The reason why Alipu came to this Balkhash Lake was naturally on the order of Crooked Si, and the purpose was to find out Zhu Zhanqi's current movements and see if there was a chance to insert a pole.

The Khan seat is sitting, and the foundation has begun to be played, but the ultimate goal is for others to take it first, and it is also an enemy that he can't defeat head-on.

It is impossible to say that crooked thinking is not angry.

However, an invincible enemy does not mean that it will never be defeated, otherwise there would be no books such as Sun Tzu's Art of War in the Central Plains, and people like Zhuge Liang would be useless.

"Your Excellency Alip, do you want to move on?"

One of Crooked's guards walked up to Alip and asked what Alip meant.

"Don't do it for the time being, just stay here for a while, wait for us to slowly explore and explore, if someone finds out, it won't be good."

Alip turned his head to look to the west, and then to Lake Balkhash.

"This is the confluence of the Ili River, there is no salt in the water, so it should be no problem to stay here."

"Back to Your Excellency Alipu, there is no problem at all, the villain will order to go down!"

After getting Aripu's meaning, the guards hurriedly turned around and began to work on the matter of setting up camp.

Actually, Lake Balkhash is really a good place, because it is a basin, surrounded by high mountains and hills, and the Ili River joins it, if it is not a desert in the south, it is a perfect place to become a city, or even a country.

However, this is also the farthest place that Alip's heart can accept, and any further, he will not have faith.

Zhu Zhan's reputation is not blown out, it is really accumulated with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, Alipu is different from Crooked Si, what he wants is stability.

It seems that he has always supported Crooked Thinking, supporting Crooked Thinking's eldest son, but in fact, he only chooses the person with the greatest possibility of success to support, rather than supporting Crooked Thinking.

As for the crooked idea of taking advantage of Zhu Zhan's westward expedition to Europe, he would carry out a sneak attack and cut off Zhu Zhan's supply, so as to trap Zhu Zhan and kill him, Alipu felt that it was whimsical.

Indeed, when Zhu Zhan Lang crossed the Turkish Strait, they only needed to go out of Lake Balkhash and occupy Nicaea opposite the Syr Darya River and Junbao, plus the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains and other natural moats to block Zhu Zhan Gully's supply routes, but Alipu was still not optimistic about the Crooked Thought's plan.

Crooked Si is indeed afraid of Zhu Zhanyang, but that is only because of Zhu Zhanyang's reputation for murder, and only because Zhu Zhanyan controls the forces of Daming, Xiangzhou Mansion and Nanzhou Mansion, rather than agreeing with Zhu Zhanyang's military talent.

But Arip doesn't think so.

He thinks that if a person can make a reputation, he must have the ability to match it.

Success is not such a simple thing, and if you don't have the ability to match it, it is impossible to reach the height that matches it.

Crooked Si didn't know about the Suez Canal, not only didn't Crooked Si know, but in fact, there were many people in Daming who didn't know.

If he had known, he probably wouldn't have made such a decision.

But who would have thought that a ruler would dig a canal in a place outside of his control?

Canals are usually excavated and repaired to facilitate transportation and irrigation.

In Zhu Zhan's view, the Suez region and even the entire Timurid Empire were already under his control.

After all, not to mention the royal family and officials and nobles of the Timurid Empire, even the people of the Timurid Empire are not much, what waves can they stir up?

But in the eyes of Crooked Si and others, the land that has just been beaten down is still so far away from the capital of their own country, it cannot be regarded as a territory, and it is impossible to control it perfectly.

This can only be said to be a gap in vision.

Peninsula Asia Minor, Nicaea.

After all, Zhu Zhan Yan left Ankara and came to Nicaea, the closest city to Junbao, only because of the news sent by Jeanne II to Duke René.

He was eager to see what the Crusaders looked like, if not the crusaders who had repeatedly crusaded and claimed to be invincible.

"Do you know where they're going?" Zhu Zhanyan looked down at the news from Nicaea during this period of time, and asked Jian Xiao, who was standing below.

"Back to Your Highness, I don't know for the time being." Jane replied with a smile bowing her head.

"In order not to startle the snake, the villain did not let people deploy defenses in the sea outside of Nicaea, creating a false impression that we are trying to prepare for the battle of the King's Castle."

"I don't know if this kind of hometown can fool them, but if we are too vigilant, they will be suspicious."

"It's a good idea, and it's a good job." Zhu Zhanyan nodded, raised his head and looked at Jian Xiao below.

"However, it does not correspond to the current situation."

Jane Xiao's body stiffened.

"But it's not your fault, you don't know enough about the situation here, so there's nothing wrong with doing this, but now that I'm here, let's pass the order."

"Send people to defend the coast on both sides of Nicaea, don't worry about whether they will wake up in advance, just deploy the defense."

"Yes!"

Although Zhu Zhanyan's arrangement did not conform to common sense, Jian Xiao did not have any doubts and directly carried out the order.

Watching Jian Xiao leave, Zhu Zhan Yan was facing north, as if he wanted to see the Junbao on the other side of the sea through the barrier of the wall.

Actually, the situation in Europe is really not good.

Of course, it is for today's Europe, and for today's Zhu Zhanqi, the situation in Europe is favorable to him.

Pope, it sounds awesome, but it's actually like that.

Today's Holy See is no longer the Holy See it used to be, and the current Holy See can only deceive ordinary people who have been kidnapped by their faith, and it is useless for those in the upper echelons.

No, it can't be said that it's useless, because they will use the Holy See, the faith of ordinary people, to kidnap ordinary people, even the Holy See.

That's why the Pope agreed to Frederick III's help, because today's pope also needs a war, a victorious war.

First, it is to restore the crusader fame that was admired by thousands of people to spurned by everyone because of desire.

Second, it is to strengthen the influence of the Holy See and even the Pope in southern Europe, and even in Europe as a whole, especially among the upper echelons.

Three to ......

However, Zhu Zhanyan is not optimistic about this, he still says: It is a good thing to have a dream, but wishful thinking is another matter.

The Crusaders, Zhu Zhanyan really wanted to see them, but it didn't mean that he regarded the Crusaders as an opponent corresponding to the Ming Army.

In Zhu Zhan's view, the crusaders, especially the current crusaders, really can't compare with the crusaders who fought for their faith back then.

In the face of the crusaders, Zhu Zhanyan was confident that he would be invincible.

In fact, Zhu Zhanyan did not look down on the crusaders, the ability of the crusaders was still outstanding, but the victory of the crusaders was not only caused by strength.

The main objective of the Crusades was to regain the lands occupied by the Arab and Turkic invasions, and their main enemies were nomadic cavalry.

What are the advantages of nomadic cavalry? Maneuverability!

Half of the advantage of cavalry over infantry lies in tactical mobility. Within a radius of 100 miles, the cavalry could fight wherever they wanted, while the infantry or mixed troops could not even run. The rush of hundreds of miles is even more incomprehensible.

But!

The Crusaders are attackers who have crossed the sea.

Antioch, Jerusalem, and the entire Levant are either near or near the sea.

Can you nomadic cavalry run to the rear of the Crusaders? Byzantium? Venice? Or France?

Where do you know where to hit your nomadic cavalry within a hundred miles? The Crusaders ate hot pot in boats and watched you run horses on the shore.

Your nomadic cavalry steals supplies and cuts off logistics, which is very bad? The crusader pointed to the supply fleet on the coast: come and steal, don't steal it's a dog.

In Zhu Zhan's view, artillery could threaten the crusaders' phalanx and make the crusaders' positions chaotic.

Even if it's artillery, cavalry, or infantry......

Zhu Zhanyan felt that white phosphorus eggs could also teach them to be people.

It's just that Zhu Zhanyan didn't know that he, who had never tasted defeat all along, ...... this time Tricked by someone.

The empty city plan is not only in the Central Plains.

Who would have imagined that when the army was approaching the city, John VIII, the ruler of the castle, had already left the castle and went to the north.

However, he didn't run away when he saw that the Ming army was invincible, he went to move the rescue soldiers.

Milan.

John VIII looked in the direction of the royal palace in Milan and let out a long sigh.

In order to resist the Ming army, he left Junbao and went first to the Kingdom of Hungary, and later to the Duchy of Venice and the Grand Duchy of Milan, in order to seek a reinforcement army to resolve his predicament.

However, the results were not as good as they could have been.

He didn't ask for reinforcements, and the other party's attitude of not refusing but not agreeing was already a refusal, and now there was only one way left for John VIII, and he could only find one person.

Pope, Eugene IV.

To tell the truth, he really didn't want to take this road, because the bumps and thorns on this road were beyond imagination.

There is no pie-in-the-sky good thing in this world, and if you want to get help from others, you have to pay something else.

Like the Kingdom of Hungary, the Duchy of Venice and the Grand Duchy of Milan, all they wanted was profit, something that John VIII didn't care about, but Eugene IV was different.

As Pope, what Eugene IV wanted, John VIII knew very well.

Wanting the help of the Pope, or even for the Pope to reorganize a new crusade, the thing to be given up is likely to push John VIII into the abyss.

He's going to give up...... It's the Orthodox Church.

Receiving the assistance of the Pope means that the Orthodox Church will obey the Pope's command, and the final result will be the annexation of the Orthodox Church by the Catholic Church.

John VIII did not care about this, because the meaning of the Holy See to ordinary people was completely different from what it meant to him.

However, he could already imagine what kind of verbal criticism he would receive when the news was announced in Kingcastle.

It's still a big chapter, and the debt has been paid off~