And so, Suleiman Karamanoglu, accompanied by his wife, a small number of trusted retainers, and Staurakios Posadas, the general dispatched by Manuel, boarded a ship bound for Southeast Anatolia. The ship was specially disguised as a merchant vessel by the Bosporus side, and its mere 10 passengers naturally pretended to be merchants, ensuring they would not be discovered by passing Turk fleets.
Afterward, this Karaman prince, who had been in exile for many years—so much so that in another timeline, only vague records existed of him—would stir up a storm of blood and gore in the Karaman Beylik, enough to change the current situation.
After seeing Suleiman off, Justinian Seresnus, who had served as Manuel's scribe, developed a strong interest in his Majesty's various deeds before his arrival.
According to his Majesty's conversation with the Turk noble, his Majesty's conduct in his youth must have been quite different from his current style.
"If I have time later, why not try to find stories about His Majesty's past?" Justinian wondered curiously, deciding to collect anecdotes about his monarch before he ascended the throne.
The morning after bidding farewell to his friend, Manuel continued to immerse himself in the governance of the Pontus region.
After a morning of deliberation, he finally had a general framework for the rule of West Armenia:
First and foremost was the religious question.
Such matters were quite thorny in other countries, even capable of triggering civil war if not handled carefully, causing large nations to directly fracture.
But in his eyes, this problem was relatively easy to solve.
For religion, his solution was very practical: primarily tolerance.
Especially for adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church, a group that had been thoroughly accustomed to submission under the New Moon Sect, a tiny bit of power, just a sliver, would make them wholeheartedly follow his Autocratic State in campaigns across the land—provided he didn't exploit them too cruelly, such as forcing conversions or sending rapacious tax collectors to seize their wealth.
Therefore, regarding the faith in the West Armenia region, aside from reintroducing the orthodox and granting the orthodox Church the right to proselytize and build churches locally, he allowed all other faiths to run their course.
The only somewhat destructive measure he planned was to dismantle a dozen redundant mosques in the area and use their building materials to repair Christian churches.
As for culture, as long as the Armenians remained as docile as they had been under Turk rule, he had neither the motivation nor the incentive to purge it.
At most, once the situation stabilized slightly in the future, he would order the Church to fund the construction of a few schools where greek would be taught.
Then came administrative management.
For the West Armenia region under his rule, he ultimately decided to incorporate it directly.
Although this land was not very fertile, and rainfall was average.
Unless he resorted to unsustainable exploitation or emulated the New Moon Sect by levying high taxes on infidels, the Bosporus would find it difficult to make quick money from it.
But its geographical location was important; a major reason he was willing to risk directly confronting the White Sheep and the Turks was to prevent the Pontus region, which would be the future core of his rule, from being a frontline against the Turks as it had been in the past.
He specifically took over this large area of Armenian settlement, which had been separated from Roman Empire rule for a long time, and re-established order there.
Thus, with the double protection of vast mountainous plateaus and the Pontic Mountains defense line, he would have the courage and confidence to heavily invest energy and resources into Trabzon in the days to come.
So, direct rule is best, Manuel thought.
If such a crucial area were left to vassals or elevated to an autonomous governorship, who knows when local leaders, for their own selfish interests, might sell Bangkok Pu or Trabzon down to their last undergarments, rendering all his efforts useless.
As for the tax revenues, which were temporarily operating at a loss, they would be covered by the trade and land taxes collected from Trabzon.
Anyway, in his previous life, his homeland also used its prosperous southeast to subsidize the vast west, so he was quite familiar with this method.
"So, it's the same old story: send a bureaucratic team, led by mayors and "Epitondeeseon"s, to take over these three cities, and at the same time, gradually deploy tax collectors to the cities of West Armenia," he said, taking out a pen and paper to quickly sketch his blueprint for the region.
"But as a border region, care must be taken not to let officials penetrate too deeply, to avoid unnecessary resentment from the local people.
Perhaps allowing minor officials who assist these officers to be chosen from among the local population, based on merit, would be a good way to alleviate conflicts."
After roughly clarifying his thoughts on this aspect, Manuel turned to consider the last major issue: land distribution.
Under normal circumstances, in the Middle Ages, land issues were even more intractable than religious and cultural ones.
But because the Bosporus had driven out and killed most of the Muslims who owned land in the area during the previous conflict with the White Sheep, effectively transferring land ownership to him, the Caesar, land had become the easiest area to handle.
First, it must be stated that he certainly would not concentrate all these lands in his own hands to implement an Eastern Europe manor system, as his ancestors had done in the Bangkok Pu area.
The primary problem was that the barren mountainous plateau lands had poor fertility, yielding little profit, making a large manor economy unprofitable.
Moreover, if he were to claim himself as a "conqueror" and legally and practically appropriate all the land, the local Armenians' support for the Bosporus would likely quickly fade, becoming similar to their attitude towards the White Sheep Turkmens.
Therefore, he would not, under any circumstances, make the long-term detrimental move of designating them as his private property.
However, this also did not mean that he would, like his contemporaries, distribute all the land to the clergy and wealthy families, fostering new local powers and creating the hidden danger of fragmentation, thus repeating the old mistakes of previous dynasties.
For these lands, his initial allocation was to grant the Gavras Family several well-located, deeply cultivable river valley farmlands.
This would both increase the imperial private property and extend the dynasty's influence into the area like a spider weaving its web.
Next, he legally recognized the land ownership of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which had been unprotected under New Moon Sect oppression, to win them over; however, he was careful not to allocate them new lands, to avoid the heterodox Church's power becoming too great to control.
Following this, he identified several wealthy merchants who had proactively provided funds and manpower, vigorously supporting the Bosporus Army during his conflict with the White Sheep.
In return, Manuel intended to support them as a minority of small lords who possessed truly private property.
If they continued to make outstanding contributions to the Autocratic State in the future, he would not mind ennobling these families into true aristocrats.
Of course, no matter how high a status they eventually achieved, they would all have to obediently serve as loyal dogs of the Gavras Family, just like those in Tauris.
But all these, under his rule, could only be considered a minority in Bosporus-affiliated West Armenia.
Thinking of this, Manuel looked at the remaining distributable land marked on his map, then gazed in the direction of the farmer-soldiers temporarily stationed in Trabzon city, and began tapping on the table as if pondering.