Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 518 The Best Way to Diplomacy

Bai Saihan also expressed support for the idea of ​​​​decoupling.

"I agree. Those people's words are quite nice. Who can she marry?" In front of his wife and children, he no longer pretended to be stupid and complained directly: "I suspect that the Alemanni are also pretending. Maybe we just use this as an excuse to negotiate some terms. If nothing else, even if we are happy, how dare they do it? "

"That's true." Tuohuan remembered the way Theodora was fighting with others just now, and couldn't help but said: "Guo Kanganda is a loyal person, has no special hobbies, and does not conflict with others. Otherwise, who would fight with her? If you get married, fight at home every day..."

"Either the husband gets along very well with her, or he has to be very strong, with both intelligence and physical strength to be able to hold her up and beat her up." He shook his head repeatedly: "Otherwise, with her spoiled character, bad temper, and greed, Who can control it?"

"Don't talk about your sister like that." The queen said quickly.

"She was fighting with someone at the palace gate just now. No one in the palace can control her." Tuo Huan complained: "She is so lawless now. I don't even dare to think how fierce she will be in the future."

"Then I'll talk about it later... But the women in our family are all like this. I don't know if it will be useful." Bai Saihan scratched his head, he didn't have much confidence: "It's strange, she hasn't read a lot since she was a child. Book, why are you still so dishonest..."

"These are another topic. Let's talk about family matters later." The queen interrupted them: "Let's talk about business first."

"I'm just talking about business." Bai Saihan pointed out: "Although the daughters of our family have always been domineering, as long as the political interests are sufficient, these people have nothing to hold back. What they are afraid of is the marriage itself."

Tuo Huan also nodded.

On the one hand, many believers and grassroots clergy are now quite dissatisfied with the corruption of the church, but things are always getting easier. More dangerous foreign enemies can make these people temporarily give up complaining, deal with the enemy first, and give the church a breather. Opportunities; on the other hand, after the Avignon incident, the divisions within the church were also serious. Organizing a crusade to fight against foreign enemies might be an opportunity to heal the divisions. For this reason, the church contacted the princes of France and the Holy Roman Empire and called for the formation of a "Mongol Crusade", which received a positive response.

In fact, not only the Hungarians, but almost all surrounding countries had this attitude towards them. Including France, with whom we have very good relations now, they also joined in halfway.

"Oh, how can I rest assured?" Baisai Khan murmured: "I heard people say that in the past dynasties, all the marriages were with large foreign countries or with the Rong and Di vassals, because they did not expect to destroy them, so they had to rely on their daughters to do so. exert influence on their tribes. But how many people around us in Great Qin are close to us?"

"In the final analysis, we are stronger now." The queen sighed with emotion: "We ourselves have become a reality that they have to accept. Otherwise, let alone marriage, we would still have to send crusaders here."

"The French are not good, and the others will be even worse. I'd better not consider these in the future, so as not to make both parties uncomfortable," the queen said.

Some members of the church believe that this is the enemy that has just arrived on their doorstep. Practically speaking, having this kind of approaching foreign enemy is not a bad thing, because it is also an opportunity to get through the current difficult period.

This matter was known to the Venetians at that time, and they immediately sold the information to the Purple Horde Khanate, allowing them to make preparations long in advance.

On the contrary, at the same time, many European nobles still turned a blind eye to the situation of the Purple Horde Khanate, and even believed that their khanate was an army composed of a group of nomads, just like the Mongols nearly two hundred years ago. .

"Most of the other barbarians are unreasonable: those who are stronger are like going crazy and don't talk to us at all. We tried so many ways back then to beg the Hungarians to negotiate, even if they made peace with us, you see Do you understand? It was only after we were crippled by us in the end, and the previous 'good allies' also turned against each other, that they realized and wanted to reconcile with us. But at this time, they can all go down in one go, what's the point of joining forces? "

"As a result, after arriving there, the French royal family was as guarded against her as if they were seeing a thief. The Ministry of Rites talked for a long time, but they were not willing at all and had no room for consideration. They had no choice but to marry their daughter to marry their son-in-law. It is also a common thing for the Fawang family to do something about it. Therefore, everyone is on guard. Your cousin did not get married in the end, and she went full circle and became a journey..."

The Purple Horde Khanate was not famous in its early years, but as it became more and more powerful, it also attracted more enemies. Not only were the local forces in direct competition with them fighting against each other; there were also many expelled local nobles who went to the Hungarian court, which was quite prosperous at the time, and then asked for help from other European countries and the Roman Church, trying to introduce outsiders. Strength, while they are still small, quickly press them to death.

"Hey, you said that we have already done this, and we have nothing to do to marry them." He shook his head and complained: "We work and fight every day just to let everyone live a good life as much as possible. What if this We still have to force her to marry a barbarian, so these two battles I have fought are not in vain."

"Your grandfather also said before that he should marry your cousin to France. At that time, everyone thought there was no problem, and they specially arranged for her to follow the people from the Ministry of Etiquette to visit the French court there, get to know the environment, and get to know the servants. "

In fact, according to subsequent investigations, most people have no idea about the current situation of the Purple Army, nor how the Mongols fought back then - they actually look down on those Eastern European nobles who are like refugees, and are unwilling to Look through the records left by priests and merchants back then.

The main force of the Crusaders was a group of French nobles who had nowhere to vent their energy. At this time, the most intense phase of the Anglo-French war had just passed, but with the success of counterattacks and regaining territory, a large number of nobles and knights became idle and were about to start plundering and conspiring against the king again. Therefore, the king was eager for them to go on an expedition as soon as possible.

Under the instigation of the palace, several big lords took the lead in joining the Crusade. Some German princes also joined in, trying to get a share of the pie. The shock of the past has passed for too long, let alone the French who have basically never seen the Mongols. In the current impression of these nobles, the so-called Mongolian army is just a group of barbarians riding ponies and wearing torn leather robes. They have accumulated countless numbers by virtue of their inexplicable reproductive ability; and because their minds are too simple, they only have wild beasts. Such instinct makes him seem brave.

Thanks to these two advantages, they were able to defeat the Eastern Europeans who were inherently barbaric and stupid. And this Mongol Crusaders, as the name suggests, must be fighting this kind of enemy.

It’s not that those exiled aristocrats from Eastern Europe didn’t work hard. On the contrary, they have been doing their best to actively organize armed forces, hoping to fight back quickly. As long as there is an opportunity, I am also willing to take the initiative to lead the Crusaders and provide valuable information and suggestions. The problem is that the arrogant Western European nobles simply disdain to listen to the opinions of their defeated generals.

The French have always been very confident in this regard, not to mention that they are indeed in their prime now. Even the few people who like to use their brains didn't find anything wrong.

According to their understanding, the most troublesome thing in the grassland army is the fly-like mounted archers. However, based on the experience of fighting the English, today's war is no longer what it was back then.

It is said that during the Battle of Crecy, the English were able to shoot through the knight's chainmail with that ridiculously hard bow. But 10 years later, facing the French knights equipped with iron armor, the longbow basically lost its effect. But now, decades have passed, and qualified knights have begun to wear plate armor. The bows and arrows of the grassland people have long been obsolete.

Therefore, many people are convinced that the era of "invincibility in riding and shooting" has long passed, and now is the era of "invincibility in plate armor." The only thing that needs attention is to add some protection to the war horses to prevent them from attacking the horses.

The main force of the Crusaders, more than 10,000 people, set out from France, attracting many people to join along the way, and finally expanded to nearly 40,000 people. However, the army also became bloated and chaotic. In the long queue, there were not only the regular armies of various big lords and the armed forces of Eastern European nobles, but also many gangsters and small lords who wanted to make a fortune together, fanatical believers who hoped to revive their faith, and a large number of businessmen and merchants who came after hearing the news. service personnel.

The supply money advanced to the contractors was quickly exhausted. Although some calm nobles still hoped to put order in order, without money, several large chambers of commerce refused to send any more logistical supplies, even if they offered them on credit in the name of Heavenly Father. The Crusaders quickly dispersed and each went to loot around the marching route. The commanders could only try to restrain them from running too far. The marching route therefore changed from a "line" to a wide "surface".

When they advanced to Hungary, they also had conflicts with the Hungarians - facing the Crusaders, the Hungarian court and local nobles were unprecedentedly united and did not want them to pass through their own territory. The Crusaders went to great lengths to persuade them with military threats.

But the vanguard of the Purple Horde Khanate also began to appear. Instead of fighting the Crusaders, they ran to various villages and told them to take all their food and belongings and evacuate quickly. At first, not many people listened to them. But as more and more villages were slaughtered and burned, almost all residents along the way began to flee at their call.

Because they needed to grab things everywhere, the Crusaders marched very slowly, giving them plenty of time to escape. As a result of the flight, the Crusaders had a bigger problem with their supplies, and they began to run out of food in the territories of their allies.

In addition, the Purple Horde Khanate also bribed several big businessmen who were accompanying them. Taking advantage of their military morale to waver, they organized thousands of people to take turns to attack at night. The Crusaders were very tired, so when they arrived at a nearby city, the nobles and knights hurriedly hid in to have fun and relieve stress. As for the remaining people, the Hungarians were afraid that they would enter the city and cause damage, so they refused to let them enter the city. They could only stay outside and deal with it individually.

That night, the Purple Horde Khanate organized another army attack. The merchants outside the city took the opportunity to shout "The Crusaders have been defeated!" and then ran away with their clerks and bodyguards. The troops accompanying the army immediately blew up the camp and fled in all directions.

Others did not expect that the Purple Horde Khanate army could advance so far silently. A large group of armed men following the Crusaders did not even understand each other's language and were unable to conduct effective command and communication. When they saw someone escaping, they quickly followed them. The aristocratic armed forces of Eastern Europe had long been frightened, and they were the first to run away when they discovered something was going wrong. The German mercenaries followed closely behind, fled into the nearby woods, and disappeared in all directions.

The Purple Horde Khanate himself did not expect that the results would be so significant. At dawn, the follow-up troops arrived one after another. However, there were not many people defending the city, because the citizen guards on duty had never seen such a large formation and were scared away. The French nobles who took over the city defense competed with each other for command, and did not understand the situation. There was actually a city gate that was not guarded at all.

Therefore, before the main force arrived, everyone burst open the door and rushed into the city. They dispersed the French at the head of the city, searched around the city, and finally captured a large group of officers and knights in a brothel. It's a pity that the leading nobles were more vigilant. When they saw something was wrong, they immediately rushed out of the city gate with their attendants and guards. These groups of people are very capable of fighting, and the purple tent forwards couldn't stop them, so many of them escaped.

In this way, the first Mongol Crusade ended inexplicably. Strictly speaking, the two sides did not fight, but Guo Di, who commanded the operation, was very happy because he always insisted that intelligence and mobility were the key to war. Behind this bizarre result is the long-term training of the army, strict organization of logistics, credibility among the locals and repeated discussions with businessmen. These are things that neither the Mongolian army nor the European army can do.

Later, this kind of crusade was organized several times. The biggest effect was to make the local people hate the Roman Church and the Crusaders. Even some small nobles were ruined by them and had no choice but to seek refuge with the Purple Horde. When Hungary collapsed, the HRE and the French nobles organized the "Mongol Crusade" for the fourth time, trying to take advantage of the chaos.

This time, Basil III decided to eliminate the enemy's main force as soon as possible, and organized five legions and an army of more than 30,000 people to attack. The two sides fought a decisive battle on the banks of the Danube River. The forward soldiers of the Purple Horde Khanate wore shining iron armor and marched on foot holding long knives and spears; the cavalrymen wearing armor and carrying giant axes and clubs followed behind and moved forward neatly. move. The lineup of the army left a deep impression on the Europeans.

Afterwards, some people recalled that their military formations advanced layer by layer, their armor reflecting the sun, and it looked like a river had overflowed its dam and was flowing towards them. The Crusaders' offensive was like a stone thrown into water, causing large splashes, but it was of no use.

After this head-on battle ended, many people realized that times had really changed.

In the next few years, the Purple Horde went from despicable heretics to important believers in the East. The secular rulers also abandoned the exiled nobles of Eastern Europe overnight, and even a lot of random people they didn't know suddenly came to make friends with them.

From this point of view, perhaps the best way to diplomacy is indeed not marriage and negotiation, but to take the other party directly.

(End of this chapter)