1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 94: Odysseus's Journey

Chapter 94: Odysseus's Journey
On the sun-drenched Aegean Sea, several fast sailing ships were sailing slowly with their sails hoisted.

The leading ship was beautiful and majestic, with several elegant Greek characters engraved on its streamlined hull.

Theodosius.

Obviously, this fast three-decker galley is the first medium-sized warship built by the Mansreti Shipyard of the Aulon Military District, the Theodosius galley blessed by Emperor Isaac and the Bishop of Aulon City himself.

But now, the double-headed eagle flag that should have been flying high was placed at the bottom of the cabin, and was replaced by the blue and white six-pointed star flag of the Karaman Bey Kingdom, which they called the "Seal of Suleiman".

Under the Seal of Suleiman, Ibrahim, the commander of the Purple Guard, leaned against the side of the ship with a depressed look on his face.

As one of the earliest senators to follow His Majesty Isaac, Ibrahim once served as the leader of the defeated Turkic soldiers, hiding in the countryside and driving the people in the Athens area south of Corinth to retain more vitality for the empire.

After completing his mission, His Royal Highness Isaac, who was still a prince at the time, did not deceive him. He not only gave him a good life for his wife and daughter, but also promoted him to the commander of the Purple Guard, in charge of a thousand soldiers.

Later, he earned the title of baron through his meritorious service, and had several fiefs in Soult and Cyrenaica. He received about five hundred ducats in taxes each year, which was enough for his family to live a wealthy life.

The eldest daughter finished her studies at St. Joseph's Monastery last year. When she attended a banquet held by the Queen at the Black Castle, she fell in love at first sight with a young man from the Palaeologus branch, and they soon developed a relationship that led to the stage of discussing marriage.

The young man is called Salmon. He is the youngest son of Andronicos Palaiologos, the executive dean of the Royal Knights Academy. He is currently serving as a knight squire in the Order of Saint Simon.

Coming from a prominent family, with a wealthy family and good personal abilities, and his daughter's love for him, Ibrahim could not think of any reason to refuse.

But who would have thought that before the wedding, my daughter got pregnant.

Damn the Greeks!

My daughter has been receiving Greek-style education. She didn’t learn much knowledge, but she did learn all kinds of bad habits!

Army Commander Ibrahim was furious, but there was nothing he could do. He had to announce the wedding would be held earlier than scheduled. He forced himself to smile in the face of the guests' blessings, fearing that they would see his daughter's bulging belly.

Just a few days after the wedding, the war call spread throughout Bilinchi. All the Purple Guards and the First Legion of the Guards who had been recruited earlier canceled their holidays, packed their bags, and followed their emperor to the battlefield once again.

After arriving in the capital, they stationed in the Lycas River Valley. The tents of the Purple Guards and the First Legion of the Guards were facing each other from afar, and there was a tendency for them to compete with each other.

Among all the emperor's legions, the First Guards and the Purple Guards were formed the earliest, participated in the most battles, have the highest proportion of veterans, and are the most loyal.

These two teams have been subject to overt and covert comparisons from all sides since their inception and have been in competition ever since.

In the joint military exercises frequently held by His Majesty the Emperor, the First Corps of the Guards and the Purple Guards each had their wins and losses, but overall the First Corps had the upper hand.

Ibrahim also had to admit that these proud crowned lions of the First Legion of the Guards did have their outstanding side.

However, the unruly soldiers of the Purple Guards only had a little respect for the First Legion of the Guards, and simply disdained the other legions.

Among the other legions, the Second Guards Legion had never fought any major battles, and no matter how loud its slogans were, it was just a barking watchdog.

The Third Guards Corps has some skills, and its spear phalanx is indeed extraordinary, but it is made of gold and there is nothing to brag about.

As for the fourth and fifth newly formed legions, they were only adequate in defending the city, but were completely incapable of fighting in the field.

The Orcs suffered heavy losses in the Siege of Soult, and although they were later replenished, they were no longer as strong as the iron army built by the Knight of Conti.

After Baron Conti was transferred away, it remained an unknown whether the Oak Corps could be deployed to the battlefield after Captain Liard took over.

As for the Slaves Legion, which was said to drink human blood and eat human flesh, they only obeyed the emperor himself, and there was almost no contact with them, and everyone was very taboo about it.

Ibrahim knew that his deputy corps commander Mehmet had always been a strategic general with strong ambition and love of learning. He tried to go one step further and become the first commander of a corps, but due to various reasons, he had never been able to achieve it.

It is said that the emperor is about to set up a staff agency in the army, and Mehmet will become the first chief of staff, but it is not known whether it is true or not.

"Captain of the Legion, we are about to reach the island of Cyprus."

A muffled voice beside him woke Ibrahim from his trance. Turning around, he saw the smiling face of Ottoman prince Orhan.

Ibrahim looked at him, feeling even more depressed.

After repeated requests from Emperor Isaac, His Majesty Constantine finally agreed to hand over Prince Orhan and his people to him for disposal, and they joined Ibrahim and the Purple Guards in this special mission.

Ibrahim still remembers the scene when the emperor called him to his study and assigned him a task.

"Ibrahim, come and sit down."

Seeing the emperor's friendly yet strange smile, Ibrahim's heart skipped a beat.

"Your Majesty, you called me here, what do you want me to do?"

"Does this place feel familiar to you?"

Ibrahim looked around, a wry smile on his face.

This is where the two met for the first time, even the decoration is exactly the same.

At that time, Ibrahim, who was spotted by His Highness Isaac at the slave market, stood here nervously, listening to His Highness's plan to plunder the people of Athens.

"Your Majesty, you will not..."

"You have a difficult task to accomplish."

"All the soldiers of the Purple Guard are your most loyal servants. Please feel free to give us your orders if you have anything to ask."

Ibrahim's expression changed, and he finally sighed and said.

"Karaman Bey is preparing for war against the Ottomans."

"Their main forces should be concentrated around the city of Ankara in the northwest, with fewer troops on the coast."

"I need you to go to Karaman and the western border of the Ottoman Empire, using Cyprus as a base to plunder the southwestern coast of Anatolia."

"Your main job is still the same as before. Disguise yourself as Turkish soldiers, harass Greek Orthodox villages, stir up conflicts between Orthodox Christians and Muslims, and thus attract more Greek Orthodox Christians to settle in Cyrenaica."

"I will arrange the fleet to cooperate with your work."

As Ibrahim expected, the emperor wanted them to use their own advantages to disguise themselves and play this kind of shady trick.

"Your Majesty, I must remind you that this is risky. They are not fools and will not be constantly manipulated by us."

Ibrahim said helplessly.

"So what if they are discovered? Those Orthodox Christians are not Roman citizens. As enemies, it is normal to attack them."

"I just like to dress up as a Turk and attack them, what's the problem?"

In this way, Ibrahim took on this task and went to Cyprus with part of the Purple Guards and Orhan's troops, ready to take advantage of the fierce war between Karaman and Ottoman Empire to take advantage of the situation.

Ugh!
Ibrahim looked at the land getting closer and closer and sighed in his heart.

……

In Constantinople, in the Palace of the Purple Nobles, Isaac and his father Constantine stood in the corridor, pacing anxiously.

Outside the corridor, many priests and nobles came spontaneously to watch and pray for the queen.

Neither man said a word, quietly waiting for the destined ending.

In the room, the woman's screams of pain and the royal midwife's encouraging voice came one after another, making Isaac's heart rise to his throat.

At Leonor's insistence, Isaac sent a fleet to pick her up after settling the situation in Constantinople.

In this way, the pregnant Leonor moved into the Purple Noble Palace with her big belly, and like all the queens of previous generations, she hoped to be born in the Purple Room.

It was Leonor's first time giving birth, and her slim figure caused the fetus to be in an abnormal position, making delivery difficult.

When the midwife told the anxiously waiting Isaac and Constantine the news, they stared at each other in amazement, not knowing what to do. In this era of extremely poor medical conditions, giving birth was a very risky thing. Although Isaac, as one of the most distinguished nobles in Europe, could invite the best doctors for his wife, he could only leave it to fate in this matter.

As waves of screams came, Isaac's heart rose to his throat. He wished he could ignore the midwife's ban and break into the room hung with purple curtains.

After a shrill scream, the sound stopped abruptly.

Isaac swallowed his saliva and waited for the final outcome.

Then, under the expectant eyes of everyone, the purple curtain was lifted by the sturdy midwife, and a baby wrapped in a purple robe was exposed in front of everyone.

"Congratulations, Your Majesties. Mother and child are safe."

The wrapped baby seemed to feel the burning gazes of the crowd, and his originally soft cry suddenly echoed throughout the corridor, forcefully breaking into everyone's heart.

Isaac handed his son to Constantine, hurried into the delivery room, and looked at his weak wife lying on the bed.

"It's a boy. Congratulations. You're going to be a father."

Looking at Leonor's pale smiling face, Isaac felt a little distressed.

"Thank you."

Isaac took her hand and laid his head beside hers.

"I almost thought I was going to hear a message from God just now."

Leonor sighed, looking down.

"God won't take you away from me."

"What kind of words are you talking about?"

Leonor held Isaac's hand tightly, afraid that he would leave.

"Give him a name."

“I don’t know how to name things.”

"You can."

Leonor shook her head stubbornly, looking at Isaac with her deep blue eyes.

On July 1451, 7, under the watchful eyes of God, in the Purple Palace of Constantinople, Queen Leonor of Rome gave birth to a baby boy, and both mother and child were safe.

Constantine, overjoyed, held his grandson in his arms and held a grand parade in the city of Constantinople so that all the citizens could see the newborn heir.

This child born in the Purple Palace was born noble and was named Justinian by Isaac, which expressed his good wishes.

To celebrate the birth of Justinian, the whole city held a three-day festival, and citizens, led by priests, went to several cathedrals to pray for the new heir to the empire.

Isaac then sent people to spread the news of the birth of his heir to Birinchi, Surt and even the small islands in West Africa, declaring his legitimacy.

……

The news of the birth of the heir really made Isaac and Constantine excited for a while, but this could not directly change the current embarrassing situation of the Roman Empire.

The Ottoman threat still looms overhead, and it remains unknown whether Constantinople can be defended.

"Earl Adnan is trying to conquer the remnants of the fake king Abdullah of Fezzan in the south, and he is requesting the central government to send troops for support."

In the study, Isaac looked at the pile of documents that had piled up over the holiday period with a headache, and reviewed them one by one.

"Approved. Arrange a thousand-man team of the Slaves Legion to cooperate with Count Adnan's operation. The conquered land will be divided according to the proportion."

Isaac thought for a moment and wrote down his opinion.

Further south of the Jufra Oasis, the climate would become extremely hot, no longer suitable for the Greeks to survive. If they conquered it, they would have to hand it over to the nomadic tribes, which was not cost-effective, so Isaac left it alone.

As Count Adnan earned a large amount of money through the iron ore trade, the situation south of Sirte has reversed. The pseudo-king Abdullah, who had previously held the upper hand, has become increasingly weak and is on the verge of defeat.

The last time he went to inspect, Count Adnan had already implicitly expressed his intention to completely eliminate the Fezzan forces, and obtained Isaac's approval.

Regardless, the distinguished leader remained loyal for the time being, and Isaac had no reason to stop a vassal committed to holy war.

What's more, they invite you to share the remaining land with them and don't even think about eating it all by yourself.

If the remaining Muslim forces can be destroyed this time, Isaac can use the expanded land to expand a Slavic team of 1,000 people.

“Ibrahim and Orhan have arrived in Cyprus and we will do our best to support their work…”

This was a report from Isaac's cousin, Chancellor Martial of the Gattilusio family, who, with the help of Isaac, successfully took charge of the Genoese Expatriate Parliament in Cyprus and became a member of the Regency.

"I have read it. I will continue to observe."

"We have observed that some Venetian merchants have appeared in Edirne and have close contacts with several Pashas who are close to the Sultan. I don't know what they are doing..."

Isaac looked at the report from the spy agency with a frown on his face.

Mehmed II was not a fool. It was impossible for him to charge head-on into Constantinople like he did in the original time and space when he knew that Constantinople had sufficient military strength and a powerful fleet. He would definitely respond by countering the enemy's moves.

“Keep a close eye on it and try to figure out what exactly their deal is.”

dong dong dong-

"Please come in."

"Your Majesty, there is a man outside who wants to see you. He has a letter of introduction from Engineer Martinez."

The one introduced by Martinez?

Isaac was a little confused.

"Tell him to come in."

A moment later, a middle-aged man with a slightly bald head walked in. His deep eyes were filled with wisdom and a hint of madness.

"I heard you got a recommendation from my firearms consultant, Mr. Martinez?"

"I have traveled extensively and have interacted with Martinez."

"Oh? So you are also a firearms engineer?"

Isaac became interested.