Although the Bosphorus is very cold and lively in winter, it is quite lively. On this strait, known as one of the busiest waterways in the world, there are endless ships coming and going.

No matter when, the Bosphorus Strait would not seem to be deserted. Even without the merchant ships traveling between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the large number of ships in Golden Horn Bay were enough to make the strait lively.

The sun slowly rose in the morning, and the magnificent golden red painted on the sea made the cold winter look a little warmer. The morning light shone on the tall palace wall at a corner of the Golden Horn Bay, making the buildings that stretched upwards along with the mountains also reflect a warm color behind the palace wall.

Two black servants dragged a small boat hard on the small pier in front of the gate at the bottom corner of the palace wall. The boat was filled with several large baskets, and the fresh fish that kept jumping inside shook their tails from time to time to try to escape from this hell.

On the stone road of the small pier was standing a eunuch with the same dark complexion. The fat eunuch used a wooden stick in his hand to pick up the fish in the basket. He was picky for a while and then nodded barely satisfied, waved his hand and let the servant follow him to the corner door.

The eunuch walked in front, and at the same time turned around and kept reminding the servants following him: "Be careful, you must know that if the fish tastes bad, we will all suffer."

The servants behind him immediately nodded, and they knew that it was not because the eunuch was deliberately making things difficult for them, but because if there was a slight mistake, they might lose their lives.

Just a few days ago, two careless servants sent fish baskets mixed with shrimp and clams into the palace. If this was normal, it might be just a severe punishment, but this time the two were very unlucky. They were tied with ropes and put them in sacks and threw them into the sea from the front and back of the palace.

And a few people were implicated by them and died.

All this was just because the Sultan's carriage happened to pass by the servants at that time.

Since returning to Constantinople, Valesset II's temper has become extremely irritable. Although his injuries have improved under the power of many imperial doctors and saved his life, he has been completely paralyzed.

The Sultan could only patrol the palace by riding in a sedan and a not-so-comfortable chariot. He could no longer leave the palace, and even in the palace where he could move was pitifully fewer places. A little movement would make him very painful. If the doctor had not repeatedly reminded that lying in bed all day might cause bedsores, Bayesette II might not even leave the palace door.

And even if he was just "walking" in the palace, Bayesette II would have a foot guard by his side. In fact, he hardly believed everyone around him now. In his opinion, everyone was ready to oppose and murder him. Everyone in the palace might be undercover bought by Mehmed or Selim, so even his closest guards would order them to stay away from him, and even when he went out, he could only move forward sideways with his back to him.

There is a reason why the Sultan is so suspicious. Mehmed and Selim are almost rebelling. With their strength, they have not only turned against each other publicly, but also both of them obviously hope to use coercion of Bayesette II to gain the advantage in this Sudan battle.

Bayesette II was very worried that he might become a prisoner of a son, and was also more worried that some of the new generals stationed in Constantinople colluded with them to rebel. Therefore, he had been dragging the sick body to frequently issue various orders to mobilize the army and replace the generals for a while, but the Sultan himself knew very well that it was unknown whether his orders could still be executed in this situation.

So in order to protect yourself, the Sultan locked himself in the palace and stared at the signs of rebellion at all times.

His orders were sent to the front palace by eunuchs, and Vizier and Pasha would pass these orders to the hands of those who received the orders. This process was nothing in the past, but now those Vizier and Pasha have become key figures who can decide whether the sultan's orders can be executed at will.

The power of those people was invisibly expanding rapidly, which was also a huge threat to Bayesette II, but he no longer cared about these things. He was neither convenient nor courageous to leave the palace, inspect his army like before, and use the majesty of the Sultan to shock those possible troubles.

A eunuch carefully walked through the curtained corridor and came to the two closed bronze doors. He first knocked on the door lightly, and after waiting for the sound of opening the door bolt inside, he pushed open the heavy door with the people inside.

A strange smell came towards us, mixed with herbs and some stench made people feel uncomfortable, but the eunuch seemed to walk in without any notice and stood carefully a little far from the bed and said respectfully: "My master, Elupp has arrived."

"Is that so fast?" The Sultan's voice came from the bed surrounded by gauze curtains. He did not let the eunuch wait too long before he ordered people to be brought in. Then he called the servants who were serving him to help him raise the cushion he leaned on slightly.

Not long after, the former Bosnian Governor Erup, who was still dressed in gorgeous clothes, walked into the room. Although the Governor lost his Governor's territory because of the Ottoman defeat in the Battle of Bucharest, he was very clever to find a way out in advance.

Today, Erup is the "Vera" of the Ottoman Empire.

Although he was a puppet of the Ottomans, at least in name, both South Bosnia and Macedonia now have their own kings, so Erup could only "wrongedly" serve as Vera, a position with the name of prime minister and governor who was more authoritative than the king.

The servants carefully retreated and tightened the door, and for a moment the room fell into silence.

"You still look like that," Bayesette II's tone was a little weak. Although he had tried his best to recover, it was a bit too difficult for him, so later on, the Sultan simply stopped pretending. "Does I look pitiful now?"

Elup pondered for a moment, as if thinking about how to answer, and then he said respectfully: "You are the Sultan."

Listening to Erup's reply that seemed to answer irrelevant questions, Bayesette II smiled bitterly.

He wanted to move his body, not because he wanted to pretend to be fine in front of Elyup, but because he felt a little uncomfortable, but now there was no one around him, so he could only sigh in secret.

The Sultan would allow Erup to be in the same room with him without the company of the guards, not because he trusted him, but because he knew Erup would not put himself in danger for others.

So his sons could not buy this man who assassinated him for them.

"What happened?" Bayesette II looked at Erup. If it weren't for some special reason, Erup would not have left his work and worked hard to rush back to Constantinople, so Bayesette II knew that there must be something important about his coming this time.

"Great Sultan, I may have brought you a message that will upset you, which may even cost me my life." Elupp replied calmly, as if he had no idea what he said might bring about the consequences.

"Tell me what it is, maybe I won't rush to cut off your head."

The Sultan's promise seemed to relieve Erup a little, and he moved forward and slightly closer to the bed: "My Sultan, the Queen of Wallachia, sent someone to send her conditions."

Valiceth II's face, which was fat and swollen due to long-term inactivity, trembled, and the nightmare that Bucharest brought him made him feel uncomfortable when he heard people and things about the place. Now that he heard Erupp mention the name that caused one of the culprits in such a situation, Sultan's already bad mood became even worse.

"This may really make you lose your head," Sultan said stiffly. He lay in the thick cushion, thrusting his neck up a little stiffly, but he quickly leaned back weakly. "Tell me, what news did that woman bring to her?"

"Sultan, Queen Wallachia hopes to let her fleet pass through the strait," said Erup to Bayesette II, who was hiding behind the curtains in the ground bed. From him, the Sultan's figure looked a little blurred. "In return, the Queen has promised to stop the conflict with Moldova."

Bayesette II did not speak immediately, because through the curtain, Erupp could not see the sickness on Sultan's face, but he could feel the depression in silence.

It was indeed a very dangerous errand, but Elup was not very worried, because he had known from a long time that Sultan was a very cautious person. He might hate those who made him fall into such a field, but he also knew what was beneficial to him. It was precisely because of this that Bayesette II could finally defeat his brother Jem and enter the Grand Palace.

The Sultan is not in a good situation now. His two ambitious sons took advantage of his serious injury and were not healed. With their strength, they openly bribed the ministers in Constantinople to win over the generals of the Guards. At the same time, they rushed to grant officials to Pasha, the governors from all over the country, hoping to get their support.

When they did these activities, they still kept secret, but as they discovered that Bayesette II's health was getting worse, the two gradually became bolder, and later they simply became unscrupulous.

Elyup was very clear about these things. He had seen the envoys sent by the two princes more than once.

The two princes still value Erup very much. They knew that the Balkan Villa was very smart. After all, after the defeat of Bucharest, a large number of generals were punished and deprived of military power, some of which were even veterans in the era of Mohammed II.

It is hard to say whether Bayesette II did this to take the opportunity to eradicate potential enemies that he thought might pose a threat to him. However, everyone knows that at this time when someone is in trouble at any time, the former Governor of Northern Bosnia, Erup, was not punished for losing his territory. On the contrary, he soon took office as South Poskya and Vila of Macedonia, which forced many people who had not been optimistic about him to look at him differently.

Because of this, Erup became the object of enlistment between the two princes. Whether it was his personal status or the important geographical location of the Balkans, Erup was a key figure who might play an important role for the two princes.

In history, Selim actually launched a rebellion against his father from the Balkans. He tried to enter Constantinople before Mehmed to control the overall situation, but his rebellion was then quelled by Bayesette II.

At this time, Salim also took a fancy to the important locations of Macedonia and South Bosnia. He kept sending envoys to try to convince Erup. It happened that Mehmed also had such an idea.

Erupp seemed not very interested in the show of the two princes, so when he came to Constantinople to meet the Sultan, many spies who were stationed in the city by the two princes immediately gave this important news to their masters.

However, no one knows why this Vera suddenly left his governor's jurisdiction to meet the Sultan, which made his actions look extremely mysterious.

I don't know how long it took, but a dull sigh came from behind the curtain.

Seeing the Sultan seemingly waved to him, Erup carefully lifted the gentle curtain and stretched half of his body into it. Under the dim lights, the sick-looking face of Valesette II appeared in front of him, which made him sigh softly.

"Does I look pitiful?"

Hearing the Sultan ask this again, Erup sat sideways on the edge of the bed, reached out to hold up the hem of the Sultan's fat robe, and kissed gently regardless of the stench on it.

"Do you know, I can't even solve the problem of urination and defecation by myself now. Although I have never done such a thing before, now..." Sultan lifted up a corner of his robe, revealing a bulging cow stomach sac. The stomach sac was connected to a tube made of sheep intestines. The other end of the tube disappeared under the Sultan's robe. "I am like this now. Maybe I am really useless to my sons."

"The army remains loyal to you, especially the new army," Elupp whispered, "as long as they can get enough spoils and rewards, they will always support you."

"But what can I give them now?" Bayesette II smiled bitterly. "I know that my sons are generously promising them all kinds of conditions. They can now recruit those people with such verbal favors. But I cannot. I must use practical benefits to ensure that they do not betray me. But now except for the fleet at sea, everything is really bad elsewhere."

"So this is a good opportunity for you," Erup laughed at the Sultan. "Your army is eager to take down a big city like Krakow. The Polish army has been severely damaged after several setbacks. If we attack Poland at this time, maybe we can severely damage the Polish army without waiting for the support of the Bohemians. Such a victory for your Majesty is enough to allow the new army to continue to follow you."

"Your idea is good, but we all know that the war between Wallachia and Moldova has caused us great trouble. Stefan is old and he can't control his disobedient nobles and the Royes? He is also very ambitious, right?"

"So it's up to you," Elyup bent down to Sultan, and then sat cross-legged on the bed and looked at Bayesette II face to face. "The queen wanted to send her fleet across the strait, and her destination was Sicily. We all know that our navy cannot threaten there now. If this is the case, why not let the pagans kill each other, let alone..."

"What's more, if I promised her terms, would she really stop the conflict with Moldova?" Bayesette II asked suspiciously. "If the Wallachians broke the contract, they could cut off the retreat of my new army. They would be trapped in the mainland of Europe, and that would be the second Bucharest defeat."

"I don't think so," Erup thought for a while and shook her head. Seeing the sultan under the light, which was still turbid but still made people look nervous and uneasy. Erup continued, "Based on the time I have been dealing with her, I can feel that the woman's mind does not seem to be focused on expanding the kingdom or fighting with us. She doesn't even seem to be so interested in the restoration of the Greeks. However, this time she did want to go to Sicily. For this reason, she took the initiative to send people to me, proposing that she would restore peace with Moldova, and promised not to interfere with our attack on Poland."

Erup's words made Bayesette II's eyes, which had no strength, suddenly become more energetic. While signaling Erup to help him sit down, he asked him to continue talking.

Outside the room, several eunuchs stood on both sides of the closed copper door. They looked vigilantly at the people coming and going in the corridor. Soon they determined that several of them seemed to be too interested in the Sultan's room.

The arrival of Southern Bosnia and the Balkan Villa did attract many people's attention, but soon people learned about the real purpose of Erup's return to Constantinople.
Chapter completed!