"Mr. Ho! Do you know how excited we were when we crossed the ocean to a shore and learned that we had been heading east, from the west to the Roman Empire, which we call Great Qin? As soon as he recalled the scene at that time, Chen Duan was full of emotion.

Even during the period of European exploration, the Atlantic Ocean was extremely famous, and in addition to the strong winds and waves and various reefs, the most unbearable thing on the ocean was the loneliness of the voyage for several months.

In addition, due to the extreme depth of the average water in the Atlantic, there are very few islands in the ocean, and it is difficult for ships to find a place to anchor and rest, which means that the crew must endure to stay on board for more than a month or two.

During the Age of Discovery, it took more than two months for Columbus to cross the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, and it took more than two months for the British Mayflower to cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America.

In addition to these endless wear and tear, there are countless dangers on the sea, and when crossing the sea, due to weather conditions, the stars and the moon cannot be used to correct the course, and the ship at this time is extremely vulnerable.

Fortunately, because of Wang Ze's guidance, Xia Guo already had many advanced navigation instruments, and the safety of the ship was greatly improved after a large number of compasses, sextants, and navigation compasses, and the commander-in-chief of the fleet this time, Mi Ke, also had rich sailing experience, during which they avoided hurricanes, reefs, eddies and other dangerous areas many times.

Although they eventually lost two ships along the way, it was good enough to save three ships, and they were lucky enough to spot the Azores along the way, and explored several of the larger islands in the archipelago.

After resting on the island for a few days, replenished with food and fresh water, they set out again, and within a few days of following the current, they soon discovered the coastline, which was now the coastal area of what would become Portugal, and now the Roman province of Tarragona.

When Chen Duan and others deduced that this was the legendary Great Qin Kingdom based on the gold coins found here and a large number of architectural forms, they were even more excited, which not only meant that they had found their way home again, but also proved that the earth was indeed round.

But coming to the territory of the Roman Empire does not mean that the people here will be friendly to Chen Duan and others, on the contrary, when the ragged Chen Duan and others came to the province of Tarragona, which is close to the Strait of Gibraltar, the local garrison almost killed them as pirates.

Fortunately, their vigilance did not let go, and Chen Duan was also a strong martial artist to escape the persecution of these locals, and finally a few days later, the Roman defenders of Tarragona learned of this, thinking that Chen Duan and his party were black-haired and yellow-skinned, and should not be Germanic pirates from Gaul.

Later, Chen Duan and his entourage were able to enter the capital of the westernmost province of the Roman Empire, and after entering the city, he was surprised to find that this city, which had been in decline due to centuries of war, still had a large-scale epidemic.

After healing a number of sick people and hundreds of Roman soldiers in the city of Tarragona, the locals not only entertained Chen Duan well, but even treated him as a savior, if it was possible at that time, with Chen Duan's level of mission, it is very likely that a large number of believers would be drawn out.

Looking at He Liang's listening look, Chen Duan patted him on the shoulder with a smile and said, "You must not have imagined how surprised we were when we saw the appearance of the western province of Great Qin, which turned out to be full of ruins, and because of the death of the people caused by the large-scale plague before, a large amount of land was abandoned!" ”

"At the beginning, we cured a lot of people," Chen Duan said, "but they accidentally offended the local Christian church, and when the plague first broke out, they even claimed that as long as they prayed to God, they could cure their illness, and they also claimed that those who died of illness were because of their lack of faith, which led to more local people dying because they did not receive timely treatment!" ”

"Isn't this a cult?" He Liang was surprised, the people of any civilized country should know that as long as they are sick, they must go to a doctor for diagnosis and treatment, where can they get better just by asking God? Even the Taoist sects in China, especially the Haotian God Sect, are mostly known for their medical skills to save people.

A religion that occupies the dominant factor in the country even openly declares this despite the large-scale epidemic among the people, and uses it to make a lot of money, which makes He Liang can't help but feel quite contemptuous in his heart, and most of the previous reverence for the Roman Empire in his heart is now eliminated.

If the Roman Empire, which admired civilization in the past, was still a civilized country worthy of He Liang's reverence, now it is declining, losing its courage, and the prevalence of Christianity, resulting in the Roman Empire of civilization in the past is far from reaching the level of the Xia Kingdom.

According to Chen Duan's understanding, during the most powerful period of the Roman Empire, the city of Tarragona, as the most prosperous province of Tarragona, was an extremely developed and prosperous megacity in the western part of the Roman Empire, and it was also an important port connecting the Mediterranean coast in the entire western region.

It is said that at its peak, Tarragona had a population of almost seven or eight hundred thousand, and if you add in the constant flow of merchants and other large numbers of people in the ports outside the city, it is almost a large city of one million.

But after the Visigoths, the city was in great ruins, and even though the province of Tarragona had been restored during the reign of Justinian I, the city in decline had already declined. 400

Chen Duan sighed: "Today's Great Qin no longer has the ability to restore its former glory, although in their former emperor period, they took advantage of the Visigoths civil strife to recover this land, but in the following decades, there were many Visigothic rebellions, and these Goths still have the possibility of rebellion in their hearts!"

What's more, they have even more ignorant Christianity, and after we healed a large number of people, they accused us of being heretics and wanted to burn us to death. ”

"What? They are so rampant! He Liang was shocked, and then he said angrily, "I will definitely explain this matter to Your Majesty, these cults have no ability of their own, and they will deceive the people like the Futu Sect all day long, and even prevent others from saving people!" ”

At this time, He Liang had already made a decision in his heart that he must ban all Christian preaching in the territory he occupied, and this kind of cult must be cut off from keeping up!

Chen Duan continued to tell his story, and after staying in Tarragona for nearly a month, he had to leave here with his fleet and continue eastward, on the way he was surprised to find that the current Great Qin still looked like the great power of the Western Sea described in the past book.

If the Roman Empire still had some control over the province of Tarragona on the Iberian Peninsula, then the Roman Empire's coastal provinces in North Africa were again in turmoil due to the constant attacks of North African nomadic tribes such as Berbers and Vandals.

The most important stronghold of the Roman Empire in North Africa was Carthage, which was originally captured by the then Roman general Belisarius with more than 10,000 troops during the reign of Justinian I the Great, taking advantage of the civil strife of the Vandals.

But now, the Vandals have finally united again and begun to try to retake Carthage, and under the invasion of the Vandals, Carthage has almost fallen again.

Considering that most of Italy, which had been restored, fell to the Lombards again, the Avars, Slavs, and Bulgarians continued to harass the land in the middle and lower reaches of the Danube, and the entire Roman Empire became precarious again under the invasion of foreign races.

"It seems that today's Great Qin is just like the Wuhu Chaohua during the Sima Clan's Jin Dynasty!" He Liang shook his head and sighed, "The incursion of these barbarian alien races into civilized countries is too powerful! No wonder Your Majesty is so cruel to those aliens! ”

"Nope! Although the factors of the destruction of Great Qin and the Western Jin Dynasty are almost the same, you have also overlooked another important point! Chen Duan shook his head and said his different point of view, "Although there were five Hu chaos in the Western Jin Dynasty at the beginning, there is a more important point, that is, these Hu people vigorously promoted the Futu Sect, so that the people could endure their cruelty!"

And Great Qin, like them, when Great Qin was strong, the so-called Christianity was just not on the stage, until those barbarians destroyed Western Rome, these barbarians began to preach Christianity in order to rule this civilized country! ”

"It seems that this Christianity is really not a good thing!" He Liang said angrily, "Of course, the Futu Sect is not a good thing! At the beginning of the Northern Qi Dynasty, more than 30% of the country's taxes were used to support them! Both of these are vampires indeed! ”

"Yes!" Chen Duan continued, "The reason why Great Qin declined was not only because of the constant attacks of the surrounding foreign races, but also because of the spread of Christianity in the later period, which intensified social contradictions, and the differences between various sects within themselves were even more incompatible, making the entire empire no longer able to unite. ”

Originally, the Roman emperors such as Constantine the Great and Justinian I the Great promoted Christianity within the empire, in order to unify all the different peoples in the empire, and to consolidate the rule of the entire empire.

The Byzantine Church, which is currently dominant in the Roman Empire, not only excludes the Latin-speaking Roman Church, but also the Syriac and Egyptian churches, which also speak Greek, are excluded from the Byzantine Church.

This inadvertently led to a huge rift between the satrapies and the center, which was an important reason for the eventual defeat of the Great War with the Persian Empire during the reign of Justinian II.

After seeing the harm of Christianity to the Roman Empire, Chen Duan realized that the Haotian God Cult was now restricted by Wang Ze, and he had the benefit of spreading with a certain shackle, and he finally understood why Liu Qing had agreed to Wang Ze's seemingly strict request to restrict the Haotian God Cult.

Religion is indeed only spiritual opium, and although it has a certain promoting effect in many ways, if it is not restricted, it will quickly grow into a monster, although Chen Duan will not see the authority of the Roman Church in the Middle Ages for hundreds of years.

But just by looking at the brainwashing power of Christianity in the Roman Empire today, you know that the influence of this religion is definitely not small!