Caesar's orders were quickly carried out. Soon, Bosporus began recruiting soldiers, expanding its army by two thousand to form two new peasant legions.
During this time, Manuel took the opportunity to write to his old friend, Karaman Bey Suleiman, who was located in the southeastern region of Anatolia. The main content of the letter was simple: to ask if he was willing to deepen cooperation with Bosporus, and to frankly warn him not to be swayed by Latins and Catholics into rashly attacking the Ottoman in the next two years, lest he be defeated and suffer losses.
Suleiman was not the only infidel monarch he intended to communicate with. A month after writing to his close friend, he also wrote a letter to congratulate the new Mamluk Sultan, Yusuf Jaqmaq, the former Alexandria general with whom he had a private acquaintance.
Due to Manuel's intervention, the internal affairs of the Mamluk Sultanate also experienced slight deviations due to the butterfly effect. For instance, the former Mamluk Sultan Barsbay only passed away in the middle of last year, not the year before. And after Zahir Jaqmaq, who was supposed to seize the Sultanate from Barsbay's son, Aziz Jamal al-Din Yusuf Barsbay, in original history, died in the Crimean Peninsula due to Manuel's unintentional actions many years ago, the Mamluk faction's power was controlled by his elder brother, Yusuf Jaqmaq, who was originally destined to be obscure in official history. To be honest, in terms of playing power politics, Yusuf was slightly inferior to his younger brother, the Zahir of official history. Fortunately, with the support of the Egyptian faction, he successfully defeated his political rival, General Emir Korkmaz Al-Sha'abani of Susa, at the end of last year, and publicly executed him in Alexandria. Finally, at the beginning of this year, after completing all preparations, he deposed Yusuf Barsbay and was officially crowned as the new Mamluk Sultan in Cairo.
During this period, Manuel did not reduce trade with Alexandria due to the political turmoil in Egypt. Instead, by increasing trade, he indirectly and effectively helped this Mamluk leader rooted in Alexandria, deepening their relationship.
In other words, he bet on the right person.
Of course, this did not mean that Jaqmaq's Sultanate was consolidated. If Manuel's intelligence was correct, the deposed former young Sultan, Yusuf Barsbay, dissatisfied with the loss of the Sultanate, escaped Cairo's surveillance in early February and went to the Levant, seeking help from two powerful Mamluk generals in Damascus, Emir Inal Al-Jakmi, and Emir Tagri Barmash of Aleppo, attempting to make a comeback.
Manuel largely remained an observer regarding this. After all, no matter how much Syria churned, it could not contend with Egypt's deeper foundations, and Jaqmaq, as an elder, was not an incompetent person. Suppressing the Mamluks in the Levant was probably not difficult.
His personal letter to Jaqmaq, more than anything, aimed to induce him to turn his attention to the Kingdom of Cyprus rather than the Knights Hospitaller, through a detailed personal analysis of the situation in the Levant, while also advising him not to maintain too close a relationship with the Ottoman lest the Turks become a threat to the Mamluks.
As for whether the Sultan would adopt his advice, that depended on whether he was willing to accept the sufficiently persuasive opinions he put forward.
After sending someone to mail the letter to Cairo, a border report submitted by Serenus gave him another headache.
"How did the White Sheep Dynasty's troops plunder into our territory?" After reading the report, Caesar couldn't help but frown. Since the former White Sheep Sultan Kara Osman Yuruk was killed by Mamluk forces in Mardin to the south in 1435, the White Sheep Dynasty's Sultanate was inherited by his third son, Ali. However, the new Sultan's position was clearly unstable. A civil war broke out less than two months after his accession, leading to his forced abdication and flight to Aleppo at the end of last year. This also gave Bosporus time to control and assimilate the conquered part of West Armenia.
However, the subsequent situation made him somewhat annoyed. The one who replaced Ali as Sultan was his younger brother, Hamza. According to intelligence, this person held a grudge over West Armenia being taken by Bosporus, which made Manuel, who was analyzing the situation in the imperial palace at this time, feel extremely disgusted. He was going to fight the Ottoman with all his might in a few years, and even if he could defeat the White Sheep Dynasty under Hamza again, he didn't want to spend extra effort on this.
Tapping the table lightly, after careful consideration, Manuel decided to once again utilize the Romans' specialty and incite another civil war within the White Sheep Dynasty. As for the candidates, he chose Uzun Hasan and Jahangir Mirza, sons of the former Sultan Ali. As descendants of the former Sultan, their claims were the most appealing and most likely to plunge the White Sheep into internal strife.
However, whether Uzun Hasan would achieve the accomplishments he did in official history and even threaten Bosporus was not a matter to be considered at present. Rather than worrying about problems that would only appear in ten years or so, it was better to solve the immediate issues first.
After selecting the candidates to support, Caesar summoned several important officials that evening, including Commander of the Guard Badars, Chancellor Serenus, and Foreign Affairs Director Mana, and assigned them the task of contacting the sons of the former White Sheep Sultan Ali to disrupt the White Sheep Dynasty, which had just barely recovered its peace.
Just as Bosporus was actively preparing for an unforeseen fierce battle, the political situation throughout the Eastern Mediterranean became increasingly unpredictable. The month after Manuel returned, King Sigismund of Lithuania passed away at the end of that month. Queen Sophia of Poland, on behalf of her son Władysław III, sent her younger son Casimir Jagiellon with a delegation to Lithuania to offer condolences. Unexpectedly, he was chosen by the Lithuanian parliament, who allowed him to inherit the Lithuanian throne in the middle of the same year, according to the previous agreement between the two countries, becoming King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Lithuania, at only 13 years old. This news spread throughout Eastern Europe, and everyone was somewhat dumbfounded, especially his mother Queen Sophia and his brother Władysław III. Upon learning of this, they could only offer congratulations while sending several capable officials from their country to Lithuania to strengthen the young king's education.
On July 17 of the same year, King Władysław III of Poland was officially crowned King in Hungary. But Elizabeth of Luxembourg, the widow of Albrecht II, refused to obey the resolution of the Hungarian parliament. In Vienna, in the Principality of Austria, she placed the Crown of Saint Stephen, stolen from Hungary, on her recently born son, Ladislaus, unilaterally crowning him King of Hungary. With the support of her recently crowned relative, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III von Habsburg, she gathered Austrian troops and Hungarian opposition, sparking a civil war.
"These Christians collapse on their own if left alone." Upon learning of this, Ottoman Sultan Murad II, resting in the Edirne palace, couldn't help but burst into laughter on the spot, mocking the incompetence and fragility of the infidels with his ministers.