The envoys came in horror and went away in sorrow. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In the city of Durazzo at sunset, the sea was so vast that all the towers had hoisted the flags of the new masters, all the Venetians and Sicilians who were still alive in the city were taken into custody, and many of the bullock carts in the camp were littered with corpses and divided into camps.

Gawain first placed the corpses of some 180 Venetian nobles, including Giosault, the eldest son of Feller, on the deck of a captured Venetian longship, and asked them to hang their black sails and sail into the lagoon of the city of San Marco a few days later.

There was a mourning in the city, and the old consul Fleille, with trembling hands, stood alone on the terrace pavilion of his house near the sea, looking at the black sailing ship that sailed in below, and the deck was full of dense corpses, all the elite of the city-state, and his eldest son in it.

But Félaier did not weep, this stormy sea had already made him abandon any illusions, whether it was a man, a city, or a country, it was a ship floating on it, and it would be a fate to completely capsize the ship and destroy people at any time. "Venice today is the Carthage of the past." The old archon uttered the same sigh as Pierrot.

As a result, on the second day, the Ducal Palace erupted in the most serious conflict since the founding of Venice, not verbally but physically, and the riot spread throughout the city-state - the consul Pierrot was fiercely accused and attacked for his wrong policy, and his supporters and opponents fought savagely in front of the palace, even drawing swords and stabbing each other, and many were wounded and killed.

The rebellious nobles and citizens then posted murderous inscriptions on the Mercury Pillar.

Because the eldest son died in battle, they still have some affection, but Fellaier knows that many things inside are not only impeaching Pierrot, but also attacking himself:

In the battles, shipwrecks and intrigues of Crete, Corfu, Durazzo and other places, Venice has lost thirty-seven galleys, lost 1,600 citizens, plus 7,000 mercenaries of all kinds, and now 5,000 citizens have become captives and slaves that cannot be redeemed, so to speak, almost every family has lost a man, and the loss of money is more than 900,000 Byzantian gold coins;

Not only that, in order to give blood to the small court of John in Crete, in order to continue to occupy Rhodes, and in addition to Gawain's isolation of the sea routes between Cyprus and Tripoli, the city-state of Venice lost 400,000 Byzantit gold coins every year.

If this continues, within three years, do not wait for Gawain's army to come, and Venice itself will completely collapse.

Therefore, there were powerful "peacemakers" in the city, who were outnumbered and strongly demanded that another consul be elected to adjust the policy, negotiate peace with the Roman emperor, and re-serve as a vassal of Constantinople, for which they did not hesitate to pay reparations.

There was a fierce debate on this issue in the ducal palace, and the old consul Fellaier, who was full of gray hair and instantly aged ten years, still insisted on coming to the stage to lobby the members of the Senate, standing in front of the circular podium and crying out hoarsely, asking the city-state to set up a "Council of Ten Generals", enjoying the "dictatorial power" granted by the Senate, overseeing wartime policies, implementing material control, building barriers, continuing to recruit soldiers in the interior, and carrying out diplomatic activities against the Emperor of Salian to win more support, etc.

In this way, the core idea is to continue to fight against Gawain and fight to the end.

"Gawain is also in great difficulty now, since he entered Constantinople, the war has lasted for nearly three years, and the taxes he extracted from Anatolia have almost run out, and it seems that he has conquered a lot of territory, but the training and dispatch of the official corps, the establishment of the security army, have cost him a lot of money, and we can shrink back into the lagoon, stand firm and continue to unite his enemies, and fight him to the end, this is a wolf-to-elephant war, although the elephant is huge, but the battle to the end victory may belong to the wolf." If we were to destroy our arms, as the Punics did in history, we would be in the heart of Gawain, and what he could not get on the battlefield could be easily obtained without any effort, and then the noose around the Venetians' necks would be tightened......"

However, Félaier's remarks were opposed by the vast majority of the people, and no one could continue to endure this "bloody" war, not even Venice, which was known for its unity, cunning and perseverance.

Eventually, the old consul left the rosin pulpit with a hunched back.

Behind him, a new agenda was being reached: Venice was to elect a new consul, and a plenipotentiary delegation was to be quickly assembled to go to Ohrid to meet Stephen. Gawain.

"The walls made of the sea are about to crumble, and the eternal city built on a barren lagoon will eventually fall into ruins." The old consul muttered to himself, walked out of the ducal palace, and looked up, the sea was treacherous, the clouds were gray, and the waves were crossing the causeway of the harbor with splashing foam, like a human cry, and like an angry cry, "Giosofat, my child, my proud child, my father can only pay tribute to you here." However, the saddest thing about your sacrifice is that it is meaningless, and this state will eventually be destroyed. The old consul was now sorrowful, and he seized on the place of his heart, bowed his head, and buried it between the collars of his cloak, gritting his teeth, and tears and snot flowed down the uneven ravine......

Unbeknownst to Fellaier, the court of Palermo was even faster: Simon, the new second-generation king, wept for days after learning of the great losses in the city of Durazo, and then he was unwilling to "pin his fortunes on the other side of the ocean", and many Norman nobles also began to rebel against his family's authority, Simon decided to negotiate peace as soon as possible. Gawain is still willing.

However, Roger Jr., the younger brother who established the "Kingdom of Carinthia" in the interior of Dalmatia, was extremely resentful of his brother's compromise, and he said that he would fight to the death with Gawain and would never recognize any terms of Sicily and Gawain.

The Duchess of Tuscany also laughed at the cowardice of all men, and she ordered that all her land be divided equally among the squires and free cities to whom she was loyal, vowing to mobilize all her forces to defend the faith and to fight Gawain at any time.

She also finally accepted Little Roger's marriage proposal, and said that after her death, the entire Tuscan kingdom will no longer be left to the "stubborn" Holy See, because the other party is no longer worthy of her trust and follower since Eugene's death, "If I die, Tuscany and Carinthia on the other side of the ocean form a united kingdom, Roger can become a real king, he and Gawain fight for a day, you must be loyal to him for a day, and when he makes peace with Gawain, you can unite to rebel against him!" ”

A month later, the tripartite delegation of the Kingdom of Sicily, the Holy See and Venice arrived in Ohrid on time, and on the picturesque lake, the emperor set up a tent for negotiations and was waiting for their arrival.