Eagle Byzantium

"Long live, long live!" Amidst the trumpets and cheers, a huge wooden frame fifteen feet high and fifty-two feet wide was erected in the center of the Salabria field, filled with straw bags and earth baskets. It forms a striking wall that can be seen by the audience on the tower of the city wall. , and finally a large linen painting was hung on it, with charcoal graffiti on it showing the head of a man with a twisted and ferocious face. Naturally, the words "Gawain Russell" were written in Greek underneath. That head. His teeth were bared, like an unkempt beast, facing the emperor who was standing beside him.

The emperor's newly formed "New Immortal Legion" carried copper muskets and marched towards the wooden wall. They were all outstanding soldiers from the imperial capital and the Thracian region. They were recruited into the Immortal Army. There were about a thousand Five hundred people, three hundred people were previously selected by Alexios's court officials to form ten rows, and then the huge Big gunfire and noises were everywhere - they walked to the wooden frame wall in rows, and then shouted "Death to the devil in hell", and then fired the arrows in the fire blunderbuss, shooting the portrait of Gawain. Linen paintings, after one row finished firing, they split into two sides and retreated, and then the next row continued to approach and fire fiercely.

Many citizens of Constantinople and residents outside the city came in huge crowds to see this terrifying and novel weapon. People were frightened by the discipline of the Emperor's Immortal Army and the terrifying sophistication of the weapons, so much so that a woman was immediately roared by The sound frightened her into miscarriage.

The shouts of "Long live the Emperor" also grew louder and louder, almost covering up the sound of fire cannons. The emperor on the horse saw that the portrait of his hated enemy was pierced by fire arrows and burned. Kong, his face was even more distorted, half of it was burnt black, "Gawain, you will die so miserably in real life sooner or later." Alexios muttered silently in his heart.

Then, under the introduction of the imperial ink officer and the palace chief steward, the two young officers half-knelt in front of the emperor's horse, "Matthew, Celi Laruus, as my palace guards, before You have shown outstanding professionalism in the counterinsurgency battle. Now I want to promote you two, Matthew, you are responsible. As soon as I cross the strait, Matthew will take over the South Opushkin region, which means you will be the one from then on. The concurrent governor and sword-bearing nobleman of the place, and Selilaruus is the region of Braxilon.”

After hearing this, the chief steward Nicodemya lowered his head and sighed slightly. He opened his aging eyes and saw his nephew Mihai who was riding a horse absent-mindedly in front of the Varangian Palace Guards on the other side of the shooting range. Er - his armor is so-so, and his mental state is also very bad. With such attire and appearance, compared with the two young heroes promoted by the emperor, how can he talk about a bright future?

After the entire city of Constantinople was still immersed in the joy of victory, the emperor returned to Brachna Palace together with all the guards, but he would only stay in this magnificent palace for a short time. That's all, there is only one reason: I need some time to deploy a new offensive against Anatolia and Antioch.

Alexios, wearing a golden crown, purple cloak and tasseled armor, stood in front of the throne in the River Hall. Generals, guards and court officials stood on both sides, and in the middle was a huge silver plate map, "Bohemon Germany has attacked my protectorate of Marash Armenia. I will declare war on this ungrateful Norman bandit and regain Antioch. It is the most traditional legal territory of the Roman Empire and will never be defiled by barbarians!"

"As your Majesty wishes!" All the Roman Empire generals raised their fists in response, and the guards behind them kept pulling out the sword hilts on their shoulders and sending them back, making exciting concussions.

Then the emperor pointed his finger, "I am going from Cilicia to Antioch. Which country do you think I will pass through along the way?"

"Using the self-reliant kingdom of Tarsus!" was the answer.

"Then I will clear out this bandit's nest first, and order my vassals Raymond, Stephen and Robert to mobilize, and my archduke generals Harold and Brennus to mobilize to build a fort and pavement for me. roads and bridges, I will gather all my forces to march from the plateau and besiege Gawain's Iconium and Miliocephalon, and I will ask Theodorus to attack from the north at the same time. Apsomates, who opposed the island of Cyprus, asked him to block the sea route to Cilicia from the south, saying that I would grant him the official title of proconsul and protect him from all power on that island. In addition, he ordered all Italian city-states to be cut off. The business relationship with Gawain has shifted to providing me with a fleet, and I am willing to give them more islands as bases for warehouse supplies and greater tax-free treatment.”

After hearing the following words, the silent imperial minister Burrill became even more depressed: Now that more than half of the entire empire's commerce is in the hands of Italians of all kinds, what are the bureaucrats and customs doing?

"I am bound to win this expedition, and the empire's national destiny will no longer set like the rising sun. In order to ensure good army logistics, and continue to subjugate Dalmatia, Epirus, and Dishulam, place, destroyed Gawain and obtained it from the sea route of Bali City Following the path of Khitan Snow, I now give Crown Prince John the new titles of Despot and Logothete. The former means that he is now almost equal to my co-emperor and sole heir, while the latter means that he has unimpeded authority in the imperial government. To block the power, please ask my Royal Ink Officer to register these two titles in the official title book. Therefore, the government after the stay is arranged like this-John is in charge of the overall situation, Lord Burrill is in charge of his government affairs, and my emperor is in charge of the affairs. Isaac Sebastocratze Unified command of all the armies of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Moria, and Thessaly, continued to advance towards the city of Ragusa, demanding the city-state's submission, and then cut down mountain timber to build a strengthened fleet, and bribed Ancona to prepare for the siege of Gawain The city of Bari.”

Burrill's face was ashen. In this way, the power of the empire was forbidden to the Komnenos family.

Rome's thousand-year-old electoral system and the "public office" of the Supreme Emperor are about to be completely ended. Although it was just a skeleton before, at least the emperor still retains a bureaucracy (under the banner of the imperial government, customs and courts, etc. ), great nobles (the Senate), military nobles (heavy cavalry landowners in various places) and citizen curia (the Curia Congress was abolished by Leo VI, but the civil power of Eastern Rome existed through the athletic party) , at most one group is drawn to fight against the other group. Now it is completely different. The emperor is personally responsible for the entire eastern theater of the empire, his younger brother is responsible for the western theater, and his son is responsible for the government affairs in the capital. At the same time, the emperor has recently granted a large number of official titles to the Komnenos relatives. This... .It really made Burrill feel scared and painful.

From then on the Empire was Komnenos, and Komnenos was the Empire.

After the imperial meeting was disbanded, Zaifu was unhappy and returned to his mansion.

Alexios first went to the monastery on the outskirts of the capital to visit his mother Darasena, who had her head covered again because the situation was stable.

"I think it would be better for you to take John with you and go out together. Let him command all aspects of the army. It will be good for his experience and prestige." Dalasena sat on the chair and suggested slowly. (To be continued ~^~)