On the second day, the Eastern Roman army made several more tentative attacks, but was defeated by Antiochus and Su Dingfang.

On the third day, the Roman army, which had planned to eat at Edessa, was running out of supplies, and the legions had begun to panic and did not go into battle.

On the fifth day, after dealing with the occupation of Edessa and other places, the huge Fujian ** regiment also rushed over, and from the east, south, and north, hundreds of thousands of Fujian troops surrounded the Eastern Roman army, which could not advance or retreat.

On August 2, the third year of the Great Min Dynasty, the month of Augustus in the Roman calendar, the Eastern Roman army was trapped to death by the Great Min.

On August 4, the Min army, which was especially good at civil engineering, had dug several trenches more than two meters deep on the periphery of the encirclement within a radius of about 30 miles, just as it did in the Qunu Plain Battle, which besieged the people of Louqi in the north of Qunu City, and had already encircled the Byzantines as strong as an iron cage.

The only thing that is not surrounded by a trench is the city of Antioch in the west, not that the Fujian army follows the ancient rites of the Huaxia net, the west is the sea, the sea ships in the port of Antioch have been almost removed, the vast sea, the Romans have no other way out except to feed the sharks.

The war against the Eastern Romans essentially ended here.

On August 5th, the royal car of the King of Min appeared in the city of Antioch, the huge guard of honor of the King of Min was more than ten miles long, the flag floated like huge wings, especially shocking is more than ten meters long, more than 20 meters wide, with cattle and war elephants to pull the King of Min mobile palace, the huge building is like a giant beast slowly swimming forward.

It's not that Li Jie has learned to show up, the strict guard of honor and the gorgeous array are sometimes a symbol of strength, and the psychological blow to the enemy is even stronger than the direct dispatch of troops to war, at least that day, listening to the sound of drums, tens of thousands of Roman soldiers looked to the north like arhats, until Li Jie's line disappeared at the north gate, and then they returned to their tents in despair.

Constantine IV hadn't been seen for days, but Anna was still standing at the top of the city looking down at the Roman army.

In the autumn of August, a little cold wind has begun to blow from Siberia, and the mountain breeze from the Caucasus and the sea breeze of the Mediterranean Sea alternately blow, and Anna's maroon hair flutters at the ends, and the corners of her skirt are constantly dancing, like a Western goddess who is about to fly away at any time.

However, just behind Anna's attention, a dark robe embroidered with cloud patterns behind her was covered on her thin body, and a little warmth of body temperature made Anna subconsciously turn around, but she happened to see a familiar face.

"Your Majesty!"

Lifting her skirt slightly, Anna performed a standard lady's ceremony, but Li Jie didn't care and stretched out his hand to stop her waist, and also looked down with his fascination.

Even more than a thousand years later, it is still the center of Western faith, and with a longing for history, Li Jie's goal in this life is to go there to see how the center of civilization in another part of the earth is different from China.

It's fate, the masters of the Roman Empire are now besieged by him, and unconsciously, the mystery and sacred feeling of ancient Rome have faded a lot in Li Jie's heart.

"In a few days, the military supplies of Eastern Rome will run out, and then Lone will leave Constantine to you, and then, isolate you as the Roman emperor, okay?"

This position used to be coveted by many people in the West, and Anna was the same at the beginning, when I asked her when the best time in her life was, it is estimated that she would answer without hesitation, the days when she was the co-emperor.

But when the real dream was within reach, Anna seemed to be confused, and the blade in her hand could immediately be stained with the blood of her brother, the enemy who killed her father and destroyed the family, and Anna found that she was not as excited as she imagined, but a little overwhelmed.

After a while, a faint smile suddenly appeared on Anna's delicate face, and she looked back at Li Jie's side face, but Anna shook her head.

"The husband of the royal princess also has the right to inherit, so you don't need to go through the motions of me, right? If Your Majesty wants, you can directly inherit the name of the Roman Emperor, and it is estimated that the following senators and knights will be eager to wear purple robes and golden olive branch crowns for Your Majesty. ”

Green Jade pointed at the chaotic Roman army below, and Anna shook her head with a slight mockery on the corner of her mouth.

"This time, the widow is serious! The territory is too big, and the widows don't want to fight anymore......"

I really can't figure out the woman, this is Anna's dream all along, Li Jie took a step forward quite sincerely, stretched out his hand and wanted to hug Anna, who knew that the Byzantine Empress was a strange elf giggling and snatched it away.

"That's Your Majesty's business, now the concubine just wants to be a little woman with a man's back!"

As if the problems that plagued Anna these days had been thought out clearly, wearing Li Jie's robe, Anna actually ran down the city wall lively, as if she was really running away from some drudgery, and the moment her figure disappeared in front of the corner, she also turned back and winked at Li Jie playfully.

"By the way, don't kill the Roman Emperor now, otherwise Constantinople is likely to fight with His Majesty!"

Seeing that Anna had completely run away, Li Jie finally rubbed his forehead in distress, this is good, the hope of using Anna to stabilize the situation in the Eastern Roman Empire has been disappointed, and if you want to put Rome in your pocket, you have to think of some way.

Just when Li Jie was distressed, a gust of sea breeze suddenly blew from the Mediterranean, and Li Jie, who had no coat in the cold, sneezed fiercely.

"Sneeze ......"

…………

Unlike the barbarian Chalou people, when they saw the besieged trenches, the senators, who were as clever as Rome, not only realized the desperate situation at the first time, but also connected the three huge trenches into a picture frame, besieging the last army of Eastern Rome to death like the famous painting "The Last Dinner".

But the wise patriarchs also knew for the first time what to choose, and wasn't Judas, who betrayed Jesus, the best example? Almost semi-publicly, a large group of veteran generals gathered together to discuss the surrender loudly, and soon a large group of envoys were sent out and entered the city of Antioch with almost flattering surrenders.

Later, when Constantine IV locked himself in a tent and did not come out, the senators went directly to Antioch to meet His Majesty the King of Min and surrender, for fear that he would not be forgiven by the King of Min a second late and would not have a good place in the new dynasty.

In the dilapidated palace of Antioch, the snotty Li Jie also did not refuse to come, as long as he came to surrender, he would take them all in, and let them bring the Eastern Roman army out.

In less than a few days, there were no tens of thousands left of the magnificent army of 200,000, and even the emperor's Praetorian Guard had dispersed a lot, leaving only a small number of loyal Gothic Guards and Bolgars, and the Slavs did not go out to surrender.

Even the reason why these two barbarians did not surrender was because they were afraid of the punishment and alternative treatment of the Great Min, and it was not because they were loyal to the Roman emperor.

As for Constantine IV himself, he was stuffed in his tent for several days, and he did not show his face day and night, but he refused to surrender by stubbornness.

Li Jie did not persecute him, and even sent some food to the defeated emperor every day to prevent him from starving to death.

In history, the Sassanid Persian Emperor Shapur I had defeated the Roman army in Edessa, which had just been occupied by the Fujian army, and captured the Roman Emperor Valerian, Shapur was simply carried away with this rare captive for a hundred years, every time he got on the horse, he actually ordered the Roman Emperor to kneel on the ground to make him a stepping stone, this insult made the huge Roman Empire heartbroken, and after more than ten years, Emperor Diocletian once again led the Roman army to the Middle East, and also defeated Ctesiphon, the capital of Sassanid Persia.

Constantine IV hoped that the Min army would insult him or kill himself, in order to arouse Constantinople's disgust and resistance to the Great Min, although he was not afraid of the empty shell of Eastern Rome now, but Li Jie did not want to be put on the last tremble by this loser, so he relied on Antioch, Li Jie accompanied him every day.

Anyway, the new 160,000-strong Roman army still needs to be reorganized and drilled, and Li Jie has time.

But when Li Jie was leisurely staying in Antioch to deal with the aftermath of Byzantium, Hussein in Syria jumped out unwilling to be lonely.

Aleppo, the border city between Syria and Turkey in later generations, is also the junction of today's Great Min and the Arab Empire, because of the surrender of Antioch, the Eastern Roman defenders here also submitted a surrender like Great Min, and now the Min troops of the two provinces are stationed here.

Aleppo was once the crossroads of trade between Eastern Rome and the Arab Empire, and it was considered a rich place, and the Roman Empire also built a lot of granaries here.

Zheng Jing is one of them, after the Ming Jing in the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and other fellow scholars were assigned to the household department, and they worked for three years, in these three years, Zheng Jing was also known for his rigor and seriousness, and now he has been promoted to the head of the six products, and this inventory work is commanded by him.

Seeing that the ledgers were neatly listed on the table, the cold-faced chief finally showed a slight smile on his face, which relieved his worried subordinates, but seeing that the inventory work was about to end, Zheng Jing suddenly sniffed and stood up in annoyance.

"Da Min warehouse rules, it is strictly forbidden to fire candles, who dares to smoke in the granary!"

An angry roar made a large group of household subordinates couldn't help but look at each other, seeing the scene, Zheng Jing simply stood up in annoyance and went straight to the source of the smoke.

The granary was close to the city wall, and even part of it was directly on the city wall, and he ran out of the granary angrily, and suddenly, the eyes of the cold-faced master widened.

The five Fujian army sentries guarding the low city wall had now died on the ground with more than a dozen burning rockets, the flames scorched the leather armor and emitted a foul smell, and under the city, in the dim night, suddenly countless torches appeared in the wilderness.

The next moment, the entire ancient city was awakened by the huge noise.