Chapter 722 Good Well

Two years after the International Confederation of Wizards in Sardinia in 1292, the Ajasian War broke out between Genoa and Venice.

From 1290 to 1345, the Black Sea market became the warehouse of the world since the Pope banned trade with the Pacific region.

With the decline of the Crusades, other Crusader towns on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean fell one after another, and Venice, which made a fortune from the Crusades, was facing a crisis, so Venice began to compete with Genoa around the Black Sea.

Although Venice is a city of water, they are extremely short of drinkable fresh water. Before the pipeline was repaired, the locals relied on digging wells and collecting water in rainy days.

There are two bronze water storage wells in the Doge's Palace, which are said to have the best water quality in Venice.

Venice does not have a large population, no natural resources, no rich products, and even under the feet of the Venetians, there is no solid land. What Venice has is the boundless and moody sea, and generations of Venetian merchants who have taken risks at sea .

When the Genoese attacked Venice, they used siege tactics. Venice itself relied on shipping for food, but it was still self-sufficient in fresh water.

In another country, Dawan, when the Han army besieged it, they cut off the water source in the city. Even though there was enough food in the city, the nobles of Dawan city cut off the king's head and gave it to the general of the Han Dynasty.

Dawan gradually prospered under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire and Bactria, and began to decline until it was isolated from the Greek world by the migration of the Great Yuezhi in 160 BC.

A weakened country, Li Guangli, has been fighting for two years. This is not because the weakened Dawan is stronger than the Han army, but because the journey from Chang'an to Dawan is too long. Without supplies and support, it is impossible to overcome it with human will. of.

When the manpower is always exhausted, not everything can come true. The expedition must be fully prepared, and the soldiers and horses must go before the food and grass are used, but ordinary people often do not notice this.

Putting horseshoes on horses will not change the speed at which the Han army's war horses are consumed. Starting from the horse administration, it can save military expenditures and not destroy the domestic economy during wars.

Those horses were killed and eaten, they were not steel tanks, they could be food for soldiers to eat. This is also the reason why nomadic peoples are more suitable for expansion than farming peoples. The army rations of nomadic peoples, cattle and sheep, will run by themselves. Although it will slow down the speed, it is also more convenient to transport than heavy wheat and millet.

Li Guangli failed to attack Dawan for the first time because he did not discuss with the small countries in the Western Regions in advance. When he fought for the second time, he sent people to communicate and "excuse the way", and those small countries opened their doors to welcome them.

During World War II, the Italians didn't seem to have anything useful to do, except for inventing the method of freeze-drying food.

If the defense of Stalingrad had kept up with German supplies, the German soldiers would not have been in such a miserable situation.

Morale is very important, but the cold winter in Russia makes people desperately cold. Both Napoleon and the Germans were defeated here. The will of the soldiers was polished, and there was no way to ignite their fighting spirit. Hitler fought to the death when it was time to retreat. , if people’s confidence is gone, no matter how provocative his speech is, they will not be able to boost morale. Stalingrad became a turning point in World War II. If they can learn from the Qin Dynasty when they attacked Chu, and take this opportunity to recuperate, The battle situation is different from me again.

The style of the Italians has always been like this. Although the great Rome is on their land, they have become shrewd businessmen, "Send you to death, I will pay you", and try to solve problems that can be solved with money.

Venice used the navy as a logistics force for the Crusaders, and then used the debts to allow the Crusaders to plunder Constantinople. Is it a problem for the Venetians that they don’t have enough troops? They built so many ships according to the contract, but the king and pope, who were supposed to respond to everyone, could not call so many people. This is a problem of insufficient organizational capacity of the Crusades. The responsibility lies with the Crusaders, and the Venetians can certainly blackmail them.

The country bumpkins in Western Europe lost their ability to think because of the education of the foolish people, and were used as guns by the shrewd and cunning Venetian merchants, so they staged what is called "IQ tax".

The Germans are smarter than them, and they were also tricked by the Italians. At the last minute, the Italians turned against them. Ah, the spirit of the contract, where is the contract? It was torn up by the Italians and turned into ashes somewhere.

The Italians are like corrupt quartermasters. They can do logistics. They can make a small fortune without delaying things. They can make war fortunes and get rich overnight. It is impossible for them to be alone and kill people by themselves. A man who kills with his own hands.

But they also had their last stand. Salt water would not freeze, but fresh water would. The second war between Venice and Genoa began in Constantinople. This battle was not so much an organized naval battle as a random one. The chaotic and opportunistic piracy spread across all areas where the two countries competed commercially, from North Africa to the Black Sea. Both sides go to attack the commercial assets of the opponent.

Genoa sacked Gania on Crete; Venice burned Genoese ships in Famagusta and Tunisia.

In Constantinople, where the Genoese threw the Venetian magistrates out of the window and massacred Venetian merchants, "they had to dig huge and deep trenches everywhere to bury the dead," wrote a contemporary.

When the news came back to Venice, the people shouted: "Blood to the end!"

The Venice government dispatched Rogero. Morosini, nicknamed "The Claw of Cruelty," set off with a fleet to attack the Genoese colony of Galata.

The inhabitants of Galata hid in fear behind the walls of Constantinople, dragging the Byzantines into the fray. A Venetian fleet sailed into the Black Sea and sacked Caffa, but was trapped by ice and snow because it stayed too long. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Genoese sent a small fleet, which went all the way to the lagoon of Venice.

This war has gone beyond tactical reason, and both sides have suffered huge losses. The Pope tried to intervene in the arbitration, but both parties lost their minds and rejected the Pope.

At that time, the Venetians, who had no way to retreat, were most afraid of slaughtering the city when defending the city. This may be the reason why the Venetians chose not to resist and surrender to Napoleon.

Doge of Venice from 1289 to 1311 was Pietro Gradanig, who succeeded Dandolo. The only thing Venice could do when it was besieged was to wait, waiting for the weather to warm up, the ice to thaw, and the navy that looted Galata to come back to rescue.

But this purpose cannot be known by the Genoese. Once they know the purpose of the Venetians, they will give up the plan to siege the city and directly implement the siege.

So he sent an envoy, willing to give all his wealth in exchange for peace, but the goal of the Genoese was also clear, that is, to hope that this business rival would disappear completely, and the Genoese rejected the agreement.

Then there was waiting again, and the governor sent a secret envoy to contact the navy floating outside. Taking advantage of the darkness, that person escaped the blockade of the Genoa Navy, and then hid his identity all the way to find the Black Sea Fleet.

He made a plan with "Claw of Cruelty", and returned to Venice with the news. On the appointed day, all the soldiers in the Doge's city pretended to abandon the city to break through. The Genoese blocked him, and they all Forget about Venice's famous navy, thinking they are still frozen.

When the Genoese fell into the frenzy of capturing the Governor of Venice alive, the Venetian navy provided timely support. The front and back attack was a fatal blow to the Genoese, and they inevitably lost the war.

In 1295, Genoa sent 165 galleys and 35,000 people. This was a magnificent but meaningless show. It would not be until 300 years later that such a majestic naval power would appear again in the Mediterranean, but the Venetians chose to avoid it, so this huge fleet had to return home.

The two sides exchanged spies to spy on the location of the other's fleet, but it was not until 1298 that the two sides finally met on the island of Korcula in the Adriatic Sea. 170 galleys took part in the battle, the largest naval battle ever fought between the two republics.

This time Genoa won a complete victory, only 12 of Venice's 95 galleys remained, and 5,000 people were captured. Andrea, Admiral of the Venetian Navy. Unwilling to be captured and humiliated, Dandolo paraded through the streets of Genoa in yoke and chains, so he rammed his head against the gunnel of a Genoese ship and died on the spot.

Many Genoese died in Korcula Island, so the triumphant naval commander Lamba. When Doria set foot on the coast of Genoa, he was greeted by silence. There were no cheering crowds, no church bells, and people just mourned their loved ones who died in battle.

In this war there was a wealthy merchant who furnished a galley at his own expense. The Venetians ridiculed him as "Million," the teller of a million stories. After being captured, he was a rich man, settled comfortably, and became good friends with another Romance writer, Rustician of Pisa, who was also a prisoner of war.

One of them told the story and the other recorded the story in the prison, so the adventurer "Mark Polo" who married the Chinese princess was born.

A year after the Battle of Korčula, both sides reluctantly came to the negotiating table. The Peace of Milan in 1299 resolved nothing. The Black Sea issue remains unresolved.

The problem of finding food and raw materials along the Black Sea coast, as well as trade routes in Central Asia, fueled informal warfare. The Venetians worked tirelessly to build their stronghold; the Genoese worked hard to crowd it out. With diplomacy and patience, Venice gradually established its stronghold.

Venice is committed to increasing pressure on the northern shore of the Black Sea. In 1322, the Venetian ambassador Nicola. Justinian traveled through the winter steppes to the Mongol court at Sarai, one of the capitals of the Golden Horde, and begged to see the khan of the Golden Horde.

An audience with the Mongol overlord was a daunting affair: few people volunteered for the mission, sadly recorded in the Venetian state archives. Khan believed in Islam, Ibn. Batuta called him "Honorable Sultan, Muhammad Moonji Behan": "He is extremely powerful, extraordinary in appearance, and has a high status. He is the winner of defeating the enemy of Allah... He has a vast land and a great city... ...(He received guests) in a magnificently decorated pavilion called the Temple of Gold...It was built of wood covered with gold leaf, and in the center of the pavilion stood a chair covered in silver gilt, with legs of pure silver, the chair The feet are set with precious stones. On this throne sits the Sultan."

After bowing before the Khan, Justinian made his request. The purpose of his visit was to ask the Khan for permission to establish a trading colony at Tana on the Sea of ​​Azov, and to grant some commercial privileges to the colony.

The Sea of ​​Azov is a small and shallow tributary in the northeast corner of the Black Sea. It is shaped like a miniature replica of the Black Sea. The geographical location of Tana is very superior. It is located in the heart of the Mongolian Western Khanate and can easily go north Go to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, or take the course of the Volga and Don rivers, and it is also the terminus of the Silk Road across Asia.

Genoa also occupied a territory in Tana, but only as an auxiliary facility for the powerful commercial center of Caffa. Genoa never wanted to see the Venetians establish a stronghold here.

The rivalry between Genoa and Venice continued until 1453, when the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople and Genoa lost all of its commercial colonies on the Black Sea coast. After the opening of the new sea route, its Mediterranean trade activities began to slump, and commercial capital turned to usury activities.

At the same time, Venice also entered the luxury of the Renaissance, and was destroyed by Napoleon after lingering for three hundred years.

Napoleon was born in a poor family. He broke the solidification of class with force, and also changed the traditional life in Venice that lasted for more than a thousand years.

After the Great Revolution, the example of the French's reign of terror in the country seemed to be right in front of them. The nobles who did not want to die chose not to resist and prayed to the emperor for "mercy".

It is precisely because of this that the magnificent Doge's Palace in the past has not been destroyed, and it still retains the glory of its heyday, but no one drinks from the two wells that are said to be the best in Venice.

They became two decorations, just like the council reported the lion's mouth.

Venice's colonial operation model also became the pioneer of later sea power countries such as Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, proving that non-land power powers can also dominate the world through maritime trade and foreign colonization.

The Governor of Venice does not need to be crowned by the pope, but by the elders. At the end of the reign, all power is concentrated in the hands of ten elders.

They are all old people. Although they are rich in experience, their energy is far inferior to that of the young emperor. Venice has a reporting system. The parliament supervises according to the citizens' reporting letters. They put the letter into the lion's mouth, and then the letter taker takes it out through the double secret door. .

That is not a mailbox for customer complaints. The cases in it need to be investigated. This has become a tool for the elders to influence the appointment and dismissal of the governor.

Napoleon later smashed the stone lion sculpture above, leaving only an opening and a line of unclear Latin.

Napoleon once said a famous saying: In the east there is a sleeping lion.

Many people think it refers to China, but the symbol of China is a dragon.

The more people are afraid of something, the more they want to destroy it. The Republic of Venice has been forgotten by people. Its symbol is a flying lion, and Genoa has surrendered to France, and Venice is just to the east of it.

The story about Venice is very interesting, but Pomona wants to listen to the opinion of the "prince" even though the local people's explanation is very interesting.

So she hid the letter written with invisibility potion about her next itinerary in the secret double mailbox.

There are many double-safety locks in the Doge's Palace, which require two keys to open, and these two keys are in the hands of different people.

But for wizards, this anti-theft measure is useless.

They only need an "alahoo hole", including the door of the underground safe of the Bank of America, which can be easily opened by them.

In order to prevent her secret from being opened by unrelated Muggles, she also used the Muggle Repelling Charm, which was not needed at all, because all the visitors were marveling at the gorgeous murals, and no one paid attention to the "sleeping lion" .

The secret chest reminded her of the space behind the portrait of Albus, which contained a controversial sword, a prophecy crystal ball, and a dozen letters signed by the Deathly Hallows, the one who loves to read other people's letters. A double agent would love it.

Magic is like perfume, it always leaves a trace.

She feels that she has become a bit addicted to playing this game.

As long as she had money, she was a free woman, and she didn't have to go back to a hated person in order to find a place to live. She could find a place in all the hotels in Venice.

"Are you done?" Monica asked.

"It's almost there." Before leaving, Pomona thought for a while, and then used a trick to restore the statue of the lion's mouth destroyed by Napoleon.

Then he left the council with two young Venetians.

Why build such a luxurious meeting place? Where can't you make a decision?

She let out a long sigh, like an assassin, she didn't go through the main entrance, and left the Governor's Palace over the wall.