In 1125, Rostislav embarked on the eastward road. He set out from Jerusalem, intending to go to Hezhong via the Abbasid Empire, and then to the Song Dynasty through the Kara Khanate, Gaochang Uighurs and Xixia.
At this time, the Song Dynasty was in a critical period, and Rostislav planned to take advantage of the opportunity to take a good look at the prosperous city of Bianjing and experience the prosperity of "Tokyo Dreams" before that happened.
Since the risk on this journey was quite high, Rostislav summoned a strong guard. Most of them were Rus who had followed Rostislav to Vinland, and now they also planned to continue to follow Rostislav. They had already
I was impressed by this Grand Duke.
In this way, Rostislav's team began to move forward. The first place they arrived was the territory of the Abbasid Empire. Abbasid Harry found that the hardships were finally over. In 1118, after more than ten years of hard work, the former Lord of Baghdad finally defeated
The Seljuq Sultan, who had isolated them, recovered Iran, Khorasan and Transoxiana, and the southern coast of the Persian Gulf also submitted to the authority of the Caliphate.
This was a glorious moment that the monarch of the Round City of Baghdad had not had for hundreds of years, and the black flag of Abbasid was finally revived again.
So the road to Rostislav should have been safe. Baghdad's authority rose again, and this land got rid of the chaos of the past, but in the end it was just that.
On the way, Rostislav met an old friend, who was Oleg who fled to Persia. During these years, Oleg became an emir of the Abbasid Empire through military exploits. Yes, he
He converted to Islam, including his fellows and the Monomach family who were protected by him.
After knowing that Rostislav was about to pass by, Oleg immediately mobilized his troops and wanted to surround Rostislav. As a result, Rostislav broke out of the encirclement with a bow and a pistol, and beheaded Oleg.
After Oleg's death, his men naturally dispersed. Rostislav's men suggested that he should eradicate the roots, but he finally sighed, "Forget it, let him go."
After the interlude in Persia, Rostislav's team continued to move forward. The further east, the more uneasy the territory became. These were areas that the Abbasid Empire conquered relatively late, and bandits and the like were common.
, and many local warlords only nominally surrendered to the Abbasid Caliphate, but Rostislav, a team of hundreds of elite warriors, was not afraid of these bandits.
After leaving the Abbasid Empire, the next step was the Kara Khanate and the Gaochang Uighurs. The journey was also smooth. The only problem was that we encountered a lot of trouble when crossing the Xixia. In the end, we had to go around the plateau and take the Song Dynasty's vassal Huang
The territory of the Uighur Falcon entered the Song Dynasty.
As a result, not long after entering the mainland of the Song Dynasty, Rostislav encountered a head-borrowing incident. The nearby Song Dynasty troops saw that Rostislav and his party were all barbarians with high noses and dark eyes, so they thought this was a very good excuse.
Opportunity to kill people, so they launched an attack.
And as a result, how could Rostislav be beheaded by a group of garbagemen who borrowed their heads, so they were killed instead, and instead Rostislav had hundreds of heads chopped off, and then they used the excuse that these people were all bandits.
Reported to the local government - no matter what, you should pay more attention to the face of the local host when you are outside. It would be bad if you make others angry.
Rostislav claimed that his team came to pay tribute in order to avoid trouble as much as possible, and after the head-borrowing incident, no one really came to cause trouble.
And no one doubts their status as tributes. After all, how could those fake caravans in previous years gather together hundreds of armored elites.
They saw many traces of war along the way, and they were restless along the way. The traces of killing left by the Jin Army still existed in this land, but Rostislav's team still arrived at Bianjing City without any danger.
.
The Jin army had just left at this time, and the city of Bianjing was in complete chaos. Then, using his status as a tribute, Rostislav's team was able to enter the city.
This city gave Rostislav the feeling that it was huge and depressed. Just looking at the size of the streets, Rostislav could imagine what they were like in the past, but those markets in wealthy areas were still prosperous.
As a team that came to pay tribute before the Song Dynasty was in such a predicament, they naturally received a lot of attention. After all, this was a good opportunity to soothe people's hearts.
In the court hall of the Song Dynasty, Rostislav met Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty and the ministers of the Song Dynasty. Then he presented a tribute that was not worth the price even if it was given to the emperor of the Song Dynasty, a piece of blue amber that was as big as the palm of his hand. This round piece
The shaped blue amber is polished to be extremely gentle and looks so beautiful. It is completely qualified for the collection of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty.
This thing cannot be found in the entire old world, because it is produced in America. There is no blue amber in the old world. Rose only got three pieces of blue amber back then, and this one is the smaller one. Even so,
Its preciousness is also unparalleled in the world.
After offering such a valuable gift, the monarchs of the Song Dynasty naturally gave Rostislav wealth and a mansion, and even gave Rostislav an idle official position.
The people of the Song Dynasty called Rostislav Lu Chisi Lao, and Rostislav also accepted this title. Then, he began to observe this medieval city with a population of one million, wandering in its streets, and walking among the Jin people.
Take a good look at the city before arriving.
The trip to Bianjing was indeed very worthwhile for Rostislav. It was so satisfying to see such medieval prosperity.
But before the Jin army went south again, Rostislav left Bianjing because he knew what would happen next. He had no idea of helping Zhao Song. Besides, what do you think about a barbarian taking the initiative to do such a thing?
It all feels too suspicious.
Shortly after Rostislav left, he learned about the ridiculous fall of Bianjing and the complete collapse of the Song Dynasty's rule in the north. Originally, Rostislav just wanted to run to Lin'an, but because of his hanging
The banner of the Song Dynasty official position, coupled with the fact that he had so many warriors around him, resulted in many uneasy people choosing to follow him south.
Rostislav initially thought that it would be okay to take them with him, so he ignored them. However, he did not expect that the number of people following him would increase. When he found that the crowd following them had grown so large that the tail was too big to fall off.
Due to the huge team behind Rostislav, he directly became the key target during the Jin's subsequent march south. This made Rostislav feel miserable, but there was nothing he could do.
He could only select some suitable people from these people for training and establish discipline within this refugee team, because he knew that such a large team would definitely be targeted by the Jurchens.
The Jurchens did come very quickly, but then they suffered a defeat because they underestimated Rostislav too much, so they jumped directly into his ambush.
Later Rostislav learned that his act of self-protection had successfully slowed down the Jin army's southward movement and greatly saved the situation in Zhao and Song Dynasties. However, he knew it and didn't care. Anyway, he just wanted to lead these people southward successfully.
.
After going south, Rostislav left his team to the local officials of the Song Dynasty. He originally planned to stay in Lin'an as an apartment house, but because of his military record, he was forced to become a general.
It's just that although he became a general of the Song Army, he was helpless in the face of this corrupt situation. The Jin Army was running rampant in the south of the Yangtze River, and Zhao Gou even ran away to the sea. Under such circumstances, Rostislav could only
Do it to protect your troops.
It was not until the Jin army retreated north and left the south of the Yangtze River that Rostislav was able to leave his job and go to Lin'an as his apartment. He did not want to work for that Zhao Gou.
During this period, he met Yue Fei once and persuaded him not to have too much hope for the emperor. Unfortunately, the general obviously did not listen, or he completely understood what he meant. In this regard, Rostislav could only sigh secretly.
Say, go and be a good man in his apartment.
Because of his military exploits, Rostislav received very good treatment in Lin'an, with a very good residence and salary. It was here that Rostislav recorded the war.
Rostislav's record was not just sitting in Lin'an and listening to battle reports, but going deep into the folk to record people's feelings.
But it was also because of this that Rostislav was almost made to sacrifice by the cultists. Later he found out that the place where he went had the habit of killing people and offering sacrifices to ghosts (historical facts show that such evil sacrifices existed in some places in the southern part of the Song Dynasty), but this
This did not frighten Rostislav. In the old forests of Rus, there were even more demonic things everywhere.
After wandering around outside for a while, Rostislav returned to Lin'an, but he didn't just stay in Lin'an. After several years of compiling battle reports in Lin'an, Rostislav finally couldn't rest anymore.
, decided to take a trip to Japan using the merchant ships between Goryeo and the Song Dynasty.
Although the risks of sea voyage were huge, as a man who dared to go to Vinland, Rostislav was not afraid of this, so he crossed the sea and went to Japan.
The first place Rostislav visited was Dazaifu in Kyushu. Then he went all the way north, visiting Nara and Kyoto, and finally arrived in Hiraizumi in northeastern Japan, where he had a good look at the style of Japan in this era.
In Japan, Rostislav recorded what he saw. He noticed that the local samurai usurped the power of the aristocracy. The local samurai basically controlled the grassroots political power. Seeing this scene, Rostislav almost understood what would happen to this country in the future.
Yes, those pretentious nobles must be defeated by these warriors who are still slaves to them.
Moreover, Rostislav also met an interesting person. His name was Taira Kiyomori, but he was still just a child. Rostislav had a good chat with his father Taira Taira, who was the first person in Japan to be allowed to
A warrior who goes to the palace with a sword.
Rostislav came to Japan as an envoy of the Song Dynasty, so it was too easy to make friends with Heping Zhongsheng. They talked a lot about the collapse of aristocratic power, the rise of samurai, and the future of this island country. Rostislav
He talked a lot with this man, including some naked words, but Ping Zhongmori obviously did not have the same ambition as his son, which made Rostislav a little disappointed.
But what he didn't know was that the still young Taira Kiyomori had been eavesdropping on their conversation, let alone what these words had planted in the child's heart.
After bidding farewell to Ping Zhongsheng, Rostislav also returned to the Song Dynasty and continued to Lin'an to work as his apartment, and time also passed unknowingly in these years.
Soon, the fateful moment came. Before Yue Fei was arrested, Rostislav once again persuaded him, but he obviously didn't listen, and Rostislav didn't know what to say.
After Yue Fei's death, Rostislav also decided to return to his country. How should I put it, seeing this actually made him extremely disappointed, and at this time, he also felt a strong sense of fatigue in his heart, which made him feel that it was time for him to return.
Gone home.
However, when traveling through the Kingdom of Jin, Rostislav encountered an interesting thing. When he passed by the Zhao Song Imperial Tomb, he found that the imperial tomb had been completely dug up, and all the gold, silver and jewelry inside had been swept away, leaving only
A ruin.
Rostislav carefully explored the imperial mausoleum, and finally found in the tomb of Zhao Kuangyin that although it had been looted, his body was still there. Later Rostislav thought about it, and God knows when it will be taken away. The golden man
If you don’t know how to maintain Zhao Song’s imperial mausoleum, you might as well just take it away.
So Rostislav took Zhao Kuangyin's body and decided to send the body to the Holy Mountain of Assos for worship after returning to the Christian world. He deceived the monks that it was the body of Priest John, and then wrote Chinese characters on it himself.
The three characters Zhao Kuangyin are put aside so that future generations can recognize them.
What Rostislav didn't know was that his unintentional move would later become the key to solving the political mystery of "The Sound of Axes and Shadows of Candles."
On the way back to Russia, Rostislav compiled two more books, one was "The War between Song and Jin Dynasties" and the other was "Journey to the East".
The former is a description of the war written by Rostislav from the perspective of an eyewitness. It emphasized what Zhao Goude did and scolded Zhao Laojiu severely, including the bad things about him being impotent after being frightened by the golden man.
It’s written in, the crazy and strange Zhao Laojiu.
The latter is Rostislav's compilation and collection of what he saw and heard in the East, which focuses on the history and customs of the Song and Jin Kingdoms (certainly Japanese ones as well). Rostislav stayed in this land for eighteen years.
In 2000, I knew them very well. In addition, I also wrote about the legendary career of Yelu Dashi and the Western Liao Dynasty he established in Central Asia. It later became an important historical material for the Christian world to understand the East.
It was 1143 when Rostislav returned to Rus. When he saw the golden dome of Kiev appearing in front of his eyes, Rostislav breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that he was home, and he also had a strong feeling that he did not