Part 27 - One Step Right, Two Steps Left (1624-1634)
So Sultan Muhammad the Mujahid was dead and he left the Free Cities in a quite exhausted state - though the brave Corsair and Turk armies were able to defeat the Imperials the victory itself claimed the lives of many soldiers and left the army in a drained and vulnerable position.
The crown prince was still a child and the regency council was uncertain about the future. They had their own instincts and past however and they were hard to change: in their eyes the navy was the backbone of the Corsair war effort and they aimed for an even stronger one - though that also required taking action against other naval countries...
So as a new short-term goal they were seeking to further weaken the Kingdom of Portugal whom the Corsair had defeated numerous times already.
But they also had to deal with the shaken country itself. And when they heard about a famous musician gaining popularity and reputation in Cyrenaica by his songs about the glorious wars of the late Sultan they were quick to realize the potential.
By spreading his work they hoped to retain the people's faith in the government.
The impact of the war on Europe also continued to shape the political situation across the continent.
While the lost war had costed the Austrian king the throne of Lithuania the Lithuanians were unable to find a new king amongst the nobility of their own so they elected the King of Castille as they new ruler.
Though they didn't consider the Crusaders to be threat to Tripoli anymore, the councilors had noticed this event with some cautiousness.
They also had some problems with the people of the Free Cities too as some (well, many) of them weren't satisfied with the way the government handled (or more likely 'abandoned') the previously victorious land forces and how they favoured the navy over the army.
Though the somewhat narrowminded and conservative councilors didn't really care about all those complains coming from the "common folk"...
All they saw was the navy and "some angry peasants and merchants" were not going to change that all that easy.
However the protests about the blind focus of the regents didn't stop at that point. New sects emerged amongst the Christians on the Greek lands claiming that their local leaders are far too willing to support the heretic government in its life-wasting policy...
...and there were reports about people harassing the local officials because in their uncontent.
This led to rather heated debates in the regency council itself - slowly some of the regents started to realize that they are no longer the unquestioned leaders of the Corsairs. Not even when they act in the name of the Sultan. While the majority of the councilors were willing to reverse the course and give way to a somewhat balanced policy about the military, there were a few of them who didn't want to move an inch from what they called "the national tradition of Tripoli".
And when those few realized that they became a minority in the Council they made a bold move...
But they weren't that strong anymore. Ultimately the majority of the Council understood that they were no longer able to act against the will of the whole country - so the traitors were imprisoned and all their wealth was confiscated in the name of the crown prince!
At the same time news from Italy arrived to the court about some wealthy merchants successfully funding a rebellion to declare independence from the Duchy of Parma and restore their rule in the ancient city of Venice.
Eventually the regents efforts to isolate Austrian cities had some success as the city of Brescia also joined the rebellion.
Finally things in Tripoli proper too were starting to turn towards the right direction - once they dealt with the traitors trying to depose the rightful Sultan of the Corsairs and gave way to the will of their people by restoring the army to its pre-war status the ranks of the soldiers were filling up once again.
Though it didn't mean that part of the population were not complaining against the "unpredictable turns" the regents did...
In the meantime the French intervened in the Venetian rebellion and annexed the city itself - so the reborn country had to retreat to the city of Brescia and thus became a government in exile.
But the 15th birthday of the crown prince was near and on that they he was officially recognized as the sole ruler over the Free Cities - the regents abdicated and now it was up to the young Ali to lead his people towards an even more glorious future...