have the cooperation of Slavic mountain people or local people, so their harvest and sales are terrible. Every time they go to a place, they eat up a piece of land, and then rush to the next piece of land.

It can be said that the threats created by the Paulists are no less than those of the nomads, and in a sense, they are even more terrifying, because the Paulists understand the empire and how to truly disintegrate the empire, unlike the nomads who only know looting.

Faced with such a situation, Alexios can actually do only one thing.

Regroup the troops.

Relying on the 5000 people in his hands, Alexios wiped out some small-scale tribes and Paulist elements, but there are still too few people to deal with the tens of thousands of troops.

Alexios sent his family members to gather troops in relatively peaceful areas of the empire, such as the coast of Asia Minor, Thessaloniki, and the Greek Peninsula, in an effort to send people to Constantinople as soon as possible.

At the same time, he was also working hard to recruit foreign mercenaries. At this time, Alexios suddenly discovered that the mercenaries who used to be used as cannon fodder were now expensive.

In fact, he actually had the same predicament when he first came to power, but at that time there were people from Ross who came to deliver mercenaries, but this time there were no people from Ross who came to deliver mercenaries.

No way, after Alexios hurriedly hired all the foreign mercenaries stranded in the capital, he hurriedly wrote to Rostislav, hoping that he would send such a group of mercenaries here as soon as possible according to the agreement.

Due to the stability of the situation before, Alexios started to terminate the agreement. The number of foreign mercenaries in his hands is completely sufficient, and with the increase in the number of Greek soldiers, they can also be reduced.

As for now, he is only glad that he didn't cancel the agreement with Rostislav.

And until the army regrouped, Alexios had no choice but to let go of the chaos outside the city, which meant abandoning many people, but that was all he could do now.

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(End of this chapter)