Mikhail nodded heavily, and stepped out of the door. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"I'm sorry I never gave birth to you." His wife's words came from behind, but the warden didn't react, and walked out without looking back, holding on to the handle of the knife.

Some of the guards in the palace were left behind to serve as guards in the mansion.

Similarly, throughout the imperial capital, most of John's court forces were used to spy on important bureaucrats and the families of the generals who went on the expedition, including Gusyun. However, John still has a conscience, and at most he only restricts his activities under house arrest and does not persecute them.

In the cold wind, in the Patriarch's Pavilion, near the Grand Palace, Masdas gathered the high-ranking clergy to discuss the war in Thrace, and many persuaded the Patriarch to withdraw his previous condemnation of Gawain, after all, the other party had shown extraordinary cruelty to the Orthodox Church in the Lydian region, and some even asked the Patriarch to reconcile with Gawain and leave the dangerous imperial capital to take refuge in the holy mountain of Athos.

Outside the Pavilion, the Royal Motor Racing Colosseum was now full of disgruntled people—when Roger and Tetisius set out with their armies, they routinely demanded large amounts of "alms" from the noble senators of Kyoto, and John ordered the opening of the newly built barn so that the alien soldiers from Dalmatia, Sicily, and Hungary could freely take a lot of food, clothing, and oil.

John is also said to have asked the Venetians, who were armed in the city of Pella, to "keep the capital safe" after the army went on his behalf.

Standing at the altar in the midst of the turmoil, Maastas also felt weak, he held his scepter and rejected the fears, and regained his firmness, sending messengers to the Brachna Palace to denounce the Emperor's wanton trust in the aliens, and at the same time announcing that he was going to lead an event in which the whole city would be attended by the Orthodox faithful - that is, the Holy Relic "The Robe of the Virgin" from the Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom and the other relic, the "Veil of the Virgin", from the Holy Monastery of the Brachna Palace, and then the procession paraded the whole city. Finally, at the Golden Horn, the robes and veils were immersed in the sea by the Patriarch's own hands. Such prayers were held during the Varyag barbarian invasion and are believed to have had a miraculous effect, after which the Varyags retreated from the sea after reaching a trade agreement with the emperor and the capital was saved.

"And Gawain is also a Varyag, and I believe it will work for him as well." Maastas said.

When the Patriarch was in full swing to prepare, the combined forces of Roger the Younger and Tetisius, nearly 10,000 people, also braved the raging Black Sea wind and slowly advanced towards the Villeka River. Under their respective banners, soldiers from different factions and countries lined up, their eyes full of melancholy and confusion, which was especially evident in the soldiers of the Imperial system, but the mercenaries of the "Razor Brigade" were relatively stable because they were only for money.

As they walked and walked, as they approached the confluence of the river with the Evros (i.e., the Maricha), the site of the important Adrianople, the army received news from the scouts that the Thracian volunteer army was not far from the choke point, no more than thirty guri.

Adrianople has been the most important point of the empire since ancient times, it was built by the hand of Emperor Hadrian of Rome (in fact, this fortress should be called Hadrian Fort strictly speaking, transliterated as Adrianople), located in the core of Thrace, the gateway point of several river systems, and to the north control the Northern Thrace Mountains and the Danube, it can also be said that "to defend Constantinople, you must defend Adrianople".

In the barracks, Tetisius and Roger Jr. disagreed over the next step.

Little Roger asked to drive directly to Adrianople, rely on the strong city defenses, and repel the Thracian volunteers besieging the other side in one go.

Tetisius, on the other hand, thought that this volunteer army had come from afar and obtained supplies from Gawain by sea, and that even if they came to Adrianople, they would not be able to easily capture this fortress, and now they should turn their course and give priority to recovering the previously captured Vize and Medea (these two places were garrisoned by 800 soldiers under Algilli), so that they could not only save the siege of Adrianople, but also restore the eastern route between Constantinople and Thrace, and cut off the sea supply line of the Volunteer Army (Medea was in the middle node), Then, taking advantage of the enemy's exhaustion and commuting, he completely defeated the opponent with the momentum he had at his disposal and his decisive battle.

Both seem to have their own reasons, and at the military conference, Roger Jr. regarded himself as the commander-in-chief, and in his eyes Tetisius was just a servant of the emperor, so he had to force the other party to accept the deployment.

At a critical moment, Mikhail. Eustace actually rarely spoke, he agreed with Little Roger's plan, believing that as long as "a small victory at Adrianople, and then advance east along the Villeka River, this will have a greater effect on the morale of the army and people in the imperial capital", because Adrianople is Adrianople, and its glory and status are far greater than those of the unknown Wiezer and Media.

Tetisius glared angrily at the Imperial Warden, but he was helpless, the other party was obviously "acting in an opera".

To Tetisius' anger and disappointment, the swift horse order came from the imperial capital, and John agreed with the tactical plan of Roger Jr. and Mikhail, because the emperor also thought that "it is more important to repel the enemy at Adrianople." ”

The snowstorm in Thrace resumed, and the whole army, having "unanimated", stubbornly advanced in the direction of Adrianople.

Everywhere there were yellow grasslands and gravel river marshes, all frozen hard.

A few days later, when they arrived at Adrianople, the defenders of the city cheered, much to the delight of Roger Jr., and the scouts received information that the enemy, the "Thracian Volunteers", had not stormed any castles after reaching the line of Viklon and Yapo, and had quickly retreated along the course of the Villeka River after learning of the route of the coalition forces.

The commander-in-chief of the opposing side, Grand Count Merlot, learned the lessons of the previous battle of Melitane, and no longer drove long, but firmly grasped the initiative: he loaded all the Skua ships with baggage, gunpowder and weapons, and installed iron shovels on the bow and tail ships to break the ice on the river, and then Theognes commanded the water routes and himself commanded the land routes, and by the way, he ransacked the area around Yapo, and retreated with great strides.

So many of the Pronians who had come to meet the new His Highness Penipassebastos (i.e., Little Roger) told him that the enemy had retreated eastward.

Roger Jr. then urged his entire army to pursue after obtaining supplies, with the goal of recovering Antober and securing Meisembria further north.

Seven days later, Antober was successfully "recovered", and little Roger and Tetisius sent another good news to the imperial capital.

However, Merlot and Tetisius' troops jumped to the south of the Villeka River and appeared in Wieze, where they joined up with Algilli's troops and continued to threaten the northern outskirts of the imperial capital.