Looking at Caesar Manuel's expression, Carlo de Medici inexplicably felt a phantom pain throughout his body.
This feeling even suppressed his initial thought of blurting out something like, "This situation seems a bit difficult to handle," and instead, he carefully recalled his understanding of Bosporus's economic situation, re-evaluating the proposal from the monarch of similar age.
Finally, after careful consideration, Carlo de Medici responded with a relatively rigorous and more optimistic statement, "Manuel, I believe the Autocratic State's current economy and reserves are insufficient to support the establishment of a multinational bank."
Upon saying this, he quickly supplemented his explanation with the reasons.
After explaining, he waited with a tight heart for that subtle premonition to descend upon him.
However, to his surprise, Caesar Manuel, who was of similar age to him, merely stroked the short beard on his chin, a faint smile inexplicably appearing on his face.
"Ah, yes, that's true.
Should I say it's expected or unexpected?" Manuel did not react negatively to Carlo de Medici's words, merely waving his hand casually, "But if that's the case, then it means that based on Bosporus's reserve levels, establishing a bank that only operates domestically is still possible, isn't it?"
"Yes, Manuel, that is indeed the case." After receiving Caesar Manuel's reply, Carlo de Medici now roughly understood his intentions.
As someone from Apennine, he couldn't help but wonder: what was the necessity of a bank operating only domestically?
As if seeing through his thoughts, Manuel merely nodded casually, saying in a non-committal way, "That's enough.
Start preparing."
Regarding Caesar Manuel's statement, Carlo de Medici only felt a question mark slowly form in his mind:
"?"
At noon three days later, in Bangkok Pu Palace, Manuel summoned Arno, the Finance Minister of the Autocratic State's Tauris region, Carlo de Medici, several outstanding financial officials, and private merchants affiliated with the Gavras Family before him, preparing to officially launch his bank plan.
If two years ago, having Carlo de Medici prepare a bank was more about retaining him and preparing for the future, now Manuel truly intended to push for the early establishment of the Bosporus Bank to quickly escape the current economic predicament.
Looking at the dozen or so people he had summoned, his demeanor was now much more serious.
"Then, let's begin.
Regarding banking in Bosporus." With that said, his subordinates began a lively discussion about the construction and development of the bank.
This discussion, with Caesar Manuel's personal participation and supervision, made exceptionally fast progress.
By dusk that day, Manuel had roughly determined four brief guidelines: first, once established, the bank could fully engage in lending and borrowing activities; second, the bank should be established in the name of the Autocratic State, not the Gavras Family or Caesar Manuel himself; third, the bank's establishment could be fully backed economically by a portion of the Autocratic State's gold reserves; and fourth, the Bosporus Bank would not issue any currency, but would continue to circulate currencies popular in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as the ducat and florin.
The point about loans immediately made Carlo de Medici curious, and he muttered to himself, "Bosporus is currently in debt and on the verge of deficit, yet he plans to engage in loan financial services from the start.
Lord, what exactly does Caesar Manuel want to do?
Is he going to borrow new loans to repay old ones?
No, no, no matter how I think about it, this is too bizarre, such a thing is impossible no matter what…"
Just as the Bosporus Bank was officially being pushed for establishment, on the Asia Minor peninsula across the Black Sea, the war between Karaman, backed by the Mamluk, and the Ottoman had entered a white-hot stage.
Under these circumstances, Asia Minor was in utter chaos.
Although Karaman's previous offensives on Antalya and Eskisehir ended in complete defeat within a single week, with the direct intervention of the Mamluk Sultanate's Levant forces and its two vassals, Dulkadir and Ramazan, the Karaman eventually gained a foothold in the Hamid area and routed the Ottoman's Ankara Legion.
However, Murad II clearly did not intend to abandon the region, so in early March, he ordered his army to march towards Hamid, attempting a large-scale counterattack against the Karaman and Mamluk allied forces that temporarily occupied the area.
Thus, a new major battle erupted.
And at this very moment, in the Hamid region, the frontline of the fierce battle between the two sides, a Greek general, whose attire and appearance seemed somewhat out of place, was wielding two long swords, leading his troops to hack at the enemy—
"Holy Father above!
Hoo-ah-ah-ah, you vile creatures, you lowly beings, all of you die beneath my blade!!!" Staurakios Posadas, the guest general provided by Bosporus to Karaman, was currently leading an Armenian Imperial Guard legion of the Karaman Beylik, frantically disrupting the Ottoman formation before him.
What was quite astonishing was that, just like his extremely frenzied appearance, under the leadership of General Posadas, the Ottoman vanguard truly seemed as if it had been struck by a great saber, and its collapse speed significantly accelerated.
This scene was not ignored by Karaman Bey Suleiman, who was also on the battlefield.
Seeing that this subordinate, provided by his close friend, actually played a much larger role than expected, the Bey was inevitably a bit astonished.
During the time he resided with Manuel, his impression of this person was mostly that of a reckless brute who mindlessly massacred infidels and those of different cultures.
But it was only after fighting the Ottoman that he gradually realized that this person's military capabilities were not weak, and he also seemed not as simple as he had imagined.
Upon closer thought, although Posadas's nature could indeed be described as tyrannical, the reasons for his brutal and astonishing actions seemed to stem mostly from Manuel's instructions.
Thinking this, the crescent worshipers in the Pontus region would likely face a long period of trials, but that was not something for him, a Bey residing in southeastern Anatolia, to consider.
Although these thoughts were complex, they actually passed through Suleiman's mind in less than half a minute.
After thinking, he immediately snapped back to attention and commanded his troops to follow the valiant and elite Mamluk Heavy Cavalry in a fierce assault on the Ottoman army before them, thereby quickly tearing apart the already riddled enemy forces.