12. Blessed by god? Sure why not!

Constantinople late September 1432 A.D

In a rather small chamber off the Blachernae, a magnificent palace in Constantinople, John, Emperor of the Romans, ruler of Constantinople, ran his fingers through his mustache and smiled politely at the figure opposite. John shifted on the silk-clad cushions and, closing his eyes, savored the fragrant flavor of myrrh and frankincense. A girl servant refilled his cup with red wine and sighed softly.

"You may go," John whispered. The girl disappeared immediately. John sighed and reshaped his robes. His eyes wandered around, observing the ceilings of silver and wood, the marble walls before returning to catch me and Thomas starring at him.

His gaze fell to the table in front of him, and all his euphoria died. A map was spread out: to its right, across the Hellespont, the various Beyliks and the vast empire of the Timurids, to its left and North the kingdoms of Europe. I pointed some of the names etched there: Venice with its fleet; Genoa with its wealth; Hungary and its soldiers; Rome with its Pope. "All these great lands and sacred places used to be Roman, my brother," I said. My finger moved South to Alexandria and stopped.

"The situation is quite clear, my dear John," I murmured. "We are again masters of Greece. But that's only the start, oh brother." I moved my finger. "I am destined to take back what is our by divine right."

John closed his eyes and gnawed on his lips.

"Constantine is blessed by our holy father to lead us to victory." Said Thomas passionately.

John opened his eyes. "You are truly blessed, my brother; You showed all the world what a Roman army could do."

I must confess that playing the religious card was mandatory. Heh, any other direction is for the moment super risky for my well being in this crazy era. Loyal people are what I need the most before any new expansion plans—the "destined by God" and Ieros skopos concepts cemented Thomas and John's loyalty and much helped with integrating peacefully all the recently "liberated" lands. With most people viewing me as a "living saint," it was also easier to protect the Muslim populations that fell to our hands. So I declare that it's our duty to bring everyone to the true faith. For the moment, that was the best solution not to enslave or kill all the ottoman remnants in the Balkans.

I stayed in Constantinople a couple more weeks before my return to Thessaloniki. During that time, I had several meetings and councils with my Co-emperor John regarding the future of the empire and our plans. First of all, we decided to abort the ideas of unification under the Papacy. Despite my good personal relations with the Pope, the unification was not of any use anymore. Never the less we send a delegation to continue the talks of a possible union of the churches. We also finalized and signed a treaty with Sigismund king of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany. Sigismund was quite pleased with the collapse of the Ottomans, so was more than happy to strike a deal with fellow Christians. Heh, recognizing his control of the city of Belgrade and his suzerainty over Walachia, helped too.

To counter this move, I also accepted Despot of Serbia, George Brankovic proposal to marry his daughter Katarina. Securing our Northern border was one thing, dealing with the growing wary and uneasy of Genoa and most importantly Venice was another thing. Despite the Venetians' lucrative book trade with us, there were more and more tensions between merchants and pressure from the Doge for special privileges regarding trade, especially in what they call their ex-colony Thessaloniki. Despite the Doge's pressure and my brother's demand for war, I managed to earn me some time by making a deal with the Venetians, granting them better trade rights and better book prices. News from Anatolia was quite exciting too. The two Timurid vassal Bayliks fought each other while riots by Orthodox Christians sparked in Smyrna, Philadelphia, and various towns and villages. Finally, I also received news regarding Mamluk Egypt and the Timurid empire. One and a half years ago, Egypt got severely struck by famine and plague. It appears that the Mamluk Sultan Barsbay is trying to reshape his realm after the devastation from the disasters. As for Shah Rukh, the ruler of the Timurid empire, my intel reports note that he spent last year quelling a minor rebellion in Farz. With all the intel gathered, it was clear that reclaiming Anatolia's coast was our next move.

Thessaloniki December 1432 AD

With a grunt of pleasure, I sat down at my desk to check the reports. All the "managers" from my enterprises have gathered in Thessaloniki for their annual end-of-year reports. They are now sitting around my round table for the first economic yearly symposium of my "corporation." The idea behind the symposium meeting is to emulate the annual corporate conferences when I was executive of a major publishing house back in my previous life. In general, copying whatever possible from the 21st-century organizational structure is a no brainer for me.

The reports, as expected, were excellent. The paper factories' output was finally catching up with my printing needs, and the sales of my first greek books( a greek bible and the story of Alexander the Great) were also quite good. The sales through the Papacy and Venice reached a new high too. A total of one hundred fifty thousand books sold in total. The sales of goods and the trade income set new highs also, but the Siderocaustia mines production of gold and silver, especially after ten thousand new slaves working on them, outproduce all my other resources of income by a huge margin.

The initial rebuilt of Thessaloniki is going smoothly, too, with most of the new buildings now ready. The navy arsenal finally started working on my master shipbuilder's, Carlos Manuel Carvalho Mendes, prototype of a new warship. Meanwhile, the arsenal and my war factories began to produce weapons and ammunition in large scales and covered all my army's growing needs. I guess I am now the owner of the strongest military in the world. My standing army now includes sixty tagmata(1) under constant drilling, ready to smash everything on its way.

The Palaiologian royal academy-university.

With the restoration, among others, of the old octagon roman hall of Galerius, Thessaloniki's University also founded this year.

Rather than merely a university, the plan is to serve as an institution and tech hub. An institution that will bring together some of the best scholars of the time to boost technology by basically mostly trying to reverse engineering various concepts and ideas by me. Inspired by the Ptolemaic Museum of Alexandria and the 21st century's universities, I spared no expense to build up the primary learning and technology hub in the world.

More than three hundred scholars, most of them recruited from Mystras and Constantinople, live and work already in the university. Staff members and scholars are salaried by me and paid no taxes. They also received free meals, free room and board, and free servants.

The university scholars will conduct scientific research, publish, lecture, and collect as many books and texts as possible from the known world. In addition to Greek works, foreign documents will be translated from Latin, Persian, Jewish, Indian languages, and other sources.

A school devoted to the study of anatomy and an installation for astronomical observations were among the main areas of focus. The primary school ofc was the "Mechanicon," where the research of Heron steam inventions and the reverse engineering of my vague ideas regarding steam engines were the main point of interest.

Lastly, a semi-independent, from the rest of the university, school of navigation, map-making, and naval warfare, also open its doors.

Theophilus Dragaš appointed by me as the head administrator of all the campus and a total of four hundred were the first students.

(1) Each tagma is composed of 500 troops(200 flintlock musketeers,200 pikemen, 100 cavalrymen) plus a supporting cannon battery of 5 Drakos. Each Drakos is operated by three men and a total crew of five. So each one of the 5 Drakos cannon batteries has 25 troops. The 60 tagmata include 12000 musketeers and 300 field cannons.

In Chapter 05 there is a mention:

Drakos was a lovely nine-pounder, an anti-personnel field cannon, that could be operated by just three men, and when mounted on my custom two-wheeled cart, was pulled by only two horses. Emphasizing in mobility and combined arms is my top priority for my future army.