Chapter 11: A Visitor from the Other Side of the Black Sea

Something seems to be something wrong with the Emperor's mental condition lately.? Come on,.!

These were several close friends and right-hand men of Emperor Constantine XI, the Secretary of State, Franz Brown. George, Commander of the Imperial Navy, Lucas. Archduke Notras and Commander of the Imperial Army (Barracks Commander) John. Kantaku Zhenus, the unanimous opinion reached after a private meeting to discuss.

Specifically, since entering the New Year, the emperor's words and deeds have suddenly become much more relaxed and pleasant, and no matter how you look at it, it is not quite right.

You know, for the past two years, the haze of destruction has been hanging over the head of this decrepit empire.

-- The Sultan's army was pressing forward step by step, and the route to the Black Sea grain region was forcibly cut off; The towns and monasteries outside Constantinople had fallen, and even the city's water sources had been cut off; The Turks not only built a semi-permanent military camp outside the city, but also amassed a large fleet on the Garibaldi Peninsula. Reinforcements from the west were delayed, and the Eastern Roman Empire was reduced to just an inch within the city walls...... In the face of such a crisis, the people of the Eastern Roman Empire were panicked, from the emperor's ministers to the common people in the market, all of whom were unable to eat, could not sleep, and had headaches and insomnia all night.

-- As the saying goes, there are no eggs under the nest, and after the Turkish heretics have conquered the city, no one wants to have a good life.

Under such tremendous mental pressure, several close friends of Constantine XI almost watched as the emperor was bent over by the suffocating weight, and his originally straight spine began to become stiff. And the once thick black hair has also turned gray.

However, by 1453, as the situation in Constantinople worsened and more and more Turkish troops were massing outside the city, the terrible urban cannon was finally pushed to the Turkish camp on the outskirts of the city...... But the emperor's spirit seems to have improved all of a sudden?!

At the very least, according to the observations of these ministers, the emperor's face seemed to be a lot more ruddy. And the waist board is also up!

The day before yesterday, the already gloomy Imperial Government received bad news again - the Genoese support fleet, which the Reich had placed high hopes on, was met head-on by a Turkish fleet ten times the size of the Dardanelles Strait. Unfortunately fiasco. Genoa Commander Giovanni. Giustiniani was killed in battle (he had successfully led his army to Constantinople and was entrusted with the task by the Emperor, but here he was lost due to the butterfly effect). The rest of the army collapsed. The victorious Turkish fleet, after returning to its home port for a refreshment, was about to sail into the Sea of Marmara in a matter of days......

In the face of such a defeat, all the ministers of the Eastern Roman Empire at the Imperial Council, as well as the trade representatives of Venice, Genoa and Catalonia in Constantinople, were all in mourning, and only the emperor himself seemed to be unconcerned, and comforted everyone very kindly.

However, in the face of this crisis situation where the mountains and rains are about to come, the emperor behaves more and more vigorously. The more the ministers muttered in their hearts.

According to Secretary of State Franz. George privately inquired with the palace maids to find out that since around the New Year, the emperor had locked himself in a private prayer room all night after returning to the palace, not allowing anyone to enter and disturb him, and occasionally making strange noises. Until early in the morning. He hummed a little song happily and spewed out the wine...... Well, drinking and having fun in the prayer room is blasphemous. But in the honorable position of the emperor, and in the current situation of a pagan army besieging the city, even the Orthodox Patriarch and the Pope of Rome would not say anything.

The real question is whether this emperor Bixia has completely abandoned himself. Planning to use wine to drown your sorrows, and enjoy a day is a day?

-- To tell you the truth, there are not a few decadent people like this who have completely lost hope in Constantinople today. Under the haze of the destruction of the empire, these drunken and dreaming prodigals did not hesitate to pour out the wealth accumulated by their ancestors, to have fun in various names, to party all night, to drink and gamble at masquerade, to commit prostitution and rape, to do all kinds of unsightly things beyond human imagination, and to die on the belly of a prostitute.

In the madness brought about by despair, many noblewomen despised chastity and were more dissolute than prostitutes; Some old people are overeating and drinking, and they get drunk all day long; Many young people, out of animal instinct, are desperate to chase any woman, trying to leave their offspring before they die...... Adultery, drunkenness, debauchery, fornication, blasphemy, and other sins spread rapidly in this desperate siege, even for nuns and clergy.

In fact, in the face of the desperate situation of disparity, the magnates in the city did not fail to turn their ways, and some even tried to contact the Turkish Sultan. The problem was that the sultan was too young and vigorous to bribe the Belt and Road Party, and would not even make a hypocritical gesture of appeasement, and if the Eastern Roman magnates in the city did not want to become slaves, they had no choice but to abandon their homes and flee to the end.

Given the extreme desperation of the strategic situation, it seems entirely unsurprising that even the emperor himself lost faith in the future of the Eastern Roman Empire.

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“…… In recent days, many people we know seem to have become abnormal. And the pressure that Bixia is under these days is definitely much heavier than anyone else! If you can't vent once in a while, maybe you're going crazy......"

Commander of the Imperial Army, John. Kantakuzhenus, sitting in a tavern in the capital with two colleagues, talked about the Emperor's recent malaise.

“…… In the memory of our ancestors, we have been struggling in the brutal whirlpool of war, and no one knows when the war will start, no one knows when the war will end, and no one knows how to end it. But the only thing that is certain is this: if we are unfortunately defeated, or if we hope in the pagan bounty of peace, we Romans will ...... Alas, there will be no more Romans on this shijie! ”

John sighed to his two colleagues in frustration as he poured the sour, inferior wine into his mouth from a wooden glass.

-- They all started many years ago. When Constantine XI was still a local lord, his cronies and friends who fought side by side with the emperor knew each other well, so there were no taboos to be careful about when chatting about the emperor.

Moreover, at a time when there was only one city left in the Eastern Roman Empire, it was impossible for the emperor himself to pay attention to any superfluous red tape.

“…… That's a good point! Let's toast to the Romans of Zuihou! Come. Try the nice bar I got from Bixia recently! ”

Grand Duke Lucas, the commander of the Imperial Navy, who was also a little drunk, took a silver stainless steel flask from his waist and unscrewed the cap of the bottle with the metal chain on it. He asked the tavern maid for three more glasses, and poured them for himself, Johann, and Franz.

Suddenly, there was an extremely rich aroma of wine. The two people present couldn't help but feel the wine worm in their stomachs, and immediately drank it unceremoniously. The wine looks crisp and transparent, but as soon as you take it in your mouth, it immediately feels like it is on fire. And after swallowing his throat, it brought up a hot feeling...... Whether it's the pure color, the mellow aroma, or the hot taste, all of them make them feel endless.

“…… Hiss - what a wonderful wine! And the workmanship of this flask is also very exquisite! ”

John raised the depleted wine glass, twitched his nose intoxicatedly and sniffed the remaining aroma of wine, while curiously touching the stainless steel flask, which was as smooth as a mirror, and saw a string of letters engraved on it. “…… This one...... It seems to be the Cyrillic script of the Rus'? ”

“…… That's right, this is the wine of the Rus'! Bixia says it's called 'aromatic red label vodka' and seems to have come from a monastery in Kiev...... Those Rus' barbarians who roll in the ice and snow like to drink this particularly strong drink......"

Archduke Lucas, the commander of the Navy, raised the flask in a boastful manner, "...... Bixia said. This kind of burning wine has unexpected benefits for rheumatism and arthritis caused by years of life at sea - so I was given a whole twelve bottles to drink slowly! ”

“…… Speaking of which, Bixia has given me some good things recently - he seems to have turned over all the royal collections......"

It seems that because of the alcohol, State Secretary Franz also snorted with alcohol. At the same time, he took out a small box with exquisite workmanship from his arms, and after popping open the top cover, he suddenly revealed rows of small brown tea bricks (Pu'er tea), which were neatly stacked like a brick wall.

“…… Three whole boxes! All the finest tea bricks, absolutely never soaked in rain or seawater! I've never seen such haode goods! ”

He said with a knot in his tongue, "...... A Venetian merchant named Shylock came across it at my house and offered me a price of thirty-five florins (gold coins) per box, but after thinking about it, I didn't want to sell it, but made tea with my family and enjoyed it......"

-- Since the opening of the Silk Road, spices and tea have also been sporadically imported from the Mediterranean along with silk. However, due to the long journey across the entire Eurasian continent and the backward transportation conditions in the Middle Ages, the poor tea bricks pressed from broken tea foam that were not worth a few dollars in the East were sold for more than the same weight of gold after being trafficked to Europe several times!

“…… Oooh! You all got good things, but I didn't get anything, Bixia is so eccentric! ”

John exclaimed with a look of jealousy, snatched Lucas's bottle, poured himself another full glass of vodka, and muttered to Lucas as he savored it, "...... By the way, Lucas, at the beginning of this month, I saw you have the chain at the entrance to the Golden Horn raised, but yesterday I happened to stand on the beach and look in that direction, only to find that the chain had been lowered again...... What's going on here? ”

“…… I don't get it either...... Hiccup," Lucas burped a little lazily, "...... Alas, the Turkish fleet was already about to appear outside the city, but the day before yesterday Bixia said that a convoy of aid was about to arrive, and asked me to put down the barrage chain......"

“…… Aid flotilla? Where is the aid fleet? Haven't the reinforcements sent by Genoa already been repulsed? ”

Franz couldn't help frowning when he heard this, "...... The Bosphorus to the north had already been blocked by enemy batteries last year. And since five days ago, even the Dardanelles Strait to the south has been blocked...... Will this new reinforcement be able to break through the blockade of the Turkish fleet? ”

“…… I don't know about this, but Bixia seems to be confident and puts on a very mysterious expression......"

Lucas shrugged his shoulders and was about to continue, when he saw a royal guard hurrying into the tavern and coming to their table.

“…… Three adults! Bixia urgently summoned! Please go to the Golden Horn Military Port immediately and greet the foreign envoys with Bixia! ”

The three important ministers of the empire were stunned for a moment - just after mentioning this, there were really foreign ships sailing into the Golden Horn?!

“…… Are there really foreign envoys? Coming by boat? State Secretary Franz blinked and was the first to ask, "...... How did their ships get through the enemy blockade? Could it be the Turks' envoys! ”

“…… Your Excellency, this time it is not the Turks, but the Tatars from the north of the Black Sea! It's here to support us! The royal guard replied immediately, with a hint of excitement in his words, "...... They managed to break through the Turkish batteries in the Bosphorus! ”

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ps: Recently, there is a very undisciplined idea of crossing over, if a female compatriot accidentally crosses into my previous novel, what will happen to Emperor Firi's harem of the celestial camp where he can never find a single piece of clothing? As soon as a certain otaku girl opened her eyes, she saw that she had become a female elf, sitting in a classroom with her bare buttocks, listening carefully to the lecture of a naked female professor with many naked female classmates, a large part of whom were not human......

Next, I wanted to play palace fighting, but found that "Linxing" was not the emperor but the queen, plus delicious jelly tentacles...... It seems to be very emotional! ……)

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