The Persians occupy Yemen!

The Red Sea trade route is completely cut off!

These two astonishing pieces of news quickly spread throughout Egypt, Constantinople, Greece and other Roman lands that were closely related to this trade route, and the sudden bad news undoubtedly caught many Roman merchants who were preparing to join the Red Sea trade by surprise.

The merchants of the entire Roman Empire were outraged, as were the large number of burghers in Constantinople who lived on handicrafts, and they gathered in front of Justinian II's palace to demand that troops be re-sent to help the Aksumite allies take Yemen back.

Of course, it would be better if the Roman Empire could control this land in their own hands, after all, no one could be more disgusted with the fact that they could make more money.

But they're going to be disappointed!

In the face of the Persians' rapid defeat of the Aksumites and occupation of Yemen, and then the strong cutting off of this sea trade route, which was extremely important to the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire, which was still in the shadow of the plague and was weakening, was helpless!

Today's Roman Empire is no longer the powerful Roman Empire of the time of Justinian I the Great, and the Roman Empire under Emperor Justinian II is no longer able to send large armies to the Red Sea coast to support its Axumite allies.

Justinian II, called Lideng, was the niece and adopted son of Justinian I's wife, Empress Theodora, and before the death of Justinian I the Great, another adopted son with the right to inherit was not around, so Justinian II was lucky to become the Roman Emperor.

Justin II was fortunate enough to be emperor, and he should have been happy, but he could not, because his good uncle had left behind an empire that was glamorous on the outside, but empty on the inside, and full of dangers, which had been exhausted both financially and militarily by years of war.

One of the most important events during the reign of Justin II was the invasion of Italy by the Lombards, an important sign of the Roman Empire's renewed decline.

In 568 AD, the Lombards took advantage of the plague and other disasters in the Roman Empire to invade Italy on a large scale, and the two sides continued to fight fiercely in a vast area from northern Italy to the city of Rome, and this war became known as the Gothic War.

The Lombards took revenge on all civilians who cooperated with the Roman army in the most violent way, destroying almost all the cities in the land, including the city of Rome.

Under such circumstances, Justinian II had to abandon the northern and eastern regions of Italy.

The Gothic War severely reversed the urbanization process in Italy, and many cities, including the city of Rome, were devastated. Ruined cities and a treasury with scarce resources made it impossible for the Roman Empire to hold Italy for long.

Only three years after the death of Emperor Justinian I, the efforts of the Roman Empire in Italy were in vain, and the Lombards reaped the benefits of the fishermen, who fell into the hands of the Lombards, who founded the Kingdom of Lombards (568-774), with the capital of Pavia.

During the reign of Justinian I, although the Roman Empire quickly restored all the territory of the Roman Empire except Gaul, in order to maintain the war on the eastern and western fronts, Justinian I the Great borrowed a lot of money from the common people, not so much a loan as a random apportionment.

The meagre savings of the imperial people were exchanged for spears and bows by Justinian I and thrown on the battlefields of the Persian Empire throughout Europe, which led to the successive Roman emperors almost all becoming beggars.

When the newly enthroned Justin II first appeared on the racecourse, the surrounding Imperial people held out their hands to him in shame and shouted to him, "Have mercy on us."

Compared with the old emperor Justinian I, Justinian II was a benevolent monarch who kept his word and spoke righteously, he returned the money he had forcibly "borrowed" to the people, released prisoners who owed harsh taxes in prisons, and greatly reduced taxes.

But Justinian II, who had a much worse political IQ than his uncle, was furious when he saw that the large number of people in the empire could not even fill their stomachs, and that they had to give Persia a large amount of gold coins every year to keep the two sides at peace, and last year he resolutely cut off this de facto tribute to Persia.

So the fifty-year peace agreement signed with Emperor Justinian I who tried his best to defeat the Persian Empire was torn apart by both sides and thrown to the ground!

Justin II used various means to win over the Turks, as well as the Armenians and Illyrians (Kurds) under Persian rule, and formed an alliance with them to wage war with the Persian Empire.

In the year when Belsalica came to Zhenhai, the Great War between the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire broke out, and the two sides fought to the death in Armenia, but this time the Roman Empire army no longer had the glory of the original Justinian I period, and suffered heavy losses on the battlefield.

This was followed by a series of battles in Syria, this time with an even more tragic defeat of the Roman army at the hands of the Persian Emperor Kusru I (Kuslao I), and the destruction of a large number of military castles built during the reign of Justinian I. 186 Chinese Network

The Roman Empire then had to sue for peace with the Persian Empire, and after peace talks between the two families, Justinian II had no choice but to give Persia 45,000 pounds of gold in exchange for peace. After the money was in hand, the Persian army, which had suffered no small losses, retreated back for a while, and the two sides began a truce.

I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to defeat Persia and cancel the tribute to Persia, but not to mention my own defeat, I even had to pay a large amount of gold to Persia, Justin II's mood can be imagined, but the blow to Justin II is not over.

Soon after Italy lost most of its half and lost the war against Persia one after another, Thrace and Mercia in the middle and lower reaches of the Danube in the eastern part of the Roman Empire were invaded by the Avars one after another. In such a situation, the introverted and quiet-spoken Justin II was forced into a mental illness by internal and external troubles, and saw who bit whom.

By the time the Persians took the opportunity to capture Yemen, rumors had already begun in the city of Constantinople that Justinian II was even eating people in the palace, and although he had not yet been forced to retire early and pass the throne to his adopted son Tiberius, as in history, he had to be appointed Caesar (vice-emperor) to assist in his work.

Justin II was a good man, but a good man could not be a good emperor.

With such variables in the Roman Empire, it was impossible to defend its own territory, let alone send a large army to support the Aksumites in retaking Yemen.

Therefore, in desperation, He Liang could only hope that the Aksumites could cheer up and exert their strong national strength to defeat the Persians who had not gained a firm foothold in the labor expedition, recapture Yemen, and restore this sea route between the East and the West.

It's a pity that He Liang was disappointed again.

In the fourth and fifth centuries, the Aksumites were indeed a powerful country on the Red Sea coast, but at this time, after more than two hundred years of prosperity, the Aksumites inevitably began to enter their own period of decline.

What's more, in the battle for the Persians to capture Yemen, the Aksumites suffered heavy losses in strength, and when they sent their navy to try to recapture Yemen, they were hit even harder by the Persian navy, so that the Aksumites began to fear.

Although the behavior of the Axumite people made He Liang very despised, he was more helpless in his heart! Xia Kingdom is still too far, too far away from the East China Sea!

If Xia Guo can be closer to half the distance from the Zhiyuan Islands, no matter if any country wants to do business at sea, it will have to look at Xia Guo's face and act.

In the case of the defeat of the Roman Empire and the fear of the Axumes, the Xia State could not intervene in the Red Sea war, and the city-states such as Hejaz and Yabrit on the eastern shore of the Red Sea could only accept the mercy of fate!

Also in this year, a baby was born in the family of a merchant in the Hejaz!

No one knows what the impact of this baby, born into the family of a camel riding trader, will have in the decades or even millennia.

In the face of the strong intervention of the Persians, He Liang made a decision after some consideration, and landed at Cape Hafeng in later Somalia to establish a stronghold, the inhabitants of which were still in a nomadic state at this time, and the number was scarce, and He Liang's trading post near his nomadic ranch was also strongly welcomed.

And the most welcoming of He Liang's behavior is undoubtedly the Aksumite people, after the Red Sea trade route was cut off, all trade routes can only rely on transit through Axum itself.

Starting from the Horn of Africa, where He Liang established his trading post, and passing through the lands of the Aksumite Kingdom on the Red Sea coast, they could bypass the Strait of Yemen, which was blocked by the Persians, and then enter the Red Sea route, which connected to the Hejaz, Yabrit, and even the Roman Empire on the other side.

In this way, Axum undoubtedly became the de facto center of trade routes, connecting not only the entire Red Sea countries to maritime trade, but also to the vast inland area through the Nile, from which large quantities of gold, precious stones, ivory, and rhino horn flowed to the countries.

It is impossible for the Persians not to know about He Liang's actions, and the Persians also know that they occupy the Yemeni shipping route, and it is impossible to completely cut off the Xia State's trade with the Aksumites, and the Xia State can still trade with the Aksumites through the Zhiyuan Islands.

The main purpose of the Persians to cut off Yemen's trade routes was to cut off the trade routes of the Romans from the East as much as possible, while the city-states such as the Hejaz suffered from the fish in the pond.

Although the Persians were somewhat dissatisfied with He Liang's behavior, as long as they could prevent their great enemies from participating in this trade route, the Persians could only barely hold their noses and endure it, but the Persians also made some concessions in other aspects of the Xia Kingdom.

In the future, whether it was the Xia Kingdom's territories in the Western Ocean or the ports in the South Seas, the Persian merchants must be supplied with certain preferential treatment in exchange for the Persian Empire's understanding that the Xia Kingdom controlled the Zhiyuan Islands and participated in the trade with the Axumes.

He Liang's letter explains in detail what happened in the West this year, but his purpose in writing this letter is not only to talk about these things, but because He Liang has found the traces of Chen Duan and others.

No, He Liang not only found Chen Duan's traces, he even determined through the Egyptian governor that Chen Duan had indeed circled almost half the world, sailed all the way to the east, bypassed Fusang Kingdom, and then arrived in Daqin.