Peter frowned, and when he looked up, it was Alexios standing behind the bar, looking at him condescendingly.

"The time for the decisive battle has come." The Emperor said, "I will not back down, not to anyone." ”

"The Lord will not be interested in the conflict of lust between the imperial families." Peter replied.

"I will not back down from the Lord, since more than ten years ago, I have fought for this empire, defeated the Normans, Za'tars, Bolgars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Pauline heretics, and now only the Turks of Konya are still stubbornly resisting in front of me. Perhaps I do have to rely on some of your power for the pilgrims, but make no mistake, this does not mean that you can do whatever you want with my kingdom, and all the Frankish and Norman princes must be used by me, otherwise I will not be relentless when I destroy you. The same is true for you, monk. Internal troubles, external troubles, once I solve them, it will be me who will restore the Holy Sepulchre in the future, and the patron will also be me, just like the former Heraclius and St. Basil's Emperor, not the gangsters in your hands, and the lowly knights from the rude countryside. ”

"It turns out that Your Majesty wants to regard my brother Gawain as an adversary?" Although Alexios never mentioned it, Peter could understand the emperor's meaning at a glance.

"He's not qualified enough." The Emperor's voice changed slightly, but he was not willing to admit that he would put Commander Aconis in his eyes.

"But in my humble opinion, in the future, it would be better for Your Majesty to ally with Gawain and let him serve your empire wholeheartedly, rather than break with each other."

Alexios sneered, "Why is he? Now Gawain is afraid that he has long been buried in the wilderness on the bank of the Danube, torn by the barbarians like wolves. There are no bones left; Or maybe he is being stopped by Sebastoclat outside Sofia, wandering between Bulgaria and Macedonia, where his large army has no place to stand, and eventually becomes a bandit and a bandit, and sooner or later I will destroy him—tell you, I have a dog leash on him. There is a lack of interest in touring the streets of the capital. ”

So Peter sighed, stopped arguing, closed his eyes, and sat quietly in the shadow of the emperor.

"Since everyone has ambitions, let the subjects and senators of Rome decide freely whether I, the Komnenos, should have the throne of this empire." After saying that, Alexios took the hilt of the twin swords of "Holy Sea" and "Athos", and turned to leave.

When he took the guards loyal to himself. When he and his attendants walked to the door, they saw the mistress Yudohya lying beside him with a complicated expression, and whispered, "Did the secret letter between the eldest princess and that barbarian pass through you?" ”

The tip of Yudoxia's nose shook violently in panic, and her eyelashes drooped. I didn't dare to come out, so I could only keep begging for His Majesty's forgiveness. Because after all, she did not know that Gawain had offended His Majesty, and had not done anything disrespectful to Alexios' throne at all, "I have the same devotion to my husband Mikhail, and I will serve His Majesty until death. ”

"Okay, there's no need." Alexios fastened his cloak and said indifferently. It seems that there is no interest in punishment for Yudoshia, "Lovely and beautiful Yudohya, your brother and husband are my closest people, so I also believe in you, but you are a lowly Varyag woman after all. Not only does he have the original sin and stain that women are born with, but he also has the cunning and cleverness unique to barbarians, and he actually manages such a thing between my daughter and Gawain's barbarian. But Anna's letters, you then burn them all, or you will tarnish the reputation of the entire Komnenos and the palace. That's it, do it yourself, Eudohia. Nestas. ”

Hearing this, Eudosia immediately buried her head and kissed the emperor's purple boots a few times, while her husbands Mikhail and Yagfi stood beside her, looking at her like this, Mikhail couldn't see an expression on his face, but his mood was clear, he knew that if Alexios was shrewd and cruel, it stands to reason that he would not forgive Eudohya, and at the worst he would ask them to divorce and send Eudosia to a convent and claustrophobic imprisonment, but His Majesty is doing this now, it should be that Eudosia still has her own value!

Then, from afar the bell of the Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom rang in the sky, and the rest of the churches and monasteries joined in, far and near, and reached the ears of all, Alexios laughed, "It seems that my wife Irene has at last taken no patience, and his greedy and stupid brother, who is like a jackal, is the bell that summons all the senators and citizens, and the signal of war against me. My daughter Anna, how pitiful you are, or like a pretty and well-behaved bird, snuggle up again in your father's arms! ”

"Your Majesty, do you need to go directly to the Grand Palace?" Yagfi, holding his helmet, asked.

"No need, let Erin and Myaulinus, the group of Ducasse Jackals, perform first, I have my own characters to deal with them, and what I have to do is to go to the outskirts of the city and the military camps in the city, completely block the retreat of the Ducasse Jackals, and completely exterminate them." With that, Alexios stepped out, stepped on his horse, and then looked at the bird that had been raised from the spire of the cathedral, and prayed silently in his heart, "O ancestor of Komnenos, now my sword can only ask for your help, so that it may grant my wish!" ”

At this moment, the Patriarch Masdas, in astonishment, and a group of high-ranking monks, stood in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Age, and the white and red brick walls stood majestically in front of all the people of the capital, and all the nobles of the councillor class with medals and ornaments, as well as the representatives of the guilds, heard the bell just now, and gathered here.

The queen, the eldest princess, Caesar, and the first assistant Beriel, and many more high-ranking bureaucrats, generals, shoulders and servants, and countless flags fluttered, all gathered and stayed in the square in front of the church for almost an hour.

Almost a third of them came to support the Ducasses, most of them were honorable capital bureaucrats, as well as many old nobles with honorary titles, and many technical middle-class nobles who wanted to climb the ranks with their legal and rhetorical diplomas.

They were all dissatisfied with Emperor Komnenos's policies in the past ten years: the bureaucratic class of the empire had collapsed, and the tax system had existed in name only, but Alexios had no intention of recovering it.

To put it bluntly, the current emperor has blocked all the ways to promotion in their group, is there a better reason to rise up than this? (To be continued.) )