"What John-Priest-King, isn't it King Axum, who is further south in Egypt?" Anna said dismissively. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

It turns out that in this century, with the conquest of the western Christian kingdom to the East, all kinds of ancient myths and legends mixed with all kinds of falsehoods began to prevail, and in Italy, the first good area, many scholars have recently emerged in the mouth of the "King John" that Gawain just said.

Legend has it that this King John was a high priest, but he also wore a crown on his head, and like the Emperor of Constantinople and the Holy Roman Emperor, he was an "emperor" with a pure and noble status (the king of Ethiopia did have the so-called imperial lineage, but the quality was lower than that of several other emperors in the world such as Persia, the Celestial Empire, India, and Eastern Rome), and he had an extremely powerful empire located in the far east (anyway, for Europeans who had never seen the world at that time, Asia Minor was the East, and Persia was the East, Egypt and Syria are the East, and Seris is of course the East, and whoever is east is the East anyway), and has always fought tirelessly against the Muhammads.

In the era of Gawain and Anna, because of the great success of the Crusades and the recovery of Jerusalem, the West was more curious about King John, and hoped that someone would find his empire, and everyone would join forces to spread the "great love" of Christianity to the whole world.

Historically, from the twelfth century to the thirteenth century, because of the fierce counteroffensive of the Eastern Crescent States, and the fact that the Christian kingdoms of the Western Continent were not at all the opponents of the Crescent countries in terms of social system and military system (the difference is huge), the small Crusader kingdoms of the Levantine were broken one after another, and the legend of King John was seized by the Holy See like a life-saving straw - the Holy See sent emissaries to constantly find "where is the world with King John", hoping that he could help to attack the Crescent Religion.

Later, the Holy See announced that it had found King John.

This King John, ahem, some say that the king Khan of the Kereh tribe on the Mongolian steppe, and some say that the king of Harakhitan (that is, Yelu Dashi, but he seems to believe in Buddhism) who later defeated the Seljuk Sultan, anyway, whoever rises in the east is "King John" in the eyes of the Holy See!

Even when the Mongol army came to Europe at the beginning, many people still thought that this Bozi evil ghost Tai Sui was the legendary King John!

Later, after the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Western Europe was still tirelessly looking for King John, hoping that he could cooperate with their side and attack the evil Ottomans again. After the Portuguese circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope and entered East Africa, they found Abinesia, the only remaining Christian power in Africa at the time, and believed that the country was founded by the descendants of King John.

Of course, the official statement of the king of Abynesia is that we are descendants of King Solomon.

Westerners regard this country as a treasure, but the Eastern Romans do not think so, because although there has not been a direct connection with Abenicia for too long in history, the indirect connection has never been severed, and as early as the time of Constantine the Great he declared that "the citizens of Axum (the name of the ancient state of Abinesia) have the same rights as the citizens of Rome!" "Greek sailors arrived here before Constantine the Great and had detailed descriptions of its customs.

The most famous are St. Flormondis and St. Edicius, who lived in the late reign of Constantine the Great and were originally Syrian clergy, who ventured into the Red Sea in 330 A.D., but were quickly sunk by kind pirates. Amida's intake, and then, under the diligent propaganda of the two men, the entire king, nobles, and populace of Axum were baptized en masse to Christianity.

In fact, now, the entire Abyssinian Church is still under the jurisdiction of the "Coptic Church" in Alexandria, and the bishops are also appointed by the Archbishop of Alexandria: but because the relationship between the Coptic Church and Constantinople has always been bad, and the power of Abyssinia began to retreat from the coast to the inland of the south after the sixth century, it was slowly isolated and forgotten in the eyes of the world, and after the rise of the Ottoman Empire, it was cut off from all ties with Western Christianity.

Just like Edward. "Ethiopia has been surrounded by pagan enemies of all stripes and has been asleep for a thousand years, and they have forgotten the world, and the world has forgotten them," Gibbon said. ”

But now Gawain hasn't forgotten!

He had traveled to Ethiopia before, and his ass was often followed by a string of local children peddling him ancient coins.

Of course, Gawain also knows that it is not feasible to package Abenicia (Ethiopia) as "King John" as his own business. Because Anna knew the place, there was no reason why priests from all over the empire wouldn't know.

So he still has to see the move.

Extend King John's kingdom more remotely? In other words, even if it is a formal diplomatic relationship with Abinesia, it is an unborn industrial feat!

Of course, there was a more pragmatic idea in his plan, because the eastern corner of Africa had not only a well-developed seaborne trade, but also a very large amount of gold mines, and a fine variety of cotton, which in those days was transported from the Maghreb (west of Egypt, in what is now Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria), and competition was fierce. In order to mint his own gold coins, Gawain had to obtain the origin of East Africa, in addition to recovering the original gold coins of Eastern Rome.

Although the couple's discussion about King John came to an end, the plan in Gawain's mind gradually became clear.

Previously, when he was still a soldier in the court, and when he was fighting in Asia Minor with the warden George, he had heard his military servant Erickson talk about Iceland, and his heart was moved, but now it seems that the shipping route of the entire empire to open up the northern seas is too far away, and there is no reliable control, but the "King John Route" is more practical and can bring more generous returns.

Soon it was announced that Anna's second son had been baptized and named Flomondis.

At the same time, the news of the sea came, the Venetians were resolutely unwilling to submit to Gawain, and they supported John to establish the "Imperial Court" in Crete, ruling the three northern castles and Rhodes, in addition to John's previous governance of Moria, Thessaly, Epirus and other places, Diracium and other places have also expressed their continued allegiance to John, Isaac. Under pressure, Komnenos refused Gawain's persuasion.

However, Thessaloniki's Cezes, who is still at both ends of the first mouse, has been in contact with Gawain, probably wanting to get better treatment.

In addition, due to Crete and Rhodes, the enemy's fleet was in full swing at the Holy Sea, shipping was completely interrupted, and grain sent to Constantinople could only be transported overland from Ikonium to the port of Sinop, and then from the Yukchen Sea to the imperial capital.

In Thrace, the last year's fighting had barely yielded a harvest, and famine broke out.