Recaps

Cohen watched Georgia seize settlements and defeat the Black Sheep Dynasty’s forces, but a surprise attack endangered the army’s artillery. The Georgian troops held most of their wagon forts, though Cohen discovered the enemy had sabotaged nearly all the cannons left outside them.

• Georgian soldiers captured a town and its castle, where Cohen found Greek inscriptions and recorded the region’s history before Georgia raised its flag.
• Over the following half month, Alexander’s army captured nearby settlements, including Gyumri, and defeated a larger enemy force using pike-and-shot squares.
• Alexander’s troops routed the Black Sheep cavalry on April ninth, but the second prince’s pursuit brought Georgian cavalry into trouble against armored enemies.
• Alexander led reinforcements to Demetrius, then discovered Janissaries attacking the rear wagon forts and retreated north with his army.
• After the battle, Cohen found iron nails driven into the touch holes of most of the remaining cannons, leaving them unable to fire.

Cohen watched the Georgian army’s artillery fail against the Turkmen Camel Guns, and the resulting cavalry assault shattered the Georgian formations. As the army routed, Cohen escaped into the mountains alone, uncertain how he would find his way back.

• Cohen learned that Georgia had only two intact six-pounders and six Three-Pounders remaining, and he criticized Alexander I’s decision to favor heavier guns over mobile artillery.
• The Turkmen attacked with Camel Guns, whose bombardment tore gaps in the Georgian squares despite the Three-Pounders’ superior range and accuracy.
• Turkmen cavalry charged the weakened Georgian formations, while the second prince led a counterattack that bought time before the Turkmen withdrew and destroyed the remaining Georgian guns.
• The Georgian army’s morale collapsed and soldiers began to flee, so the palace guards escorted the king away as Cohen escaped on horseback.
• Cohen lost the pursuing cavalry in a mountain forest and realized he did not know how to get back.

Vitus learned that Italian merchants had begun questioning the source of the new porcelain and judged the remote bone china workshop difficult to uncover. The chapter then followed Boranov as he took the garrison district examination and struggled with a problem about a cylindrical granary.

• Italian merchants noticed the new porcelain’s increased supply and questioned its origin, while the shop owner said it came through the Tauris Steppe Chamber of Commerce.
• An attendant reported the merchants’ suspicions to Vitus, who reviewed the secret transport and sales process for the bone china.
• Vitus concluded that the many steps required to trace the porcelain back to its workshop made successful spying unlikely.
• On May 6, Boranov sat the garrison district examination, which covered military regulations, geometry, and arithmetic.
• Boranov solved two geometry problems, then struggled to calculate the capacity of a cylindrical granary.

Boranov struggled through the officer examination, solving a few questions with help from his experience and guesses. Afterward, he and Zarantsai debated how a Roman army should face a Persian cavalry force, but neither found a dependable plan.

• Boranov ate lunch with Zarantsai, who worried that he had answered only seven questions on the morning examination.
• Boranov worked through logistics problems and a camp-layout question during the afternoon examination, then confidently answered a village-defense scenario based on his experience at Sakarya.
• Boranov struggled with questions about attacking mountain strongholds and commanding a sixth-century Roman army against Sasanian Persia.
• With minutes left, Boranov imitated Narses by placing dismounted heavy cavalry in the center and archers on the wings, then submitted his paper.
• Boranov shared his proposed battle plan with other officers, and Zarantsai argued for using a wagon fort and a pontoon bridge instead.
• The officers found flaws in their plans, and Boranov wondered whether the battle in the question was impossible to win.

Boranov searched the Bursa Library for answers to the military theory exam, then learned that his score was better than he expected. Vitus encouraged the officers to keep studying, promoted the ten top scorers to attendants, and sent the rest back to their garrison districts.

• Boranov searched the special area of the Bursa Library for information about the sixth-century wars between Rome and Sasanian Persia, but found its artillery formulas too difficult to understand.
• Boranov read accounts of the Battle of Callinicum and wondered whether retreating to preserve the army was the only sensible answer.
• Boranov saw the posted exam results and discovered that half the officers had scored worse than him, earning him one bonus point in future annual evaluations.
• Vitus encouraged the officers to study diligently and invited dissatisfied officers to take future exams for more bonus points.
• Vitus promoted the ten highest-scoring officers to attendants and dismissed the rest to their garrison districts.

Vitus received news of Georgia’s crushing defeat and declined to send immediate reinforcements, offering equipment and promising aid later. He then reviewed the shifting political situation in Europe and concluded that Georgia had little choice but to rely on the Eastern Roman Empire.

• Vitus read reports that Georgia had been routed, its king wounded, Prince Demetrius killed, and Admiral Cohen missing, and he considered whether Uzun Hasan had led the enemy.
• A Georgian envoy apologized for Cohen’s disappearance and asked Vitus to reinforce Georgia as its nobles conspired and enemy forces advanced.
• Vitus refused to alter his campaign plans, offering Georgia captured Ottoman equipment and telling Alexander to hold out for reinforcements expected before year’s end.
• Vitus learned that Wladyslaw III had been crowned king of Hungary while Bohemia remained under joint rule during an interregnum.
• Vitus assessed the Jagiellon Dynasty’s divided territories, Hungary’s noble retinues, and the competing interests shaping European politics.
• Vitus contrasted Europe’s complicated diplomacy with the irreconcilable conflict between the Ottomans and the Eastern Roman Empire, and concluded that Georgia had to join his camp.

Wladyslaw III accepted the nobles’ war tax and signed an edict to attack Wallachia, despite Hunyadi’s warning that a war against the Palaiologos would be dangerous. After Hunyadi advised him to avoid that larger conflict, Wladyslaw prepared his armor and weapons for battle.

• Wladyslaw III complained that the depleted royal estates forced him to fund the court from his own savings.
• Istvan Bathory told Wladyslaw that the assembly had approved a war tax, and Wladyslaw signed the edict authorizing war.
• Hunyadi privately told Wladyslaw that Vitus excelled at command rather than swordsmanship and warned that the Jagiellon forces would struggle against the Palaiologos.
• Wladyslaw questioned whether John VIII would intervene if Hungary attacked Wallachia and asked Hunyadi what he thought of him.
• Hunyadi praised Wladyslaw as a brave monarch, and Wladyslaw promised to continue trusting him.
• Wladyslaw went to inspect the warhorses and ordered repairs and spare weapons prepared.

As Hungary marched on Wallachia, the Empire dispatched forces to reclaim Moesia and prepare for a possible Hungarian advance. Marcus proposed sealing off the region by river and mountain passes, then traveled with the galley fleet into the Danube Delta as the campaign began.

• Hungary assembled twenty-six thousand troops and marched toward Târgoviște, while rebellions grew in southern Wallachia.
• John VIII sent the Imperial Guard and First Legion to Moesia, and Vitus dispatched the Tuna Legion to reinforce them.
• At a war council in Adrian, Marcus proposed using a galley fleet and land troops to seize riverside towns and western mountain passes, and Constantine approved the plan.
• On July 2, Marcus sailed with the galley fleet into the Danube Delta as its commander described his hopes of earning a military post and land.
• Marcus said he planned to entrust any new land to an agricultural company, hoping to avoid the burdens of managing his scattered estates.

Marcus and the fleet sailed into Wallachia, where they questioned local nobles and advanced through territory scarred by rebellion. After bombarding Ruschuk’s walls into a breach, Marcus gave the defenders twenty minutes to accept his terms or face an assault.

• Marcus and the commodore surveyed a Wallachian market town, then questioned a noble about Vlad II, his sons, and the principality’s weak army.
• The noble said Vlad II and his sons were at the royal palace in Târgoviște, while the commodore explained that the Roman army had come to suppress the Bulgarian rebellion, not attack Hungary.
• On July 3, Marcus’s fleet sailed past a ruined settlement left by the rebellion, and Marcus stationed five hundred men and four cannons in a town it occupied that evening.
• After a week upriver, Marcus reached Ruschuk and ordered heavy guns hauled ashore when the garrison refused to surrender its defenses.
• Marcus’s artillery opened a huge breach in Ruschuk’s eastern wall in less than two days, and he gave the defenders twenty minutes to accept his terms before he attacked.

Marcus captured Ruschuk and Vidin, then led his troops inland through Wallachia, taking fortresses and gaining the allegiance of the noble Bratul. After capturing poachers in a mountain fortress, he left fifty soldiers there and sent the prisoners back to Vidin.

• Marcus allowed Ruschuk’s defenders and civilians to leave, then left eighteen hundred soldiers there and continued upriver with the fleet.
• Marcus captured Vidin after bombarding its walls and persuaded the fleet commodore to transfer a thousand men as auxiliary troops.
• Marcus led his army inland, where the Wallachian noble Bratul pledged allegiance to the Roman Empire.
• Marcus’s troops bombarded a fortress held by rebels and killed the remaining defenders, while Bratul explained that unrest and taxation had fueled the rebellion.
• Marcus’s troops captured a group of poachers and smugglers at a mountain fortress after luring them outside and surrounding them.
• Marcus decided to garrison the mountain fortress with fifty soldiers and send the captured poachers back to Vidin.

Marcus received Constantine’s campaign report and declined to recruit local troops, while the Hungarian army captured Târgoviște and Little Vlad. Hunyadi then rode south to stop Istvan Bathory’s unauthorized expedition across the Danube, where Hungarian and Roman forces faced off.

• Marcus read Constantine’s coded letter about the siege of Varna, rejected the suggestion to raise local troops, and sent a coded report on the western front.
• The Hungarian army captured Târgoviște and took Little Vlad prisoner, while Hunyadi searched for Vlad II and his eldest son.
• Wladyslaw III reflected on how to combine heavy and light cavalry after leading repeated charges against Wallachian infantry.
• Hunyadi learned that Istvan Bathory had sent troops to the southern bank without the king’s approval and rode south to confront him.
• Istvan told Hunyadi he was pursuing Vlad II and his eldest son, while Roman cavalry gathered across the Danube and a Greek official came to question the Hungarians.

As the Eastern Roman army began its siege of Trebizond, Orlando led a mountain company into the hills to clear enemy forces and secure a position. He routed an Ottoman garrison in a village and prepared to use it as a temporary camp.

• After failing to learn where Vlad II and his children had gone, Istvan wondered whether they had fled to Serbia or Moldavia.
• Vitus assessed Trebizond’s defenses and directed the first stage of the siege toward the southern slopes, where the Eastern Roman army could attack by land.
• Thomas assigned Orlando and two other mountain company commanders to work under Krezer’s command and clear the enemy from an assigned position.
• Orlando led his company through the mountains with a dismantled Three-Pounder and pack ponies, then spotted Ottoman soldiers occupying a village.
• Orlando ordered the Three-Pounder to shell the village and sent his troops to attack and block the southern exit, forcing the Ottoman soldiers to flee.
• After the battle, Orlando had his soldiers clear the village and harvest food to establish a temporary camp.

The Roman army captured Trebizond after its defenders surrendered, and Vitus examined the city’s port, records, and Ottoman institutions. The chapter ends with Vitus explaining how the Millet, Timar, and tax farming systems supported Ottoman mobilization while burdening the population and weakening future development.

• Vitus blockaded Trebizond and built artillery positions, prompting the defenders to request surrender a week later.
• The defenders opened the gates, and the Eastern Roman army took control of Trebizond and its port.
• Vitus examined the abandoned shipyards, trading posts, and city records, discovering that the region’s population had fallen to 130,000.
• Romanus arranged for Maria Komnenos and Anna to reclaim their belongings from the palace and questioned the damage the Ottomans had caused.
• Vitus explained how Ottoman institutions relied on the wealth and manpower of the Millet and Timar systems, then described how tax farming burdened people and reduced state revenues.

Cohen returned to Trebizond after surviving for months in the mountains and finally reached Vitus to report what had happened after the defeat in Georgia. He recounted how he escaped enemy pursuit and survived with help from defeated soldiers and hermits.

• Cohen entered Trebizond in disguise, was turned away from the upper city, and then recognized by a naval officer at the harbor.
• Cohen bathed, changed into a flotilla commodore's uniform, and went to court, where Vitus welcomed him.
• Cohen explained that after the Georgian defeat he was left behind, lost his horse, and traded his valuables with five defeated Georgian soldiers for food and survival knowledge.
• Cohen learned to hunt, gather food, and set traps, but fled west after Turkmen soldiers and his companions began searching for him.
• Cohen grew weak after running out of salt, then met hermits who gave him salt and herbs and told him Trebizond was six days away.
• Cohen stayed with the hermits until he heard Vitus's army had arrived, then traveled to Trebizond to rejoin him.

After securing Trebizond, Vitus reviewed the situation in Moesia and arranged to strengthen its defenses before sailing to Georgia to aid Vakhtang against the Black Sheep dynasty. He arrived at Poti with limited reinforcements and set strict conditions for Georgia’s support of the campaign.

• Vitus ordered clergy to rebuild monasteries and mountain companies to compile a Field Survival Manual after hearing Cohen’s account of his ordeal.
• Vitus read that Constantine had subdued Moesia, approved plans to establish the province, and proposed settling surrendered troops and nobles there to guard the frontier.
• Vitus reflected on the dangers posed by nomadic incursions across the Danube and prepared to help Georgia after recovering Trebizond.
• On September 25, Vitus arrived at Poti Port with one legion and some cavalry, while Vakhtang explained that Alexander remained in Tbilisi amid the Black Sheep dynasty’s offensive.
• Vitus told Vakhtang that Georgia must provide the listed rations and autumn clothing, requested detailed maps, and placed Poti Port under temporary naval administration.

Vitus led his reinforced army through Georgia while disguising its identity, and Romanus learned the demanding routines of caring for a warhorse. When a large Black Sheep force attacked, Vitus’s troops revealed their strength and routed the enemy, though most of the opposing army escaped.

• Vitus brought his available forces to seventeen thousand, concealed their gray armor, and marched inland with allied soldiers.
• Romanus struggled to balance marching, rest, and caring for his horse, Chestnut.
• On October 9, Chiron spotted smoke and enemy cavalry, and the army halted and deployed as the Black Sheep forces approached.
• Uzun Hasan suspected the opposing force was Greek and held back his troops while the Black Sheep cavalry charged.
• Vitus’s artillery and matchlocks inflicted heavy casualties on the cavalry, prompting the Janissaries and allied forces to retreat.
• Vitus sent cavalry to pursue the fleeing army, capturing just over three thousand men, while most of the enemy escaped.

Vitus reached Tbilisi after defeating the Black Sheep army, agreed to leave Georgia independent, and returned to Anatolia as the enemy withdrew. In November, he learned that a widespread rebellion had broken out in Galatia while the Ottomans gathered at the border, and decided to take command himself.

• Vitus arrived in Tbilisi and met King Alexander, who announced that he would abdicate and retire to a monastery as Athanasius.
• Vitus assured Alexander that Rome would not occupy Georgia and proposed supporting Armenian Orthodox rebels as border lords.
• Vitus rejected Thomas's suggestion to pursue the retreating Black Sheep army and returned to Poti Port, leaving Vakhtang to oversee Georgia's recovery.
• Vitus received news at Trebizond that rebellion had erupted in Galatia and that the Ottoman army was assembling at the border.
• Vitus read reports describing supply failures, limited troops, and losses among Galatia's forces, then decided to take personal command and reconsider the province's governor.

Boranov spent a winter day reading at home before an imperial order summoned the Thirteenth Garrison District to prepare troops for a campaign against Ottoman forces and nearby rebellions. After his household was selected, he led his men to collect equipment, leaving them armed with fourteen matchlocks and the best armor still available.

• Boranov read Xenophon at home while Vila returned from weaving and reminded him to add cheese and peas to the barley porridge.
• A messenger summoned Boranov to the Garrison District command post, where officers learned that rebellions had spread and Ottoman troops were gathering at the border.
• The Emperor's order required the Thirteenth Garrison District to send two companies and twenty cavalrymen to Dorylaeum the next morning.
• Boranov and Zarantsai read the campaign roster to the village households, and Boranov led two sergeants and twenty-six militiamen to collect firearms.
• The storehouse issued Boranov's group fourteen matchlocks and available armor, while later-arriving units found the better equipment depleted.

Boranov joined Vitus’s planned winter raid against nomadic tribes near the border and, while scouting ahead, found a large camp in a southern valley. The cavalry arrived to surround it, but the brigade commander waited for the Mountain Battalion and horse artillery before attacking.

• Boranov left his village with the militia and was assigned to the Dragon Cavalry Company at Dorylaeum.
• Vitus briefed his officers on a raid against the tribes’ winter camps and set out with the first echelon the following day.
• On December 7, Boranov led a scouting platoon southeast and spotted smoke rising from a valley.
• Boranov found a camp of roughly a thousand tents, sent a report back, and hid with his remaining men to watch the tribe.
• The cavalry brigade arrived, and Boranov recommended attacking from the gentler eastern slope.
• The brigade commander ordered the cavalry to seal off the valley and wait for the Mountain Battalion and horse artillery.

Romanus and the Eastern Roman army defeated and captured a large nomad force, then Vitus withdrew with the spoils and prepared to shift the war to Galatia. Before departing, Vitus sent Romanus and his companion students to Adrian University for a few months of rest.

• The Eastern Roman forces attacked the valley from the east and north, forcing most nomads to surrender while the chiefs and their followers escaped.
• Romanus drank the mandated bitter pine-needle water, then prepared mutton soup and ate grilled meat with his companions.
• The twelve-day raid ended with more than thirty thousand people killed or captured and 280,000 livestock seized.
• Vitus withdrew to the border on December 17 and learned that Galatia’s garrisons and towns were under heavy pressure from Ottoman forces.
• Vitus decided to send cavalry and militia north to support Galatia and planned to move the main battlefield there.
• Vitus arranged for Romanus and the companion students to spend a few months at Adrian University, where Romanus expected a holiday.

Władysław refused Venice’s request to join its conflict with the Palaiologos, choosing to return his attention to Poland and the Teutonic Knights. Hunyadi then considered Hungary’s weak river fleet and pursued cheaper firearms to strengthen the Black Army despite Parliament’s resistance.

• Władysław heard the Venetian envoy’s warning that Vitus might expand into the Balkans, but declined to join Venice’s war against the Palaiologos.
• Hunyadi and Hungary’s nobles accepted Władysław’s decision, relieved that Hungary would avoid a war with the Greeks.
• Hunyadi inspected the Danube fleet and recognized that its remaining Joka boats could not defeat Greece’s river fleet, while Parliament was unlikely to fund its expansion.
• Hunyadi reflected on Parliament’s desire to cut military spending and on his efforts to build an arsenal at Dobšiná.
• Hunyadi compared the cheaper Dobšiná Matchlocks with the more expensive Radia guns and resolved to persuade Parliament to adopt them and expand the Black Army’s firearm troops.

In January 1443, Eli received an order from the Emperor to print two thousand copies of a field survival manual and prepared to fulfill it with high-quality materials. Rumors of a Venetian-backed alliance against Rome spread through Constantinople, and the chapter ended with Eli hearing the growing hostility while focusing on his printing order.

• An attendant delivered the Emperor’s letter and the Field Survival Manual: Basic Edition to Eli, who put the order at the top of his workshop’s queue.
• Eli visited a porcelain shop and learned that its bright red glazed porcelain and snowflake-blue porcelain had already sold, so he reserved a bright red set from a future shipment.
• Eli bought high-quality gelatin-sized paper for printing the Emperor’s books and set out to order superior ink.
• Eli heard citizens discussing a rumor that Venice was drawing the Jagiellon Dynasty into an alliance with the Ottoman to attack Rome.
• Eli returned to his workshop and later heard household workers discussing Venice with hostility, but he continued concentrating on the printing order.

John VIII began forming an alliance against Venice, while Doge Foscari won approval to seek Hungary’s support. Foscari’s plans were thrown into uncertainty when Jacob told him that Pietro Loredan was dead.

• John VIII reassured Constantine that retaking Moesia had protected the Empire and decided to recruit Hungary and Italian powers against Venice.
• John VIII sent envoys to Austria, Milan, Florence, and the Holy See to build an anti-Venetian coalition.
• Foscari considered yielding part of Dalmatia to secure Hungary’s support, despite opposition from Pietro Loredan and his faction.
• Foscari persuaded Venice’s upper ranks to approve his proposal at the beginning of March.
• Jacob rushed into Foscari’s dining hall and announced that Pietro Loredan was dead.

Jacob warned the Doge that Pietro Loredan’s death would fuel suspicions and threaten his authority. In Florence, Andronikos failed to secure Giulio Di Maggio’s support for war against Venice unless Rome first gained command of the sea, leaving him confronting the Empire’s lack of funds for a naval buildup.

• Jacob told the Doge that Pietro Loredan had been found dead in a canal after falling from a balcony, and warned that the powerful Loredan family could use his death to undermine the Doge.
• Andronikos arrived in Florence and presented Giulio Di Maggio with John VIII’s state letter and messages from his family.
• Giulio answered Andronikos’s questions about Agnes and Romanus but resisted his proposal for Florence to join a war against Venice.
• Giulio explained that Florence would consider joining only after the Roman Empire gained command of the sea, since war threatened the city’s maritime trade.
• Andronikos calculated that building a competitive fleet would cost more than five hundred thousand Florins and lamented that the Empire could not afford it.

Romanus spent his days auditing law classes at Adrian University and wandered through the city, observing its hospital and thriving theater scene. The next day, he attended an Italian student's medical doctoral defense, which ended with Gennaro Gonnecchia awarding the degree.

• Romanus audited law classes and considered the complexity of Roman law and the Basilika.
• Romanus spoke with Maximus and others about an article by Plethon, then left the university to wander through Adrian.
• Romanus passed the affiliated hospital and reflected on its growing reputation compared with Pantokrator Monastery.
• Romanus watched a play and observed that theaters were spreading as commerce and the citizen class grew.
• Romanus attended an Italian student's doctoral defense, and Gennaro Gonnecchia conferred the Doctor of Medicine degree.