Theodosius didn't want to kill Metan at all, because he knew very well that if Metan died at his own hands, it would only deal a greater blow to his reputation, and at the same time, Charaire and Metan's descendants could not surrender again, and they would definitely resist to the end.

But the development of things was beyond everyone's expectations, Theodosius and Sickotor did not expect that Metan would be so stubborn and would rather commit suicide than surrender, which made Theodosius and Sickotor feel a little caught off guard.

However, Theodosius was a good general, and he quickly calmed down from the shock, then analyzed the current situation, and immediately made the quickest and wisest choice, which was to order Syctor to lead his navy and attack the Metan navy stationed in the Sea of Marmara, before the news of Metan's death broke.

Facts have proved that Theodosius's judgment is correct, the navy in the Sea of Marmara did not expect that Sickor had defected, so it was easy for Sickot's fleet to mix into the station, and then suddenly start attacking, as a result, these descendants of Metan suffered great losses, and finally had to withdraw from the Sea of Marmara, and even if Charaire did not see that the situation was not right and sent a fleet to meet them, this Metan descendant navy was likely to be completely destroyed.

When Charaire learned the news of Sycotdor's betrayal, he was also furious, and at the same time, he also had a premonition that his teacher might have been killed, and his officers, as well as those surviving officers of the Metan lineage, all asked for battle, hoping that Charaire could send troops to attack Syktor and avenge General Metan.

But Charaire was a very steady man after all, and he told the officers that it was not clear whether General Metan was still alive. If General Metan were alive. Then Sickktor will definitely make conditions to them, and even threaten them to surrender. And they chose to attack at this time, I am afraid that General Metan will be in a dangerous situation.

In case General Metan has already been killed. Then the most important thing now is not to avenge General Metan, but to inherit the legacy of the old general and hold the important exit of the Black Sea Strait, so that Theodosius's power cannot reach the Mediterranean, and at the same time wait for the arrival of Empress Irina, when the power of the queen is united, Theodosius and Sickdo will be taken down in one fell swoop, so as to truly avenge General Metan.

Charaire's sober analysis finally convinced most of the officers that they were shrinking their forces at the western end of the channel. Defending the exit of the Strait was much to Theodosius' chagrin, as he had thought of opening up the entire Black Sea Strait in one fell swoop while Charaire was attacking, but Charaire was smarter than he thought.

When Li Ke and his fleet arrived at the Black Sea Straits, they were faced with this situation, two-thirds of the entire Black Sea Straits had been occupied by Theodosius, and Charaire occupied the western end of the strait. Waiting for their arrival.

"San Lang, what are we going to do now?" Irina said with a worried look. Although she understands politics, she knows nothing about military affairs, and she is faced with such a big thing. As a woman, she suddenly had no idea, and even her heart was already retreating.

Looking at Irina's worried expression, Li Ke smiled and said, "Irina." Although I did not agree with your return at first, now we are all at the entrance to the Black Sea straits. Then it will be too late to back down, so now we have only one way. That is to lead the army to defeat Sycto, and then kill under Constantinople with his strength to force Theodosius to confess! ”

"His Majesty the Emperor is right, the current situation does not allow us to retreat in any way, otherwise it will not only disappoint the Roman nobles, but also boost the prestige of Theodosius, and then he will definitely sit on the throne of the Roman Emperor, and it will definitely not be good news for us at that time!" Offron spoke.

This is the benevolent room of Li Ke's ship, in addition to Li Ke and Irina, Ofron and Charaire are also there. Charaire is a middle-aged man in his thirties, not tall, but very strong, with very three-dimensional facial features, and looks very stable.

This is Li Ke looked at Charaire, who had not spoken, and then smiled: "What does General Charaire think?" ”

Charelle couldn't understand Chinese, so Irina temporarily acted as a translator, only to see that he thought about it for a while after hearing it, and then spoke: "Your Majesty the Emperor of Wu, I am a soldier and I don't care about political matters, I only know now that Theodosius and Sickor conspired to kill my teacher, so now I just want to take revenge, and the rest has nothing to do with me!" ”

Hearing Charaire's words, Li Ke and Irina glanced at each other, because they both heard some other meanings from Charaire's words, and the other party especially emphasized that he was a soldier who didn't care about politics, in fact, it was a hint to them that no matter what Irina did in the future, he would not interfere, that is, to maintain a neutral position, but there was a prerequisite, that is, Theodosius and Sickdo, the two murderers who killed his teacher, must be caught. It can be seen that this Charaire is also an extremely shrewd guy, and he has already guessed something from the fact that Li Ke accompanied Irina back.

The dialogue between smart people and smart people is always very pleasant, Li Ke looked at the other party meaningfully after listening to Charaire's words, and then said with a smile: "General Charaire is really a real soldier, I decided to launch a general attack on Xikeduo's navy in three days, with the strength of our Dawu navy, it will not be a problem to defeat them, but I hope that General Charaire can pay more attention and don't let Xikeduo escape." ”

Charaire's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he immediately spoke: "Your Majesty, rest assured, as long as Your Majesty can defeat Siktor's navy, he will definitely not be able to escape!" ”

"Very well, when we besiege Constantinople, Theodosius will have no way to escape, and then he will definitely use his blood to pay tribute to the heroic spirits of Constantines II and the old general Metan!" Li Ke also assured with a resolute face that Mutan has a huge reputation in the navy, and now that he is dead, Charaire will definitely become an important figure in the navy, and now he can get the other party's neutral position, which is a huge good thing for him and Irina.

After three days of rest, Li Ke finally decided to launch an attack on Sycto, in which Li Ke's fifteen main warships were used as arrows, and hundreds of warships of Athens and Charare followed, and they slaughtered into the Sea of Marmara with great momentum.

Previously, Charaire had blocked the news of Li Ke and Irina's arrival, so Siktor didn't get the news in advance, so when he saw the fifteen strange and familiar Dawu warships, he was also startled for a while.

Facts have proved that Sickotor is still too optimistic, and the Roman navy, which is still in the broadside battle, has no power to fight back when it encounters the Great Wu Navy, which has already used artillery as the main means of attack, especially in the relatively narrow sea area of the Sea of Marmara, the warships on Sickdo's side have nowhere to hide, and they are sunk by artillery one after another.

Seeing this bad situation, Sickotor also knew that if he continued to fight so hard, the hundreds of warships under his command could only be wiped out, so soon after the battle, when the warships lost nearly a third, he immediately ordered the whole army to retreat and prepare to return to the strait east of Constantinople, where his navy was stationed, which could be defended by the garrison's fortifications.

However, Sikto obviously overestimated the speed of the oar-seat warship, although the battleship of Dawu was an old warship eliminated in the Daqi Navy, but the operation performance was excellent, and it was very flexible, so when he saw Siktor retreating, Li Ke immediately ordered the battleship to speed up to catch up, and kept biting the opponent tightly to shoot, which made Sikto's losses greater, and finally fled to the strait east of Constantinople There were only more than 30 warships left, less than one-third of the original.

The war, later known as the Battle of Marmara, lasted only two days and ended with Siktor fleeing back to his lair. Coupled with Li Ke's surprise attack, Theodosius in Constantinople had no time to react, and when he learned that Sickor had been defeated, Constantinople was already surrounded by Li Ke and Charaire's navy.

However, Li Ke did not rush to attack Constantinople, but concentrated his forces to attack Sicker's lair, because he had promised Charaire that he would capture Sickor to avenge Metan. In addition, Sycto's navy occupies the eastern side of the Black Sea Strait, which gives Theodosius a passage to the peninsula of Asia Minor, through which the other party may escape to Asia Minor at any time, so if you want to capture him, you must first destroy this passage.

In the technical arms of the Navy, the superiority of firearms is more easily revealed, especially when attacking. For example, in this battle, no matter what kind of fortifications Siktor hid in, he couldn't stand the salvo of hundreds of artillery, especially the opponent still lacked effective long-range attack means, and the only thing that could pose a threat to Li Ke was only a ballista similar to a bow and crossbow, but the power of this kind of ballista was not as powerful as a bed crossbow, so whether it was a spear or a stone, the damage to the hull was not very great.

In the end, Sickto's fortifications were destroyed by artillery, and most of the ships in the garrison were also destroyed, and Sicktor jumped ashore with his men, intending to flee to the Asia Minor Peninsula, but was ambushed by Charaire, who had already been ambushed on the shore, causing more than half of his men to be lost, and Sickor himself was captured.

As a result, the defection of the entire Black Sea Strait Fleet was finally quelled, and the entire strait again fell into the hands of the side that supported Irina. The next step was to deal with Theodosius in Constantinople. (To be continued......)