In the port of Damascus, hordes of Mongols were sent to ships. The escort carried a horsewhip in his hand, and when he saw the disobedient Mongols, he was not polite, and he went up with a few whips. Beat those poor Mongols to grin. Such an arrogant attitude did not inspire the impoverished Mongols to revolt, and in addition to insisting that their families should be together, thousands of Mongols soon succumbed to violent management and even domination.

As the only current overlord of the Eastern Mediterranean, these fleets were all ships of the Great Song Dynasty. Compared to a few months ago, the number of ships has doubled. But the tonnage has obviously not doubled, because the new ships are basically ships of about 1,000 tons. In addition to the tonnage, the sailors on board were no longer all of the Oriental population. Quite a few Mediterranean faces were also seen on board.

Looking at such a huge number of Mongols, the crew felt a lot of pressure. The solution to the pressure was to hurry to sail out to sea and transport the Mongols to their destination. The relay station proposed by Yuan Guo was Cyprus, and Yang Congrong, director of the Eastern European Department of the Great Song Dynasty, felt that Cyprus was not suitable as a relay station. It was too small in population and too far from the new center of influence in Athens. In case the Mongols see through their hands and feet, it is difficult to defend. The fleet carried a large number of Mongols to Rhodes, which was closer to Athens.

Rhodes used to be the absolute center of the Great Song Dynasty in the Mediterranean, and a large number of Great Song personnel were on Rhodes Island. There were so many Mongols crossing the border, and those Great Song people were evacuated to Athens. Only a small number of personnel remained. It was this small number of people who gave a report to Athens that described a spectacular scene of emigration.

'Every day, a dozen ships unloaded a large number of people, totaling more than 20,000...... There is not much water on Rhodes, and these Mongols have to drink almost all of it...... Both men and women were forced to take a bath, and the beaches where they bathed were smelly...... If Zhao Guan's family could see that more than 300,000 immigrants could be immigrated in such a short period of time, he would be overjoyed......

Yang Congrong, director of the Eastern European Department of the Great Song Dynasty, had been worried about what problems would arise from such a large-scale migration of the Mongols, so he stressed the issue of ship disinfection. Due to a lack of manpower, he had to recruit more Athenians as sailors. Although there were no outbreaks of plague on the ship, the new sailors lost about 5% due to fatigue or other reasons. About half of the 5% are missing.

Unbeknownst to Yang, six of the missing people had appeared in the Venice City Council through secret lines of communication. As the former hegemon of the Eastern Mediterranean, Venice has now been cornered. Venice in a desperate situation is not falling apart, they are still doing everything in their power to find self-help. Exploring the reality of the Great Song Dynasty ships is one of the ways to save yourself.

"Distinguished councillors, we already know why the ships of the Great Song are so huge. Their ribs were not wooden, but iron. As a spy, the sailor who infiltrated the Great Song fleet told what he had seen.

Iron ribs. The news made the Venetian parliamentarians gasp. Venice has one of the best shipbuilding industries in Europe, and parliamentarians are no strangers to shipbuilding.

"Those people of the Great Song Dynasty were able to produce a ship rib more than ten meters long, as big as a ship rib made of the largest tree?" Some parliamentarians asked puzzled. The councillors could understand the meaning of the iron ribs, but what they didn't understand was that someone could make such a huge piece of iron. Venice was not only strong in shipbuilding, but also in the two hundred years of the Crusades, which also gave rise to a thriving iron-smelting and metalworking industry in Venice. Shipbuilding requires a large number of nails and other metal parts.

"Yes. Honorable Councillor, although we were not able to go to the sealed cabin on the ground floor, the ribs we saw were more than ten meters long, thinner than the wooden ribs made of big trees, but denser than the wooden ribs made of big trees. Therefore, it is speculated that the keel of the Great Song Dynasty ship is also made of iron. The spy sailor answered the parliamentarians' questions decisively.

As great shipbuilders, when the Venetians had to accept the possibility of using a large number of metal parts, they also understood that ships in the Mediterranean could only build six or seven hundred tons at most, but the Great Song Dynasty ships often started from one thousand tons. Harder than flexible, wood is inferior to iron. In addition, the wood will also deform when it absorbs water and dries. Therefore, the ribs of the ship must be repaired after two or three months of use, otherwise they are likely to be misaligned or even fall off.

The Venetian sailors who mixed into the Great Song ships were all proficient in shipbuilding, and after looking at the shape of the Great Song ship's ribs and the so many huge screws fixed on the ship's ribs, they were probably able to deduce that the ribs of the Great Song ships did not need to be adjusted frequently. This is also why the Great Song ships have been sailing on the sea in various ways, and do not often enter the dock for maintenance.

Knowing the characteristics of the ships of the Great Song Dynasty, the Venetian parliamentarians asked the hard-working spy sailors to go down to rest first. The next issue is another issue. The leader of the parliamentary group, who made a strong statement last time, said in a low voice, "Milan has been slaughtered, and Florence has been slaughtered. We are now surrounded. The Mongols, like the earliest Crusaders, left no prisoners. ”

Hearing the councillors mention the 'first crusades', the Venetian councillors were all very unsightly. The first Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and killed anyone on sight, regardless of whether the inhabitants of Jerusalem believed in the True God or the Crusades, whether they were men or women, old or young. As long as it is a living creature, it will be killed.

Now the Mongol army, with the 'earliest crusade style', has arrived outside Venice and is preparing for the siege.

"The Pope has convened a meeting, so aren't there any reinforcements?"

"We can't afford to pay for the money they want." The chief of the councillors looked even more pained.

"What to do? Do you want to submit to the Mongols? A lawmaker asked.

No one answered. The Mongol massacre did frighten the Venetian parliamentarians, but it also strengthened the Venetian parliamentarians' determination that they would not surrender to the Mongols until they were at the end of their rope. In the midst of such a painful silence, suddenly a congressman stood up and said loudly: "Everyone, let's just surrender to the Great Song." ”

This statement is very unusual, but it makes the Venetian parliamentarians a little excited. The parliamentarian who proposed to surrender to the Great Song actually didn't have any special reasons, his face was a little red with shame because of the submission, but he still said his reasons, "The Great Song can build a big ship with iron ribs, and they must understand the importance of Venice." ”

The Venetian parliamentarians probably understood the inner logic of the councillor's speech, 'even if you sell yourself, you must sell yourself to the most powerful and knowledgeable one'.

The councillors discussed for a few more moments, and one of them couldn't help but curse the Dead Clergy again for all they had in their eyes on money. The so-called councils convened by the pope have been in session for several months, and no state has sent a single soldier to help.

If you hear the curses of the Venetian parliamentaries, those who are meeting in Marienburg will surely feel very aggrieved. In the two hundred years of the Crusades, the Venetians were perhaps the only ones who really benefited. The other force was the Knights Templar.

The Venetians provided great benefits to the Crusaders of the Crusades by providing ships with weapons and equipment. When the money on hand was not enough, the crusaders of the Eastern Crusade also attacked the Eastern Roman Empire on behalf of Venice and plundered the Eastern Roman Empire. Almost the entire Eastern Roman Empire was reduced to a kingdom. In addition to providing transportation, Venice also bought war spoils at low prices. Earn money at both ends.

Lying on the crusaders and sucking the blood of two hundred years, now let Venice vomit a little, and the forces participating in the meeting did not feel anything wrong. The forces represented at the Marienburg Conference had their own flags, and more than a dozen flags were hung on both sides of the large conference hall at the headquarters of the Marienburg Knights. These were much fewer than the aristocratic banners of the Italian Northern Alliance, which had fallen a few months earlier. The second is that the patterns on these flags are much simpler.

The most intricate designs on the flags are, of course, those of England, France, and the great princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Even so, the banners of these kingdoms and princes are much simpler than the so-called dukes, counts, and other medicines. As for the flags of the three major knights and several large dioceses in Germany, they are all simple and bright, all with cross patterns.

However, these crosses and the motifs of the kingdom and the great nobles are the source of the intricate coat of arms of those nobles. These coat of arms are the ancestors of the coat of arms of the nobility of the Italian Northern Alliance, and the glory of the so-called northern Italian nobility comes from the power represented by these patterns.

The Holy Roman Empire, bordering Italy and the Balkans, knew how hard it was to climb the mountains to attack Italy, hundreds of miles away. And intelligence shows that the number of Western Roman troops in Italy was in the hundreds of thousands. Everyone is not in the mood to face so many enemies. Even if a large-scale war was to be waged against the Mongols, it would have to be waged in plains where it could exert its strength.

The Pope is the Holy Spiritual Leader, and even Urban II, who instigated the First Crusades, only described it.

The Turks have ravaged the "kingdom of God" in the East, and "men of all ranks" must "rise up quickly" and "wipe out this wicked race from the land of our brothers", or else they will be conquered by "a lowly and degraded race that slaves the devil" will be.

The Pope called on the participants to "ascend the journey to the Holy Sepulchre" and made a vow: "Those who set out to go will be forgiven of their sins in that moment if they lose their lives on the journey, both on land and at sea, or in the war against the infidels".

In order to drive the peasants and the urban poor to join the crusade, the Pope told the faithful that the land of the East was "full of milk and honey" and that Jerusalem was another "paradise full of joy and pleasure", "where all is sorrow and poverty, there is joy and abundance". At the same time, he declared that those who participated in the crusade would ascend to heaven directly after death and would not have to be tempered in purgatory; Farmers and the urban poor who are unable to pay their debts are exempt from paying interest on their debts, and those who have been on the levy for more than one year are exempt from paying taxes.

The Crusades that followed were carried out by the instigated 'Crucidian brothers', behind whom the Holy See hid its presence. If the Holy See had commanded it personally, it would have lost its supremacy.

It's the same this time. After the Holy See declared a holy war against Mongolia, it hid behind the scenes. Jihad is carried out and promoted by the powers of the secular world. Marienburg was the capital of the Teutonic Knights, and the requirements for the secularization of the Teutonic Knights were simple: "Ladies and gentlemen, Poland must become a subject state of the Teutonic Order. Look at the Polish aristocracy, they wanted to take refuge with the Mongols. This is to give the soul directly to the devil in hell. ”

The various powers present were aware of the Teutonic Knights' ambition to annex Poland, and if they had been before, they would probably have been outspoken in their opposition. Now no one in the powers wants to speak for Poland. Because many Polish powers refused to let the allied forces pass through their territory, nor did they organize their own armies to attack the Mongols. This shows that the loyalty of these Poles to the Crucidian world is very problematic, and the Poles want to stay out of the jihad.

After the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Albrecht I, said: "It is up to the various powers to divide their own territories in Poland, let them occupy these regions first, and unite their forces to fight against the Mongols." ”

As soon as this suggestion came out, the representatives of England and France nodded their heads. Sooner or later, the coalition forces would have to go to war with the Mongols, and the matter was less urgent. How to deal with Poland is a big issue that has to be struck. It was much better for Poland to be divided among the countries than for the Teutonic Knights to eat Poland alone.

The Teutonic Knights were furious when they heard the speech of the representative of the Holy Roman Emperor. Without waiting for the Grand Master to speak, he heard the King of Sweden say, "I think this is also the case with Lithuania." ”

Not only did Poland not come to the meeting, but the Kingdom of Lithuania only sent a representative to the meeting. Not long after the meeting began, the Teutonic Knights stated that Lithuania would accept the leadership of the Teutonic Knights and that the Kingdom of Lithuania could not be left to fight alone. The Kingdom of Lithuania did not expect to be suppressed by the Teutonic Knights, and seeing that other countries did not support the Kingdom of Lithuania, the representatives of the Kingdom of Lithuania left angrily and loudly told the participating countries that Lithuania would never submit to the Teutonic Knights.

Sweden in the north knew that it could not get its hands on Poland, and it would be excellent if it could bite off a large piece of meat from Lithuania.

Not long after the meeting began, the Teutonic Knights stated that Lithuania would accept the leadership of the Teutonic Knights and that the Kingdom of Lithuania could not be left to fight alone. The Kingdom of Lithuania did not expect to be suppressed by the Teutonic Knights, and seeing that other countries did not support the Kingdom of Lithuania, the representatives of the Kingdom of Lithuania left angrily and loudly told the participating countries that Lithuania would never submit to the Teutonic Knights.

Sweden in the north knew that it could not get its hands on Poland, and it would be excellent if it could bite off a large piece of meat from Lithuania.

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