Just as the Eastern Empire was locked in a confrontation with Bertin and the Paulists, a major event happened in the distant Seljuk Empire.
The Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah died. He died on the streets of Baghdad. His death was shrouded in a thick layer of fog. There are different opinions on whether the death was planned for a long time or an accident, but this does not affect
Malik Shah's descendants and vassals blamed each other for these things.
The Seljuk Empire quickly fell into chaos. Various forces gathered under the ministers and princes who were friendly with them. Warlords from all walks of life also supported their own troops. The Seljuk Empire soon became essentially divided. A round of
Rounds of palace intrigue and war also come.
As the Seljuks descended into chaos, Roma Sultan Arslan, who had been detained with the Sultan, was able to escape Baghdad and return to his country.
The Turkic tribes in the Roma Sultanate were very happy for the return of the Sultan. Due to the lack of the Sultan in these years, they have been losing ground when facing the Greeks. They were unable to organize effective forces to deal with the Greeks, let alone when the Greek Empire was in trouble.
time to cause trouble with the Greeks.
Now that the Sultan has returned, the leadership issue has finally been resolved.
Arslan first reorganized the domestic situation, then chose Konya as the capital of the sultanate. Then he began to gather domestic forces, preparing to give the Greeks a hard blow when they got into trouble in the west.
Alexios still doesn't know about these changes in the east. After all, the impact of Maliksha's death is too fast. The emperor will soon discover that if he doesn't solve the trouble in the west quickly, the problem in the east will become more serious.
will press forward, and then he will have to fall into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts.
In addition, regarding the death of Maliksha, Arslan was not the only one who benefited, there was another person who also benefited greatly.
This man was the King of Transcaucasia, Vladimir Vsevolodovich, the military adventurer known as Monomakh.
Monomakh's experience over the years was very unsatisfactory. It was not until the end of 1091 that he finally solved a series of rebellions within the emerging conqueror country.
During the suppression, Monomakh discovered that his massacre of King George's family had put a huge burden on the rule. He originally thought that this would completely solve the Georgian problem, but he did not expect that this would lead to a surge in opposition from nobles everywhere.
After all, Monomakh even dared to kill the entire Georgian royal family, so what else would he not dare to do next? This guy would definitely be able to kill their entire family.
Due to this mentality, the rebellions came one after another, which made Monomach extremely tired. It was not until the end of 1091 that they were generally suppressed. In the process, he hanged countless local families with a long history.
, but people are still endless to kill.
It's as if those ancient families can't be killed at all. You kill the whole family today, but tomorrow a branch of the lord of God knows which valley will pop up to inherit the main family and lead the territory to continue fighting.
Monomacher knew very well that these guys were only temporarily retreating due to his massacre. He knew very well that these guys were lurking, waiting for him to make a mistake. Once he made a mistake, these guys would pounce on him.
The conqueror from Rus found that he had made a huge mistake in overusing fear this time, but the deal was already done, and all he could do next was to make amends.
Since we want to remedy the situation, what is the most convenient way to win people's hearts? The answer is gold, silver and land. So when will gold, silver and land come?
Monomach was once troubled by this problem. The expansion to the north was dominated by nomadic tribes. Those guys had nothing of value except livestock, but they could easily attract attacks from his relatives.
As for the south, Malik Shah's Seljuk Empire was so powerful that he could not easily touch it. It was impossible to cross the Caspian Sea, as there were still nomads over there.
But with the death of Malik Shah and the disintegration of Seljuk, Monomakh found that his opportunity had come.
The conqueror of Transcaucasia summoned the entire Transcaucasian army, pulled out a total of 40,000 people, and began to move south.
And his journey south went very smoothly, so smoothly that he could hardly believe it. The Seljuk lords on the border could be said to have collapsed in front of the Caucasus army, without showing any will to resist. A small number of resisters were successfully conquered by him.
After being strangled, Monomakh's army quickly advanced to the Armenian Holy Land next to Lake Van.
As he captured this area of great significance to the Armenians, the whole of Armenia was boiling. Christian troops had not come there for many years, which made the entire region begin to support Monomakh's march.
After getting help from the locals, Monomakh continued to march. It was like a divine help along the way. The Turks continued to be defeated. The Armenian lords all stood on his side. In less than half a year, the entire Armenian homeland was conquered by him.
control.
Monomakh's territorial frontier has now reached the northern border of Syria. Now the heavily armed Seljuk lords there have become restless. They have gathered around Tutush, the ruler of Syria, to prepare to fight against Monomakh's
army.
But Monomakh did not continue to march in this direction. He then changed the direction of his march and headed towards northern Persia, that is, the area on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.
Persia belongs to Azerbaijan and the narrow strip of land on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea is one of the few populated areas on the Iranian plateau. As long as this area is captured, it is possible to plot the entire Persia in the future. Monomakh is now dreaming of recreating Alexander's career.
His subordinates all thought the same way. The current expansion gains were comparable to the territory they had gained in the past few decades. Maybe their leader could become another Alexander in the future.
The morale of the entire army was therefore extremely high, even for those ethnic groups who were forcibly recruited. They never thought that they would participate in such a great cause. The Transcaucasian countries had not done so in hundreds of years.
To achieve their current achievements, they have long been pawns in the struggle between the Eastern Empire and the Arabs, but now, it seems that they may become chess players.
But Youdao has great hope. Monomach, who was already dazzled by the victory, did not notice that his march had caused many Seljuk forces fighting among themselves to put aside their differences and work together to solve this problem.
Damn nouveau riche.
Monomakh's eastward advance was not very fruitful. He only captured part of Persian Azerbaijan, and was then blocked by the Seljuk coalition. As the battle lasted, Monomakh also woke up from his dream of conquest.
.
He is indeed a little arrogant. The most important thing now is to divide the interests to satisfy his subordinates and bribe the nobles.
So Monomakh stopped his march and returned to Transcaucasus. Although there was a lot of disappointment among his subordinates, the results they had achieved were enough to feed everyone.
At the same time, his withdrawal made his enemies feel relieved. It was great not to have to face this troublesome Russian people. Their alliance was also frightened for fear that someone would harm them. Now they can finally end it.
And then, as the external pressure disappeared, they began to continue fighting among themselves. The Seljuk internal conflicts would not disappear with the emergence of a strong enemy.
As for Monomach, his domestic affairs have been extremely smooth this time. With such a huge new cake division, even the most dissatisfied dignitaries have to kneel in front of him and hope that Monomach will give them land and money.
Silver.
Now Monomach's territory is like a giant beast across this land, and the resources he can allocate are also extremely huge. With these gold, silver and land, Monomach successfully appeased those who were still fighting last week.
The nobles he opposed also rewarded his subordinates by the way. As for the nobles in the newly conquered territories, they were also appeased. This is enough to show how huge his gains from this expedition were.
In short, Monomakh is now a power that no one in the region can ignore. No one thought that the Russian mercenary would acquire such a large amount of land.
However, Monomach does not intend to continue his conquest in the future. This vast territory needs to be managed. He needs to build this broken land into a powerful enough war machine so that he can continue his next actions.