I have to say that there are many interesting coincidences in history.
When many, many years later, looking back on this period of history, almost all historians or scholars will be surprised that the Byzantine Empire has experienced so many ups and downs this year, and in the midst of so many changes in the situation, and finally went On the last bizarre road... Almost all scholars who study historical materials have to admit that it seems that there is really a hand controlling the development of all this - there were so many changes in the situation at that time, if any of them An accidental change in a condition will eventually lead to a completely different result, and what it will eventually lead to will make the thousand-year-old Byzantine Empire embark on a completely different path.
Especially what happened in the autumn of this year—in fact, quite a number of scholars of historiography have such a view: in the autumn of this year, the empire was reaching an inflection point about the future path. From the perspective of the situation at that time. , if such an "accident" did not occur, or if the accident happened a few months or half a year later, I am afraid that the future fate of the empire would not be the final result. Many people even believed that the empire had all the favorable conditions at that time: the disintegration of the rebel camp, such a powerful foreign aid as the Landis Empire, and the temporary cessation of the Odin Empire, and so on. At that time, it was a rare respite for the Byzantine Empire. If you seize this opportunity to quickly carry out the Northern Expedition, as long as you win several wars in one go, everything will be greatly improved. Moreover, judging from the ability of General Adrick, who was in charge of military affairs at the time, it was entirely possible for the Empire to do this.
Can be…
That "accidental" happened so soon, and it happened at the time when it shouldn't have happened, at the most delicate time node.
Adrick has tried his best to rectify a battleable army. Even if the private army of the nobles and wealthy families is left out, the regular army has reached 100,000 people, and the weapons and materials are basically sufficient. An excellent commander of an empire like Ke, once the Northern Expedition begins, no one will doubt Adrick's military capability.
But just at this juncture, the rebellion in the southern part of the empire completely ruined the good situation...
…
The autumn wind is sick.
In the south, which was warm in previous years, this year's autumn seems to be coming very early. Just after summer, the warm wind has turned into a chilling cold wave.
The southern part of the empire has always been the back garden of the central Byzantine Empire, but in the autumn of this year, all the peace was disrupted by the rebellion in the north and the invasion of foreign enemies.
Under the urgent orders of the imperial capital to urge taxes and supplies, the county governors and governors of the southern counties almost squeezed out the last bit of wealth in the official treasury with red eyes. The south has been in peace for too long, and it is inevitable that officials in some places will be corrupt and run short. If it is the Taiping World Festival, these officials will naturally have a way to deal with it. It is nothing more than tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall. Don't do it by yourself
But at this time, the civil war in the empire not only shattered peace, but also shattered many officials' dreams of making a fortune.
In the face of a series of orders from the imperial capital to move the talismans, and in the face of an empty warehouse that has been in deficit for several years or more, in order to maintain their official titles and status, these officials have no choice but to brand sticks and even knives and guns to put pressure on them. passed on to the people under the rule.
At the same time, in the face of the restrictions of the aristocratic private army that the emperor suddenly let go of, the wealthy aristocrats in all parts of the south, in order to seize the largest share and the most lucrative cake in the future power struggle, almost every noble and wealthy family In the desperate expansion of their own strength, within the territory, a large number of farmers were recruited into the private army. A large number of laborers were forcibly incorporated into the private army, which caused a large number of grassroots families who lost their main labor force to lose their main labor force at home, land production was reduced, and incomes dropped sharply. Taxes... No one has counted how many families went bankrupt and displaced in several southern counties in the fall of this year. How many civilians who lost their income and land became homeless refugees.
At this time, in fact, several counties in the south, the traditional sphere of influence firmly held by the center of the empire, had already become a dangerous powder keg in the fall of this year, and it could be detonated with just a little spark!
The only difference during the period is nothing more than one day earlier or one day later.
Of course, in hindsight, if this riot occurred in the evening months or even half a year, the situation would have been very different...
So, I have to say, it was a coincidence.
An "accident" that completely changed the future destiny of the Byzantine Empire.
…
Boulder, Effenwirt.
A name called "Ivan" became the direct fuse of this "accidental".
Ivan is a farmer who has lived outside Bodur City for generations. His ancestors once gained some fields because of military exploits.
In the autumn of this year, although the autumn grain was collected, but after the county governor's order to levy the grain tax was conveyed, the wolf-like county soldiers robbed almost all the autumn grain in Ivan's house in order to collect the war tax. .
If it was another year, maybe Ivan would be able to struggle and endure—in addition to farm work, Ivan also had the ability to be a carpenter. barely make ends meet.
And this year, due to the war in the north, the trade routes were cut off, the original economy in the south was on the verge of collapse, many handicraft households had gone bankrupt, and unemployed people could be seen everywhere in the city. He was a small carpenter and could not find work. The only choice in the end, if you want to survive, there is only one way: to become the ancestral land among the sellers!
In this "accident", another important role was occupied by the city guard of Broad City.
The city guard came from an aristocratic family, and the title of a small baron was not enough to make him rich, but the city guard's official position gave him a chance to make a fortune. Border City was not originally a fertile place, but this did not prevent the city guard from making a fortune. The deficit, vacancy, and false accounts in the official treasury are the means that every local official is best at.
But in this year, under the strict reminder order of the imperial capital, many officials' reminders were issued.
The official treasury in Baldur City has already been depleted everywhere, and if the treasury is empty, not even a mouse can survive. In previous years, it was nothing more than reporting a large amount of "loss" on the accounts. But this year, this kind of fooling can't go away.
The city guard had to issue an order to increase the tax. Such taxes were nearly three times more than the statutory tax of the Empire.
Heavy taxes forced farmers to sell their fields, but it became the city guard's way of making a fortune. He started buying the land of the bankrupt farmers at a low price. This autumn, the city guard almost instantly became the largest landowner in the area.
Another interesting factor is: Adrick ordered the mobilization of the local garrison troops in the southern counties to reorganize the imperial capital.
However, such a simple order has also become a nightmare for local officials!
The south has been in peace for a long time, and the local garrison has long since slackened. For many local officials, the garrison is another way to make a fortune: eating empty wages.
The original strength of the local garrison in Border County was one battalion, with soldiers and auxiliary soldiers, and the full strength should be more than 600. But in fact, these more than 600 garrison troops only exist in the ledger and on paper. Naturally, most of the annual military salaries went into the pockets of the city guards.
But once the above order came down, it immediately made Cheng Shou panic.
How can the army on paper be pulled to the imperial capital
As a last resort, the city guard can only temporarily recruit soldiers in the city.
There are many middle-class people in the city, and countless families are unemployed and bankrupt.
That Ivan, in desperation, simply joined the army. I just want to earn a little military pay to support my family.
It can be said that such a situation is almost a common phenomenon in several counties in the south. This autumn, almost half of the garrison troops in several counties in the south were temporarily recruited into the army in a hurry. It was a bankrupt young man with hatred, who transformed himself into a soldier of the empire.
And they put on military uniforms, trained hard, endured almost harsh military training, meager military salaries, and were ready to be transported to the front line of the imperial capital to fight. suffered more severe pressure from official uniforms.
In such a situation, if there is no problem, it will be called hell.
For Broad City.
If the city guard had not embezzled so ruthlessly in the past, and the deficit left behind was not so huge. Then, you don't have to increase taxes so harshly when dealing with the above reminders later.
If the city guard hadn't made a profit at this time, and when a large number of civilians went bankrupt and sold land, he bought land at a low price by extortion, forcing the underground people to have no way out. Walk.
If this man named Ivan hadn't enlisted and picked up a gun...
It happened one day in the fall. This man named Ivan has changed his identity from a bankrupt farmer and an unemployed craftsman to an ordinary sergeant of the imperial local garrison.
And something more interesting happened.
On this day, the county soldiers who were receiving emergency military training in Borde City suddenly received an order to go out of the city to quell an armed fight.
After Ivan's group of soldiers left the city, they were surprised to find that this so-called "armed fight" was actually for the private affairs of the city guard.
In the process of merging a large number of land, Mr. Chengshou naturally also had a lot of strong buying and selling activities. The dispute on this day originated from a land sale event. The steward in the Chengshou family bought land in a village outside the city, but was rejected by the farmer because the bid was too low. The farmer's rejection was very simple. , but suddenly put forward a price cut. The reason is that land is being sold everywhere now, and since there are many people selling it, the natural price should be pushed down a little further.
There was a fierce conflict between the two sides. During the fierce friction, the steward of the city guard directly ordered his subordinates to injure a few villagers, causing the villagers' anger, and the angry villagers sent the steward. and his men surrounded the village. Under the confrontation between the two sides, they sent people to quietly return to the city for help.
When he rushed to the location of the accident, Ivan angrily found that this was the village he lived in, and among the injured villagers, one of them was his wife.
What made him even more grief-stricken was that in the midst of the push and friction, his son who was less than eight years old was trampled and seriously injured in the chaotic crowd to death!
One can imagine how angry a twenty-nine-year-old man was when he saw that his wife was injured, his son was trampled to death, and his land was forcibly bought!
However, this man still has a weapon in his hand!
Therefore, the angry Ivan, after being unable to bear it, 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 butler directly, the scene was no longer under control.
To everyone's surprise, the group of soldiers that was sent immediately mutinied on the spot, refusing to execute the order to attack the villagers.
At this time, Ivan, an ordinary farmer and a little carpenter who had been struggling to survive for more than 20 years, when full of anger, said that it was probably the loudest in his life. speech.
Facing dozens of his fellow soldiers holding weapons, he threw the corpse of the steward who had been stabbed to the ground, stepped on the other's head with a hoarse voice, with a strong voice. With an accent, he said something like this: "Master Guan said he wanted money and food, and I gave it. My family went bankrupt, and the last bit of food was taken away! Master Guan said that he wanted people to fight, so I went, put on a military uniform, carried a sword, and went I want to go to the battlefield and fight for them! The official said that he wanted to buy my land, and I sold it just to exchange a little money to live on and eat!! But even so, they still wouldn't give me a way to live! I am twenty-nine years old, I've only killed chickens in my life, and I'm very soft-hearted. In the village, I can't bear to watch people kill sheep and pigs!! But today I killed people! It's just because I can't bear it anymore! I want to live , all I want is to live! I have a breath to breathe, and a bite to eat!! I handed over all my food, my belongings, my life to fight for them, and my land to them! They are not satisfied , also killed my son and injured my wife!! Yes, I killed him! I stabbed him to death! I just want to live, since they won't let me, then I just kill them! !"
In the end, he threw away his sword and looked at the dozens of county soldiers in front of him: "You arrest me and go back to face the crime, I will not resist! But if tomorrow, they will rob your family of food, kill your children, At the same time, you also have no way to live!"
After that, things took a turn for the worse!
The dozens of county soldiers on the spot mutinied collectively, 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 servants of the city guards brought by the steward, they were also killed in anger, and their bodies were hung at the head of the village.
After calming down, these dozens of county soldiers who disobeyed and mutiny simply elected Ivan as their leader.
In fact, at that time, the thinking 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 furious at that time, and almost all of the county soldiers were bankrupt refugees who were forced to join the army after being oppressed.
After calming down, in fact, Ivan himself and many of the county soldiers did not really have the idea of rebelling against this. After all, they had been obedient people in the south of the Byzantine Empire for a lifetime, and they had no such concept in their minds.
It's just that everyone's idea at the time was very simple: since all the people were killed, they would never do it again and again, anyway, in the future, they would still be arrested and beheaded. Go to the city and kill the chief culprit, the old city guard! Even if he was punished and executed in the future, it would be considered revenge.
So, dozens of county soldiers rushed back to the city with their weapons—even at this time, they didn't have the slightest idea of raising an army to rebel, they just wanted to go back to the city and kill the abominable city guard.
But what happened next was completely beyond the expectations of such a group of farmers who had just put on military uniforms and received military training for less than a month.
Their move into the city was unusually smooth, and even when they entered the city guard mansion, they did not encounter even the slightest real strong resistance. The defenders in the city had almost no resistance, so they chose to give in, and let these dozens of people enter Bode City and the city guard mansion, hacking all 16 members of the city guard master's family to death, and all the servants in the rest of the family. Dispersed in a hurry.
And in the end, when he opened the warehouse of the old city guard's house, facing the warehouse full of money and grain, and facing the title deed that was almost full of more than ten boxes... It immediately caused even greater indignation!
As for the defenders in Borde City, none of the 600 soldiers recruited in a hurry were willing to attack Ivan and the others, and the officers ran away immediately.
I don't know who made the suggestion first. Soon, the six hundred soldiers also mutinied collectively and joined the ranks of Ivan and others, and the wealth that the city guard in the city guard mansion looted was divided by 600 people. null.
In the next two days, these 600 "rebel bandits" were still farmers in their bones. After venting their anger, they were occupied by the fear in their bones. Some of them chose to flee the city to find a way of life, but Most of them stayed in the city, waiting for the imminent annihilation of the government—they didn’t choose to flee, because there were wives and children at home, and they would rather stay where they were and wait to be caught and killed, rather than hurting their family members.
But even stranger things happened.
After waiting for several days, the officers and troops who came to destroy them have long disappeared.
Later, these talents suddenly realized!
In Effenwirt, where are the officers who came to destroy them
Most of the garrison had been hastily dispatched to the imperial capital, King Osgilia Qin. The army was extremely scarce in the county, and even some of the remaining county soldiers were probably in the same situation as the farmers who were recruited temporarily in order to cope with the above-mentioned deployment.
Later, some of the people who had fled had returned to Borde City one after another. It turned out that after these fleeing people left, the news of Borde City was spread to other places. There have been several acts of murder and rebellion! These people who fled and left returned, and brought back some people who were willing to join the team of Ivan and others. Many of them came to Baldur City after killing officials and rebelling in other places.
In Broad City, the team of Ivan and the others quickly broke through 3,000 people like a snowball. Most of them were the original county soldiers and other mutinous skirmishers in various places, and there were many bankrupt farmers, small Craftsmen, as well as refugees, also joined Ivan's ranks.
Finally, after more than ten days, the county governor of Efenwit, after doing his best, organized an army to come to pacify the chaos. This is a battalion of 600 people. There is an army drawn from a regular local garrison army.
A battalion of 600 people went to Bord City to quell the rebellion, but at that time, most of the troops in the entire Efenwit County were recruited temporarily, and the sporadic mutiny incidents in various places made the county governor dare not dare. Trust the army, in order to ensure the control of the army, the county governor and the governor had to personally lead the army and go with the army to ensure the command of the army.
As you can imagine, how much combat power can such an army have
Moreover, the news of the mutiny and killing of officers who rebelled by the county soldiers from all over the country has already spread throughout Effenwitt County. In such an army of equal judgment, from low-level officers to soldiers, there are several people who are willing to sincerely support these officers. Did the lord die
Among them, there are not a few who have experienced the same experience as Ivan and others.
As a result, in a field battle of pacifism, most of the battalion of the anti-insurgent officers had defected before the war, causing the officers and troops to collapse immediately. soldiers killed.
The death of the county governor, coupled with the demise of the last established army in the entire Effenwright County, directly led to the situation in Effenwright County, which could no longer be controlled!
The collapse of the official army, the news spread back, immediately plunged the capital city of Efenwit into chaos, and the remaining hundreds of defenders immediately declared a mutiny and no longer accepted the command of the officer. After they expelled the officer, they sent someone Go and get in touch with Ivan.
What happened next... Within days, military mutinies occurred in four of the six larger cities in Effenwirt, killing or expelling local officials.
The fire of this rebellion is burning thousands of miles!
In less than half a month, the entire Efenwright Army was no longer owned by the Empire!
At this time, even if Ivan and the others are dull, they finally understand a reality: it turns out that all the time, those officials who have been riding on their heads to make a fortune are actually just paper tigers and clay sculptures. the beast! The heavy mountain that I thought was pressing on top of my head was actually just a layer of window paper, and it would be broken if I stabbed it!
The government has long since lost the strength to destroy itself! There are several counties in the south, where can there be an official army that can rival their own side
Under such circumstances, Ivan and the others who started rioting just for the simple belief of "revenge" immediately had a new idea.
The mutinous local armies in Effenwirt expanded rapidly, and a large number of refugees and bankrupt farmers joined the chaos. Ivan and other nine leaders of the mutiny army, calling themselves "generals", each pulled up a team. There are also thousands of people.
Soon, the rebellion went beyond Effenwitt County and spread to neighboring counties. In less than a month, the three southern counties were already full of rebel flags, and local garrison troops in many places mutinied and responded. Ivan et al.
The three southern counties were lacking in military strength, unable to conquer them, and could only hide in a few big cities to defend themselves. But the countryside is no longer under the control of the empire. In some small cities, as long as someone shouts "The terrifying Ivan is here", the defenders can mutine and officials run away.
For the Byzantine Empire, the most dangerous and deadly problem was this: as the snowball of the rebellion rolled more and more, more and more people joined the ranks of the southern riots, which were originally just riots by some mud-legged farmers to vent their hatred. It developed into an uncontrollable grassroots rebellion against tyranny.
That’s all, what made the Byzantine Empire even more alarming was that as more and more people joined the rebel army in the south, there were some elites among them. These people may have been unhappy in their previous lives, or they may have been underappreciated. Or have their own ambitions. Among these people, many of them have received higher education, and they have farther and brighter insights, stronger talents and brains than Ivan and the others at the beginning of the Rebel Army.
After many people joined the "terrifying Ivan" uprising army, under the influence of these elites, the uprising army, which was originally a blind program, quickly had its own clear banner and program!
"Overthrow tyranny!"
"Overthrow the rule of the tyrannical Karenma family!"
"Restore the elders' house system and return the power to the people!"
"The three southern counties are independent from the Byzantine Empire!"
What's more, there are some rebels who have erected the banner of "descendants of the Tulip family" to attract talents from all over the world. Don't ask, after all, there are some declining nobles who have joined such a rebel army.
There were also some insurgents who made smarter moves. They began to send people around to contact foreign aid, established offensive and defensive alliances with other insurgents, and even sent secret contacts with some local nobles and tyrants.
It is even said that some rebel armies actually sent messengers to contact Babylon, the holy city far outside the chaotic territory of the northeast, and some even sent messengers to the north of the empire to get in touch with some military governors.
During the ten-month period, urgent urgent messages from the south were sent to the imperial capital Osgilia like a snowflake.
There was a glimmer of life in the original empire, as if in the autumn of this year, it was only fleeting, and the future of the empire was quickly shrouded in a thicker haze...