The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 624 Navy
The speed at which the faith of polytheism spread was completely beyond the expectations of monotheism. A great plague severely damaged the three monotheistic sects, but the spread of polytheism was like taking off.

Under such circumstances, the Eastern Roman Empire began to use the excuse that monotheism was the state religion of Rome to prevent the spread of polytheism to the Balkan Peninsula and the Eastern Roman Empire.

At the same time, the Eastern Roman Empire also claimed that Richard had no Roman royal blood, had not married a Roman royal princess, and did not have the right of inheritance.

Demanded that Richard abdicate and give up the position of emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

In response to this request, Richard cut off the ears of the envoys from the Eastern Roman Empire and drove them out. At the same time, he announced that the Eastern Roman Empire was illegal because it had not been recognized by him.

The relationship between the two sides immediately dropped to a freezing point. If the plague had not yet passed and the Western Roman Empire had not needed to recuperate, I am afraid that the two sides would have fought a battle immediately.

However, this war is bound to break out in the future.

Richard would not allow the Eastern Roman Empire to continue to exist, and he planned to reunite the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. As for the fact that after the merger, the territory of the Roman Empire was too large and difficult to manage.

Richard was ready to vigorously develop maritime transport. With the existence of the Mediterranean Sea, maritime transport was naturally dominant. As long as the ocean navigation technology continued to be improved, the empire could use ships to deploy its troops to any port in the Mediterranean within two months.

This kind of transportation condition is much better than that of ancient Dongda University.

In ancient times, due to the transportation conditions in Dongda, it would take two or three months to dispatch a large army from Guanzhong to Nanjiang or Jiangnan. Moreover, the roads were difficult to travel and the climate was changeable and harsh.

In comparison, the Roman Empire had waterways like the Mediterranean, which was much more convenient.

With the arrival of winter and after the first snow, the plague completely disappeared in northern Italy.

The severely damaged Hun Empire also temporarily stabilized. In the past year, a large number of people in the north had died due to plague caused by war.

Now that the Hun Empire and the northern regions were no longer able to wage war, Europe ushered in a rare peace.

After the plague was under control, Richard began to requisition food from North Africa and Gaul and transport it to northern Italy to provide relief to the victims.

In the early days of the empire, the empire had adopted disaster relief measures due to disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, and floods, but it was different from the disaster relief measures of ancient Todai.

The scale of the Roman Empire's disaster relief was very small, just distributing some food to the victims. Moreover, because the empire had experienced a large number of natural disasters, coupled with the attacks of northern barbarians, the empire concentrated more money on the military in order to maintain its rule.

There was little disaster relief, which led to a large number of people fleeing or becoming slaves of the nobles. The Bagauda movement in Gaul was an uprising caused by those fleeing people.

Richard's act of requisitioning large amounts of grain to provide relief to disaster victims was extremely rare in the entire history of the Roman Empire.

For Richard, it was normal to use the food to help the disaster victims. However, his behavior made many nobles think that Richard was stupid.

After all, in their opinion, with so much food, why not invest it in the military instead of helping those untouchables.

Gaul had a lot of grain because of the bumper harvests for several consecutive years, and North Africa recovered quickly due to the war, so grain output was not greatly affected. The grain reserves of the Roman Empire can be said to be very sufficient.

Richard asked local officials and druids to work together to provide relief to the victims. In order to prevent local officials from enriching themselves, Richard gave these druids the right to supervise and inspect.

At the same time, he also sent his extraordinary knights to patrol. If anyone wanted to take the food, they would be arrested directly.

In fact, Richard has been looking for various excuses to deal with the old nobles in various places.

Richard imposed various restrictions on the rights of the old nobles in various places. He took the opportunity to deal with some of the old nobles. The remaining old nobles saw Richard's iron fist and dared not go against him. They all became very honest. As a result, he could not find any excuse to deal with them for the time being.

But now Richard was transporting a large amount of food to help the victims. He didn't believe that these old nobles could hold back with so much food in front of them.

As long as they dare to reach out, Richard will have an excuse to deal with them.

At that time, they would directly confiscate their property and exile them. Not only would they clean up the nobles, but they would also be able to reap a fortune, and at the same time, they could distribute the land to ordinary people and slaves.

To put it bluntly, Richard wants to redistribute the land.

Thanks to the empire’s food relief, the people in the plague-stricken areas were quickly helped. This was the first time that the people who had been oppressed felt the kindness of the empire.

Richard successfully gained the recognition of these people with food.

At the same time, another group of nobles were captured by Richard because of disaster relief issues. The northern region of Italy was also gradually controlled by Richard.

After recovering the North African colonies, Richard did not abolish the navy, but increased the investment in money and materials to expand the original temporary navy.

Among the navy that was temporarily formed before, there were a large number of merchant ships and small boats that were not suitable for naval use. Richard ordered the retirement of these unsuitable ships, and then built new ships, and at the same time began to recruit the navy for training.

As a maritime nation, the Roman Empire must have a strong fleet. The Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula in the west also needed a navy to conquer.

The first target of the navy formed by Richard was the Visigothic Kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula.

When the Visigothic Kingdom learned that the Roman Empire had successfully recovered North Africa and the former governor of the Gaul province had become the Roman emperor, it immediately became alert.

Over the past few years, the Visigothic Kingdom and the Gallic province have had many frictions in the Pyrenees Mountains, and both sides want to control the Pyrenees Mountains.

After all, whoever controls the Pyrenees has the initiative in the war.

The Visigothic Kingdom was well aware of the strength of the Gaul province. After all, the Gaul province had often been plundered by them in the past. However, in recent years, their army could not even break through the southwestern defense line of the Gaul province, let alone plunder.

The battle for the Pyrenees Mountains has not yet ended. North Africa has been suddenly taken back by Rome. At this time, we can directly attack the rear of the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa, and then the Visigothic Kingdom will be attacked from both sides.

Therefore, the Visigothic Kingdom immediately sent reinforcements to the south to prepare for defense against an attack from the Roman Empire from behind.

As for attacking from the sea, the Visigoths had no good solution, after all, the Iberian Peninsula was surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the current national strength of the Visigoths was not enough to support them in forming a strong navy.

After the navy was formed, Richard planned to divide his troops into three groups to attack the Visigothic Kingdom, completely eliminate this hidden danger, and take back the empire's Spanish province.

Because the Mediterranean Sea is surrounded by land, the sea water is not closely connected to the outside world and the wind and waves are small, making it easier for ships to navigate.

Richard further improved the Roman ships, increasing their maneuverability and anti-sinking capabilities, allowing them to sail faster and more steadily in the Mediterranean.

At the same time, he also made some improvements to the Roman ballista, simplifying its operation, reducing its size, increasing its range, and installing it on the side and bow of the ship.

The naval weapons of this era were still very primitive. The Romans' ballista was already considered black technology for the barbarians of the Visigothic Kingdom. The ballista combined with Greek fire greatly improved the power of Roman warships.

(End of this chapter)