Chapter XII
The Second War Begins
_ What had been began by St. Patrick hundreds of years ago was finally finished. The war had slown the progress, but it was finished. The Kong Miao had been built in Cumae. Several years after its completion, a young preist, Tipu Sultan, was making a visit to the holy shrine. While there, he passed out on the floor just outside of the holiest inner room of the building. When he awoke, he claimed to have had a vision. He immediatly made a pilgramige to the city of Madrid, the city that was held to be holy by both Buddhist and Jews. When he got there, he attempted to rally the Spanish, Buddhist slaves to assist him in building a shrine to Buddha. Initially, the Roman governers of the city refused, and even beat Tipu Sultan, but after proposing to them the possibility of charging addmission to the shrine, they began to relent. In 350, the Mahabodi was complete, and bringing a nice profit to the city.
_ In the meanwhile, it had come to the attention of some Roman scouting parties that the Byzantines were beginning to expand to the north of the Empire, in some of the ex-Spanish lands. The Roman military stratagist, who had been planning war withe the Byzantines since shortly after the Spanish War, saw this as an opertunity to, once again, anger the citizens into calling for war. The Roman Army mustered at the western border, just outside the town of Andrinople. In 560, the Roman Army once again marched across their enemies borders. This time though, the Romans had more confidence as they marched. Unlike the Spanish, the Byzantines had no iron.
_ The Army reached the coastal city of Andrinople after only 1 days march. The Romans had recently perfected the art of Construcion, which allowed them to build machines that could hurl rocks at enemies citeis. They called them catapults. Unfortunatly, the catapult production in Rome's major cities had been slowed, and they were not to the city in time. The generals decided to atack without the catapults, saving time and utilizing the element of surprise, but possibly sacrificing Roman lives. Around noon, the Roman Praetorians began to pour into the city. The Roman casualies were surprisingly little. During the battle, a paticular general was noticed by the highest Roman commanders, Gustav II Adolphus. He was ordered to open a military academy in Rome, working alongside Bernard Montgomery, the hero of the Spanish War.