After Sickotor chose to defect to Theodosius, Theodosius transferred an army of tens of thousands of people to the Asia Minor Peninsula to completely replace the original garrison of Constantinople, making the entire Constantinople completely in his hands, but when Li Ke and Irina's army blocked the entire strait, his tens of thousands of troops had completely lost their meaning.

Constantinople is a port city, although it is behind Europe, but its main passage with the outside world is through the Black Sea straits, so after the strait is blocked, the entire city has almost lost foreign communication, and even as long as Irina and Li Ke are willing, Constantinople will immediately be paralyzed.

However, Irina did not completely blockade Constantinople, and some commercial and civilian ships were still allowed to enter the port, so that order was maintained throughout the city. After all, although Theodosius occupied Constantinople, most of the nobles in the city still did not explicitly support him, and this was a royal civil strife, and Irina did not want to affect the common people.

However, while Irina was merciful, she did not forget the purpose of this time, so at the suggestion of Li Ke, she immediately occupied the Golden Horn area north of Constantinople with the assistance of the navy, and then gave a public speech in this area, announcing Theodosius' plot to kill his brother and seize the throne, and calling on the citizens of Constantinople to rise up against Theodosius.

Irina's public speech was immediately echoed by many of the city's nobles, who secretly sent people to see her, professing their loyalty to Irina, and condemning Theodosius's previous atrocities, some even making no secret of it. It is hoped that Irina will inherit the imperial throne and become the new Roman Emperor.

For these nobles who came to express their loyalty. Irina also made a welcoming attitude, and also vaguely expressed it to these nobles. Theodosius's coup d'état was only done by him, and everyone else was coerced by him, so she would definitely not pursue it in the future, which also dispelled the worries of many nobles.

When the first nobles who came to test brought Irina's attitude back to Constantinople, most of the other nobles who were still watching were relieved, and as a result, more nobles sent people to contact Irina, and even among the officers of Asia Minor, who had just been transferred to the city by Theodosius, many began to waver.

The vast majority of the officers in Asia Minor were also local nobles. Of course, these nobles are mainly local nobles in Asia Minor, although Theodosius used to get the support of these nobles, but these nobles want to form a group and take Theodosius as their spokesperson, so as to get greater benefits, except for a small number of die-hard supporters of Theodosius, most of the others have no intention of rebelling, which is why Theodosius was so careful before, except for his hardcore henchmen. No one else knew about his rebellion.

Later, Theodosius's adventure succeeded, not only occupied Constantinople, Constantes II died without explanation, and Sickotes also became Theodosius's ally. As a result, most of the Black Sea straits were in the hands of Theodosius, and although the actual dominance of the empire had not yet been fully obtained, it was not far behind. This gave hope to the nobles of Asia Minor, and they began to support Theodosius. As a result, Theodosius had troops at his disposal to replace the original defenders of Constantinople.

But now the tide is turning. Theodosius's ally Sicktor was finished, and Irina had returned to Constantinople safely, accompanied by His Majesty the Emperor of Great Wu, especially the fifteen artillery warships brought by the other party, which were not at all something that their Roman navy could resist, and these cannons could bombard the city of Constantinople at any time.

In the face of this situation, the original nobles of Constantinople have chosen to contact Irina, and the officers from Asia Minor are not stupid, they know that Irina's people are familiar with the defense of the city, and their military camp is under the guns of the Great Wu warship, and there is no safety at all, and the reason why the other party has not attacked so far is that they do not want to destroy the capital of the Roman Empire with artillery fire.

Originally, these officers in Asia Minor were still worried, after all, they were different from the local nobles of Constantinople, and in the eyes of others, they were in the same group as Theodosius, but later Irina showed generosity, so that they couldn't help but have a few different thoughts, especially under the threat of life, some officers began to secretly contact Irina, and the favorable situation in the entire Constantinople was slowly falling to Irina.

Feeling this change around him, Theodosius was angry at the same time, but he also felt helpless, whether it was strength or prestige, he could not compare with Irina, especially Constans II still died in his hands, which made him even more saddled with the reputation of a kingkiller, and many nobles who originally sympathized with him also gave up on him for this reason.

Now there are only three ways left in front of Theodosius, the first is to immediately mobilize the army that he can still control, and attack the Golden Horn area controlled by Irina, but even if he can occupy the Golden Horn again, it is of no value, and the other party can attack again from the sea at any time. What's more, the other side still has artillery, so the most likely scenario is that he rushed halfway with the army and was defeated by the opponent's artillery, and he himself may also die under the artillery, the only advantage of this method is that he died more heroically, at least like the old general Motan, it is a soldier's way to die.

The second way is to flee, north of Constantinople is Europe, after escaping from the area controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire, it is the territory of the barbarians, where the power is complicated, he can lay a piece of his own territory there, and then claim the title of king. However, Irina will most likely not let him go, so he may face an expeditionary force from the Eastern Roman Empire at any time.

The last path is the simplest, that is, to surrender directly to Irina, and explain that the reason why he staged the coup d'état was completely forced by Constans II, and he did all this to protect himself, in exchange for the sympathy of Irina and other nobles, so that there might be a chance of survival.

Theodosius did not want to die under artillery, so he would not go the first way. As for escaping to the barbarians, it is necessary to have an army that is absolutely loyal, but judging from the current situation, even if there are people willing to follow him in the end, I am afraid that there will not be many people, and it is simply impossible to defeat the surrounding barbarians with this amount of manpower and resist the extermination of the Roman expeditionary force.

As a result, Theodosius seemed to have only one way left to surrender. Irina is not in a hurry to expand her influence, which has caused him to gradually lose his advantage, if nothing else, the whole of Constantinople may change hands again within a month, and then he may fall to an even more miserable state.

Thinking of this, Theodosius also quickly made a decision, and while he still had a considerable part of the strength in his hands, he immediately expressed his hope that he could openly negotiate with Irina to resolve the previous coup d'état and the Roman throne in the name of not wanting a war in Constantinople.

For Theodosius's move, Irina and Li Ke also expected it in advance, after all, they knew Theodosius's character very well before, and during this period of time, they pressed step by step, so that the chips in the other party's hands were lost piece by piece, and surrender has become Theodosius's wisest choice.

In the winter of the 27th year of Zhenguan, Irina and Theodosius negotiated in a royal palace on the Golden Horn, and in addition to the two of them, Li Ke and some important nobles in the city also participated in the negotiations. this

The negotiation, which is known as affecting the entire history of Europe, did not last long, Theodosius did not have much leverage for him to squander, and with a shrewd Li Ke by his side, the entire negotiation was completely controlled by Irina, and finally reached a two-point agreement.

The first is that Theodosius admitted that he was guilty of carrying out the coup, but Irina and other nobles also said that due to the special situation at that time, Theodosius was forced to carry out the coup d'état, so he would not be sentenced heavily, at least he could save his life.

The second is about the death of Foris and Murtan generals, the two direct murderers are Cherno and Sick, they will be sentenced to death, although Theodosius is the main culprit, but he is represented by the surrender of military power, and the control of Constantinople, which is understood by Irina and the nobles.

The negotiations ended with Theodosius' confession, but according to the agreement, Theodosius was not sentenced to death, but was stripped of his nobility and exiled to Sicily in the Mediterranean, from which he could never return. This cruel exile in the Roman Empire was second only to the death penalty, and in a sense, this kind of punishment of solitary confinement to death was actually more torturous than the death penalty.

After Theodosius was exiled, Irina succeeded to the throne of Constans II very smoothly, known in history as Irina I.

It's just that Irina, the Empress of Rome, is debated in later history, and some people believe that she was the last emperor of Rome, and since her, Rome has actually perished. However, some people think that she brought a more wise monarch to Rome, injected a new blood into Rome, and at the same time made the Roman Empire, which had entered its twilight years, rejuvenate itself again and become a world power alongside Daqi, Datang and Tianzhu.

No matter what later generations say about Irina, the Roman empress who wants to be a little woman doesn't really care about her throne, and she doesn't even care much about domestic political affairs, so she leaves it all to Li Ke to take care of, because she wants to concentrate on raising the fetus and welcoming the birth of her first child. (To be continued......)