Early the next morning, Alexios got up and summoned the little eunuch Licinius, who needed the support of his mother, Mary of Antioch, the fourteen-year-old emperor, who had not experienced any battles, did not even know the chief of the palace guard, and did not have even the slightest support from the military, Alexios knew deeply that in order to survive in the Eastern Roman Empire, where coups were frequent, he must have an army of his own.

"You want to recruit some Norsemen yourself to form a Varangian Guard!" Queen Mary was amazed, and her son had just taken up his father's crown and wanted to get the army, "You are only fourteen years old, and you can drive those barbarian soldiers, who are so brute that even your father cannot control." ”

"Mother, I think that if an emperor can't even control his own soldiers, then it is a sign that his throne is already unstable, isn't it? Mother, I need to let my soldiers know what kind of commander they are following, an emperor on horseback like Basil, and not a young son of the court. ”

Mary felt incredible, his son was only a cowardly child in her arms yesterday who needed his mother's protection, but now he was a real emperor, and his father's death had awakened the child, the emperor could not always grow up in the court.

"I'll ask Harald, the commander of the Varangian Guard, to show you the way to his barracks and pick out some elite guards!"

A large man arrives at the court and greets the Emperor and the Regent Mary. The Emperor noticed that the warrior was tall and six feet tall, dressed in crimson costume, holding a silver helmet and holding a gold-encrusted sword in his hand.

"Harald, the Emperor wants to recruit some strong warriors from among your brothers, take him to the barracks, please protect him." Mary said.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Harald replied in a rough voice to the nobleman's command.

The reputation of the Varangian Guard was not good in Greece, in addition to the contempt of the Greeks for their barbarian origins, their greed and domineering were also hated by the Greeks, you must know that in the era of the Viking Conquest, these Norse barbarians often sailed south to plunder the four directions, and the rich Eastern Roman Empire was of course one of their main targets.

Mighty Norse warriors ran amok and bled rivers of blood wherever they passed, and even monasteries were the object of their knots before they believed in God.

However, as time passed, these Norse barbarians were slowly tamed, and many of them were recruited into the army by the Empire and became the Royal Guards hoplite units of the Eastern Empire, who called themselves Varangian, which meant an oath, and under the command of Basil II, they restored the Empire's rule in Asia Minor and the Balkans, which can be described as invincible.

Alexios's real intention was to recruit some men from among the sons and nephews of these Varangian guards, he needed to form a companion cavalry like Alexander the Great, so that they could fight with him since he was a teenager, money could only last for a while, only the friendship of royal companions cast by blood could last for a long time, and he also wanted to take the opportunity to establish the prototype of the future officer corps, and militarism would be the king in the future era.

"My Majesty, are you really recruiting these little cubs to serve as your bodyguard?" Harald asked puzzledly, his emperor didn't choose a strong adult man, but walked around the family quarters next to the barracks, and then asked him to lead someone to shout to a group of thirteen or fourteen children, and then his emperor seemed to become the child king.

Alexios looked at the more than four hundred people in front of him and smiled, this army will be his future conquest of the Quartet, the spear, sword and shield have been completed, when will the epic of Rome be written......

……

……

Alexios had obtained more than 400 horses through the Emperor's prerogatives, and he did not want to train these young warriors to be sword and shield soldiers or tomahawk berserkers like their fathers, but he needed a strong cavalry that could defeat the Turks, Hungarians, Arabs, and even Mongols.

The once glorious Byzantine paladon cavalry, once numbering 120,000 people, has now lost half of its weight in Asia Minor, the Eastern Roman Empire's cavalry and Greek fire production area is already in jeopardy, and now the Seljuk Turks in the East occupy this treasure land and grow in strength.

In order for Alexios to lead the ancient empire back to re-emergence, the first thing to defeat was the Seljuk Turks, and it was urgent to restore the empire's rule in Asia Minor. Fortunately, the Seljuk Empire was defeated in the war between the Eastern and Western Liao Empires, and the kingdom of Khorezm began to rise after the accession of Ala-uddin Mahamat, and the Assasins, who were entrenched in Syria, assassinated the senior officials of the Seljuk Empire, causing the rule of the Great Seljuk Empire to be crumbling.

The Sultanate of Rûm, the branch of the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor, was de facto independent, and even then it was not easy to conquer the country. You have to have a strong cavalry, thinking of this, Alexios is a little envious of the ancient Eastern Empire, the Sui Empire's perfect imperial examination system ensured the longevity of the imperial bureaucracy, and the Eastern Roman Empire maintained this old country with a military district system, the emperor was essentially a group of warlords, the emperor was wise and powerful, the warlords bowed down to the vassals, the emperor was young and ignorant, and killing the emperor was commonplace.

In order to restore the vitality of the Roman Empire, it is nothing more than to carry out a new round of purges and reforms, replace the aristocratic hereditary system with a civilian election system, use the military academy to train high-quality warriors with moral integrity, and strengthen the imperial equipment through scientific and technological research and development.

Although the ancient empire has declined, it still leaves a great legacy, whether it is the legend of the Roman Empire deeply rooted in the hearts of the vast number of people in Europe, which crowned Germany with the crown of Holy Rome, and the Third Roman Russia took over the Byzantine eagle banner to continue the great cause of conquering the world.

The existence of Greek fire, even in the 15th century, was a super-killer weapon before the advent of artillery, and it has been a nightmare for many enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire, if it were not for the fact that the empire's finances were increasingly depleted with the shrinking of the country, otherwise the Roman fleet would still gallop on the borders of the Mediterranean, defending the dignity of Constantinople.

Alexios believed that with his sword, he would one day meet the most powerful heroes in the world, and that the missing territory of the Roman Empire would be filled by him.