People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 656 Preparing for War
"Bring up those traitors!"

The guards, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately pushed the prison cart into the arena.

There were dozens of prisoners in the prison van, most of them were dressed quite unusually, some were even wearing silk pajamas and barefoot, looking as if they had been pulled out of their sleep.

"It's General Cardius. I was wondering why I didn't see him today."

"Isn't that Mr. Callinicus from the Stonemasons' Guild? How can he be a traitor?"

In the prison van, the identities of the important figures were quickly identified, causing a commotion.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, who was sitting in a prominent position, had a surprised look on his face. Half of the prisoners in the prison van were clergymen, which made him frown.

In today's Rome, the emperor's authority is no longer supreme, and things like the emperor arbitrarily appointing a eunuch as the patriarch are gone forever.

If the Palaiologos emperors did anything out of line, they also risked being excommunicated and excommunicated.

The imperial treasury of Constantine XI could not even maintain the Hagia Sophia, and had to rely on help from the Orthodox brothers in Russia.

The emperor had almost no standing army except for the Varangian Guard, which had no more than a hundred men. He could only rely on Latin mercenaries (Latins was a general term for Greeks, equivalent to the Franks among the Saracens), who were no different from a large feudal lord.

Lothar ignored the ugly expression on the Ecumenical Patriarch's face and angrily said, "Last night, the Imperial Treasury was attacked and dozens of guards guarding the treasury were killed. Were they not vigilant enough or were they incompetent?"

"No, of course not!"

"It was because of the hidden arrows shot at them from behind, from their so-called own people, from those traitors who rode on the heads of ordinary people and soldiers, high up in the sky, enjoying the offerings and admiration of the people, but because they were afraid of the iron hoofs of the Ottomans and wanted to preserve their own wealth, they knelt down and licked the stinky feet of the Turkic barbarians and chose to betray!"

The feeling of anger quickly spread throughout the stands.

"Damn traitors, kill them!"

"Use their blood to commemorate the dead warriors!"

The crowd was outraged, and for a moment, even the Ecumenical Patriarch, who wanted to speak for the prisoners, shut his mouth.

Lothar looked at the prisoners who all looked pale. Among them were several extraordinary people with extraordinary strength. For example, Sir Theodore, who actually committed the theft last night, was a powerful magician.

But unfortunately, they ran into Lothar and Viviana, who easily subdued them without even trying their best, and recaptured the Dragon Shooting Crossbow.

"You betrayed your emperor and the subjects of the empire just as Judas betrayed Jesus Christ. You are supported by them and enjoy the honor and status that others cannot enjoy, but you try to sell out the interests of everyone in order to beg for mercy from your new master."

"No, you are not as good as Judas. At least Judas repented."

Losa's voice was filled with anger, seven parts of which were fake, but three parts were genuine.

Only people of high status are qualified to be guides and traitors.

They have resources that ordinary people don't have and are in high positions, but they don't think about protecting the country and the people, but only think about their own selfish interests. Anyone with a conscience will hate such people.

"Your Majesty, please forgive my sins."

"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong."

"Please forgive me."

The prisoners begged and cried, and someone saw Losa approaching and trying to kneel down to kiss his boots and beg for forgiveness, but he kicked him away.

They looked at the people in the stands with fear, fearing that those unruly people, who in the past they had never even looked at, would just rush down and tear them to pieces without caring about anything.

Some people also shouted angrily: "The Ottoman army is ten times larger than ours. Do you really want us to be buried with you?"

"Dragaces, if you let me go now, I can still say a few good words for you in front of the new king. Otherwise, you will definitely become a piece of rotten meat in the mouth of the Ottoman king's dragon!"

Losa didn't even bother to take a second look at this kind of person.

But some people stiffened their necks and looked angry: "I am innocent. I just discussed scriptures with Sir Theodore and never had any private contact with pagans. Dragases, how can you slander an upright clergyman like this?"

"slander?"

Lothar came before the stripped priest.

He is indeed not a traitor. He was arrested by Losa who took advantage of the situation to expand the scope of the case, but he is by no means innocent.

Lothar sneered, "Pyrrhus, as a servant of Christ, you only know how to preach that the coming of pagans is God's punishment for the world, to make the subjects of the empire willingly submit to the pagans, to fool people's minds, and to pull out the backbone of the Romans. Your crime is even more abominable than those scums who accept bribes and serve the pagans."

Pyrrhus was so angry that his beard was shaking. "You despicable scum of the Palaiologos family, you usurped the cause of Emperor Theodore (referring to the Palaiologos family usurping the throne of the Empire of Nicaea) and sold out the interests of the empire to the Genoese. You are traitors!"

Although the Palaiologos family was considered a large family within the empire, they were able to become the regent of Nicaea and even usurp the throne because of their identity as the "leader of the Latin mercenaries."

After that, the recapture of Constantinople and the unification of the empire were inseparable from the help of the Genoese. This was also a balancing act of the Palaiologos emperors, who introduced the Genoese to fight against the Venetians.

It's just that times have changed. At present, the conflict between the Empire and the Latins is no longer the main contradiction. The Latin enemies have become an important force that can unite under the banner of the Empire to fight against the pagans.

Did Constantine XI go to Florence in person and agree to the unification of the church, which required John VIII not to hate the Latins?
Of course they hated it. Apart from anything else, any normal person would be angry about the territories and concessions that Genoa and Venice had occupied from the empire, as well as the commercial wealth that should have belonged to the empire.

But now is not the time to think about this kind of problem.

"I will fight and die for Rome, and history will judge whether I am right or wrong."

Lothar looked at Pyrrhus coldly and waved his hand.

"Punish with fire!"

The ferocious guards rushed forward, threw hay into the prison car and lit torches.

As the fire started, shrill screams suddenly rang out.

Some prisoners kept banging their cages, while others tried to shrink into the middle of the cages to avoid being burned by the flames. Before long, the only sounds in the arena were the cheers of the people in the stands.

Lothar is back to his old ways now. If there is no money and no food, then he will confiscate the property. The empire is poor, but that does not mean that the "pillars" of the empire are poor.

As a ruler, it is also indispensable to use their money and land as military expenses and rewards for meritorious officials, and to give them chicken soup and chicken blood.

Lothar raised the Spear of Destiny and gave orders.

"From today on, the Empire enters a state of emergency war preparedness. All criminals can be sentenced to death after being tried by a war court. All subjects, generals, and clergy of the Empire must do everything they can to support the great cause of fighting against the infidels."

"Everyone, the empire that once had vast fertile lands is now reduced to a single city. Facing the infidels' relentless advance, we have no way out."

Lothar put on his helmet, and the guards around him immediately raised four β flags, which were the symbol of the Palaiologos dynasty, meaning the king of kings, ruling over all the Greek kings: "I cannot promise victory in this battle, but I can promise you, my subjects, that your emperor will always watch you fight the enemy. Please promise your emperor that as long as the emperor and his flags do not retreat, you will fight to the death."

"Hail, for the King of Kings, for Basileus!"

The people waved their arms, shouted loudly, and looked at the emperor who was bathed in infinite light and seemed to have descended from heaven, their faces full of enthusiasm.

From this moment on, Constantinople was like a war machine, and every rusty part began to creak and work again.

The entire city has 50,000 residents, plus the Venetians in the concession, a total of less than 80,000 people. If these people can be fully mobilized and an army of more than 10,000 can be assembled, it would be a very easy task.

Unfortunately, the Black Sea trade had been blocked by the fortresses built by the Ottomans on both sides of the sea.

On the contrary, the Mediterranean trade was never cut off because it relied on the caravans from Venice and Genoa.

The empire has limited supplies, and what it lacks is not food.

It's not stones and wood, the building materials needed to repair the city walls. There are plenty of ruins in the city that can be dismantled and used to defend the city.

But the raw materials of Greek fire, magic materials, boiling oil, asphalt, gunpowder and so on.

Greek fire had originally been lost.

But he was lucky last night. He captured Sir Theodore and found the formula of Greek fire in the library. He originally planned to give it to Mahamu II in exchange for a reward. Unfortunately, this thing returned to the hands of the empire again.