Guo Kang's words made everyone sigh.

The strategic situation of the Crusader states determined that they could not last long. If you don't be so ostentatious at first, you may be able to continue on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea with other princes of the Cross Sect and the Heavenly Fang Sect, but the Crusaders came up with great fanfare and offended everyone to death. Even if someone can occasionally take advantage of diplomatic opportunities, it will only keep these territories alive.

For the Orthodox Church, the Crusaders as a whole were no different from bandits, basically never controllable, and then they simply robbed themselves, naturally not very popular.

But on the other hand, the whole crusader was organized at the invitation of the Eastern Romans, and even if it was a trouble, it was a self-inflicted trouble. If you can't defeat the Turks yourself, and if you want others to send troops, you can't help yourself.

Moreover, the crusaders in the early years also played a role, not to say that they did not take advantage of it at all. Even the Fourth Crusade, which later plundered Constantinople, was brought in by the Greeks themselves to help fight for the throne. This is not to say that the victims are guilty, but that the Eastern Roman hierarchy is not innocent in these matters. In the final analysis, it is they who want to take advantage of themselves and do not have the ability to control them, so they have these problems.

In fact, not to mention the Crusaders, the main force of the Western European powers, even ordinary mercenaries, it was very problematic for Eastern Rome to use.

One hundred years ago, at the beginning of the 14th century, a Catalan mercenary group was hired by the Eastern Romans to attack the Turks in Asia Minor. Although the number is less than 6,000, this mercenary has participated in the war of the Kingdom of Aragon in Sicily, and its combat effectiveness is excellent, so it has repeatedly made meritorious contributions.

In order to entrap them, Emperor Andronica deliberately paid double salaries to the whole group, and also married her niece to Roger Flo, the leader of the mercenaries. However, because the Catalan mercenaries were treated too well and were always unruly, they soon led to conflicts with other armies and Roman officials.

Later, when the Catalan legion was preparing to go to Asia Minor to attack the Ottomans, rumors spread that Flo was plotting to become emperor himself. Frightened, Andronika conspires with her son to invite Flo to the court for a send-off banquet.

The niece thought it was a trap, but Flo didn't take it seriously and led more than a thousand of her men to the feast. As a result, the people ate and ate, lost their vigilance, and all fell drunk. The emperor took the opportunity to kill them all.

Now the Catalan mercenary group has lost a small half of its men, and the leader is gone, which is the weakest time, but the scheming emperor did not carelessly, but still spent a lot of money and organized an army of 50,000 people, ready to annihilate this remnant in one fell swoop.

Who knows, the Catalan mercenaries, who learned the news, penetrated the entire Eastern Rome all the way, defeating all the intercepted enemies along the way. In the end, they actually unified the southern part of the Greek peninsula and established a mercenary state, which was called the Duchy of Athens.

The emperor's 50,000 troops were wiped out by 20,000 before and after, and the rest were unwilling to fight and had to give up. In this way, not only did it cost a lot of money, but it was also plundered all the way.

The only good thing is that Athens and the Peloponnese are occupied, and there is nothing distressing for them - the empire of the Greeks has long since abandoned their Greek homeland, and since the Fourth Crusade, it has always been a group of Latin lords who have been king there. Rome had only a nominal claim to that side.

The Athenians re-became "Greeks", and got it decades later. When the Purple Horde regained this place, it did not use any stratagem or propaganda, and sent troops to eliminate the mercenaries and bandits entrenched around the city, and the history of the Duchy of Athens came to an end......

So it's no wonder that in the early days of the Purple Horde, many people dismissed the title of "Rome".

It is said that when the Greeks asked the Purple Horde to return to the capital, they did not spend the Taishi at the meeting to oppose this. He believes that the Greeks in Asia Minor have developed well before, but since they occupied this unfortunate city, they have become more and more inadequate. The purple tent was occupied once, and since then it has been constantly in trouble. It can be seen that there is no use for ghosts in this place, but whoever takes advantage of it is unlucky, and it is better to throw it away.

The story was very popular, because as long as the Greeks in the city behaved arrogantly, others could mock them with it, saying that they themselves were useless, and that they were all stained with the light of others. Therefore, not to mention the citizens of the Purple Tent, even those foreigners who come and go to do business, know this paragraph......

Of course, the reality is not so dramatic. According to the family, it was true that the Taishi did complain a lot at that time, but the main thing was that it was not worth it.

At that time, the city had the advantage of being a useful place, that is, a transportation hub. The problem is that her port is also not in the hands of the Greeks.

If you want to control the shipping here, you have to come into conflict with the Italian merchants who already have de facto control over the ports and shipping routes. But at that time, the Purple Horde still needed them - although they were on the Black Sea, the Khanate had always been a purely land-based state, and they did not care about the sea at all, and their only involvement was to rent some Italian merchant ships to run the transportation. They do not understand the management of shipping routes and ports, nor do they have the capital to participate in trade.

In that case, it is better to let the original order continue. Anyway, the Greeks don't have any problems, and to play with the Italians, it is only necessary to start with the ports on the Black Sea coast that they have already occupied, and gradually strengthen their management. Merchants are not too stubborn in the face of profits, and they will certainly compromise in order to continue their business.

When the Khan court is already familiar with these affairs and has trained a group of its own talents, then at that time, taking back control of the ports and shipping routes of Dadu is actually a matter of pushing the boat down the river. That's why Taishi insisted that there was no need to go back at this time.

Of course, there is one thing, the paragraph is right - from beginning to end, it is true that the Taishi did not mention the issue of the Roman title. He really didn't think there was any need to think about it......

Guo Kang heard from his family that Guo Gai had told him about the history of Rome at that time. But the Taishi was dismissive, saying that if he had to find a title, it would be better to find a golden account. It is well known that now Mongolia is very large, but Rome is very small. It's all clinging anyway, so why give up the big and the small?

If there is a reason, it is simpler - the advantage of Rome is that it has a reason to fight everywhere here; But Mongolia can fight everywhere even if there is no reason. So what are you doing with all this trouble......

This question stumped Guo Gai for a while.

However, because it is too ...... If you tell the truth, it will cause embarrassment for everyone, so this story is not widely circulated. Now it is also the upper echelons of the Khan's court, and sometimes it is used to laugh at itself.

(End of chapter)