CHAPTER 342: CHAPTER 169: KING OF KINGS! SWEEPING THROUGH EUROPE (END OF VOLUME 1) (PART 2)

But just as everything was advancing in an orderly manner.

The religious conflicts across the European continent became increasingly intense, and the religious turmoil gradually deteriorated local law and order.

Finally, in May 454 AD, the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Shepherd Leader publicly denounced Pope Patrick as a heretic.

Thus, an empire civil war triggered by religion broke out.

In fact, all of this had long been traceable. Territorial disputes between the Eastern and Western Empires were constant, and now with no rival, the national war machine longed to be restarted, thus the conquest of the Eastern Empire became a consensus.

A month later, a large-scale war was launched in the name of the ’United Empire’.

The entire war lasted only more than half a year. Duncan launched an army of 150,000, with the British Legion advancing in two routes. Severus led the British Legion to advance into the Balkan Peninsula, all the way to the city of Athens. Meanwhile, Duncan personally led 80,000 troops to attack Constantinople, a fortress known to be impregnable, which was breached in just one month by weighted catapults.

Constantinople’s high walls were not as exaggerated as in later times, but Duncan still deployed over a hundred weighted catapults, bombarding continuously for just over half a month.

It must be said that this was indeed the most solid fortress in Europe.

In July 454 AD, Constantinople fell, and the Eastern Empire’s capital was occupied.

In August 454 AD, Duncan led an army of 100,000 to expedition across the Little Asia Peninsula, capturing Ankara, Sinop, Caesarea, Tarsus, and others along the way. Wherever the army went, the Eastern Roman Empire’s troops almost surrendered at the sight.

In October 454 AD, the imperial army occupied Jerusalem.

In December 454 AD, the Governor of Alexandria in Egypt surrendered, and the Eastern Roman Empire was completely annihilated, and the vast territory of the empire became whole once again.

A new era is about to arrive.

With the annihilation of the Eastern Roman Empire, a massive empire spanning the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa was born in Duncan’s hands.

He hadn’t expected the Eastern Roman Empire to be so vulnerable, with only Constantinople being a bit more challenging. After capturing the Eastern Empire’s capital, other places were almost instantly overwhelmed.

In fact, even before Duncan launched the war to unify the empire, the Eastern Roman Empire had already been ravaged by the Huns almost to ruins, with even the Balkan Peninsula plundered. Attila, the God’s Whip, had his racetrack just a few miles from Constantinople.

Duncan’s reformed Second Empire began to fully take over the territorial borders of the Roman era.

However, due to the vastness of the territory, the flaws in management began to surface, and he had to establish a co-capital in Constantinople, reorganizing an administrative team.

This was actually learning from the great Eastern countries.

Because Nanjing was historically a co-capital, it also had an administrative team, just with less power.

He adopted a compromise approach.

The empire can only have one emperor.

But there can be two sets of administrative teams, learning from past lessons, he absolutely refused to create two emperors again. Historically, the Six Ministries in Nanjing were more local institutions, with limited functions and actual power, primarily responsible for southern regional affairs, vassal state tributes, and ritual activities.

Constantinople, as the co-capital, focused on the surrounding Little Asia Peninsula and the Balkan region, including Greece, which was directly incorporated under Roman jurisdiction.

But the immense territory remained a major issue.

Given the current era’s constraints, the empire’s administrative management had an upper limit, and Duncan still planned to conquer Great Germania in the future, making it even harder to manage.

So, months later, Duncan reorganized the Gaul Administrative Region, establishing administrative institutions and renaming it to the ’Kingdom of France’, directly appointing the son of Princess Praxidica as the King of France.

At this time, it was clear to the observant that Duncan was enfeoffing rulers.

Not only was his offspring being enfeoffed, but those who had made military contributions were also enfeoffed. Severus was enfeoffed as the Prince of Wales, the highest rank above Duke, with the territory becoming the future Kingdom of Wales. Severus, as a Druid possessing certain supernatural powers, still had to look after Britannia for him. Kvito was elevated to Duke, with the enfeoffed territory in Germania, roughly in the future Netherlands region. Clegane, who had fought alongside Duncan to the death, was also appointed as Marquis, with territory on the border of the Sarmatia Province, and so forth.

The situation was much the same for others.

Duncan only enfeoffed Severus on Great Britain, while all the generals who followed him in battles were enfeoffed in the empire’s frontier regions.

Now, the general structure of the empire had taken shape.

The emperor’s direct domain included the Italian Peninsula, the Greek area, the Little Asia Peninsula, etc., with Alexandria in Egypt and Carthage in North Africa being the emperor’s direct overseas provinces.

The British Province was independent of this system, as the emperor of the empire would also serve as the King of the Britain Kingdom in the future.

The reason for doing this was probably that Duncan felt there was no empire eternally prosperous, and if one day the empire faltered, with his astounding prestige among the Britons, at least a partial peace could still be achieved. If this initiative failed, so be it.

With the faith of Avalon, Great Britain should be the empire’s foundational base.

The Gaul Province had been completely transformed into the Kingdom of France, and as the empire’s legion continued to conquer Great Germania, the Kingdom of Germany would also be established.