Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1160 Epilogue : The Situation in the West

What is the Pope doing at this moment?
He is contacting the King of the Han Empire, hoping that "Prester John" can truly convert to Christianity.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, a priest visited Rome, claiming to be from faraway India, and brought news about Nestorianism.

Thus, the legend of "Prester John" began to spread in Europe, that is, in the far east where pagans were everywhere, there was a Christian emperor who served as a priest and ruled a mysterious country for hundreds of years.

After defeating Sanjar, Yelu Dashi was mistakenly regarded by Europe as "Prester John".

Marrakech, now also called Chang'an City.

Lucius, the envoy sent by the Holy See, was taken to the palace of the Han Dynasty trembling with fear.

The aged Yang Wenhu was still energetic. He sat on the throne left by the Caliph and glanced at the Roman monk in front of him: "What did the Cross leader send you to do?"

Lucius bowed to greet him, and then said, "Your Majesty, the great Pope has received news from Iberia. Hearing that you treat the Christians well, the Pope is very pleased. If you are willing to formally convert to Christianity, the Pope promises to crown you personally."

Yang Wenhu sneered: "How many troops does he have?"

Lucius was suddenly speechless.

The current Pope had already fallen out with the Holy Roman Emperor because the Holy Roman Emperor's territory surrounded the Papal States.

The conflict between the two sides became increasingly intense, and even a war broke out.

The Pope's army was defeated by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Even the Pope did not dare to excommunicate the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, but first went to France, fearing that once the Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated, the other side would rush into Rome and capture the Pope alive.

Today, the relationship between the two sides has apparently eased and the excommunication has long been lifted.

Because the excommunication has not been lifted, the Holy Roman Emperor will really send troops to destroy Rome!
Lucius said: "As long as Your Excellency converts to Christianity, the Pope can order the King of Castile to cease fire."

Yang Wenhu said with disdain: "This is a war started by King Castile. He can make the decision when he wants to fight, but he has no say when he doesn't want to fight. Apart from ceding land and paying compensation, King Castile can forget about ending this war!"

Lucius threatened: "I heard that your country is also at war with the Caliph, fighting on two fronts in the north and the east at the same time. This is not a good sign. If you reconcile with Castile, you can go east to defeat the young Caliph."

"Kick him out!" Yang Wenhu was too lazy to talk anymore.

Lucius was dragged away by two Berber soldiers. These Berber soldiers were orphans adopted by Yang Wenhu.

Lucius was thrown out of the palace, feeling a little embarrassed.

The authority of the Pope has now reached an unprecedented peak.

Although the Papal Army was defeated, it led to a superficial reconciliation with the Holy Roman Empire.

In order to lift the excommunication, the Holy Roman Emperor agreed to many of the Pope's requests and granted clergy more privileges.

With the cooperation between the two sides, the Pope's prestige soared, and he took the opportunity to enhance religious privileges in other countries.

The Pope sent envoys to the Han Dynasty this time in order to continue to expand the territory of the Crusaders. What if the King of the Han Dynasty really converted?

Within the palace.

Yang Wenhu remained silent. He already understood Emperor Dingtai. It was really a headache to have uncontrolled civil and military officials.

It had only been 20 to 30 years, but the nobles that Yang Wenhu had given out to the emperor were no longer obedient. They dragged their feet in gathering troops to fight, cried poor, and even said they had no food to send out the troops.

In desperation, Yang Wenhu could only promise more benefits.

He even told the noble lords in various places that as long as they defeated the enemies in the north and the east, all the newly occupied territories would be divided up according to their military merits.

The war in the north is going smoothly at the moment.

The Kingdom of Castile has been expelling Desert Christians and Jews for decades.

The Jews took the initiative to seek cooperation with Yang Wenhu, saying that they were willing to be the guide. Moreover, they could also contact the Jews in Castile, who were willing to be the insiders for the Han army.

With the help of those Jews, the Han army has captured two large cities.

As for the Caliph in the east, he was a young man who dared to take the initiative to send troops to provoke the Han Dynasty while the main force of the Han Dynasty was heading north.

Now, the Han army has been conducting defensive operations in the east, relying on city walls and fortresses.

If they defend for another half a year, the Caliph's soldiers will lose all morale. By then, the Han army will launch a massive counterattack and will destroy the Caliph in one fell swoop!

The real problem of the Han Empire was the excessive confusion of races and religions.

Yang Wenhu was worried that after his death, the Han Empire would soon fall apart.

It will not be torn into pieces, but it will at least be split into two countries, one dominated by desert religion and the other dominated by Christianity.

The navy brought by Yang Wenhu was ultimately too small in number.

While they were influencing the locals, they were also gradually assimilated by them.

Especially those Han lords who were granted fiefdoms, they were surrounded by people of other ethnic groups and had few opportunities to use Chinese.

The sons of the lords became locals from birth and had only a vague concept of the distant Ming Empire.

If this continues, within two or three generations, people will completely forget their ancestors.

Yang Wenhu also tried to promote Chinese teaching, but it was useless. Even the Desert Church could not do this. At the beginning, the Desert Church used Arabic to spread the doctrine, but it turned out that the people were all fake believers. Because most of the people could not understand Arabic at all!
It was not until a hundred years ago that they began to preach in the local language, and all the foreign desert believers were assimilated by the Berbers.

What Yang Wenhu could do was to continue adopting war orphans and teach them to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters.

Today, Chinese has become the language of the nobility, and Chinese characters have become the writing system of the nobility. Only by mastering Chinese characters can one understand scientific books and be qualified to learn how to make firearms.

In addition, local agriculture has also developed, all of which are agricultural technologies brought by the Han people.

……

Shinra, Imperial Palace.

The panting messenger was brought in, knelt on one knee and said: "Your Majesty, the Seventh Crusade has failed!"

Frederick II said expressionlessly: "How did it fail?"

The messenger said: "The enemy still used artillery, but this time it was installed on warships. The Crusader fleet was defeated by the enemy's artillery before it even reached the shore."

"I understand. You can go down now," said Frederick II.

This Crusade was led by France, so even if everyone died, it would have nothing to do with the Holy Roman Empire.

In another time and space, Frederick II should have died three years ago.

But history has long since changed. It is hard to say whether the Frederick II in front of us is the same one. It is possible that they just have the same name.

The emergence of firearms led to an earlier marriage between Shinra and Sicily.

So Frederick II was born two years earlier than in history, and he was supposed to be an only child, but he even had a younger brother.

This series of huge changes started with the Third Crusade.

The kings of England, France and Sicily personally led their armies toward Jerusalem and encountered a firearms raid during the battle.

The Crusaders were in chaos, and Saladin took the opportunity to lead a cavalry charge.

The King of Sicily was killed instantly.

The French king fled quickly.

King Charles I of England was so stubborn that he led his army to launch a counterattack when his allies were fleeing. He was soon surrounded and his soldiers tried to break through many times but failed, and were all massacred in despair.

There is no way to surrender, because surrender also means death.

Charles the Lionheart was seriously wounded and captured, and Saladin personally ordered him to be beheaded. (This led to great changes in British history. John I ascended the throne earlier, fought fewer wars, and the king was not forced by the nobles to sign the Magna Carta.)
The then Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI took advantage of the death of the King of Sicily in battle, led his army to seize the throne of Sicily, and forced the Sicilian princess to marry him.

It was also because of this that the relationship between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Holy See deteriorated, and the Holy Roman Empire took over the Papal States.

During the subsequent Crusades, firearms technology gradually spread to some European countries. However, they did not have muskets yet and could only make relatively primitive bronze cannons.

In comparison, the Crusaders' enemies had much more advanced firearms.

Frederick II called his confidant and said, "Go to the Greek Empire (Byzantium) and ask them if they have any plans for marriage."

The confidant was surprised and asked, "Are you going to resume the marriage alliance with the Greeks?"

Frederick II did not explain: "Go ahead."

The Holy Roman Empire and Eastern Rome used to have frequent intermarriages, but they had a complete falling out a few decades ago.

Frederick II's grandfather launched the Crusades, but it turned out to be a false pretext for attacking Guo, and the real purpose was to conquer Byzantium.

Then, his grandfather was killed by the Byzantines because the Byzantines also secretly hid firearms!

But the Byzantine Empire was not doing well. The ruler was young and the country was in disarray. The princes rebelled, dynasties changed, and civil war broke out again. The neighboring Sultanate of Rum took the opportunity to expand and took away all of Asia Minor.

Soon after, the Sultanate of Rum also began to fall into civil strife. The Byzantine Empire took the opportunity to counterattack and finally regained Asia Minor more than ten years ago.

Now, the real overlord of the Middle East is Egypt, the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin's father.

The Zengid Dynasty was also very powerful at one time, eating up the legacy of the Seljuk Empire and even abolishing the Caliph of Baghdad. But when they expanded eastward, they fought a bloody battle with the Kingdom of Dayuan in the Khorasan region.

In that battle of Khorasan, Zhu Ming's grandson (King of Dayuan) personally went into battle and Zengi Sultan was killed on the spot. From then on, the Zengi Dynasty fell apart.

In order to stop the endless Crusaders, the Ayyubid Dynasty, which believed in desert religion, and the Byzantine Empire, which believed in Eastern Orthodoxy, have been in alliance for decades.

The Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt attempted to unify the Middle East and West Asia and swallow up all the forces that had split from the Zengid dynasty. It would not stop its expansion until it bordered the Kingdom of Dayuan.

The Byzantine Empire planned to first destroy the Sultanate of Rum and then march westward to recover its territory in Bulgaria.

Frederick II knew that his time was running out and that the Pope had infiltrated the Holy Roman Empire deeply, so he now wanted to repair relations and form a marriage alliance with Byzantium.

In addition, Khwarezm had been destroyed for many years.

The reason for the destruction of their country was that they dared to play tricks on Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty!
Today, the Golden Horde, established by the descendants of the Turks, is located in the original territory of Khwarezm.

The Golden Horde had always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, accumulating wealth through the northern Silk Road and expanding westward little by little.

To their west was the Cuman Khanate, and the two khanates had been fighting for decades.

(I am so tired of writing this chapter, I will stop writing it today.)
(End of this chapter)