For the current defensive battle of Constantinople, reinforcements from Western countries actually made a great contribution. ,!

Although the 140,000 Turkish army and Sultan Mehmed II himself were killed by Soman gas from later generations, the Venetian fleet fought a bloody battle with the Turkish navy, and the volunteers from Genoa, Catalonia, and France also took part in the defensive battles on the city walls, even though they fought for an hour at full capacity, and suffered single digits of casualties - it would be unjustifiable not to give them a little spoil.

So, Emperor Constantine XI, who had just made a windfall, was ready to give these Venice, Genoa, Catalan, and French reinforcements a part of the booty, and stuff each of them into their pockets - anyway, a total of Chapter 33, I am Yang Bailao?! There were only about 2,000 of them - and Patriarch Gregory wrote them some worthless letters of commendation for their bravery and piety, and let them take home the title of "holy warriors".

- Emperor Constantine XI still clearly remembers the terrible disasters that the Western European crusaders brought to the Eastern Roman Empire - not to mention the Fourth Crusade, which finally captured Constantinople, and the three previous crusades, all of which swept through the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire like locusts, using the territory of the empire as a playground, burning and looting even more ferocious than the infidels......

Although Pope Urban claimed that the Crusaders were invited by the Eastern Roman Emperor, everyone in the Eastern Roman Empire knew that the Emperor Alexios at that time was just sick and rushed to the hospital after repeated defeats, and wrote to the Pope to help organize a talent market to recruit some mercenaries who could fight in the Empire, and was only going to sign a temporary contract for these people...... Who knew that these bastards actually stayed in the East and didn't leave!

In short, Emperor Constantine XI's idea was to break the fortune and eliminate the disaster, and take a small amount of money out to send them out as soon as possible, so as not to add to the blockage for himself.

However, for Emperor Bixia's such as Chapter 33、I am Yang Bailao?! calculated, but State Secretary Franz reciprocated with a bitter smile that could be called miserable.

“…… Bixia, if they really just asked for some of the spoils, it would have been fine...... "He pulled out two beautifully framed scrolls of letterhead from his bosom and presented them to Emperor Constantine XI"...... Look at these, Bixia, the Merchant of Venice isn't that easy to dismiss! ”

To be honest, with the skills and prestige of Constantine XI, if it is a good time, most of them will still be able to make a difference. But when he took over, the Eastern Roman Empire was almost nothing, and the entire territory was only a lonely city, no taxes, no soldiers, no war horses, no fleets, no luxurious palaces, only memories and memories of the past prosperous times, plus huge debts that could not be paid off in ten lifetimes...... And a group of fierce men who often come to collect debts: Venetians and Genoese!

-- Since the eleventh century, due to the economic short-sightedness of several military emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire, in order to obtain maritime support from the Italian city-state fleet, or to obtain emergency military loans, they have signed a series of humiliating treaties with shrewd Venetian and Genoese merchants free of customs duties, open markets, most-favored-nation treatment, and extraterritoriality - unbeknownst to Weishenme, many of the terms of which are quite similar to those of the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking - causing the merchants of the Eastern Roman Empire itself, It was quickly crushed by the Venetians and Genoese, who enjoyed supranational treatment. At this point, the Eastern Roman Empire was not only politically shrinking, but also economically reduced to a semi-colony of Venice and Genoa.

During this period, the Eastern Roman emperors, who had come to their senses, also rebelled against this kind of economic colonization many times, such as tearing up unequal preferential trade treaties, expelling foreign merchants, resisting foreign dumping, confiscating foreign merchant property, etc., but in the end all of them ended in failure.

In the Palaiologos Dynasty, where the territory was broken and the country's fortunes were in decline, the Eastern Roman Empire became almost the "court of the Italians" like China in the late Qing Dynasty - would the capital of that great empire be full of foreign concessions, and even the imperial palace was built next to the concession?

Even more tragic than the Manchu dynasty was the fact that the Eastern Roman Empire had become the agent of Venice and Genoa in ruling the Near East, and even handed over the customs, but these two "Italian emperors" were only strong in the navy, but the army had no merit and could not help stop the Turks. On the contrary, due to the contradictions between Venice and Genoa, the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire were often reduced to battlegrounds for each other.

Since Genoa was defeated by Venice in the last century, when it was largely a vassal of the Venetians, Venice has become the de facto suzerainty of the Eastern Roman Empire - and historically, Venice should have been a self-governing city within the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire.

In short, the relationship between Emperor Constantine XI and the Republic of Venice at this time was like that of Syngman Rhee of Korea and Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam to the United States of America. When the Turkish Sultan had raised a large army and besieged Constantinople and Constantinople was isolated and crumbling, Venice was probably ready to turn bad debts into dead debts...... But since Constantinople has not only not fallen, but also picked up so many "foreign falls", this debt cannot be counted casually.

- Thus, poor Emperor Constantine XI, Bixia, before he had time to recover from the excitement of the easy seizure of a large amount of booty, received two jaw-dropping demand notes from the Venetian ambassador......

“…… This is blackmail at all! The most despicable and shameless blackmail! ”

In the small conference room of the Golden Horn Palace, Emperor Constantine XI slapped the two bills on the table with great force, and complained with grief and indignation to the confused little bird You Zhenbai, Wang Qiu, Wang Yao, Sonya, Colonel Ihonovsky and others, "...... All the huā expenses of the Venetian reinforcements had to be reimbursed by me...... That's fine. But even the debts of the previous emperors a hundred years ago have to be counted on my head, what is the matter? ”

- In general, although the Venetians have always been rich and unkind, they also have a reputation for keeping their promises...... However, the Venetians, who were sword traders, were also fond of putting swords around the necks of their customers and forcing them to sign unequal contracts......

In addition, the even more outrageous behavior of the Republic of Venice is usury, and it is not an ordinary usury, but a super usury that is so black that it explodes - the average annual interest rate is 20, and the loan is discounted when it is borrowed (borrowing 100 yuan, but in fact only 80 or 90 yuan is received). But the advantage is that you can borrow as much as you want, even if it is a huge amount of hundreds of thousands of Ducat, you can immediately exchange it for cash and withdraw it from the Bank of Venice on the spot.

As a result, many European princes and nobles at that time, even the Pope, preferred to raise military expenses through the Bank of Venice - as a result, in the early 16th century, European countries were too indebted to repay, so they had to form a European coalition to besiege Venice and force Venice to write off its debts.

Unfortunately, the Eastern Roman Empire apparently did not have such a strong ability to settle accounts.

To get back to the point, the two demands placed in front of Emperor Constantine XI at this time fully show the Venetian style.

One of the documents was a bill for the expedition of the Venetian reinforcements, which the Venetian accountant carefully calculated the number of all the reinforcements, and then procured them according to the amount of the salary and victory bonus for each soldier or oarsman, the amount of food and water for each person to go back and forth, the amount of pension for the dead in battle, the cost of maintenance and repair of the ships, and the cost of the arrows and weapons consumed...... Zuihou submitted a lavish bill to the emperor for a military subsidy of about 100,000 ducats, a type of gold coin minted in Venice!!

But in the naval battle near Constantinople, they captured eighteen Turkish warships, plus more than 700 enemies who could be sold for ransom or into slavery...... These lucrative income items are not shown at all on this demand note.

If the above demand note barely makes some sense, and the military subsidy of 100,000 ducats can still be taken by the emperor who has made a lot of money now, then the following list of reminders really made Emperor Constantine XI angry: -- The Venetian ambassador to Constantinople lists in great detail the military loans that successive Eastern Roman emperors from John VI (reigned 1347-1354) to Constantine XI borrowed from the Bank of Venice, Some of them have been offset by successive emperors by means of territorial mortgages and privileges, but the remaining old debts, accumulated at an interest rate of 20 per year, are still a very terrifying figure.

- Even after erasing the fractions, Constantine XI had to deliver 10,000,000 ducats to the Bank of Venice......

You must know that in this day and age, even the total annual financial income of the Kingdom of France is only 50,000 ducats.

Obviously, the Eastern Roman Empire could not pay off the astronomical amount of money even if it had taken all the booty seized from the Turkish military camps.

As a result, the Venetian ambassador who came to deliver the bill was very "generous" and said that the emperor Bixia could offset the debt as long as he handed over the castles of Rumili Hissar and Anadoli Hissar, which he had just captured, and offered all the spoils......

But in this way, the emperor was tantamount to empty rejoicing, and became a long-term laborer who gave free labor to the Venetian landlords. (To be continued.) !!

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