The Eastern Romans who suddenly appeared also claimed to be emissaries sent by the Eastern Roman Emperor. After being scolded by himself, he left again. Xia Hongsheng felt that this matter was untrue from beginning to end.

Although I feel strange, I can't see through what is going on.

These Eastern Romans, if they were really envoys sent by the Eastern Roman Emperor, would be too substandard - how could a dim-witted emperor choose such a non-speaking person as an envoy? As messengers, those people are too unskilled. If a country really had to use such people as emissaries, wouldn't that be ruining its diplomacy?

But if it wasn't for the emissary sent by the Eastern Roman Emperor, then what was his intention?

Deceiving Sinai from the hands of Datang? It can't be, unless these guys have a problem with their brains.

Even if Eastern Rome wants to get back the land occupied by the Great Food from the hands of the Tang Dynasty, it should not be this kind of obvious offending attitude. Unless......

Unless it was meant to offend people?

The Sinai Peninsula and Egypt were originally under the rule of the Eastern Romans. The war between the Great Food and Persia on the Eastern Front, due to the intervention of the Tang Dynasty, had a stalemate and did not develop as in the original history. Therefore, the Great Eclipse invaded the west earlier than the original history.

Although Egypt is still holding on, the Sinai Peninsula has been overrun by food.

When the Great Food occupied Sinai, Eastern Rome was helpless, and now that the Great Food Army on the Sinai Peninsula was defeated by the Tang Dynasty, he dared to come over and ask the Tang Dynasty for land?

Suddenly, Xia Hongsheng's heart sank, and a thought came to his mind-

Make excuses!

The Eastern Roman Empire is making excuses to use troops against the Tang Dynasty!

Using Sinai as an excuse to send troops to the Tang Dynasty, on the surface, he wanted to recapture the occupied Sinai Peninsula, but secretly, in fact, he was helping Da Shi and completing an ulterior deal with Da Shi.

As soon as this thought appeared, it became clearer and clearer in Xia Hongsheng's mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was possible.

What kind of promise did Da Shi give to Eastern Rome to make Eastern Rome promise to send troops to the Tang Dynasty?

Whatever promises the Eastern Romans received, it seemed to be on guard.

Xia Hongsheng came to the front of the map and stared at it.

If Byzantium were to send troops against the Tang Dynasty, where would it start?

Xia Hongsheng's gaze wandered back and forth on the map for a few times, and finally his gaze fell on the Mediterranean Sea. To be exact, the east coast of the Mediterranean, including the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai Peninsula.

Sending troops on land is too long, and it also needs to enter the territory of Dashi. But from the Mediterranean, the Eastern Roman fleet could cross the Mediterranean directly and reach the coast of the Sinai Peninsula north of the Mediterranean. From there, the Eastern Roman army landed from there, went directly to the Sinai Peninsula, and then went south, so that it could form a joint force with the army of Dashi returning to the north, and flank the Tang army of Dashi Uttar.

As soon as he thought of this, Xia Hongsheng's heart was alarmed.

"Someone!" Xia Hongsheng shouted outside the tent.

"Humble duty!" Immediately outside, a herald came in.

"Immediately send two teams of heralds to Sinai as fast as possible, and let them pull up a defensive line on the Mediterranean coast to prevent the Byzantine warships from landing!" Xia Hongsheng said to him.

"Obedience!" The herald saluted at once, turned and ran outside.

"Wait!" Xia Hongsheng stopped him again and instructed: "Tell them that Byzantium has a weapon, similar to our oil, which will not be extinguished when it encounters water after lighting the fire, and the more it is poured with water, the more it bursts, which is called Greek fire." The Sinai Peninsula has a lot of sand, so let them dig more sand for backup. If it is really attacked by Greek fire, it can be extinguished by covering it with sand. ”

"Order!" The herald took the order, and immediately went to deliver the news.

After the herald went down, Xia Hongsheng returned to the front of the map.

If Byzantium entered the war, the tens of thousands of Tang troops would be too small. Dealing with the army of Da Shi returning to Utamaben is already the limit, and if you add the army of Eastern Rome, it will be stretched.

was thinking about it, but when he heard that the camp tent was opened, a few people walked in from the outside, it was Su Dingfang, Xi Junmai and Xue Rengui.

"I saw the herald leave in a hurry, but what happened?" After coming in, Su Dingyi immediately asked.

Xia Hongsheng nodded and replied, "It's still those Eastern Roman people." The more I thought about it, the more strange it became. Although Byzantium has sunset, the so-called hundred-legged insect is dead but not stiff, and it is a big country anyway, and it is impossible to send such a stupid envoy. Most likely, it was done on purpose. ”

"On purpose?" Xi Jun was stunned: "Why do you do it on purpose?" ”

"Byzantium knew that the Tang Dynasty would not return Sinai at all, and deliberately sent such a few envoys, but the Tang Dynasty sternly refused, so that the Tang Dynasty could occupy the Byzantine territory and refuse to return it as an excuse to use troops against the Tang Dynasty." Xia Hongsheng explained.

Xue Rengui frowned and said, "Doesn't this mean that Da Shi has secretly reached an agreement with Eastern Rome?" ”

"Not bad." Xia Hongsheng nodded and said, "As for what the two have done, we don't know. But I am almost certain that if the Byzantines really want to use troops against the Tang Dynasty, they will definitely cross the Mediterranean Sea with a fleet to the northern coast of Sinai, and after landing, they will turn south and join forces with the Great Eclipse army that has returned to the north to attack us in front and rear. ”

"Our naval warships cannot reach the Mediterranean, and the Byzantine entry into the war is extremely disadvantageous to us." Su Dingfang said: "It seems that the chief manager ordered the canal to be dug at the beginning, and it was really far-sighted. If we can get to the Mediterranean, we can intercept them at sea without waiting for the Byzantine warships to arrive. I don't know how long this canal will have to be dug. ”

In its original history, it took 11 years for the Suez Canal to be opened. In fact, the Suez Canal did not exist in modern times, but as early as BC, there were already some ancient canals.

As far back as the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, Pharaoh Sinuseld III ordered the digging of an "east-west" canal connecting the Red Sea with the Nile in order to conduct direct trade by overland flat-bottomed boats. The canal existed until at least the time of Ramses II in the 13th century BC, when it was then abandoned. Around 250 BC, Ptolemy II restored this section of the canal. Over the next millennium, the ancient canal was continuously improved, destroyed, and rebuilt until it was finally abandoned in the 8th century by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur of the Arab Empire. Subsequently, the Suez Canal was excavated and opened intermittently, with two long periods of opening in 117 BC under King Trajan under the Roman dynasty and twice during the reign of 'Umar ibn Khattab in 640 AD. Subsequently, it was abandoned for a long time.

With the foundation of the ancient canal and a lot of manpower investment, it should not take as long as the original history to dig the canal. However, in the next few years, I am afraid that it will not work.

Then in the Mediterranean, it is Byzantium that has the right to control the sea.

That is to say, before the canal was dug up, the Tang Dynasty could only be a passive defense on land against Byzantium, and could not take the initiative to attack.

"The only way to do this is to let the people on Sinai do a good job of defending their line, and at the same time send a letter to Bombay to speed up the increase in troops." Xia Hongsheng thought for a while and said, "In addition, send a letter to Wang Xuance and ask Persia to step up the offensive and drag down as many Dashi troops as possible." ”