Good Wells

Two years after the International Confederation of Wizards convened on Sardinia in 1292, Genoa and Venice went to war again in the War of Ayas.

After the pope prohibited trade with Muslim regions, the Black Sea markets became the world's warehouse from 1290 to 1345.

As the Crusades declined, the other Crusader towns along the eastern Mediterranean coast fell one after another. Venice, which had profited from the Crusades, faced a crisis, so it began competing with Genoa over the Black Sea.

Although Venice was a water city, it was desperately short of drinkable fresh water. Before pipelines were built, the locals relied on wells and collecting rainwater.

There were two bronze cistern wells in the Doge's Palace, said to have the best water in Venice.

Venice had no vast population, no natural resources, no abundant produce. There was not even solid ground beneath Venetian feet. All Venice had was the boundless, temperamental sea, and generations upon generations of Venetian merchants risking their lives upon it.

When the Genoese attacked Venice back then, they used siege tactics. Venice itself relied entirely on shipping for food, though it could still provide its own fresh water.

Another state, Dayuan, had its city's water supply cut off when the Han Dynasty army besieged it. Even though there was enough food in the city, the nobles of Dayuan cut off their king's head and presented it to the Han general.

Dayuan gradually rose and prospered under the Hellenized rule of the Seleucid Empire and Bactria, only beginning to decline after being cut off from the Greek world by the migration of the Yuezhi in 160 BC.

Li Guangli still fought for two years against a weakened state. This was not because weakened Dayuan was stronger than the Han army, but because the journey from