In the Green Palace of Nicaea, John sat on his throne with his crown in distraught, looking at the warden Mikhail Lee, who was saluting at the bottom of the steps. Nestas. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Your Excellency the Warden, the co-ruler of the empire of Trabzon, Theodoro. Gabrias has also sent letters of impeachment, asking you to give a reasonable explanation for his previous unauthorized retreat during the siege of Angras, which caused him to be flanked by the enemy. The second secretary beside John asked.

"Gawain came to relieve the siege of tens of thousands of troops, and carried out a heavy bombardment of my camp. The palace guards under my jurisdiction are to protect the safety of His Majesty, and must not be wasted needlessly in order to cover the ranks of the Emperor of the Commonwealth. Mikhail was not overly agitated.

"But later correct intelligence showed that Gawain went to the northern front with only two brigades of regular soldiers."

"I don't know about this, but the two generals, Tetisius and Theodoro, also retreated without a fight, and they must have also fallen into Gawain's trap."

This answer made John in his seat speechless, and for a long time he could only open his mouth and ask Mikhail another question, "What do you think about the fact that many secret letters have been sent to my court, demanding that the wife of Theognes, who had defected to Gauwen during the siege of Anglasburg, be severely and openly punished in the imperial capital?" ”

This question gave the stableman below a look of no comment.

John's sparse brow furrowed slightly, and he asked again.

"Your Majesty is about to marry the princess of Hungary, and I only hope that when Your Majesty goes on an expedition in the future, the princess will be able to live in peace and happiness in the Blachna Palace, and will not be involved in the whirlpool of all kinds of hatred and revenge and become a tragic victim." The warden bowed his head and said this earnestly.

Hearing Mikhail's meaningful admonition, John came to his senses, and the young emperor sighed and patted the handrail to his feet, paced a few steps back and forth in front of the glorious brocade iconostasis, and said frankly to the warden, "You are very right. I can't start such a culture of retribution, which will sooner or later allow the calamity to spread to me. Diognes had always been loyal to the Empire, but my father neglected him, so I decided to continue to give money to his wife. ”

"In this case, the hearts of the people and the army of the country will soon settle down." Mikhail said in admiration.

After that, Emperor John had nothing to do and continued to talk to the warden, so he relieved him and encouraged him, and then ended his accountability.

When the door of the hall was closed, John went behind the screen, and the ugly-faced Tetisius turned out, and under the candlelight, he said to the emperor with eager dissatisfaction, "Your Majesty, you have been deceived by Nistas, and now you must settle the problem of him and his army, or sooner or later you will go alone!" ”

"I've been buying off the outer palace guards, but the rest are beginning to realize the danger and start huddling around the stable. Therefore, the disposition must not be overly aggressive, and now the ship of the Empire must contact all those who should be fought over to fight against the most dangerous enemy, Gawain, and my sister. ”

However, John's explanation did not satisfy Tetisius, "If the disposition is not decisive, more and more detachments of foreign mercenaries and commanders will gather around Mikhail." Moreover, the Norman wife of Diognis, though cruel, would have been left unpunished and the whole army would have been scattered and unprincipled. ”

"The reason for this is that I think you have heard it very clearly behind the screen just now, and I will go back to the palace to hold a wedding soon, and if you actually blame or even execute the head of the stable at this time, the empire will be strongly unstable."

"If it were your father, he would never have sat idly by and watched such an act." Tetisius was in a hurry and came up with such a sentence.

Then behind the screen until the pillars and floors of the palace in the forest garden, the whole atmosphere was strange to the point of gloomy, John looked at the general with horizontal eyes, and did not reply for a long time, and Tetisius also felt that he was too abrupt, so he covered his face with a cloak.

"If my father really did this, you and I wouldn't be standing here alive." When John said this, he turned and left the temple, leaving Tetisius alone.

Soon after, a grand but relatively simple wedding was held in Constantinople, which was held by John and the Hungarian princess, because of the recent war in the empire, so the newlywed emperor and empress cut down a lot of expenses, but they still received the blessing and approval of the Patriarch Masdas, and the people of the entire imperial capital were also immersed in happiness, and could not help but ignite their expectations for the future.

But soon Gawain and Anna presented a considerable "wedding gift".

In the second month after the New Year, Gawain and Anna gathered two brigades (Red Hand and Philo Melron) and 2,000 border soldiers, 2,000 county soldiers, the artillery regiment and the Comaloy cavalry regiment, totaling nearly 18,000 people to hold the "Bellerophon Show" on the territory of Fort Anglas.

Bellerophon was a hero of the ancient Greeks, and according to legend, he fell from the back of his mount "Pegasus" to the coast of Cilicia and injured one of his feet, hence the name tar-sos (foot injury), which is the origin of the city of "Tartsus".

The "Bellerophon Exercise" was divided into several units, including a drill in which the brigade and regiment marched and attacked on foot, a drill in which the county people's army and the border people's army operated chariots and barricades to conduct a salvo of firearms, and there was also a drill in which the cavalry raided after the artillery salvo was fired -- the entire eastern field of Anglasburg was filled with the rumbling of artillery and the sound of killing, and the chief guarantor and Caesar personally went to the training ground to observe the whole process.

After the exercise, Gawain and Anna went to Anglasburg in person, cordially received and rewarded the original subordinates of the eight or nine hundred guards who had fought bravely in the previous defense battle, and immediately announced that the seventh brigade of the entire Tarsus country, that is, the "Bellerophon Brigade", would be formed with this group of people as the core, and as for the candidate for General Temachi, "it is naturally Diognes's." Caesarana said very bluntly, and immediately all the officers and soldiers in the fort field cheered enthusiastically.

The proximity of Bellerophonte's performance made Theodoro and even David, the builder of the King of Georgia, very nervous, so they began to frantically build up their preparations in the city of Amasia. They preliminarily decided: Will Gawain launch a large-scale offensive on the northern front, targeting Amasya?

And the builder David hurriedly sent 3,000 royal infantry from the key castle between Trabzon and Georgia to Amasya to assist his uncle Theodoro in defending the city, because "once Gawain attacks Amasia, then the connection between Trabzon and the kingdom of Emperor John is likely to be completely broken."