Patras

After leaving the city, Elion met Vitus as he had hoped. "Your Highness, we meet again."

Vitus scrutinized this short, stout Venetian with the exaggerated mustache on his upper lip, searching his memory for a moment, but found no record of this man.

Elion explained, "Last year, when I was transporting supplies outside the city of Milan, I visited the siege camp at Florence. You were drinking and eating with a group of Hungarians at the time, so you didn't notice me."

So that was it?

Vitus did not lower his guard and asked for Elion's true intentions, "Mr. Daltino, are you trying to persuade me to withdraw my troops?"

"No, I actually have no desire to participate in this conflict. But Centurione's mental state is terrible, and I fear he might cut me down in a fit of rage, so I agreed to leave the city."

Having spent years trading abroad, Elion was extremely sensitive to the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean. With the competition between Venice and the Ottoman Empire now reaching a fever pitch, Venice had to concentrate its navy to thwart Ottoman maritime ambitions and had no time to interfere in the war on the Peloponnese.

From his perspective, this peninsula was a classic "non-performing asset." Most of the region consisted of mountainous terrain that was difficult to develop, and the Greek peasants were filled with hatred for Venice, leading to exorbitant costs of governance.

More troublesome was the fact that the Venetian army was mediocre and could never block an Ottoman advance on land. Since there was a high probability that the peninsula would fall into Ottoman hands, there was clearly no need for a Venetian merchant to wade into these muddy waters.

"Your Highness, as long as you acknowledge Venice's control over Modon and Coron, Venice will never assist Centurione."

(Note: In 1206, Venice gained control of two seaports in the southwest of the Peloponnese: Modon and Coron, and obtained recognition from the Principality of Achaea.)

Manuel had mentioned this matter long before they set out, and Vitus chose to follow the Emperor's wishes. "I agree. Is there anything else?"

Elion shook his head, claiming he would find a nearby village to stay in for a few days and return to Patras once the war was over.

Walking out of the main military tent, he was suddenly struck by a wave of intense regret. Now that I've run off, what about the goods I left inside the city?

Elion stood outside the tent, struggling with his decision for a long time, before finding Vitus again and proposing to act as an inside man.

"Your Highness, when a man is in despair, he is highly likely to commit destructive acts. I worry that Centurione and the Latin nobles might burn the city down at the last moment. To save those innocent residents, I am willing to contact the mercenaries inside the city..."

Vitus was half-skeptical but promised Elion a share of the spoils, on the condition that he convince the mercenaries inside the city to rebel and facilitate the entry of the Eastern Roman Empire army within three days.

Elion's speed of action exceeded Vitus's expectations. On November 25, Elion and five mercenary captains launched a sudden uprising during a banquet, seizing the Duke and some of his confidants, then sealing the courtyard gates to prevent outside guards from coming to their aid.

"Signal them now!"

At Elion's urging, a mercenary captain fired a rocket into the night sky, which soon drew over three hundred mercenaries to seize control of the mansion where the Duke was held.

More than an hour later, the remaining Latin nobles finally reacted. They brought troops to surround the mansion but were hesitant and restrained in their subsequent attacks. By the time they made up their minds, the Eastern Roman Empire army had already occupied the South Gate.

The next morning, Vitus had his subordinates count the captives and the spoils. In this battle, the Eastern Roman Empire captured a total of 1,500 people, including Duke Centurione, four barons, twenty-five knights, six hundred and five soldiers, and their families.

Vitus planned to send the Duke and his family to Constantinople while detaining the remaining barons and knights until their relatives paid a ransom.

According to long-standing tradition, the victor was expected to treat defeated noble captives with dignity and had the right to demand a ransom. The specific amount varied from person to person, roughly equivalent to 2–4 times the captive noble's annual income.

In 1415, after the Battle of Agincourt, King Henry V of England, fearing a counterattack by the French, ordered the execution of prisoners of war (including nobles). The English nobility of the time resisted this vehemently, and in the end, it was longbowmen from the commoner class who carried out the order, executing the prisoners who had surrendered with daggers.

In Vitus's view, Henry V's actions had invited the hatred of many nobles, and the fact that central and southern France continued to resist might have been partly due to this.

"Uranus, have your men guard these people strictly. They are not to be mistreated, nor are they to be allowed to escape!"

With the matter of the captives settled, Vitus began to inspect this city at the northern end of the peninsula. More than three-quarters of the area was derelict, and there were only a thousand residents left in the city.

He found the Venetian merchant Elion. "You promised to reduce losses earlier; how did it end up like this?"

Elion shook his head desperately. "It has nothing to do with me. Have you forgotten the war two years ago? At that time, the main Ottoman force besieged Constantinople and simultaneously sent a detachment to pillage the Peloponnese. Patras was ransacked, and over four thousand residents were taken as slaves. If you don't believe me, you can ask the locals."

Vitus truly had not expected that throughout the entire Achaea region, Andravida, with only two thousand five hundred residents, was the largest settlement.

In a foul mood, he took Elion to the warehouse where the spoils were stored and pointed to a chest of coins and a pile of gold and silver utensils on the floor to the left. "This is the payment promised to you. Take your goods and your mercenary accomplices and leave at once."

Elion did not press the matter further; he sensibly packed up his belongings and goods and headed to the pier in the west of the city to board a ship and depart. The remaining three hundred Achaea mercenaries, fearing they would be purged, also fled by ship as quickly as they could.

On November 27, Vitus left a small force to garrison Patras and led his army along the coastline, arriving at the northernmost tip of the Peloponnese.

Lead-gray clouds pressed down upon the sea, and a few gray-white seagulls hovered in mid-air, foraging. Vitus stood on the edge of the cliff, the hem of his heavy wool cloak snapping in the wind.

A stretch of sea about several kilometers wide lay ahead, and further north was the Ottoman-occupied region of Greece. He squinted his eyes, stung by the sea breeze, as the silhouettes of fishing villages on the opposite shore flickered in the gloom.

"Looking north into the vast, hazy expanse, birds fly away and return, never-ending. I cannot suppress the tears for the Central Plains that fill my eyes; I shall not ascend the first mountain of Duliang."

Although the occasion was different, Vitus deeply felt the despair of the Southern Song literati. He recited the lines facing the bay for a long time before suddenly turning to ask Marcus, "When do you think I will be able to recover all of Greece?"

"Uh? That's hard to say. Perhaps ten years, twenty years..."

Looking at his subordinate's blank face, Vitus sighed, climbed onto his horse, and continued his journey along the coastline.

As news of the Duke's capture spread, the Principality of Achaea, which had lasted for over two hundred years, collapsed. The Eastern Roman Empire army met no resistance along the way and finally arrived at Corinth on the northeastern tip of the peninsula.