The battleship sailed on the sea, an old man stopped at the bow of the ship, the waves hit the battleship and splashed countless waters, and a tall samurai came to the old man and stood silently.

"Your Excellency, news came last night from our eyes in Asia Minor that the Roman Emperor's warship had set sail for Constantinople." The samurai leaned over the old man's ear and said respectfully.

"Francis, what do you say, be as loud as a man? Don't you know the old man, I can't hear clearly! The old man hunched his back slightly, panting and shouting.

The warrior reluctantly cried out again to the old man's ear, "My lord, the Roman Emperor has gone home." ”

"Oh, that's right!" The old man held the railing of the bow of the ship, the sea breeze had gradually subsided, but there was a bitterness in his heart, Andronika's waste was actually played with by a doll, and the Greeks had another good helmsman......

Who would have thought that this old man, who would have thought that this old man, who was the future governor of the Republic of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, one of the driving forces behind the Fourth Crusade, would be one of the executioners who would destroy the splendid civilization of Constantinople.

"The new emperor is worthy of the Komnenos family, and his father is like carved out of the same mold, decisively and neatly defeated Andronica, it seems that all our early investment has been lost!"

Dandolo couldn't help but smile slightly bitterly, there are also many people in the Republic Assembly who look at themselves unpleasantly, originally wanted to implement the New Deal reform, through the issuance of national bonds to ease the financial pressure, but this failure will provide countless excuses for political opponents to attack the New Deal, but I am afraid that it will experience a wave of turmoil, Dandolo did not expect that this wait is actually thirteen years.

……

……

……

In the palace of Konya, the palace built in imitation of Constantinople is magnificent, looking up at the sun, moon and stars through the sky, like the sky, looking down at the grass and strange trees, the sea is shining, lifelike......

Sultan Gilje Arslan II was dressed in a gold-woven robe, wearing a necklace shining with golden light, a purple belt around his waist, pearl ornaments on his shoulders, and gold carvings with swords on his shoulders, with the bearing of a great monarch, the Sultanate of Rûm has always been called the Rome of Anatolia by the Orientals for no reason, and its culture and art are deeply influenced by the Roman Empire, and the style of luxury is still excessive.

"So, Andronika was defeated and killed, the little emperor has returned to Constantinople, and now there are only two generals left by the little emperor in Asia Minor?"

The Sultan's eyes burned with fire, the Illylanized Turkic monarch, experienced ups and downs in his early years, the country was captured by the Crusaders, his wife and children were all plundered by the Roman army, and he hid in the mountains and forests with his father.

Finally, the defeat of the Eastern Roman army at Mireo Sephalon caused the last attempt of the Eastern Empire to recover lost territory in Asia Minor failed, and the Eastern Roman Empire never recovered Asia Minor again, so he was the most important enemy that Alexios wanted to defeat in the East.

"Sultan, Allah is above, and the cannibalism of the Christians is a good time for us to grow our strength, and when the autumn of the following year is high, we can advance into the coastal areas of the Anatolian plain, where the maritime trade is flourishing, and the tax extraction alone will be enough for us to feed another 30,000 Ghulam guards."

The Sultan's Grand Vizier Baibar was the first to speak and take a stand, and there was no doubt that the Turks, though semi-settled in the Anatolian plains, still retained their nomadic traditions, and that they were warlike, and that without killing there would be no spoils, and that the lazy herdsmen would not be close to Ghazi.

"Yes, not long after the new emperor ascended the throne, some people came forward to make trouble, and after the death of Andronica, the new emperor did not stay here to calm the people, but returned to Constantinople, and it is foreseeable that the internal turmoil among the Greeks has not been quelled!"

The commander of the Ghulam Guard, Skamped, also loudly appealed to Baibar's proposal, and the Guards were raised by the young children of the defeated peoples of various countries and underwent rigorous court training, which was a form of military power training that was widely promoted by the Muslim countries of the Middle East.

But this army is like a double-edged sword, the Guards are willing to follow the strong monarch, conquer the battlefield to expand the territory, in order to obtain a steady stream of spoils, once the monarch is weak, then the Guards are very likely to rebel against their master, the weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the later period is due to this reason, so the strong monarchs have been constantly fighting for almost their entire lives.

The Sultan looked at the ardent expectations of the generals and ministers below, stood up, drew a gold-inlaid Damascus scimitar and slashed hard, and said with a solemn expression: "Everyone, my determination has been made, next autumn to mobilize troops, I will wage war in the name of jihad, let our pastures spread to the whole of Anatolia, Allah is the only Allah, Muhammad is his messenger, let the Muslim flag be planted all over the world!" ”

"Do your will, Sultan!" The important ministers below responded in unison, saying that the Sultanate of Rûm, which had been under the siege of many sides since its de facto independence from the Seljuk Empire, was a golden opportunity to give the Roman Emperor a chance to stabilize the internal affairs of the empire.

When the ministers withdrew from the main hall, Sultan Arslan II sighed faintly: "Alexios, this boy has not insulted his father's title of lion."

……

……

……

Alexios looked at Constantinople, which had faintly revealed a corner of the distant sky, and asked Theodoric, the guard behind him, with a smile: "Now if our army directly marches into Constantinople in triumph, what will happen to those little mice in the dark?" ”

Born in Macedonia, Theodoric was an excellent soldier who served in the army of Asia Minor for many years, and this time, under the leadership of Fukas, not only did not suffer any discrimination, but was also brought by the emperor as a representative of loyal soldiers.

The emperor is well versed in the way of checks and balances, and before the military academy is established and the academy is formed, he plans to focus on cultivating the children of the Han family, through a method similar to that of the attendant military attaché, let these soldiers observe the government and military orders of the highest decision-making level of the empire, increase their knowledge, and release them after a certain extent, so as to train cronies to replace the old army.

"It's time for cat and mouse!"

Alexios turned his back to his guards and smiled inscrutablely in the direction of Constantinople.

The blade has been sharpened, and the sword is out of the sheath and there is no blood, how to deter those greedy and ignorant nobles!