king of ros

Chapter 541 Strategic Confrontation
While the farce was unfolding in Constantinople, in the east, Alexios, the monarch of the empire, was going through a bitter battle.

The opponents in this bitter battle were two people, one was the Roman Sultan Kirill Arslan, and the other was the conqueror who rose in the Transcaucasus, the military adventurer known as Monomakh.

In Alexios' prediction, this was a battle that would end soon. As long as the main force of Roma was resolved, that Monomakh would have to withdraw, but in reality it was a bitter battle.

The Turks were constantly dealing with the Greek army in the dry valley in the interior of Anatolia. Arslan directly broke up his main force and clashed with the Greeks. Monomakh army.

Alexius couldn't catch the Turkic army at all. As for defeating Monomakh, it was even more difficult to defeat the usurping emperor. On the battlefield in the interior of Anatolia, whoever attacks will always suffer, even if it is Alexios' current army has been trained in the battles of the past few years, and he dare not attack rashly.

Alexios has never excelled in battles. The emperor has always doubted his ability on the battlefield. After fighting for so many years, he has never won a large-scale battle, let alone the opponent. There are more troops than him.

Monomakh on the opposite side also thought the same way. He had been fighting in the mountains of Anatolia not long ago, and he knew the characteristics of this land well, so he didn't launch an attack. He just fought with the Greeks like this. exhausted.

For Monomakh, his first priority is to keep the Sultanate of Roma, so it doesn't matter how long it takes, and he can fully afford it now. The large tracts of conquered land have brought him huge resources, allowing him to It can maintain the existence of the army for a long time.

Alexios was extremely troubled by such a situation. The opponent had decided that he was not good at fighting, so Alexios had to retreat. Unexpectedly, just like this retreat, the opponent had to make an inch.

As much as Alexios retreated, Monomach advanced as much. This Ross adventurer used this method to eat away many lands that had just been recovered by Alexios. Many towns that had just returned to the empire now fell before the adventurers. .

The emperor realized that he couldn't retreat anymore. If he continued to retreat, he would lose a lot of the territory he managed to regain during this period. Monomakh was forcing him to fight him, and even forcing the emperor to fight him. .

Alexios saw through the opponent's thoughts at a glance, but unfortunately, he could only act with Monomakh's baton. The Ross man seemed to be quite prepared this time, and he wanted to give him a good one.

And Monomakh's idea is actually very simple. He just wants to regain some territory for the Roma Sultan and increase the buffer strength of the Roma Sultanate. It would be great if he could push the power directly to the city of Nicaea.

Monomakh's dispatch of troops is entirely out of geopolitical considerations. If the Sultanate of Roma is destroyed, then he, the "emperor", will naturally be the next target of the Eastern Empire. Without a certain stable Seljuk Empire, this is simply a geographical disaster, and Monomakh cannot allow this to happen.

Out of this consideration, Monomakh plans to hand over a large number of Turkic people scattered in the land he conquered to the Roma Sultan. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, there are hundreds of thousands of Turkic nomads here. Sri Lanka, the strength of the Sultanate of Roma recovered instantly.

However, the migration of these populations takes time, so the Roma Sultanate must be preserved. If the Sultanate does not exist, then these are meaningless.

So the two emperors could only consume each other on the plateau of Anatolia. A total of 5 people gathered in Pavlagonia to confront each other. The only advantage for Alexios was that this place was his He is quite familiar with the terrain here, and the local people are also very supportive of the Komnenos family.

However, the two sides are at a stalemate on the plateau, but this does not mean that they cannot do other things. In fact, in other strategic directions, the role between them is continuous.

In the Little Armenian Kingdom in the north of Cilicia, Monomakh used the newly migrated part of the Turkic tribes to squeeze the living space of these Armenians and occupy their mountainous areas, trying to control the important passage from the Eastern Empire to the Near East.

The little Armenian King Constantine was directly killed in battle, and his people began to flee again. As for the remaining Armenian forces, they took refuge in the defenders of Cilicia.

But for Monomakh, the goal has been achieved, and now his army occupies the mountains condescendingly, and can enter the plains of Cilicia if it wants to.

Alexios was a little slow to send reinforcements in this direction, so the Greek army there was completely unable to save the situation, and Alexios lost the game here.

The recovery time of the southwest and southern regions of Asia Minor was still too short, and it was difficult for the emperor to mobilize these resources in time, which made him lose in the contest with Monomakh.

At the same time Monomakh came to the aid of a young man named Baldwin who had just taken Edessa, and Monomakh was keenly aware that his presence could keep the troublesome Near Eastern lords of the Seljuks at bay.

Now the Seljuk Empire can be divided into two parts, that is, the east of the two rivers under the rule of the Sultan, and Syria under the rule of the warlord emirs. The power of those Syrian lords is not small. After they united, they once let Monomacher is pretty disgusting, so something has to be done here.

So he ordered Anton to lead his army into Edessa to help Baldwin control the separatist area centered on Edessa.

And this strategy was also extremely successful. With the help of Monomakh, the complete body of Edessa County was directly completed under Baldwin's control of Edessa in less than a month.

But the most important thing is Baldwin's own ability. After seeing what this person did, Monomakh thought of Svyatoslav. He who doesn't care to get his hands dirty, that's the man who can be a hero."

Rostislav commented on his second uncle in this way, and Monomakh commented on Baldwin in this way. He felt that Baldwin and he were the same kind of people.

After the establishment of the Edessa Kingdom, to a certain extent, the northward road of the Syrian Seljuk forces was also blocked.

But this does not mean that Alexios has no choice. He has been working hard to contact the current Seljuk Sultan Baki Yaluke. Aware of the Monomach threat.

He had only recently issued an order to the Seljuk lords in the west, ordering them to unite and deal with those damned crusaders heretics, and now that a letter from the Greek emperor had arrived, the sultan decided to do one thing.

He wants to gather the power of Seljuk to take advantage of the fact that the main force of Monomakh is in the west, to recover the northern imperial territory. Those territories are very important to the empire. Persia has a large population in several areas, and he must go Going down there, this will be of great benefit in both curbing Monomakh's forces and restoring the glory of the empire.

In this way, another round of strategic struggle came to an end. The chess players from all sides completed their arrangements, and the chess pieces also started to move.

It was also when all the chess players were still paying attention to their old opponents, before they knew it, another chess player quietly entered the game, and the beginning of this entry happened on something that no one paid attention to .

In the besieged Antioch, the Ross Crusaders joined the Crusaders in the siege. The arrival of the new Crusaders made the whole army very excited. Sirico also met.

After the joyful welcome banquet, Volorida took out a letter he had hidden in a secret place and handed it to Vasilko. The contents of this letter were some new arrangements of Rostislav regarding the situation in the Near East.

--------

(End of this chapter)