In the fiery June of the sixth year of Longshuo, the Fujian State supported the Hezhong Protectorate on the grassland with great fanfare, so as to equal the time of Chang'an in Central Asia, the distant Italian Peninsula, the West that the Manchu ministers did not pay attention to, and another battle that had no weaker influence on the historical trend than the great victory in the river was also in full swing.

Although it was a decisive battle representing the Chinese Min Empire and representing the Germanic barbarians, the figures on the battlefield were mostly from various races from all over the world, and the real Tang people were less than 2,000.

It was really a hodgepodge of various forces and demands of the Western peoples, the Germanic powerhouses in the north, the Franks, the Merovingian dynasty, the Visigothic kingdom entrenched in Spain and Lower Gaul in the west, had long wanted to penetrate deep into the Italian peninsula, and the Fujian expeditionary force groped to send envoys to the north, which was not only tempted by trade, but also driven by political interests, whether it was the Iberian Peninsula or the Gallic rooster, they were very happy to send troops to help the war.

Including more than 9,600 Visigothic soldiers of the famous Visigothic knights, the vast majority of the Frankish army is infantry, but the Franks also have their magic weapon to win, the fierce Franks of this era are good at throwing axes, composed of nobles more than 4,000 Frankish axe-throwers holding battle axes that do not become Fransca, followed by 14,000 tribal servants, the strong military force is enough to reverse the advantage of the Visigothic cavalry.

And this time it was the real power of the Frankish Kingdom who led the team, and the palace minister of Ovitria Piping personally led it.

On the one hand, the Franks wanted to gain territory in Italy and establish a bridgehead to trade with a strong and rich Fujian state, and on the other hand, the palace minister Peping also urgently needed the support of Pope Eugene I, who had been raised by the Fujian expeditionary force.

The second king of the Merovingian dynasty, Clovis, was the first barbarian Germanic king in Western history to convert to Christianity, and the majority of the domestic nobility were Christians, and the pope had great influence among the people.

Moreover, although it was called the Kingdom of the Franks, the Franks were divided into small kingdoms ruled by more than a dozen kings because of the custom of dividing the family between the sons of the chieftain and many sons, and they fought against each other, and some of them hated each other more than other Germanic tribes such as Visigoths and Alemanni tribes.

Years of war, in order to consolidate their position, many kings of the Merovingian Dynasty gave a large number of lands to the nobles in the territory, and virtually cultivated the aristocratic power, which was the beginning of the enduring aristocratic power in the West in the future.

Originally, the palace minister was just a servant of the Frankish king, but with the dark and bloody vendetta of politics, the cowardice and incompetence of the kings, and gradually the palace minister took over the political and military power of the country, and the disputes of various countries mainly became the hands of the palace minister who supported the aristocratic forces or maintained the royal family, and the palace minister became both a political leader and a military leader, and had the right to dominate the country.

This chaotic situation, the loss of authority of the king, the great power of the aristocracy, also turned the Frankish dynasty into a plate of scattered sand, during which it was not without a strong king and the palace minister did not unify the Franks, and the short-lived unification was only a flash in the pan.

There is no one person in the country who can rule the whole country, and Pepin II, who has just recently defeated Taximus and served as the palace minister of Ostracia, Neustria, and Burgun, has had to turn his attention to the south, the city of Rome, where the spokesman of Christ on earth, the heir of St. Paul's estate, the father of all Christians, the pope.

Canonizing him in the name of the Pope to rule over Christians, and using this banner to attract the nobility and the people to join him became Pepin II's political ambition, and it was also this ambition that drove Pepin to lead a third of the Frankish army, almost all of which he could take with him, to the south of the Alps to help the Fujian expeditionary force fighting for the Pope.

In fact, Pepin II's move is indeed correct, the origin of France and the rise of the European Holy See in history also originated from the cooperation between Pepin II's grandson Pepin the Short and Pope Stephen II a few decades later, the Pope went to Paris in person, crowned Pepin III, and assisted him to replace the Merovingian dynasty and establish the Carolingian dynasty of the Franks.

The history is called Piping's dedication to soil.

The invitation of the Fujian State, Pepin II came to Italy decades earlier to join the Pope, this kind of political alliance is indeed effective, as soon as I heard that the short palace wearing the inferior silk produced in the Fujian State barely made a gorgeous effect and wanted to be a bitch, and wanted to set up the archway to stumble through the meaning expressed by the translation, the expeditionary force marched long history, deputy marshal Yang Xiong not only did not have the mouth to agree, but also added an insurance to him.

Yang Xiong swore that not only the Pope would crown him as king, but also the King of Min would canonize him as the King of Frankshire.

"Have you seen the Roman Emperor in the past? King Min is a great king whose territory is wider than Rome and has made the Romans a vassal! ”

Looking at Eugene II on the side, he couldn't help but nod his head, and this despicable politician who had gone through years of brutal political struggles in the small world of the Franks couldn't help but show his expression.

On the other hand, the purpose of the Visigoths sending reinforcements is also similar, on the one hand, the Visigoths also want to trade with Fujian in exchange for the magical oriental spices that can make food delicious, and eating local spices such as garlic is already maddening.

On the other hand, the Muslims had reached North Africa and infiltrated Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar, and some members of the Umayyad family fled here to rule the local Berbers, and the Visigoths were very uneasy by the actions of the Muslims, who also wanted the Pope's authorization to unite against the Muslim invasion.

In this regard, of course, Yang Xiong had no mouth to agree, anyway, with an empty mouth and white teeth, he could deceive more than 9,600 barbarian cavalry warriors to serve, and he didn't do it for nothing.

These two reinforcements together have nearly 30,000 people, plus the Min army continues to attack the small and medium-sized territories of the Lombards, either by surrendering, or simply killing the small feudal lords, replacing them with the Min people or the Chinese-made Indians, pulling up the team, attacking from northeastern Italy to central northern Italy in less than a few months, Chen Zhangming's expeditionary force snowballed to more than 40,000 people.

The city of Liguria was one of the first few strongholds established by the Lombards south of the Alps when they conquered Italy, and was formerly an important stronghold for the Romans to defend the Alps, with Roman stone defenses and moats.

It's a pity, like ******, after more than a hundred years of desertion, the dung of the Lombards and city dwellers who settled down has been filled in the moat, filling more than half of the city walls, especially most of the strong men in the city followed the Lombard king Clive to attack Byzantine Ravenna, who would have thought that there was such a strong enemy behind the buttocks?

Taking advantage of the fact that the Byzantines were busy resisting the siege of Constantinople by the Eastern Arab Empire, the Kingdom of Lombard poured out of the nest to explode the Byzantine chrysanthemums, but unexpectedly their chrysanthemums were also exploded by the Fujian expeditionary coalition army, this time Chen Zhangming and Yang Xiong did not even have to endure the amazing stench and stepped on the feces and dirt to attack the city, and there were already thousands of Frankish warriors who were used to smelling it and rushed up on the tall dung heap in half the city.

A fierce and sharp Frankish axe was brutally chopped down, and the hundreds of old and weak Lombard soldiers who were finally organized were dismantled in an instant, and in less than half an hour of fighting, the Duke of Lombard of Liguria fell at the feet of Pope Eugene II with a black hair that seemed to have not fully evolved, and this important stronghold guarding the Alps was also planted with the flag of Fujian.

However, from here, the expeditionary force fell south to conquer Pavia, the capital of the Lombard Kingdom, and under the city of Pavia, which was more than 300 Roman miles away, the expeditionary force encountered a fierce enemy.

It has been reported that Clive, the king of the Lombard Kingdom, led six dukes and counts, and all the forces that attacked the city of Ravenna and collected most of the men who could fight in the country gathered under the city of Pavia.

The city of Pavia was small, the size of a few thousand households, and the walls could not even accommodate the two armies from the north and south, and the battlefield was set in the basin of the Contoli Valley north of Pavia.

A little higher, twenty or thirty meters high Cantoli Valley was occupied by the Fujian army in advance, with more than 6,000 Fujian army expeditionary force as the main force as the central army, the forward attached crab and other 8,000 Italian indigenous troops stationed at the foot of the mountain, the left is the Visigoths, the right is the Frankish army, the expeditionary force set up a large array of missing moon according to the mountain attack and defense.

In the south, the Lombards were lined up in a row under the leadership of their dukes and nobles, counting the troops of each territory in regiments, some thick and some thin, and the most central was the thousands of troops of the Lombard king, and they were also equipped with Byzantine iron armor, long swords, and even hundreds of cavalry, although chaotic, the army of 70,000 was still amazing.

Barbarian warriors wore this iron-horned helmet, draped in dirty coarse cloth clothes, held a wooden shield, or carried an axe, or held an Italian war sword, full of yellow teeth, dirty faces full of beards, in the encouragement of the nobles riding horses, the morale of more than 100,000 barbarians in the north and south armies was amazing, and the roar of the ancient Germanic language could be heard everywhere.

Even shocked the roar of Pavia not far away, Clive, the king of the Lombard land, roared unpleasantly and rushed to the front on horseback, rushing to the middle army of the Fujian Expeditionary Army, and in the landslide-like roar of tens of thousands of Lombard barbarians, the battle of Pavia that decided the hegemony of Italy, but was absolutely dominated by the Germanic barbarians......