Under the low hills, the green fields stretch out in all directions, and the plants and trees in summer are full of life in the bright sun. Villages are visible in the vast expanses of destroyed wheat fields.

It's just that I can't see the curling smoke rising.

This is the Armenian principality of Cilicia, a branch and successor of the ancient Armenian kingdom on the coast of the southern tip of Asia Minor. However, unlike the ancient Armenian kingdom, its geographical location is not on the Armenian highlands at the southern foot of the Caucasus, but on Alexandreta in the northwestern bay of the Cilicia region of the Asia Minor Peninsula, that is, in the southern part of later Turkey.

- At the junction of Asia Minor and the two river basins, in the coastal plain south of the Taurus Mountains.

It was founded by "Armenian refugees" who had to go into exile to escape the Seljuk invasion.

Their hatred of the Seljuks led them to become natural allies of the Crusaders and saw themselves as outposts of the Unitarian world in the East.

Therefore, this small principality, which was not very powerful, was crushed by the Byzantines more than once in the past half century. John II couldn't move the Crusader knights, and couldn't deal with the Armenians, who were once under Byzantine rule?

In 1137 A.D., John II personally led his army to capture most of the towns on the Cilician plain. The Byzantines captured the Armenian Grand Duke Leon I and imprisoned him and a number of other family members in Constantinople, including Leon's sons Ruben and Soros. Three years later, Leon I died in prison. Reuben was also blinded in prison and later killed. But another son of Leon I, Soros (Soros II), managed to escape in 1141, and he returned to Cilicia to lead the struggle against Byzantium, and eventually succeeded in driving out the Byzantine invasion.

However, before the Armenians could catch their breath, the army of Lu Qi was swept into the sky, and the mighty Seljuk Empire collapsed overnight, and the Byzantines ruled in Asia Minor as well. The Crusader Knights were also crumbling......

The whole world changed color in an instant.

Under such circumstances, Soros II did not have the great faith of dedicating his life to the world of one god. Even if they were the first monotheistic religion in the world, the first monofaith country.

But four years of hard work in Constantinople filled Soros with hatred for the Byzantines. He prayed to God more than once, but God did not shelter the troubled Armenians.

Sadly, however, not all Armenians agreed with Soros's idea, and even as he was secretly in contact with Lu Qi, there were already theistic pious people among the Armenians who informed the Byzantines.

In this way, the Byzantines and the pious within Armenia, and even the Crusader nobility that flowed into Cilicia - one by one the Crusader knightly states became a thing of the past, and the remnants of the Crusader forces retreated into Cilicia instead of Byzantium. Now that these people are united and united, the great power is not comparable to Soros II, he had to flee in a hurry and defect to the army of Lu Qi!

And with Soros as the leading party, when Lu Qijun killed Bencicia, it wasn't like cutting melons and vegetables, and it was like a bamboo?

But within a few days of Cilicia's start, Lu Wan was once again attacked by the Italian navy!

The shortage of surface forces in the Mediterranean Sea forced Lu Qijun and Lu Wan to face an embarrassing reality - when they drove out and bulldozed all the Crusader knightly states and other forces at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, what they got was not a calm two river basins. The Italian naval forces based on the island of Cyprus, and even some remnants of Cilicia's retreat into Cyprus, made the offensive and defensive momentum of the Lu Qi army in the area suddenly turn a 180-degree reversal.

The Latins used naval warships as carriers to wantonly harass all places, from Jerusalem in the south to Antioch in the north, and even Cilicia, which had just been taken, so that the insufficient army of Lu Wan was a little embarrassed.

That long coastline is not something that Lu Qi's remaining troops can defend, but you can't turn a blind eye to it, otherwise, in less than half a month, a certain kingdom/principality will be restored.

But even so, Lu Qi could not let Baghdad fill this power gap, that is, after the battle of Jerusalem, the forces of the Celestial people obediently withdrew from the city of Jerusalem.

Originally, Lu Qi's side was a minority, and if he let the Tianfang people take advantage of the loopholes, he might not make a big mess in the future.

But it's really uncomfortable like that.

Especially Lu Wan, the king of Anguo, not to mention how depressed he was, he had no choice but to destroy all the shipyards in coastal ports one step ahead of him, collected a lot of sailors and shipwrights, and burned a large number of shipbuilding timber.

Start now. Even if the Chinese have prepared a large number of armed forces and shipbuilders, but they do not have wood in their hands, it is helpless. There is a lot of timber in the Taurus Mountains, but the freshly cut timber cannot be used for shipbuilding, and must be left to dry for three or two years before it can be used. Moreover, the wood used for shipbuilding, different woods, the effect is completely different.

In other words, if you want to build a real warship, there is no hope for Lu Wan in the short term.

His entire planning process was disrupted. Jerusalem, Syria and other places along the Mediterranean Sea can only be abandoned.

Only a small number of soldiers and horses were sent to garrison a few important cities, and the rest of the places were all abandoned, isn't it 'all abandoned'? This is very different from what he originally planned.

Not only was a large area of land 'deserted', but even the troops in his hands were dragged down, but it was not because of the servant army gathered on the Persian plateau, and the strong support of Yue Fei and other heavy generals, how could he gain a firm foothold at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea with this little army and horse in his hands.

However, the biggest difference between his state of An and the state of Luo and Wu is that Asia Minor has a special geographical location, and the army of Lu Qi must be stationed here in a big way before the Byzantine threat is completely solved. This was the biggest argument in Lu Wan's heart, but now that I look at it, there must be a gain and a loss, and it is really a wise saying.

If the Imperial army was to concentrate on dealing with the Byzantines and the Seljuk remnants in Asia Minor, it had to deal with the Crusader Knights first. Having eliminated the foothold of the Monotheistic World at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, the army on the front line of the province was fighting, but a large number of enemy troops landed on the flanks and killed directly towards the rear of the army.

And now this long coastline has become a shackle that binds his hands and feet......

Lu Wan's heart was naturally full of reluctance, because it would greatly slow down his progress, but at this point, his strength was powerless to change all of this. Even if Lu Qi's army completely defeated the Byzantines and Seljuks on the peninsula of Asia Minor in a short period of time, and completely ruled the area east of the Bosphorus, he should still be harassed by the naval army of the Germans.

No matter how powerful Lu Qi's elite is, he can't turn into a mermaid and run away into the ocean.

The superiority of the Europeans in the Mediterranean was the 'innate' talent of the monotheistic civilization.

Moreover, the Byzantines did not have a head-on decisive battle with the Lu Qi army at all, and the harassment wars and sneak attack wars were combined with defensive wars, relying on the complex geographical topography of the Asia Minor Peninsula interlaced by mountainous plateaus, the Byzantines were delaying as much time as possible. They want to drag down Lu Qi with a war of attrition!

The peninsula of Asia Minor is 500,000 square kilometers long, and the terrain is complex, from coastal plains to mountain meadows, from cedar forests to stretching steppes.

How long this war will last, Lu Wan doesn't know.

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