During the time of Constantine's preparations, Vlad III of Wallachia and Skanderbe, the governor of Albania, had arrived at the military base on the island of Chios, having received an order from Constantine.

Skanderbe's experience can be called legendary, he was forced to become a proton of the Ottomans in his early years, declared independence soon after returning to Albania, and defeated Murad II and Mehmed II several times, ensuring the independence of Albania for more than half a century, which was something that neither the Kingdom of Hungary nor the Byzantine Empire did, and in terms of military ability, Skanderbeg was at the forefront of European history, even Wallenstein and Gustav, both of which can only be said to be on a par with him.

And the current situation is that Skanderbeg announced his conversion to the Orthodox faith in Constantinople, and officially declared himself part of the Roman Empire, and pledged allegiance to Constantine on behalf of the Albanian people, and Constantine also reciprocated by giving the Albanian provinces very large autonomy, including Albanian local taxes can be retained by themselves, administrative officials can decide on their own except for provincial officials, etc., only the military power is held by Constantine without any possibility of negotiation,

And in this war, Skanderbeg was also called by Constantine, Skanderbeg lived in the Ottoman court for many years, and knew the truth and fiction, the system of the Ottoman state, the proton of the vassal state was cultivated as the protector of the sultan, and the military education that Skanderbeg received in the Ottoman court was the key to his success.

"Your Majesty, Grand Duke Vlad and His Excellency Skanderbeg have arrived at the door."

The squire knight came in and interrupted Constantine's rambling thoughts,

"Oh... Let them in. ”

Constantine concentrated, got up from his seat, and after a while, the two walked in,

Unlike last time, Vlad appeared humble and reserved, and it can be seen that he deliberately reduced the jewelry he was wearing, while Skanderbeg was different, with a hooked nose, sunken eye sockets, and a hat that resembled MSL's Jinnah, looking more like an Arab than an Albanian.

"You two are here, please take a seat!"

Constantine signaled, and then took the lead in sitting down, and the two saluted slightly, and sat on both sides.

"Your Majesty, I have brought 8,000 soldiers and half of the cavalry this time, and they are well-armed and ready to fight at any time."

As soon as he sat down, Vlad couldn't wait to begin to show his loyalty, revealing his details and details.

Hearing this, Constantine was still very satisfied, nodded, and then he looked at Skanderbe, who did not speak, and Skanderbeg was silent for a while, as if thinking about something, and then said,

"The feudal lords from all over Albania have put together more than 10,000 private soldiers, but they are suffering from a lack of weapons and food, so I only brought them with me on this trip... Three hundred guards. ”

To Skanderbe's surprise, Constantine didn't look very angry, even though Skanderbeg clearly violated Constantine's orders,

The number of 10,000 people seems to be a lot, but it is still within the tolerance of these noble lords, in history, Skanderbeg was able to pull out more than 12,000 people to fight against the Ottoman Empire, and now it is naturally no problem to pull out 10,000 people, Constantine is convinced of this, but the rest... The benevolent see the benevolent, and the wise see the wise.

"Hmm... Have you reacted to these situations with the Cabinet? ”

Constantine didn't ask what was going on, he wanted to solve the problem.

"The list of missing materials has been sent to the cabinet, and there is no reply for the time being, I still have a list here, please look at it."

Skanderbeg took out a piece of parchment from his bosom, held it in both hands and handed it to Constantine, Constantine stretched out his hand to take it, unfolded it and looked at it carefully, the main shortage of materials on the file was food, followed by weapons, and then there were war horses, artillery, gunpowder, crossbows, bows, crossbows, etc.,

Constantine stretched his brows, put down the parchment, and looked directly at Skanderbeg, although his face was calm, but it brought great pressure to Skanderbe, and after a while, he slowly spoke,

"Food can be satisfied, war horses and artillery and the like, there is no need, the central government must be uniformly deployed, weapons can be issued as soon as possible, I will ask the cabinet to issue approval as soon as possible, within a month, I hope to see the support of the Albanian people, can it be done?"

"No problem, Your Majesty, and obey your orders."

Skanderbeg bowed his head slightly and expressed his support to Constantine.

The situation in Albania is complicated, its area is quite mountainous and hilly, the woods are dense, the people live in the mountains, it is difficult for outsiders to find it, and they can only control a few large urban strongholds, Skanderbeg returned to Kruja in the Albanian region to serve as Subashi (governor, head), from here it can be seen that the Ottomans have adopted a little attitude towards this mountainous land and are also governed by the Ottomans, as long as they do not make trouble, they can also provide taxes and manpower, and sometimes it is not unacceptable to even provide taxes,

Later, Skanderbeg contacted the feudal noble lords in various parts of the Albanian region and formed a political system similar to the aristocratic council, whose members were all big lords who controlled the land resources of Albania.

It can also be seen from this that it is difficult to succeed without bloodshed change, and until now, Constantine's power has still had difficulty entering Albania, which is a clear proof of this.

"Okay, since there are no other problems, let's talk about the march,"

Constantine clapped his hands and moved on to the next part,

"You have just arrived, and much of the situation is not clear, the region of Cilicia has been occupied by Laszlo and Giovanni, the Kingdom of Cyprus will soon join our war, and Husseppe will then lead the fleet to the Northern Black Sea to confront the Ottoman navy, and he will not be with us,

With the soldiers brought by Vlad and the Albanian soldiers who were about to arrive, we could use about 50,000 troops at that time, and since the damage to the Ottoman troops was not serious, the enemy should have at least 70,000, and more possibilities were not ruled out. ”

Constantine's tone was low, Vlad was obviously frightened, and he couldn't stop swallowing his saliva, anyway, he was frightened by the last war, and he was naturally scared when he heard such a disadvantage, Skanderbeg was different, although he was also a little worried, but it was limited to that.

"Our plan is to land from Ephesus, along the Skeite River, to see if we can hit Bursa directly, and will crush the enemy's resistance in one fell swoop, so as to achieve the goal of victory."

"It's... Isn't that unsafe? ”

Vlad snorted, cautiously probing,

"Ephesus is too close to the Sultan's garrison, right? We do not yet know the distribution of the enemy's forces, but the enemy is likely to be located in Asia Minor, and if we attack rashly, it will easily turn into a stalemate once we encounter the enemy's main force. ”

Constantine nodded slightly, in response, but did not express his opinion,

"Skanderbeg, I heard that you lived in the Ottoman court as a child and studied at their military academy, do you have anything to say?"

"Muhammad II was a very ambitious man, and after his second accession to the throne, he was a well-thought-out and well-trained military officer, and he was a formidable opponent to be reckoned with.

Skanderbeg first analyzed the leaders of the other party, after all, in the army, the superiors obey the subordinates, and the education of ordinary soldiers has not yet been popularized, so it is easy to be instigated, which is why it is easy to know the movements of the army if you know the character of the general,

"In my opinion, the news of the fall of Cilicia must have been received by Mehmed II, and in order to stabilize the hearts and minds of the people in the country, he must have a great victory, but we do not know how well he knows about our situation, and it is not impossible for him to urgently send an army to attack Cilicia as far as it is conservative concerned, and secondly, he will make a big attack on Trabzon, and get back what Cilicia has lost from Trabzon, and there is no other possibility than these two."

In fact, there are many cases, such as the Ottomans fighting them at sea and raiding the Balkans, but this can be ignored, the risks far outweigh the benefits, no one would do such a thing, at least not Mehmed II.

"If the enemy attacks Cilicia, it will inevitably pass near Ephesus, and then we will probably face the army from the opposite side, and if we cannot reach Ephesus, we will enter a dilemma."

"And what do you think?"

Constantine inquired about Skanderbeg's thoughts.

"Your Majesty, I have a bold plan, I just don't know... Do you dare? ”

Skanderbeg said tentatively.

"You speak first!"

Constantine did not answer positively, but Skanderbeg breathed a sigh of relief in his heart,

"Antalya, there is a river not far to the east, follow the river, you can reach the vicinity of Ankara, the enemy wants to capture Trabzon, its logistics supply transit point is none other than Ankara, that is to say, Ankara must have hoarded a large amount of supplies, just right, if the enemy draws troops to Cilicia, and Trabzon is threatened, Ankara's defense will definitely weaken, plus Ankara is deep inland, the enemy must not have imagined that we will suddenly appear, suddenly attack, or win completely."

Skanderbeg was right, the place where the Ottomans supplied the great army outside Trabzon was indeed in Ankara, and Bursa provided mainly supplies from Asia Minor and the navy,

"Didn't you think that if the enemy hadn't attacked Cilicia, or if the enemy hadn't sent troops to the front, the army would have been surrounded and killed under the city of Ankara?"

Constantine's face was serious, but Skanderbeg smiled slightly,

"But if it works, it's all worth it, right?"