eastern european eagle

Chapter 568 Eastern Anatolia
From the Roman Empire to the east, Anatolia and Syria, where the topography and climate have changed greatly. Rome has restored its rule here for less than 20 years, so there are still many cultural traces from the Turkic tribes. But the culture of nomadic peoples is disappearing quickly, and local people have begun to speak Romanian, and Turkic is rarely spoken.

Yerevan is a Roman border town. Goods passing through Tabriz will be transferred here. Looking west from the highest point here, you can see the holy land of Armenians - Mount Ararat. It is the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark.

Starting from Emperor Mircea, the Roman Empire built a long wall from Yerevan to the south. A large army was stationed there. The Black Sheep Dynasty also realized that Rome was on guard against them, and the relationship gradually cooled. However, they could not do without the trade income with Rome, so they kept on doing so.

But this was not a long-term solution. After dealing with Jalair, Yusuf found a place where he could break the deadlock: Georgia.

King Alexander, who has the same name as the Roman crown prince, was unwilling to submit to Rome, so he looked for allies everywhere to break through his current status, but his geographical location forced him to seek cooperation with pagans.

Georgia had been very obedient after the failure of supporting the Komnenos family. But when Peter came to power and was busy with wars in Egypt and Western Europe, Alexander sent his army to attack Yerevan and Trebizond, trying to create a fait accompli and force the other side to recognize his territory.

But the result was that he failed, and the local governor led his men to beat up the Georgian army without the emperor's intervention. Listerine, who was in charge of national affairs in Constantinople, made a prompt decision to allow the troops from Trebizond and Yerevan to enter Georgia, forcing Alexander to live in Constantinople for two years.

Alexander regarded this period as a humiliation, and what was even more shameful was that after returning to Constantinople, Peter forcibly made Alexander a Roman nobleman. This was equivalent to not recognizing Georgia's independence in disguise, but treating it as part of Rome.

Such humiliation made Alexander want to send troops to take revenge immediately, but fighting Georgia and Rome was like hitting a rock with an egg. Therefore, Alexander decided to develop eastward first, and the Black Sheep Dynasty was beyond his ability, so he decided to attack the Atropatene Kingdom in the west.

Atropatene was a theocratic state established by the previous Knights in Baku, named after the name before the rule of the Parthian Empire. They obeyed the orders of the Roman emperor and the teachings of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and took it as their mission to spread Orthodoxy, and attacked the surrounding areas many times.

At this time, Atropatene had already occupied a large area of ​​land, including Baku, which was roughly the same size as Azerbaijan in later generations. The head of the state was concurrently the head of the Knights Templar, and under him were several departments responsible for the country's military, economy, religion, and diplomacy.

At the local level, the feudal system was adopted. Each member of the Knights Templar would be given a piece of land, and soldiers who joined the army would also have a piece of farmland to cultivate. The church would also have its own land, which they would hire farmers to cultivate and collect taxes and rents. As long as the nobles who were here converted to Orthodoxy, their property would remain unchanged.

Relying on its geographical location, it quickly prospered. The local land is suitable for growing wheat and vegetables, and fishing is possible along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Atropatene constantly traded with other countries, and invited many missionaries from Rome to help local people convert. In 1416, the Patriarch of Constantinople officially approved Baku's upgrading to an archbishopric, and obtained the qualification to preach in Persia. After several years of development, Atropatene has become a country with a population of more than 70, and can devote more than troops to foreign wars at a time. It is undoubtedly more difficult for Georgia to annex here to strengthen its strength, but compared to Rome or the Black Sheep, this is also the easiest place. He has no courage or perseverance to cross the Caucasus Mountains to expand. And his ultimate goal is to strengthen his strength and force Rome to recognize his sphere of influence in the east of Trebizond. In his opinion, this is the biggest thing he can do. Therefore, Alexander began to form an alliance with the Black Sheep Dynasty, agreeing that the north of Baku would belong to Georgia and the south to the Black Sheep.

Yusuf was also playing a good game. It seemed that there was no unity within the Orthodox Church. What he had to do was to use Georgia to consume Rome's strength, and then take the opportunity to seize the Caucasus region. Then he would go west or east, and he would have the final say on whether to force Rome to cede land or destroy the Timurid Empire.

Although he had already controlled the Jalayirid Empire, the Zagros Mountains separated the two countries, making transportation inconvenient. The so-called coordination was even more unsuccessful. It was better to expect the other side to cause trouble to contain Rome than to expect the other side to send troops to advance.

Rome was not afraid of the turbulent eastern region. How could Peter not know what these two people were thinking? This was also the reason why he built the wall in Anatolia. Only Georgia was the weak point of the empire. If the enemy wanted to drive them out through Georgia, it would be very difficult.

Therefore, Rome has been exerting great control over Georgia in recent years, and forcibly ennobling the Georgian king as a noble is one of its means. In addition, when the Georgian army was beaten up before, the Roman army stationed in cities such as Tbilisi, and successfully got the king to "agree" to station troops in Husumi and Gori. At the same time, there were ambassadors stationed in Georgia to assist the empire, achieving deep penetration into Georgia.

Unlike the previous Roman emperors who established autonomous principalities on the border, Peter directly governed the border. He achieved direct rule by establishing provinces and establishing bureaucratic rule. He also tried his best to appease the local people and open up channels for them to support the Constantinople government and pay more taxes to expand the army.

As the military focus shifted to Palestine, the defense of the Yerevan area had to be more careful. The Empire's infiltration into Georgia became more intense, and some funds were transferred to Atropatni to ask them to pay attention to the movements of the Black Sheep. The emperor did not want his plan to cause any more trouble.

Unlike Europe, the troops here have less water resources and can only advance along cities and trade routes. Moreover, the enemy will hinder their progress by poisoning the wells, so they must prepare for the worst.

The problem of water shortage has really troubled them for a long time, because they are not very familiar with the oases in the desert, and long-distance transportation will add additional costs. How to control costs to the greatest extent possible has become their problem.

(End of this chapter)