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

Chapter 1687 Bombardment of Golden Horn Bay (Part 2)
Deniz was one of the few Ottoman naval officers who lived in a coastal camp. He had studied in England and France and even served on a British ship, but due to a lack of connections, he could only become a gunnery officer.

Deniz arrived at the barracks immediately after the battle began and herded the bewildered soldiers to the dock.

"Raise anchor now! Engage the enemy!"

Deniz shouted, and several officers who had just arrived also shouted.

"Charge! Drive the pirates back!"

In fact, after fighting for so long, the Ottomans still didn't know who their enemy was. Some thought it was the Russians, some thought it was pirates, and others thought it might be demons or monsters.

The dock was in chaos, with some ships' anchor chains and ropes even tangled together. Sailors could only swing axes and hammers in the darkness, hacking and smashing everything in sight.

However, the Russians would not give the Ottomans a chance to retaliate, and thousands of shells rained down on the port in each round.

Although Ottoman soldiers and brave sailors fought bravely, many others escaped under the cover of night.

Many Ottoman soldiers discovered that the front of the ship had been breached as soon as they boarded, and they had to disembark in a panic. Some of them even fell into the water while trying to avoid the shelling.

"Help!"

"I don't want to die!"

Screams and cries for help echoed continuously.

An Ottoman sailing warship named Sacred Flame finally set sail. The Sacred Flame wanted to retaliate, but it quickly began to sink due to being hit by too many bullets.

"Fight back! Fight back!"

The crew of the Sacred Flame were ready to die, but the gunners, in their panic, couldn't distinguish directions and fired haphazardly, resulting in shells landing on their own territory and causing even greater losses.

Deniz finally arrived at a relatively intact battleship, but there were still some sailors on board who were ordered to guard the ship.

Deniz wanted to lead his men to confront the Russians, but this was flatly refused by the guards.

"Sir, you have no right to requisition our ship. We'll discuss this further once you receive the official order."

Amidst the chaos of war, Deniz couldn't care less about anything else; he immediately ordered the seizure of warships. Deniz's men were still quite courageous; they weren't afraid of death at this point, so why would they be afraid of violating military discipline?
Just as Deniz's ship finally reached the mouth of the bay, he turned the ship around to meet the enemy with his broadside, but suddenly the ship rocked violently.

"what happened!"

A soldier pointed to the shore.

"Sir, our own artillery is attacking us!"

"How could this happen? What are they doing?!"

Deniz's eyes were bloodshot.

At this moment, the Russians also spotted them, and the Russian warships immediately turned their guns around and began firing in unison. Deniz and his men also began to fight back.

Deniz and his men were very brave, but the ship he was on was an old-fashioned sailing warship, and the crew was not complete. Moreover, it was attacked from both sides, and soon the warship, like other Ottoman warships that wanted to fight back, sank like moths to a flame.

Deniz was attacked by its own men mainly because the previous garrison went to the fort and accused Deniz's men of wanting to defect.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet is conducting indiscriminate strikes; in reality, it's not very realistic for them to carry out precision strikes.

In short, all the ships in the port suffered. Civilian ships were more vulnerable than warships, and heavy shells could easily tear their hulls apart.

Soon the water was covered with shipwrecks and crates of cargo. Several small boats tried to escape the eye of the storm, but the Russian army would not give them the chance.

The dense barrage of shells could tear a ship apart with a single hit, and even if it didn't hit directly, the huge waves generated by the shells would capsize the ship.

A few small boats with exceptional skill and good fortune escaped the bombardment, but this did not mean they had escaped unscathed.

Russian soldiers opened fire on the surviving boats with their rifles, and soon the boats fell silent, leaving only blood staining the surrounding water. The houses, shops, and factories on the shore were not spared either, with shells constantly falling into their midst. Once hit by shells, buildings suffered anything from minor collapses like crumbling walls to severe damage like collapsing beams and pillars, or even complete destruction.

Every now and then, Ottomans would rise from the collapsed ruins, either looking at everything in bewilderment or running around like headless flies.

Just as an Ottoman bell ringer reached the top of the tower, several cannonballs struck it. The bell ringer continued to strike the alarm bell until the tower collapsed and he died.

The merchant ships in the harbor were not spared either, and a Jewish merchant stood at the bow and shouted at his sailors.

"We have to get out of here! Let's set sail now!"

"But the Russians have already blockaded the sea."

The sailor looked at his boss with some hesitation.

The merchant's eyes widened in anger.

"Who do you think I am? Come closer!"

The Jewish merchant suddenly produced a British flag and held it high above his head, an act that gave the sailors confidence, and they shouted in unison.

"We are British!"

Soon the merchant ship reached the middle of the water. Perhaps it was the British flag that had a miraculous effect, as Russian and Ottoman shells kept whistling past but none hit them.

Everyone on the ship smiled with joy; they were only one step away from escaping.

At that moment, a Russian warship suddenly changed direction and headed straight for them.

"We are British!"

However, the Russian ship showed no sign of stopping, and soon the merchant ship was broken in half, and everyone fell into the sea. The Russians on the warship still seemed not to have noticed them.

The Russian shelling continued, and the port was in ruins. Several gun emplacements had been silenced, and the Russian army even sent marines to seize the gun emplacements.

At this time, the Russian Navy was learning the tactics of the Austrian Imperial Navy, so it attached great importance to the army.

However, when the Russian marines landed on the forts on both sides of the Golden Horn, they were dumbfounded. Hundreds of heavy cannons were waiting there silently, and there wasn't a single Ottoman garrison in sight.

As the commander of this raiding squad, Tissakov was prepared to die. He used the seven hundred rubles he had mortgaged to buy alcohol for his soldiers.

"Damn it! These Ottoman bastards! Can't they have any backbone?! They killed me and now they have to pay the price!"

The soldiers traveling with him were also puzzled.

"Have we drunk too much? Are the Ottomans still here, just invisible to us?"

Tissakov immediately slapped the young soldier across the face.

"Is he awake yet?"

"woke up!"

The soldier immediately covered his face and answered.

"But what should we do now?"

This statement voiced the question in everyone's mind.

"If we capture the fort, wouldn't that allow us to create a landing zone in the port?"