The cold wind mixed with drizzle whistled across the Densa River.
This is a large river in Bulgaria and an important tributary of the Maritsa River, the mother river of Bulgaria.
It originates from the southern foothills of the Balkan Mountains in northern Bulgaria, enters the border of Turkey and Greece in the south, and finally empties into the Aegean Sea.
Because this river is a north-south river, it plays an important blocking role in Bulgaria's defense against enemies brought from the Black Sea to the east.
While the Xia Kingdoms in the five far western provinces had just begun to mobilize, the army of Shu King Zhang Xiantai had been confronting the Bulgarian and Byzantine armies on the Densa River for more than four months.
Thirty-nine-year-old Zhang Xiantai has completely lost his youthfulness. The traces of wind and frost on his face and hands prove his hard work over the years.
But the more than 100,000 troops behind him also proved that he was about to get the coveted reward-entering Constantinople.
Lu Ketu rode his horse slowly and came to Zhang Xiantai's side. His father Lu Zhen and Lu Sanlang passed away ten years ago. The saint was grateful for his achievements and posthumously awarded him the title of King Dinghai, with the posthumous title of Zhongzhuang.
At the same time, Lu Ketu was also asked to send the armor and robes worn by Lu Sanlang to the divine capital to be buried with Zhang Zhao's own Zhaoling in a tomb.
At the same time, Zhang Zhao ordered craftsmen to carve a stone statue of King Dinghai crossing the Antishui (Volga River) and place it in Zhaoling to highlight Lu Sanlang's contributions.
Why did Zhang Zhao give such a marginalized figure such as Lu Sanlang such good posthumous treatment? That's because Zhang Xiantai, the king of Shu who Lu Sanlang followed, worked too hard and made too much credit.
Compared with them, the Xia kings in the five extreme western provinces had a much easier time. Whether they defeated the Persian Bweshi dynasty or the Hamdani dynasty, although there were fierce battles, the strength of the two sides was very different. There was only a shock but no danger at all. Not difficult.
At the same time, Hezhong, Khorasan, Persia proper, Dashi and other places are all ancient civilizations with a long history. The land is fertile, the products are rich, and the trade routes are smooth and developed very well.
Secondly, the population was large and the people had a lot of wealth. This can be seen from the fact that even a baron like Wei Yingxiong could rule 50,000 to 60,000 people.
Therefore, although the Xia kings of the five extreme western provinces were far away from the Central Plains and often had to suppress the dissatisfaction of the local people, it was not really a hardship.
As long as you adapt to the soil and water, endure the pain of homesickness, and are not afraid of bloodshed, this place will definitely be a better paradise than facing the loess in your hometown and turning your back to the sky.
But this was not the path taken by King Zhang Xiantai of the Shu Kingdom and Zhang Xianjiong, the King of the Liao Kingdom. The Ukrainian Great Plains where the lower reaches of the Volga River and the Dnieper River were located at this time were not the affluent plains of later generations.
On the contrary, this area has a cold temperate continental climate. When the Volga and Dnieper rivers pass through these great plains, they often arbitrarily change short-distance river courses due to the flat terrain, creating a large number of swamps along both sides of the rivers.
And due to the relatively cold climate, these wet swamps are more terrifying and hidden.
Historically, the lower reaches of the Volga River and the Ukrainian Great Plains have become the breadbasket of Europe. They have gone through hundreds of thousands of years of continuous development and been managed by generations of people.
In fact, not only Ukraine and the lower reaches of the Volga River, but also northern Germany are now large areas of wet and cold swamps. It is difficult to say how livable they are.
And there is an even scarier thing, that is, the existence of these wet and cold swamps will have a great impact on the climate, causing the temperature to drop, and long-term foggy weather after late summer. This causes relatively high-yielding plants such as wheat and rice to be unable to survive. The only thing that can be grown here is oats.
Oats are just like the highland barley from the Qingtang Plateau. They are unpalatable and low in carbohydrates. The yield per mu is one to two hundred kilograms, which is less than half of what is produced in China.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s impossible, but there are some areas that have been developed for farming, but they are all occupied by people.
These small pieces of cultivated land are separated by large areas of wet and cold swamps, making it extremely difficult to attack any place.
Heavy weapons cannot be transported, and even the armor coverage rate of the troops cannot be too high, otherwise armor weapons cannot be transported and other materials cannot be transported.
Therefore, Zhang Xiantai's road to conquest has always been relatively difficult. The battle is not difficult, but the difficult thing is to find the person and which way to fight him after finding the person.
Under such difficult conditions, Zhang Xiantaixian conquered the Kipchak-Kimak alliance in the 11th year of Qianyuan, that is, 970 AD.
He brought a large number of these barbarians who believed in primitive shamanism into his jurisdiction, and obtained the allegiance of tribes whose territory was equivalent to most of Kazakhstan and the lower reaches of the Ob River in Russia.
After another three years of forcibly promoting the Six Methods Sect and quelling dozens of rebellions, Zhang Xiantai won the complete surrender of more than 20,000 households and 150,000 people, allowing him to draw 15,000 to 20,000 people from here at any time. Fifteen thousand retinues and cavalry.
Then in the 16th year of Qianyuan, AD 975, Zhang Xiantai cooperated with Zhang Xianjiong, the king of the Liao Kingdom who had already established a foothold in the river, and jointly attacked and occupied the vast territory from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, with more than 400,000 people. Go to the Pechenegs, the cunning and tough Turkic survivors.
The great king of the Liao Kingdom, Zhang Xianjiong, was born to Yelu Abli and was more familiar with the grassland people than Zhang Xiantai, who was born to Dafu. At the same time, because the Khitan people were extremely devout to the Six Methods Sect, the religious personnel in Zhang Xianjiong's army were far more professional and kind than those in Zhang Xiantai's army. powerful.
After the two joined forces, they began to fight with the Pechenegs who could not fight and ran away on a large area of land from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
They gradually reduced the scope of activities of the Pechenegs by building fortresses, setting up beacon towers, cutting off trade routes, and burning grain and pasture.
In the 21st year of Qianyuan, in 980 AD, the Pechenegs who could not escape fought a decisive battle with the Shu and Liao army at Sacker Castle on the left bank of the Don River (northeast of Crimea).
Prior to this, in order to fight against the Shu-Liao army, the Pechenegs even surrendered to their former enemies, the Russians, in exchange for the help of the Grand Duke of Kiev, Vladimir I.
Therefore, what the Shu Liao army faced this time was a combined army with 7,000 Russian heavy infantry and 4,000 heavy cavalry as the center army, and 55,000 Pecheneg light cavalry as the left and right wings.
However, when things got to this point, the outcome was already clear. The reason why the Pechenegs were able to withstand the Shu-Liao army for almost five years was because they moved flexibly, making it impossible for the Shu-Liao army to catch anyone.
Now once they are in position and the decisive battle begins, they will be unable to withstand the attack of the Shu Liao army.
In addition, the Russian infantry is said to be heavy infantry, but it is just rubbish infantry wearing a piece of rotten leather armor and a small amount of iron armor. It is completely incomparable with the Sichuan and Liao coalition forces who are armed to the teeth.
As soon as the battle started, Zhang Xiantai asked Zhang Xianjiong to take command. He and Ruktu led 30,000 light cavalry on the left and right to attack the enemy's flanks composed of Pecheneg light cavalry.
Shu Liao's light cavalry are equipped with a large number of horn crossbows and sophisticated horse bows, and some also have three-eyed muskets. These are useless against the Han's heavy armored cavalry, but they are useless against the Pechenegs who only have rotten leather armor. The light cavalry is still very powerful.
A bullet from the three-eyed gun can easily break through the armor of the Pechenegs. After three rounds, the three-eyed gun can be swung directly to hit the iron bump. It is also longer than the Pechenegs' carbines and sabers.
In just two quarters of an hour, the Shu Liao cavalry successfully defeated the numerous Pecheneg light cavalry on both wings. These grassland tribes had little discipline to begin with. After being defeated, they quickly abandoned their newly recognized masters, the Russians, and fled in all directions.
Zhang Xiantai didn't care about the Pechenegs at all, because they didn't have much place to run.
In recent years, the Sichuan-Liao coalition forces have dealt a huge blow to the Pecheneg people's economy. They do not have enough food, livestock, and clothing to keep out the cold. Going further north is a death march.
The only escape route for these Turkic survivors is to go northwest into Kievan Rus' territory, so Zhang Xiantai only needs to kill all the 10,000 Rus' elites who came to help in the battle.
In this way, the entire Russian army was wiped out and the Pechenegs were only injured. Then Vladimir I would never be able to convince his subjects to accept these steppe barbarians.
Therefore, the Shu Liao army blocked the retreat of the Russians who wanted to escape. They first fired with bows and crossbows, and then the heavy infantry went up to break the formation. After the formation was scattered, the heavy cavalry went up to attack.
To say that these Russians are also strong, in such a huge gap and desperate situation, they actually withstood the first round of attacks and did not collapse until the second armored cavalry attack.
Just as Zhang Xiantai expected, just when the Sichuan-Liao coalition forces were massacring the Russian army, the Pechenegs who had fled long ago came back.
They sat on their horses and watched from a distance. After seeing Zhang Xianta mercilessly killing all the Russians who knelt down and begged, their spirits completely collapsed.
Before Zhang Xiantai could send light cavalry to pursue them, the Pechenegs sent a messenger to express their willingness to surrender.
Zhang Xiantai personally killed the messenger and ignored it, and then internal strife broke out among the Pechenegs.
During the war, among the eight Pecheneg tribes, the leader of the Kuolezhu tribe, who had a tough and confrontational attitude, Yibaousi, and the chief of the Yiertian tribe, Baizansi, were killed.
He had early contact with Zhang Xiantai, and Kuo'er Kuotai, the chief of the Ji La tribe who wanted to submit to him, was elected as the leader.
Kuo'er Kuotai killed all the opponents, and led the eight Pecheneg tribes to throw away their swords and kneel on the spot to plead. Only then did Zhang Xiantai accept their surrender.
In this battle, more than 2,000 Pechenegs were killed by the formation, and the remaining more than 300,000 tribesmen surrendered one after another. Zhang Xiantai divided them into four 10,000 households and named the two 10,000 households Dongchuan and Xichuan. His younger brother Zhang Xianjiong, the king of the Liao Kingdom, led two households of ten thousand, named Yu Ling and Rilian.
The Russians, who were full of joy and wanted to take advantage of the situation, became the biggest losers. All 11,000 people were killed, their bodies were thrown into the Don River, and their heads were built into a two- to three-foot-high capital outside Sacker Fort. View.
At this point, the Shu-Liao coalition occupied a vast territory from the northern shore of the Caspian Sea to the northern shore of the Black Sea.
The King of Shu, Zhang Xiantai, and the King of Liao, Zhang Xianjiong, constantly recruited athletes from the grasslands and central China, and at the same time recruited people who believed in the Liufa Sect from the three provinces of Hezhong, Baoshan, and Xiliu to reclaim wasteland and build inns and roads in this vast land. , open up the transportation line to the river.
Of course, the most important thing is to vigorously promote the Six Dharma Sect, and everyone must convert.
After five years of this, the more than 5,000-mile road from Odessa to Kangju City in the middle of the river was complete with forts, inns, and beacon towers, and the basic roads were simply repaired and maintained.
If there is an emergency, it only takes twenty-three days to convey the news from Xinxinzhou (Odessa) to Hezhong Kangju (Bukhara). If Hezhong is rescued by light cavalry, it will arrive within fifty days.
Therefore, with the support of the Xia Kingdoms in Hezhong, Zhang Xiantai and Zhang Xianjiong parted ways in the 23rd year of Qianyuan and 982 AD.
Zhang Xiantai, the king of Shu, marched southwest to attack the Bulgarians who were at constant war with the Byzantine Empire.
Zhang Xianjiong, the king of the Liao Kingdom, went north to attack the Principality of Kievan Rus.
The two agreed that if Zhang Xiantai conquered the Bulgarians first, they would need to mobilize all their forces to help Zhang Xianjiong defeat the Magyar people who were about to establish the Kingdom of Hungary, the shield of God at this time.
If Zhang Xianjiong captures Kiev and conquers the Russians first, then he will deploy all his troops and horses to help Zhang Xiantai defeat the Byzantines and take control of Constantinople.
Another cold wind blew, and the sound of horse hooves sounded in the distance. After a while, the messengers with flags came back, and brought news from the front line.
More than four months of confrontation made the Byzantine Empire's army exhausted, coupled with internal instability, the Byzantine army coach Bardas Skoleru decided to withdraw his troops first.
He informed the Bulgarians of the matter, hoping that they would also abandon the Densa River and retreat to the heartland of Macedonia in the east, relying on the steepness of the Balkan Mountains to resist Zhang Xiantai's attack.
Zhang Xiantai screamed in the sky for twenty years. When he was 19 years old, he vowed to be a fierce man like Antira Khan who brought nightmares to the Roman Empire. However, reality forced him further and further away from his dream.
Because Zhang Xiantai met military geniuses like Nikephorus II and John I, his several attacks were repelled by these two men and the Bulgarians.
The Qinghai (Black Sea) fleet that was painstakingly built with dozens of warships was completely burned by a Greek fire.
That fire was the most memorable scene in Zhang Xian's life. It almost destroyed all his dreams. At that time, he even considered returning to Luoyang, the capital of God, to lie down.
But the emperor paid off. In the desperate situation, Zhang Xiantai activated the Turtle Breathing Technique. At this moment, the souls of Sima Yi and Tokugawa Ieyasu possessed them.
Comrade Zhang Xiantai, the great king of Shu, spent twenty years of his life to survive Nikephorus II and John I, and finally survived until the Byzantine Empire's military genius emperor passed away, and the country fell into chaos.
What do we say about the Byzantine Empire now? Its system is a little different from what the Chinese think. People like Nikephoros II and John I were not actually the real Byzantine emperors.
They were actually representatives of the military aristocracy of Asia Minor. After entering the court of Constantinople through war and various channels, they quickly took over power. According to Chinese custom, they should be called regents.
For example, during the period of Nikephorus II and John I, the real Byzantine emperor was the young Basil II.
Nikephoros II became co-emperor with Basil II by marrying Basil II's mother Theophano.
John I was the lover of Basil II's mother Theophano. After he killed his uncle Nikephorus II, he also began to rule together with Basil II.
What does this amount to? The regent may not be accurate. It should be that he did not follow the rules when entering the court, paid no praises, went to the palace with swords and shoes, used the emperor's ax to drive during holidays, wore the crown of the emperor, was the governor of Chinese and foreign military affairs, recorded the affairs of the minister, granted the title of King of Wei, and opened the Bafu. This status coupled with the privilege of staying in the dragon bed overnight.
Nikephoros II was the Roman Dorgon, and John I was the Roman Cao Mengde.
With these two tough men, they keenly saw the threat of Zhang Xiantai and decisively gave up their original policy of suppressing the Bulgarians. They instead used Orthodox Christianity as a weapon to recruit Bulgarians, provided weapons and food to the Bulgarians, and even directly helped Bulgarians. People fight against Zhang Xiantai.
After Zhang Xianta's Qinghai (Black Sea) fleet was destroyed, the Byzantine Empire even tried to contact the Russians and Pechenegs to completely eliminate Zhang Xianta.
If Zhang Xianyu had not personally led an army of 30,000 infantry and cavalrymen from the Xia Kingdom to arrive at all costs, Zhang Xiantai was almost defeated by the 70,000 coalition forces formed by John I.
Under this strategy, the young Zhang Xiantai came from thousands of miles away, so he naturally had no choice but to unite the Bulgarians and the Byzantine Empire.
But fortunately, after the expedition organized by John I returned without success, it was too expensive and led to nationwide opposition, and he could no longer launch a second one.
Zhang Xianta was able to work with Zhang Xianjiong to eliminate the Pechenegs, severely damage the Russians, and stabilize the situation.
On the Byzantine side, after the death of John I, the martial arts of Asia Minor, who had tasted the benefits, introduced Bardas Skeleru as co-emperor.
But Basil II was now an adult, and he no longer wanted to be manipulated by tyrant ministers, and he no longer wanted another man to sleep in his mother Theophano's bed.
Therefore, Basil II used his orthodox status and the opposition of the Constantinople nobles and ministers to the martial arts in Asia Minor to prevent Bardas Sklerlu from entering Constantinople.
He also vigorously promoted another Asia Minor warrior, Badas Phocas, to check and balance Badas Skoleru to maintain balance.
So now, the Byzantine Empire is very chaotic. Emperor Basil II was unable to prevent Bardas Skoleru from becoming co-emperor, and had actually lost control of most of the territory in Asia Minor.
Bardas Sklerlu was unable to control Constantinople and Basil II like his predecessors Nikephoros II and John I. His reputation was not justified, and his power was greatly suppressed.
Both of these men are now cripples. They have divided the empire and greatly weakened the empire's ability to fight externally.
Now, Zhang Xianta keeps attacking the Bulgarians, pushing them to the edge of the cliff, but he is not trying to eliminate the Bulgarians.
There was no need. What Zhang Xianta wanted to do was to conquer the Bulgarians and then take them to attack Constantinople.
The purpose of this confrontation was to make the Bulgarians give up, let them see the chaos in Byzantium, understand that the Byzantines could no longer support them, and make the Bulgarian Czar Samuel surrender to him and convert to the Six Dharma Sect.
Badas Skoleru left. Although he knew that if he left, the Bulgarians would be doomed and there would be no peace on the Byzantine frontier in the future, but he had to leave.
Because Vasily II took advantage of the four months of his confrontation with Zhang Xiantai to continuously win over the centrists and suppress his political allies. If he did not go back, he would die.
To put it bluntly, if Byzantium dies, Bardas Skeleru will not necessarily die. He can go to the plateau of Asia Minor and continue to be his feudal lord. Even if he has to die, even if he has to die, even if he has to die, even if he has to die. But there is a high probability that the family can still be saved.
But if he doesn't go back now, his whole family and even his entire clan will be doomed by the time Vasily II completes his arrangements.
Under such circumstances, the fool would not continue to lead a group of Asia Minor legions to death by the Densa River.
Seeing the Byzantine army retreating, Zhang Xianda waved his hand, "Luketu, go in person and be sure to entangle the Bulgarians. I will kill half of them before they can retreat to Macedonia.
Since Samuel dares to call himself czar, he is dead. I will kill his whole family. I only need an obedient collaborator. "
Following Zhang Xiantai's order, the 60,000-strong army immediately took action. They had a large number of Shu cavalry, mainly composed of elite cavalry from the East Asian steppes, supplemented by Kipchaks, Pechenegs, Khazars and other Turkic remnants. They were far more powerful than the Bulgarian cavalry. .
Now that the Byzantines have retreated, even if the two sides are separated by forty miles, the Bulgarians cannot escape. The only options waiting for them are surrender and the defeat of the entire army.
. . . .
Along the Dnieper River, northeast of Kiev, Zhang Nengqi led a tall and strong white horse decorated with a silver saddle and golden bells. On the left side was a long baolette with a cold light, and on the right side were a mulberry long bow and a fine horn crossbow.
Behind the white horse was a brown horse that was shorter but obviously had better endurance. The brown horse carried a very clean cloth-covered iron armor and the white horse's vest on its back, just like it was carrying a small hill.
Guji! Zhang Nengqi struggled to pull out his right foot from the muddy black soil and stepped forward heavily.
Then his left foot sank deep into the mud again, and he had no choice but to pull it up again, and then continued to pull out his right foot, which had sunk deep into the mud again.
"Damn it, this idiot Vladimir can't even build a road, but he is praised as a wise king by the Russians. What a bunch of stupid barbarians!"
Zhang Nengqi complained loudly, and a young general behind him heard it and nodded his head.
"If you don't call him a barbarian, he wouldn't even be a prefect in China at this level.
Mr. Dalang, I heard that the streets in Luoyang, the capital of the gods, are paved with bluestones. They are wide enough for a group of people to walk parallel to each other. The food shops on both sides sell delicacies that are hard to find in the sky. I don’t know when we can go back. Get to know me! "
Upon hearing this, Zhang Nengqi sighed and stopped, stretching his neck to look east.
He left the Middle Earth when he was still in his mother's womb, and has lived in this extreme western wilderness since he was born, but the names of cities such as Shendu, Chang'an, and Tokyo seemed to be imprinted in his mind.
How many times had he heard his father describe the prosperity of Middle-earth and his mouth watered. He really couldn't imagine what it was like.
"It's almost time. Father said that Aweng is not in good health and wants to see us grandchildren before returning to the immortal class. At that time, I will ask you, Xiao Siqian, to come back with me at some point."
"That's a good relationship, thank you Dalangjun for your kindness!" Xiao Siqian beamed happily when he heard this, and seemed to walk with more energy.
The group of people walked for more than a mile when the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance. It turned out that the scout who went to explore the road came back. He winked and shouted to Zhang Nengqi from a distance:
"Your Majesty, there are still fifteen miles to go to Chernihiv. It's getting late now, and there is a village ahead where a bride is being married. Your Majesty can just go and have a rest and be happy."
The road of conquest for Zhang Xianjiong, the king of the Liao Kingdom, was much easier than that of his brother Zhang Xiantai, the king of the Shu Kingdom.
Because under the Principality of Kievan Rus, neither the Rus nor other ethnic groups have as brilliant a culture as Byzantium.
Without this thing, it would be difficult to have an early national consciousness. Some people would also differentiate between themselves and outsiders based on the size of tribes or even families.
In addition, the territory where Kievan Rus is located is also relatively cold. It is said to be a principality, but in fact the power of the Grand Duke is not much greater than that of the tribal leader.
Poverty, barbarism and difficulty in life mean that there are not so many rules and twists and turns in the Russian society. Whoever has a big fist has the truth.
It doesn't matter what you look like or where you come from, as long as you can knock me down, you are the master and the master.
Not to mention that 11,000 people died in the battle at Fort Sacker, which had already left the Russians exhausted.
Therefore, in just three years, Zhang Xianjiong won three victories in three battles, destroyed the last armed forces of Kievan Rus in the city of Kiev, and killed Grand Duke Vladimir I of Kiev.
Even the Novgorod nobles in the north who had not been attacked had already sent people to Kiev to express their surrender.
Coarse black bread, a large pot of oatmeal porridge, with a few pieces of meat appearing and disappearing in the porridge, but there is a lot of fish. The village is on the bank of the Dnieper River, and there is no shortage of salted fish or fresh fish.
Zhang Nengqi sat proudly in the central square of the village, while the village chief led all the villagers, regardless of gender, old or young, to kneel in front of Zhang Nengqi, waiting tremblingly for the lecture from this big man from the East.
In front of Zhang Nengqi, a woman wearing a dark red dress and a little makeup on her face was kneeling to clean his muddy black leather boots.
Judging from the gray-black and gray-white clothes that are very different from the villagers, this must be the bride who has just got married.
Zhang Nengqi leaned down, reached out and pinched the bride's chin and lifted it up.
He has an oval face and big eyes, but the skin on his face is a bit as red as frozen meat. There is a circle of thin freckles on his cheeks, which you can't even see if you don't pay attention.
The skin on the hands is also very rough, and it looks like they have been worked hard, and the chest is quite big, which must have been eaten by fish and shrimps.
Average looking, but passable.
The bride trembled slightly. It was very common in Russia for a lord to have the right of the bride's first night. It was the lord's freedom to use it or not, but this power must be available.
"Leda, let go of my Leda, let her go!"
There was a roar of pain, and the groom appeared. He broke through the door and rushed out with a huge scythe in his hand.
But before he could threaten Zhang Nengqi, the kneeling village chief and men in the village swarmed up and held him down.
There was a look of fear in the village chief's eyes. A dozen days ago, a village not far from here disobeyed the Khan's will and was directly ordered to kill all the men. All the women were taken to Kiev and became the lowest slaves. .
Zhang Nengqi's eyes lit up. The strong man from Ross in front of him was very tall. He could obviously break away from the villagers, or even knock them down, but he did not do so.
"Bai Er, go and test the quality of this barbarian." Zhang Nengqi tilted his head, and a strong man from Zheng Fan in the river stepped forward.
But the result was unexpected. Bai Er, who had been practicing martial arts since childhood, was holding a short sword and was beaten back by this strong man from Ross.
Seeing that Bai Er's face was a little confused and he was about to pull out the Hengdao and Guduo from his waist, Zhang Nengqi stood up with a long laugh. He grabbed Bai Er's arm to take the Hengdao, and also pulled off Xiao Siqian's sperm from his waist. Iron horizontal knife.
"You are still a warrior. Let's follow a certain family and be a pawn!" After saying that, Zhang Nengqi threw the horizontal knife to the ground.
In an instant, the face of the strong man who was still extremely sad and angry showed an expression of uncontrollable ecstasy.
The Ross area is bitterly cold, and it is difficult to make a living by farming or fishing. At the lowest level, two people starve to death, seventy people suffer from starvation, and one of them can barely eat. It is not an exaggeration to call it hell.
In the past, although the Russians could go south and plunder the Byzantine Empire, the Byzantine Empire was not a soft persimmon. Moreover, the Russians accepted the orthodox religion from Constantinople as their faith, so it was somewhat psychologically burdensome to plunder.
But since the arrival of the Liao King, nicknamed the Terrible Khan, the Russians have become much more confident about plundering Byzantium.
Because the Great Khan had invulnerable armored cavalry, it greatly weakened Byzantium's equipment advantage.
Under their leadership, the Russians did not have to attack the enemy on their own, but only needed to attack. At the same time, the spread of the Six Dharma Sect also freed the Russians from the guilt of going south.
"The person in front of you is the crown prince of the Liao Kingdom, and you're a lowly slave who still doesn't kowtow!"
Xiao Siqian reluctantly watched the fine horizontal knife he had just bought become someone else's, and shouted angrily.
When they heard that this noble man from the East turned out to be the prince, the villagers immediately exclaimed.
But their focus was not on the identity of the prince, but on Zhang Nengqi being the grandson of the reincarnated god and Buddha.
In ecstasy, the strong man Ross walked all the way to Zhang Nengqi on his knees. He raised his head and looked at Zhang Nengqi with the eyes of a baby looking at his father. His light blue eyes were full of longing.
"Alyosha has endless strength. Alyosha is not afraid of death or tiredness. He only hopes to become the pure son of the descendants of God!"
The emergence of the Six Dharma Sect perfectly matched the early Russian people’s longing for patriarchs and pursuit of holy fools. This was the national choice of the Russian people in extreme pain and poverty.
One of the reasons why many of them quickly abandoned Byzantine Orthodoxy was that the Six Dharma Sect was more suitable for this land than Orthodoxy.
Because the Six Methods Sect was originally designed by Zhang Zhao to deal with the bitter and cold grassland people like the Russians.
Zhang Nengqi nodded and took out a small copper seal from his pocket. The pattern on the seal was very simple, it was a swastika.
Xiao Siqian skillfully put the seal on the fire and began to bake it until it was red-hot before taking it back.
Alyosha had already torn open his clothes with his hands, and in the envious eyes of all the Ross villagers, he asked Zhang Nengqi to brand the seal heavily on his chest, which was covered with chest hair.
At the same time, everyone in this cavalry team of more than 100 people stood solemnly and chanted the Compassion Mantra of the Great Merciful Dharma King.
Some non-Han people also opened their chest clothes, revealing the slightly ferocious swastika mark on their chests.
Alyosha remained silent until Zhang Nengqi took off the seal on his chest before he excitedly shouted: "Little loving father! Alyosha has finally become your son. From now on, he will always serve you like a son serving his father." !”
"My dear father sees your loyalty, Alyosha.
He will grant you infinite courage and indestructible will. From today on, you have a sacred surname - Yelu.
Every man of the Yelu family can get a hundred serfs and endless wealth in the warm land of the south. "
The establishment of the Great and Little Loving Father, the brand name, and the surnames Yelu and Xiao were all new things created by Zhang Xianjiong, the king of the Liao Kingdom, and Zhang Nengqi, the eldest son of the Liao Kingdom.
As expected, only those who are religious themselves can adapt their practices to local conditions.
At the same time, in the city of Kiev, Zhang Xianjiong, who was called the Terrible Khan by the Russians and Pechenegs, received a letter from his brother Zhang Xiantai, the king of Shu.
He immediately summoned all his Han, Russian, Pecheneg, Khazar, Kipchak, and Kimak leaders to the palace to gather together.
"Five years ago, Gu and his brother made an appointment to attack the Byzantines together. Today the time is ripe. You each go back and bring the warriors from each city within twenty days. We will bring the wealthy gentlemen to the throne before the birthday of the Supreme Heavenly Father. Tantinople is dedicated to him!"
Cheers suddenly erupted, and leaders of various colors bowed down one after another to express their loyalty. Under the guidance of the swastika flag, they would capture Constantinople!
The plot and ideas of the new book are still a little unclear and have been constantly being revised, but it is expected to be available to everyone within next week.
