In May 1292, on March 19, 332 of the Great Song Dynasty, a fairly new ship entered the port of Venice, a city in northern Italy. Hearing the news, many people ran out of their homes and rushed to the port. As soon as the crowd approached the port, they saw a group of soldiers guarding some of the more well-dressed men.

"Do you have any news of my husband Joseph?"

"My husband, Flaminco, he went to sea last month. Have you seen him? ”

……

Amid the sounds of inquiry, the men who disembarked from the ship walked silently to the Venetian Council Hall. The procession walked through the streets, feeling a sad atmosphere. Many families are having a funeral or have just finished a funeral. The bright sunshine of May is not in harmony with such an oppressive atmosphere.

The messenger had already been ushered into the reception room, and not long after, a bald old man in fine clothes appeared at the door. The messenger hurriedly stood up and greeted: "Good day, Your Excellency Governor." ”

The old man took a few steps forward and asked, "What is Song Guo talking about?" ”

The envoy hurriedly reported, "Returning to the Governor, the Song State has received the announcement of our declaration of war, and told us that their next target is the Peloponnese. ”

As if chewing a large mouthful of sour lemon, the Governor's entire face wrinkled. The Doge of Venice is elected by the Grand Council of Venice's 480 members for life. It's a very powerful position. However, the declaration of war was decided by the Great Council, and the old man, who was the governor of Venice, actually opposed the declaration of war on the Great Song Dynasty.

Finally calming his mind, the governor reluctantly asked, "Have you seen their ship?" ”

"Yes. Your Excellency the Governor. I saw the big ship of the Song Kingdom. There must have been something wrong with their ships, some of which, according to the redeemed sailors, had been running at sea for almost a year. This is not right, if it were an ordinary ship, something would have happened a long time ago. ”

"Do you know what the Song ships have to know?" There was a hint of anticipation in the Governor's voice.

"I don't know yet. Those who had been on the ships of the Song Kingdom also failed to reach the bottom of the keel where the keel was placed. The messenger replied in embarrassment.

The Doge also knew that things would not be so simple, and that Venice was the best in shipbuilding, thanks to the skills of Venetian craftsmen. Making the unimaginably large ships of the Song Kingdom inevitably required the use of more secret techniques. Now the governor was becoming more and more uneasy, and his previous opposition to declaring war on the Song State was not because he did not hate the Song people, but because he had an indescribable foreboding. The Song people may have shown only a small fraction of their actual power in broad daylight. It's too disturbing to fight an enemy who suddenly appears like this enigma.

At this time, Athens, the territory directly under the Eastern European Division of the Great Song Dynasty, was also in a meeting. The main cadres of the Eastern European Division were divided into three groups, and a small number of cadres, led by the ambassador to the Eastern Rome, remained in the relatively safe place of Constantinople. When the task was decided, Yang Cong, director of the Eastern European Department, said calmly, half-jokingly: "If we are all finished, you will have to hold up the situation." ”

Most of the cadres of the Eastern European Division were stationed in Rhode Island, which consisted only of the men and horses of the Great Song Dynasty and the hard labor who worked on the island. By the time the servitude with shackles and chains had completed the basics, only the safe and reliable population of the Great Song Dynasty would be left on the island.

The cadres who stayed in Athens were about 30% of all the cadres in the East European Division, and Yang Congrong was one of them. The discussion was about the declaration of war sent by the Republic of Venice not long ago, and some cadres asked indignantly, "Is it possible to send a ship to exterminate the Venetians?" ”

The representative of the flotilla immediately replied: "We do not have enough ships and are not familiar with the islands and reefs of Greece. Not now. ”

"Then let them be so arrogant?" The cadres were very unhappy.

Yang Congrong couldn't help but smile and said: "We let so many Venetian shipowners ruin their families and sell so many Venetian sailors. Their relatives must have felt that we were on the arrogant side. ”

Everyone had to laugh bitterly, and Yang Congrong also straightened out his thoughts at this time. "We threaten the Republic of Venice against the Peloponnese," he said. The lands southwest of the Peloponnese belong to the Republic of Venice, will they fight on their own? ”

"Their ships have been sunk so much by us, what do they rely on to fight? By mouth? ”

"We only have 20,000 people at full, and we really rely on our mouths to blow again. No matter how useless the Republic of Venice is, it must have a population of two million. ”

"Can those slaves be used?"

"Of all of us, there are a few of us who can speak Greek neatly. After arresting so many people, after two or three months, don't we still rely on the numbers sewn on their bodies? ”

……

There was a lot of talk, and as the excitement of the initial victory passed, the way everyone thought about the problem became more pragmatic. The more pragmatic they are, the more they feel how difficult it is to live up to their name. No matter how much it is claimed that the former land of the Duchy of Athens is the province of Europa of the Great Song Dynasty, the locals will not immediately become Song people, let alone expect them to sacrifice their lives and forget their deaths for the Great Song Dynasty.

After discussing it for a while, everyone found that the Great Song Dynasty actually had no way to deal with the challenge of the Republic of Venice except for sending ships to sink ships of non-allied forces at sea and sinking them indiscriminately.

While he was talking, news came that the grain ship from the Yuan Kingdom had finally arrived. This is perhaps the best news in recent times, with Marshal Boyan going to crusade against Italy, the only one who can be called an ally at this stage is probably Hao Ren's Yuan Kingdom. With the barrenness of Greece, if there was no grain from the Yuan Kingdom, the tens of thousands of people under the Eastern European Division of the Great Song Dynasty would probably only be able to make a living by fishing.

There was a fish on the table of the handsome Boyan, and in addition to some meat sausages. Da Shuai quickly finished his share and got up to say goodbye to his wife. Maria's work had to stay in Sicily, while Beyan himself had to cross the Strait with his army and begin his conquest from southern Italy.

The princess was now a beautiful old woman, and she did not cry, nor did she drag Boyan to the handsome. She just carefully sorted out the clothes for Boyan Dashuai, and put a cross cloak that she had sewn herself. Boyan didn't say anything, he hugged his wife, turned around and left. Outside the big tent, the soldiers who were ready to go were already lined up, and when they saw Marshal Boyan come out, some of them couldn't help but cheer.

Marshal Boyan turned over and got on his horse, only said the word 'go', and galloped towards the port.

On March 23, 332, Marshal Boyan landed on the southern coast of Italy with an army of 30,000 and joined the 15,000 men and horses who had already landed. Following those paths recorded by the famous writers of the ancient Roman Republic, an army of 45,000 men began to conquer the north.

On March 25, 332 of the Great Song Dynasty, 480 members of the Republic of Venice arrived in Venice from all over the Republic to attend the Parliament. Some of these big men rode in carriages, some on horseback, and some on foot. Naturally, the people walking were the locals of Venice, and when they saw them, many people along the street did not dare to block the way of the councilor. Regardless of whether the nobles heard it or not, they loudly begged the nobles to help inquire about the whereabouts of their relatives.

Before the meeting, the number of people was counted. The number of members of parliament from 480 to 455 has reached the legal limit for the number of people in session. The council asked the envoy to introduce the matter of declaring war on the Song state. The envoy also recounted the last contact before the declaration of war.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Song Kingdom said that they could consider not selling our captives to Africa in the southern part of the Red Sea, but they could not bring back the people they sold before."

These words made many nobles look pained. The Republic of Venice, a state of the Latins, has been closely associated with the Crusaders since the beginning of the Crusades, and their rise is the history of the decline and fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. By providing services such as weapons, shipping, finance, etc., the Venetians bought the spoils of war plundered by the Crusaders from the Eastern Roman Empire and occupied the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire. From a small land to the most powerful country in northern Italy.

First of the pillars of the Republic of Venice was shipbuilding and navigation. The Republic of Venice used to serve as a mercenary navy for the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar used Venetian fleets for large-scale naval operations.

When the fleets of the Great Song suddenly showed their formidable strength, the hegemony of the Republic of Venice in the Eastern Mediterranean for two or three hundred years fell to the altar in just a few years. The loss of ships can be compensated, and good sailors are by no means cultivated in a day or two. So many places unfit for sailing, only an experienced veteran sailor can remember clearly.

The meeting lasted three days without a single outcome. All the nobles hated the Song people because of the loss of their own ships, and hired tens of thousands of mercenaries to attack the Duchy of Athens occupied by the Song State, and needed to come up with a large amount of money that the parliamentarians could not accept.

On March 28, 332, the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Venice in southern Italy brought news by clipper that an army under the banner of the Knights Hospitaller had landed in southern Italy and launched an attack on the lords.

The parliamentarians who were fighting against the Great Song were even more puzzled by the news. What's going on here? It was the Mongols' abduction of the Pope that triggered the Knights Hospitaller's attack on the Mongols. During the Mongol campaign to annihilate the Knights Hospitaller on Rhodes, the fleet provided by Venice to the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, as well as all the sailors in the fleet, were lost.

Both the Republic of Venice and the Knights were willing to pay a large sum of money to redeem the surviving personnel, and they even took the risk of going to the slave markets in Egypt to buy the auctioned seafaring talents. In order to encourage such action, the Assembly of the Republic of Venice passed a decree that Venetian merchants in Egypt could buy Venetian slaves and pay for their expenses when they were sent back to Venice. Even at such a great cost, the Church and the Republic of Venice were redeemed less than a tenth of the number of prisoners.

Two years after the fall of the Knights Hospitaller, men and horses under the banner of the Knights Hospitaller suddenly appeared to fight in southern Italy.

The council immediately sent personnel to investigate. As soon as the investigators left, a new messenger arrived to report that the army under the banner of the Knights Hospitaller was advancing north along the main road, and no city, fortress, manor, or village could stop them. Judging by the appearance and equipment, there seemed to be quite a few Mongols in that army.

In the eyes of the parliamentarians of the Republic of Venice, the speed of attack was almost as good as a leisurely stroll in the eyes of the Marshal Boyan, who had participated in so many large-scale wars, and the cities and castles of Italy were more like toys made by children of the family. Those generals who had followed Marshal Boyan to conquer Lin'an could easily lead their subordinates to conquer it.

"Marshal, another Italian nobleman has come to surrender." The subordinates came to report.

"Did they bring food, grass, and money?"

"Brought it."

"Are they willing to hand over the hostages?"

"Shuai, those people are very verbose. He only said that he was willing to hand over the hostages, but he asked which big city he wanted to send the hostages to. Wouldn't it be nice to send it to the army. Boyan's subordinates said dissatisfiedly.

Boyan smiled slightly, he could accept such a request. Those nobles still have the value of use, keep them first. "Tell them that the hostages will be sent to Rome in the near future," said Boyan to his men. ”

The Mongols made their way through the city, and by 27 April, the advance had reached the city of Rome. Rome at this time was no longer the center of the entire Mediterranean world during the Roman Empire, and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it had been transformed from a great city into a very inconspicuous small city.

As early as April 24, the ruler of Rome had received a letter of surrender from the Mongol army. The previous ruler had already been killed when Marshal Boyan was capturing the Holy See, and the new ruler was already frightened when he saw that it was another Mongol who appeared. On April 28, before the arrival of the Mongol army, the new commander had already run away with the treasure.

On April 29, the new owner of the city of Rome, Marshal Boyan, led his men into the city of Rome, which belonged to him.

No cheers, no bouquets, no laurel wreaths. Families in Rome were closed, and the silence of the whole city revealed fear and rejection. The Mongol army, which followed Marshal Boyan, looked at the strange city with exhaustion and vigilance. For more than a month, they have been fighting and marching almost non-stop. In the early months, in addition to carrying large quantities of supplies, they had to endure the bumps of the ship. It wasn't until Marshal Boyan ordered the whole army to repair for three days that the soldiers of these expeditionary forces became happy.

According to later historical records, the army of Marshal Boyan entered the city of Rome on April 29, 332 of the Great Song Dynasty, and the military discipline was strict and there was no crime in the autumn. The inhabitants of the city of Rome ate pot pulp to welcome the king. At this time, the women who were dragged out of their homes and had an intimate relationship with the Mongolian army would definitely not agree.

But history is, after all, written by the victors. According to historical records, looking at the many magnificent ruins in the city of Rome, Marshal Boyan couldn't help but chant the words written by Zhao Jiaren, an official of the Great Song Dynasty, in Latin.

The peaks and mountains are like gathering, the waves are like anger, and the mountains and rivers are on the surface of Tongguan Road. Looking at the western capital, he hesitated.

Sad, the Qin and Han dynasties, the palace and thousands of rooms have been made of soil. Xing, the people suffer; Death, the people suffer.