Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 602: Eastern Europe, the Anjou, Qin Shi Huang
"Don't dwell too much on the past." Luo Guanzhong rushed to smooth things over: "We can refer to past history, sum up the experience and lessons, and not repeat the same mistakes."

"Okay, okay." The envoys also responded quickly: "Then sir, how do you think we should cooperate?"

"We have a preliminary plan." Luo Guanzhong and Guo Kang looked at each other and explained, "According to the plan, we hope that if we have the opportunity to launch an expedition, we can purchase food and rent a bakery in your port. In addition, if you are interested, we also hope to hire your fleet to provide escort for our subsequent transport fleet."

"These should be easy to discuss." Ridwan agreed immediately: "Are there any intentions for more...deep cooperation?"

"That's all for now." Luo Guanzhong shook his head. "The specific details still need further discussion. But in terms of the general direction, this is enough for now."

"Hey? Don't you need to consider military cooperation?" Idris couldn't help but interrupt and remind.

"No need." Luo Guanzhong answered confidently: "The army has more sources, and it looks huge, but it is not a good thing. If it is not handled properly, it will become a battle between 18 princes to fight against Dong Zhuo... I mean, everyone is holding each other back."

"Besides, this expedition is just a diversion and test. We ourselves cannot guarantee how attractive the results will be. Under such circumstances, it is not easy to ask friends to join us. It is better for us to do business together. We will bear the biggest risks ourselves; no matter what, others will not lose money."

"Are the number of us enough?" Joanna couldn't help but interrupt.

"We don't plan to directly occupy the entire Iberia." Guo Kang explained: "We can help Granada stabilize the situation, force the Kingdom of Aragon to turn its troops to the mainland, and facilitate our actions in other directions. In order to achieve this goal, it does not cost too much. In this regard, we have seen many positive and negative cases."

"Yes, there are many examples here. Even though I have only been here for a short time, I have heard of them." Luo Guanzhong replied: "There are ready-made precedents in Italy."

"So that's what it is." Ridwan seemed to understand a little and nodded. "It was the war that broke out in the Kingdom of Naples 20 years ago because of the issue of succession."

"That should be right." Joanna perked up and said immediately, "The inheritance relationship in Naples is very chaotic, with many forces involved, entangled and hindered by each other. It is indeed a counterexample."

"I've seen it once before, but I couldn't quite understand it. God knows how they could come up with so many messy relatives..." Guo Kang complained.

"We know a lot about these things." Ridwan began to talk freely: "Speaking of which, it should be regarded as an internal struggle of the Anjou family."

"Two hundred years ago, it was Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire who ruled Sicily and southern Italy. He was a fair and wise man, and all upright people liked him very much. Our merchants and scholars were also keen to visit his court to seek his support and protection."

"But after Frederick's death, the Hohenstaufen dynasty fell. The Pope of Rome hated their family and brought the evil French to attack them."

"The French King Louis IX at the time was a man known for overestimating his own capabilities and being greedy. Previously, he had assembled an army and wanted to attack Egypt, but almost all of his troops were wiped out, and he himself was captured alive. This man was very rich, so he paid the ransom and ran away. However, he still did not learn his lesson and continued to target innocent people everywhere, accusing others of being heretics and pagans, hoping to take another chance."

"At that time, the smart European monarchs had already recognized the nature of the Pope. However, he was very enthusiastic about the hypocritical Roman Pope, and the Pope was willing to cooperate with this rare sucker, constantly supporting and encouraging him. Similarly, although the war against Egypt failed, he gained the respect of many equally stupid and fanatical Christians. Therefore, under the operation of the Pope, the French took the lead in organizing a crusade against the Hohenstaufen family. The ruling power of the Kingdom of Sicily was transferred to Louis's brother Charles."

"Before that, the French royal family seized the rule of Anjou from the Plantagenet family. This territory was granted to Charles, so his branch was called the Angevin line. With the support of his brother and the Pope, the Crusaders marched into Italy, defeated Frederick's sons Conrad and Manfred, and occupied the Kingdom of Sicily."

"At that time, we Tunisians followed the previous alliance and sent troops to help Manfred. Many Italian towns surrendered when they saw the French army was so powerful. Only we and the Sicilians persisted in resisting to the end. So, to this day, everyone still remembers what happened at that time."

"Is that so..." Guo Kang thought about it and probably understood their thoughts.

Frederick II was well-known in the Muslim world for his sponsorship of academics and his diplomacy. Therefore, from the perspective of Tunisians, the relationship between good and evil on both sides was very clear.

"We don't like the French either." Joanna agreed. "Whenever they get a chance, the French army will come into Italy and plunder. We are closer than you and suffer more."

"We can't help it." Ridwan shook his head. "These people are crazy. They can even rob us, let alone you."

"After occupying Sicily, Charles of Anjou sent troops to attack us, wanting us to pay tribute to him. Later, he called his brother and launched a crusade to come to us. Fortunately, Louis died soon after landing, so we managed to get through the connections and pay those people to retreat."

"No one in the Maghreb likes the French," he complained. "It's been more than a hundred years, and they still insist on attacking us. I don't know why they are so persistent."

"You keep paying them compensation, so they must be stubborn..." Guo Kang said helplessly: "I didn't understand it before, but now I know why it's like this."

"We really don't have enough military strength here, and we can't defeat them." The envoys stared at each other for a moment, and admitted reluctantly: "So, even this time, our monarchs have to be more cautious."

"Moreover, a large part of our industry is maintained by commerce. Merchants obtain scarce spices and gold from the south of the desert, transport them to the Mediterranean coast, and then transport various products from the Mediterranean world back. The trade routes of the Maghreb and the Eastern Mediterranean also pass through us. Therefore, if possible, we still want to build good relationships with more customers. After all, everyone still needs to do business."

Guo Kang didn't know how to answer for a moment.

The Hafsid dynasty controlled a narrow strip of land from Tripolitania to Constantine, which was later known as western Libya to northeastern Algeria. Basically, it was the territory of Carthage at that time.

Although the area seems relatively large, this country, like Carthage, prefers to live by business. Apart from some piracy activities, its "martial virtue" has always been mediocre. Since its establishment, it has paid tribute to pagans. Sicily, Aragon, France, and the Holy Roman Empire have all been their tribute objects.

This era was even considered their heyday. According to the "future history" on Earth, in the later period of the Hafsid Dynasty, they even had to rely on the Holy Roman Empire to send garrisons to deal with the Ottomans. Even some of the local ports were built by the Holy Roman Empire.

As for the forces that followed, such as Tlemcen, they were not even as good as him. Tlemcen, now sandwiched in the middle, often had to pay tribute to the four surrounding countries of Castile, Aragon, the Marin Dynasty of Morocco, and the Hafsid Dynasty of Tunisia.

This time, they sent envoys along because the Marin Dynasty wanted too much money. Therefore, the local Emirs were ready to take this opportunity to rebel and get rid of the oppression of the suzerain. Of course, they were not ready to be independent - mainly because they really couldn't win. The current plan was to join the Hafsid Dynasty as a younger brother and lead the Romans. It would be great to have a big supporter. Overall, the regimes of all sizes in this area no longer have the momentum of the Arab conquest, and are probably only slightly better than Andalusia, which pays tribute every day.

In this "Song Dynasty", everyone's way of thinking is to buy peace with money, and it has been like this for a hundred years. If history is followed, they will continue to maintain these weak regimes. Even the reason for the final demise was not "poverty and backwardness", but too much money, and a lot of debts were lent to the French, and finally they were killed by the French using their traditional skills.

In general, the customs of this place are actually quite different from those of later generations. It is hard to imagine what the French did to turn the locals from sly merchants who would not fight if they could pay money into determined warriors who would fight the Europeans to the end even at the cost of their lives.

But then again, the French management style is already the kind with a strong assimilation ability. So many times, Guo Kang couldn't understand how the Europeans expanded and ruled, and what they did to end up like this...

Of course, these people still live in wealthy port cities. The most famous people in the area are still philosophers and historians. Even if Guo Kang reminds them, they probably can hardly imagine that their descendants will one day spend money and buy disaster instead.

Therefore, Guo Kang did not say it explicitly, but continued to ask: "What will happen after that? Will the Anjou family continue to harass you?"

"They were quiet for a long time because Charles of Anjou went to fight you... Oh no, he went to fight the Greeks. At that time, it was still the Nicene Dynasty and the Palaiologos Dynasty." Ridwan thought for a moment and said, "He went east."

"The House of Anjou occupied the area around Durres and declared themselves the Duke of Durazzo. Then they went a step further and declared themselves the king of all of Albania." Joanna nodded and said, "That's how the two main titles came about."

"However, due to the expansion in the Balkans, the Angevin family and the Greeks also had many conflicts. His opponent was the Emperor Michael VIII of the Palaiologos family. The cunning Michael pretended to surrender and claimed to make various concessions, but in fact he was always plotting. Charles and the Pope behind him were obviously incompetent in this regard, and they were fooled by Michael."

"Not long after gaining a foothold in Albania, the Sicilian Vespers Incident broke out. To this day, scholars generally believe that Michael was behind all of this. The Greek navy took advantage of the situation to block the shipping routes between Italy and the Balkans, and the Albanian Kingdom was reduced to just Durres. Charles left Sicily and fled to Naples, where he died shortly afterwards."

"After that, the House of Anjou fell into a long-term internal struggle." She continued, "Charles' son later succeeded to the throne and was called Charles II. He married Princess Mary of Hungary - this should be someone you are familiar with, because Mary's grandfather was Bela IV, who fought against the Mongols and was defeated miserably; her maternal grandfather was Khan Kotaiyan, the leader of the Cumans, who was chased everywhere by the Mongols."

"At this time, the direct line of the Árpád dynasty in Hungary had died out, and they could only nominate a posthumous son with an awkward status to succeed the throne. Charles II and Mary therefore claimed that the current king was just a bastard and had no right to hold power. The king should be their son. They had high hopes for this and even named their son 'Charles Martel'. However, many Hungarian nobles did not recognize this, and a conflict broke out between the two sides."

"Later, the new king died without an heir. Charles Martel also died, and it was his son Charles who ascended the throne. However, because there were many opponents, in order to convince everyone, Charles II still separated the two countries. The eldest grandson Charles was deprived of the right to inherit the Kingdom of Naples, and it was left to his third uncle Robert the Wise. From then on, the House of Anjou was divided into two parts again."

"In Naples, Robert the Wise had only one son, who died before him. Robert was very sad and decided to break tradition and force his eldest granddaughter to succeed to the throne. This was the later Queen Joanna."

"I'm afraid something is going to happen." Luo Guanzhong was very surprised and couldn't help but interrupt directly: "Fortunately there are not many uncles, otherwise..."

"Yes. This arrangement has put all the ambitious people into action." Joanna said, "Naples has never had a queen before. In order to make everyone accept it, the old king promised to let the queen's husband preside over the country. You can imagine how much chaos this will cause."

"Many forces wanted to arrange for their own people to be the queen's husband in order to control the country. Among them was the Hungarian faction." She introduced: "Although the nobles of the two countries opposed the merger, Charles of Hungary was unwilling to lose control of a kingdom, so he arranged for his eldest son to marry the queen in order to fight back. But the people of Naples were very resistant to them, and the queen did not like the prince. In the subsequent conflict, the prince died in an assassination, and the marriage failed."

"Charles of Hungary's other son is Louis I, who often fought with you. He was extremely dissatisfied with the murder of his brother, and for this reason he led his army to attack Naples and killed many political enemies. But at this time, the Black Death broke out, and the Hungarian army had to evacuate in a hurry and failed to control this place."

"Although they left, other domestic forces are still there. Queen Joanna has no uncles, but she has great-uncles. After the Hungarians who came to seek revenge left, the great-uncles stood up one after another, believing that they should manage the country. Prince Taranto and Duke Durazzo stood on the side of France and Hungary respectively, trying to use foreign troops to support their own rule."

"And so, a long and bloody internal struggle began. Relatives killed each other, and many branches were cut off." Joanna sighed: "The queen herself was quite ambitious and always wanted to take power herself. For this reason, she changed four husbands. Either she was suspected of killing them, or they were killed by other enemies. But in the end, she found that a strong husband would definitely have the desire to monopolize power, and a weak husband could not resist the enemies who flocked to her. She also tried to use the prestige of the royal family to cultivate her own power, but the old nobles were deeply rooted, and her men could not resist the army of the great country. All her efforts were in vain in the face of the nobles and mercenaries who were rampant everywhere."

"In order to prevent the situation from completely collapsing, the Pope sent Petrarch as a special envoy to mediate. Petrarch then reported that he found that the nobles began to roam in groups at night and rob civilians, and the queen was powerless to stop them. In theory, it is the king's basic task to restrain the nobles and protect the civilians. But obviously, the king and queen have lost their actual control over the country."

"To make matters worse, the queen didn't have any children who lived to adulthood. When she got old, the problem became even more fatal, and all parties urged her to quickly arrange the succession. Finally, the desperate queen decided to adopt the descendants of the Duke of Durazzo as the heir to end the disputes, but soon the heir became dissatisfied with her and believed that she should quickly and honestly hand over power. The queen refused to give in and insisted on waiting until her death to give up the power, and she also began to try to prevent him. The heir decided that it was time to manually accelerate the handover, so he took action and captured and killed her."

"Aren't you afraid of damaging your reputation?" Luo Guanzhong asked curiously, "After all, she is a relative and an adoptive mother. If there is not much threat, it will do more harm than good."

"Besides, if you don't have the ability to kill her, then you might as well just bear with her, because her power won't last forever anyway; if you have the ability to kill her, then there's no need to kill her. Therefore, since ancient times, even monarchs who seized power from their mothers rarely openly wanted to kill the other party. Probably only the Hu people and those who are not mentally correct would do this."

"According to what I just said, this queen doesn't have much power and is easy to control, so there is no need for it. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Ai Jiang and Qingfu committed adultery, causing trouble for the State of Lu. In order to quell the rebellion, Duke Huan of Qi summoned Ai Jiang and killed her. The Zuo Zhuan said that the gentleman thought Duke Huan of Qi went too far. Women are obedient to men and do not have the ability to rebel alone, so they should not bear the blame for the rebellion alone. This queen has no ability and power, but she should not be killed."

"What you said is the rules of the Spring and Autumn Period. They are Hu people here." Guo Kang reminded: "It's very chaotic here in Europe. Whether it's the queen or the heir, there is no hierarchy. God knows what will happen. So, it may be normal for this kind of thing to happen."

"...Okay. I miscalculated. I've become accustomed to studying." Luo Guanzhong could only bow his hands, indicating that he was overthinking: "Their fight is indeed inexplicable."

"Some people have expressed concerns." Joanna said to him: "Old sir, you may not know that my mother is the eldest daughter of Louis I. Back then, she once asked the retainer out of curiosity, saying that she saw the old map and found that it has changed a lot now. Where did all those relatives go?"

"Oh?" Luo Guanzhong didn't quite understand.

"The Angevin family used to be huge." His reaction seemed to be expected by Joanna. She explained, "From the Principality of Galich west of Kiev to Provence in southern France, they were all once the family's territories. Hungary, Naples, Albania, Achaia, and even Jerusalem were once controlled by members of the Angevin family. As a result, after decades of civil strife, everyone looked back and found that many family branches in Eastern Europe had disappeared."

"Galicia, Morea, and Albania were all annexed by Rome. Hungary was dismembered, and Naples became a public road, where the Roman legions could come and go as they pleased. Even the territory of Provence was infiltrated by the House of Valois, and it was basically impossible to keep it."

"These are just a few large ones. When the Danube was prosperous, there were many family territories along the Danube. But now, there is nothing left. The strength of each force has reversed. With such internal strife, how can we attack others?"

(End of this chapter)