Erzincan, known as Akilisene (Ακιλισ ηνή) or Justinianopolis (Ιουστινιανόπολις) under Roman Empire rule, was called Yerznka (Երզնկա) by the local Armenians.
Contrary to popular belief, Erzincan was still a predominantly Armenian city at this time, or rather, until the early 20th century in Manuel's previous life, the West Armenia region, including Erzincan and Erzurum, was primarily an Armenian settlement.
Then, during World War I, the Ottoman Turks wielded their butcher's knives and massacred all the Armenians who had lived there for generations.
At least by the 21st century, in a not-so-underdeveloped country with a rich culture like Turkey, there were surprisingly few Armenians in the West Armenia region, where Armenians had lived for nearly 3,000 years.
What happened? What was going on?
Manuel, in any case, felt a deep disgust for those who could commit such acts in modern times, but he had to admit that such methods were indeed very effective.
Even a certain mustachioed man from Deutschland highly praised the actions of the Young Turks in the late Ottoman Empire, believing that the Germans should emulate and learn from them.
At this point, Manuel stopped recalling his knowledge from his previous life.
At the same time, those he had ordered to be summoned had also been called to stand behind him, accompanied by Badars and others.
"By the grace of the Holy Father, good morning to all of you," Manuel turned around gracefully and decisively.
He was dressed in a simple, gray-white dalmatica with a caftan-like color that reached his ankles, and a gentle, approachable smile adorned his young face, his eyes fixed on the Armenians he had invited.
Those summoned were the local bishop of Erzincan and several guild leaders from the area.
At this moment, they looked at the Greek monarch before them, who shared their faith but belonged to a different sect, their expressions trembling with fear, their bodies involuntarily shaking slightly.
"Could it be that what happened last night scared them?" Manuel thought, feeling both amused and helpless as he looked at the trembling Armenians before him.
After entering the city at dusk yesterday, Manuel had slightly relaxed his control over his soldiers, allowing them to act freely against the pagans of Erzincan that night, as a reward and an outlet.
When he woke up in the morning, he was speechless to learn that the Turkmen and Kurd Muslims of Erzincan were almost completely gone, and their deaths were quite tragic; even the local Jewish people largely failed to escape their grasp.
Fortunately, unlike those Crescent Sect followers, the Armenians, due to their long-persecuted Christian faith, managed to escape harm.
Although a very small number of Armenians were also affected by the rampaging soldiers, Manuel publicly and severely punished them according to military law in the city center after waking up in the morning.
"It seems not everyone is here; do they really need to be so afraid of me?" Their attitude made him chuckle a bit; he should have already shown that he had no ill will towards them, right?
Well, the reason why the local Armenians who were summoned showed such an attitude was, in the final analysis, because they were full of unknowns about the Bosporus regime.
Since the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, when the Eastern Roman Empire's power withdrew from Anatolia, the local Armenians' understanding of powers outside Asia Minor gradually blurred.
After the Empire of Trebizond's power retreated to the north of the Pontic Mountains, their vision became even narrower, only having an impression of the surrounding powers on the Anatolia Plateau.
As a newly emerging regime from north of the Black Sea, Bosporus was completely in their cognitive blind spot.
If it weren't for the rumors of recent turmoil in Trabzon reaching them, the local people, upon encountering the Bosporus Army, would probably have mistaken them for the Turkmen who had always oppressed them.
Moreover, Manuel's current attire indeed had a somewhat muslim feel, although the Armenians, whose local clothing was largely Islamized, were in no position to say so.
Fortunately, under Manuel's amiable guidance, these Armenians quickly confirmed that these co-religionist brothers from afar should be quite different from the Turks who had long oppressed them.
They all relaxed their expressions and began to converse with him at ease.
And this was precisely Manuel's goal.
However, the more they talked, the more disappointed he became.
Although the local Armenians clearly constituted the majority, under the rule of the White Sheep Turkmens, there was not a single Armenian noble who could effectively help him maintain stability.
"It's exactly as I guessed before.
Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have settled for the next best thing, coming to find the local Armenian Apostolic Church clergy, guild leaders, and great merchants," he thought with a bit of a headache.
However, this seemingly disadvantaged situation was precisely where his true advantage lay.
As the conversation atmosphere gradually improved, he suddenly asked them, "Speaking of which, gentlemen, isn't it the greatest injustice that these lands of Erzincan, which rightfully belong to Christians, have been occupied by the accursed Turks?"
That's right, he intended to use the most enticing land of this era to unite the local Armenians, who constituted the absolute majority, thereby winning over the silent majority to his side and having them help him establish a foothold in West Armenia.
As mentioned before, the majority of local Armenians did not even have local nobles.
So, in whose hands were the local land, real estate, and other immovable properties concentrated?
The White Sheep Turkmens and their Kurdish henchmen!
Due to various forms of discrimination, Armenians were forbidden from owning excessive land and, under normal circumstances, could not purchase land from the Crescent Sect followers.
Even the Armenian Apostolic Church, which was allowed to own property, was repeatedly exploited by the Ulema and prohibited from building new churches.
Because of this, Armenians often turned to commerce, forced to compete with the Jewish people for livelihoods.
While this also led to their special status in the Persian-Turkic courts, in this era, who would be willing to risk doing business if they had a reliable piece of fertile land, unlike those Western Europe merchant communes?
Although quite tragic, this situation now benefited Manuel as an outsider.
As long as he was willing to share the spoils, the new Armenian lords he supported would be very active in helping him establish a firm footing in Erzincan.
After he finished speaking, these Armenians he had summoned all showed expressions of disbelief.
They had initially thought that the new conqueror would at most be more gentle out of shared faith.
But it seemed there was more to it than that?
"Your Majesty's meaning is?" The bishop of the Apostolic Church of Erzincan, an elderly man, asked tremblingly with some excitement, trying to confirm the other party's true intentions.
"Pagans should not possess Christian lands.
Distributing them among those who believe in Christ is in accordance with the teachings of the scriptures," Manuel replied, striking a posture of sincere prayer.
At this, the expressions of these Armenians became overjoyed, and some were even trembling with excitement.
Watching the reactions of these Armenians, Manuel returned a contented smile.
He never thought he would have the chance to implement a
"strike down the local tyrants and divide the land" strategy in the Middle Ages, even though he himself was a standard prince and noble…