The news that the king of Min had led a large army to the front line shocked the Arab armies who were still fighting in the areas of Ephosarea, Caesarea, and Galatia.

As soon as Rhodes Island was broken, the sea barrier of these city fortresses was completely broken, and the fleet of the Great Min went upriver from the Turkish Strait, straight into the Black Sea, and even directly reached more than a hundred meters outside the sea wall of Constantinople.

After Mu'awiyah's fleet shocked the Western world more than a decade ago, the fleet of the East once again shocked and feared the western fortress.

The Great Min Navy formed a chain from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, cutting off the back routes and supplies of the last fortresses in Asia Minor, and the cities of the Buddha and Caesarea became meat on the chopping block, which could be cut as much as they wanted.

However, the meat is still frozen with a thin layer of ice, and it needs to wait for a while before the knife is cut, and if you want to conquer these hard fortresses, you still need to besiege them for a while, so Li Ji set the time for the general attack in March, planning to first exhaust the foster support in the city, starve the defenders, and then conquer these hard walnuts without much effort.

Maybe the Romans had to surrender without attacking, anyway, during the period of Arab expansion, Damascus, Alexander, Antioch and a series of great cities of the Roman Empire surrendered after a long siege, and some were examples of their predecessors.

But the news of the arrival of Li Jie's army made the Arabs who had been fighting for more than half a year impatient, a month ago Rhodes City and the Lindus Acropolis were captured by the Great Min Naval Division, although the Arabs fought hard in the coastal mountains for a long time, thousands of people were killed and wounded, but the spoils and wealth of the two cities still have nothing to do with their dime, no way, before the troops were dispatched, the troops made an agreement with the Min army, who captured, who took the spoils!

The peninsula of Asia Minor has decayed to the extreme, and almost all the wealth of Asia Minor is gathered in these big cities and fortresses along the coast.

For the money in the city of Ebuddhus, the Arab army was in a hurry. A few days ago, the Arab tribes that had completely refused to attack the city suddenly became active, and more than a dozen chiefs personally went to Li Ji to ask for battle, and then supervised the low-ranking members of their tribes, shouting the name of the family, and attacked the meat grinder in front of them on a large scale, and the Arab army in Caesarea simply did not wait for Li Ji's order to directly storm the city.

For several days in a row, the Arabs were really brave, one by one the tribal nobles were willing to brave the arrows, and rushed to the city in waves with arrows like rain at the head of the city, even if the corpses were piled up in the moat, they still fought to the death, from top to bottom, the eyes of every Arab were blood-red.

It has been surrounded by layers, and the Buddha has fallen into great despair, and now there is a Min fleet behind the city to attack the city, and there is a frontal Arabs who do not want to die in the general onslaught, it is really a god and afraid of the wicked, even if the Buddha Church is the backbone of the Roman Empire, it can no longer be supported, and finally surrendered to the Great Min at the end of January of the sixth year of Kaiyuan.

As soon as it surrendered, several other fortresses no longer had the confidence to resist, and one after another, Caesarea, Galatia and other cities also surrendered one by one.

On February 12, Li Jie's army crossed the eastern Mediterranean and arrived in Caesarea, the entire western part of Asia Minor had been completely captured by Li Ji, although it was Kaesong and surrendered, but the dead died ruthlessly, and a large amount of poll tax paid by the church was collected, and the angry Arabs still burned a few churches to vent their anger, and the traces left by the siege of the city and the city still looked quite dilapidated.

Under the city wall, the temporarily organized people were still cleaning up the corpses, pushing out with carts and carts, many of the corpses were not soldiers, but Caesarea civilians, that was the atrocity of the red-eyed Arabs in the city, after all, the command was in the hands of the nobles of those clans, in this case, Li Ji had no way to prohibit these violations of the military record, so when he greeted Li Jie, he was still a little weak-hearted.

Fortunately, Li Jie's chest is broken these days, and he is in a very good mood, and he is also an old soldier, and he knows a lot of dirty things in the army, so when he arrived, he didn't see these eyesore behaviors, which made Li Ji breathe a sigh of relief.

On the same day, the Min army took over the city, and Li Jie also requisitioned the bishop's palace in the city as a temporary palace, not to see it as a church, but it is the most luxurious and extravagant building in the whole city.

For this temporary palace full of Greek style, it also didn't attract the slightest interest from Li Jie, who had just been stationed, and without waiting for Li Ji to give the banquet to King Min, he had already taken the eldest grandson queen who accompanied the army this time, Concubine Qin, and the forbidden army Wenwu to the western wall of Caesarea and looked across the sea.

The reason why the first stop was chosen to settle here, rather than the more magnificent city of Ephosus, is that it is too close to Constantinople, and the narrowest point of the Persian Prussia Strait in front of you is only 750 meters.

It was here that Turkey built the Eurasian Bridge, which completely changed the history of relying on ships for thousands of years.

Holding the binoculars, Anna's cheeks were full of complexity, the last time, she was desperately defending the city, but now she is personally leading the army from the east to attack the city, which makes her feel that the world is unpredictable.

But Li Jie's eyes are full of rippling ambition and passion.

This is the second center of European civilization after Rome, or the bridgehead of Europe, relying on Constantinople, the Christian civilization blocked the great expansion of Islam from Europe, giving the Christian countries enough time to develop, during the Crusades, Europe also relied on Constantinople as a shield, only they attacked the Arabs, but the Arabs did not have the ability to fight on the territory of Christianity.

It was not until the fall of the Byzantine Empire that the Ottoman Empire, which inherited Islam, set foot on the territory of Europe, and hit Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe, forcing a large group of European soul figures such as the Pope, the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor to stand together, which prevented the further invasion of Europe by the Turks.

For Li Jie, there is more meaning here.

In terms of civilization, for the Eastern civilization represented by China, the fall of Constantinople, a large number of early Roman Empire philosophies, arts and works went into exile in Europe, and set off a fresh wind of the Renaissance in the backwater of medieval Europe.

In terms of hegemony, Li Shimin's successive suppressions have also aroused Li Jie's own arrogance, he has disdained the throne of Chang'an, and in his understanding, only the Chinese emperor and the Roman emperor are worthy of being called emperors and the center of civilization! The capture of Constantinople and the proclamation of the emperor will also be the pinnacle of his career! His rule will surpass that of the Mongol Empire, and even in another thousand years, people will still remember his great deeds of Li Jie.

This is also the reason why Li Jie has been unable to suppress the surging feelings in his chest for more than ten days since his departure, looking at the walls of Constantinople looming in the sea mist, Li Jie couldn't help but turn his head heroically and said loudly to the ministers who also looked at him.

"A month later, the widow will be enthroned as emperor in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and then you will be my great Min heroes, feudal marquis, and rich and noble, more than a thousand years, from generation to generation!"

Why did so many ministers of the family travel thousands of miles, leave their hometowns, and brave the rain of swords and swords to come to this extreme west? Isn't it just for the sake of this great wealth? Other lords only occupied a corner of the Central Plains, so they couldn't wait to ascend the throne and become emperor, but this one is good, the territory has surpassed the Tang Dynasty, but he still fights.

Finally, the king of Min personally promised to be crowned as the emperor, and it was formally promised in front of the civil and military officials, which marked that after this war, the Great Min was finally going to stabilize, and the ministers could finally live a stable life, and there was no need to worry about the expedition anymore.

"Thank you, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

The sound spread, and the Min army in the city also followed and bowed excitedly, and shouted excitedly under the stunned gaze of the cautious Greeks.

"Hooray, hooray, hooray!"

The sound of long live spread throughout Caesarea, and even shook Constantinople on the other side, in the loud voice, looking at the panicked appearance of the Roman defenders on the other side, Li Jie couldn't help but raise his head and laugh.

But among the ministers who were also excited, the old Li Ji, who was kneeling on the ground, showed embarrassment in his eyes, and couldn't help muttering.

"A month to conquer Constantinople? It's hard!! ”

However, even if more than a dozen ministers and colleagues were full of confidence in the next war, Li Ji did not dare to sweep away the excitement of King Min and everyone after all, and hid his words in his stomach.