Under the recommendation of most people, Laiena successfully became the leader of this group of people in the real sense, and as soon as Constantine was overthrown, Laiena could rightfully become the emperor.

There were some objections to this, but they were all quietly purged from the group of the old nobility by Laiena, and the rest acquiesced to such an outcome.

After such a consensus is reached, there is no matter for most people, and the next thing is how to pull Constantine off the throne,

In fact, the Byzantine throne has not always been occupied by a family, after the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople was briefly ruled by the Latin Empire, a country supported by the Crusaders, and after Michael VIII overthrew the Latin Emperor Baldwin II, the current Palaiologos dynasty was founded.

As a result, the position of the Byzantine emperor was no longer recognized by the pope, and in the international arena, Byzantium and Rome were no longer equated, although the Byzantines considered themselves the successors of the Roman Empire.

In fact, when it comes to legitimacy, the orthodoxy of the Komnenos family of the Trebizond Empire in Anatolia is even stronger, and in Constantinople, it is not without the call to welcome the members of the Komnenos family as emperors, but it is relatively small and not very strong.

In history, even the original despised barbarians could be emperors, and you can see the composition of the throne from this, which is basically whose fist listens to whom.

In the previous Roman Empire, the heir was personally appointed by the previous emperor, so that the legitimacy of the emperor came from the previous emperor, and the legal reason was passed down from generation to generation and could be recognized by the people.

However, after several rebellions, the victorious rebels will certainly not get the inheritance of the previous emperor, so where are they going to find legal reason? Quite simply, the church.

At this time, Christianity already had a lot of power, but nominally, the church was still under the jurisdiction of the emperor, it was a subsidiary of the empire, the rebels wanted jurisprudence, the church wanted power, and the two hit it off, so the tradition of the emperor being crowned by the church appeared, in the east, it was the patriarch of Constantinople for the coronation, and in the west it was carried out by the pope, so in this period, the power of the church was already above the state.

So don't think that the patriarch of Constantinople will definitely be subservient to the will of the emperor, the current emperor has no right to replace the patriarch, can only wait for the patriarch to make a mistake himself, or die of old age, before he can do anything about the selection of the new patriarch, in this regard, the common people have more power than the emperor, because the people can expel the patriarch or bishop, the emperor can't, forcibly replace? Then wait for the rebellion!

This is why the emperors after Mikhail VIII, in order to get Western aid, although nominally forcibly passed the Great Union of the Eastern and Western Churches, in fact the role is really limited, and the people do not approve of it at all.

After clearing out some of the minor lords, there were only five people left in the house, all of whom had a large presence in the old nobility, so they were left by Laina to discuss the next step.

"How about putting Constantine under house arrest when he returns to Constantinople?"

It was Sadio, the great lord of the Bulgarian provinces, who alone owned one-fifth of the entire Bulgarian land, which could be called inhumane.

"How do you know when he's back?"

Mina, the great lord of Thrace, objected,

"If he doesn't come back, will we keep waiting?"

At this time, Laina looked at Darcy, who had been gloomy and did not speak, and wanted to ask his opinion,

"What's your idea? Darcy? ”

Darcy shook his head, this time he lost the most, his basic plate was in the Macedonian plain, this time it was basically given by Constantine.

"Naturally, I want to bring Constantine down as soon as possible, after all, every day of delay will give me an extra day of loss."

"Okay, then let's talk about the number of troops that each can mobilize."

Having been bored with himself, Lainer changed the subject, the army is still very important, and Laiena knows in his heart that it will be difficult to succeed with a pure coup d'état alone.

Speaking of which, these people are energetic, except for Darcy, the other two are very confident,

"It's not a problem for me to pull out 10,000 people."

"I can give five thousand."

"Although my power has been greatly reduced, there is still no problem with 2,000 people."

The three of them all reported the maximum number of soldiers they could provide, which gave Laina a lot of courage,

Actually, they're not exactly bragging, and if you don't pay any price, it's really not difficult to mobilize these troops.

But what I want to say here is that they mobilized militia, that is, they were almost untrained to go to the battlefield and suppress the enemy with a bloody and courageous spirit, and a large part of them were farmers who had just put down their hoes, workers who had just put down their shovels,

And the real professional army, that is, the veterans who followed Constantine through the defense of the city and the war of the "Resistance League", has always been firmly controlled by Constantine, and there are not many of them, about three thousand, who have been stationed in the city of Constantinople, under the personal command of the Minister of War Cecipe, and without Constantine's order, no one can mobilize this force, and its task is to defend Constantinople.

Laina and the others also tried to contact Cecipe, but even ordinary banquets were rejected by Cecipe, so they never found a chance.

Prime Minister Calvo, Chancellor of the Exchequer Chavez, and Minister of the Navy Hussepe have all tried it, except for Hussepe, who has attended the banquet without noticing, and the others are not even willing to show their faces, let alone rebel.

"Okay,"

Laina was excited, and Paul on the side coughed, reminding him to calm down, and then spoke,

"I don't know where we should put the uprising?"

"Why don't you be in Constantinople?"

Mina, the lord of Thrace, tentatively said that his territory was closer to Constantinople and that it would be more beneficial for him to take Constantinople.

"Nope."

The Bulgarian lord Sadio was directly opposed,

"Constantinople is not a flock without shepherd dogs, not to mention that Calvo attaches great importance to the situation in Constantinople, and is not allowed to bring weapons into the city in normal times, is it possible that we still have to forcibly attack the city?"

It is not possible to be strong, what Mehmed II did not do, let these people come, think too highly of them.

Although the allure of Constantinople is great, after all, this is the hub of the empire, the heart, and if you occupy it, you can basically declare victory.

"In my opinion, it's better to be at Fort Hadrian."

Hadrian's Castle, as the Ottomans called it Edirne, is located on the banks of the Maricha River, close to Mina and Sadio's territories, and close to Constantinople, which can directly cut off the connection between Constantinople and Thessaloniki, so that Constantine cannot know the situation in time, of course, this is what they think.

More importantly, this is Constantinople's gateway to the entire Balkan Peninsula.