Chapter 662
Accompanied by a roar.
A stone bullet hit the tower. It seemed that many of the magic circles in the corners of this ancient city wall that had stood for thousands of years had failed. The stone bullet was not bounced away like before, but directly knocked the tower from the right side. Cut off in the middle.
The fallen stones, the ballistas loaded in the towers, the small hand-propelled cannons, and the garrisoned defenders were all smashed down.
Miserable screams rang out, and the enemies in the distance let out excited shouts.
The power of hundreds of artillery pieces was extremely terrifying. The whole of Constantinople was shaking, as if it had returned to the era of frequent earthquakes. Every soldier guarding the city huddled under the protection of the stone wall, but from time to time There were still stone bullets flying into the city, smashing down houses.
But there were only a few like the collapsed towers just now. The walls and towers in most areas remained unmoved under such fierce artillery fire, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders.
Constantinople has always been a city with a strong religious atmosphere. As one of the five patriarchates, it was once the center of Orthodox Christianity alongside Rome.
Any passer-by on the street would be able to say a few classics from the Bible and debate the meaning of the Bible with a Latin missionary.
What they feared most was being abandoned by God, rather than fighting against the infidels. If the colony of Genoa was attacked by the Ottomans, even a miracle might not have much effect.
The artillery fire stopped at some point.
By the time the defenders came to their senses, thousands of enemies were already rushing out of the smoke.
The undisguised civilians who built the tunnels bagged tons of soil and carried it on the shoulders of the conscripts who served as cannon fodder. They braved the rain of arrows and fire blunderbuss, transported it to the edge of the moat, and dumped it into the moat.
The upper reaches of the moat had been blocked.
There is a small river channel in the middle section of the city wall, which has been filled in under the concentrated offensive of the Ottomans. The enemy pushed the siege tower and launched the first tentative attack on the city wall.
But the response given by the defenders was also powerful. The soldiers carrying Greek fire throwers pointed the special metal nozzles at the enemy, and a fire dragon swept out, immediately turning the siege tower into a A torch.
The enemy troops pushing the siege tower scattered and fled, but even if they jumped into the moat, the flames on their bodies could not be extinguished.
Lothar specifically memorized the recipe for Greek fire, but the world is different, and the same recipe may not necessarily have the same effect, just like his attempt to develop a usable gunpowder.
During the tense battle to defend the city, a knight hurried over to report: "Your Majesty, the enemy's fleet has launched an attack on the Golden Horn."
"Viviana, you lead a group of Xue soldiers to the sea wall defense line!"
Lothar ordered hurriedly.
Viviana is not good at naval combat either, but the flames cast by the Candle Spell are also a huge threat to enemy ships.
After the enemy stopped this round of attacks, news from the direction of the sea wall also came back. The enemy fleet was defeated. Three small galleys and one large ship were burned. Hundreds of Ottoman sailors were killed and a victory was obtained. A small victory.
Although the enemy was defeated in the end, Lothar was not happy.
The Golden Horn is an excellent haven. The currents under the sea are turbulent. It is extremely difficult for enemies who are not familiar with the hydrological characteristics of this place to pass through the iron chain defense line and attack the weakly defended sea walls and ports from the sea.
It's no wonder that Anna specially tamed a sea dragon. As long as she controlled the sea and the defenders of Constantinople were not too stupid, even if the military strength of Constantinople was ten times that of the defenders, it would be impossible to capture the city in the era of cold weapons.
But now, Constantinople's fleet can only rely on the iron chain defense line and home field advantage to fight the enemy.
If you keep it for a long time, you will lose something.
He didn't want to be the backdrop for a classic example of dry land boating.
…
Artillery fire roared in the distance, and the battlefield was filled with acrid smoke.
Mahamu II, however, was still reviewing documents in a leisurely manner, mobilized such a large military force to attack Constantinople, and deployed a large number of troops on the east and west borders to guard Hungary, Albania, Karaman and other enemies.
Even the Ottoman Dynasty, which was in great power, still felt heavy pressure, and there were seeds of rebellion in many places.
His prestige is no greater than that of his father Murad II. Although the voices of opposition have been silenced under his iron fist, if a too heavy price is paid, the voices of those opponents will immediately overwhelm the warring faction and become the mainstream.
A black eunuch approached cautiously, with sweat dripping from his face, and whispered: "Your Majesty, Master Urban said that the barrel of the huge cannon is cracked and needs time to repair."
Mahamu II asked without raising his head: "Where is my navy? Has the fleet entered the Golden Horn?"
The black eunuch shook his head tremblingly: "Your Majesty, our navy suffered a small defeat and sank three small galleys and one large ship."
Mahamu II didn't say anything, he just put down the pen in his hand, but everyone who knew him well knew that he was in a very bad mood now.
There was more sweat on the black eunuch's face.
"Just wipe it."
Mahamu II casually threw a handkerchief to the ground. It is also an old tradition to use eunuchs in the palaces of Zoroastrian princes, because Zoroastrianism emphasizes polygamy, and many Zoroastrian princes have no fewer than hundreds of wives and concubines.
The castration technology at this time was limited, and many eunuchs still retained their fertility even after being castrated, so they could not be completely trusted.
Black eunuchs do not have this disadvantage. First, no matter how hungry the wives and concubines of the princes and nobles are, it is difficult for them to look at the black eunuchs who look very different from ordinary people. Second, even if there is a defilement in the palace, the children born will look very different from ordinary people and will be immediately distinguished.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
The black eunuch picked up the handkerchief on the ground with gratitude. He was sweating profusely, not entirely because of fear of the young new king, but also because the tent where Mahamu II was was too hot.
The three-headed dragon is a high-level fire dragon. Wherever it is entrenched, the climate there will change according to its preferences. Therefore, Murad II used to raise the three-headed dragon in the mountains near Edirne.
But after Mahamu II ascended the throne, his suspicious nature made him unwilling to separate from his greatest reliance for a moment. In Edirne, he built a huge underground palace specifically for the three-headed dragon, just under his own palace.
Therefore, the camp where the three-headed dragon lived became extremely hot. Even if a magic circle was cast on the periphery, it could only ensure that the heat would not spread to the entire army.
But Mahamu II was not affected by the heat. How the Osmanoglu family rose from an inconspicuous Bey State to the overlord of Anatolia and Rumelia was due to the dragon-taming blood in the body.
The so-called dragon-taming blood, to put it bluntly, is a kind of dragon descendant, but the blood is relatively thin, and the improvement of its own strength and lifespan is also very limited.
Perhaps after hundreds of years of continuous return to the ancestors and purification, it is not impossible to become a real dragon like Lothar.
Some down-and-out bards in Europe learned some secrets of the extraordinary world and began to have divergent fantasies, saying that the ancestors of the Ottoman royal family were prostitutes in brothels in Asia Minor, and they obtained the dragon-taming blood after the customers who were transformed by the dragon left.
This fantasy is popular in some rural taverns and is talked about by fools with relish.
But the contempt and ridicule of Gouzi Literature could not change the fear in the hearts of Europeans.
The Ottoman Empire, which was like a dark cloud covering the east of the Christian world, had become a new generation of God's Whip in the eyes of many Europeans, no less than the Tatars.
"Pass on my order, suspend the bombardment, send the Anatolian Legion and the Brotherhood to attack, and the Sisterhood to hold the line."
Mahamu II said coldly.
Compared with the Rumelian Legion, the Anatolian Legion is obviously more powerful.
The Brotherhood is an organization similar to a Christian order, and most of its members are merchants and craftsmen. In addition to some spellcasters who are good at blasting, there are also a large number of Ghazi warriors. Although they are not good at teamwork, they are more suitable for playing in the complex environment of siege warfare.
In addition to the Brotherhood, there is also a relatively sisterhood in Anatolia, which is full of combat nuns, and has made a lot of contributions to the Ottoman expansion and establishment of the country.