After receiving the relevant report from his subordinate, Manuel carefully read the information about Murad's offspring.
A quarter of an hour later, having finished reading, he nodded slightly, maintaining a smile but remaining silent. Just like in the official history of his previous life, Murad II still had four sons in Manuel's altered timeline: the eldest son who died young, the second son who was still Ahmed, the third son and beloved Sultan Aladdin Ali, and the fourth son, Muhammad, who was still an infant.
Since that was the case, it seemed that his plans and preparations would not change for a while, although it was not something to be proud of, Manuel thought to himself.
However, dwelling on these matters now was useless. Therefore, after a brief sigh, he continued to deal with his daily routine. During this time, a message, or rather intelligence, from the southern Caucasus caught his attention.
"Atabeg Ivan II of the Samtskhe Principality, a feudal vassal of the Georgia Kingdom, and Duke Beshken II Orbelian of Lori, actually bypassed King Alexander I Bagration of Georgia to seek good relations with my Bosporus?" Manuel's mind raced after receiving the message.
"What are the princes and nobles of Georgia trying to do?" He frowned slightly, tapping the wooden table in front of him, and began to recall his knowledge of Georgia during that period, both from his previous life and this one.
The two main characters in this message, Samtskhe and Lori, were, in his memory, long-term destabilizing factors in Georgia. The former, the Jakeli family who ruled Samtskhe in official history, had indeed gradually adopted a policy of distancing themselves from Tbilisi after declaring themselves Atabeg and becoming a powerful political entity within the Georgia Kingdom. They thus became a major unstable factor within the country. Atabeg Ivan II of Samtskhe himself even raised an army directly against King Alexander in 1416, although he was defeated and forced to reduce the Principality's autonomy.
As for the latter, the Lori Principality, ruled by Beshken II Orbelian, also known as the Hachen Principality, was a vassal personally bestowed by Alexander I to resist the Black Sheep Dynasty and the Shirvanshah. But the Orbelian family that ruled it was not an ordinary one; they were Armenian nobles who originated in Lori, Georgia, and had held significant power from the Crusades until now. Especially in the current 15th century, although their power had been somewhat weakened due to wars, their family members and properties were spread across the lands from Tbilisi to Lori, and from Syunik to Tabriz. Beshken II, the current head of their family, was granted land by Alexander I in the name of rewarding his merits, returning him to their ancestral home of Lori, the implicit meaning of which was self-evident. Given this, it was normal for him to have grievances against Alexander I.
As for the Georgia Kingdom ruled by their liege, it was currently in an awkward situation. It had a period of great prosperity several centuries ago, but that was a long time ago. One or two hundred years ago, Georgians could still support the Komnenos family in establishing a state in Trabzon and act as their strong backing. But now, Georgia, like other orthodox countries in Asia Minor and Southeast Europe, was on the verge of collapse.
And against this backdrop, Georgia naturally, like other orthodox countries, huddled together for warmth. For example, before Manuel's arrival, John IV Komnenos of the Empire of Trebizond married the daughter of the current King of Georgia, Alexander I, who was later revered as "the Great" or "the Magnificent," thus forming an alliance.
But after the Gavras Family's Bosporus arrived and overthrew the Komnenos family's centuries-long rule in Trabzon, and while Manuel was fiercely fighting the surrounding Muslims, Georgia seemed to turn a deaf ear to it. It neither actively engaged in diplomacy with the Bosporus nor hindered him under the pretext of restoring the Komnenos family's legitimate rule.
"It's like a stagnant pool. Are these Caucasian mountaineers turtles? Why don't they move? I overthrew the rule of your ally; at least send a diplomatic protest!" Emperor Manuel complained when he thought of this.
However, thinking about what Georgia was doing at that time, Manuel felt it was understandable. After all, as far as he knew, since Alexander I recaptured Lori in 1431, the Georgia Kingdom had been busy dealing with the behemoth to the south, the Black Sheep Dynasty. And 1434 was a critical period; in both official history and his timeline, Alexander I had funded the Armenian noble Orbelian family's Duke Beshken II of Lori to counterattack and plunder the Black Sheep Dynasty, consolidating the national border.
But the Black Sheep Dynasty was by no means a benevolent entity that would swallow its anger. Being so brazenly challenged by the Georgia Kingdom, these fierce Shiite Turkmen would naturally retaliate fiercely, but due to the limited ability of the current Black Sheep Sultan Iskandar, coupled with his relatively greedy decision to lead his army to harass the White Sheep Dynasty, the Black Sheep Dynasty had not yet gained an advantage. This situation was expected to reverse only when Manuel's distant cousin, Jahan Shah, the son of the Black Sheep Sultan, ascended to the throne.
And now, the situation was that Samtskhe, with the highest degree of independence within the Georgia Kingdom, and Lori, located on the frontier with the Black Sheep Turkmen, would actually together send signals of goodwill to him, the Despot of Bosporus, who was very likely to be the King's enemy. This made Manuel's lips curl into a slight smile amidst his surprise.
"Interesting," Emperor Caesar's face was beaming with a warm smile. He stood up from his chair, pacing back and forth in the room, and murmured softly to himself, "While fighting intensely with the Muslims, the domestic nobles still have the leisure to write letters to foreign monarchs. Georgia is finished. But what do your problems have to do with me? Let me see when there will be an opportunity for Bosporus to intervene."
After this emotion, he quickly returned to his seat, so fast that even the guards beside him were extremely surprised. But before they could react to His Majesty's words and actions, a new task was unexpectedly handed to them.
"Send word to the scholars currently compiling the constitutional code in Trabzon City," Manuel ordered gently, "I will inspect their progress in a few days. Tell them to be prepared."