Before the Bosporus fleet arrived at Trabzon port—
"It seems John has successfully staged a coup."
After analyzing the relevant intelligence, Manuel could roughly confirm this.
After putting on his veil and wig, and carefully checking that his makeup wouldn't give him away, Manuel looked at the sea and sternly asked Serenus, Badars, and others standing by his side, if the fleet, which would arrive later, was also ready.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Serenus respectfully confirmed, while secretly observing Manuel, scrutinizing his disguise, trying to distinguish him from Barbara.
After a moment, unable to spot any immediate flaws, he couldn't help but exclaim in his heart, "Wow, if His Majesty doesn't speak now, it's really hard to tell him apart from Princess Barbara.
Could it be that His Majesty has an extraordinary talent in this area?"
However, he stared at the other party for too long, so long that Manuel felt a sense of strangeness.
Fortunately, the moment Manuel's eyelids twitched, he keenly shifted his gaze to the sea and appropriately covered it up with a question, "By the way, Your Majesty, why are our warships disguised as merchant ships?
What if the other side suspects we are with them?"
"Look again if they are merchant ships," Manuel smiled easily.
Serenus looked towards his own fleet in confusion, and was surprised to find that most of these ships had already taken down their merchant flags, as if they were changing them to something else.
"This is…" he asked in confusion, but only received a cryptic reply from his colleague, "Sir Serenus, you will understand when we reach shore."
Coming out of his remember, Serenus watched as the approaching fleet took down the pirate flags again, and roughly understood the strategy this time, "Using merchant ships to deceive the enemy when crossing the sea, then switching to pirate flags when approaching to divert their attention to the fleet, and finally revealing our true identity.
I see, this must be one of the reasons for this success."
While he was pondering, Manuel had already removed his veil and wig, completely taking off his disguise and changing back into his daily clothes, astonishing John IV, who was already bound, leaving him speechless.
At the same time, Manuel's guards had already taken action, forcibly taking over the port to allow their own fleet to dock safely.
After a while, after the Bosporus fleet arrived and he saw the soldiers from the ships swarming into the port, John IV questioned his cousin with difficulty and incomprehension, "By the Holy Mother, Manuel Gavras, what exactly are you doing?!"
"Just reclaiming my legitimate claim," Manuel answered him very gently.
"Ah? What a joke? Only those of the Komnenos family are the legitimate rulers of Trabzon, right?
Your Gavras Family was once our vassal!" John IV's face turned quite ugly with anger.
"Oh? Is that so, let me correct you on two points, cousin.
Firstly, my mother, Zoe Megas Komnenos Gavras, is your aunt, and I am also a legitimate descendant of Komnenos; moreover, my ancestor, Theodore Gavras, started out in the Chaldia region, which is now Trabzon, so Trabzon is the ancestral land of our Gavras Family.
What I am doing is reasonable and legitimate," Manuel calmly and smilingly listed these two reasons.
"Holy Father, you are, you are, twisting words!" John IV's face turned green with anger.
Seeing this, Manuel lost interest in continuing the conversation with a half-prisoner, and simply waved his hand, ordering his attendants to escort John IV away and place him under house arrest.
After most of the soldiers had safely disembarked from the ships, Manuel nodded with satisfaction, and specifically asked Badars, who was interrogating John IV and his entourage, about the current situation.
"Reporting, Your Majesty, among the Trabzon high-ranking officials who still hold power, John IV was the first to be captured.
And among those we captured, his resistance was the most intense," Badars reported, bowing his head.
"It seems I must go to the Trabzon palace then," considering this, Manuel immediately led them to the palace area, which was currently the political center of Trabzon.
Because the dark department's informants had previously obtained intelligence on the terrain and cityscape of the Trabzon capital through indirectly supporting John's coup, the Bosporus Army arrived at the palace from the port quite smoothly within two hours.
During this period, the Trabzon soldiers were not without obstruction, but they were all fooled by reasons that were temporarily unclear as to their authenticity, such as "at the request of Emperor John, to clear out the remaining rebels."
It's no wonder they couldn't immediately perceive the other party's intentions; ever since Trabzon, under pressure, allied with the surrounding Crescent Sect countries, it was not uncommon for the royal family to bring in foreign armies to maintain their rule.
Moreover, John IV, within less than half a month of his ascension, had focused all his energy on stabilizing the domestic and international situation, and had not made great efforts to control the armies not guarding the palace for the time being, which allowed Manuel's journey to be so unimpeded.
However, this smooth situation ended when the Bosporus Army arrived near the palace.
Upon discovering a large group of unfamiliar and unknown foreign soldiers suddenly gathered outside the palace, Ridwan, who led troops to guard the palace for John IV, became vigilant and called Amiroutzes, asking him if he recognized these people.
"I don't recognize them," Amiroutzes shook his head after looking out from inside the palace, "The style of these soldiers' armor doesn't look like the style of our Asia Minor region; instead, it looks a bit like, well, a mixture of Slavic and Tatar styles, and also a bit like the Romans from Constantinople.
It's so strange, like a Roman army mixed with nomadic barbarian styles."
"Do you Pontus Greeks have the right to say such things?" Ridwan almost rolled his eyes at him, "The military attire of your Trabzon army is no different from us, the so-called Turkmen barbarians in your eyes.
Except our warriors use the Crescent symbol, and you use the Crusaders."
"You can't say that," Amiroutzes retorted, "Look at the style of Roman military uniforms now; who uses the old styles from the Komnenos or Macedonian periods?
Even Constantinople, which claims to be orthodox, don't their soldiers' armor styles also mix a bunch of messy Frankish and Latin elements?"
"No matter what the style of the army's uniform and armor is, ultimately they are just a bunch of sissies, which perfectly fits my stereotype of Romans," Ridwan scoffed, directly stating his prejudice against the Roman army.
"You ignorant, pagan barbarians who understand nothing!
Crude, incompetent, and stupid, do you understand Neoplatonism?
Do you understand the proverbs in the scriptures?
Do you understand metaphysics?
You don't!
All you do all day is wield those weapons, yell in Oghuz language that normal humans can't understand, and still think you're fighting for God!" Amiroutzes mocked the other party unceremoniously, completely forgetting the urgency of the current situation.
"That's the only thing you have to be proud of."
"Better than barbarians who leave no cultural heritage behind."
Just as the two were about to continue their verbal sparring, a palace guard officer suddenly burst into the room, abandoning his helmet and armor.
Just as they were about to inquire about the situation, a squad of Bosporus soldiers suddenly burst in and apprehended both of them.
Thus, the Trabzon palace was also taken control of by Manuel in a muddled manner.
And about a day later, Manuel had largely controlled the situation in the Trabzon capital.