Sixty-eight, the prelude to the destruction of shijie (II)

As for the two "targeted targets" who were taken care of by Emperor Constantine XI and specially sent the "3000 series of your life" super gift package: Francesco, the governor of Venice. Foscali, as well as the Emperor's only remaining brother, had previously competed with him for the throne and later acted as the leader of the rebels and rebels against Demetus. Palaiologos, now all infected with anthrax powder hidden in a letterhead roll, is now dying—after the anthrax powder is inhaled into the lungs, it initially has "flu-like" symptoms, manifesting as low-grade fever, fatigue, general malaise, myalgia, and cough, usually lasting about 48 hours. Then it suddenly develops into an acute condition, with respiratory distress, shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, cyanosis, hemoptysis and other conditions, resulting in rapid coma and death of the patient, and the mortality rate can reach more than 90%.

Even better, by the time the two men fell ill and died, the plague had already spread by sea to Greece and Venice, killing hundreds of people. In addition, the symptoms caused by anthrax powder were very different from the various poisons used in the murder of nobles at the time, but more similar to the violent plague (anthrax was originally a strong plague), and it was not an oral poison, so the others just lamented their bad luck and did not escape the plague, and no one suspected the Eastern Roman emperor who was far away in Constantinople.

When the emperor got the news of their deaths, he was not only happy, but also felt empty in his heart, and he was very melancholy for a while.

“…… Alas, neither Thomas nor Demetus left any children, and I am alone, forty-nine years old......"

Reaching out and touching his already gray temples, Emperor Constantine XI couldn't help shaking his head and sighing, "...... A direct descendant of the royal family of Palaiologos. I'm the only one left alive in this world. If there are no descendants to inherit the family name, the entire dynasty will be extinct! Alas, there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great. Looks like I'm going to have to hurry up and find a wife......"

At the same time, just as the Western Christian shijie was dying and groaning in the invasion of the invincible disease, the Islamic shijie on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea was not spared, and it also ushered in an unprecedented catastrophe.

――It's true that I don't like bathing in this era. Muslims have benefited greatly from the plague as they have a penchant for cleanliness and frequent bathing and foot washing. In contrast to the densely populated and densely vegetated continent of Europe, the dry, hot and desolate deserts inhabited by Muslims. It also plays the role of a natural isolation zone, which is obviously not conducive to the spread of epidemics.

But here's the thing. Limited to medieval jishu conditions. The Muslims of this era are faced with the bacteriological weapons of the 21st century, and there is also no cure. Asia Minor, which was entrenched by the Turks, was the focus of this man-made "undead natural disaster", and most of the bacteriological weapons were dropped in this direction, and biological warfare agents were deliberately selected against the tropics...... As a result, the migration of Turkish refugees who received the added version of "humanitarian relief supplies" was accompanied. The shadow of the plague rose rapidly over one city after another in Asia Minor, devouring countless lives. The pilgrims then brought the plague to Jerusalem and Mecca, and to the entire Islamic Shijie......

-- Christian priests are certainly unable to overcome the plague with prayer. The imams of Islam also do not have such power.

The Islamic Shijie of this era has not yet recovered from the great destruction of the Mongol Crusade, and the stable political situation of the three major empires of Ottoman Turkey, Persia, and the Mughal Dynasty in India has not yet taken shape in this century. From West Asia to North Africa, there are fragmented city-states and emirates, as well as the remnants of the Mongols and Western European crusaders.

Therefore, in the face of the pervasive disease, European Christians still have the Catholic Church that can coordinate with various countries and organize a unified response to the plague (although it is often more and more chaotic), while the scattered Islamic shijie can only take care of itself, and no one can count on it.

According to the latest information obtained by Emperor Constantine XI, this wave of complex plague composed of various infectious diseases such as the Black Death, smallpox, and cholera, the cities of Asia Minor were basically not spared, and as far as Egypt and Libya, and many places were almost forbidden to death, not only human beings were killed in thousands of places, but even horses and domestic animals were dying.

Emperor Constantine XI Bixia knew very well that after unleashing the Pandora's box of bacteriological weapons, causing millions or even tens of millions of deaths, he was already more guilty than the most evil demon king. The problem, however, was that the Eastern Roman Empire would not have been able to regain its former territory in Asia Minor had it not been for this evil cheating against humanity that had greatly weakened the enemy's human resources.

-- To give an analogy here, the most crucial reason why the Chinese civilization has lasted for thousands of years and has been able to stubbornly revive despite repeated disasters is that the population base of the Juche ethnic group is large enough, and the population of the Chinese nation has always maintained an overwhelming advantage over other surrounding ethnic groups during the same period, and its cultural level far exceeds that of all other ethnic groups. Even during the Wuhu Rebellion and the Mongol invasion of the south, although the regimes of various ethnic minorities initially wanted to establish a regime with their own characteristics. But due to the huge number of Han people, they eventually had to embark on the road of sinicization.

However, the Eastern Roman Empire, with the Greeks as the main ethnic group, did not have such a large population and did not have the cultural advantage of assimilating Muslims, but was constantly eroded by Islam in turn...... In present-day Asia Minor, there are fewer than two million Orthodox Greeks left, huddled in coastal ports centered on the city of Smyrna, living alongside Muslims. And the interior of the Anatolian plateau, which has been lost for nearly 400 years, is completely under the control of more than five million Turkish nomads - whose inhabitants have long since converted to Allah, but do not even speak Greek.

Therefore, the Emperor of the Travelers had to formulate a strategy by thinking backwards - since the number of Greeks was too small to consume the Turks, and there was no way to assimilate the other party into his own, then he had to find a way to "subtract" the Turks and make them less than the Greeks.

In order to achieve this almost impossible strategic goal and achieve the great revival of the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine XI, who had long been exhausted, did not care at all to commit any heinous crimes against humanity and civilization, and even did not hesitate to destroy Shijie! (To be continued.) )