In the Middle Ages, people drew cards to be promoted to nobility. - Chapter 690

c687 Roman Chronicles

The Genoese in Galata bargained and succumbed when they saw that Losa would not give in.

Rome’s inclusion of Galata in its rule did not arouse much resistance from the Genoese. It had proved who was capable of protecting them when foreign enemies invaded.

This city, which had a much smaller population and area than Constantinople, had a monopoly on the imperial tariff privileges, and its revenue in its heyday was enough to surpass Constantinople ten times.

Of course, this number seems terrifying, but in fact, after losing commercial interests and the support of her body, the queen of cities could not collect much tax. This increase and decrease led to such a terrifying proportion.

The Ottoman messengers soon arrived at the palace, and not one party, but three parties came one after another, all to seek the emperor’s canonization and support.

Although the emperor could not help them, he could definitely ruin their business.

Just like when Constantine XI succeeded to the throne, he sought the approval of Mahmud II. Mahmud II might not be able to sit firmly on the throne of the Roman emperor if he chose someone, but as long as he didn’t want to, that person would definitely not be able to sit firmly on the throne of the emperor.

This is also a chain of suspicion.

Even if someone is unwilling to kowtow to the pagan emperor, he will also worry that other competitors will take the initiative to seek the emperor’s help. After all, that is the emperor who has a dragon rider who can kill Mahmud II.

The Roman emperor, who was weak and insecure in the past, has become a high arbitrator and a sword of Damocles hanging over everyone’s head.

Unfortunately, the three forces did not get the approval of the Roman emperor.

That night, Losa personally crowned Orhan in Hagia Sophia, conferred on him the title of King of the Ottomans, granted him the right to govern the central region of Anatolia, and granted him the power to freely expand his territory to the east.

There are a large number of Greeks living in the coastal areas of western Asia Minor. This part of the territory was once the core territory of the Nicaea Empire. After being recovered, it could provide a large number of soldiers for Rome. The Ottomans also rose here.

This part of the area is naturally impossible to “bind” and must be directly governed. In Losa’s eyes, its importance is even greater than the settlements of Slavs in the northern Balkans.

Nicaea can rely on a corner of the western coast of Asia Minor to recover Constantinople and rebuild Rome, which can also indirectly prove the importance of Asia Minor to Rome.

Although compared to this, Losa feels that the so-called “Latin Empire” commercial profits have been sucked dry by the Venetians, and taxation cannot be raised at all because of the weak centralization, the deep-rooted church and local forces, and the existence of many hereditary lords and church tax-free properties.

Financial problems are always the most intuitive manifestation of the end of the dynasty.

After conquering the Genoese of Galata, he indirectly controlled an army through Orhan to fight for himself. With soldiers and money, the game was 99% won. If he continued to immerse himself in it, it would be a waste of time.

After a tour of Constantinople, Losa chose trusteeship with confidence.

In 1453 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine Dragases Palaeologus successfully defeated the Turkish army besieging Constantinople and killed the Ottoman King Mahamu II in battle, and the Ottoman Empire fell into a state of fragmentation.

In the same year, the Roman emperor recovered the Thracian province and established a new aristocratic system with military merit land system as the core.

In July 1454 AD, Rome marched into Thessaloniki, and General Giovanni Giustiniani killed the head of the Ottoman warlord who ruled the place.

Those Greek people who were in danger of their future and hungry were excited and welcomed the long-lost double-headed eagle flag.

They experienced the brutal looting of the Crusaders and pagans, and when the double-headed eagle flag flew again in Thessalonica, they rose up one after another to resist the rule of the pagans.

In the same year, the Roman army continued to move south and recovered Epirus and Athens.

Dimitri, the Grand Duke of Morea and the brother of the emperor, refused Giovanni’s request to provide supplies to the Roman army and confronted the Roman army at the walls of Corinth.

The funny thing is that the emperor only sent Lady Viviana, the dragon rider, to fly over his head on the red and black dragon, and Dimitri, the Grand Duke of Morea, was tied up by his guards and sent to the front.

Since then, all the Greek regions except the Aegean Islands, Crete, and Rhodes have been recovered and triumphant.

In 1455, Orhan, as the legitimate heir of the Ottoman family, gained the support of a large number of local forces in Asia Minor and started a civil war with the local Ottoman warlords. After a short period of recuperation, Rome took the opportunity to march into the coast of Asia Minor and recapture the Nicea Military District.

In 1456, Rome and the Ottomans joined forces to defeat the Mamluk, Karaman, and Ottoman separatist warlord coalition forces, and the central and western regions of Asia Minor and the coastal areas of Asia Minor were liberated.

Orhan, who ascended the throne of the Ottoman king, reaffirmed his Christian faith and openly swore allegiance to the emperor. The Mamluk king of the Burgi dynasty angrily denounced him as a traitor and took the opportunity to annex Karaman, Dulkadir and other eastern territories of Asia Minor.

Confronted Orhan in the Taurus Mountains and the Great Ararat Mountains.

In the same year, Rome launched a series of measures to restore production in Asia Minor and rebuilt the military district system. The old nobles whose interests were infringed supported Orhan to rebel.

But Orhan stood firmly on the side of the emperor, and in just half a year, he suppressed the rebellion again. Countless lives were lost and rivers of blood flowed. For a time, the ethnic minorities and local forces in Asia Minor were silent and dared not make any unusual moves.

In 1457, Rome demanded that the Burghid dynasty cede the territory of Asia Minor and guarantee the smooth passage of pilgrims on the grounds that the Burghid dynasty funded the rebels, but the Burghid dynasty flatly refused.

The war between Rome and the Mamluks was ignited again.

In 1459, the army led by the emperor recovered Jerusalem, cut off all the Burghid dynasty’s tentacles extending into Egypt, and the Levant was triumphantly recovered.

The former Bishop Aeneas, who had visited Constantinople and participated in the defense of Constantinople, and now His Holiness Pope Pius II praised the emperor as the “Protector of the Holy Sepulchre”, “Restorer and Guardian of the Holy Land”, and “Killer of Paganism”. In the dispute between Rome and the Genoese over the Aegean Islands, he openly declared his support for Rome and demanded that the Genoese agree to Rome’s request to take back the islands by ransom.

In 1460, Rome recovered the Aegean Islands. The headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes was moved to Constantinople. The island’s governance theoretically returned to Rome, but it was still managed by the Knights Hospitaller.

In 1466, the Lusignan royal family in Cyprus died out and fell into civil strife. Rome took the opportunity to recover the island of Cyprus, which was strongly protested by the Venetians, and the relationship between the two sides fell to a freezing point.

In 1467, the Venetians once again stood with the pagans in Egypt and launched a trade war against Rome. Rome declared war on the Venetians on the grounds of colluding with pagans. In February of the following year, it defeated the Venetian and Egyptian fleets in the Aegean Sea.

The Venetians withdrew from the war at the cost of ceding Crete, the Aegean Islands and the Balkan coastal territories.

In the same year, the Roman army crossed the Sinai Peninsula and defeated the Egyptian army in the Nile Delta.

In 1468, Rome broke through Cairo, captured the last king of the Burgi Dynasty, and Egypt was triumphantly liberated.

In 1474 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine XI sponsored Christopher Columbus, a young navigator born in Galata, the Roman Empire. He led three sailing ships, the Nicaea, the Constantine, and the Viviana, out of the Strait of Gibraltar.

At the end of 1476 AD, the young navigator Columbus, who had been gradually forgotten by people, successfully returned to Constantinople and met with the emperor in the Brahena Palace to explain his “great” discovery.

Since then, a new world named “Elysium” (paradise) by the emperor has slowly appeared in people’s sight.

In 1472 AD, the Roman emperor sent envoys to reach an agreement with Lady Isabella, the crown prince of the Kingdom of Castile and the sister of King Henry IV the Incompetent, who was living in the court of Aragon, and sent Orhan to capture the coastal cities of the Kingdom of Granada and establish a military district there.

At the end of 1474, King Henry IV of Castile died. Lady Isabella decisively went to Segovia for the coronation ceremony and appointed her husband, Crown Prince Fernando of Aragon, as her co-king.

In early 1475, the opposition nobles who were unwilling to accept Queen Isabella’s rule supported Juana, the niece of King Alfonso of Portugal and the daughter of the incompetent “Enrique IV”, as king, and the War of the Castilian Succession broke out.

The two sides fought a great battle in Seville. At the critical moment, Queen Isabella persuaded Giovanni Giustiniani, a Roman general stationed in Granada, to intervene in the war.

The Latin mercenaries, renamed the “Wolf” flag team, fought extremely bravely this time, completely washing away the bad reputation of Latin mercenaries, defeating the “rebel” troops from the flank and capturing the Portuguese Prince Joao who led the troops.

In 1477 AD, Rome assisted Queen Isabella in suppressing the rebellion, and the protracted War of the Castilian Succession came to an end. A new kingdom spanning the Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas, with Castile and Aragon as the two cores, reached an alliance with another ancient empire spanning the Balkans, Asia Minor, the Levant, and Egypt, and the two sides agreed to share the Mediterranean hegemony.

The Venetians’ maritime power suffered a huge squeeze.

In 1479 AD, Rome formed a large fleet and landed in Tunisia, North Africa from the sea.

The long-lost “Africa Province” returned to the embrace of the empire, and Rome’s route to the New World has been unobstructed since then.

In 1486 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine XI, who was over 80 years old, died suddenly in the Brahena Palace. In the same year, Viviana, the candle knight who accompanied the emperor throughout his life and was almost regarded as the mistress of the empire, disappeared without a trace, leaving a new romantic legend for this world.

The emperor had no children, never married, and left behind very little property. When the coffin of this emperor who lived a life of poverty and saved the crumbling Rome passed through the avenue, many citizens cried and fainted.

Orhan Osmanoglu, then governor of Asia Minor and co-emperor of Rome, succeeded to the throne.

At the succession ceremony, he said in great sorrow: He took over a crumbling and ruined country, but left behind an unprecedented great country spanning four continents, Europe, Asia, Africa and Elysium.

Many people stubbornly insisted that the emperor was not dead, but was taken away by an angel and turned into a marble statue. When Rome fell into danger again, the emperor would return like lightning, riding a white-legged mare, and save the country again.