I am Da Song

Chapter 562 The Fall of Constantinople ([-]th update today)

In addition to the military pressure, Constantinople faced another, more serious challenge.

That is, they have been besieged, the food supplies in the city are in short supply, the morale of the defenders is low, and there are even cases of leaving their posts without authorization.The fighting spirit of the citizens also began to disintegrate, and they pinned their last hope on God.

Such things as superstition are unavoidable in any human empire.

During the Jingkang period of the Song Dynasty, because Tokyo was besieged, Liujia Shenbing was created.

The Byzantines are also exactly the same. You must know that there is no distinction between the human race and the behavior logic is the same in most cases.

But the more superstitious, the more serious the consequences.

In Constantinople, devout believers kept praying and held large-scale parades in the city, expecting to be redeemed by God.

However, their prayers were not answered, and the rescue they were waiting for never came.However, a series of strange events ushered in, which led many superstitious and suspicious Byzantines to directly believe that they had encountered a sign of the end of the world.

On the [-]th, it was supposed to be a full moon day, but when night fell, a new moon appeared in the night sky.The crescent like a scimitar hung in midair, casting a pale and dim light, and it lasted for three full hours before returning to its original shape.

If this happened in the Song Dynasty, astronomers could inform the people in advance of this upcoming astronomical phenomenon without panic, which is a classic partial lunar eclipse.

But the followers of Byzantium were too superstitious and interpreted this rare partial lunar eclipse as a harbinger of the city's imminent fall, because the crescent moon is the most classic symbol on the Puritan flag.

They believed that the city was about to fall to the Puritans.After all, according to common people's perception, Silk Country is too far away from here.They should not directly control this place.

Out of fear of heretics, Byzantine believers invited out the statue of Our Lady of Guiding that was enshrined in the Church of Cora.

This miraculous icon had successfully protected Constantinople during several previous sieges.

Especially in the desperate siege in 718 of the holy calendar, Maslama, the younger brother of the Arab king, led the army and navy, and attacked Constantinople again with more than 2000 warships.

It was in the hopeless prayers of the people that the imperial navy showed its might and annihilated the main force of the Arabian navy with Greek fire. Only five warships managed to escape back to Arabia.

People hope that the statue of Our Lady of Guidance will once again bless the city.

However, during the parade, the icon fell from people's hands to the ground "for no reason", and then there were lightning and thunder in the sky, and a sudden thunderstorm fell on the city and caused floods.

The Byzantine believers were terrified, thinking that God had refused to hear their prayers and sent divine punishment.

The day after the icon was destroyed, the whole city was shrouded in thick fog, there was no wind, and the air was suffocatingly silent.This is a normal phenomenon caused by sea fog. If it is normal, people living near the Mediterranean Sea are no strangers to it.

The seaside city is often foggy, and the window is often filled with whiteness.If it catches up with cloudy and rainy days, and there are thunder and lightning, people in the Central Plains will always make jokes, saying that Fellow Daoist He Fang is here to overcome the tribulation.

The luck of the Byzantines was very bad. At dusk, a strange light shone on the dome of Hagia Sophia's cathedral.Someone even saw a ball of flames (probably ball lightning, a natural phenomenon that is more common in thunderstorms) flying out of the windows at the top of the church, flying around the dome, and heading straight into the sky.

Believers who witnessed this strange phenomenon panicked and wailed bitterly: "The light has flown to heaven, and God has abandoned this city."

The classic saying in the "Bible": "Whoever wields the sword will die by the sword." Now it is perfectly applied to this nation, because of superstition, they are united together, and once created a peak of brilliant achievements, but also because of superstition. At the end of the road.

The Byzantines who were superstitious in religion did not find that the artillery fire hidden in the thunder was more violent than before.

Taking advantage of the thick fog, the two naval fleets of the Song Army launched a large-scale and fierce offensive simultaneously in the north and south directions.They have already calculated the shell curve through calibration again and again.

The empire's well-developed calculations and strong civilization are reflected in all aspects of the famous teachers.

At night, a loud noise that shook the sky and the earth sounded in the southern city of Constantinople.

The superstitious Byzantines thought it was God who punished them with thunder, and the thunder blasted over the city, but they didn't know that their southern sea wall was blown down by the Song army, and a large area of ​​the city wall collapsed, exposing a large gap.

A densely packed army marched through the gap with banners held high.

These are all Wang Shitian soldiers in scarlet uniforms, all drawn from thousands of miles away, the elite field army formed by the Han people, is the elite of the elite!

It wasn't until the sound of heavy and neat running echoed in all directions in the city that the Byzantines realized that it might be the red tide entering the city!

Countless people hid by the window in horror, looked out from the window, and saw that the streets and alleys were already densely packed with red tide soldiers with awe-inspiring military appearance.

These soldiers seemed to be carved out of the same mold, no matter whether they were in uniform, armor, movements or footsteps, they were all so consistent.

Dense soldiers marched in the middle of the road in a uniform manner, and quickly took control of the whole city.

But the doomsday and disaster that the Byzantines were worried about did not happen. Red Tide's military discipline was very strict, and there was no looting or disturbance in the city.

There were even Byzantines who became hysterical and entered a state of disorder and madness. Thieves, thieves, and thugs took advantage of the desperate atmosphere to rob civilians and disrupt order, and were quickly quelled by these Red Tide troops.

So much so that in the early morning of the next day, countless Byzantines took to the streets and wondered whether they had hallucinations last night. Why was the city so quiet?

This is not at all what it should look like when a large army enters the city.

When the Crusaders entered the city as friendly troops, the city was in turmoil for a long time. Murder, robbery, rape, and rape all kinds of atrocities happened one after another.

If the red tide had entered the city, but now it was so quiet, the military discipline of the Crusaders was nothing compared to it.

The Byzantines even looked forward to it, did God send the kingdom of heaven to save his people?

This expectation only lasted for a short time, until they reached the intersection and saw the Red Tide soldiers lined up standing guard at the intersection.

It was just dawn, and it was breakfast time, and Red Tide's logistics troops were distributing food one by one.

Each soldier was assigned a white flour steamed bun, a meat bun, two hard-boiled eggs, an apple, and a dozen dates.

After standing all night, the soldiers were given hot food and immediately started eating in big mouthfuls on the street.

Countless Byzantines who watched this scene swallowed their saliva, this is the food of an ordinary soldier! ! ? ?
No wonder the other party didn't even bother to rob after they entered the city. Even the owner of a small Byzantine manor couldn't maintain this kind of luxury life.

What's more, these soldiers obviously didn't cherish these things. Some people liked pasta, so they gave the dates they were not used to to the thin children nearby.

And some people have a poor appetite in the morning, so they simply give the hot meat buns to the cute children who are close by.

This made the Byzantines' eyes widen, and they really felt the direct crushing from wealth.

Just how rich these red tide soldiers are, they don't even care about the meat buns, and just give them to a conquered citizen.

Countless people looked at these tall soldiers standing in the middle of the road to maintain order, and they really felt the smallness and inferiority of the Byzantines.

　There must be five shifts today, and there should be five shifts tomorrow

　　
　
(End of this chapter)