Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 370, Section 117: A Victory Is Possible
Before dawn, the bugle calls and drumbeats of the Ottoman army began to blare, louder and more intense than ever before.

From an overhead view, one can see a dense mass of infantrymen forming an siege formation on the plain outside the city walls. Judging from the number of soldiers and the siege equipment, this is the first time they have organized a large-scale infantry attack since the siege began.

Despite Wolf's best efforts to repair the walls after being bombarded by Urban's cannons these past few days, a breach has still been torn in them.

However, because the previous attacks were not very intense, the breach, after being repaired urgently, was able to provide some defensive protection.

However, given the current scale of the attack, it's hard to say what will happen.

"All personnel on high alert! Engineering teams ready to deploy at any time!" The city defense experts issued the defense order.

The first formal siege battle broke out.

The Ottoman irregular army, carrying ladders and pushing battering rams, charged forward despite the arrows and catapults from the city walls, howling and bracing themselves.

The defenders on the city wall were putting up a fierce resistance as hot oil poured down, sizzling and accompanied by the soldiers' screams.

The boulders launched by the catapults crashed into the dense enemy ranks, instantly grazing off half of several men's bodies, while the soldiers behind them continued their charge, stepping over the flesh and blood of their comrades.

The battle was far more intense than Wolf had anticipated, and his mind raced as he frantically directed and deployed his troops.

"It's the Anatolian Legion!" the city defense expert shouted a warning.

Within the army, the second siege force had already assembled. Their weapons and equipment were clearly much superior to those of the first force, and they were slowly advancing with three siege towers.

Ordinary bows and arrows were much less effective against these armored and shielded regular soldiers; only crossbows and arquebuses could be somewhat effective.

Wolf ordered the catapults to concentrate their firepower and hurl incendiary canisters at the siege towers.

They quickly rushed to the city wall, secured the ladder firmly to the wall again, and began to climb frantically.

"Stop them! Push the ladder down!"

"Use the fires of the ocean!"

Wolf deployed his siege experts and elite mercenaries to reinforce the most critical areas. However, the enemy forces were too numerous, and under wave after wave of attacks, the defenders' lines gradually crumbled.

Finally, an Ottoman soldier was the first to climb the city wall, wielding a scimitar and cutting down an exhausted defender. Soldiers followed, surging up the ladders in succession—the city wall had been breached!
"Damn it!"

Wolf knew that once the enemy gained a foothold on the city walls, the defenses would collapse completely.

"Your Majesty! Please use the Victory Banner!" The prime minister's image appeared, beginning to persuade him.

There was no time to hesitate.

He glanced at the victory banner icon, decisively activated the "Soaring Morale" feature, and selected mercenaries as his unit. Then he switched to first-person view; he was going to take to the battlefield himself.

The scene shifts, and Wolf's overhead view becomes Constantine XI's perspective.

He stood behind the city wall, wearing armor and holding a pale red victory banner.

The "Soaring Morale" effect has been activated.

The flags fluttered in the wind, and an invisible force spread out. At the same time, the buff of the emperor's personal campaign was also triggered. Under the double blessing, the eyes of the surrounding guards, especially the Genoese mercenaries, instantly became incredibly fanatical, and their wavering morale was instantly solidified.

"For Rome!"

Someone shouted first, and then a deafening roar echoed from the city wall, where swords stood like a forest.

The soldiers guarding this section of the wall seemed to be on drugs; they forgot their fear and charged at the Ottoman elites who had climbed the wall, brandishing their weapons.

Despite being stabbed multiple times, a soldier clung tightly to an Ottoman soldier and pushed him off the city wall; another soldier, his arm wounded by a scimitar, still raised his shield with one hand to shield his comrade from attack; Giustiniani wielded his longsword, weaving through the enemy ranks like a war god, each strike taking a life.

Wolfe, controlling Constantine XI, charged ahead, waving a victory banner in one hand and holding a sword in the other.

The red glow of the flag shone on the soldiers' faces and on the blood-soaked ground.

With this double buff, the previously precarious defensive line was stabilized again, and the Ottoman elites who climbed the city walls were gradually compressed and encircled.

At that moment, drums and music rang out from the Ottoman camp, signaling the order to retreat.

The troops that had not yet climbed the ladders began to retreat, and the remaining soldiers who had climbed the city walls gathered in small groups with despair on their faces, and were surrounded layer by layer.

"kill!"

With the last Ottoman soldier pushed off the city wall and the ladders cut and knocked down, this fierce assault finally came to an end.

Wolf was panting heavily, his arms were numb, and his lungs felt like they were about to burst.

He looked at the devastated battlefield on the city wall, corpses everywhere, blood staining the bricks red. The victory flag was still in his hand, fluttering in the wind, but the color of the flag seemed to be a deeper red.

[Large-scale siege battle on April 18 - a great victory!]
Authority +30, overall faction satisfaction increased, morale moderately increased.

Wolf looked at the system notification, and his tense nerves finally relaxed a little.

He knew that this was only the first large-scale offensive and defensive battle, and many more tough battles awaited him.

But at this moment, holding that blood-stained victory flag, he felt little joy, only a weariness he had never experienced in the many battles before.

Is a victory achieved by relying on this flag a true victory?
The soldiers, their morale ignited by the flag, still had the fervor in their eyes, yet he could almost see that even their souls would be taken by the flag after they died, as if they had completely dedicated themselves to this nation on the verge of collapse.

Only he would get caught up in these trivial matters; for other players, winning battles and accumulating authority points is enough.

The reality is that even with the help of this flag, the majority of players still perished in this battle.

Hayato was even more formidable. When pushed to the limit, he unleashed his ultimate move, "Victory is Possible," which affected the entire city, including the Ottoman camp, plunging it into a frenzy and turning it into a battle royale. In a short time, Constantinople became a living hell.

Although others may have been defeated, it was at least a normal defeat, and they could start over.

But after Hayato used this ultimate move, he immediately achieved a speedrun ending, and it was still the worst one.

[You have successfully completed the game and reached the ending—can we call it a victory?]

[Ending Assessment: Failure ending. Even in a game, you need to consider the consequences.]

[First Ending Completion Reward: D] "Wait! How come this method is still a one-click speedrun?!"

Hayato almost vomited blood.

He knew this function had serious consequences, but in his anger over the enemy breaching the city walls, all he could think about was going to explode and just restart the game. He never imagined that using this function would lock the outcome, leaving him no chance to salvage the situation.

"Damn it, I wasted my first play chance on the worst ending." He sighed, his face full of frustration. "I'm not good at this game to begin with, and now I've messed it up. There's no chance of a perfect ending now."

This time, he truly felt a deep sense of awe at the game's difficulty.

After the siege on April 18, the Ottoman army temporarily halted its frontal offensive, seemingly adjusting its deployment and replenishing its forces.

Wolf did not waste this rare respite and immediately threw himself into domestic affairs.

He used his authority to squeeze another batch of stone and grain from those wavering nobles.

They also dispatched engineering teams to repair the damaged city walls of the San Romanus Gate day and night.

Most importantly, it's about paying the Genoese mercenaries. This elite force, led by city defense experts, is the core fighting force for defending the city, but they are mercenaries, and without money, they simply cannot be retained.

The reality was that Constantinople was already dirt poor. The emperor, controlled by Wolff, had nothing left but the palaces and utensils left by his ancestors—these were all vanity projects. The nobles were also impoverished and had very little to offer.

The wealthiest people in the city are actually the Orthodox Church.

"The only option is for the church to fund the Latin mercenaries."

Wolf frowned deeply as he looked at the options on the domestic affairs panel.

The option next to it stated that it would consume 20 Authority points to forcibly requisition a batch of gold coins from the church. This meant that the Authority points he had painstakingly accumulated were almost depleted. But there was no other way.

He gritted his teeth and clicked confirm.

A system notification popped up: [Orthodox Church satisfaction -10, Pro-Latin Church satisfaction +10, Genoese mercenary employment renewal fee +14 days].

Looking at his authority value that had plummeted in an instant, and then at his resource reserves that were far from recovering to pre-war levels, Wolf could only sigh. Being an emperor was truly frustrating.

To conserve his authority points, he began practicing his public speaking skills. He set aside time to give speeches in front of the mirror in his study, gradually improving from stuttering to fluency, and finally regaining some confidence.

On April 20, a piece of good news suddenly arrived: three Genoese and one Byzantine grain transport ship broke through the blockade of the Ottoman fleet and successfully entered the Golden Horn, docking at the pier.

The ship was fully loaded with food, medicine, and a small amount of weapons, which slightly relieved the supply pressure in the city.

[Event: Supply ships have arrived! Morale has greatly increased, supplies have been moderately improved, pro-Latin satisfaction +10, Orthodox satisfaction -10]

Wolf breathed a sigh of relief, but the decline in Orthodox satisfaction had put the factional balance at a very precarious level.

This news thoroughly provoked Mehmed II.

On the night of April 22, countless soldiers of the Ottoman army on the opposite shore were busy dragging about 70 warships onto a wooden track paved with grease. They slowly dragged the ships along the shore of the strait across a section of land and finally into the upper reaches of the Golden Horn.

The next morning, when the soldiers guarding the city discovered a large number of Ottoman warships suddenly appearing in Golden Horn Bay, their morale was instantly thrown into chaos.

"Enemy ships! It's the Ottoman fleet!"

"How did they get inside? Where are the iron chains at Golden Horn Bay?"

Panic spread among the defenders, and morale plummeted. This meant that the previously relatively safe coastal city walls were now also under attack, forcing the defenders to disperse their forces and further straining their already limited resources.

Wolf watched the battle unfold on the screen with a grave expression.

He knew about the historical event of traveling by boat on land, but he couldn't prevent it at all.

The iron chains blocking the Golden Horn Bay could only stop naval attacks, not land-based dragging. The Galata region on the opposite shore was nominally an ally, but in reality, it had long been flirting with the Ottomans; otherwise, it would never have allowed the other side to carry out such a large-scale operation right under its nose.

All he could do was quickly mobilize troops, transferring some civilians and militia to the coastal city wall, and deliver his first emergency speech in an attempt to quell the morale.

The notification that the speech was a minor success and that the decline in morale had slowed was a small consolation.

Just as Wolf was busy redeploying troops and stabilizing morale, the prime minister suddenly approached him, his expression grave, triggering a new event.

“Your Majesty, now that the fleet has entered the Golden Horn, morale is wavering, and the Orthodox Church is also dissatisfied with the grain transport ships.” The Chancellor’s voice was deep and resolute, as if Constantinople were about to fall the next day. “At this time, perhaps we need to take some extreme measures to prevent the Orthodox Church from hindering our self-salvation.”

Wolf frowned, his mind filled with doubt.

This prime minister was a fervent supporter of the Orthodox Church and had previously insisted on "preferring a Turkish turban to a Latin hat." How could he now utter such words that suppress the church?
Could I have been possessed?
The prime minister seemed to see through his doubts, sighed softly, and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, do you think the religion is more important, or the country? Our Notaras family has served the empire for generations. At this moment, if the church remains obstinate and obstructs our self-salvation, then they are an obstacle to us!"

"What are your thoughts?" Wolf asked cautiously, wanting to hear the other person's opinion first.

The prime minister spoke slowly, his gaze falling on the victory banner that the emperor always carried: "Victory Banner."

“We can gather Orthodox priests and core believers at the Hagia Sophia under the guise of organizing a religious procession,” he said in a low voice. “Then, Your Majesty can wave the victory flag, awaken their tyrannical hearts, and incite them to riot or even kill each other. In this way, we will have a legitimate reason to suppress them, both to eliminate the church and to plunder their wealth to replenish our military supplies—a win-win situation.”

Wolf was greatly disappointed.

What kind of bullshit strategy is this?
Many Orthodox Christians are family members or relatives of the citizens and militia. If they were to riot, the city would inevitably descend into chaos, and even if the uprising were eventually suppressed, it would completely shatter the morale of the garrison.

Of the thousands of defenders, civilian militia make up the majority. If they fall into disarray, even the Genoese mercenaries and royal guards will not be able to stop the next wave of Ottoman attacks.

This prime minister is a bit strange.

On the surface, he seemed to be thinking of the empire, but his proposals exuded a destructive aura.

Wolfe calmly refused: "This is not appropriate. There are many church members, and the consequences of a riot would be unimaginable. Let's discuss it again."

The prime minister's expression remained unchanged; he merely sighed, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Watching the prime minister turn and leave, Wolf's brows furrowed even more.

He has now completely identified with Constantine XI, and basically really sees himself as the emperor.

Even though he had many things he didn't understand about the past, he still vaguely sensed that there seemed to be some connection between the victory banner and the prime minister.

(End of this chapter)