Earth.
Venice, a city-state on the Adriatic Sea, is the center of the Venetian Republic.
This country was once a vassal state of the Eastern Roman Empire and gained autonomy in the 8th century AD. It has now become very wealthy due to its control of many trade routes and even rules many islands in the Aegean Sea.
"Is this the city-state seven hundred years from now?" King Arthur descended to Earth via the Rainbow Bridge, but his landing point wasn't England, but the Mediterranean. She rode the waves to nearby Venice. "Even the once desolate place has become prosperous."
In her time, Venice was just a small town that had just been established and not many people had heard of it.
King Arthur stood at the bridgehead and admired the winding water lanes beneath his feet. Small wooden boats floated on the water, sparkling and rippling, becoming the main means of transportation here.
However, among the merchants and tourists coming and going around her, no one even looked at King Arthur, as if she had never appeared here.
To mortals, this powerful Heroic King is an existence that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Light cannot be refracted or reflected on her. Unless she herself wishes, no one can see her true form.
"It just so happens that since I'm here, it's destiny."
King Arthur stood for a moment, her emerald green eyes shimmering with a hint of gold. She glanced at all the people and things in the city-state, then took a step forward, stepped onto the water, and walked towards the residential area on the other side.
In a warehouse in a courtyard, King Arthur found the person she wanted to see. It was a middle-aged man named Niccolò, a Venetian merchant. He was counting the goods in the backyard, preparing to sell them at the market in two days.
Next to Nicolo was a brown-haired boy of five or six years old, who was sitting on a wooden box, biting his fingers and looking at his father.
King Arthur stood next to the middle-aged man, who was unaware of the situation and was sorting out the goods. However, she lowered her head, looked at the little boy next to her, and whispered, "Marco Polo."
"?"
The little boy turned his head blankly and looked at the beautiful big sister who called his name.
The other party was wearing golden armor and holding a dazzling sword in his hand, which made him subconsciously shrink his body and reveal a look of fear.
The city of Venice was one of the gathering points for the Crusades, so a large number of knights often appeared here. Even children would instinctively feel fear and terror towards such powerful knights.
In this era, knights not only symbolize nobility, but also symbolize killing and war.
"This is a map leading to the Eastern Empire. The fog that shrouded the continent has dissipated. It's time to fulfill your destiny." King Arthur didn't bother explaining anything to the child. Just as the child was about to scream, her eyes gleamed with a captivating golden luster, quickly bewildering Marco Polo. "When you are seventeen, you will travel with your father and uncle to a land 'paved with gold.' That place will bring you untold wealth and a place in history."
She threw a parchment scroll in front of the young Marco Polo, and then her figure gradually disappeared in the bright sunlight.
"Father!"
Marco Polo saw a parchment scroll in his hand. Being still young, he did not understand what he had just experienced, or perhaps he had instinctively forgotten the existence of King Arthur. He just subconsciously held up the thing in his hand and ran towards his father Niccolò.
Thousands of miles away in the British Isles, King Henry III of the Plantagenet dynasty welcomed the earliest owner of this land.
......
During the Southern Song Dynasty, in the land of Bashu, outside Diaoyucheng in Hezhou.
In Shizi Town, the Khan's Golden Tent, today is different from the past. The atmosphere in the tent seems inexplicably serious.
Although Diaoyucheng occupies a strategic location that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, the Mongolian armies are now gathering and will surely capture the city within a few months, leading to a bloody massacre for three days.
Therefore, even the minor setbacks in recent days did not have any impact on the Mongolian generals, but now... including Kublai Khan, everyone's focus is not on the siege.
"It's already noon, why hasn't Yang Dayuan withdrawn his troops and returned to his camp yet?"
Great Khan Mongke placed his hands on the table, leaned his burly body forward slightly, and glanced at his men around him.
Although Yang Dayuan was a surrendered general of the Song Dynasty, he was extremely ruthless when fighting his former compatriots, and Genghis Khan was very satisfied with him.
"Perhaps they were held back by the Song army. The Song general, Wang Jian, is a first-rate commander, and his deputy, Zhang Yu, is also a master of military strategy. If Yang Dayuan rashly advances, he will likely suffer heavy casualties."
All the generals kept their heads down and remained silent, but at this time the middle-aged scholar stood up and spoke in a low voice.
Mentioning Wang Jian, Great Khan Mongke's expression turned grim. "That bastard Wang Jian! I value talent and couldn't bear to see him die and his clan annihilated, so I sent Jin Guobao into the city to persuade him to surrender. Who could have imagined this man would be so ruthless and mad that he not only beheaded my envoy, but also hung him over the city gate to humiliate me!"
The middle-aged scholar shook his feather fan and whispered, "Although there is a tradition of not killing envoys when two countries are at war, the treasure of the Jin State is a surrendered general of the Song Dynasty. Wang Jian will naturally not let him go."
"But, Khan, our enemies right now are not limited to Wang Jian." At this point, the middle-aged scholar changed the subject, "Ever since the red lightning fell in Diaoyucheng a few months ago, the celestial phenomena have changed..."
Boom——
While they were talking, there was a sudden loud vibration outside the golden tent, and then the wooden table in front of Genghis Khan suddenly broke into pieces.
......
A mountain area outside Diaoyucheng was a buffer zone between the Song and Mongolian armies. At this time, the ground had already been dyed blood red, and the soil was filled with the stench of rotting corpses.
It was a desolate place. Apart from the corpses that had not been recovered in time, there were also some broken weapons. There were some trees on the ground, but they had all been uprooted or burned to ashes. The cracked ground was full of desolation.
Li Shiyong was panting and hiding in a ravine, with his eyes showing as he looked at the enemies rushing towards him from a distance. Half of them were Mongolian soldiers, and the other half were Song soldiers.
And the general leading the troops in the front clearly looked like a Song Dynasty person.
"It's that traitor Yang Dayuan!" Li Shiyong roared in anger. "It's bad enough that he's been a running dog of the Mongol Tartars, but now he's attacking us again!"
There were scattered corpses all around him. They were all his brothers who had fought together before. They were injured in the attack just now and died not long after they barely escaped here.
Although Yang Dayuan was a rebel general, he was not incompetent. On the contrary, he was very capable of leading troops in battle. In the past few months, he had led his troops to raid the old city of Hezhou many times, defeated many defenders, and cut off the connection between the outer cities and Diaoyucheng.
War is a matter of deception.
A dignified and upright army is what a king does, but soldiers only care about victory, even if it means doing something unpleasant.
Yang Dayuan's surprise attack this time was another great success, so he pursued the victory and went deep into the vicinity of Diaoyucheng, trying to cause more damage to the Song army.
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