The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 355: Surrender may be the best option
Grand Vizier Mustafa, with his assembled guards, confirmed that the coastal walls in the direction of the Sea of ​​Marmara were being bombarded.

He immediately organized another group of guards and went into the palace again to meet the Ottoman Sultan Selim.

However, on the way into the palace, the Grand Vizier and his soldiers discovered that the whistling and explosion sounds from the west of the city seemed to have weakened.

"The Ming Dynasty's air power is finally running out... or..."

The Grand Vizier was very confident in his own judgment. In the past few hours, he had speculated many times how long the bombing would last.

The Ming Dynasty’s bombs could not be unlimited. The key is that a machine that can fly cannot have no restrictions on its use.

What the Grand Vizier was most worried about was whether the Ming Dynasty's air raid would last long enough to cover the time they needed to destroy the city walls at the same time.

If that were possible, the difficulty of defending the city would increase dramatically.

The Grand Vizier thought that since they could bomb like this, there was a high probability that they could cover it.

The current air raids have weakened, either the Ming Dynasty has run out of bombs, or the Ming Dynasty is about to land in a place where the bombing has weakened...

The Grand Vizier immediately dispatched personnel to the west of the city to confirm the situation in the suburbs.

He led other soldiers and quickened his pace into the palace.

Suddenly, a group of soldiers rushed into the palace anxiously, startling the Sultan who had not slept all night:
"What's wrong? What happened again?"

The Grand Vizier came out immediately and explained the situation to the Sultan:

“The Ming people are bombarding the sea wall with naval guns. According to what the soldiers on the fortress observed, there are dozens of super battleships with hundreds of cannons.

"Every time the artillery bombarded the city wall, a large piece of stone was chipped off. It was obvious that the wall could not hold out for much longer, and might not even last until dawn.

"Istanbul will soon become a battlefield. Your Majesty must leave here as soon as possible and go to a safer place."

The Sultan asked in astonishment and despair:
"This... the Ming Dynasty's naval guns? Can they really destroy our city walls overnight?"

The Grand Vizier nodded solemnly in confirmation:
“Of course it’s true. We should have all seen how powerful those shells that landed in the city were.

“Under each shell, there is a huge crater, and the same is true on the city wall.

"We don't have time to grieve. If Your Majesty does not want to be taken prisoner directly, you must leave here as soon as possible."

The Sultan closed his eyes in pain, and after a few seconds of silence, he opened them again:
"what would you do?"

The Grand Vizier said:
“I will wait for the city to fall, command the army to make contact with the Ming army, and confirm whether we can fight against the Ming army in the city.

"If it is completely impossible to defend, I will lead our new army to retreat and join you, Your Majesty."

The Sultan nodded slightly:

"Well, you must be careful, we should have abandoned Istanbul and retreated to the Anatolian Plateau a long time ago.

“Where should I go now? Still to Ankara in Anatolia?

“Since the Ming fleet is bombarding the city walls, it must have also blocked the Bosphorus Strait.

“We should definitely not be able to sail directly across the strait to Anatolia.

"So we should leave from the west of the city, take a detour to the port on the Black Sea coast, and find a chance to take a ship across the Black Sea to Anatolia?"

The Grand Vizier sighed and nodded:

“Yes, although our naval personnel have not returned to report, the Ming navy is extremely powerful.

"Since the Ming Dynasty's steel fleet has entered the Sea of ​​Marmara, our fleet must have been annihilated and we should be unable to pass through the strait.

"But now the direction of the west of the city... may not be safe.

"Because I found that the explosions in the west of the city have weakened, which is definitely not good news. I am worried that the Ming army may have begun to land.

"I have arranged for soldiers to check the situation. Your Majesty, please wait here for a while..."

The Sultan closed his eyes again.

The Sultan and the Grand Vizier's speculation was correct, the Ming Navy had indeed completely controlled the strait.

While the main gunboats were attacking the city walls, a large number of secondary warships were active on the surrounding sea and quickly took complete control of the area.

In the Sea of ​​Marmara, the Bosphorus Strait, and the Golden Horn north of Constantinople, all ships not authorized by the Ming Dynasty in this area have been captured or destroyed.

Like the Romans before them, the Ottomans laid connecting chains across the Golden Horn.

However, a small number of iron chains on the river are of no defensive use when facing the Ming Dynasty's current fleet.

The Ming Dynasty no longer has to care about any diplomatic environment and can attack with all its might.

The key is that the new warships of the Ming Dynasty are equipped with electric welding machines, and the old ships also have electric and gasoline-powered cutting machines. By sending a small boat with tools close by, the iron chain can be cut directly.

Unless the Ottomans turned the sea surface into an iron net, they could not really slow down the advance of the Ming navy.

At this time, the city of Istanbul had been surrounded on three sides by the Ming Navy from the sea, and of course the remaining land direction of the west city could not be spared.

The air strikes and artillery bombardment lasted for several hours. The Ming Navy also completely controlled the sea, and transport ships carrying a large number of land forces arrived one after another.

The army landed under the cover of the naval convoy, first occupying the port opposite the Golden Horn, and then began to attack and take over the suburbs west of Constantinople.

The houses in the suburbs were much more humble than those in the city, and at this time there were still a large number of wooden buildings, which suffered far greater damage from the bombing than those in the city.

There were not enough official personnel to maintain order in the suburbs, and the suburbs soon fell into chaos after the air raid.

However, the suburbs are not without their advantages. They are less likely to be attacked, and the key is that there are no city walls or obvious borders around them.

Faced with explosions and fires around them, most suburban merchants and residents chose to run directly out of the city.

If they run to the wilderness outside the built-up area, they will be basically safe.

After the Ming army landed, they basically encountered no obstacles. The residents in the suburbs outside Constantinople had either died or fled.

Only in a few relatively sturdy buildings such as temples do people of relatively high status hide.

Wherever the Ming Army reached, the air raid naturally ended. People in the city or in the wilderness could confirm that the sound of explosions in that area had decreased.

When the Ottoman Grand Vizier thought of letting the Sultan escape, the Ming Army was gradually taking over the western suburbs of Istanbul.

The Grand Vizier and the Sultan waited in the palace for a long time, and the investigators sent by the Grand Vizier to various directions came back one after another.

The news they brought back was similar: there were people from the Ming Dynasty in all directions around Istanbul.

There were people directly outside the city walls on land, and there were naturally ships on the surface of the Golden Horn and the Sea of ​​Marmara, but both the people and the ships were lit with exceptionally dazzling lights.

Huge balls of light were fixed on the ground and the sea, and huge beams of light were scanning the surroundings.

The surrounding night sky was illuminated as if it were daytime.

The air raids that lasted until midnight, coupled with the current scene that they had never dreamed of, made many ignorant civilians simply bow down in worship.

The combat threat faced by the Ming Army was very low.

The Grand Vizier and the Sultan soon discovered in despair that the entire Istanbul had been surrounded by the Ming people.

"How to do?"

After the Grand Vizier and the Sultan confirmed that they were surrounded, they both subconsciously wanted to ask this question.

But they all vaguely knew that there was no way to answer this question. The palace fell into silence, and the people at the scene suddenly realized that the explosion outside had weakened again.

Not only were there no more explosions in the distance, but there were also no more explosions around them.

The Grand Vizier was stunned for a moment, and immediately realized something:
"Oh no! The city wall might collapse!"

The Grand Vizier guessed correctly, and the most terrifying news came at the last moment.

On August 1815, the 9nd year of Tiangong, September 10, in the Western calendar, at five o'clock in the morning.

The naval guns of the Ming Navy's main fleet finally smashed the sea walls of Constantinople.

When the five-meter-thick city wall was reduced to just over one meter, it began to collapse in large sections under the bombardment, with some sections being more than ten or even hundreds of meters long.

The ship's guns immediately stopped bombarding and replaced the ammunition with high-explosive bombs and continued to bombard the fallen city walls.

The rubble at the gap in the city wall was blown into pieces, and the Ottoman troops hiding behind the wall were directly annihilated, completely opening the way for the army to enter the city.

The long-awaited army landing fleet began to go ashore, and under the cover of aircraft and naval guns, I officially began the battle to capture the city.

However, this battle was more about entering the city than capturing it.

The defenders in the city had been bombarded all night and were already on the verge of mental and spiritual collapse, so their enemies appeared with a dream-like scene.

They came with heavenly fire, lightning, and divine light, which made the Ottoman defenders particularly guilty and their morale dropped to the lowest point.

The collapse of the extremely strong city wall almost destroyed their morale.

The Ming army was full of energy and entered the city through the collapsed city walls in the morning light. Many Ottoman soldiers knelt down and surrendered when they saw the Ming army.

Occasionally, when encountering a more stubborn enemy, the army would directly call for air support for targeted bombing.

The aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean theater have entered the Sea of ​​Marmara, and the carrier-based aircraft are serving as ground support aircraft in coordination with the ground army.

The massive air force continued to be responsible for maintaining suppression of areas where the army had not yet reached.

The Ottoman Grand Vizier arranged for the soldiers who were observing the condition of the city wall to run into the palace to report as soon as the wall collapsed.

The Grand Vizier and the Sultan also soon received the news.

The Sultan finally couldn't help but speak:

"What should I do now? Should I just surrender to the Ming Dynasty?

"The war has just begun, this is only the second day since the declaration of war.

"Even strictly speaking, the official exchange of fire has only been going on for a dozen hours.

"If we surrender like this, it would be a joke.

“The key point is that the Ming Dynasty has directly attacked Istanbul and can only occupy this city now.

“Except for the area around the Sea of ​​Marmara, most other Ottoman areas should still be under the control of our subjects and troops.

“As long as we can get out of Istanbul, we can continue to mobilize forces from other places.

"We shouldn't just surrender like this..."

The Grand Vizier was in despair. He waved his hand to let the guards retreat and said to the Sultan alone:
“Your Majesty is right. The Ming Dynasty has only attacked Istanbul so far, and at most has controlled the entrance and exit of the Sea of ​​Marmara.

“The vast majority of Ottoman territory and people should still be loyal to Your Majesty.

“When your majesty arrives at these places, you can directly mobilize the officials and troops here, collect the supplies from these places, and ask the people here to assist in defense.

“It has indeed been only a dozen hours since we officially exchanged fire.

“But if you look at it from the other side, the Ming Dynasty has demonstrated a desperately powerful force in these ten hours.

"The bombing of the entire city lasted all night, and large areas of Istanbul were reduced to ruins.

"It only took a few hours for the Ming Dynasty's massive naval guns to forcibly destroy Istanbul's supposedly impenetrable walls.

“Istanbul, Constantinople, the city of world desire, was taken in a few hours.

“If this is the case in Istanbul, how can other places persist?

“The key point is that the more remote the place, the more ignorant the people are, the stronger their worship of various mysterious powers is.

"The flying machines of the Ming Dynasty, the bombs that whizzed down and set everything on fire, and the lights they released.

"If these things were released in ignorant areas inland, they could cause the local soldiers to surrender directly.

"Perhaps our previous choices were all wrong. We greatly underestimated the power of Ming before the war began, and we underestimated the power of Ming now.

“The current Ming Dynasty is completely different from the one we encountered twenty years ago.

“The new-style troops we have formed may be able to fight against the Ming army of 20 years ago, but they are powerless against the current Ming army.

“So surrendering now may not be a bad option. We may still have room for negotiation.

"You may even be able to inherit a fiefdom...

"If the original plan is followed, the war will continue to penetrate deep into the local areas and a destructive war will be fought across the entire national territory.

"The final result may be that all Ottoman sultans and nobles will be completely wiped out..."

The Ottoman Sultan had been quite calm, but now he could no longer maintain his composure and said loudly in a state of collapse:
"Impossible, I can't accept it. I am the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. I can't just surrender like this. Have you decided to surrender?
“Before the war began, the best offer the Ming Dynasty could make was the Duke of Ankara. It would be impossible to get a higher offer by surrendering now.

“It is very possible that you will become a landless noble, or you may be imprisoned by the Ming emperor and executed after the entire Ottoman Empire surrenders.

"I can no longer put my fate in the hands of others. I absolutely do not want to return to the life before I ascended the throne."

Due to the Ottoman Empire's peculiar method of succession, most of the Ottoman sultans were in captivity before they ascended the throne and had almost no contact with the outside world.

Salem himself is an ambitious monarch, and having gained freedom and power, he never wants to lose them.

He now couldn't imagine how long he could live if he returned to a life similar to his previous one.

The Grand Vizier also understood, so he sighed and said:
“No, I have not made a decision. I will obey your majesty’s orders. I am just analyzing the situation for your majesty.

“If Your Majesty decides to continue the battle, I will certainly obey your orders and devote all my strength to you.

“Although the Ming army should be entering the city soon, we can disguise ourselves as civilians and escape.

"It is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to alert everyone in the city, and it is impossible to gather everyone and identify them one by one.

"As long as we can leave Istanbul, we still have a chance to gather local forces.

“Although the Ming Dynasty showed great strength in the war in Istanbul, it must have taken a long time to prepare for it.

"The key is that in Istanbul, their navy can attack the city directly, but it will be useless inland.

"Their fighting style must be heavily dependent on supplies. They probably can't exert their full strength in the inland mountainous areas."

The Ottoman Sultan immediately said:

"Your loyalty is touching. Escaping to the inland areas and continuing to resist is indeed our only chance."

(End of this chapter)