Originally built as a Carthaginian settlement, Barcelona became the capital of the Duchy of Carthage in the 5th century, and is one of the oldest cities in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest ports on the Mediterranean coast.

Barcelona's iron-smelting industry is very developed, most of the blacksmiths of the Visigothic kingdom are concentrated here, and every morning, the city can hear the sound of 'ding ding' iron. In the Mediterranean in the seventh century, iron-smelting technology was still very backward, and the so-called block iron-making was the use of iron ore at a lower temperature to form solid iron, which contained a large amount of slag, unburned charcoal, etc., and it was necessary to take advantage of the high temperature of the iron to beat out the impurities inside.

In addition to iron-smelting, Barcelona is also famous for its leather processing and wine industries, which together form the three pillars of Barcelona's economy. After occupying this place, Li Ke took a fancy to Barcelona's port and iron smelting industry, which had more development potential than the city of Malaga that he occupied at the beginning, so he temporarily moved his mansion here. The city lord's palace in Barcelona was the Grand Duchy of Carthage, which was now also renamed the Wu Palace.

After capturing the mountain passes in the eastern part of the Pyrenees, Li Ke did not rush to destroy the remnants of the Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula, but began to reorganize the army and extend the liberal policies he had implemented in the southwest of the peninsula to the entire peninsula. After all, in this year's campaign, he has already laid down a land several times larger than the original, and if he doesn't govern it again, there is likely to be some chaos.

As for the remaining Visigoths, there was no longer any threat to Li Ke. When he has temporarily stabilized the rule of the various places, he will immediately be able to send troops to destroy them. It's just that Li Ke didn't expect it. Before he could finish putting the internal affairs in order, the remnants of several Visigothic kingdom cities. But one after another, the Roman revolts broke out.

Those crazy Romans rushed into the mansion of the Visigothic nobles and released their previous oppression, although the Visigothic army desperately suppressed, but the Romans knew that the entire Iberian Peninsula had changed masters, and the Visigothic kingdom was finished, so when facing the Visigothic army, they were not afraid, but the Visigoths knew that they had no way to escape. There is no fighting spirit at all, and the results can be imagined.

According to Li Ke's statistics in the end, there were a total of eight cities in the uprising, and except for one failed uprising, in the other seven cities, there was no living Visigoths to be found after the uprising. As for the city where the uprising failed, it was mainly due to the fact that there were more Gothic troops stationed in the city, and the organizers of the uprising leaked the news in advance, and as a result, it was frantically suppressed by the Visigoths. In the end, more than half of the Romans in the entire city were slaughtered.

Faced with this situation, Li Ke sent people to take over the cities where the uprising was successful, and at the same time immediately organized an army and prepared it in the shortest possible time. Conquer the city that slaughtered the Romans and put the Visigoths on trial. This is a good opportunity to win people's hearts, and Li Ke will naturally not let it go.

It was supposed to be an opportunity to buy people's hearts. It is most suitable for Li Ke to do it himself, but he has not yet waited for him to leave. But suddenly I received a message from Constantinople - Irina is coming!

Under the turquoise sky, there is a sapphire sea. A fleet of Roman warships was slowly moving westward, and the middle one was so large that anyone who knew the Roman navy would judge that it was a ten-oared ship, several times larger than the surrounding three- or five-oared ships, and even comparable to the main ships in the Great Qi Navy.

However, large size does not mean strong combat effectiveness, for example, this ten-oared battleship, in fact, its combat effectiveness is very weak, and even a small three-oared warship may sink it, because the more oars the ship has, the larger the size of the warship, the more oarsmen are needed, the heavier the ship becomes, the greater the resistance it bears, and the more oars it has, the slower the speed will become.

It is precisely because of this that the main purpose of a ship like the Ten Oars is not to fight, but a symbol of status, generally speaking, the more noble the status, the more oars the ship will travel, and the least number of passengers is a Grand Duke level person.

Irina stood at the bow of the boat, looking to the west from afar, she and Li Ke have been separated for more than three years, almost every moment she is thinking about each other, especially a year ago, after learning that Li Ke landed on the Iberian Peninsula with the army, it made Irina even more excited for several days without thinking about eating, every time she thought of the happy time with Li Ke on time, the corners of her mouth always had a sweet smile.

It's just a pity that Li Ke has just landed on the Iberian Peninsula, and he needs to make up his mind about military and political affairs, so he has no time to go to Irina alone. And Irina is limited by her own identity and can't easily leave Constantinople, so the two are at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the other at the western end of the Mediterranean, although they miss each other in their hearts, but they can't see each other.

Thinking of the lovesickness she has suffered in the past year, Irina at the bow of the boat couldn't help but sigh lightly. But then a smile appeared on her face, and now she finally had a chance to come out, and looking at the situation this time, she didn't have to go back to Constantinople in a short time. The thought of seeing the person of her dreams soon, Irina couldn't help but get excited. As for the tense situation within the Eastern Roman Empire, she might have cared about it before, but now she only hopes to see Li Ke as soon as possible, and everything else is not important to her.

"Irina, are you really not going to get involved with either side this time?" Just as Irina was thinking about Li Ke, suddenly a gray-haired general walked behind her. The general was tall and burly, with his strong arms exposed and his palms looking thick and powerful, indicating that he must be a good warrior. The other party is about fifty years old, probably because of long-term exposure, his skin is red and black, and he has a short gray beard under his chin.

Hearing the voice behind her, Irina gently turned to look at the old general, and then smiled and said, "Father, this time it's not so much a religious dispute as a power struggle between their brothers, and we don't need to get involved in it at all. ”

The old general was Irina's father, named Offron, a nobleman from the southern provinces, and also an excellent admiral, but unfortunately their hometown had been occupied by the Great Cannibals, and Offron had to rush to Constantine with his family to join his daughter, and later, with the help of Irina, he re-entered the navy and now serves as the commander of the fleet under their feet.

When Offron heard his daughter's words, there was a hesitant look on his face, and finally he spoke: "Irina, His Majesty the Emperor is your husband after all, and he ordered this time to prohibit the church from discussing the divinity and humanity of Christ, which is obviously a support for our Southern Provincial Monosexual faction, if you can represent our Southern Church at this time, it will definitely increase Your Majesty's prestige, and then our Monosexual faction can also take the opportunity to expand its influence, and it will be more convenient to recruit more believers in the future." ”

Offron was a devout Christian, and although he knew that Constans II's actions were mainly for some political purpose, the current situation was favorable to their Southern Church, so he thought that he could take this opportunity to expand the influence of the Church, and his daughter, as an empress and a member of the Southern Church, would naturally represent the entire Southern Church at such a time.

It's just that Irina still shook her head after hearing this, and Rushui's gaze turned to the west again, but while she was thinking about Li Ke in her heart, she also began to recall what happened inside the empire during this time.

The whole thing is very complicated, since the fourth century, Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, the fate of the entire empire began to be closely united with Christianity, and then the Eastern and Western Roman Empires were divided, and Christianity was also divided into the Roman Church and the Church of Constantinople, of which the Roman Church was the Catholic Church of later generations, and the Church of Constantine was the Orthodox Church of later generations.

Later, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, but the Roman Church did not disappear, but survived dependent on various conquerors, and even had a barbarian pope, but at this time the Roman Church was also at the lowest point in history, and its strength was very weak.

On the other hand, the Orthodox Church in Constantinople was very prosperous, with the expansion of Eastern Rome, and even spread its doctrine to Egypt and other places, but the Orthodox Church is not monolithic, and there are also many schools of thought, the most important of which is the Christian Monophylaxis that appeared in the southern provinces.

Both Catholicism and Orthodoxy believe that Christ has a human and a divine nature, and there is no mixing, changing, or separation, but the Christian Monophysis believes that Christ has only a divine nature and no human nature, and so the controversy arises, and even to some extent, this controversy also affects the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire over the southern provinces.

However, with the rise of the Great Eclipse, the southern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire fell one after another, the strength of the Christian Monophylaxis was greatly reduced, and the orthodox Orthodox Church became the main religion within the empire, which made the Eastern Roman Empire more pure, but it increased the national strength, and even blocked the attack of the Great Eclipse. Later, it formed an alliance with the Tang Dynasty, so that Da Shi no longer dared to attack the Eastern Roman Empire without authorization.

Over time, the Eastern Roman Empire slowly recovered its strength from the war, which made Constans II's ambitions grow, but he did not expect that it was his ambition that plunged the Eastern Roman Empire into a bloody civil strife. (To be continued......)