Recaps

Vitus learned that the empire would slow its campaigns and prioritize stabilizing its newly recovered Anatolian territories. He began planning small, centrally controlled border garrisons to defend against the Ottomans and nomadic raids at lower cost.

• John VIII approved grain imports and purchases of livestock to stabilize the recovered territories and support local agriculture.
• Vitus reviewed the empire’s gains and the difficult Anatolian interior, then considered John VIII’s proposal for prolonged border warfare instead of a decisive offensive.
• Romanus asked whether the next campaign would target Cilicia, Konya, or Ankara, and Vitus explained that rebuilding and pacifying the recovered provinces would take priority.
• Vitus explained that the border was too long to defend with regular troops, and Romanus warned him to keep any garrison districts small to prevent rebellion.
• Vitus drafted a garrison plan with 800–1200 households per district, hereditary military offices, land for military households, and imperial and civil oversight of officers.

Vitus returned to Constantinople after establishing plans for twenty-six frontier garrison districts, then rejected celebrations and convened an imperial council to set campaign rewards, address the empty treasury, and reorganize provincial defenses. The chapter ended with plans to fill the garrisons with displaced people and refugees while keeping their officers trained and ready for action.

• Vitus and Romanus agreed that garrison vacancies would be filled by second sons, displaced people, and Eastern European refugees, while obsolete districts could eventually be dissolved.
• Vitus returned to Constantinople with Romanus and the companion-students, who received gemstones as New Year's gifts from Romanus.
• Vitus refused a triumph and announced that he would resume command in Bursa in spring to continue the offensive against the Ottomans.
• Vitus and the imperial council set land-based rewards for soldiers, while the finance minister reported that war costs had emptied the treasury and proposed selling spoils to fund next year's fighting.
• Vitus reorganized the depleted auxiliary brigades into provincial garrisons and ordered refugees and Bulgarian residents recruited to fill the garrison districts.
• Vitus explained that garrison officers would train in peacetime and occasionally raid Ottoman tribes or help suppress bandits.

Constantine’s proposal for hunting grounds helped finalize the garrison district system, while the Fourth Auxiliary Brigade received its postwar rewards and prepared for retirement or reassignment. Ratmir sold his Anatolian farmland and learned that Boranov would settle there as a hereditary garrison officer, barred from owning land near his post.

• Constantine proposed hunting grounds near garrisons for hereditary officers, and Vitus approved the idea as an extra source of income.
• The court finalized the garrison district system, and officers applied for hereditary military posts while Vitus handled a flood of letters.
• The Fourth Auxiliary Brigade posted its war rewards, prompting Ratmir and the soldiers in his squad to celebrate their land grants and approaching retirement.
• After brigade headquarters collected preferences, most of the Fourth Auxiliary Brigade chose retirement, while others joined Bithynia’s garrison force or took hereditary posts.
• Ratmir sold his farmland to a light cavalry officer and learned the buyer had earned valuable loot by killing a high-ranking Ottoman noble.
• Boranov told Ratmir he had received a hereditary ensign’s post in Anatolia but could only lease his land because garrison officers could not own estates near their posts.

Ratmir returned home after the Fourth Auxiliary Brigade disbanded, reunited with his family, and learned that his service exempted him from the next conscription. He planned to invest his savings in grazing land and sheep, but rising livestock prices made him postpone the purchase.

• The Fourth Auxiliary Brigade held its disbandment ceremony, awarded its surviving soldiers medals, and boarded ships for home while Boranov watched the dragoons depart.
• Ratmir arrived in Chersonesus, visited Morris Lupotaz at the bank, and traveled home with two soldiers from his village.
• Ratmir reunited with his frightened daughter and wife in Thistle Village and explained the war, his exemption from the next conscription, and the brigade's defensive role at Sakarya.
• Ratmir registered to buy forty stremma of grazing land and planned to purchase forty sheep, but he postponed buying livestock after learning prices had risen sharply.

Fabius’s fleet traveled through Naples, Florence, and Montpellier, selling Ottoman goods and gathering news about the war in Italy. After Aragon bought the fleet’s remaining military equipment, Fabius agreed to deliver a letter to Emperor Vitus, though he expected Vitus to remain focused on Anatolia.

• Fabius sold military equipment and luxury goods in Naples, where he learned that England had joined the war against France.
• At Florence, Phil Di Maggio told Fabius that Jeanne had defeated the allied army at Amiens and captured Frederick I Hohenzollern.
• Fabius skipped Genoa because of the Aragonese blockade, then found that the French at Montpellier had little need for Ottoman weapons after their victory.
• Fabius sailed to Barcelona, where the King of Aragon purchased the fleet’s remaining military equipment and gave him a letter for Constantinople.
• Fabius agreed to deliver the letter to Emperor Vitus, whom he believed would not join the western war before restoring Anatolia.

Vitus discovered Eli’s movable-type printing workshop in Constantinople and proposed funding it to publish newspapers and medical handbooks. At court, he launched the Palaiologos Medical Canon: 1441 Edition and considered how to increase the Empire’s population.

• Vitus found Eli’s struggling printing workshop and learned that Gutenberg had returned to Mainz.
• Vitus proposed a newspaper office that would hire Eli’s workshop and fund further improvements to printing.
• At the imperial court meeting, John suggested printing Adrian University’s medical canon for hospitals and physicians.
• Vitus named the collection the Palaiologos Medical Canon: 1441 Edition and arranged for Eli’s workshop to print it.
• Vitus reflected on the Empire’s population and concluded that improved medicine, lower taxes, and immigration could strengthen it.

Vitus and Agnes arrived in Bursa, where Agnes chose a palace courtyard for their new residence and Vitus reviewed the eastern defenses and preparations for an offensive against Ottoman. He planned to attack in July but lacked reliable intelligence and worried that Venice’s support for Ottoman could lead to a future naval war.

• Vitus and his retinue traveled to Bursa, where Agnes surveyed the silk market and planned to acquire land and a shop.
• Agnes chose an intact palace courtyard as their residence, while Vitus set up an office and studied the deployment map.
• Vitus reviewed the provincial garrisons, field legions, and troops under his direct command, and judged that campaign funds and grain were insufficient for occupying all Ottoman territory.
• Vitus planned a July offensive, hoping the summer harvest would reduce costs, but noted that disrupted trade had left him without reliable intelligence about Ottoman.
• Vitus considered Venetian trade and military support for Ottoman, and anticipated a future naval conflict with Venice over control of the Aegean.

Vitus watched the heavy cavalry brigade drill near Bursa, then inspected its training problems and high costs. Two days later, Italian immigrants reached Dorylaeum, where the magistrate sent riders to notify the nearby garrison districts to receive them.

• Vitus watched the horse artillery weaken straw targets before the heavy cavalry charged in three ranks, while Agnes gripped Leo's hand in alarm.
• Vitus questioned the cavalrymen about ill-fitting or heavy breastplates, discussed training problems with the officers, and reviewed the brigade's costly accounts.
• Vitus learned that newly arrived Italian immigrants were traveling to Dorylaeum to become military households defending the frontier.
• The civil official explained the nomads' seasonal migrations as the group traveled east and crossed into the inland plateau on April 7.
• The immigrants arrived in Dorylaeum and temporarily settled there while laborers repaired its damaged walls.
• The magistrate checked the civil official's documents and sent two riders to summon the northern and southern garrison districts.

Boranov received five hundred Italian immigrant households for the Thirteenth Garrison District and oversaw the resettlement of ninety households in Pelican Village. The village struggled to prepare defenses and train the newcomers, while the expected Ottoman raids did not come.

• Boranov left his garden after learning that the garrison district had been ordered to collect new immigrants.
• Boranov and the other officers accepted five hundred Italian households despite their complaints about the language barrier.
• Boranov returned to Pelican Village with ninety households and explained the village’s land and tax arrangements through a Greek-speaking immigrant.
• Boranov distributed land and divided the immigrants between farming and building houses and a stockade wall.
• Boranov worried that the wall and training would not be finished in time, but the expected Ottoman harassment never came.

Thomas inspected Chios Island, investigated merchants suspected of selling military supplies to the Ottomans, and learned about the island’s mastic trade before traveling to Lesbos Island. After hearing that Albert had died and the Italian Wars might be ending, he returned to Bursa, while Andronikos went to Genoa to gather information and represent the Palaiologos family at peace talks.

• Thomas inspected Chios Castle and questioned merchants, finding that sixty households—mostly Italian immigrants—were suspected of reselling military supplies to the Ottomans.
• Thomas visited a village on Chios Island, learned how villagers harvested and sold mastic, and then sailed north for Lesbos Island.
• On Lesbos Island, Thomas learned from Gattilusio that Albert had died and that several powers were discussing a ceasefire.
• Thomas returned to Bursa and told Vitus the news, and Vitus explained that John had sent Andronikos west as an envoy.
• Andronikos arrived in Genoa to gather information and help the Montferrat branch retain its territory, though he disliked the lavish diplomatic gatherings.

Peace negotiations restored Genoa to Charles VII while assigning Milan to Sforza and returning Montferrat to its marquis, who found his lands devastated and sent William and Orlando away to seek opportunities elsewhere. In Venice, Doge Francesco Foscari secured approval for reforms that would make mercenary forces more loyal and easier to control.

• The coalition agreed that Charles VII would receive Genoa, Sforza would become Duke of Milan, and the marquis of Montferrat would regain his lands.
• The marquis returned to Montferrat and found its city, castle, and countryside ravaged by war and looting.
• The marquis told William and Orlando to leave Montferrat and seek refuge with their cousin.
• Francesco Foscari considered expanding Venice's influence and reforming its unreliable mercenary forces.
• After Venice's leaders opposed a standing army, Foscari presented a moderate plan for long-term mercenary contracts, scattered companies, and civilian overseers.
• Venice's senior officials mostly approved Foscari's plan to strengthen the defense of its Po Valley territories.

Pietro Loredan argued for expanding Venice’s navy, but the Doge rejected his risky shipbuilding proposal. In Bursa, William and Orlando met Vitus, who questioned them about the Battle of Amiens, and Orlando described the decisive cavalry charge that routed the English.

• Pietro Loredan proposed funding a larger fleet to counter the Greeks, but the Doge opposed his plan and expected Loredan to seek support from his allies.
• William Palaiologos arrived in Bursa with Orlando and requested an audience with his cousin, Emperor Vitus.
• An official escorted William and Orlando to Vitus’s estate, where they saw the princes studying mathematics.
• Vitus read the Marquis of Montferrat’s letter and asked William and Orlando about their experiences at Amiens.
• Orlando recounted how Joan of Arc sent the Edict Cavalry into the English left flank, prompting the English army’s retreat and rout.

Vitus revised his offensive plans after learning that Bayezid II had made Adana the Ottoman capital and gathered the enemy forces in Cilicia. Bayezid tried to secure allies and intelligence while preparing to defend the realm, then summoned the Venetian envoy to seek further help.

• Vitus placed William on a path toward a high-ranking post in Constantinople and assigned Orlando to serve as a junior officer in Thomas's army.
• After learning that the Ottoman forces had gathered in Adana, Vitus abandoned his planned eastern attack through Cilicia and considered another direction.
• Bayezid II chose fertile Cilicia as his new power base, but the Black Sheep dynasty sent only five thousand poorly equipped men and the Mamluks rejected his offer of peace.
• Bayezid dispatched troops to defend the southern Levant and ordered Çandarlı Halil to delay the Mamluks until they were ready to negotiate.
• The head of the Ahi Brotherhood told Bayezid that the Eastern Roman Empire had cut off western trade routes, leaving the Ottomans with little reliable intelligence.
• Bayezid summoned the Venetian envoy, reasoning that Venice would provide more loans rather than let the Ottomans fall without repaying their debt.

Vitus led a 39,000-man Eastern Roman army east from Bursa toward Ankara, relying on river routes and midday rests to manage the inland plateau’s heat. The army continued its advance after its cavalry repelled nomad harassment, while Vitus planned to take Ankara and then head north toward the Black Sea coast.

• Vitus assembled 39,000 troops and marched from Bursa, reaching Dorylaeum before continuing east along the Porsuk River.
• Romanus recalled the Third Crusade’s marching practices as the army rested through the hottest hours and traveled in the morning and afternoon.
• Thomas asked what would follow Ankara, and Vitus said the army would head north along the Harris River to the Black Sea coast for supplies.
• Vitus inspected the camp and judged that Ankara’s Bey could raise 20,000 to 30,000 men, but that the Sultan would learn of the campaign too late to stop him.
• On July 9, Eastern Roman cavalry encountered nomad harassment, and Vitus received reports that they had scouted effectively and won exchanges at a ratio of one to eight.

As Vitus's army advanced toward Ankara, Bey's Ottoman force attempted a night march through the mountains to attack its flank. The march disintegrated into confusion, leaving Vitus to resume his advance and warn his young attendants against risky night operations.

• Vitus learned from prisoners that Ankara's outer walls were unfinished and judged the city easier to capture than western coastal cities.
• Bey sent nearly five thousand Ottoman soldiers through the mountains at night to flank Vitus's army while his main force blocked the river crossing.
• The Ottoman troops became disorganized in the dark, and scattered gunfire from Greek sentries worsened the confusion until their commander lost control.
• Vitus saw the mountain infantry's warning flares and kept six thousand soldiers ready through the night, but no raid reached the camp.
• After dawn, Vitus sent troops into the mountains, where they captured more than six hundred Ottomans and recovered equipment enough for three thousand soldiers.
• Vitus ordered the army onward and told his young attendants that night marches and long-distance raids were too risky for commanders like Romanus to imitate.

Vitus captured Ankara and advanced east along the Harris River, where he recognized the region’s resources and ordered a renewed effort to produce bone china. At the river’s mouth, he planned to drain the wetlands of the Bafra Plain and turn them into farmland.

• After reaching Ankara, Vitus breached the outer city walls with siege guns and mortars, then took the inner city after the remaining defenders were killed.
• Vitus inspected Ankara’s records and learned that Angora goat wool, Merino wool, and long-haired rabbits were among the region’s valuable resources; he sent a rabbit to Bursa for Leo.
• After leaving troops to defend Ankara, Vitus led the rest of the army east and occupied towns along the Harris River.
• Vitus saw local pottery workshops using red clay and kaolin, recalled the failed bone china project in Achaea, and ordered craftsmen from Peloponnese to come to Anatolia.
• On September 2, Vitus reached the mouth of the Harris River and planned to have civil officials oversee drainage of the Bafra Plain, using prisoners of war for the labor.

Vitus organized the newly recovered territories into provinces and appointed Tucha governor of Galatia, while considering the political and economic challenges posed by a possible Polish-Lithuanian-Hungarian union. The chapter ended with Vitus visiting a bone china workshop and watching a craftsman take ten warm-white bowls from the kiln.

• Vitus assessed his remaining funds and supplies, ordered attacks on the western strongholds, and established the provinces of Galatia and Paphlagonia along with seven garrison districts.
• Vitus offered Tucha the governorship of Galatia, promised to build a new town for future governors of the Borderland Region, and Tucha accepted and traveled to Ankara.
• Tucha reflected on Galatia’s dry climate, expected tax shortfalls, and his hope for a cooperative provincial fiscal officer.
• Vitus received news that Frederick III had become King of the Romans and that Hungarian nobles favored Wladyslaw III for their throne, then considered the Jagiellon realms’ resources and military strength.
• Vitus visited a bone china workshop, where an elderly craftsman fired ten bowl blanks and later removed them from the kiln with a warm white finish.

Vitus inspected the bone china workshop and approved a plan to focus on plain white bowls while a few craftsmen studied painted porcelain. He then visited Cotyaeum’s mines, found their operations profitable, and considered how the empire’s mineral wealth could support future industry.

• Vitus inspected four finished bone china bowls and agreed that the workshop would mainly produce white porcelain while some craftsmen experimented with painted designs.
• Vitus planned to have the bone china sent to the Bafra Plain, mixed with Eastern porcelain, and sold in Constantinople as a less expensive variety.
• Vitus traveled to Cotyaeum on October 12 and examined the alum mine’s fire-setting, leaching, and refining processes.
• Vitus checked the mine accounts and found that alum production was profitable and adequately staffed by prisoners of war.
• Vitus inspected nearby silver and copper mines and learned that Lydia Province’s combined mining revenue reached about one hundred thousand florins that year.
• Vitus reflected on the empire’s mineral resources and wondered where future rulers might find oil for later industrial development.

In mid-October, Boranov hunted game while military households gathered chestnuts in the garrison forest, until nomads attacked the gatherers. After the wounded man was treated, Boranov prepared for the next day's garrison assessment, which would determine his pay for the year.

• Military households gathered chestnuts in the mountains under an agreement to surrender forty percent of their harvest, while Boranov and two noncommissioned officers hunted pheasants and rabbits.
• Boranov traded a pheasant for venison at Vila's urging, then rushed out with the other officers after hearing that nomads had attacked the chestnut gatherers.
• The gatherers reported that they had killed three of six or seven attackers with crossbows and carried an injured man back to the village.
• Boranov brought the garrison priest to treat the wounded man, and the priest removed the arrowhead and stitched the shoulder wound.
• Boranov ate Vila's venison and then checked his mount, warning it that the next day's garrison assessment would affect his military pay for the year.

Nilos studied medical and agricultural books at Dorylaeum’s public library, while Boranov and the other hereditary officers completed their military assessments. Boranov passed but missed the score for a bonus, and a Tatar officer amazed the observers with his mounted archery maneuvers.

• Nilos verified his identity at the public library and used a medical tome to correct blurred passages in his manual.
• After finishing the basic medical text, Nilos read advanced material attributed to the Emperor and then browsed a draft on climate classification and crop cultivation.
• Boranov completed the standing shooting and armor-running events, then earned eight points in mounted slashing.
• During mounted archery, Boranov hit the bullseye once and earned three points, bringing his total to twenty-nine and securing a passing score.
• A Tatar deputy hundred-household commander from Pelican Roc Village astonished the civil officials with complex mounted maneuvers, including Stirrup-Hanging Concealment.

After the assessment, Boranov joined his unit on a twenty-day assignment guarding a mountain outpost. He took over the post, learned about recent clashes, and settled into a monotonous routine, wishing he had brought newspapers to read.

• Boranov learned about the Golden Horn News and decided he might subscribe to the newspaper.
• Boranov and another banner officer led Pelican Village soldiers to relieve the guards at two mountain beacon towers.
• Boranov's group crossed the mountains and reached the outpost after a sergeant found fresh bear tracks.
• Boranov inspected the previous guards' records and captured weapons, then signed the handover documents acknowledging their achievements.
• Boranov arranged patrols and other duties, exhausted his hunting ammunition, and began setting snares to relieve the boredom.

In December 1441, the Mamluk Sultan rejected an alliance with Vitus’s Eastern Roman Empire and planned to rebuild his firearm forces. Vitus returned to Constantinople, where he inspected the Church-funded bell tower and continued expanding public libraries and secular education.

• After Venice cut off its arms supply, the Mamluk Sultan agreed to peace talks with the Ottomans and arranged to buy firearms from other European powers.
• The Sultan rejected a nobleman’s suggestion to seek weapons from Constantinople, fearing Vitus would target Egypt and resenting the Eastern Roman occupation of Circassia.
• Vitus arrived in Constantinople and visited the Golden Horn construction site, where Lambert said the Church had pledged up to sixty thousand Florins for a bell tower.
• Vitus refused to consider Lambert’s proposed triumphal arch, wanting the bell tower completed without further costly projects.
• Vitus visited the library at Theodosius Square and planned to establish a secular university in Nicomedia to avoid the Church’s influence in Constantinople.

Vitus inspected a porcelain shop, reviewed the empire’s strained finances, and revised officer evaluations to encourage literacy and education. He then began teaching his heir Romanus advanced military knowledge through four manuscripts.

• Vitus visited his porcelain shop and saw customers favoring the cheaper, translucent bone china, which sold for a quarter of the price of genuine porcelain.
• At a year-end meeting, the finance minister told Vitus that tax revenue from six provinces would go toward repaying loans, leaving the treasury strained.
• After reading officers’ complaints about annual evaluations favoring light cavalry, Vitus kept mounted archery and added an optional cultural examination with permanent bonus points for passing.
• Vitus ordered schools established in the garrison districts to teach officers’ children basic literacy and arithmetic.
• Vitus gave Romanus four military manuscripts covering campaign deployment, tactics, terrain surveying and civil engineering, and army equipment, organization, and training.

At the Imperial Council, John VIII and Vitus addressed Georgia’s arms purchase, a dispute with the Knights Hospitaller over fleeing Greek residents, and the administration of Circassia. The Council appointed Ilya governor of the newly established Circassian Borderland Region, while Vitus planned to promote bone china at imperial banquets.

• John VIII asked Vitus to assess Georgia’s request to buy another two thousand firearms and ten cannons, and Vitus approved it, arranging for the fleet to deliver the supplies to Poti Port.
• John VIII presented the Knights Hospitaller’s protest over more than four thousand Rhodes residents fleeing its increased taxes, and the Council discussed the Order’s dwindling income and future relations with Rome.
• John proposed hiring the Knights Hospitaller to attack Cilicia, using victories to provide the Order with funding while postponing any larger dispute.
• The Imperial Council established the Circassian Borderland Region and appointed Ilya governor, directing him to continue his steady approach to governing it.
• Vitus suggested replacing banquet vases with bone china to introduce it to high society and expand its sales.

Vitus examined the porcelain trade and the Empire’s dependence on Venice for transparent glass, then ordered more glass stockpiled for a possible war. Meanwhile, Cohen accompanied Alexander I’s Georgian army on its invasion of Aq Qoyunlu, where the advance found the Armenian Highlands deserted.

• Vitus found the porcelain shop sold out with more than a hundred orders backlogged, then discovered that a new glass shop lacked transparent glass and that no craftsmen in Kuttenberg knew how to make it.
• Vitus concluded the Empire could not produce transparent glass in the short term and urged it to buy and stockpile glass from every available source.
• The Ottoman fleet near Trebizond remained inactive after the Ottoman Empire’s military and financial collapse.
• Cohen’s fleet reached Poti, where Alexander paid for arms and supplies and explained his plan to invade Aq Qoyunlu rather than attack Trebizond.
• Cohen joined Alexander’s 15,000 soldiers as they marched through the southern Georgian mountains and entered the Armenian Highlands without resistance.
• Cohen saw deserted villages with collapsed houses and no cooking smoke, but Alexander continued the advance, believing the locals had fled after hearing of the invasion.