Chapter 585 Extra Story: The Last Years of the Grand Duke
Chapter 585 Extra: The Last Years of the Grand Duke
When Rostislav returned to Rus in 1143, the situation in Europe was very different from when he left.
He left in 1125 and returned in 1143. He had been away for 18 years. When he came back, the whole Christian world was amazed.
In Rus, his grandsons have already sat on the throne of princes. As for his children, Rurik, Volorida and Koseniya have passed away, and only Vasiliko is still alive.
Rus is following the path planned by Rostislav. The three-capital system combined with feudalization has yielded fruitful fruits. Even though Rostislav’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren are scattered all over Russia, Kiev still maintains its influence on the country.
force.
With Prince Rurik spreading all over Russia, the transformation of Russia is advancing rapidly. What Rostislav once envisioned is now becoming a reality, and the land of Russia has appeared in the world.
But what Rostislav didn't expect the most was that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren had established marriage relationships with almost all of Europe. In other words, his seniority in the Christian world was surprisingly high. An old European grandfather like this
The reputation can be fully used on him.
On the day Rostislav returned to Kiev, the streets and alleys of Kiev were filled with people. People couldn't wait to see Rostislav. The old people in the team were the most excited when they saw Rostislav, because they were still
Remember Rostislav's appearance, this is their Grand Duke.
Yuri is the current Grand Duke of Kiev. Regarding the return of his grandfather, Yuri was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped. Yuri is also a mature and steady Grand Duke. For him to show such an expression shows how surprised he is.
Anna was very happy with Rostislav's arrival. She couldn't wait to give her completed "The Life of Alexios" to Rostislav for review, hoping to get Rostislav's praise.
Andronikos has always been known for his strong anti-Latin stance. He advocated that the empire should take action against the landed powerful and corrupt officials to reduce the burden on the people. Only in this way can the empire become great again.
For a long time, Constantinople's factories have been in need of cheap raw materials from Rus. Now that Manuel has cut off imports, everyone immediately feels that costs have increased and business is difficult to do.
For Yelu Dashi, he is so depressed now because there is no hope of returning eastward to his hometown. The last expedition was forced to return due to lack of supplies. But if he can unite a large number of nomads to drive him, he can conquer the lost grassland again and march forward.
In this way, Constantinople became a battlefield. Although under the leadership and command of Andronikos, the people once suppressed the Latins, the army was loyal to the emperor after all. As the troops outside the city moved in,
The people's defeat is inevitable.
Yelu Dashi soon started his new attempt, and this attempt was successful. Dashi's army was able to reach his homeland, but the war still ended in failure, and the entire expeditionary force suffered heavy casualties.
Although the black man (really black this time) had not done anything yet, Rostislav's subconscious told him that this man would definitely do such a thing.
However, Dashi brought nearly 100,000 Khitans, Xi people and Han people from their homeland because of this. These three ethnic groups are the biological sons, godsons and good sons of the Liao Kingdom, and the most important thing is that these three ethnic groups are among the women.
The nation under the oppression of Zhenren knew that the Liao Kingdom still had inheritance in the distance, and people began to flee to the west.
Time continued to move, and Rostislav later went to Moscow, where his only son Vasilko lived, and where he first started his business, announcing that he would no longer interfere in political affairs.
Since Manuel was the fourth son, John II never explained to him the need to maintain a gentle relationship with the Ross. As a result, Manuel felt that it was okay to fall out with the Ross.
On the day of Andronikos' attack, the people of the capital launched another uprising. They killed the Latin defenders and the army entered the city. I don't know if it was God's will. This day was the same as when Alexios conquered the city.
It was the same day as Constantinople, and now someone once again opened the gates of Constantinople to the Russian and Greek coalition forces approaching the city.
Rostislav talked a lot with Andronika, and at the same time this was also an inspection of Andronika, and the result made Rostislav very satisfied. The child grew up completely according to his ideas.
Naturally, Ross immediately followed Rostislav's orders. He also used Ross's marriage relationship to attract help from many allies, and finally assembled a grassland expeditionary force of 70,000 people.
Now Moscow has become a city with a population of 40,000. It is still the city of arms of Russia. Here, Rostislav feels as if he has returned to the time when he first came to this land.
Manuel was overthrown by Andronikos.
This is a good ending for everyone. Yelu Dashi has the troops to try to restore the country again, and a large number of tribes are brought to the east by him. Ross can be guaranteed to be free from nomads for at least five or six years - due to the distance
Due to the reasons, the Liao Kingdom's control over this area could only be maintained for five or six years, but for Ross, who was harassed by nomads year after year, it was well worth it.
Vasiliko also imitated his father and began to write articles, and what he wrote was about his own crusade journey, which was called "The Road to the Crusades". He would often discuss with his father how to write,
Many times they sit on a bench in the Moscow garden and talk. If you are a new arrival in this city, it is difficult to realize that one of the two old men here is the former Grand Duke of Russia and the other is the Prince of Moscow.
The reason why Rostislav created this pamphlet was very simple. He wanted to do some small social experiments, and the method of experiment was through this pamphlet. Rostislav gave this pamphlet to Andronikos, hoping to read it.
To the Greeks he had brought up so that his ideas could bear fruit.
He came to Rus, where he got the help of Yuri. Rus had long wanted to get rid of that stupid emperor. He had produced many bankrupts throughout Rus, which had brought disastrous consequences to Rurik's rule.
Don't worry, you have to take advantage of the opportunity now. A Ross army was quickly formed - and this was already what my grandfather had ordered.
This army can be said to be rampaging on the grassland. No grassland tribe dares to confront such a large army, and Yelu Dashi, who is pressing in from the east, also has 40,000 troops.
In this pamphlet, Rostislav listed the forms and developments of all the regimes he knew, conducted a lot of theoretical discussions, and made a series of assumptions.
Rostislav disliked this man very much because he had strong pro-Latin sentiments and was very resistant to Ross.
New hope replaced Yelu Dashi's once gloomy heart, so this expedition was launched.
However, Rostislav felt that he would probably not be able to see that day, but it didn't matter. Maybe it would be better for him not to see it, and more importantly, it was hard to say whether he would be able to make it.
Manuel proposed a church merger to the church in Rome, claiming that the release of the Kingdom of Syria was his sincerity, and expressed his willingness to make the Patriarch of Constantinople surrender under the Pope of Rome. Then Manuel began to appoint a large number of Latins
to key positions.
However, Rostislav's return stopped Manuel's actions. If this European grandfather wanted to attack, it would be difficult for him as the monarch of the Eastern Empire to resist, but seeing that Rostislav did not care about his affairs, and still
He announced his retirement, so he became active again.
As for the Ross fleet approaching the city, he was only worried when his rule was unstable before. Now that his rule is so stable, the Ross people will never pose a threat to him, absolutely!
Continuing back to the present, Rostislav did not participate in the grassland campaign. During this period of time, he has been sitting in Kiev. Since returning home, he feels that his physical fitness is declining and he can no longer be as carefree as usual.
Already.
However, because of Manuel's trade embargo, the first people to be called out were not the Russians, but the craftsmen of Constantinople.
The last expedition was so embarrassing. In the final analysis, the grassland tribes either defected to the Jin Kingdom or became independent. If they had provided supplies along the way, they would not have ended up in the embarrassing situation of being forced to retreat due to insufficient supplies.
Yelv Dashi died soon after the failure of the restoration of the country. He originally relied on the restoration of the country to survive until now, but Rostislav could not see that time because he had already died before that.
Because of these opinions, he can be said to be very famous in the capital. Now he watched the Latins massacre the people in the capital. He couldn't stand it anymore, so he stood up.
It was a day of blood. The Latins massacred wildly in the Greek capital. The streets of the imperial capital were filled with blood. Among these massacres, one person stood out, and he was Andronikos.
Manuel has always been very unhappy with Ross, and was very confused as to why his grandfather and father continued to trade with Ross even though they knew that the Ross people were doing all kinds of things, and the various punishments were not painful.
The empire can obviously deal a cruel blow to the Russians.
As the former Grand Duke of Russia, Rostislav's proposal to conquer the southern Russian nomads was very much in line with Yelu Dashi's wishes. Of course, this was mainly because Rostislav promised to fully cooperate, which made Yelu Dashi see a very strong possibility of success.
While Rostislav was living his leisurely retirement in Moscow, something big happened in the south.
Anna was extremely happy for this, and happy for the severance of John II's bloodline, and she was also very persistent about it.
Under the pressure from both sides, these nomadic tribes either took refuge in Yelu Dashi or fled to desolate Siberia. Due to the nomadic khanate nature of the Liao Kingdom, each tribe was quickly annexed by them. Southern Russia was quickly annexed by them.
It fell into the hands of Yelu Dashi (relatively), and Dashi's troops even entered Wallachia, forcing the local nomadic tribes to surrender.
Along the way, Rostislav witnessed the prosperity of Russia today. The roads were developed and perfected, the villages were prosperous and wealthy, and the prestige of the Rurik family had covered this land.
As Andronikos passed the exam, Rostislav took out a pamphlet he had been preparing for a long time. This pamphlet has no name, but later generations will call it "Discussions on Ancient Political Formations."
Rostislav never intended to publish this pamphlet, because in human terms it is a collection of stereotyped ideologies stitched together with ancient backgrounds, including absolutism, Dutch democracy, theocracy... Of course
, there is definitely nothing too advanced here, even the most "advanced" things are within the understanding of medieval people, although this understanding means that they look very strange.
Among the many forces that met Rostislav, there was one person he cared about very much. This person was Andronika Komnenos, the Komnenos royal family whom Rostislav brought up.
This aroused strong opposition in the Eastern Empire. Why don't you just want to abandon the country that Emperor John spent so much energy to conquer? But if Manuel only did this one thing, then everyone would just complain and complain, but he
Then he did a series of things that made everyone explode.
Although Rostislav knew that if he stayed in Rus, he would definitely cause trouble for Yuri in the future, but he felt that he would not have a good life for a few years, so he simply stopped leaving and stayed in Kiev to wait for his last day.
.
Speaking of John II, this emperor passed away when Rostislav returned to Rus. Now he was succeeded by his grandson Manuel. He launched a coup and imprisoned his brother Zissak and crowned himself.
Andronikos was finally sent out under the protection of the people. On the day he left Constantinople, looking at the massacre of the Latins, he vowed to return with an army and vowed to make Manuel pay the price.
He vowed to avenge his people.
When Rostislav returned, he passed by Husgan Er who passed by Yelu Dashi. He met Yelu Dashi. At that time, the conqueror who re-established the Liao Kingdom in the distance was depressed all day long, with a classic old man's appearance.
He died soon after, and it is difficult to remember him as the powerful conqueror who drove the Abbasid forces out of the river.
Andronikos is now a talented person, both in appearance and ability. He is very prestigious in the Komnenos royal family and the Eastern Empire. However, because of this, he is subject to a lot of suspicion from Manuel. If this time
If not for his relationship with Rostislav, Manuel would not have sent him to Rostislav.
Except for those troops and Latins who participated in the massacre of Constantinople, Manuel suddenly found himself alone. The other imperial troops chose to sit back and watch on the sidelines because of the massacre, waiting for the outcome of the struggle between them.
In addition, Rostislav also met with some foreign envoys. Many people are very concerned about what this political figure who is the grandfather of the current Christian world thinks, so there are always many people coming to see him.
Rostislav's conversation with him awakened his fighting spirit.
However, this did not affect him from printing and publishing "The War between Song and Jin Dynasties" and "Journey to the East", and then distributed them on a large scale, making Zhao Laojiu's reputation infamous in that distant land.
The reason for this trend is that Manuel has been making mistakes in the past three years. In the last years of John II, a large-scale rebellion broke out in the Syrian kingdom he conquered. If John II had not died suddenly, he would have suppressed it immediately.
But John II left and Manuel came to power.
But Rostislav doesn't have any opinion about Manuel. Anyway, as long as he doesn't do a lot of things that harm Russia's interests, Rostislav won't care about it. Compared with the black man, Rostislav cares more about it.
It's Andronikos.
Compared with the historical "Life of Alexios", Anna's writing method obviously belongs to his school, that is, it pays attention to social influence, but she still blackmails John II, which shows that she has no regard for herself.
My brother is so disgusted.
This directly caused Constantinople to explode. One after another, who could stand it? Then Manuel continued his magic operation. He imposed a trade embargo on Russia.
However, compared to the distant Roman emperor, Rostislav now has an important matter on his hands. Compared with that matter, everything else has to come later. This matter is to cooperate with Yelu Dashi to launch a major attack on the nomads in southern Russia.
The Russian army soon arrived in Constantinople, and several Roman armies contacted by Andronikos also revolted and stood on his side.
He was sent by Manuel to meet Rostislav. Since Manuel was the prisoner's brother, he was very concerned about Rostislav's opinion. This was related to the legitimacy of his rule. After all, if Rostislav always
When a fleet arrives at the gates of Constantinople, the conspiracy city of Constantinople will definitely become unstable.
The restored Kingdom of Syria immediately surrendered to Manuel. Due to Manuel's arrogance and pro-Latin sentiments, the Kingdom of Syria, which satisfied his vanity, was allowed to resume its kingdom. You see,
The rebellious barbarians surrendered as soon as I took over.
It will become a pivotal existence in the history of human political development. At the same time, it will become a notorious banned book. It is called by the world as something written by Satan. Just one look at it will lead to corruption. It was not until modern times that this book was considered
Freed from such stigma, it becomes an important research book.
The craftsmen immediately started a riot, and other anti-Latin forces also became active. Manuel's solution was simple. He let his Latin Guards run over the crowd.
In 1146, Andronikos became the new monarch of the empire. As for Manuel, he was captured by the Rus after killing his brother, and then he was pushed to the square of Constantinople, furious.
The people tore the deposed emperor to pieces.
But something happened soon, which attracted everyone's attention, because it was more important than the coup in the Eastern Empire, because Rostislav passed away.
On December 13, 1146, Rostislav passed away in his sleep at the age of 107. After his death, the most grand funeral in history was held. Due to the grand marriage network of the Rurik family, more than a dozen kings and two emperors personally
At the scene, hundreds of powerful dukes and counts came to see him off. Countless people recorded the grandeur of the funeral. They all believed that such a funeral would never happen again in the future.
However, Rostislav's story is over, and the far-reaching impact of his actions is not over yet.