ALL NOVEL
Chapter 47: The Dyeing Plan
“Our Caesar,” Constantin XI watched as Shu Yichao hung the Venetian envoy to death with a bitter face, “What you did was exhilarating, but we are in a terrible position. It’s disadvantageous for us to make enemies out of the Venetians at a time like this.”
The earlier confrontation with the Venetian envoy made Constantin XI, who was feeling good about himself a moment ago, realize just how weak the empire was.
They couldn’t fall back on Constantinope anymore. It was a blessing that the mercenaries didn’t purge the city again.
Edirne was still in shambles after being taken down by Shu Yichao, and much work had to be done for repairs. It would already be a cause for celebration if the Ottomain coolies didn’t rebel.
The only ones they could deploy right away were Thessaloniki’s 8000 new soldiers.
However, the Eastern Romain Empire was up against the massive armies of the northern countries, which easily numbered in the tens of thousands, the Ottomains’ remnant powers in the east and the west, and Venice’s sea lockdown.
It was a battle of multiple fronts, and the current Romie was nowhere strong enough for that!
“Maybe we should negotiate with the Venetians—”
“Negotiate my ass!” Shu Yichao spat.
Once, he had gone down the commerce road in another game, only to squander off a king’s ransom. Since then, he had decided not to rack his brain on this aspect. It was much easier to swing his blades instead.
“I just have to rip through the encirclement, right? You don’t know how many times I have cleared such scenarios. I was recently thinking there are too many colors in the Balkans. Let me go dye the world in one color.
“Now that I have dealt with the Ottomans, it’s time to strike the Venetian headquarters…”
“Our Caesar is right!” Sophia suddenly spoke up.
She thought that she would be forced to watch helplessly as the Venetian envoy smugly pushed his agenda through, since the Eastern Romain Empire was indeed in no state to offend Venice.
However, the Khitan Caesar, who had bore a hole right through the Ottomain Empire, didn’t fear the Venetians at all…
This might be an opportunity.
So, after hearing Madam Marti’s translation for her and her mother, she stepped out and said, “Your Majesty, our circumstances might not be as bad as it seems.
“The northern countries are invading southward, but they are a bunch of scattered sand that refuse to cooperate together, sometimes even fighting one another. Due to that, they are making slow progress. So, the threat they pose isn’t as big as you envisioned.
“Constantinope might be out of our control right now, but neither is it under Venice’s control. They are hesitant to take over such an important location, fearing that others might turn against them. If we defeat a couple of their fleets, they might consider stepping back.
“After all,” Sophia turned to Shu Yichao, “our Khitan Caesar is a force to be reckoned with. Those mercenaries who have fought alongside Constantinope to fend against the Ottomain’s encirclement would have to weigh how much they are worth against our Caesar before turning against us.”
“Thomas, my brother, you have brought up an incredible daughter…” Constantin XI was impressed after hearing Sophia’s analysis.
Madam Marti translated Sophia’s words for Shu Yichao.
The development team must have maxed out her governance talent. As expected of the Grand Princess Consort of Moscow! Shu Yichao’s eyes lit up.
In history, after the downfall of the Eastern Roman Empire, Sophia had first sought refuge at Rome before Pope Paul II then married her abroad to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Both sides initially didn’t think much of this princess.
Pope Paul II had intended to pit the Grand Duchy of Moscow against the Ottomans, so as to turn the Ottomans’ attention away from him. Similarly, the Grand Duchy of Moscow pursued this political marriage because they wanted an alliance with the Catholic Church.
Sophia was a chip in the process. Her children were even forbidden from inheriting the duchy.
Despite the terrible hand she was dealt with, Sophia made an astounding comeback.
She introduced Eastern Roman’s court etiquette into Moscow to influence the country’s culture. At the same time, through a series of maneuvers, she managed to make her son the successor of the duchy. She also converted the majority of the people in the duchy to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Thus, ‘Third Rome’ was born, and it fought against the Ottomans for over two centuries…
【My host.】
System 12345 spoke up.
【I just thought of a good idea.】
【You are having communication issues now, right? I know that you won’t be able to learn that many languages right away, so I’ll give you a Follower’s Edict. You’ll be able to recruit a polyglot as your servant and share experience with him.】
【You should be able to quickly grasp the local languages this way. Soon, you won’t have to worry about being unable to properly communicate with the nobles anymore!】
【Heh, what do you think?】
System 12345 excitedly asked.
【My host, aren’t I smart? Come, accept my gift.】
“Oh? This sudden reward… Did I trigger some sort of mission? It must be thanks to Sophia.” Shu Yichao’s hands suddenly felt itchy. “It’d be cool if I can nurture an underling with maxed out stats. It just so happens that I’m going to clear the surrounding enemies. I can use this chance to raise her military prowess.”
“You must be out of your mind!!!” After Madam Marti translated Shu Yichao’s words, Thomas’ consort hugged her daughter even tighter and vehemently expressed her objection. “She’s only five! How can you let a five-year-old girl step onto the battlefield?”
“It’s precisely because she’s young that we should do it now.” Shu Yichao was unfazed. “Otherwise, it’ll be troublesome if she needs to wash her stats…”
Thomas’ consort shook her head.
However, Sophia had other thoughts in mind. With fire blazing in her eyes, she slowly pried away the consort’s hand and said, “Mother, let me go.”
“…” Shu Yichao stared at Sophia with heated eyes, as if he was already staring at his gleaming Metal Fortresses.
It didn’t take him long to come up with a battle plan.
The new soldiers Constantin XI had recruited would be in charge of guarding Thessaloniki—they were so slow that Shu Yichao couldn’t be bothered to bring them along.
Shu Yichao and his Elite Horse Archers would be wholly in charge of chopping down the enemies.
He would first head west to clear off the Ottoman remnants, then head south to attack Athens and reclaim Morea, and finally move along the Balkans to pummel the Venetians.
Following that, he would sail across the sea to Crete to pummel the Venetians again. From there, he would head east into Anatolia and beat the Ottomans once more while he was at it.
Then, he would head north to Constantinope and beat up the remaining Venetians and the mercenaries occupying the city. After that, he would further head northward to beat up with miscreants who wanted to take advantage of the chaos to attack them but were dilly-dallying.
And after dyeing the entire Balkans purple, he would head straight into Venice and burn it down.
To summarize, he was planning to do an ‘Aegean Sea tour’ and turn the whole place purple. Anyone who tried to resist would be killed.
The crowd fell silent after hearing his plan.
“This…” Constantin XI stuttered. “How should I put it? It does sound like our Caesar’s style of handling things, but I don’t think we have the means to conquer so many cities?”
“I’m just going to chop the enemies down.” Shu Yichao was baffled. “Why would I conquer those cities?”
“…” Constantin XI could already imagine the chaos that would unfold as a result of this.
But before that—
Shu Yichao quietly stared at his minimap, or more specifically, the bunch of red dots that had just appeared out of nowhere.
“I have never seen these before. Are they newly spawned? They seem to be the remaining nobles.”
Shu Yichao hadn’t bothered dealing with the nobles as they hadn’t appeared as red dots thus far, but from the looks of it now, it could be that his detection ability was lacking.
Sophia is really incredible.
Shu Yichao flipped the genealogy book.
“So that’s the use of it,” he murmured.
He turned to the Elite Horse Archers and ordered, “Brothers, let’s go! Let’s capture these fellows and dice them into minced meat!
“No wait, that wouldn’t work—” Shu Yichao gave the matter more thought and overthrew his previous plan. “There are too many people. It’s such a hassle to capture all of them. Let’s just dice them on the spot and be done with it.”