War of Byzantine Succession

Death of Constantine XXXIV
On July 3rd,1879 Constantine XXXIV would die at rip age of 23 due to a Liver infection, having no heir but two brothers Manuel and John both would claim the throne, most of the empire had supported Manuel, who was a reformer and wished to modernize the nation and prevent the Empire from declining further, however the European Powers of Germany,Italy,Austria,France,Russia, and Britain all back John a traditionalists who did not wish to change the empire in any way.

Anatolian Front
Manuel arrived in Constantinople on July 5th two days after the death of his brother, which allowed him to claim the throne, following this John arrived at Bursa on July 7th, Manuel marched the army out to him, however John had been joined by a regiment of British infantry, this lead to the Battle of Bursa. The Battle would rage for 7 days, throughout the 7 days around 23,000 combined troops had died, however against all odds the Byzantines had lost the battle, effectively putting Anatolia under John's forces.

Manuelist Loyalists
13 days after the defeat at Bursa, Alexandros Scipio who had been fighting Arab resistance in Kurdistan arrived at Bozuyuk, in which heavily outnumbered Scipio deployed hit and run tactics against Anglo-Russian forces which proved highly effective, he then repelled an assault from the Russian 53rd expeditionary force on his southern flank using around 340 men.

This was followed by the "Grand Offensive" 2 days later, in which outnumbered Scipio used the enemies numerical superiority to his advantage by forcing them to send most of their forces to one area, he was able to effectively cut down on the coalitions defenders and any chances at winning the battles he engaged them at.

Rise of Scipio
Manuel XI soon realized that Scipio was a brilliant general and appointed him head of the Anatolian front, this was followed by Scipio replying back, "I do not need to be head, I am already the face of the army". Upon getting his new rank, he had gained control of 10 more infantry battalions, however he was still vastly outnumbered.

Following the success of the grand offensive, Manuel then assaulted Ankara in the first battle for the city, he was ultimately victories by pretending to be a small byzantine militia which drew Russian troops defending the city away, which allowed Scipio to enter the city, and take down the Russian troops who had fell into his trap.

Death of a Genius
On June 13th,1888 Scipio launched a two pronged attack on the Franco-Russian troops guarding the city of Mersin, he completely shocked General Louise Philipe who was in charge of the city, none the less Scipio joined his men in battle even though the risk of death was great.

He and his men had pushed the defenders inside of the city after 2 days of attacking their outside regiments, Scipio then deployed his cannons and shelled the walls of Mersin until they fell, Scipio joined his men during the charge into the city, sometime after the collapse of the first wall Scipio was mortally wounded after a cannon ball ripped his army clean off. He then said his final words "If I shall die here then the enemy shall face a defeat greater than ever seen in the history of men, onward brave volunteers, onward!"

The men who saw his death were infuriated and broke the French line, showing no mercy the French troops were slaughtered, they fled in fear as the Byzantines mercilessly cut down the surrendered and wounded, Louise Philipe was caught trying to flee and was stabbed to death by multiple Byzantine soldiers

The end of the Front
The Byzantines loyal to Manuel fought alongside the Turks until the end of the war in 1889, they fought without leadership, before every battle they'd chant "Remember Mersin,remember Scipio!" following the end of the war most of Anatolia fell under Turkish control, while the manuelist remained in Greece, and Johnists eastern thrace and far western edges of Anatolia.