The Western world has been in full swing. This is a long process, a subtle process.

The Roman Empire has fallen into chaos, and the weapons of the Song Dynasty are flowing towards the Roman Empire like water. At this time, they are no longer controlling the quantity of purchases, but there is a steady stream of demand.

When the war begins to focus on the quality and quantity of weapons and equipment, it is actually the beginning of the war on national strength.

When Henry IV attempted to unify the entire Roman Empire, there were many people who thought the same as him. After all, the current Roman Empire was not the Roman Empire in the orthodox sense.

The long-term division and vassal system have made the people here full of desire for the imperial throne.

Although the previous Franconian dynasty was an imperial dynasty, it was not much different from the vassal states in a practical sense. It was just that during foreign wars, the emperor could lead the coalition forces of various countries.

Local policies or taxes did not have much to do with the emperor. Of course, tribute would be paid, but the amount was too small.

This also gave the vassal states an opportunity to accumulate strength. Although this type of feudal system existed in the history of the Han Dynasty, the quantity and quality of the feudal states could not be compared with that of the central government.

This resulted in the princes rebelling and competing for status, but the unification of the country was the top priority.

The Roman Empire has reached a consensus over the years that all vassal states will not take the initiative to start a war, because what can they do even if they capture the capital of the dynasty?

We still have to go to Rome to be crowned, we still only have the original land, at most we can expand the territory slightly, but as time goes by, the surrounding vassal states, lords, and nobles will continue to encroach.

But things were different now. After Henry IV captured the surrounding small lords, small nobles, and small vassals, he took up the banner of unifying the entire Roman Empire and began to use troops against the large vassal states.

Originally, he thought that his army should be invincible and that all resistance would be wiped out in front of the powerful Emperor's Guards, but the result was far from the truth.

Henry IV imitated the military system of the Song Dynasty and replaced conscripts with conscripts. He clearly understood a problem: soldiers hired with money were more brave and capable of fighting than soldiers recruited with faith and loyalty.

Some soldiers are even willing to devote their entire lives to fighting and earn generous rewards from it. However, what they never expected was that recruiting soldiers with money would cost a lot of money.

As he continued to win and occupy wealthy areas, the large size of the army was no problem for Henry IV.

But when his pace of expansion was hindered, when those vassal states, large and small lords united, his pace of expansion began to gradually slow down.

Especially when he no longer had the advantage in terms of weapons and equipment and the speed of advancement slowed down significantly, Henry IV's financial crisis became even more intense.

From the moment he launched the Unification War, Zhao Ren wrote to him clearly telling him that it was not the right time and that he was not as powerful as he thought.

The preparation time was too short. Even the Song Dynasty had to prepare for a war for several years, let alone the Franconian Dynasty?

But Henry IV insisted on going his own way, and his persistence was completely misplaced. He only needed Zhao Ren to crown him as promised and give him the right to start getting rid of the power of the Holy See.

So as a man of his word, Zhao Zhen followed the original agreement and sent a priest from the True God Sect to Speyer to crown him.

Even so, Zhao Ren reminded him at the end, but Henry IV did not believe his old friend's reminder again.

He launched the unification war as quickly as possible. He hoped to unify the entire Roman Empire within a period of time, sweep across the entire Roman Empire within a period of time, and make the vassal states on the land invincible.

In the final analysis, Henry IV worshiped power too much. In his view, absolute power could do anything, even let God shine his shoes.

But in fact, there is no absolute power in this world. The Franconian dynasty's army needs money to accumulate. Rapid land expansion and plunder can certainly bring them wealth and land, but this is not long-term.

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Henry IV's army had a fatal flaw. Their weapons, equipment and military pay accounted for the most expenditures of Henry IV, so that he had to reduce or even cancel financial expenditures in other places.

This also led to the shortage of supplies in the rear and the deterioration of the market environment, which in turn led to a reduction in transactions. People had no money for consumption and even had to move from cities and towns to live in rural areas.

As a result, tax revenue will definitely decrease. The tax advantage is important to maintain the operation of the army. Therefore, the originally powerful Franconian army encountered unprecedented obstacles when it unified Rome and ran out of money!

The surrounding vassal states began to unite against Henry IV because they did not want to become the nobles of the Song Empire as the Eastern merchants said.

This was one of their few opportunities. Only by uniting could they obtain greater benefits, so they successfully inhibited Henry IV's advance speed.

At the same time, a large number of envoys were sent to purchase the weapons and equipment of the Song Empire from "special" channels at free prices.

Although the price is a bit high, they can afford it. Compared with losing their territory, what's the disadvantage of spending the money?

The longer the time goes on, the more beneficial it is for them to occupy, but on the contrary, it is extremely dangerous for Henry IV.

In the end, this attack was completely messed up when the Taisian army arrived in Rome. It was originally just a unification war unilaterally initiated by Henry IV. The main contradictions and enemies were also concentrated on both parties.

However, at this critical moment, the Holy See ordered the Papal States to attack Port Oriente. They hoped to confuse the public through civil strife in the Roman Empire and frame the crime on Henry IV.

In this way, Gregory VII could fish in troubled waters, killing two birds with one stone: not only making the Song Empire and the Franconian Dynasty at odds, but also inflicting heavy losses on the Taixi Prefecture and taking back the Eastern Port!

But it is a pity that Zhao Ren did not send an envoy to investigate or blame anyone. He directly sent the most powerful South China Sea Fleet of the Song Dynasty to launch an attack together with the "merchant fleet" of Fangzhangzhou.

First of all, all the maritime power of the Roman Empire was destroyed in the first place. No ship or ship floating on the sea was allowed to enter the sea.

After that, the fleet was ordered to enter the Tiber River and go straight to the city of Rome! Because this city is just downstream of the Tiber River, spanning both sides of the Tiber River.

The water of the Tiber River is very deep and can be used by sea-going ships. For safety reasons, all heavy objects except necessary items are abandoned by the fleet, so that sea-going ships can provide maximum buoyancy.

When the beast-like fleet entered the city of Rome and bombarded the bridge connecting the city, Gregory VII was completely panicked. He did not expect that Zhao Ren would not investigate his carefully designed plan at all, but directly sent troops to Rome.
Chapter completed!