It was for this reason that Gawain took the initiative to negotiate a compromise with the city-state of Venice during the siege of Prussa, and then Venice left almost sixty percent of its naval strength and almost half of its mercenary army in order to help John stabilize Crete and Rhodes. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In the imperial capital, although John promised that Venice would settle up to 10,000 men, it was not as numerous or armed as it would have been.

Just like the strategy of Chinese Go, Gao Wen took the initiative to give up the corner that he did not have an advantage in, let the opponent get in, and he himself withdrew, so that he could concentrate more powerful forces to penetrate the weakness of the opponent on the other side.

This weakness is what Merlot has just called the land of Eastern Thrace, where the coast begins north of Constantinople, and the location of the Gulf of Meisembria, which is gently curved and gentle, and the Sea of Yukchen (Black Sea) is very shallow, which is especially conducive to the movement of offshore vessels such as "skuas" and "sunfish".

What's more, Anna has also laid a spy network here in advance, plotting or is plotting against the local Pronian nobles.

So the only obstacle in front of Gawain is how to eliminate the pope's interference.

"I have a plan." At this time, Maglendius, who has always been calm and spicy. Prani spoke suddenly, attracting everyone's attention.

Everyone knows that although he and Ibn . Mai Muntus was the mentor of the empire, but the latter was mainly active in the fields of book translation and tax law making, and his duty was relatively only one, that is, to provide advice: he was the most familiar with the internal military and political affairs and customs of the Eastern Roman Empire, and now, of course, he became the most terrifying enemy of John of Constantinople.

Maglendius's subsequent plan won unanimous approval from everyone.

At this time, Gawain pulled out the Sword of Phosphorus Fire and sat back on his seat, "Summons Judge Aljili!" ”

Armili, cloaked in a crimson cloak and wearing a black robe, walked in, and Gawain gave him the sword directly, "Immediately the task force will be formed by drawing three detachments from each of the Red Hand Brigade and the Guardian Brigade, and strengthening the cavalry, artillery and shooting corps, with Earl Merlot as the commander, assembled in Bithynia to standby." And take this sword, and go to Sinop and proclaim to Sinop and Amesus. The ports of Pravel and Trabzon will make every effort to complete the number of light ships that have been supervised in advance, and then the whole fleet will be assembled at Sinop to wait for my orders, and once the orders have arrived, they must not hesitate to march from the sea! ”

"Yes." Algilli bowed down and took the sword of phosphorus and turned to the side.

"Giovanni, you will at once, together with Ryanstein, take a third of the taxes of the following year in the districts of Iconium, Caesarea, Cappadocia, and Trabzonte and send all of them to the city of Sinop to be used to make winter jackets and leather boots on the armor of the soldiers."

"Yes."

"My wife, Anna, you and the Imperial Ink Officer then go with me to the city of Prussa, and take charge of the military affairs and the logistics of the military station with me."

"Yes, my husband."

At this time, Anna was pregnant for the third time, but she still worked tirelessly, which couldn't help but make people awe-inspired.

"In addition, call Brenus and Roland, do a good job in the construction of the local synagogue and the recruitment and training of the civilian army and sailors, and don't let the Venetian or Sicilian take advantage of the fire to loot."

In the third week after the first fast, the Tarsus Forbidden Guards, holding high the colorful tassels of the "Antian Imperial Umbrella" and the "Red Hand Seven Ridges Battle Flag", surrounded by a complete set of honor guards such as Gawain, Anna, Magrendius, Agnes, Hetomia, and Muzafiadin, began to march along the military road on the plateau towards the city of Prusa.

Almost as soon as Gawain left the city gate, intelligence spies from various forces began to move around frequently.

The most nervous, of course, was John of Constantinople.

Gawain had four or five regular brigades, plus thousands of frontier troops on the other side of the Marimara Sea, and the empire, which had lost the naval fortresses of Nicomedia and Tsarsidon, could no longer muster even the water forces that could effectively resist the "skuas" ships except with the help of Venetian ships - if Gawain wished, he could cross the sea in half a day and besiege the narrow gateway to the southern part of the imperial capital, Gallipoli.

This is where Gawain famous, where he successfully fended off pirates, and now that he has returned to his old place, it should have a special sacred meaning for him.

So at first, John thought that Gawain would attack Gallipoli first.

John, who was nervously waiting, would closely monitor Gawain's movements through the intelligence system every day. Ten days later, Gawain's guard of honor and the Praetorian Guard had arrived at the city of Dollilaham to rest, and there were still about two days to go before Prusa.

But at the same time, John's nerves were touched by another important piece of information: a mixed task force of Tarsus entered the fortress of Kaltalimon on the edge of the Bosphorus, which was almost across the sea from Constantinople, and was captured by Gawain after the fall of Prussa; In addition, Gao Wenfang gathered a large number of light ships in Sinop, and seemed to be preparing to sail in the harsh weather of the bitter cold in the future.

"They are going to use this group of ships to transport this task force to shore on land next to the imperial capital, bypassing the fortress of Gallipoli to attack us and create panic." At the Imperial Council in front of the screen, John pointed to the map table and judged that he had overturned his original assumptions.

"But how dare Gawain ignore the order of the Patriarch of Rome?" Axeppokos was puzzled, isn't this Varyag's brute nature about to attack?

After saying that, Tetisius stood at the table, watching all this, and did not speak.

The emperor called him, but Tetisius remained silent.

So the emperor ordered him to speak, and at last the words that came out of the mouth of Tetisius made the hearts of all those present heavy, "Gawain will soon take the initiative to negotiate with us, and will set a clever trap for us, and we will be in a passive and embarrassing position both militarily and diplomatically." ”

John, pale, took two steps back, leaning against the edge of the screen.

"When you were in Prussa, you said you would win space and time for me, and now you say that we will be passive again, what the hell is going on!" The Emperor finally couldn't hold back his disappointment and despair and roared.

Tetisius still spoke in a flat tone, but with a little more desolation, "Because I didn't expect that David and Theodoro, the builders of Georgia, would be so vulnerable. Now that Gawain has turned around and can deal with us with all his might, the situation is not optimistic. ”

"So what do you say? You all say, 'What should I do?' John felt his breath hard, his eyes bloodshot as he looked around.

"Prepare the big ships in Gallipoli......" said Tetisius, looking up.

The implication was that John saw the opportunity to abandon the capital and flee.

A punch slammed into Tetisius's face, and he immediately staggered backwards, touching the missing nose scar, and some blood was actually leaking.

The punch was fired by a furious John.