amaotonovel Chapter 1130 The Age of Great Conquest
Chapter 1130 The Age of Great Conquest
Chapter 1130 The Age of Great Conquest
Regarding this campaign of Zhu Di's westward expedition, Eastern history books call it "the westward migration of Sinology" and Western history books call it the "Era of Great Conquest."
Through this great Western Expedition, the corrupt theocracy of the Western world was directly destroyed. At this critical juncture in the early Renaissance, Westerners became aware of the overwhelming power of Chinese civilization.
Sometimes, war is indeed the most convenient way to spread civilization. Because Zhu Di's westward expedition completely changed the pattern of the entire Western world. The westward advance of the Ming army did not bring devastating damage to Europe like the previous westward expeditions of Genghis Khan and Attila. On the contrary, because of the short-term rule of the Ming army in the western cities during the westward expedition, they vigorously built water conservancy projects, encouraged agriculture and sericulture, and killed unscrupulous nobles, which made some Western people have a great favor for the Ming culture.
For the first time, they realized that they did not need to pray to go to heaven after death, but could live a good life while they were alive; they did not need to pay heavy taxes to the nobles, and the rulers would even help them dredge ditches, dig canals, and judge cases and redress grievances.
At the same time, some Western intellectuals also developed a great interest in the Ming Dynasty, a country from the East, and the Ming people's coming to the West gave them the opportunity to get in touch with Chinese culture. Zhu Di's Western Expedition was not only a military expedition, but also promoted a collision and exchange between Eastern and Western civilizations.
Just as the Westerners invaded the Qing Dynasty when it was closed to the outside world and lagged behind the rest of the world, which led to the Eastern civilization to learn from the West and catch up, and even many public intellectuals who worshipped foreign things appeared. Because of Zhu Di's substantial victory in the Eastern Expedition, the Western civilization of this era began to learn from China crazily.
After this Eastern Expedition, most Western wise men became "public intellectuals" who admired China and Ming Dynasty, and began to vigorously promote Chinese civilization and culture.
After all, the Chinese civilization at that time was undoubtedly far superior to Western civilization.
The essence of the Renaissance in the West was to break the shackles of theocracy under the guise of "Renaissance Art". The Chinese culture presented to them was undoubtedly much more reliable than the so-called "Renaissance Art", so these Western sages naturally fought against theocracy by promoting Chinese culture.
Later, the most influential doctrine in the West gradually changed from theology to Sinology. Countless Western people of insight began to learn Chinese Confucianism, and countless Western civilians no longer worshipped their own gods, but instead worshipped Chinese gods such as Haotian. China undoubtedly became the center of the world, and laid a good cultural foundation for Europe to join the Chinese Alliance hundreds of years later.
However, these are all things that happened later. Although Zhu Di's Western Expedition had a profound cultural impact on later generations, it was actually based on the military achievements at the time. And the situation at the time was not very clear to Zhu Di.
Zhu Di brought 100,000 troops from the Ming Dynasty, but in reality, there were only 30,000 Han soldiers and horses. The rest were mostly a mob recruited from the grasslands.
Even though the soldiers from the three sultanates were later dispatched to join the soldiers from Kangju City and Mahamu from Sindhu, the total number of troops was less than 150,000. Even though the Crusaders suffered a great defeat, the soldiers who regrouped in the west of Kangju City still had 150,000.
Because of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the huge profits from the maritime trade in the East, the war in Europe had basically been put to an end at this time. In addition to vigorously developing maritime trade, the attention of all European nobles was basically focused on this Crusade.
Therefore, soldiers from Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, Venice, England and other countries were still coming in a steady stream, and in fact Zhu Di's military strength was still at a disadvantage.
Facing such a situation, Zhu Di made his move quickly. He learned from Zhang Dingbian and Yao Guangxiao about the previous battle process of defending Kangju City, and deduced that the Crusaders had a fatal weakness of having no commander and fighting on their own.
Therefore, he decided not to wait for the arrival of the troops from the three subsequent sultanates, and continued to lead his tired soldiers to go around the side of the Crusaders at night, and set up more flags in the front to confuse the enemy.
The Crusaders who had gathered together with great difficulty had no idea that Zhu Di would suddenly attack from the side. Without unified command, they were unable to organize a decent counterattack in the face of the surprise attack and could only continue to retreat.
Zhu Di led his elite troops to chase the Crusaders for hundreds of miles, and fought several battles with the Crusaders. These Crusaders, who had experienced the wars of the Middle Ages, were by no means weak troops, and Zhu Di also suffered a few losses.
But overall, the Ming army still had more wins than losses.
The battle line was pushed all the way to the former Ottoman Empire, and the Crusaders' fleeing finally stopped. In Ottoman territory, many other Crusaders who were looting and killing pagans felt the threat of the Ming army and gathered one after another. Zhu Di also stopped blindly attacking and chose confrontation because of poor logistics.
The Crusaders relied on the mighty city of Constantinople as a backing and intended to launch a counterattack against the Ming army. Zhu Di, on the advice of Yao Guangxiao, began to win over the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. He won over Mehmed I, the son of the late Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, and promised to help him revive the Ottoman Empire in exchange for Mehmed I leading his army to join the Ming army in the Western Expedition. With the addition of Mehmed I, the Ming finally had a news channel and ruling foundation in the local area, and began to continue to press the Crusaders entrenched in the former Ottoman territory.
The first major battle of the "Great Age of Conquest" has begun.
The two sides fought a great battle in Ankara. In the original history, Bayezid I and Timur also decided the winner here. But at this time, both sides of the war had gone in the opposite direction from the original history. In this battle, the Ming army once again relied on the power of firearms to successfully defeat the heavy armored knights of the Crusaders. The Crusaders won a bloody victory and were defeated again.
The Ottoman Empire was restored and became a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty, the Ottoman Empire, the Mahmadu Sultanate, the Khalil Sultanate, and the Ali Taz Sultanate advanced on Constantinople. Constantinople, which had just been relieved for a year, became an isolated city again, facing a siege of 200,000 people.
The siege methods of the East were far superior to those of the West, not to mention that Zhu Di also brought cannons with him on this trip.
After half a year of siege, Zhu Di waited for the cannons to be transported from the rear, and then successfully blasted open the gates of Constantinople, and planted the flag of China on the old Roman capital that was known as "never falling."
After several months of preparation, Zhu Di sent out troops again without stopping, conquering Serbia, where the remnants of the Crusaders were stationed, and then expeditioned to Albania, bringing it under the rule of the Western Expedition Army. In the second year of the expedition, the Ming army actually controlled all the land from the Danube to Anatolia. The kings of Hungary and Poland were terrified and asked for help from Western countries. The entire West felt the powerful pressure from the East.
The two popes in Rome and Avignon once again called on nobles from various countries to organize more crusaders to rush to the front line and stop the attack from the Ming army.
(End of this chapter)