"Father's ......"

"Your Majesty......"

Constantine laughed again, stretched out his hand and wanted to touch the hair of his long-estranged son, but in the end, the emperor's hand paused in the air, but it fell heavily on Zhou Heng's shoulder: "In the past few days, you have given me a lot of surprises. Even I want to admit that you have seen the situation facing the Empire more than I do. Don't blame me...... The purpose of monitoring you is to protect you. ”

Zhou Heng raised his head in confusion, but Sophia had already expected it: "Your Majesty, my maid Justina, should be your person, right?" ”

Constantine did not admit it, but he did not deny it, and continued to say to himself: "I know, John, that you desire power. You want to take command of the Imperial army from me, and use your own strength to defeat the Ottomans, defeat the Venetians, and defeat any enemy that stands in your way...... But John, I ask you, if I give you an army now, and you are standing in front of you a mighty Ottoman army, are you sure that you will defeat them? ”

A simple and pure question made Zhou Heng suddenly wake up.

His own sacred and lofty plans are actually just empty words. Even if he can predict the future, he has no power to change him. The most knowledge I know about combat just comes from the boring training of handguard sword swinging and slashing in the past few days.

As for the marching formation, the maintenance of supplies, and the necessary prerequisites of all wars, he did not know anything about it. At best, my current self is just a comedic dreamer. If the Imperial Legion is really mastered, the battle will only be an endless rout.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, John, you're only twelve. These things take time to accumulate. It's just that right now, that Castilian mercenary shouldn't be suitable to be your teacher anymore. Constantine laughed, "How can a boastful, narrow-minded mercenary teach the empire's most precious treasures?" ”

"Father, I ......"

"Don't worry, you can still learn what you should learn, I borrowed a real general and a real military talent from Genoa for you."

"Genoese? How could the merchants of the republic ...... Wait a minute...... Genoa? Zhou Heng suddenly remembered that a person who should not have come to Constantinople right now, and he was the last great general in the afterglow of the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.

"His name was Giovanni Giustiniani, and he was the commander of the Genoese Army Corps. Although they don't want to admit that these Republic merchants who have brought untold disasters to the empire have reached out, the help of the Genoese volunteers has greatly alleviated the current predicament of the empire. ”

Sure enough, it was him......

In the late Middle Ages, the armies of Europe had completed the professional transformation, and the peasant levies had long been abandoned, and the Genoese volunteer army brought by Giustiniani would have at least five or six hundred men, and they were very well-equipped, which could be immediately absorbed into one of the current core combat forces of the empire. Although the number of Ottoman troops is a drop in the bucket, it seems that the slightest help will give the empire a greater possibility of revival.

"Your Majesty...... The Ottomans were sent to the Balkans by hand by this group of merchants! It was also this group of merchants who had helped Osman evade Timur's pursuit...... Venice, Genoa, in themselves, is no different. Sophia sighed, "Constantinople is now a real lonely city, and we don't have anyone we can really trust. ”

"Sophia, how could I not know what you said?" Constantine got up from the bed, the window of the room was open, just enough to see the still golden palace of Constantine in the distance, "This is a gamble, businessmen are chasing profits, everyone is chasing profits, as long as we weigh all this, there must be opportunities in the cracks that we can find." This is true of the Venetians, and so is the Genoese, the Empire can now accept any help and wait for the Empire to come to its senses...... I swear that the walls of Theodosius will be hung with the heads of those who once betrayed the Empire! ”

Although it was facing away from the two, the majesty of the real emperor that Constantine displayed at this moment made Zhou Heng's blood boil.

"One more thing, John."

"Huh?"

……

"It is my intention to draw three hundred men from the Genoese Volunteer Legion, and to add more than five hundred of Morea's withdrawn troops...... One hundred and twenty mercenaries to form a new legion. Constantine thought for a long time, and finally said such a sentence.

"The entire legion, temporarily under the command of Giovanni, but not subordinate to me."

"This legion is small in number, but it has sufficient combat effectiveness, and it is all experienced soldiers."

"This legion...... I...... Over to you. ”

After a long dead silence, Constantine withdrew his somewhat lonely gaze that stared directly at the palace.

"What's wrong? Didn't you really want to get an army when you scolded me just now? The current strength of the empire is the greatest skill I can come up with. Constantine once again put his hand on Zhou Heng's shoulder, he lowered his body and looked directly into his eyes in disbelief, "Before I think of a better way to save the empire, you two, with such insight and wisdom that is enough to amaze the world, let me see if my empire will usher in an end or a new beginning." ”

A whole legion of a thousand men! Give it to two kids!

Zhou Heng scolded happily just now, but he never thought that Constantine would really hand over a legion to himself. An army of a thousand people. Don't underestimate this number, if you rely on the walls of Theodosius, a thousand people can defend the Golden Gate for at least three full days! Moreover, the army that can be mobilized in Constantinople at the moment does not exceed 10,000 people!

Although Constantine did not hand over the wartime command of the legion to him, the general direction of the legion's actions could be controlled by himself. Although the current capital of the Ottomans, Edirne, was stuck at the gates of Constantinople, for Zhou Heng, he could still come up with countless plans to buy respite for the empire through small-scale battles.

At present, most of the Ottoman armies are deployed on the western border of the Balkans and on the border between Anatolia and Karaman. This gave the Empire's armies a lot of room to regain territory in the Balkans.

Zhou Heng, who was extremely excited, quickly rushed to the map on the table, and Sophia and Constantine also surrounded him.

Almost with a slight glance, the fingers of the three of them pointed in the same direction.

Achaia.

This will be the first step in the nirvana of the Empire.