If John has any original opinions, we can discuss them again at noon to-morrow, and your yawning appearance is not appropriate to think about such a question. ”

Constantine sat down on the Holy Throne, feigned a yawn, and gave Kinchi and old Agrippa a wink. His Majesty the Emperor had some calculations in his heart, and John's proposal was definitely related to the future development of the empire. The direction of this matter is naturally correct, but how to implement, how to promote, and how to mediate among the nobles are not a calm backwater for the two young people who have just entered the field of aristocratic interests.

He might have had a long night of talking with the two ministers, and as a young emperor who had come from the brink of life and death in the empire, Constantine XI naturally had plenty of energy to think about these questions. After John was pulled by Sophia, he also broke off the idea of continuing to talk. As long as Constantine did not veto it to his face, there was still a lot of room for this matter to turn around. At the same time, through the educational monopoly of the elite, the empire will soon have a group of absolutely loyal talents to send, and everything looks so rosy.

Constantine nodded in satisfaction, and was about to get up, when suddenly a hoarse shout came from the hallway corridor.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! ”

From the courtyard of the palace to the main hall, several doors were smashed open by an embarrassed soldier, and the only reason why the guards on duty at night did not hang him up and whip him and pursue him for the palace uproar was probably the war report from the front line that he carried.

But now...... The Empire was not at war with anyone, so how could it be possible that new war reports had been delivered to Constantinople? If it was a bandit or a small-scale peasant uprising on the border or in some remote area, the most that could be done after the local garrison was annihilated was a report and sealed in the local archives, and the imperial pen did not even bother to record these events.

Everyone looked at each other as the soldier came to the center of the chamber, his leather armor had a few tears, but it was not deep, it should have come from the scratch with the branches during the journey, and there were no arrow wounds on the belt, it seemed that he was a light cavalry sentry on patrol.

"Could it be that the enemy has been discovered near the imperial capital?" John speculated, but immediately dismissed his own idea.

The most urgent threats to Constantinople had been lifted one after another, the Ottomans could not even cross the straits, and after the reconquest of Hadrianpolis, the whole of Thrace to Thessaloniki was surprisingly safe, and the weather had been good lately, and there had been no epidemic, and the peasants had no reason to resist.

After a few breaths, the soldier pulled out a crumpled and missing letter from his bosom, and although John could still faintly see a few letters on it from a distance, it seemed that the letter had been written in a hurry......

This deepened the confusion in the hall even more......

Aside from the devastating blow to the local garrison in a short period of time, no matter how mindless the commander was, he should not even be able to squeeze out the time to transcribe a letter.

As for Constantine XI, who received the letter from the eunuchs, his face became quite ugly after just one glance.

The Bosphorus, the natural barrier on which Constantinople defended the sea wall, was apparently well known to the Ottomans. There was only one sentence in the report: Fort Gebzel had fallen.

Originally built by Murad and Muhammad as a front-line fortress for the siege of Constantinople, the Severethroat Fort was now an important barrier for the Empire to hold the Sea of Marmara. Fort Gebzel was the only front-line fortress in front of the Severed Throat Fort in the Empire.

Constantine XI did not fail to anticipate this. In fact, in his eyes, it was only a matter of time before the Cutthroat Fort was besieged, and if he had been the commander of the Ottomans, he would even have given up Trabzon and would have ensured that the Empire would not have control over both sides of the Marmara.

But then again, there were as many as four hundred defenders in Gebzel, which was more than enough to defend a well-walled fortress, if not for long, until reinforcements from Cutthroat or even Constantinople were available. The elite of the Ottomans lost most of their time in Trabzon, how could it be possible to take a well-defended fortress in this era in a manner that resembles a blitzkrieg?

The same suspicions spread in the minds of others, and the information on the letter was so scarce that no one even knew when the empire had lost the Gebzel Castle.

"Specific...... What happened? ”

"Your Majesty...... I am not Gebzel's defenders. It seems that the soldier was frightened by the collision just now, and quickly knelt down in front of the emperor, "The fall of Gebzel was only discovered after the scouts...... The convoy carrying supplies from Fort Cut Throat to the front fort was ambushed by the Ottomans, even without intelligence, and the losses were significant. ”

"Your Majesty, it seems that tonight is destined to be a sleepless night......"

Agrippa pulled down the map from the wall, and several messengers were sent by John to deliver urgent mail to the generals stationed in the empire.

The loss of Gebzel has become an established reality, but in any case, control of the Bosphorus is something that the empire absolutely needs to guarantee at the moment.

……

"Little girl, the co-emperor of the Romans is really unique in terms of employing people."

"Do you have any eclectic views on who I am?"

"No, you misunderstood...... The man in front of him sat at the long table like this, his legs resting on the table, the years had left many marks on his face, and what attracted Kalujie's attention more were the scars that were deep, shallow or slender, "Mittal has no interest in judging a person's gender, and the one who once sat in your current position is Mittal's greatest female warrior." ”

Obviously, the man had not yet fully understood the woman brought by Hunyadi's retinue. At the beginning, he followed Hunyati, even at the expense of a part of the commission, because of his brilliant military exploits and excellent command skills. And for the Roman Empire, which was in a corner of the country at the beginning, like a candle in the wind, of course, he could not arouse the slightest interest.

"The Romans fought a few good battles and won back a lot of lost ground. But as you can see, Mittal is now just a mess. Even if I had a strapped amount of money now, I would not have taken your commission in good conscience and worked for the Romans. The man seemed to laugh at himself, but there was something uncooperative in his words.

No matter how broken Mittal is, it will not reach the point where he can't fight, and obviously, the man is quite vigilant about the arrival of Kalujie.

"If you're Mittal, I'm afraid ...... I'm going to have a not-so-good message for you. ”

Kalujie didn't care about the man's tone, but slowly reached into her pocket.