Eagle Flag of Epirus

In 1206, in the once sacred land of the empire, with the complete collapse of the imperial power, the separation of the Latin Crusades and the Roman nobles had long been the norm. The update is the fastest, and this situation still shows no signs of improvement. On the contrary, it is tearing the foundation of the entire empire. Large and small Latin aristocrats established a Western system of beneficiaries on the ruins of the empire and directly regained lost land for the Romans. A huge hidden danger has been buried.

However, although the situation of the Romans was difficult, the situation faced by the Latins was equally complicated.

On the one hand, the Holy See and Venice’s attempt to support the Latin Empire of Constantinople is the so-called Romanian state instead of the Byzantine Empire that was originally established by the Orthodox Church. The former is for the authority of the Catholic Church, and the latter is for their own trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. interest. This allowed the Latin Empire to receive a steady stream of foreign blood transfusions from the west.

On the other hand, the entry of the Latins directly broke the geographical balance. Except for the remnant Roman nobles who are always pursuing the bloodbath of the country, the Bolgars in the north and the Turks in the east are eyeing each other. Invisibly, the three parties who shared the same sense felt unprecedented threats at the same time and reached cooperation in a tacit understanding.

The Dukas family in Epirus chose to form an alliance with Bulgaria, while the Sultanate of Roma gave the Lascaris family of Nicaea asylum, which directly led to the Latins falling into a heavy siege by their opponents. All the Latins, who occupy the minority, can rely on their own army.

In such a sinister chess game, if you make a mistake by mistake, you will lose all the games. The Latins know it, and the Roman rebels also know it, and both sides are looking for the flaws exposed by the other's carelessness. The first thing that went wrong was the proud Latins who had just taken Constantinople. They thought they could become the masters of this land in one fell swoop, but the cowardly and cunning Greeks in their eyes never lacked courage. The insurgents set off a recovery movement in Adrianople, and chose to bow down to seek help from the former enemy Bolgar, while the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan finally chose to send troops south to meet with the Latin Empire in consideration of his own gains and losses. The Latin emperor Baldwin I, who thought he had a chance to win, was unprepared. With the cooperation of the insurgents, the brave Bulgarian army defeated the Western Crusaders who had been fighting for a long time, captured Baldwin, and directed his troops towards Constantinople . Kaloyan was also crowned [The Butcher of the Romans], which made everyone in the Latin Empire discouraged. Even Boniface, who was recognized by the Fourth Crusade as the first to defend Thessaloniki, had to choose to avoid it for a while. At one time, the Bolgarians and the Romans joined forces and directly attacked Thessaloniki. Card city.

All of a sudden, the battle seemed to be reversed. The Crusaders who had besieged Constantinople fell into the same dilemma that the Romans faced more than a year ago. However, just when everyone thought that the Bolgars and the Romans were about to eliminate the divided Latins completely, the birth of a man interrupted this possibility.

Henry of Flanders, the younger brother of Emperor Baldwin I of the Latin Empire, although he was far from dazzling during the Crusade period, Emperor Henry, who was appointed to the throne when he was in danger, immediately showed his extraordinary talents. After decisively reaching an armistice agreement with the Lascaris family of Nicaea, he immediately joined forces with Boniface of Thessaloniki regardless of previous suspicions, and finally used the differences within the Bolgar to temporarily repelled the card in the critical battle. The coalition led by Tsar Loyan and Mikhail Dukas regained the initiative in the Balkans. Emperor Henry twisted the Latins who were fighting each other into a rope again, especially after the complete destruction of the Achaia and the Principality of Athens, all the crusaders and nobles who still dreamed about the separation of one side had to choose to submit to the banner of Romania. It would be a bad idea to cope with the Greek counterattack together. Even the arrogant king Boniface of Thessaloniki finally chose to surrender to Henry.

It can be said that this is both an opportunity and a challenge. The Emperor Henry in Constantinople knew nothing more than "the crown must bear its weight", and the reverse is true. Even if the world attacks from three sides, it makes his throne even more unshakable. Through the integration of various forces, the Latin Empire at this moment has reached an unprecedented height under the leadership of this man. The Roman resistance in the territory has been brutally suppressed, and the new beneficiary system has been forcibly implemented, and the control of the place has been continuously deepened. , So that the Latin Empire calmed down domestic instability in just six months.

This is inseparable from Henry's skills. He not only brought the Latin aristocrats to his banner ~www.ltnovel.com~, but also attracted a large number of original Roman aristocrats, and even his newly married queen was a Greek. Obviously, this kind of tenderness was so effective that even religious contradictions were resolved under the coordination of this man. Coupled with the support of the Venetians behind and sitting on Constantinople, who has experienced war and is still very wealthy, a steady stream of Western mercenaries set foot on this land from the sea to strengthen the military power of the Latin Empire.

This made the Romans once again felt a huge crisis. Both Epirus and Nicaea realized that Constantinople's opponent this time was very difficult. Especially the Ducas family of Epirus. Although Mikhail called himself emperor, his legitimacy was far less than that of Laskaris, who was the emperor's son-in-law. What he needed most to win the throne was victory.

However, at this time, the shortcomings of Epirus' location also appeared. Relying on the topography of the mountain, Mikhail successfully resisted the previous wave of crusades and took the opportunity to grow bigger. However, it is easy to separate one party, but it becomes as difficult as climbing the sky if you want to enter the world. Nicaea and Constantinople are separated by only one sea, and Lascaris still holds the Imperial Navy in his hands, but Epirus and Constantinople see not only rugged mountains, but also rugged mountains. There is a solid city of Thessaloniki. As the second largest city in the Roman Empire, its wall size and defenses are second only to Constantinople. Because of this, Mikhail Dukas knew that in any case Thessaloni would be restored to Constantinople The card, which bears the brunt of the obstacle, must be taken down. And the dark clouds of this war covering the entire Upper and Lower Macedonia have just spread.

A vigorous recovery war finally kicked off at the moment when Epirus made a choice!