The dry autumn breeze swept across the vast desert with sparse vegetation.

At the end of the field of vision, there is a majestic mountain range of dark gray, full of craggy strange rocks, and there is not much green that represents life.

Under the lofty blue sky, the sun of the Anatolian plateau is as fierce, white and dazzling as ever.

However, despite the fierce sun, the wind is still mixed with a knife-sharp cold snap – which is a no-brainer given the altitude of the Anatolian highlands. Even in summer, the temperature here is usually only in the 20s Celsius.

Although this rugged plateau with thousands of ravines and ravines cannot be called a pure desert, it can at least be called a barren land. The ground was littered with large and small gravel and stones. Only very scarce bushes and weeds, growing tenaciously between the cracks in the rocks.

The babbling water of the river in the valley moistens this dry land and brings it vitality. The ancestors who migrated here in ancient times worked tirelessly to build a perfect irrigation system, turning the desert into a fertile field, and creating a great civilization in this land.

This is Anatolia, a place of cultural prosperity in Western history.

At this moment, near the city of Ankara in central Anatolia, a Turkish army under the banner of a crescent moon is camping and resting on the bank of a river. The reddish-brown soil on both sides of the river is constantly swept up in the magnificent water, making the surface of the river seem to be dyed red.

-- This is the Red River, also known as the Kyzyl River, which was once regarded as the "mother river" of the Hittite Empire in ancient times. It is the longest river in Anatolia. It originates in the Kyzyl Mountains in north-central Anatolia and empties into the Black Sea between Sinop and Samsun, with a total length of about 1,182 kilometers. Both sides of the Red River are agricultural areas with well-developed irrigation systems. It is the core hinterland of the ancient Hittite Empire, and it is also a rich and important place that is fiercely contested by various Turkic tribes.

Standing on a high rock, looking at the endless rushing river not far ahead, the continuous military camps behind it, and the town shrouded in black smoke and flames in the distance, Turahan Pasha, the self-proclaimed regent of the empire, couldn't help but frown and ponder again.

-- After the extinction of the Ottoman royal family. He had become the most powerful man in the entire Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Because, in the hands of Turakhan, he held an elite army of Zuihou left over from the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

He led more than 20,000 descendants from Greece to cross the Aegean Sea. After evacuating Europe, Turahan Pasha landed at the port of Smyrna in Asia Minor and suppressed the Greek revolt there. Then he turned south and repelled the Knights Hospitaller who tried to take advantage of the fire. Since then, he has gained a firm foothold in Asia Minor. Next. In response to a combined invasion by Kurds and Turkic chieftains from the East, he once again made a long journey, climbing mountains and fighting the border near Ankara, and finally managed to secure most of the Ottoman Turkish Empire's Asian territory.

-- The Ottoman Empire in the 15th century was far less extensive in Asia than it is today, and was only about half the size of modern Turkey. At that time, the easternmost point of the Turkish border was probably on the line of Ankara, the capital of modern Turkey. And continue to the east. Armenians and Kurds, who were still independent at the time, were also small Turkic states that had not yet been conquered by the Ottoman royal family.

(The Turks are the diacritics of the Turks.) The state of Turkey can also be translated as Turkic state. ）

Therefore. After the violent death of Sultan Mehmed II and the reduction of the capital Adrianople to a radiant wasteland, not only did Turkey's rule in Eastern Europe collapse in an instant, but even the territories in Asia Minor were in turmoil. The Knights Hospitaller, the descendants of the Crusaders who had been trapped in Rhodes for many years, the Emirate of Karaman who ruled southern Asia Minor, the Armenians and Kurds who entrenched themselves in the mountains of eastern Asia Minor, and the Venetians and Genoese, who dominated the Mediterranean, all pounced on the corpses of the Ottoman Turks like rancid vultures. And many chieftains and magnates within the Turkish Empire, seeing that the Ottoman royal family they had originally loyal to had been destroyed, also raised their counter-flags one after another.

In the end, it was only thanks to Turahan Pasha and his Zuihou Turkish army that rushed left and right, and struggled to maneuver around, barely withstanding this wave of internal and external enemy attacks, and retaining most of the territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Asia Minor......

But for Tulahan, who was trying to inherit the throne of the Sultan, his troubles were far from over.

First of all, his self-appointed regent position had not yet been unanimously approved by many powerful families in Asia Minor, especially the noblest families in the old capital of Bursa, as well as the religious circles in the country, and he was not very justified in governing the localities and collecting taxes.

Secondly, in the cities of Asia Minor, which he already controlled, a sudden and terrifying plague was spreading rapidly, devouring the lives of countless subjects and soldiers almost every day...... In fact, this is also the catastrophe that many shili in the Near East are facing at the moment.

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In normal years, in the face of the outbreak of the plague, those more responsible rulers in ancient times would generally set up checkpoints to control the flow of people and avoid the spread of the plague. But now that the Ottoman Turkish Empire has collapsed, the entire ruling order has completely collapsed, and there is chaos everywhere, with various armies fighting each other, and countless rogues, pirates and horse thieves operating around, and there is no way to talk about any epidemic prevention measures.

As a result, the rulers of all regions were unable to come up with a cure for this menacing plague, or even to save their own lives, such as cholera, smallpox, and plague, which in the fifteenth century were absolutely incurable, and could only be fought by personal constitution and luck. If you are lucky and get through, then you can still live; If you're unlucky and don't get past it, you'll have to die.

Well? Weishenme Ancient doctors could not cure these plagues?

Let's take a look at what kind of illness these are!

The first is cholera, which is usually caused by an unhygienic diet. That is, eating unclean things or drinking unclean water, which causes extremely violent vomiting and diarrhea, and then makes the patient quickly dehydrated and faint. Fluids must be given in large quantities to save lives. However, with the sad level of craftsmanship of this era, except for a few very skilled jewelers, basically no one can create a decent needle, and naturally there is no way to infuse and replenish water - so patients often do not survive for three days after the outbreak of the epidemic. It has already failed circularly and is completely out of breath.

(At that time, there were people in Italy who made handmade needles, but not for infusions.) Instead, it releases bruising and pus that has accumulated under the skin. ）

Then there's smallpox, which is even more terrifying and can be spread through droplets, making it difficult for many people to prevent it. The first hurdle after smallpox is high fever. Many patients die without making it through this link. Even if you survive a high fever. This will be followed by a high chance of sepsis, ulceration, and even sepsis - in the era of antibiotics, a small wound infection can kill people!

Zuihou is the plague, also known as the Black Death or hemorrhagic fever, and this plague is spread by fleas on rats. Patients generally have a fever to the point of insanity, and then large black patches emerge all over the body, the pain is unbearable, and the skin of Zuihou quickly ulcerates and falls off. Oozing a staggering amount of bruises and pus...... In the absence of antibiotics, patients usually do not survive for a few days. It will be a dead whimper, and the corpse will become a new source of infection.

In addition, there are dysentery, typhoid, diphtheria, seven-day fever, malaria...... Every plague is a great harvester of human life. Even influenza, which seems to be insignificant, can cause widespread death in this era. The Turks, the Kurds, the Armenians, the Knights Hospitaller, and the Arabs were helpless in the face of these seemingly heavenly diseases.

In short, as long as any of the above plagues broke out, it would be a catastrophe for the ancients, and if they were not done well, they could cause the destruction of a city. And if so many kinds of fierce plague broke out together, it would be an unprecedented catastrophe similar to the end of Shijie.

-- True to the old saying, war and plague are the most effective ways to reduce population.

In the absence of a way to treat the sick, the only effective countermeasure for the ancient nations to deal with the plague was to isolate the sick.

The so-called isolation of the sick means sealing the city gates with stones and bricks, blocking the sick and suspected sick people in a town or a block, arranging for the army to build strong fortifications on the periphery, strictly checking them, and only allowing them to enter and not leave. Leave the people in quarantine to fend for themselves.

It's a rather brutal tactic – if you're a wealthy family with food and firewood and a clean separate well in your yard, there's still some hope of survival. As for the destitute who have no food to live in, I am afraid that they can only drink dirty water on an empty stomach and wait for death...... As a result, many poor people often die of hunger and thirst before they can get sick.

Also, isolating the sick alone is not necessarily effective, as many diseases can be transmitted by small animals such as rats (plague), flies (cholera), and mosquitoes (malaria). For example, in the Black Death of 1348, the Europeans at that time tried all the means to prevent the epidemic, and even took extreme measures to burn all the infected people to death, but they still could not stop the spread of the Black Death - until the epidemic basically disappeared, they did not understand that the Black Death was caused by rats, but blamed the cause on bathing too much, and then insisted on not bathing for centuries......

Worse still, even such brutal measures can only be implemented in a "good year" when the regime is stable and the society is calm. If, in the midst of war, turmoil, and state collapse, there are no conditions or military resources to isolate the sick, then the ruler has no choice but to abandon his duty to rule and choose to isolate himself—specifically, to leave the densely populated city with a small number of healthy soldiers and nobles, as well as the treasure and food that can be carried, and take refuge in some well-fortified quarantine area (usually some fortified and remote castle) to wait for the plague to pass. At the same time, the rest of the people outside the walls and ditches were abandoned, and they were left to die in agony in the midst of the raging disease......

In this case, since the officials and nobles have abandoned their subjects, it is natural that the local government should no longer be expected to maintain social order.

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Turakhan Pasha now finds himself in the midst of such anarchy and unprecedented chaos as he repels a Kurdish attack. While ending the fighting in the Ankara region, the terrible plague also chased his ass, spreading from the coastal ports where the refugees landed all the way to the interior of Anatolia. Like a wildfire, it erupted uncontrollably, claiming thousands of lives in an instant.

The frequent movement of troops from all sides, as well as the resulting wave of refugees, further accelerated the spread of the plague.

As a result, the local Turkish nobility, who had previously ruled the nearby towns, were soon frightened by the outbreak of the plague. When medical skills and prayers were ineffective, he either fell ill and died, or hid in the deep mountains and old forests and became a wild man. Or simply play to their nomadic traditions, abandon the stone villas, pack up the tents, and drive the cattle and horses on the journey. Once again, the Great Migration of Clans was played.

Outcome. Turahan Pasha finally withdrew from the battlefield against the Kurds, and was about to find a place to rest and replenish, but who knew that he had come all the way, and the city of Ankara, which had gathered at least tens of thousands of people a few days ago, was now dead and silent, and there was not even a ghost to be found. And the surrounding small towns and villages, which were once bustling and noisy, are now only left with the pungent smell of corpses, and the roaring and hissing of crows and wild dogs. Many of the discarded corpses were left with bones left. Maggots crawl around in the eye sockets of dead people. Some of the carcasses were dug out by hungry wild dogs because they were buried too shallowly. gnawed beyond recognition, that scene was really indescribably bleak.

Thus, in this land, which had nominally been loyal to him, the local government institutions were completely paralyzed by the plague, and Turahan Pasha could not recruit men and strong men, nor could he raise food and salaries, nor even those who could extort supplies—all the Turkish nobles who remained in the vicinity of Ankara took refuge in remote and impregnable fortresses or mosques, and no one was willing to come out to his service, no matter how much Turakhan Pasha threatened and lured, even if he was about to attack. The visible sword can still be resisted, but how can the invisible disease be guarded against?

What's more, although Turahan Pasha was well aware of the horror of the plague, in order to maintain the supply of tens of thousands of troops, he still had to send soldiers to plunder villages and towns, collect food from abandoned houses, and inevitably come into contact with some sick and corpses, so that the pervasive plague still spread to his army. This not only made the soldiers panic, but even the war horses began to die in large numbers - among the bacteriological weapons dropped by Kotori Yu Zhenbai, there was horse plague......

At this time, Turahan Pasha was camping on the banks of the Kizil River with his army, and he was in a dilemma, the territory and city he had just occupied were completely out of control, and he could not provide him with military supplies, so the supply of food and horse feed was difficult, and the broken ordnance and armor could not be repaired by craftsmen, and people died in black every day in the barracks, so that the morale of the whole army was always on the verge of collapse...... He didn't know where he was going with this army, he didn't know what to do next, or even what his goal was.

Until a messenger who came from Bursa at the risk of death for help pointed out a promising future for him.

“…… What the? The Greeks crossed the sea from Constantinople and had already captured Nicaea, and the old capital of Bursa was in a hurry? ”

In the past few months, although rumors of "holy war" and "crusade" have been rumored for a long time, the reaction of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the face of the Eastern Roman Empire's large-scale counterattack is still like a lightning strike, since the founding of the Ottoman Turks, they have always played the role of aggressors in the face of the Eastern Roman Empire. It was through repeated invasions of the ruined rivers and mountains of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the acquisition of land and wealth from this decaying empire, that the Ottoman Turkish Empire was able to grow and develop, win the self-confidence of a great power, and embark on the road to hegemony in the Near East.

But now, the roles between the two are suddenly reversed...... The Turkish magnates of Bursa, who had just been tormented by the plague, were completely unprepared for a big war, and in their haste to strengthen the city's defenses, they had to ask for help from Turakhan Pasha, the only one who still had mobile troops, - in order to obtain reinforcements, the wealthy magnates of Bursa did not hesitate to make a heavy promise, as long as Turakhan Pasha could defeat the attack of the Greek Christians and relieve the crisis facing the city of Bursa, they would elect him as the new Turkish sultan and inherit the throne of the Ottoman family according to the customs of the nomadic tribal era!

At this time, Turahan Pasha, who was trapped on the bank of the Red River, not only saw the dazzling throne of the sultan from the letter, but also saw the huge amount of grain hoarded in the old capital of Bursa, as well as money, strong men and craftsmen...... These are the things he desperately needs at the moment!

“…… Herald! The whole army set out for the city of Bursa! He shook his fist excitedly, and the confusion in his eyes was swept away," ...... As long as we win this battle, this country will be ours! ”

-- A storm from the depths of the Anatolian plateau is about to sweep towards the revival of the Eastern Roman Empire. (To be continued.) )