The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1686 Bombarding Golden Horn Bay (Part 1)
At 3 a.m., Aford Pasha had just seen off Prince Uvarov. He didn't understand why the Russian had to leave in the middle of the night; perhaps it was some kind of peculiar habit.

Aford Pasha didn't want to worry about anything else; he just wanted to go back to sleep. Aford Pasha felt that war wouldn't break out too quickly, after all, the Russians hadn't started evacuating their citizens yet, and the Russian companies' goods hadn't been shipped out.

In his sleep, he vaguely heard what sounded like muffled thunder in the distance, a very deep sound carrying an ominous aura.

Suddenly, Afudepasha felt a tremor beneath him, followed by a huge impact that shattered all the glass in the window.

Glass shards scattered like countless sharp shrapnel, and the girl standing inside was instantly struck by countless glass fragments, screaming in agony.

Afudepasha scrambled to his feet and fled outside without even bothering to put on his clothes.

Another explosion rang out, this time terrifyingly close. The entire mansion seemed to tilt as if struck by something, and countless expensive porcelain pieces fell to the ground and shattered.

But he had no time to feel sorry for himself. He scrambled to the door, his feet already covered in shards of glass and porcelain. He continued to climb the sloping stairs with all his might.

Then another shell hit Afford Pasha's mansion, and he was also pulled down the stairs by the huge force, tumbling all the way to the first floor.

The lobby on the first floor was in a mess, and Aford Pasha was calling out his butler's name.

"Sammy! Sammy!" he called out the names of his other servants, "Atana! Vora!"

No one responded to him; only the heavy, muffled thunderclaps continued to ring out.

Afford Pasha rushed out of his mansion to find the street in front of him engulfed in flames, with screams and cries of agony echoing through the air, and shells raining down.

"Help!"

"help me!"

"I don't want to die!"

Amidst piercing screams, the firelight illuminated the dark night sky, accompanied by intermittent flashes of light and deafening roars, with billowing black smoke rising continuously, creating a scene reminiscent of the apocalypse.

If you zoom out to the air, the Russian fleet is lined up and firing at the docks on the shore; the side of Istanbul near the Golden Horn is already a sea of ​​fire.

The Russian army's primary objective was actually the Ottoman Empire's naval and coastal defense facilities stationed in the Golden Horn, regardless of the quality of the Ottoman army.

When the Russian navy entered the Golden Horn, most of the Ottoman navy sailors were still asleep. A few who claimed to have seen warships on the sea were dismissed as having overdosed on opium or hallucinating from drinking fermented fruit juice.

To protect the Golden Horn, the Ottoman Empire built two massive fortresses, each with over a hundred heavy cannons, forming a mutually supporting defensive position.

Although most of these heavy cannons were outdated, even a few hundred stones could be a deterrent, and the Ottoman Empire repeatedly claimed that it would replace them with new heavy cannons.

However, when the Russian navy launched its attack, there were only a dozen or so men on duty at the two gun emplacements. They were not even brave enough to fight back against the barrage of bullets, let alone operate hundreds of heavy cannons. They all fled like birds and beasts.

Russian Black Sea Fleet Commander Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov stands atop his flagship, the Apostle, one of only three steam-powered battleships in Russia's fleet.

Russia's three steam battleships, two from Austria and one from Britain.

The ship purchased from Britain was a paddlewheel steam warship, while the two steam warships from the Austrian Empire used propellers, but not steam turbines; instead, they used large triple-expansion steam engines. Franz wasn't simply worried about technology leaks, but rather about the Russians lacking the personnel to maintain them, so he opted for a relatively lower-end, but easier-to-repair, model.

The Navarre, purchased from Britain, had a displacement of 4300 tons, while the Apostle and Vanguard, purchased from the Austrian Empire, both exceeded 5000 tons, with the Apostle having a maximum displacement of 5900 tons.

In addition, 21 sailing battleships and more than 150 auxiliary ships of various types were also deployed this time.

There was no doubt that the Black Sea Fleet had come out in full force, and Admiral Nakhimov looked at the rising black smoke in the distance through his binoculars with great satisfaction.

"Tell everyone that success or failure hinges on this. Show no mercy; destroy the Ottoman fleet and coastal defenses as much as possible."

"But there are still British and other ships in the harbor, and visibility is too low now. If we fire a barrage of fire, we'll probably destroy everything."

Lieutenant General Harbing, the adjutant, said somewhat hesitantly that he was not pro-British, but rather that a deep-seated inferiority complex gave him an innate fear of Britain.

Nakhimov was in no mood to explain why at that moment.

"This is His Majesty the Tsar's order! Execute it immediately! Anyone who dares to refuse or question the Tsar's order will be subject to military law!"

Although the Russian Black Sea Fleet was much stronger at this time than it had been in history, Nakhimov was not bold enough to directly attack Golden Horn Bay.

This was indeed a plan personally devised by Nicholas I, and only someone as ignorant of naval warfare as Nicholas I could have devised such a crazy strategy.

"Get closer! Destroy all of the Ottoman Empire's warships!"

"Yes, sir! Close-range firing! Close-range firing!"

The Russian Black Sea Fleet fired wave after wave of artillery fire, and all the Ottoman ships in the port were moored to the dock like targets.

Hundreds of specially made high-explosive bombs whistled across the sky and then rained down on the ships and docks in the harbor.

The shell pierced the wooden hull, followed by a violent explosion inside. The planks were torn apart like paper, wood chips flew everywhere, and a fire quickly broke out.

Some were hit by solid shot, causing the outer wooden planks of the hull to crack, and seawater immediately rushed in, continuously widening the damage.

The Ottomans who had just rushed onto the deck were driven into a panic by the repeated shelling, and every now and then they were blown into the water by the blast waves.

Some ships even had their ammunition depots set on fire, causing the ammunition to explode and split the ships in two before they slowly sank into the water.

The beautifully carved crescent emblem on the bow of the Ottoman Navy flagship, the Majed, was blown to pieces, with as many as 17 places of damage on the hull, the masts overturned, and a raging fire burning inside.

If the fire were to reach the ammunition depot, this, at the time, would be completely destroyed.

The situation wasn't much better for the other Ottoman warships. If it weren't for the darkness and the Russians' poor aim, the Ottoman Golden Horn fleet would have been completely annihilated by this time.

However, due to a lack of prior preparation, many high-ranking officers in the Ottoman navy were living in their own homes and were unable to issue commands.

Even though they were right at the dock, the darkness prevented them from seeing the situation clearly and giving the right orders.