The disastrous defeat at the Battle of Giorlu was too heavy a blow to the Eastern Roman Empire and Leo IV.
These 50,000 troops were the elite force of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Only 10,000 soldiers followed Leo IV and fled back to Constantinople.
The rest were either killed or captured.
Leo IV, who fled back to Constantinople, was so decadent and depressed that he didn't even care about deploying city defenses.
Queen Irina could only shoulder the burden of defending Constantinople.
She ordered the generals of the Praetorian Guard to They organized the soldiers and horses that had escaped, recruited soldiers and mercenaries in the city, and used the limited time to train hard, hoping to be useful when the Bulgars arrived at the gates of Constantinople.
After dark that day, Leo IV came to Irina's palace.
Irina saw him coming, with a smile on her face, and immediately came out to greet him, "Look, you look much better.
I'll pour you a cup of tea."
Although Leo IV's spirit seemed to be better, he was still a little depressed.
He said: "No, let's have some wine."
Irina hesitated for a moment and agreed: "Okay, I'll get it."
After Irina left, Leo IV got up and went to the bedside to lie down, but he felt a hard object under the quilt.
He sat up and opened the quilt and saw that it was a wooden statue.
His face suddenly became ugly. stand up.
You must know that the three consecutive emperors of the Isaurian dynasty were extremely opposed to the worship of icons.
They destroyed countless icons in various places and declared the worship of idols as heresy many times.
This has also been the long-standing policy of the Isaurian dynasty.
Leo IV has unswervingly continued to implement this national policy since he succeeded to the throne. , thereby avoiding the increase of monks and nuns, avoiding increasing burdens on society, reducing the land and wealth occupied by the church, ordering some monks and nuns to return to secular life, and increasing the social labor force and productivity.
However, his queen actually kept it secret from him.
It is a huge irony to practice idolatry secretly behind the scenes.
Leo IV looked at this wooden statue of Jesus, his face turned green and white, and his chest whirred like a blower.
With a "clang", the wine bottle fell to the ground and shattered, and the wine spilled all over the floor.
Irina stood not far away with a tray, her face turned pale, and she was a little at a loss.
Leo IV grabbed the wooden statue and turned around and said angrily to Irina: "Your husband, the emperor of the empire, and even my father and grandfather's three generations of emperors have always insisted on opposing idol worship and have repeatedly ordered the destruction of icons. activities, declaring idol worship as heresy, but you, the empress of the empire, are actually doing it secretly.
Do you want to slap me in the face or the face of the entire Isaurian dynasty?"
"I" Irina didn't know what to say, she knew that anything she said now would be in vain.
As a queen with excellent political wisdom, Irina knew that the dynasty's continued implementation of the iconoclasm campaign was a political necessity.
She agreed with it, but she personally did not like it.
The iconoclasm movement was to destroy the faith in her heart. , if a person does not have faith, he will be so helpless and afraid.
The iconoclasm movement had a political background.
At that time, Leo III, the father of Constantine V and the grandfather of Leo IV, was not the emperor, but the commander of the Anatolian military region.
Constantinople was ruled by Theodosius III.
In order to overthrow the rule of Theodosius III, Leo III colluded with the Arabs, joined forces with the Arabs to attack Constantinople, and became the master of Constantinople.
After the throne of the Emperor of God However, Leo III did not fulfill his promise to the Arabs.
The Arabs were angry and sent troops to attack Constantinople.
However, Leo III used the new weapon Greek fire to defeat the Arabs, causing the Arabs to suffer heavy losses.
Unable to fight any more internally, they had to retreat.
However, the Arabs occupied a large amount of land in the Eastern Roman Empire, including Canaan, Syria and other places.
The Christians in these areas had to retreat back to the Eastern Roman Empire.
This phenomenon led to a large increase in the number of monks in the territory.
Monks and the church had always enjoyed many privileges in the empire.
In addition, the church collected people's assets in the name of worshiping icons, making the religious class a major burden on society at that time.
Therefore, Leo III twice announced edicts against the worship of icons in four years.
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This was for the movement to destroy icons.
At the same time, he confiscated the church's properties and land, and forced the monks to return to secular life, thereby reducing the burden on society.
Pope St.
Gregory II The world expressed strong protest against this.
In 727, Lavine in Italy As a result, Naggeng broke away from the rule of the empire, but none of this could hinder the iconoclasm movement.
The iconoclasm movement greatly affected the power of the Christian church.
The most important thing was that Leo III distributed the confiscated fields and land to The army and nobles thus consolidated the rule of Leo III.
"From now on, you are not allowed to carry out any idol worship in secret or collect holy images.
If I find it again, I will not be polite to you anymore, hum."
Leo IV was so angry that he threw the wooden icon outside the palace and shouted to the guards outside: "Come here, take it and burn it.
Search the palace again.
If you find any icon, take it away."
Go and burn it” The guard outside the palace immediately agreed: "Yes, Your Majesty."
After this incident, Leo IV was no longer in the mood to rest at Irina's place, and he strode out of the palace.
The next morning, Leo IV announced that he would convene ministers to discuss matters in the political hall.
His spirit was a little poor and his condition was not improving, but he was still a young man and his body was still able to bear the burden.
The ministers arrived soon, and when everyone was present, Leo IV finally came to the hall and sat on the throne.
The throne of the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire was not as domineering as the thrones of the Tang Dynasty and the Western Qin Dynasty.
It looked a bit shabby, perhaps because of a different thinking pattern.
This throne had neither a throne nor a background screen, nor a palace maid and a queen.
The eunuchs are behind and on both sides, and the throne is not It was all made of gold, but carved from stone.
The emperor was sitting on it without any lofty or majestic air.
The ministers did not look respectful or frightened when they came to see the emperor.
Instead, they all seemed a little careless, as if this was an audience ceremony.
Just routine.
After what happened last night, Leo IV seemed to have come out of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Giorlu.
His mood was much better, and his whole person seemed to have cheered up again.
"What are the Bulgars doing now?"
asked Leo IV.
The Minister of Intelligence, the Marquis of Boltrag, stood up and saluted and said: "Your Majesty the Emperor, my people have found out that the Bulgars are looting in Silivli and Chatalga.
There are not many defenders in each place and they cannot stop them at all.
Their frontline, cities and passes along the way were captured by them with little resistance, but they seemed to have no signs of going south into southern Thrace and Greece for the time being.
According to their current advancing speed, they would be able to attack in half a month at most.
At the Gates of Constantinople" Leo IV's face was a little ugly.
He would rather the Bulgars came to the city immediately, and he could use the strong defenses of Constantinople to keep the Bulgars out, rather than want them to plunder the Thrace region.
This This destructive power is too great.
After this battle, even if the Bulgars are driven back, the Thrace region will probably become a scorched earth.
Leo IV thought for a moment and asked: "Who is responsible for the city defense?"
Lucis, the general of the Imperial Guard, stood up and pressed his chest, bending down and saying, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I am now in charge of city defense."
"How many city defense troops can we use now?"
Lucis said with a bitter look on his face: "Excluding the wounded soldiers who escaped, there are less than 10,000 regular troops.
There are also 10,000 civilians who have just been recruited and are currently training.
In addition, we have also recruited 3,000 mercenaries.
Soldiers, but these people’s asking price is higher, and the consul is only willing to give them two months’ military pay.”
Triaeus, the consul, stood up and saluted: "Your Majesty the Emperor, it's not that I don't want to spend more military pay.
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It's really that the treasury can't come up with more money.
Our defense forces in Syria and Canaan are...
The army needs a lot of military expenditures and supplies, otherwise it will be difficult to hold the territory area, a large amount of supplies that His Majesty brought during this expedition were seized by the Bulgars.
We have spent a lot of energy and money these days to raise half a year's reserve of supplies.
We really can't get the money out.
If you don't believe it, you can ask Ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he knows best.”
The finance minister had to stand up and said: "Yes, Your Majesty, none of us know how long the Bulgars will besiege us in the future, so we have to leave some money to continue to raise supplies."
The empire that has been in existence for hundreds of years still has some wealth.
With Constantinople's defense capabilities and reserves of supplies, as long as it is not attacked by a country with strong siege capabilities like Western Qin, it can defend it for a year and a half.
There is no problem, mainly because there is enough material support.
Leo IV knows this very well.
Constantinople has not been besieged before, both by the northern barbarians and the Arab Empire.
Persevered.
Leo IV thought for a while, and then the ministers said: "We still have more than 10,000 troops left at the gates of various cities in the Thracian region.
I ordered the scattered defenders and supplies in each city to be withdrawn to Junshi.
With the arrival of Fort Tantino, only three major passes were left to delay the Bulgars' attack.
At the same time, the civilians along the Bulgar attack route were also moved to Constantinople and the Asia Minor Peninsula, taking away everything they could and not leaving a grain of food for the Bulgars.
The consul, this The matter is entrusted to you to do, and it must be carried out immediately without delay."
"Yes, Your Majesty" Leo IV pondered for a moment and then said: "There is one more thing that I want to announce here.
I have decided to appoint my son Constantine as the co-emperor of the empire.
The appointment ceremony will be held in three days. " The ministers and generals looked at each other in confusion.
Could it be that the emperor had no hope for this war, or was there some other reason?
You should know that the little prince Constantine was only over five years old, and it seemed a bit premature to establish him as co-emperor at such a young age.
However, Leo IV only had such a son, so it makes sense to appoint him as co-emperor now
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