amaotonovel Chapter 1112 The Threat of the Zi Army
Chapter 1112 The Threat of the Zi Army
Chapter 1112 The Threat of the Crusaders
"wait wait wait……"
The amount of information in the priest's words was so great that even Zhu Su was surprised and stopped Jacob who was talking in broken Chinese.
"You said you defeated Osman?"
"You can actually defeat Osman?"
Zhu Su was obviously a little unconvinced.
"Those pagans of the Ottoman Empire certainly cannot block the glory of the Lord..." Jacob held his head high with a proud look on his face.
He kept talking about how pagans would go to hell and the glory of the Lord would shine everywhere. Zhu Su listened patiently for a while, but he didn't get any useful information, so he glanced at Di Meng impatiently.
Di Meng pretended to draw his sword, and the priest named Jacob stopped his endless chatter.
"This is not what I want to hear. Tell me the whole process of your conflict with Osman... This is the purpose of summoning you here."
Zhu Su said.
Jacob was somewhat dissatisfied, but looking at the ferocious Di Meng, he still told Zhu Su everything he knew.
It turned out that several years ago, when the Ming Dynasty was recuperating and preparing for the recovery of Annan, a spectacular battle took place at the western border between Europe and Asia.
The two warring parties were the Ottoman Empire and the Western Church Crusaders. For a long time, the powerful rise of the Ottoman Empire was a sword hanging over the heads of the European countries ruled by the church.
The rise of the Ottoman Empire was too rapid. This small tribe, originally composed of descendants of Turks, defeated the Byzantine Empire, the last glory of the Roman Empire, repeatedly in just a few decades, and swallowed up all of Byzantine territory, leaving only the capital Constantinople with its high walls and fortified moats unconquered.
The Byzantine Empire, which was left with only a lonely city, had to seek help from the European Church. In Europe, the Muslim Ottoman Empire had always been hostile to the Catholic European countries. They regarded the Ottoman Empire as a pagan and feared that the Ottoman Empire's strength would bring disaster to European countries.
Therefore, under the leadership of the Holy See, European countries formed a large coalition of crusaders to rescue the Byzantine Empire under the iron hoof of the Ottoman Empire.
The two sides fought a fierce battle in a place called Nicopolis...
"The Crusaders...actually won the Battle of Nicopolis?" Zhu Su's brows had already wrinkled into the shape of a "川" character.
The threat posed by the Ottoman Empire to European countries was similar in the history of the previous life. In the history of the previous life, European countries also formed a large number of crusaders to conquer the Ottoman Empire.
This battle was a famous battle in the Middle Ages and the last large-scale Crusade in the "Crusades". It took place in 1396 AD, the th year of Hongwu.
Historically, this last large-scale Crusade of the European Church ended in failure. The Ottoman Sultan "Lightning" Bayezid I defeated the bloated Crusaders. Since then, the Ottoman Empire completed the conquest of the Balkans and began to covet the whole of Europe, seeing that Muslims were about to rule Europe again.
The powerful Ottoman Empire made the Church and the whole of Europe tremble. Bayezid was also sharpening his sword, full of ambition to destroy Byzantium, take control of Constantinople, and then attack Europe...
However, as fate would have it, Bayezid, a pagan demon in the eyes of Europeans, met his nemesis before he could lead his powerful empire to realize his terrible ambition... Timur the Lame suddenly appeared and defeated the elite of the powerful Ottoman Empire in one battle, strangling the Ottoman prosperity halfway.
After helping Europeans solve the terrible Ottoman Empire, the ambitious Timur the Great died on the way to the east to conquer the Ming Dynasty. After that, Timur's vast empire fell into division and no longer posed any threat to Europe.
Two powerful foreign enemies that were enough to destroy the whole of Europe were eliminated at the same time by accident, and Europeans were able to safely begin the era of the Renaissance, followed by the great voyages of discovery, the Industrial Revolution... and left the East far behind.
At this point in time, Timur was destroyed by Zhu Di and Zhu Su before he could defeat Bayezid... Zhu Su originally thought that the rise of the Ottoman Empire would be unstoppable. He discussed this matter with Zhu Di, and they agreed that it would be more beneficial than harmful for China to sit back and watch the Ottoman Empire, this beast, disrupt the Renaissance in the European world.
However, it was unexpected that the Ottoman Empire did not fall to Timur the Lame, but was ultimately defeated by the European Crusaders.
What Zhu Su didn't know was that the victory of this Crusade was inextricably linked to the Ming Dynasty.
The Crusaders in this battle were a coalition of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of France, the Knights Hospitaller, the Republic of Venice, and other legions and individuals from all over Europe, which was no different from history.
It was only because the Ming Dynasty had conquered the New World early on that European countries, coveting the gold in the New World, were committed to developing their maritime power and conducting trade with the Ming Dynasty, which indirectly led to a reduction in the chaotic wars in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The commanders of the troops of each Crusader country were independent of each other, but because the atmosphere in Europe had become less tense, there was some coordination between the armies that had previously had no coordination at all.
At the same time, due to the prosperity of trade between Ming Dynasty and European countries, a telescope produced in Ming Dynasty flowed into the hands of the commander of the Venetian army through some unknown channel.
Later generations believed that the main reason for the defeat of the Crusaders in the Battle of Nicopolis was that the French knights who launched the charge were too out of formation and were surrounded by the Ottoman army. However, thanks to the monocular telescope that flowed from the Ming Dynasty, the Venetian commander discovered the crisis at the most critical moment of the battle and gave a timely warning, thus avoiding the great defeat of the French knights.
Because of this little butterfly effect, the history of the entire Europe and the Ottoman Empire has undergone earth-shaking changes. After the Ming Dynasty, the whole world began to move towards an unknown direction.
"The Ottoman Empire...was actually defeated..." Zhu Su leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyebrows with a headache.
To be honest, the Ottoman Empire's attitude towards the Ming Dynasty was not much better. However, the Ottoman Empire, which was located at the junction of Europe and Asia, was like a high wall separating the Ming Dynasty from the European countries.
After all, the Ottoman Empire was bent on encroaching on Byzantium, and historically speaking, it would take the Ottoman Empire no time to capture the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
After all, Constantinople was the capital of Rome, and it had been built for thousands of years, with high walls and deep moats. According to the original history, it took sixty years for the Ottoman Empire to successfully capture Constantinople. Even if this time is greatly reduced, twenty years is enough for the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty no longer had to worry about the infiltration of European countries into Central Asia, could calmly digest the many colonies in Asia, could calmly develop the navy, and usher in the great era of navigation belonging to China.
When necessary, the Ming Dynasty could even attack European countries directly by sea. However, European countries, whose shipbuilding technology was far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty, could only stare blankly at the Ming Dynasty navy. Even if they reluctantly sent a navy from afar, they would definitely not be able to match the Ming Dynasty treasure ships in a short period of time.
In another twenty years, the Ming Dynasty would become an Eastern power hanging over the head of the whole of Europe.
However, now that the Ottoman Empire has been defeated and the high wall separating the two land routes has collapsed, the European Church can directly extend its tentacles to Central Asia and even East Asia. After the fall of Timur in Central Asia, the three sultanates left behind, the "Mahma Sultanate", the "Khalil Sultanate" and the "Alitaz Sultanate", were weak, and China had not yet fully digested the results of these three battles.
Most of the people there are still Muslims. With their fanatical faith, it is hard to say whether those religious lunatics in Europe will strike while the iron is hot and launch another "Crusade" to destroy these three pagan countries and complete the "holy war."
These three sultanates are now vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. If they are threatened by the European Crusaders, the Ming Dynasty will need to send troops to assist them no matter what.
As for the land area, launching an expedition to faraway Europe... this was actually something that neither Zhu Su nor Lao Zhu were willing to do.
"I already know your intention. You hope to continue preaching to the east of Constantinople... That is a country protected by my Ming Dynasty. Do your Crusaders want to infringe on the dignity of my Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Su looked at Jacob coldly.
"No, Your Majesty, King Zhou." Jacob waved his hand, but there was not much fear on his face. "We have no intention of offending the majesty of the Ming Dynasty."
"It's just that it's our natural duty to spread the glory of the Lord to every piece of land under the sky."
"We hope that the Ming Dynasty will allow us to preach in the East in Constantinople and order the Sultans of the three countries not to prevent our missionaries from entering the country..."
"As far as we know, the Ming Dynasty does not reject the spread of religion. In the rich Ming Dynasty, there are many religions such as Buddhism and Taoism. We just hope to spread the teachings in peace."
There was sincerity on Jacob's face.
"Peaceful preaching..." Zhu Su snorted. "As far as I know, in those three sultanates, almost all the people are Muslims. How do you treat these Muslim pagans? Do you really think I don't know?"
Jacob's face froze for a moment, and then he reluctantly said, "We will try our best to make them believe in the only Lord..."
"What about the three sultans?" Zhu Su asked coldly. "You plan to preach in their territories, how willing are they?"
"...With the approval of the Ming Dynasty, I believe the three sultans will agree. We will try our best to make the three sultans believe in our Lord as well." Jacob clenched the cross on his chest.
"Even if they really believe in your Catholics, then in the end, will they be under the jurisdiction of our Ming Dynasty or your Pope?" Zhu Su teased. "Will your Pope send someone to crown the king of our Ming Dynasty's vassal state?"
"Next, are you going to come to the Ming Dynasty to preach? What, do you also want to sell your indulgences in the Ming Dynasty to make money?"
Jacob's face turned pale, he had never expected that this Eastern prince knew their church so well... Zhu Su guessed correctly, he came here to ask the Ming Emperor for permission to spread their church in Central Asia, but secretly, he wanted to devour the three Central Asian countries and completely destroy those Muslim pagans.
The victory of the Crusaders greatly inflated the prestige of their church, and they were eager to continue the Crusades to the East, completely defeat the terrible Islam, and completely bury threats like the Ottoman Empire.
However, the three Central Asian countries were already subordinates of the Ming Dynasty. Even the most arrogant European marshal did not dare to say that he could destroy such a terrible country. So they sent Jacob as an envoy, hoping that the Ming emperor would bow his head a little and allow them to preach in Central Asia through the achievements of the Crusades.
And as long as the Ming Dynasty allows it... they can intervene in the three Central Asian countries in the name of religious struggle and start a power struggle.
After all, this is just a matter of religion, not political power, right?
The people in the far east do not attach importance to religious belief. Even if the three Central Asian countries are really turned into countries that submit to the Holy See, they can still be subordinate to the Ming Dynasty in name. However, secretly, they will be bathed in the glory of the Lord like other countries. Since they are bathed in the glory of the Lord, they will inevitably be influenced by the Holy See...
The twists and turns in this matter should not be understood by anyone in the distant Ming Dynasty in the East. But incredibly, the King Zhou of the Ming Dynasty in front of him actually guessed it all...
(End of this chapter)