In late December, Marcus returned to the Frontier Army headquarters and met the White Sheep messenger who had been waiting for many days.
"We defeated Jagiellon Dynasty in September. I didn't expect you to come here to ask for peace now. It's too slow."
Marcus used a threatening tone to scare away the messenger, then took out a pen and paper to write a report.
First, he introduced the losses and results of each ministry, and made a list of supplies that needed assistance.
"This year, the enemy has lost tens of thousands of people. Next year's offensive will be weakened, or even no attack will be launched..."
Marcus turned to the next page and mentioned his adjustments to the eastern border defense.
Generally speaking, the defense system in the east is complete, but the enemy's firearms technology is backward and their attack ability is poor. Even if the enemy has a larger number, we can still repel them.
Rome and White Sheep have been in a border conflict for a long time, and trade between the two sides has been cut off. It is impossible for the enemy to obtain firearms and smelting technology from Rome.
Marcus is worried that White Sheep may purchase firearms from Portugal, just as Ottoman obtained such reinforcements from Venice.
"However, transporting firearms from Portugal to White Sheep requires bypassing the entire Africa. This cost is too high."
Marcus spent an hour writing a three-page report and signed and stamped it at the end.
In fact, Frontier Army also faces a thorny problem - the supply of firearms.
Although there are abundant coal and iron resources in the east, Arsenal here only produces cold weapons, and all firearms come from the rear.
All along, the firearms in the rear were transported by sea to ports such as Trebizond, then transferred to land routes, and sent to Tabriz after four hundred miles.
In winter, heavy snow blocks the mountains and transportation can only be interrupted. The front line relies on a small amount of inventory to maintain demand.
In early December, White Sheep Army gave up the siege, and Logistics Department almost emptied the warehouses of Tabriz, Van and other places and distributed them to front-line troops on the border.
There are currently a thousand damaged Matchlock left at the headquarters, and it is estimated that half of them can be repaired.
If there is insufficient firearms, Logistics Department can only take out Crossbow from the warehouse for emergency use.
Regarding this phenomenon of "not producing firearms on the front line", Central Administration's reason is that he is worried that the front line will be lost and the enemy will capture the craftsmen and obtain more advanced firearms technology.
Marcus guessed another reason: Central Administration was worried about the rebellion of the border troops and deliberately concentrated firearms production capacity in the Sea of Marmara area.
Therefore, he did not apply for the establishment of a firearms workshop in the report, and it would be useless if he wrote it. It would only deepen the suspicion of the civilian officials towards the border troops.
Boom! Boom!
The sound of bells came from the outside world, and Marcus walked towards the headquarters canteen. The slate at the door read tonight's dishes: goat meat stew, Fish Soup, bread...
"Why is it goat meat again?"
Marcus is old and doesn't like goat meat which has firm texture and stronger smell. He sat in a familiar seat and ate the mutton, onions and chickpeas from the bowl with an expressionless face.
This time the goat meat was simmered for a longer time, and the taste was improved compared to last time. Marcus felt the smell between his lips and teeth, and secretly sighed:
"In a few years, it will be time for me to retire. I grew up in the Attica area, and the climate and diet of the Aegean Sea are more suitable for me."
He was canonized as a hereditary noble of the empire and owned Anros Island for generations, but he rarely went back in these years.
I wrote a letter from home and mentioned that life on the island is very peaceful. The only change is that the eldest son has released a large herd of deer in the forest.
Marcus thinks this is good. After retirement, going into the forest to hunt deer with a shotgun or sitting on the beach and fishing are the best pastimes. The taste of venison is much more delicious than goat meat.
January 1456, Blachernae Palace.
Recently, Vitus felt that the casualties of Privy Council's combat plan were too high, and he planned to come up with a new combat plan.
France's core manpower exceeds tens of millions. As long as Charles VII has money, it can continuously provide soldiers to the army.
Different from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Greece culture has a population of only five million, mainly distributed in Greece, Thrace, Anatolia west, and Tauris, and bears the most taxes and soldiers.
In normal times, the size of the Eastern Roman Empire's standing army is 200,000, and there are 100,000 Garrison Troops, occupying a total of 300,000 young and middle-aged labor force.
There seem to be a lot of remaining young and middle-aged people, but in today's agricultural society, young and middle-aged people support Agriculture and Animal Husbandry production, and only a small number can be mobilized to fight.
If too many soldiers are lost, on the one hand, it will affect the agricultural development of the core area, and on the other hand, it will cause the core area to be unable to suppress other areas, which may easily lead to rebellion.
"Naples and Epirus are very close and are the enemy's key defense areas. When we launched the landing in the spring, the enemy must have repaired the coastal defense turrets and Trace Italienne, making the attack extremely difficult..."
Suddenly, the noise of children outside interrupted his thoughts.
Vitus put on a thick sable fur coat and walked out of the hospital. He saw Manuel, John, Pierre and others jumping around under the eaves in the distance, trying to take down the kite hanging on the eaves.
Vitus watched silently as the servants moved the ladder and took down the kite.
Today, Manuel and John are still very afraid of Vitus. They greeted the emperor respectfully and ran away with kites and toys.
Vitus looked at the backs of the two of them, recalling in his mind the appearance of Romanus and Leo when they were young, "Time flies too fast."
After the reminiscence, he wandered around the palace aimlessly, like a bored tiger patrolling the mountains and forests.
Pelato followed behind, walking in a very low voice, like a shadow.
Ahead was a spacious courtyard, and behind the trees the laughter of Agnes and a group of ladies could be heard, seemingly discussing the private life of a certain Italy noble family.
Vitus didn't want to participate in their conversation, so he chose a corridor leading to the right.
There is a craftsman here repairing Mosaic, and a young apprentice is responsible for assisting, handing over tools and materials from time to time.
The young man who supervised the work, Eunuch, leaned against the wall and fell asleep with his hands clasped in his hands. When he saw the emperor appear, he hurriedly saluted and almost slipped.
"You go on with your business and leave me alone."
Vitus stood there with great interest, watching the craftsmen remove the damaged mosaics and replace them with new colored glass or other materials.
Sometimes, craftsmen carefully remove a thin layer of gold foil and sandwich it between two pieces of transparent glass to achieve the effect of a divine light enveloping the figures in the painting.
"What period is this mosaic from?"
The craftsman stopped working to prepare a reply, and the young Eunuch next to him responded quickly, "Komnenos period. The craftsman followed your instructions and repaired the painting as it was without changing the content of the painting."
Immediately afterwards, young Eunuch took out a picture album from the craftsman's package. The first dozen pages were the mosaics that needed to be repaired, and the last three pages were the newly designed patterns.
The young Eunuch found that the emperor was very interested in the new pattern, so he winked to the craftsman and asked him to explain it in detail.
The craftsman was not good at words and talked for a long time, saying that this was a popular style in recent years. Due to the advancement of glass technology, craftsmen can use more types of stained glass, and the colors of the mosaics are more gorgeous.
Vitus flipped through the album back and forth, thoughtfully.
In the past, the figures in the mosaics were solemn and solemn, with a large golden background behind them, highlighting their sanctity.
"""xiao""said""""hand type""update"
The mosaics used now are smaller, the patterns themselves are more detailed, the lines are softer, and they are no longer limited to figure paintings. There are landscape paintings specifically depicting the ocean and snow-capped mountains, and there is also a flower-and-bird painting depicting a peacock walking on Garden.
"The design idea is very good, just do it according to your idea."
Vitus returned the album to the craftsman and walked forward along the corridor.
Arriving at the corner at the end of the corridor, he heard two maids discussing the results of the late autumn competition. One of them complained about his eyesight.
"That Trebizond swordsman is a waste. His opponent is only as tall as his shoulders, so he can lose? If I had known this, I should have bet on another person..."
At this time, Pelato coughed, and the two of them were too scared to speak.
After a while, the younger maid adjusted her mood and raised her head, and found that the emperor had walked away.
The late fall competition originated from Don Frontier's summer competition.
Subsequently, each Province held their own summer competition. Five years ago, Ilya, as the proposer of this event, suggested that Central Administration hold an additional late autumn competition.
The competition was held in Early October. Winners from all over the country went to Hippodrome in Constantinople to participate in the competition. The whole process lasted for twenty days and was enthusiastically welcomed by the citizens of Constantinople.
Vitus lacks interest in this. Although he has participated in many wars, he does not like such noisy activities in peacetime.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Vitus returned to the study and saw a sleeping gray cat lying on the bookshelf to the right of the door. Its whiskers were trembling slightly and its throat was purring slightly.
"I usually run around everywhere, but in winter I hide in the study to keep warm."
Vitus muttered a few words, but after all, he did not disturb the other party's sleep.
He walked to the desk, where there was a new official document, which was Knights Hospitaller's equipment purchase application.
Last year, the Grand Commander received an order from Holy See, which mentioned that Naples's troops openly passed through Holy See States without permission, and Pope asked Knights Hospitaller to send troops for reinforcements.
Soon, the Grand Commander organized an army of two thousand people to go to Rome and take over the almost non-existent city defense.
Taking into account various factors, French Army did not attack Rome, nor did it openly annex the remaining Holy See States. Instead, it asked the city-states of Holy See States to provide supplies and military expenses.
Overall, Holy See States's burden is slightly lighter than that of "France allies" such as Venice and Florence.
Italian Wars is still going on, and the Knights plan to send the remaining troops to Rome to serve as guards. There are a total of four thousand people, less than half of whom are formal members, and the remaining soldiers are civilians recruited temporarily.
"It is estimated that there will be no fight. As long as French Army does not attack Rome, there is a high probability that the Knights will not take the initiative and both sides will maintain their final dignity."
Legally speaking, Knights Hospitaller is an organization under the jurisdiction of Holy See and is not loyal to any secular monarch.
However, nearly half of the knights of Knights Hospitaller come from the noble families of France, so there will inevitably be some concerns about allowing them to attack Iris.
Vitus thought about it for half a minute and agreed to sell one thousand Matchlock.
The role of Knights Hospitaller is limited to defending the city. There is no point in giving more Matchlock.
Vitus speculates that throughout the war, Rome will become a neutral stronghold, and subsequent negotiations will also be held at Rome.
In the past, Vitus attacked the Crusaders countries (Achaea, Cyprus, Athens, Epirus), Ottoman, and Golden Horde, without any thought of negotiation.
The situation is different now. The Eastern Roman Empire, Jagiellon, and France camps have each other's territories that are too vast, and no one has the ability to completely destroy the other side.
Last year's Balkans war and this year's Italy conflict were both limited wars. To the end of the war, the envoys from both sides would always bargain and seek a dignified exit.
Vitus took out the unfinished map and continued to plan the battle plan.
"Brindisi, Taranto, Naples, Rome..."
He marked the map with a graphite pen, sometimes used a ruler to draw the map, and sometimes picked up a piece of bread to erase part of the handwriting.
Clang! Clang!
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the bell rang outside. Vitus looked at the dark sky outside the window and stretched. He could vaguely hear the noise of the officials getting off work.
At the same time, the gray cat on the bookshelf was awakened, yawned, then tilted its head and licked its front paws.
Vitus walked over and stroked the soft and warm hair. The gray cat continued to tilt its head and rubbed the back of his hand twice.
Not long after, the gray cat jumped off the carpet nimbly, darting out of the room like a swift gray shadow and disappearing into the deepening dusk.
After being busy until now, Vitus has initially drafted a new attack plan. At this moment, he is overusing his brain and does not want to stay in the study any longer.
Ten minutes later, Vitus arrived at the restaurant.
Since he came very early today, the kitchen was still busy, so the servant temporarily brought some fried fish and cakes.
"The fried fish tastes good." Vitus picked up the newspaper with his left hand, poked a piece of fried fish with his right hand and ate it in small bites.
This "Arno River Citizen Gazette" comes from Florence and is currently controlled by Medici.
The most conspicuous thing on the front page of the newspaper is an editorial, which highly praises the peace that Charles VII has brought to Apennine Peninsula, ending hundreds of years of chaos...
Vitus frowned, trying to understand the true intention of this editorial.
"What on earth does Charles VII want to do, to gain the status of ruling Italy? Or rather, to gain the status of ruling the entire Western Mediterranean?"
In 774 AD, Charlemagne marched into Italy, incorporated the central and northern parts of Italy into its territory, and later appointed his son as the king of Italy. Later, Pope crowned Charlemagne, calling him "the emperor of the Rome people".
In 843, the Frankish Empire split into West Francia, Central Francia, and East Francia, and the situation fell into chaos.
In 924 AD, Berengar I was killed, leaving the title of emperor vacant.
Later, King Otto I of the Eastern Franks invaded Italy and became King Italy. In 962, he was crowned emperor and became the first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. After that, Emperor Holy Roman Empire also served as King Italy.
To a certain extent, Otto I's title of emperor is inherited from Charlemagne, and he is the supreme secular monarch of the Western Europe Catholic Church world.
Now, this title belongs to House of Habsburg. Although Frederick III is weaker, it has the supreme status.
"Could it be said that after Charles VII defeated Eastern Roman Empire's army, he will go to Austria to force House of Habsburg to give up this title?"
Vitus was thinking deeply and suddenly remembered the story of Napoleon disbanding Holy Roman Empire and forming Confederation of the Rhine.
"No, Charles VII has a different personality than Napoleon and cannot do such a thing.
He may continue the current practice and sign alliance agreements with various Italy city-states, forming alliances in name but de facto vassals, asking them to provide taxes or other support.
The disadvantage of this is that it is somewhat "inappropriate name and inconsistent words". After Charles VII's death, this relationship is likely to fade away and eventually end."
"What are you thinking about?"
Finding that her husband had been in a daze for more than half an hour, Agnes tapped the silver cup with her fork, urging him to eat quickly to avoid the food getting cold.