Time flies, years are like a river, and in the blink of an eye, a certain shijie time has quietly passed for a year.

Autumn 1454, Italian Peninsula, the city of Venice

The once bustling and noisy water capital seems to be covered with a gray veil, like a mummy shroud.

“…… It is a dying catastrophe, a time of plague of darkness and sorrow, where invisible sickness engulfs every nation, howling storms hit barren shores, and endless robbers and barbarians pour out of the wilderness to plunder and slaughter our towns.

Merchant ships and trade have disappeared from the seas, and all law and order have been wiped out in the face of death.

God forgot the people of Europa, the old well-organized shijie that we are familiar with, and came to an end without warning.

Those noble souls born with glory had to begin to struggle for survival. The precarious short-term life makes the rich no longer have a long-term plan, but only want to have fun in time and wantonly squander the wealth they have accumulated in their lives; The ignorant poor are in ignorance, poverty and fear, and they are dying step by step...... The old years are over, a new era is beginning, and everyone must learn to survive in this new era. Because this land of destruction is our home, and the terrible new shijie ...... we have to face."

In a dusty study, I read again the posthumous works of an unknown poet who had just returned from Constantinople to Venice. Ambassador Minotto sighed and put away the parchment roll. Carefully pack it into a delicate wooden box.

Looking out through the window of the study, the bronze statue of the horse in St. Mark's Square still stands proudly, but the chaotic stalls and vendors of the past. But it has disappeared completely, and there are not even a few beggars to be found, only the bleak autumn wind blows the fallen leaves on the ground from time to time. In the canal next to the square, there is not a single Venetian "gondola" boat in sight, which is extremely empty and lonely.

As far as the eye can see, there are only dirty streets, dilapidated houses, and a handful of sloppy men leaning against the corners waiting to die. There are also white bones that have been discarded at will. The passage of time has made this plague-stricken city look even more dilapidated and desolate.

Dead silence in St. Mark's Square. The tenacious grass and trees crept out from under the slabs and grew wildly, digging their rhizomes into the cracks between the slabs. Vines climbed up the latticework of the church.

At the time of the first entry into town. Faced with this bleak scene like ruins, Girolamo. Minotto couldn't believe his eyes: was this dead abandoned city really the great Venice, the pearl of the Adriatic Sea?

For the Venetians, who call themselves the "bride of the god of the sea", the sea is both their home and a source of wealth. For hundreds of years, it was the countless ships that traveled back and forth day and night to bring the wealth of Shijie throughout the Mediterranean into this place. There were also rounds of decisive naval battles with the Eastern Roman Empire, Arabs and Genoese that allowed this small city-state to become the supreme hegemon of the Mediterranean.

But. Wealth flows from the sea, and threats come from the sea.

Since last summer, the constant plague has been recurring in Venice and shows no end to this day.

Worse still, a murderous enemy may bring people together bravely, but an elusive illness can only make people fearful and distracted.

As the first galleon, carrying germs, docked at the quayside of Venice, a terrible plague flooded the city like a tsunami, pouring into every street - first fever, vomiting, coughing and abscesses, then silence and death.

Doctors in medieval Europe could not treat these plagues, and the few "holy relics" transferred from Constantinople was, after all, a drop in the bucket.

At the end of the Holocaust, the whole city-state was soon largely disintegrated, all shops and bazaars were closed, shipyards and docks became garbage heaps, prisoners were starved to death in prisons, and even the government stopped functioning - the Republic of Venice became a Republic of the Dead!

In the past year or so, the Republic of Venice has had seven viceroyalties due to plague and death. The Great Council, which holds the supreme power, had to be suspended indefinitely because more than sixty percent of its members died in the plague, and the remaining members had largely escaped.

Thus, Gironamo, who had just been forcibly expelled from the Concession of Constantinople by the Eastern Roman Empire. Ambassador Minotto, after returning to Venice after many hardships, could not find anyone to report on.

What's even more terrifying is that in the midst of this devastating plague, the city of Venice, which originally had 190,000 citizens, actually killed 170,000 people in one go, and most of the remaining residents fled to remote villages for refuge. Only a few thousand of the most stubborn citizens, like lonely ghosts, remained in the ruined city, silently waiting for the day when the disaster would end...... Or maybe the end of this shijie is coming!

As a medieval European, Girolamore. Ambassador Minotto could not have seen the zombie apocalypse, the Fallout Wasteland and other films, but in the face of this familiar and unfamiliar empty city, he still deeply experienced an atmosphere of gloom, oppression, desolation, despair, fear and sadness - just like modern people see the ruins of a city after a nuclear war.

More so Girolamo. In Minoto's despair, when he rowed a simple raft and finally came to the door of his house, he found it empty, and none of his relatives, his neighbors, and the familiar faces of the past could be found at this time—according to common sense, these people may have fled to the countryside to escape the plague, but it is more likely that they have been called by the Lord to heaven.

So, Girolamo. For a moment, Minotto could not help but be discouraged—if he had just been expelled from Constantinople in disarray, he thought of moving the Doge and the Parliament to send a Venetian fleet back to take revenge. Then after seeing with your own eyes the tragic state of Venice today. He no longer has any extravagant hopes for the political career of his life.

In fact, it's not just Venice. The places in Italy and Greece that he passed through on his journey were also a catastrophe of the end of Shijie.

Whether it's Naples, Athens or Messina, almost every city on the Mediterranean coast is littered with corpses. And in the countryside, there are often people who die in entire villages. Whether it's day or night, there are always many people who die on the road. Many more died at home until the corpses decomposed and stenched. will be noticed by the neighbors - if the neighbors don't die first.

The people of the city, seeing the end of the world, simply left all their possessions and businesses in search of pleasure; The peasants in the countryside knew that the time of death had come. I don't want to do farm work anymore, I just know how to eat and drink. The wheat and fruit rotted in the fields, and the cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks fled somewhere. The women abandoned chastity, and the men forgot about morality. Day and night, he drank heavily, and raped people in groups...... And then died suddenly in the carnival of depravity.

With the collapse of the social order. The army that maintained law and order also collapsed. Bandit gangs of all stripes flooded the roads, pirates who had lost their grip plundered harbors, and nomads were said to have attacked the countries of Eastern Europe from the east, making the Christian Shijie even more precarious—European civilization, which had just emerged from the dark Middle Ages, was once again on the verge of collapse and destruction.

Sitting in the dusty old mansion, I think of my friends and family who don't know where I am, and this desperate shijie, Girolamo. Minotto couldn't help but feel a heart-rending grief. Thereupon. He picked up a bottle of wine from the cellar from the table and bit the stopper off with his mouth. Then he threw his neck down his throat, trying to drown his sorrows with wine...... However, this sour and astringent wine suddenly choked out Giramo's tears and snot, and made him feel dizzy and tired, and he found that something seemed wrong with his body, and his throat was aching.

“…… Ahem, damn it! It seems to have a fever! Luckily, I still have some medicine from Hagia Sophia......"

Giramo lowered his head and coughed a few times, quickly took out a small glass bottle from his arms, pulled out the stopper, poured out two white pills and swallowed them.

Although he held a grudge against the Eastern Roman Empire, which blatantly expelled Venetian diplomats, he had always carried the "holy bread", "holy water" and "holy oil" he had obtained from the Hagia Sophia. It was thanks to these miraculous elixirs that he was able to cross half of the Mediterranean safely and return to his Venetian homeland in good health while the plague was raging, instead of dying of illness on the way.

But I don't know if it's a psychological effect, in Gironamo's feelings, the effect of these pills and ointments seems to be less effective than at the beginning.

So, after taking the treasured medicine, and trying to get a double safe, Gironamo turned and knelt down in front of the small shrine in the room, and began to pray with the most devout attitude before Jesus on the cross:

“…… Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Let thy kingdom come, and thy will come to earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive our enemies.

May we turn away from temptation and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, are all yours.

Forever, Amen! ”

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When the entire Western Shijie was dying in the plague, the Eastern Roman Empire, which was already terminally ill, ushered in a miraculous rebirth.

At least, the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine XI at this time was very confident in the future of his country.

Not long ago, in view of the fact that the fleets of Venice and Genoa had been basically wiped out by the plague, he simply forcibly expelled the merchants of Genoa and Venice, and recovered the two concessions located in the city of Constantinople - anyway, the current Mediterranean trade has been basically cut off, and the places have either become no man's land, or have degenerated from the commodity economy to the natural economy, and it is no longer useful to keep these merchants, but will pose a serious danger to the security of the country.

Now, the Eastern Roman Empire has finally become his own kingdom - albeit a little too small.

And,Compared to the desperation around Shijie。 This thousand-year-old empire that has been reborn from the ashes can definitely be called vibrant.

-- At this time, it is the golden autumn season. The golden fields of the western coast of Asia Minor are filled with the smell of wine, farmers pressing olive oil and harvesting crops, and fishermen carrying baskets of seafood to the market.

Thanks to the "holy bread", "holy water" and "holy oil" that were openly supplied by Hagia Sophia, the shadow of the plague seems to have moved away from the land.

The imperial court's decree on the free distribution of land also greatly increased the enthusiasm of farmers for cultivation. Although the specific land distribution process. There will be some problems, but many of the fields that were once abandoned have been reclaimed.

Patrolling the countryside where the countryside has been restored to prosperity. Looking at the harvest in front of him, Constantine XI couldn't help but be quite proud.

The generations of Eastern Roman emperors before him actually tried to reform the political system, develop the economy, strengthen the army, support commerce and trade, and rectify the financial and fiscal affairs, and so on, hoping to restore the national strength with these measures. But here's the thing. After thousands of years of accumulation. The government of the Eastern Roman Empire was already difficult to return, and the social contradictions developed to a level that was completely irreconcilable. Even the slightest reform measure would be vigorously opposed by the big bureaucracy and the big aristocracy, and then forced to die halfway under the unanimous sabotage of the central and local conservative shili.

In the face of such a decaying and huge ancient empire, no matter what reforms are wanted to be undertaken, there will basically be resistance

But in the hands of Emperor Constantine XI, there was only one lonely city left in the entire empire. The former great nobles did not take refuge in the Turks, but betrayed the faith and became Muslims. It is to go away discouraged and go to the Italian city-state to be an apartment......

In short, the Eastern Roman Empire lost all its territory and all its baggage - the state was almost gone, and the bureaucratic elite that had obstructed reform from within naturally ceased to exist.

It's like starvation therapy, when people starve to death, the lesion is almost over.

And when a country is on the verge of extinction, all the decadent strata that originally parasitized on the body of the country and suck nutrients will either starve to death together or take refuge on the side of the enemy -- since they have all surrendered to the enemy, then they can naturally be killed justifiably.

Thus, after the miraculous resurrection of the Eastern Roman Empire, the conditions were ripe for land reform

In other words, once the street is hit to the extreme, as long as you can survive this hurdle, then it is often the beginning of the time to run.

The specific land reform measures were basically to divide the large tracts of land confiscated from the Muslim landlords into small plots and distribute them to the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire for cultivation, so that they could be restored from proletarians to yeoman farmers again, and at the same time undertake military service and conscription. It's even more than enough.

In addition, in order to increase food production and feed more people, he also had people try to grow new crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn.

-- In many time-traveling novels, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, which are high-yielding crops from the Americas, are simply super golden fingers that explode food and population. But in reality, these new crops could not be scaled up everywhere – for example, corn cultivation requires sufficient sunlight and accumulated temperature, which is difficult to spread at high latitudes such as Russia, which once caused Khrushchev great distress. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are cold and drought tolerant, but they also need enough fertility to grow well, or soybeans and alfalfa are planted alternately to restore fertility.

In this era when there is no chemical fertilizer, it may be difficult to collect enough fertilizer except near military horse farms and densely populated suburban areas.

Therefore, in the current Eastern Roman Empire, these high-yielding crops in the Americas, as well as peppers, pumpkins, peanuts and other new things, are only in the experimental cultivation stage, and they are still far from being truly promoted.

Although the country still has various deficiencies, looking at the golden ears of wheat swaying in the breeze, and the expectant faces of the farmers, feeling the sparkling vitality of the vigorous xiangshang, and recalling the withered, desolate and indifferent atmosphere of the city of Constantinople in the past, Constantine XI could not help but have the illusion of being a world away, and his chest was filled with an indescribable pride and joy.

In addition to land reform and agricultural construction, the military service mobilization system and militia system are also being gradually restored. Although a decent military school could not be run for a while, regular military training for farmers during the off-season began this year.

Through the test of practice over the years, Emperor Constantine XI has clearly realized that the army can indeed be bought with money in this era, but although the army that can be bought with money is of good quality, most of them are not reliable. They serve the country only for money, but do not have a sense of responsibility to sacrifice for the country, and in any case are loyal only to their own commanders, and not to the rulers of the country.

Therefore, he wanted to restore the citizen soldier system of ancient Greece and Rome, and train an army that could truly fight for the country.

Of course, according to the current social situation, there are still many troubles in building a citizen army, and the reform of the political system that goes with it is even more difficult, but given enough time, Constantine XI felt that he should be able to resurrect the ancient Roman legions on this shijie.

The only thing that made him feel a little depressed was that although the wormhole that crossed time and space was still suspended in the royal prayer room of his simple palace, the time and space travelers from the modern Shijie had rarely visited in recent months. Even when he occasionally transported all kinds of modern antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs to this side, and exchanged them for gold, silver, precious stones, alabaster and other valuables, he also came and went in a hurry, and rarely stopped...... This made the emperor feel a little depressed - when he wanted to boast to them about his martial arts, he could not find anyone......

Zuihou, now that the foreign enemy has been cleared and the domestic situation is not bad, the emperor began to plan to solve his personal problems.

- In order to prevent the royal blood from being severed, Constantine XI is preparing to marry a young new queen in the next few days...... (To be continued.) )