Spread of Christianity was not without deterrents. When Roman emperors changed frequently, some of them liked Christianity, some didn't. One Roman Emperor called Julian, who was brought up in exile in the areas where ancient Greeks lived, decided that Christianity wasn't his thing. Being quite a philosopher and book worm himself, he decided that he only needed to turn one sect of Christians loose, they would soon be at the throats of another sect of Christians. His tactics worked and he almost succeeded in defeating Christianity with Pagan religions within his Empire. But then, he was shot by a stray arrow in a battle like what happened to King Harold II in Battle of Hastings or 陈友谅 in 鄱阳湖之战, with death of one leader breaking a huge stalemate, tide of Christianity prevailed. Then the history was written in one way not in another like a flipped coin fell on one side not another, what a narrow miss!

Back in the Chinese part of the East, Huns successfully invaded many parts of China and some of the invading tribesmen changed their last name to be more like those of ethnic 汉 race, and they also adopted Chinese languages to mingle into, and practically enlarge the dominant Han 汉 population. China was divided into southern and northern parts. It was really a big melting boiling pot for many peoples and races, much like multi-cultural countries of US and Canada many light-years afterwards.

淝水之战/八宫山下草木皆兵

魏孝文帝 民族融合 花木兰替父从军

Many ancient Hun and Turkish tribes that used to appear in Chinese history books started to migrate Westwards to look for better pastures and abundance of food and wealth. One could hear later day Armenians, Poles, Hungarians talk about how their ancestors migrated from somewhere closer to Himalaya/Mt Everest to where they were later. One famous leader for such nomadic tribes was Attila the Hun, whom somebody called " the scourge of Earth". It was said the paths that his war horse trotted along would no longer be capable of growing grass anymore. Since Christianity was becoming new fashion of the time in Europe, some Europeans wondered whether Attila might be the anti-Christ that many Christian believers dreaded could appear on the judgement day -- the dooms day of all people. After all, time flied! Crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ had been events of several hundred years ago, the second coming of Jesus Christ could be near, but that speculation never materialized. The "end of the world" prediction kept on happening later on periodically, including Y2K.

While China was in a state of disarray and ethnic fighting, melting and mingling, Europe saw a Roman Emperor who had a wonderful life, slept very little, but lived until a ripe old age. The Emperor was Justinian, one of a few head of states to mention "Solomon, I have surpassed you" in the history. His reign started out shaky though, with one of the biggest test happening as a riot/revolt originated from a sports venue in the capital Constantinople. For a moment, it seemed the mob was out of control and the entire cabinet was discussing how to send the Emperor out of the capital safely, when the Empress Theodora, a former escort service women, stepped in and made a mockery speech. The speech was about how a group of generals and ministers could be giving a king such ill guided advice. She then sharply questioned how a king could be afraid of a city and people that he was supposed to rule. She ended her remark with, "as for me, I still regard royal purple makes the best shroud". When a women made up her mind for the color of her cloth, men usually could do nothing but oblige.

Then the topic of the discussion turned into how to quell the mob rebellions and restore orders in the capital. Luckily for Justinian, he not only restored order in the capital but also found capable military leaders and tacticians during the operation against the mob. Adding a few more capable financial geniuses to replenish the monetary supply of the nation, his Empire expanded steadily westwards, while he could build a big building in the capital called Hagia Sophia to symbolize his Solomon surpassing achievements. Justinian was also credited as the Emperor who almost united Eastern and Western Roman Empire together again. As "the Emperor who never sleeps", he was one of those selected few depicted as residing in the heaven along with Jesus Christ in the Divine Comedy by Dante.

The divided China in the East now was about to come together again. But the prelude of a peaceful and prosperous united nation usually start out with intense fighting, just like the modern day Americans reasoning the great Civil War as: a wild fire unseen before to forge a bond that is stronger than ever.

外戚专权/杨坚 杨广（欺娘戏妹杀兄霸嫂弑父夺权） 大运河

杀手锏/回马枪 多个朋友多条路 响马/山大王 程咬金三板釜 天下第一条好汉 (in the West, Galahad was ranked #1 knight because he found the Holy Grail). 三十六条好汉结义贾家楼 瓦岗山寨 生而何欢/死而何惧 十三棍僧救唐王

玄武门之变 贞观之治 魏征进谏 载舟覆舟 天下英雄入彀中 女皇武则天 唐初四杰

While all these were going on in China, Europe and Middle East went through a period of Muslim conquering. Western Roman Empire was broken into small special administrative areas in Western Europe, but Eastern Roman Empire was winning a war against Persian under the leadership of the Emperor Heraclius. Heraclius was not contented with mere victory in the battle field, and he tried to come up with new religious theories to help people from Eastern and Western parts of the old Roman Empire to get along better. Unfortunately, both sides of the people he tried to persuade, turned against him and accused him of being weird and heretic. He was officially denounced by Western Roman Catholic Pope and neither did he get support from his subjects believing Orthodox Christianity. He was not the only Roman Emperor suffered this fate, like another one named Zeno much earlier. There was a very complex relationship developed between former East and West of the Roman Empire, much like there are much complexity between Eastern and Western European countries later on.

In the then Arab world, there was another group of people who were irritated by confusion in the teaching of Christianity and were angered by the inequity caused by theocracy and religious ruling elites. It was said there were more than 30 versions of Christian scripture back then and many people pointed out that so many versions of the Bibles was a sign of corruption of the great book. Islam was born out of such environment, and this new religion tried to pride itself on having only one version of its holy book in Quran. Islam also simplified the deity as "there is only one God in Allah and Muhammad is his prophet". In Islam, depicting religious icons was strictly prohibited. Comparatively such a religion was easier to understand and practice comparing to Christianity. Among Christians, some believed trinity, some did not; some believed that Maria was divine and some did not; some believed in iconoclasm and some did not. Islam took off especially fast among poor and oppressed peoples in search of equality, because it was relatively easier for poor people to get to heaven through Muslim. If they wanted to get to heaven through Catholicism, the pay rates for the clergymen were significantly higher, and it took sophisticated educations for someone to become a clergyman like doctors and lawyers many light-years later. Outside the heart areas of the old Roman Empire, such as in Arab Peninsula, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Spain, armies of the prophet were soon riding wild.

Back in China, 唐 dynasty was in prosperity. It was a period when open minded talents were gracing the country with their cultural, religious and literary products stamping permanent prints into Chinese history. During this prosperous and relatively long lasting dynasty in China, Europe entered deeper and deeper into what was called the thickest of the "dark ages". Holy Roman Empire was formed in Western Europe and people believed they were managing kingdoms on Earth for one universal head of state -- Jesus Christ -- in the heaven, and science was merely an extension of theological study to prove miracles performed by Jesus. Kings were merely the helpers of Jesus to rule the world and government were issuing orders in the name of God. clergymen, Pope and Catholic church had enormous power on hands that it was easy for them to burn people alive, without worrying about protests of human rights abuses, like how it was back in 商 dynasty in China.