Chapter 233: The Fall of Byzantium on the Road to Conquest It can be said that the situation facing the Byzantine Empire today is even worse than in history, after all, there is no such thing as the Tang Army's westward expedition in history, and they can almost be said to be fighting on the third front at this time, especially in the face of the Tang Dynasty, and they have gathered seventy percent of their troops on the front line.
It's just that where would they have thought that the navy of the Tang Empire would actually appear behind them?
So when the Imperial Navy flying the Tang Dragon Flag appeared on the sea outside Constantinople, the whole of Constantinople exploded.
At this time, the Byzantine Empire was unprecedentedly weak, and Constantinople couldn't even get together the soldiers to defend the city, so where would it be the opponent of the Tang Marines?
In particular, although the marines did not drive in warships, they also transported a large number of land artillery by assembling warships, and in the face of the artillery attack of the Tang Dynasty, where would Constantinople be the opponent?
Even if Constantinople at this time was actually reinforced with cement-like materials (it is said that the earliest cement appeared in the Roman Empire), but there were really not enough soldiers in the city to resist the Tang Dynasty, and the range of Greek fire was seriously insufficient.
As a result, they could only watch the continuous collapse of the city wall, and there was nothing they could do about it by letting the Tang artillery wield.
After ten rounds of shelling, with a loud 'boom', the wall of this city, which the Byzantine Empire claimed to be the strongest and most dangerous in the whole world, collapsed a gap, and then the Tang Dynasty continued to expand on this gap, and finally formed a huge crack enough for more than a dozen people to enter side by side, and the marines who had been impatient immediately rushed up and rushed into this ancient city.
The nobles in the city saw that the situation was not good, those who could escape had already fled, and those who could not escape immediately knelt on the side of the road and surrendered, and the residents in the city did not have the courage as the people of the Great Food Empire, but were curious about the Tang Dynasty army, and there was no shame of the collapse of the country at all.
As for the Byzantine Emperor Constans II (the fourth emperor of the Byzantine Empire and the grandson of Heraclius the Great), he was not as decisive as the caliph Osman of the Great Food Empire, in the face of the Tang Dynasty's soldiers, he ordered all the soldiers in the city to lay down their arms and surrender at the first time, and he himself took his wife and daughter, and walked out of the palace with his hands tied (I don't know where he knew this allusion), surrendered to the Tang Dynasty - throughout the entire empire, there is no backbone person, It is a miracle that such an empire has survived for more than 800 years in history (it was not until the fifteenth century that the Byzantine Empire was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire).
In any case, the fall of the Byzantine Empire has become a fact, and the absence of resistance also means that the Tang Dynasty's own losses are also small, which is a good thing.
However, the phrase that there is no rebel is actually not accurate, when the Tang army entered the city at the beginning, there was indeed no one to resist, but later, there were still people who expressed dissatisfaction with the invasion of the Tang Dynasty, especially when the marines tried to take control of the Hagia Sophia Church (the largest church in the Byzantine Empire, almost all emperors were crowned here, and later destroyed in the sixth century, let's rebuild it here), they were met with strong resistance- A group of hoplites (of course, also called Knights of Light) who packed themselves into tin cans rushed out shouting 'Demacia', causing quite a bit of confusion among the Marines.
Fortunately, the commander in the back reacted in time and ordered all the marines to shoot......
Faith proved to be invulnerable, and the heavy armor of a tin can could not withstand a bullet of pure copper, and in the dense gunfire like a burst of beans, dozens of knights of light soon became real motionless iron cans.
But the trouble encountered by Datang did not end here, after killing all the knights of light, before they could continue to advance, an old man in a monk's uniform walked out, and then said to the crowd of onlookers.
So the soldiers of the Marine Corps, who were ready to continue to advance, saw a magical scene, the original harmless people and animals like the little white rabbit Constantinople people, quickly turned black into a rabbit that could bite people, and frantically rushed to the landing team.
The Marine Corps commander was taken aback and very decisively ordered the soldiers to shoot, but the blackened people seemed to be blessed with a fearless buff, and they didn't even look at the death of their comrades, but continued to rush frantically in this direction.
To make matters worse, as the gunfire rang out, more and more Byzantine civilians flocked to it, but fortunately, the soldiers of the Marine Corps in other places also heard the gunfire, and they also converged on this side, and quickly laid down a defensive line around it, but anyone who dared to storm the line of defense was punished with a killing.
Even in order to deter the crowd, some Marine Corps soldiers pulled out grenades and cannons, and through the roar of the explosion, this frightened the other party and made them dare not take a step beyond the thunder pool.
Then Datang did not continue to use brute force to kill the people of the church, but began to negotiate with the people of the Hagia Sophia Church - or it is more accurate to issue an ultimatum, because as the leading general this time, Liu Renliang has been replaced (when cleaning up the interior, Li Zhen found that he was in collusion with the family, so he dismissed him, and let Cheng Chuliang replace him because he became the chief manager, so Cheng Chuliang was not transferred, but continued to stay in the Lingnan Naval District), Cheng Chuliang, who became the head of the Lingnan Naval Region of the Tang Dynasty, only gave them two ways, either the people of the Saint Sophia Church surrendered to the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and you continued to preach your teachings, but you must obey the rule of the Tang Dynasty, or the Tang Dynasty made a way and let the people of the Holy See leave, but from then on the Tang Dynasty will become the enemy of the Holy See, but if anyone dares to come in and preach, then see one and kill the other.
In the face of the inhumane Tang army, the people of the Hagia Sophia Church finally compromised, of course they were unwilling to leave Byzantium, after all, this is a huge country, with countless believers, and with the inclusion of this place in the territory of the Tang Dynasty, they have another space to develop believers, and they also want to pass on the grace of Christ to the Tang people, so that they can also bathe in the gift of the Lord.
So after contacting the Holy See and discussing with them, the Pope specifically allowed them to submit temporarily......
After all, Datang has an idiom called endure humiliation and bear weight, isn't it?
In the face of the Tang Dynasty's soldiers, it is also necessary to endure the humiliation first, but after the glory of the Lord will be spread all over the Tang Dynasty in the future, let's slowly calculate the general account, and the top priority is to spread the Lord's faith is more important, compared to this, what is personal honor and disgrace?