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Chapter 525: Flame of the Plains


I have to say that many times, there are a lot of interesting accidental surnames in history.

When, many, many years later, looking back on this period of history, almost all historians or scholars will be interested in the Byzantine Empire has experienced so many ups and downs in this year, and in so many changes in the situation, and finally embarked on the last strange road, almost all scholars who study historical materials have to admit that it seems that there is really a hand in the dark that controls the development of all this at that time, so many changes in the situation, if any of these conditions change by chance, In the end, they will all lead to completely different results, and in the end, Byzantium, an ancient empire of thousands of years, will take a completely different path.

In particular, what happened in the autumn of this year is actually quite a large number of scholars of historiography have this point of view: in the autumn of this year, the empire is coming to an inflection point that will affect the future road, and from the situation at that time, if such an "accident" had not occurred, or if this accident happened a few months or half a year late, I am afraid that the future fate of the empire would not have led to the final result.

Many people even believe that the empire actually had all the favorable conditions at that time: the collapse of the rebel camp, such a strong foreign aid as the Landis Empire, and the temporary silence of the Odin Empire, etc.

At that time, it was a rare respite for the Byzantine Empire, and if it seized this opportunity to quickly carry out the Northern Expedition, as long as it won several wars in one go, then everything would be greatly improved.

Moreover, judging by the ability of General Adric, who was in charge of military affairs at the time, it was entirely possible for the Empire to do this.

But that "accident" happened sooner or later, and it happened at the time when it should not have happened, at the most delicate time node.

Adrick has tried his best to organize a combatable army, even if it is to exclude the private army composed of those noble and wealthy families, the regular army has reached 100,000 people, the armament and materials are basically sufficient, and there is an outstanding commander of the empire like Adrick, once the Northern Expedition begins, no one will doubt Adric's military strategic ability.

But at this juncture, the rebellion in the south of the empire completely disrupted the good situation and buried the autumn wind.

In the past, the south was warm, but this year's autumn seems to have come exceptionally early.

As soon as the summer was over, the warm wind had already turned into a killing cold wave.

The southern part of the empire has always been the central backyard of the Byzantine Empire, but in the autumn of that year, all peace was disturbed by rebellions in the north and invasions by foreign enemies.

Under Yanjing's urgent orders to urge taxes and materials one by one, the county guards and governors of the southern counties almost squeezed out the last bit of wealth in the official treasury with red eyes.

If it is the Taiping Festival, these officials naturally have a way to deal with it, which is nothing more than to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall But at this time, the civil war in the empire not only shattered peace, but also shattered the dreams of many officials to make a fortune.

In the face of Yanjing's orders to move one by one, and in the face of an empty treasury that has been in deficit for several years or even longer, in order to maintain their official titles and status, these officials and masters have to wield big sticks and even knives and guns to transfer the pressure to the people under their rule.

At the same time, in the face of the restrictions of the emperor's sudden relaxation of the aristocratic private army, in order to seize the largest share and the richest piece of the cake in the future power struggle, almost every noble and wealthy family is desperately expanding their own strength, and a large number of farmers in the territory have been recruited into the private army.

A large number of laborers were forcibly incorporated into the private army, and a large number of grassroots families who had lost their main labor force lost their main labor force in their homes, land production was reduced, and income was sharply reduced.

How many civilians who have lost their income and land have become homeless and homeless.

At this time, in fact, the southern counties, the traditional sphere of influence firmly controlled by the center of the empire, had already turned into a dangerous powder keg by the autumn of this year, which could be detonated with a little spark The only difference between the period is that it is one day earlier or one day later.

Of course, in hindsight, if this riot had taken place a few months or even half a year later, the situation would have been very different, so I have to say that this was an accident.

An "accident" that completely changed the future fate of the Byzantine Empire.

Effenwitte, Bode City.

A name called "Ivan" became the direct fuse of this "accident".

Ivan is a farmer who has lived outside the city of Bode for generations, and his ancestors have been given some land because of their military exploits, but after all, he has not really stepped into the ranks of the nobility, and after a few generations, he has transformed into an ordinary farmer.

In the autumn of this year, although the autumn grain was collected, after the order of the county guard to collect the grain tax was delivered, the wolf-like county soldiers robbed almost all the autumn grain in the Iwanjia family in order to collect the war tax.

In addition to farm work, Ivan also has the ability to be a carpenter, and in previous years, if the farmland was in arrears, he could also go to the city to find some carpenter skills and barely make ends meet.

And this year, because of the war in the north, the trade routes were cut off, the economy in the south was already on the verge of collapse, many handicraft families have gone bankrupt, and the city is full of unemployed people And another important role in this "accident" is the city guard of Baldur City.

This castle keeper was born in a noble family, and the title of a small baron was not enough to make him rich, but the official position of the castle keeper gave him the opportunity to make a fortune.

Baldur City wasn't originally a rich place, but that didn't stop the castle guards from making a fortune.

Deficits, vacancies, and false accounts in the official treasury are the means that every local official is best at.

But in this year, under Yanjing's strict reminder order, many officials in the city were urged to make talismans.

The official treasury in Baldur City has long been in deficit everywhere, and the treasury is so empty that even rats can barely survive.

In previous years, it would have been nothing more than a large amount of "loss" in the reporting of accounts.

But this year, such fooling is unbearable.

The castle keeper had to issue an order to raise taxes.

Such a tax was already nearly three times more than the amount required by the Empire.

Heavy taxes forced the peasants to sell their fields, but it became the way for the city guard to make a fortune.

He began to buy up the land of bankrupt peasants at low prices.

In the autumn of that year, the castle keeper almost became the largest landowner in the area.

Another interesting factor is that Adric ordered the mobilization of local garrisons from the southern counties to Yanjing Qinwang for reorganization.

However, such a simple order has also become a nightmare for local officials The south has been peaceful for a long time, and the local garrison has long been abolished.

For many local officials, the garrison is another way to make a fortune: to eat empty wages.

The original local garrison of Bode County was a battalion, with soldiers and auxiliaries, and the full strength should have been more than 600.

But in fact, these more than 600 garrisons only exist on books and paper.

Naturally, most of the annual military salary went into the pockets of the castle guards.

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However, as soon as the order from above came down, it immediately made the city guard panic.

This army on paper, how to pull Yanjing As a last resort, the castle keeper could only temporarily recruit soldiers in the city.

There are many people in the city, and there are countless unemployed and bankrupt families.

That Ivan, in desperation, simply joined the army.

I just want to earn a little military salary to support my family.

It can be said that such a situation is almost a common phenomenon in the southern counties, and in the autumn of this year, almost half of the garrisons in the southern counties were temporarily conscripted into the army in a hurry, and a large number of bankrupt young men who were squeezed with dissatisfaction and even hatred in their hearts became soldiers of the empire.

And while they put on military uniforms, underwent hard training, endured almost harsh military training, and meager military salaries, and were ready to be transported to the front line of Yanjing to fight and shed blood for the empire, while their families, their wives, children, parents, and the elderly, were subjected to more severe oppression of official uniforms at home.

In such a situation, if there is no problem, then it is called hell.

Put it in Baldur City.

If the castle keeper hadn't been so ruthless in his past corruption, the deficit he left behind would not have been so huge.

Then, when dealing with the above reminders in the future, there is no need to increase taxes so harshly.

If the lord of the castle had not made a fortune at this time, he had made a fortune with the idea of making a fortune, and when a large number of people went bankrupt and sold their land, he would have bought land at a low price by extortion without conscience, forcing the people underground to have no way out.

Suppose this man named Ivan did not enlist in the army and picked up a knife and gun, it happened one day in the fall.

The man named Ivan had changed from a bankrupt farmer and an unemployed craftsman to an ordinary sergeant in the Imperial local garrison.

And something even more interesting happened.

On this day, the county soldiers in Bode City, who were undergoing urgent military training, suddenly received an order to go out of the city to quell a fight.

And after Ivan's team of soldiers left the city, they were surprised to find that this so-called "weapon fight" was actually for the private affairs of the city guard master's own family.

In the process of annexing a large amount of land, the city keeper naturally had a lot of forced buying and selling.

The dispute of this day originated from a land sale incident.

The steward of the city guard's house, in the village outside the city, bought the land, because the bid was too low, and was rejected by the farmer, the farmer's refusal was very simple, the two sides had already agreed on the price, and the steward, when the matter came to the end, suddenly proposed to lower the price.

The reason is: now that land is being sold everywhere, since there are more people selling, then the natural price should be pushed down a little more.

The two sides had a fierce conflict because of this, and in the fierce friction, the steward of the city guard directly ordered his men to beat and injure several villagers, which caused the anger of the villagers, and the angry villagers surrounded the steward and his men in the village.

Under the confrontation between the two sides, they sent people back to the city quietly to ask for help.

Rushing to the scene of the accident, Ivan was furious to find that this was the village where he lived, and among the injured villagers was his wife.

What made him even more sad and indignant was that in the midst of pushing and friction, his son, who was less than eight years old, was trampled and seriously injured in the chaotic crowd and died One can imagine how angry a 29-year-old man was when he saw his wife being injured, his son being trampled to death, and his land being forcibly bought But this man still has a weapon in his hand So, the angry Ivan, after he couldn't bear it anymore, finally chose to use the weapon in his hand to vent his anger and hatred.

Just when he used the knife in his hand to stab the steward directly, the scene could no longer be controlled.

To everyone's surprise, the group of soldiers who were sent immediately mutinied on the spot, refusing to carry out the order to do something to the villagers.

And at this time, Ivan, an ordinary farmer who had been honest for more than twenty years and struggling to survive, a little carpenter, uttered what was probably the loudest speech of his life, when he was full of indignation.

Facing dozens of fellow county soldiers with weapons in their hands, he threw the body of the steward who had been stabbed to death by himself on the ground, stepped on the other party's head, and said in a hoarse voice with a strong local accent: "The official said that he wanted money and food, I gave it, and the family went bankrupt, and the last bit of food was also collected, and the official said that he wanted people to fight, I went, put on a military uniform and carried a sword, and I was going to go to the battlefield for them, and the official said that he wanted to buy my land, and I sold it, just in exchange for a little money to live and eat, but even so, they still didn't give me a way to live, I lived for twenty-nine years, and I only killed chickens in my life, and I was very soft-hearted.

I can't bear it in my heart, but today I killed someone just because I couldn't bear it anymore, I want to live, all I want is to live, I have a breath of breath, a bite to eat, I have handed over all my food, belongings, I have handed over my life to fight for them, I have handed over my land to them, they are not satisfied, I also killed my son, I wounded my wife, yes, I killed him and stabbed him to death, I just want to live, since they don't let me, then I just have to kill them" In the end, he threw away his sword and looked at the dozens of county soldiers in front of him: "You have arrested me and gone back to confess, I will not resist, but if tomorrow, they will rob your family of food and kill your children and daughters, and when the time comes, you will have no way to live."

After that, things took a turn for the worse Dozens of county soldiers on the spot mutinied en masse, and the leader of the team tried to use his majesty to force the soldiers to carry out the order, but was hacked to death by the fierce soldiers.

As for the few city guards brought by the steward, they were also killed in anger, and their bodies hung at the head of the village.

After calming down, these dozens of county soldiers who rebelled simply elected Ivan as the leader.

In fact, at that time, the idea of these people was very simple: they knew that they had committed a capital crime by killing the officer and the steward of the city guard.

It's just that the crowd was angry at that time, and almost all of the county soldiers were bankrupt refugees who were forced to enlist after being oppressed.

After calming down, in fact, Ivan himself and many county soldiers did not really have the idea of rebelling against anything, after all, they had been obedient people in the south of the Byzantine Empire all their lives, and they did not have this concept in their minds at all.

It's just that everyone's idea at that time was very simple: since they have killed all of them, and if they don't do anything, they will still be arrested and killed in the future anyway, so it is better to simply take revenge and go to the city to kill the culprit, even if they are executed in the future, it can be regarded as revenge.

So, dozens of county soldiers rushed back to the city with weapons, even at this time, they didn't have the slightest idea of rebelling or anything, they just thought about going back to the city to kill the hateful city guard.

But what happened next was completely beyond the expectations of such a group of farmers who had just put on their military uniforms and had only received more than a month of military training.

Their move into the city went unusually smoothly, and even when they entered the castle guard's mansion, they did not encounter even the slightest real and powerful resistance.

The defenders in the city almost did not put up any resistance, so they chose to retreat, and let these dozens of people enter Bode City, slaughtered into the city guard's mansion, hacked all sixteen members of the city guard's family to death, and scattered the rest of the family servants in a hurry.

And in the end, when the treasury of the old man's house was opened, in the face of the warehouse full of money and grain, and in the face of the title deed that was almost full of more than ten boxes, it immediately caused even greater anger As for the defenders in Bode City, none of the six hundred soldiers recruited in a hurry were willing to make a move on Ivan and the others, and the officers ran away as soon as possible.

I don't know who made the suggestion first, but soon, six hundred soldiers also mutinied en masse and joined Ivan and others, and the wealth looted by the city guard in the city guard mansion was divided among the six hundred people.

In the next two days, these 600 "rebel bandits" who are actually still farmers in their bones, after venting the anger in their hearts, they were occupied by the fear in their bones, some of them chose to flee out of the city to find a way to survive, but most of them still stayed in the city, waiting for the imminent extermination of the government, they did not choose to flee, because there were still wives and children at home, and they would rather stay in place and wait to be caught and killed, rather than affect their families.

But something stranger happened.

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After waiting for several days, the officers and soldiers who came to kill them were nowhere to be seen.

Later, it dawned on them In Effenwitte, where are the officers and soldiers who have come to destroy them?

Most of the garrison has been hastily transferred to King Qin of Yanjing Osgilia.

The number of soldiers in the county is extremely scarce, and even the remaining county soldiers are just like them, and they are all farmers who have been temporarily recruited to cope with the transfer from above.

Later, some of the people who had fled returned to Baldø City one after another, and after these fugitives left, the news of Baldø City spread to other places, and suddenly within a few days, there were several killings and rebellions in Effenwether County, and these fleeing and leaving people returned, and brought back some people who were willing to join Ivan and others.

Many of them came to Baldur City after the rebellion of other local officials.

In Bode City, the team of Ivan and others quickly broke through 3,000 people like a snowball, most of them were the original county soldiers and other mutinous stragglers from all over the country, and many bankrupt farmers, small craftsmen, and homeless people also joined Ivan's team.

Finally, after more than ten days, the county guard of Effenwetter, after doing his best, organized an army of 600 men to quell the rebellion, which was drawn from the only regular local garrison left in the capital city of Effenwetter.

The battalion of 600 men went to Baldwick to quell the rebellion, but at that time, most of the army in the entire Effenwetter County was temporarily conscripted, and the sporadic mutinies in various places made the county warden dare not trust the army, in order to ensure the control of the army, the county warden and the governor had to personally lead the army and march with the army to ensure the command of the army.

One can imagine how much combat effectiveness such an army can have Moreover, when the news of the rebellion of the county soldiers in various places had already spread throughout Effinwett County, there were several people in such a fair army, from low-ranking officers to soldiers, who were willing to work for these officials Among them, there are not a few who have had the same experience as Ivan and others.

As a result, in a field battle of reciprocal judgment, most of the counterinsurgency officers and soldiers of a battalion defected before the war, which caused the officers and troops to collapse suddenly, and the county guards and governors were killed by mutinous soldiers in the chaos in order to suppress their subordinates.

The death of the county guard, coupled with the destruction of the last formed army in the entire county of Effenlivet, directly led to the situation in Effenwettershire, which could no longer be controlled The news of the collapse of the army and the news of it immediately plunged the capital city of Effenwether into chaos, and the remaining hundreds of defenders immediately declared a mutiny, no longer under the command of the officers, and after expelling the officers, they sent people to get in touch with Ivan.

Within a few days, four of the six larger cities in Effenwetter had mutinied by the army, killing or expelling local officials.

The fire of this rebellion burned for thousands of miles The entire Effenvet Army, in less than half a month, was no longer owned by the Empire At this time, even Ivan and others were sluggish, but they finally understood a reality: It turns out that all along, those officials who ride on their heads to do power and fortune are actually just paper tigers, and the clay beasts thought that the heavy mountain above their heads was actually just a layer of window paper, which was broken when stabbed The government has long been out to destroy its own strength in the southern counties, where are there still officials and troops that can match their own side Under such circumstances, Ivan and others, who originally rioted for the sake of a simple belief in "revenge", immediately had a new idea.

The mutinous local armies in Effenwether County rapidly expanded, and large numbers of displaced and bankrupt farmers joined the chaos.

Ivan and the other nine leaders of the mutinous army, calling themselves "generals", each pulled up a team, the largest was the one led by Ivan, with nearly 30,000 people, and the smallest had tens of thousands of people.

Soon, this rebellion spread beyond Efenwetshire to the surrounding neighboring counties, and in less than a month, the three southern counties were already full of rebellions, and the local garrisons in many places mutinied in response to Ivan and others.

The three southern counties lacked troops and were unable to conquer and suppress, so they could only retreat into a few large cities to defend themselves.

But in the countryside, it has long been no longer controlled by the empire, and in some small cities, even if someone shouts "the terrible Ivan is coming", the defenders can immediately mutiny, and the officials will flee.

The most dangerous and fatal problem for the Byzantine Empire was that as the snowball of rebellion grew, more and more people joined the ranks of the southern rebellion, which began as a few mud-legged peasants to vent their hatred, and finally developed into an uncontrollable grassroots rebellion against tyranny.

What made the Byzantine Empire even more alarming was that as more and more people joined the rebel armies in the south, there were some elites among them, who may have had unsatisfactory lives before, or who had their own ambitions.

Many of these people were highly educated, and they had farther and brighter knowledge than Ivan and others at the beginning of the rebel army, and they had stronger talents and brains.

And after many people joined the rebel army of "Ivan the Terrorist", under the influence of these elites, they directly made the rebel army, which was originally blind in program, quickly have its own clear banner and program "Overthrow tyranny" "Overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Krenma family" "Restore the House of Elders and Return Power to the People" "The three southern counties were separated from the Byzantine Empire for autonomy" What's more, among the rebel army, the banner of "descendants of the Tulip family" was erected to recruit talents from all over the world to join, no need to ask, after all, there are some declining nobles who have joined such a rebel army.

There were also some rebels who had a more clever move, they began to send people around to contact foreign aid, established offensive and defensive alliances with other rebel armies, and even sent people to secretly contact some local nobles and powerful.

It is even said that some rebels actually sent envoys to the holy city of Babylon far away in the northeast of the chaotic territory to make contact, and some even sent messengers to the north of the empire to get in touch with some military governors.

In October, urgent newspapers from the south were sent to Yanjing Osgilia like snowflakes.

Originally, there was a glimmer of life in the empire, as if in the autumn of this year, it was just fleeting, and the future of the empire was quickly enveloped by a thicker haze'' To be continued 〗Hanyu Pinyin "" is simple and easy to remember: