king of ros

As the news of the victory of the Crusaders traveled across the ocean, and the Crusaders returned from the East with countless trophies, grand celebrations began all over the Catholic world, cheering for this victory.

Undoubtedly, another wave of crusades was ignited, and after hearing the various myths about the Holy Land, another wave of crusades began to form.

The returning crusaders were frantically sought after, each jihadist leader gained unprecedented prestige, and wherever they went, they were greeted by crowds everywhere.

All over the Christian world, crowds of people wearing red crosses began to appear, preparing to go to the Crusade.

They either hope to go to the place of suffering to worship, or they simply want to escape poverty, or the leftovers from the last Crusade join again... In short, a huge Crusade is gathering.

A small number of impatient people have already set off on their own, but most of them decided to wait and wait to advance with the Grand Crusade.

It will take some time for this turmoil to form a large army, but its influence is indeed unprecedented. Even in faraway Poland, people are beginning to prepare to join the jihad team, and people are overwhelmed by the prospect of victory by the Crusades. Encouraged, they joined the jihad team one after another.

As far as the situation in the Near East is concerned, the emergence of overseas countries (referring to the Crusader countries) has undoubtedly had an unprecedented impact on the local political situation, and a new player has risen.

For the fragmented Islamic world, the emergence of the Crusaders posed a great threat, but the Turkic warlords were torn apart, and the Seljuk Empire was unable to look back. The two caliphs of Abbas and Fatimid wanted to To expel the heretics is simply powerless.

Most importantly, these Islamic warlords had no idea of ​​uniting against the Crusaders at all. There were still very frequent wars between them, and some people were even colluding with infidels to lure wolves into their houses and use the power of infidels to attack their opponents.

For the Eastern Empire, which had just regained most of Anatolia, the existence of the Crusaders made its southern affairs very difficult to deal with. The Latins would not act according to the command of Constantinople, and although most of the empire had recovered Anatolia, but in fact the interior is still full of crises.

There are still a large number of unfettered Turkic tribes on these lands, as well as the aborigines of Asia Minor who followed the chaotic situation, not to mention the robbers and rebels. They are now distributed on the vast land of Anatolia. Without these guys, the recovered inland of the empire can truly become the driving force for the expansion of the empire.

Moreover, Emperor Alexios still has the important task of rebuilding the imperial system. Since 1071, the empire has not been in war and chaos for a year, and Alexios is only driving the old machine of the empire forward. Now Finally, I can rest, so I will overhaul the machine.

For the Monomakh Empire, the appearance of the Crusaders has greatly relieved its geographical pressure, and the Crusaders will attract a large part of the attention of the two and relieve his pressure.

As an upstart in the Transcaucasus, Monomakh was under double pressure from the Byzantine emperor and the Seljuk Sultan at the same time. Although he was still invincible in the face of this two-line confrontation, Monomakh knew very well in his heart that the East The empire and the Seljuks have already recovered, and the next life will not be so easy.

For example, in the previous battle with Alexios, if it weren't for the sneak attack of the Seljuk Sultan, he wouldn't have acted so hastily. Although he finally obtained Tabriz, a base that could be further expanded, compared to the base in the west What you can get if you stick to it is really too little.

Monomacher is very aware of the nature of his country. If he cannot continue to win and expand to satisfy the greedy guys in the country, then his throne will be shaken. Therefore, he must continue to win and expand. War is infinite. avoidable.

As for the Crusaders themselves, the Lords of the Crusaders are well aware of how weak the foundation is under their feet, even though they look extremely beautiful now.

If reinforcements from all walks of life are excluded, then the military strength of overseas countries will be very pitiful. Now there are no more than 1 Latins settled here, and the reliable manpower that can be mobilized is really pitiful.

Moreover, among the castles and towns, except for the villages distributed along the roads, the Crusaders can be said to have no influence at all. It turns out that the Islamic tax collectors in this land even continued to collect taxes, and the Crusaders looked very helpless.

All they can do now is to expand as much as possible, take more castles and towns, and expand the buffer zone. Now Bohemond of Antioch and Baldwin of Edessa are moving towards the Emir of Aleppo in an orderly manner. Expansion, this emir is weak, but occupies such a fertile land, that is so exciting.

After Raymond of Tripoli consolidated the north-south connection of the Crusaders, he did not continue to act, or he could not act. Continue to accumulate some strength before continuing to do things.

He dismissed the Toulouse Crusaders under his command. They have been fighting with him for a long time. It is time to go home. If you want to go home, go home. If you don't want to go home, continue to fight in the Holy Land.

As for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, it is mainly busy cleaning up the Muslim ports on the coast of Palestine. Only when these ports are truly controlled can the Catholic regime in Jerusalem be considered stable.

With the location of the holy city, Jerusalem can mobilize a large number of newly arrived crusaders, because its military strength is the most abundant among overseas countries, but at the same time it faces great pressure.

In the end, for Ross in the distance, everything that happened in the Holy Land in the past few years made Rostislav very satisfied.

First of all, the money earned by sea shipping was more than Rostislav expected. Even if the Ross people offered a preferential price for relatives (referring to the King of France), the reported figures surprised Rostislav.

This kind of straight ball grabbing business will naturally make the Italians who have contracted these businesses very dissatisfied. This can absorb a lot of money they should have earned. If it were normal, they would have already fought with the Ross people. Foreign guys want to fight us locals?Go shit.

But the establishment of the Eastern Overseas countries made the Italians go to the East. Compared with the shipping funds, the profit is ultimately from the Eastern trade. Now that the Crusaders control the Eastern coast, they can absorb too many benefits.

And these Italians who arrived in the East soon discovered that they had to build relationships with the Ross people, because the Ross people are now an important participant in the Eastern market.

Under the order of Rostislav, the various handicrafts produced by the Rus cities headed by Kiev are no longer sent to Kyiv, but use the tax-free privilege of the Rus people through the Strait to sell these items in the markets of the countries of the Eastern Sea.

Although it is said to be sold in the markets of overseas countries, the share of the goods that the local people will eat is actually very small. In fact, Rostislav planned to give the idea to other people for a second time, that is, the Italians.

Although the competitiveness of Ross's products in the imperial capital market is very low, and they are still facing heavy tax suppression, they are still very competitive in the Western market. Taking advantage of the privilege of crossing the strait for free, it is okay to hand over the products to the Italians. The benefits of ingestion are also much more than before.

As for why he didn't go directly to the West, it was because that was the territory of the Italians, and it would be impossible to do business without being taken advantage of by local snakes. Ross also didn't have the ability to fight a naval battle with the Italians in the Mediterranean.

Of course, some people would say that they should go overland to sell to the west. Now that the chaotic situation in Poland has gradually become clear, and the original security problem is also improving, it is entirely possible to use the east-west trade route to send goods to the Holy Roman Empire.

Yes, it is very good to do so, but it is very difficult for Rostislav to do so. He must maintain the strength of his basic market. If the proportion of trade is completely tilted to land, then the Black Sea caravan of Ross will be finished. There are quite a few people who survived this way, not to mention the rich and powerful in Kyiv.

And in the face of the sudden import of a large number of goods, those local snakes may not know what to do, and the Holy Roman Empire is a place that Ross can't take care of, so it's better to let the Italians let them change hands.

The so-called ruler is nothing more than the spokesperson for the interests of the ruling class. Although Rostislav has worked extremely hard to promote feudalization in Russia, after all these years, the industrial and commercial groups in the city still have the upper hand, and they are very close to the prince. The impact is also the strongest.

Maintaining a strong merchant fleet, in this era when the navy relies entirely on recruiting merchant ships, is actually maintaining a strong navy. For Ross, he wants to gain bargaining chips in the negotiations with the southern empire. , a strong fleet is a must, and it can even be said to be the only thing that can suppress the Eastern Empire.

Moreover, this fleet can also act as a deterrent to Rostislav's relatives who have established a successful business overseas. Although the business between the two parties is doing very well now, there is still some self-evident consensus on containing the Eastern Empire. But Rostislav knew that he had been waiting, so why did he accept Bagration's orphan daughter and promise her to his grandson.

Monomacher is also aware of this. It can be said that these two people are staging a tacit plot. While silently guarding against each other, they also take actions together to safeguard common interests.

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