After Murad II's eldest and beloved son recovered from a severe illness, the Sultan immediately ordered the entire city to celebrate, and the whole city of Edirne was thus immersed in joy. However, not everyone in the capital enjoyed the pervasive joy and happiness of the moment.
In a secluded part of the Edirne Palace, Prince Muhammad, only 8 years old this year, was held in the arms of his adoptive mother, Mara Hatton, quietly experiencing a tranquility completely different from the outside. This was not because they were treated coldly by the Sultan, but because they knew they were out of place with the atmosphere outside and consciously stayed here.
After a while, Muhammad, still a child, spoke first, "Mother, will I die?" Since being raised by Mara, the young Prince, who had previously been treated coldly, finally received some genuine care, and he truly regarded this Serbian woman as his mother. And when his elder brothers fell seriously ill, although Muhammad carefully kept his true thoughts hidden, he did, in fact, repeatedly wish in his heart that they would all die from it, so that he could escape his predetermined fate of death.
As a son of the current Ottoman Sultan who was not the heir, if he wanted to avoid the same fate of death or exile as his predecessors, the only stable solution was probably to become the heir of the Sultanate.
But with the recovery of his elder brothers, Muhammad knew that his delusion had completely fallen through.
Looking at her adopted son, who was now trembling with fear for the future, she, dressed in a black silk robe, could only gently stroke his slightly messy dark hair and comfort him, "It's alright, child, at least we are all still here, aren't we…?"
At the same time, in the court of Konya, the capital of the Karaman Beylik, Karaman Bey Suleiman was discussing with his subjects the contents of a secret letter sent to him by his close friend, and whether to immediately respond to the instigation of Venice and other commercial Republics.
"Bey, although the promises of infidels are as unreliable as the surface of Tuz Gölü. But objectively speaking, they are right in this matter; if we could defeat a mere perfidious Ottoman once, then we can defeat them countless times. Allah is above, please order an attack on them, and our tribes will certainly do our utmost." In front of the throne, a Turkmen tribal chief, representing the local Karaman power, thus incited his Bey and others in the court. He represented the views of many inland tribes on border issues.
But it was clear that not everyone present, both ruler and minister, was as excited about starting a new war as he was. At Suleiman's signal, the representative of the civilian official faction, who had been ignored by previous Beys, an old minister named Aydiz, who had been appointed during Bengi Ali Bey's time and was now promoted by his son Suleiman to Grand Vizier, immediately stepped forward and presented his views and those of the group he represented.
"Bey, and all of you, I believe we should not provoke a conflict at this time," the Grand Vizier paused noticeably as he said this, "It has been less than three years since the war between our country and the Ottoman ended, and we simply do not have the capacity to launch a large-scale conflict with the Ottoman again. If we immediately provoke a new war, then our country will probably only gain defeat and casualties, rather than land and…"
"That's enough," another slightly younger Turkmen tribal chief interrupted the Grand Vizier's statement with a cold snort, "Does the Grand Vizier mean that we should let this great opportunity pass? As far as I know, Ottoman Sultan Murad II's two beloved sons are seriously ill, and he has now had a mental breakdown; the entire Ottoman is in chaos. This is a great opportunity for us to send troops to reclaim our old territories!" The news of the Ottoman Sultan's two princes being seriously ill was widely circulated among the Turk regimes in Anatolia, so much so that the Karaman elite were also aware of it.
At this moment, Suleiman, who had been sitting cross-legged on the throne, finally spoke, offering his opinion, "But according to the new intelligence I have received, a group of renowned physicians has already gone to treat the severe fever of these two Ottoman princes. And even at this time, the Ottoman High Porte still maintains control over the Sultanate, like stars surrounding Murad."
Having said that, the Bey raised his sharp, dark eyes, scanned his subjects, and slowly returned to his normal demeanor, "Alright, continue."
Suleiman's words, while seemingly unproblematic, clearly supported the peace-advocating civilian official group with his new intelligence. Furthermore, not all tribes and military factions were willing to go to war with the Ottoman so quickly again, and the few tribal chiefs advocating for an aggressive war quickly fell into a disadvantage in this court debate. Karaman thus shelved the matter of going to war with the Ottoman, at least for the time being.
In this way, the world line shifted slightly again. Due to the advice from his confidant across the Bosporus and the limitations of the Beylik's national strength, Karaman ultimately decided to disregard the Italian commercial Republics' urging and instead continued to maintain a false and temporary peace with the Ottoman on the border. At least for the next two years.
Some time later in the afternoon, Manuel, in the Trabzon Palace, breathed a genuine sigh of relief upon learning of Karaman's decision: now, Karaman, as the strongest Turk Bey in Southeast Anatolia, should not send men to their deaths against the Ottoman as in official history, right? In official history, if Karaman Bey had not listened to the provocations of Venice and other Italian commercial Republics and his own ambition, directly launching a premature war against the Sultanate in 1440, resulting in Murad II thoroughly crushing him in Asia Minor, the pressure faced by the Crusader coalition in Eastern Europe later would not have been so great.
"Alright, now let's see how things are in Hungary." With this thought, Caesar took out another document from the desk and read it carefully.
According to intelligence gathered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through official channels in Eastern Europe, the young Polish King Władysław III, also Ulaslo I of Hungary, had officially begun fighting the Habsburg faction represented by the posthumous child Ladislaus. The situation of this stage of the war was that, with the support of the Hungarian upper nobility, the young King and Hunyadi János achieved an almost intimate cooperation, directly causing the opposition to suffer repeated defeats.
It's pretty much the same as in official history. Caesar glanced at this situation, which was similar to the historical records of his previous life, and then put it aside. The only thing that caught his eye was an interesting anecdote: before the war, to reconcile the disputes between the two sides, the young King had expressed his willingness to marry the former King's widow, Elizabeth of Luxembourg, and become the adoptive father of the posthumous child Ladislaus…
"Hahaha, the Catholics really know how to play in this regard." After repeatedly reading this passage, Manuel immediately clutched his stomach, laughing.