At this point, John quickly grasped the evidence and name of the future crusade against the Brenus, but he did not rush to do it, but withheld it, after all, John did not have even ten thousand men and horses at hand. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 As a result, the following "chief executive" took control of the administrative department of the imperial capital even more vigorously, and quickly promoted many of the people in Thessaly. The senators and upstarts who followed him during the Moria era took over the vacant positions after the arrest of Beriel and others, and began to really run this floating "empire".

In terms of governance, John simply abolished the system of military districts that existed in name only, unified the establishment and concentration of forces, and unified the land under his control into two "regions", namely the "Western Region" and the "Eastern Region", and the head of each region was the "Grand Duke", the former of which he gave to his uncle Isaac. Komnenos, which governed the regions of Thessalonica, Thessaly, Moria, and Epirus; The latter was secretly granted to the most loyal general, Tetisius, over the regions of Prussa, Gallipoli, and Dolilamom; As for the "Grand Earl of the Navy" and "Grand Count of Laudisia", he still reserved them for Asasidus and Raymond to invite hearts. In addition, John appointed Axepocauth as his "Imperial Secretary" as the chief of government, which was originally a position in the Heraclius era, similar to the Imperial Ink Officer, but because his father's life and death were temporarily unknown, the former Imperial Ink Officer Meles died heroically on the battlefield, so in order to avoid suspicion, John reinstated an ancient official position and granted himself a Turkic servant.

For the two newly established regions, the prince's policy is to "integrate combat readiness", and all the resources of the imperial capital and the empire must be provided to these two regions free of charge. However, despite the loud slogan of "combat readiness", the prince had sent many envoys and monks he trusted to make contact with Bohemond, Gawain, and Theodoro to explore the way for armistice and peace talks.

A few days later, the Queen Mother Daracena and the Patriarch Maastas approached John angrily and rebuked him for promoting him to the title of "Grand Duke" instead of pursuing the guilt of Tetisius for escaping the battle at Philomelon.

In the face of such accusations, John immediately accepted and "immediately sent the officers to the city of Prusa, removed Tetisius from all his military posts, and detained him and sent him back to the dungeon for trial and conviction."

But this was a complete trick, and Tetisius, who had been in the imperial capital to advise John, had now crossed the sea to Prusa to "bring himself to justice" in the "army of officials". After entering the barracks, Tetisius claimed that he was "arrested", but in fact, he hid behind the scenes and commanded Meritelos and all the new troops, and secretly forced towards the camp of the birds in Nicaea City......

At the same time, in the imperial capital, the second request of the Empress Dowager and the Patriarch was that they could no longer insult and torture the Imperial Zaifu Beriel, and that all the officials who had been arrested in the dungeon should be released home.

John readily agreed, but revoked all honors and titles of the group, and demanded that each of them hand over one-third of their family property to "atone for their sins" and go to the treasury of the Imperial Estate, where he held the keys. When the money was ready, John summoned Axepocus and told him to ride a fast horse down the avenue and go directly to the city of Thessaloniki to negotiate with Bohemond, "Now I have changed my mind, and instead of giving the money to Salian Caesar and Venice, two unreliable objects, it is better to talk openly and honestly with Bohemond." ”

"It's easy for me to remove the siege." In the besieged camp under Thessaloniki, Bohemond sat on a statue of a degraded icon, with a knife to cut meat, and behind him a pile of looted candlesticks, portraits, and gold and silver utensils, and said to John's messenger, "First give me sixty thousand imperial gold coins, and then give me the title of the despotic king of Antioch." ”

After saying that, Bohemond took a knife, stood up and walked in front of Axepocos, followed by several Normans with hideous faces, "You are a Turk?" ”

Axepocus took off his hat, and it was a bare-headed shell with two pigtail-like braids on the back.

Bohemond laughed, and even said interestingly, "A Turk, Gawain used it as a personal standard-bearer and military servant, John was actually appointed as the secretary of the empire and a diplomatic envoy. Well, I have already said my terms very sincerely for this peace agreement, can you accept it on behalf of your master? ”

But seeing that Axepocus was not afraid or ashamed in the hot weather, he put his hat on his head again, "Of course there is no problem, it is difficult to collect 60,000 gold coins in a hurry, you can give 40,000 gold coins to His Royal Highness the prince first, and the rest can be paid with the chartered ships of the city-states and the grain, grain and grass provided, how about it?" ”

"Yes." Bohemond cocked his beard, turned the knife down on his fingers, and spread his arms.

After Axepocauth retreated, Guy and the other henchmen approached Bohemond and asked, "That's it?" ”

"In this way, what's the use of defeating the city in front of you, and continuing to march towards the other party's huge imperial capital full of granite?" Bohemond said, shaking his middle finger, "No, no, no, my friends, with the strength of the army that is now put together, it is simply not an achievable goal. The original rhetoric will never catch up with the actual estimate. Our goal now is to sign a peace treaty with the Italian city-states on a ship leased by the Greeks, and get as much money as possible, and then go to Cyprus, take the cities there, and sell them to the Italian city-states or to Gawain as we go. Then, I will use Cyprus as a springboard to return to Antioch with the official canonization of the Greek Empire and the title of Duke of Apulia. ”

Then Bohemond turned around with a fierce look, and threw his knife into a flash of lightning, which flew over the stunned crowd and landed on the post of the tent, the handle of which was still buzzing and shaking.

"Now that the Greek emperor has been completely defeated at the hands of Gawain, it is worthless to beat the water dogs again. I'm going back to Antioch, and I've been waiting for this opportunity for a full year, not to prove that I'm better than others, but to prove that I've lost something, and I'm going to get it back......"

At this moment, under the scorching summer sun of the plateau, near the border of Brasilon and Bithynia, there were endless gravel peaks of ochre yellow and crimson black, which made the apple trees in one part of the heat wave stand out as green, and the white fruit blossoms fell on the flat ground, and a middle-aged warrior wrapped in tattered armor and cloak, with a black face and dirty hair, sat under a tree with a well-wounded bow, and his mount was already lying next to him and dying of exhaustion.

Twenty feet away from the apple tree, the sound of horses' hooves sparkled and several Cuman bandits on dwarf horses (such groups were common after defeat).

The two swords hanging from the middle-aged man's belt, their sheaths shining with gold, illuminated the eyes and curved sabers of the group of horse bandits. (To be continued.) )