As a thousand-year-old empire, the Byzantine military system had changed several times. The military region system in its heyday has been abandoned. The reason is that the military generals of the major military regions have repeatedly intervened in the internal struggles of the imperial family, and the majesty and power of the imperial power have been greatly threatened.

This caused great chaos within Byzantium, and the entire empire changed four dynasties in less than a hundred years. The military power of the empire has fallen to the bottom.

In today's Komnenos Dynasty, the two successive emperors have taken the restoration of the military district system as their own responsibility, but they have not succeeded. In today's Byzantine Empire, a large number of mercenaries are still widely active in its military power.

In the face of today's grim situation, John II was not at a loss. As early as when the army of Lu Qi stopped the pace of the offensive and concentrated on pacifying the rear, he sent people to contact the Crusader countries, and invited a large naval force from Genoa, Venice, and Milan, and even asked the envoys to go to Rome to meet the current Pope Innocent II. John II desperately wanted a powerful crusader army to come to Byzantium!

Innocent II, however, was a long-term 'exile' pope. Although he succeeded to the papal presidency at an early age, he wandered outside for nearly a decade, surviving the death of his rival Pope Anacletus II before he sat on the throne of the Holy See. The French and Conrad III of the HRE were his main supporters, but the nobility of the Italian district was more supportive of his enemy, the rival Pope Anacletus II.

Innocent II, with the support of the northern powers, eventually overwhelmed Anacletus II and his supporters, but he was unable to allow Conrad III, who supported him, to defeat his enemy, the former HRE Emperor Lothair II's son-in-law and his designated heir, the "arrogant" Henry of Bavaria and the Duke of Saxony!

This matter involved the struggle between the northern and southern princes of the HRE, and the southern princes and princes did not want to see a strong emperor appear, so they chose the relatively weak Conrad III. In this way, the war between the two factions has lasted for five years, and it has not yet ended!

Under such circumstances, how could Innocent II pull up a powerful crusade again? By his imagination?

The nobility of the Italian region did not support him, and his two supporters, one of whom was fighting his enemies, and the other, the young Capetian king of France, Louis VII, was not in this position.

As mentioned above, the strength of France at this time was not outstanding. In the early days of the Capetian dynasty, the direct control of the royal family was limited to the territory between the Seine and the Loire rivers, and the major principalities and states were divided like independent kingdoms. Louis VI, Louis VI, the father of Louis VI, completely put down the feudal nobility in the royal domain at the end of his reign, and granted commune charters to the city, combining the interests of the Capetian dynasty and the city. However, the external principalities and counties are still like independent kingdoms.

Innocent II was more than capable of doing anything, all he could do was to contact the Crusader knights, let them abandon their hostility towards the Seljuks and Byzantium, and do everything in their power to help Byzantium and defeat the Orientals, an enemy ten or a hundred times more terrible than the Seljuks!

In Chinese he saw destruction, and the glory of the Lord was silent......

But it won't be easy.

You must know that one of the main reasons why the Crusaders were able to facilitate and pass through Byzantium smoothly was that they promised that all the lost territories in the East would be handed over to the Byzantines after the war.

However, this was devastated at the beginning of the First Crusade.

First, Baldwin founded the Edessab State, claiming to be Baldwin I. Then Bohemond, Duke of Taranto, finally took Antioch in Syria after eight months of brutal fighting and siege [the Crusaders ate all the horses and it is said that there was an incident of eating corpses]. And exhausted, they miraculously defeated a Seljuk reinforcement from Mosul and gained a foothold in Antioch. Bohemond then declared the independence of Antioch and established the Duchy of Antioch.

This is simply a carpet to step on with the face of Byzantium.

Bohemond showed the independence of his realm at the outset, and instead of a duke, he called himself the Grand Duke. Together with the kingdoms of Tripoli and Jerusalem further south, the Crusaders' intention was to establish a Catholic world on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, rather than to teach the land to the Byzantines. In this way, their contradictions with Byzantium are clear at a glance.

Both John II and his dead father, Alexei I, fought with the Principality of Antioch in diplomacy and military for a long time in order to recover Antioch and Syrian territory, thus forming a very sharp contradiction between the two sides.

One wants to restore the empire's former homeland, while the other is unwilling to lose the benefits he has already obtained. This is a contradiction that God cannot reconcile. Even this contradiction was closely related to the eventual demise of the Byzantine Empire.

The banditry nature of the Crusades exposed the great conflict of interests and culture between the Byzantines and them, and the accumulation of contradictions between the two did not pave the way for the subsequent sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade?

However, the current causes of the Antioch problem are closely related to the changes in the celestial powers in Asia Minor and Syria, in addition to the internal changes in the Byzantine Empire and the Principality of Antioch.

You must know that changes in the situation are never one-sided, and in international exchanges, the right solution is to take a lead and move the whole body.

Historically, the trigger for the Second Crusades was the destruction of the Seljuks by the Seljuks, but now the Seljuks are too busy to take care of themselves, but the Edessab is as stable as Mount Tai.

The drastic changes in the Celestial Situation not only led to the improvement of the situation in Byzantium, but also greatly benefited the Crusader states, whose external pressure from the Celestial World almost dissipated, leaving only the pressure of the Byzantines, which greatly consolidated their living environment.

Thus, the current Duchy of Antioch was also supported by the kingdoms of Edessa, Tripoli, and Jerusalem.

To be clear, the Byzantines' 'homeland' was not only Antioch and Syria, but also Egypt in the heyday of the Byzantine Empire. The kingdoms of Edessa, Tripoli, and Jerusalem belonged to Byzantium!

What Innocent II can do now is to reconcile the sharp contradictions between the Crusader knights and the Byzantines as much as possible, so that they can put aside the contradictions and work together with the outside world!

As for the rest, there really wasn't anything he could do. You can only pray for God's blessing, and everything is God's alone.

"O God the Sovereign, our Savior! Treat your humble people with mercy and blessing today, be forgiving, listen to our prayers, forgive and have mercy on us! The enemy is harassing your land and trying to destroy the world, and the enemy is fighting against us; They are lawless, and they are gathered together to overthrow your kingdom, and to destroy your holy Jerusalem, and your beloved Europa; Defile your temples, pour out your altars, and desecrate your shrines. Lord, how long will the gangsters run amok? When was the murder listed?

Listen to what we ask of you, and listen to us: to assert your divine might, to help your faithful believers, to grant us victory, and to protect the Israel you have chosen. Strengthen your people with your mighty hand and sustain them in victory over their enemies, just as you made Moses overcome Amalekit, Gideon over Midian, and David over Goliath. Bless his armies and those who are armed and ready to battle in your name, give them bronze bows, and help them in battle with thy spears and shields, and curse and disgrace those who have done us evil; May they be dust in the wind before your faithful warriors, may your mighty angels scatter them and flee, may they fall into a snare without realizing it, and may they reap the fruits of their secret tricks; Let them fall on their knees at the feet of your servants and be swept away by our army. O Lord! You can save the strong and the weak; You are God, and the world cannot overcome you......" ()

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