After all, the well-built human architecture cannot match the power of chemical energy...... しwxs

Especially the city of Edessa is still a stone wall! Despite the fact that the Roman walls made of large stones seem to be much stronger than the Chinese rammed earth walls, in fact, in the face of stronger blows, the softer rammed earth walls can be deformed to absorb strong kinetic energy, while the hard and brittle stone walls can only crack.

Just as who would have thought that the Eastern Romans, who were still discussing tribute, would suddenly kill Da Min, the Roman legions guarding Edessa also did not expect that Da Min, who had taken the initiative to throw an olive branch three days ago, would attack him so suddenly.

More than 100,000 cavalry of various nationalities besieged on all sides, and only 6,000 integrated Roman legions were attracted to the city wall and exhausted, with the Roman ballistas and bows and arrows, tens of thousands of sappers forced out six large holes near the east city gate, and tens of thousands of catties of black powder were filled in.

The lead was pulled out more than fifty meters long, and the Min army that ignited the lead also retreated in a panic, and under the stunned gaze of the Roman legions defending the city, the entire Edessa City trembled a minute later.

Three of the arrow towers at the four corners of the city wall collapsed, the debris produced by the explosion flew hundreds of meters away, the shields of the Fujian army that hit the overhead were all rattling, and the unlucky war horse was hit on the head, and Herod's wail fell.

The city gate collapsed entirely, and thousands of nearby Roman legions were directly killed, and some did not even have a single scar on their bodies, but blood flowed out of the seven orifices, and they were shocked to death, and the explosion wave also collapsed a large number of houses behind the city gate.

It's not that I haven't seen the earth-shattering artillery of the Fujian army last year, but compared with today's explosion, the overwhelming artillery fire doesn't seem to be worth mentioning, and the surviving Roman legions are even stupid on the city wall, even if the cavalry under the command of the Fujian army who is also shocked came back to their senses and began to shout and attack the city, they didn't even have the slightest sense of resistance.

The Archbishop of Edessa even knelt down in the street in lamentation, crying out to the heavens in shock: "O God! Have you abandoned your believers? Why did you give the power of the heavenly thunder to the Min people! ”

In less than half an hour, the strongest city in West Mesopotamia fell into the hands of the Great Min so easily.

However, before the nomadic cavalry could indulge in cheering and looting, they were expelled by the officers of the Great Min and went to continue the pursuit of the Byzantine army.

Constantine IV was only encircled because of the need to break up the alliance between Eastern Rome and Arabia, and now the Arabs were more prescient, knowing that the Romans were unreliable and simply did not come, and the Romans, who had lost their use value, naturally would not let them retreat again.

The nomads recruited from the Turks, Tibetans, and millet characteristics retreated from Edessa like flowing water, just frightened, some of the houses still carried the flames burning when the nomads plundered, and some of them also carried the tyrannical knife wounds of the steppe people A group of Roman soldiers, Edessa citizens watched in astonishment, and a group of ironclad Fujian soldiers like an iron stream arrived from the rear on horseback, and after dismounting, the whole team was a little full, and then the lineup rushed into the city neatly, and began to control the commanding heights.

The streets were quickly cleared, and the frightened citizens were quickly returned to their homes, and some of the houses on fire had to shrink into a corner as best they could, and the dejected Roman legionaries were gathered together, and their weapons were confiscated and escorted out of the city.

Seeing the royal drive of the King of Min into the city, the soldiers along the way quickly knelt down on one knee and saluted, and the Roman legionnaires who had not yet arrived and were escorted out of the city were also knocked to the ground with spear shafts, and bowed down in horror to the new conqueror.

Christianity and Islam are also a very interesting pair of enemies, both from Judaism, each other is also on the same page, most of the mosques are rebuilt from the churches occupied by the Arabs, when the Christians come back, the mosques are once again converted into churches, some churches in the walls are even several layers thick, is the two believers repeatedly cover the murals of each other's religion.

The same is true of Edessa, it has only been more than a year since the Eastern Romans came back, and the Cathedral of Fort Santa Star in Edessa has only been changed from a mosque, and the frescoes inside the church have not yet dried, and Archbishop John has to face the fall of the city again, trembling and leading a group of wealthy citizens to wait at the door of the church.

When Li Jie's royal car slowly arrived, the archbishop, wrapped in a black clerical uniform and with an oval face like a shriveled orange, held the key to the gate of the East City Gate in both hands.

However, this surrender attitude of the Min people was still not satisfied, full of anger, drew the horsewhip, and reprimanded angrily on one side, and on the other hand, Zampu angrily: "Bold! See the king of Min and don't bow down, look for death! ”

But before Zampo's whip could fall, a hand that was not strong but extremely powerful grabbed his wrist. With his eyes repulsing Zanpo, Li Jie himself dismounted gently, and looked at the trembling but still strong Bishop John who did not worship and the key that symbolized the west gate of Mesopotamia, Li Jie asked with a smile: "Back then, the Grand Priest of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome bowed and saluted when they visited the widows, are you higher than the two of them?"

The clergy will only worship God, and there was a farce in the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations that the Chinese emperor did not worship, but Li Jie's words were justified, and John's face wrinkled even more when he heard it, and his legs were weak, and he still knelt on the ground.

The significance of this kneeling is extraordinary, symbolizing that Mesopotamian Christians also recognized the authority of Min over their religion and the supremacy of Min law over the Shari.

In later generations, for the sake of clerical power, the Holy See could have fought with a series of secular regimes such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Kingdom of England.

Suddenly, this symbolic ceremony provoked the Fujian army in the rear to cheer loudly, the war has come here, at least the fertile land of the Crescent in the Two River Basins is completely swallowed by the Great Min.

John and the others were still trembling and kneeling on the ground, waiting for the new conqueror to judge their fate, but Li Jie climbed back onto the horse with the key tied to his waist, and said as he walked.

"Get up! You don't care what you believe in, and you won't levy any additional poll tax, Great Fujian, all-encompassing, all Fujian people are broad-minded, can welcome the arrival of any kind of civilization, in the Central Plains, there is already a Nestorian religion, not bad for you. ”

Seeing Li Jie's tolerant attitude, these Romans finally breathed a sigh of relief, and as soon as their bodies weakened, Archbishop John simply lay on the ground and turned back happily.

His Holy See was hugged.

King Min is not interested in the church, it does not mean that he is not interested in anything else, the family of the Roman governor of Edessa was driven out with the defeated army, leaving the governor's mansion rich in Greek characteristics to Li Jie, it is estimated that there will be a period of time to use this as the center to command the huge occupation, how soon arrived, the palace people and the forbidden army immediately rushed into the mansion, and arranged the furnishings in the palace of Da Min one by one.

In addition to the big trouble in his heart, Li Jie also carried his hands on his back and leisurely wandered in the Greek-style courtyard, but unfortunately he didn't wait for Li Jie's good mood to last long, and the battle report from the front made him depressed again.

"Ran away?"

Full of disbelief, Li Jie knocked on the table and asked angrily, the other generals also looked at him with ugly faces, Su Dingfang was also pale, and he replied angrily: "Back to Your Majesty, the last general will not be able to do well, and by the time the Eastern Romans have retreated for more than thirty miles."

Constantine IV saw that things were wrong, and Li Jie is now completely enlightened, and originally expected that this guy who killed his father and killed his brother and sister could kill Edessa in anger and send him to the door, who knew that Constantine IV ran faster than a rabbit if there was a slight wind and grass.

If the Eastern Roman army is allowed to return to Antioch intact, the next war will be very tricky, pinching his chin and hesitating for a moment, Li Jie took out a token from his arms and threw it to Su Dingfang.

"The cavalry generals of the left and right guards will take it away, and Gu will give you 5,000 Arab light cavalry, 5,000 Sogdian cavalry, and 4,000 Turkic cavalry, don't seek to break the Roman army, as long as you can delay the pace of the Eastern Roman army as much as possible, the widow will remember your first credit!"

"Your Majesty, isn't 20,000 people a little short?"

Without waiting for Su Dingfang to receive the order, Li Ji, the secretary of the military department on the side, stood up with a wat board worriedly.

"If we do not take advantage of this opportunity to weaken the Romans as much as possible, the future will be in Antioch, in the small

In Ancatolia and other rugged terrain, it would be difficult to deal with the Roman heavy infantry, and 20,000 people would probably not be able to kill or wound too much. ”

Li Ji's concerns were reasonable, but Li Jie actually smiled mysteriously and shook his head.

"Lao Shangshu rest assured, he has his own clever plan!"

Seeing that King Min mysteriously sold Guanzi, the appetite of more than a dozen generals was suddenly raised, but unfortunately, Li Jie just didn't say it, and there was no way to make people's hearts itch. Seeing that there were no more soldiers, he bowed his head depressedly, and Su Dingfang still took the token.

A moment later, in the sound of vigorous and harmonious voices, only carrying a few days of dry food, the elite Min light cavalry rushed out like a black dragon.

On the way to escape in a hurry, Constantine IV, who was riding the Don war horse, shuddered coldly............