March.

The north wind over the Caspian Sea is making its last struggle, and the winds are strong for several consecutive days.

Port Khosa (Port Otha in later generations, the mouth of the Kuma River).

Forty-five-year-old Raphael Mamiconiyan looked at the North Caucasus with reluctance and then resolutely set foot on the ship.

As soon as he stepped onto the board, he felt the violent shaking.

"Father"

His son Paul hurriedly grabbed him.

After seeing his son, Raphael calmed down, but he still didn't say anything and walked into the cabin without looking back.

After sitting down and holding on to the armrest of the chair, he finally calmed down completely.

The father and son sat opposite each other, their expressions were a bit complicated.

Paul, 25 years old this year, has been serving as brigade commander and mayor in Yeshik for several years. In recent years, he has always been among the top in all brigade commanders and mayor assessments. He is about to show his skills in the Truchen Khanate, but he never thought that this happened.

As the only Catholic nobleman who could appear independently in the Caucasus region (Armenia and Georgia were previously controlled by the Islamic power and have only gradually escaped recently), the Raphael family was favored by the pope, and Paul was sent to the Holy See at the age of ten.

At the age of fifteen, I entered the University of Rome to study. Not only did I proficient in Latin, but I also systematically studied theology, physics, and mathematics. After returning to the Caucasus, I originally wanted to take over my father's position smoothly, and then continued to carry forward the Mamiconian family in the North Caucasus.

Unexpectedly, there was a huge change in the North Caucasus region.

Originally, he was quite resistant to his family becoming a vassal of the barbarian tribe, but with an in-depth understanding and studying in Magal for a year, he realized that Truchen was not only more powerful than Rome, but even more brilliant than Paris he had traveled to.

When he was in Rome or Paris, he had turned a blind eye to the mess of the city, but when he arrived in Magal and even later took over the power of the secret city Yesk, he was sure that Truchen's prospects must be more brilliant than the previous two.

He was in Rome. At this time, the University of Rome was established by the Pope, with the main content being theology. Of course, in order to deal with more enlightened believers in business to avoid things like burning Bruno, they also opened courses like physics and mathematics.

At the beginning, almost all European universities were the essence of the seminary. The physics and mathematics that were opened were also under the guise of "God's enlightenment from time to time". They would not admit that it was the result of Newton, Leibniz and others, but God "has favored them."

In any case, Paul finally learned some natural science knowledge.

However, some of the most advanced natural science knowledge in Europe at this time were undoubtedly in the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. The transportation was extremely underdeveloped at this time, and knowledge was still monopolized in the hands of a few people. If it wanted to blossom in Europe in full, it would have to wait until the 19th century.

Therefore, after taking the highest grade course in Truchen, he discovered a new world.

In addition, the freedom of religious belief here advocated him, which made him feel novel, and it was natural to eventually become a Truqin official.

Bayar has arranged everything, and Truchen Azerbaijan's strategy has officially begun. The first step is to transport Raphael and a regular brigade mainly composed of Armenians to Nevdehara, a city located on the coast of East Azerbaijan.

According to Bayar's plan, there are currently five tribes controlling East Azerbaijan, among which the strongest is Diaz, the lord of Nevdehara.

However, Diaz was unable to conquer the entire East Azerbaijan. There were people behind the remaining four lords, either Georgians or Armenians, and even the Governor of Tabriz of Persia.

Just as Diaz was about to ask for help from Karim Khan of Shiraz, Bayar appeared harmlessly. After some lobbying, Diaz agreed to Bayar's opinion.

That is, instead of asking for the Persians from afar, it is better to make friends with the Truqins, the Truqins, who are close to each other, but they have killed the powerful forces of Azart Khan!

The conditions were also very simple. Truchen sent troops to support him in unification of East Azerbaijan, while he allowed the Truchens to freely communicate with Nevtehala, Arat, Liankolan and other ports, set up shopping malls and supplies.

It was so easy, Diaz agreed without thinking.

The ship set off.

After catching the west wind, twenty large ships sailed along the Kuma River towards the Caspian Sea.

After entering the Caspian Sea, the wind and waves suddenly increased a lot, and the wind turned into a north wind!

At this time, there is a strong ocean current from north to south on the entire western coast of the Caspian Sea. When the wind is strong, the ocean current speed can reach twenty miles per hour. In addition to the effect of the north wind on the sails, the ship speed is as high as fifty miles per hour!

Twenty large ships, carrying a whole brigade of men, will arrive at Nevdehara at this speed tomorrow.

Although it is still shaking, the ship has changed from shaking left and right on the Kuma River to shaking back and forth, which is naturally caused by the waves on the bow.

The father and son chatted for a while, and the hatch knocked.

Without guessing, they knew that Bayar was here.

Sure enough, as the hatch door opened, a cold wind blew over and the two walked in, one of them was Bayar!

The other person is naturally Rahman, commander of the Caspian Fleet of Truchen Khanate.

In recent years, due to the lack of naval generals, Qitad finally transferred Rahman, a Zoroastrian who had been a horse thief and a pirate in the Aral Sea from the Port of Crasso and asked him to command the Caspian fleet.

The original commander Dai Qing was transferred to Yeshik. After Paul left, Dai Qing replaced him as the commander of the Azov Fleet.

Rahman also brought food, and the four of them started eating in the shaking cabin.

Halfway through the meal, Bayar saw that Raphael was still frowning, and smiled and said, "Is it still reluctant to leave the North Caucasus?"

Raphael nodded first, then shook his head, "My family moved here a hundred years ago. If there were no Russians, maybe my surname would not be seen again. I was born and raised there, so I naturally have feelings."

"But before my grandfather died, my father told me that he would eventually return to Armenia. Before my death, my father said the same thing to me. He thought it would continue to be passed down from generation to generation, but he didn't expect it to be realized so soon."

"To be honest, I was almost unprepared, so I was a little nervous."

How could Bayar not know his thoughts?

"Paul's brigade was pieced together from the militia and regular brigade three months ago. These people have been integrated into the Truchen Khanate and will not be used by Raphael at all. This is what he is worried about."

Then he smiled and said, "East Azerbaijan is mainly Islamic. You will definitely not be able to stay there as a Christian. Your ultimate goal is Armenia."

"In recent decades, the Ottomans have been oppressing the Armenians very tightly. A large number of Christians have gone to the Little Caucasus Mountains. As long as you can gain a foothold in East Azerbaijan and show your banner, these Christians will come to you without saying that they will come to join you."

"Last year, the Little Caucasus Mountain suffered a severe drought, and a large number of Armenians hiding on the mountain died. Some have already arrived in the East Azerbaijan area and become serfs of the local Azerbaijanis."

"At present, except for Azerbaijanis, the most Armenians are farming. The Khan promised that once you completely control this place, except for Paul's brigade, all other military forces are formed by you."

Raphael then felt a little relieved.

"However, there are still hundreds of thousands of people in East Azerbaijan. Although they are divided into five forces, each force has more than 5,000 troops. Can we only have three thousand people? "

Bayar smiled and said, "Isn't Diaz still there? As we have agreed to before, and after assisting Diaz in unifying East Azerbaijan, we will kill him, and then restore the freedom of the Armenians and share the land equally with the Azerbaijans."

"My country will set up schools in Nevdehara like the Truchens, and include all children of appropriate age into the school. Then you will form two to three brigades. Don't worry, these three brigades are completely selected and trained by yourself, and we will not interfere."

"In two or three years, when a large number of Armenian immigrants arrive, you will be able to stabilize."

"After another year or two, we will help you enter Armenia and completely free yourself from the clutches of the Ottomans."

"At that time you can build a country composed entirely of Christians and form an alliance with our country. I believe the Ottomans will not bully you at will."

"You can even take back the Kars area and drive the Ottomans to the south of your holy mountain, Atrat"

Raphael was immediately excited.

Atrat Mountain, which was the earliest place where Noah’s Ark appeared in the Bible. Not far south of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, you can see the dazzling snow on the top of the mountain from the city.

Until later generations, after Armenia became independent, it did not recover Mount Atrat, which became an eternal pain for Christians in the country.

A hundred years later, Raphael may not know Yerevan or Karls (the land completely seized by the Ottomans in the west of Armenia), but must know Mount Atrat.

Because it is the holy mountain in the minds of Christians all over the world, and it is also the spiritual sustenance of all Armenians!

This could impress him, making him give up his comfortable life in the North Caucasus, and follow the arrangements of the Truchens like a puppet without hesitation.

He knew that in this world, if anyone else could help him return to Armenia and recover Mount Atrat, it was only Truchen!

pope?

If you can't count on it, the Roman Empire had long disappeared.

Orthodox Patriarch?

They only obeyed the Russian Tsar, and the Russian Tsar obviously wanted to consider the interests of the Normanov family.

Only Truchen, although they are not Christians, pursue a policy of freedom of religion and can strictly implement it.

In the Truchen Khanate, at least on the surface, all people of different beliefs can treat each other equally!

So, he finally broke free from some unnecessary emotions.
Chapter completed!