The Great Grandson of the Tang Dynasty: The beginning of the slaughter of General Tiance's mans

Chapter 302 The ambition of the Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire in later generations.

It has existed for more than 1000 years. At its peak, it was the number one overlord in Europe and Africa.

In today's era, although the Byzantine Empire is not the strongest, it is still a powerful empire, especially in Europe and East Asia, with strong dominance.

Since Li Chengdao started the Age of Discovery, Datang has embarked on an external journey.

In this process, the Tang Dynasty successively conquered dozens of coastal countries or settlements, large and small, and completed colonization in the local areas. It used a semi-slavery and semi-mercenary method to plunder various local precious mineral resources, and plundered the population in the past. Be a labor force.

As the journey progressed, it was inevitable to encounter the Byzantine Empire when it reached Europe and other places.

The Byzantine Empire was the strongest enemy that the Tang Dynasty encountered in its external expansion. The land area they controlled was not much smaller than that of the Tang Dynasty, and their population was also extremely large. Their national power and military strength should not be underestimated.

Of course, the most important thing is that Datang is too far away from Europe, so it is very inconvenient to send troops whether by land or sea.

Therefore, Li Chengdao did not send a large army to conquer the Byzantine Empire.

You must know that the Tang Dynasty now has an army of millions. This is a true army of one million, and all of them are elite soldiers and strong generals.

With the current national power of the Tang Dynasty, it is easy to support an army of one million, and even expanding it several times is not a problem.

However, due to Li Chengdao's military philosophy of "it is not important to have many soldiers, but to value elites", the military establishment has been maintained at one million people.

But this one million army was enough for the Tang Dynasty to crush all the countries in the world.

These included the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine Empire was a country of slavery and caste system. Their national system destined them to be unable to compare with the Tang Dynasty.

The Maritime Expeditionary Force of the Tang Dynasty has never stopped fighting with the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire wants to take back the coastal territory, and the coastal areas have been established as colonies by the Tang Dynasty. How can they be allowed to take it back.

So the two sides continued to fight.

It's just that the Byzantine Empire has always been at a disadvantage. You must know that the Tang army is at the pinnacle of the world today in terms of weapons, soldier combat effectiveness, and logistical supplies. How can the Byzantine Empire be comparable?
That is to say, they can barely compete with their numerical and geographical advantages. If a million troops really arrive, the Byzantine Empire will be as fragile as paper.

Do you really think that Li Chengdao's ten years of hard work are in vain?
However, this three-year struggle finally changed three months ago.

……

Three months ago, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

In the magnificent palace, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was sitting on the throne, looking at the unanimous opinion given by the Senate, his face was very ugly.

"Huh! What a bunch of short-sighted, corrupt fools! The existence of the Senate is simply a mistake!"

Heraclius threw the opinion piece out of his hand and cursed with an ugly expression.

Heraclius' anger came from the Senate of the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine Empire was able to unify Europe for a reason. In addition to slavery and the caste system, they also had a very advanced constitutional monarchy.That is, the Senate is used to limit the monarch's rights and prevent the monarch from becoming dictatorial.

The Senate was expanded from the original Parliament of Ten. It played a very important role when the Byzantine Empire was just rising, allowing the country to avoid many wrong paths.

However, with the development, the Parliament was transformed into the Senate, and the functions of restricting the emperor remained unchanged, but the people in the Parliament were people from all major castes and nobles in the empire, which had changed.

The Senate has become a place for nobles to seek benefits.

Heraclius wanted to gather a large army and completely defeat the Tang army occupying the coastal area, but this was unanimously opposed by the Senate.

The reason is simple. Because of the three years of confrontation with the Tang army, the Byzantine Empire has been losing money and has not benefited at all.

The interests of the domestic nobles have also been greatly damaged.

Therefore, the elders of the Senate, who were representatives of the nobility, would naturally not agree to continue fighting with the Tang Expeditionary Force.

In their opinion, it is just a piece of land along the coast. What's the harm in giving it to those guys from the east?
White, delicate papers from the far east were flying in the hall and scattered everywhere.

Many courtiers and nobles in the palace heard Heraclius' extremely rude words, but they just pretended not to hear them and lowered their heads deeply.

At this time, a nobleman standing in front said: "Your Majesty, I think the opinion of the Senate is not unreasonable. We might as well give the land along the coast to the Tang people and stop fighting with them."

Hearing this, Heraclius immediately looked at the Duke, with unconcealable anger in his eyes, and said: "Mars, how could you have such a stupid idea! Don't you know how big the threat from Tang is? !”

"If we really allow them to take root in our empire, then within a few years, if we want to defeat them, we will have to pay a much heavier price!"

"The Tang State far in the east is a more powerful existence than our empire!"

Heraclius, a young monarch, had great foresight and military vision. He was very aware of the threat of the Tang Dynasty, so he wanted to prevent the Tang Dynasty expeditionary force from taking root on the coast of the empire at all costs.

This duke and nobleman named Mars was also one of the most prominent noblemen in the Byzantine Empire. He was one of Heraclius' supporters and someone he trusted.

So what Mars said made him feel extremely angry and confused.

Facing Heraclius' question, Mars bowed slightly and said without panic: "Your Majesty, it is difficult for us to violate the will of the Senate. Since we cannot violate it, we can only find ways to make the situation more favorable. .”

Through some Tang merchants who traveled to and from the empire, I learned that there was a miraculous crop called rice in the Tang Dynasty. This crop was the foundation of the prosperity of the entire Tang Dynasty and made their country no longer hungry.

We might as well cede the coastal land to them as a condition for peace, call a truce, and at the same time obtain this crop and the methods of cultivating, growing, and eating it from the Tang Dynasty, and then make good friends with the nobles of their country to find out the reason for their strength .

With the huge population of our empire, once the food problem is solved, we will have countless warriors who can fight for us; if we can learn the advanced technology of the Tang Dynasty, it will not be easy to expel those Tang armies, and there may even be expeditions to the east in the future. The possibility of conquering the Tang Dynasty! "

Mars’ eyes were bright and his words revealed great ambition!

(End of this chapter)