A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

"Ferdinand?" Thomas paused. "The... traitor?"

He actually dared to come?

"Last night, he sneaked in alone and encountered me on the city wall," Dimitrios said. "But after he said a few words, he jumped off the wall and fled, so I didn't raise the alarm."

"Hmm." Thomas put down his pen and pondered for a moment. "Yes, this is a great opportunity for the Sword of Stars and Moons! He should definitely come!"

Ferdinand has become the Protector of the Nation and a high-ranking member of the Order of the Moon and Star Sword.

The outpost here before the Star-Moon Sword had been eliminated by the Knights, and Thomas believed that they would never give up.

Letting Ferdinand, a traitor who is well versed in the internal affairs of the Knights Templar, come here is a very reasonable and normal choice.

There is no problem with his ability and loyalty. Who else can we choose if not him?

"What did he say?" Thomas asked curiously.

"He said he's not an enemy..." Demetrios hesitated, then said it.

"Did you miss a word, 'now'?" Thomas smiled. "Yes, he's definitely not an enemy now. It's not his turn to be the Knights' enemy. The Sultan is the Knights' greatest enemy."

"what do you mean?"

"These are meaningless rhetoric," Thomas said. "Sophistry... I've heard that Ferdinand was a very clever man, not only skilled in command but also in diplomacy. Demetrios, although I've never met him, I can vaguely understand his ambitions from everyone's descriptions."

"Ambition?"

"Yes, ambition." Thomas nodded. "He was already fleet commander. The next step up would be either Grand Master or Secretary. Grand Master is always appointed by Rome, and Secretary... Demetrios, you're too young. You're even younger than him. When you got the position, or when he realized he couldn't compete with you, he decided to betray you. In the end, it was just a matter of price."

"It's my fault?" Demetrios' face turned pale.

"It's not your fault; it's God's will," Thomas said. "So how could a man like that do something so unhelpful? He's certainly not our enemy, at least not yet. You can think of him as neutral for now. Of course, once the Turks suffer a setback and offer him a better price, he'll become our enemy!"

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Although he left harmlessly this time, do you think he will come back again?" Thomas asked.

If he comes again, we will have to set a trap for Ferdinand.

Killing a Star-Moon Sword protector directly before the battle... Well, it sounds very tempting.

"I don't think it will come in the short term. But if it takes a little longer, it's hard to say."

"I understand, Demetrios. From now on, don't spend the night at the city walls alone. If you must go, be with Andrea or Joseph," Thomas said. "The same applies here in the city. Anything else?"

"He also mentioned something. He said the Turks had already discovered the weak spot in the city wall. It's near the sea..."

"Over there in the port area?" Thomas laughed.

There is no way around it, as the construction of the castle is limited by geographical conditions.

After all, Smyrna had been ruled by the Crescent Moon Cult for so many years. Whether they had a deeper understanding of the geological conditions and thus determined the coastal wall was weaker, or they had sent spies to the construction site to detect this weakness, it wouldn't have been difficult.

"Don't worry, Demetrios. Don't you think this might be a good idea?"

"What's a good idea?"

"I remember the last time I followed the Byzantines in their attack on Smyrna," Thomas said. "The cannons opened three breaches in the city walls, but the Crescent Moon archers didn't retreat. They stayed atop the walls, firing into the rear of the Byzantine army as it charged into the city. This caused heavy casualties, preventing the Byzantines from breaking through in the street fighting..."

This incident left a deep impression on Thomas. As long as they were well prepared, the port area would not be a breach, but a death trap!

For the next two days, the Turks continued their engineering work.

Engineers transported personnel and soil through the dug trenches, making the artillery of this era completely useless and they could only watch the earth hills gradually pile up.

They had enough manpower, so they worked very quickly. In two days, the earthen hill was basically piled up to the same height as the city wall.

Thomas stood on the top of the city wall, looking at the busy construction site in the distance.

With the cover of trenches and earthen slopes, firing from the top of the city walls no longer makes much sense. We can only watch the enemy's construction work in silence.

Ferdinand?

He could understand why Demetrios and not Ferdinand became secretary.

The Knights Templar had always been like this: if the Grand Master was a warrior, he would be in charge of military affairs, while the Secretaries would be civilians, responsible for administrative work. This was what was known as a normal combination. On the other hand, if the Grand Master was not very knowledgeable about military affairs, the Secretaries would generally choose to be militant.

Of course, this is theoretical. In reality, the specific duties likely overlap, requiring a dual focus. Managing the military on horseback, managing the civilians on foot—the size of the Order doesn't necessarily require specialized divisions of labor. However, personnel selection is another matter. The previous Grand Master, Fernando, was the Protector of the Nation, so he inevitably chose civilian knights as scribes.

This is not anyone's fault, it's just that Ferdinand is insatiable!

The enemy's preparations are nearly complete. Two hundred thousand men... in this day and age, that's a stifling force. A wise man wouldn't force his way into a fight!

However, if you just go with the flow, how can you control your own destiny?

Chapter 283 Breaking the City 1

Three days later, the artillery positions of the besiegers were completed.

Then came the roar of cannons.

In this artillery battle, the Knights quickly fell into a disadvantage. The attackers were no less capable than the defenders in terms of both the height and placement of their cannons. However, they possessed an absolute advantage in numbers.

The exchange of fire lasted only a short time before the Knights moved their artillery out of the enemy's range of fire.

There can be no exchange. Even if it is a one-to-one exchange, the Knights will suffer a great loss.

The battle then turned into a one-sided bombing.

Fortunately, one of the greatest advantages of a bastion is its ability to withstand artillery fire. Its walls are thick and low, and it uses a lot of rammed earth instead of stone.

The stone material seems solid, but it is fine against other siege equipment, but it is very fragile against cannons.

The city wall withstood the test of a whole day of bombardment. Although the firepower of all the artillery batteries was concentrated on the narrow area of ​​the wall in front, the wall did not suffer any obvious deformation or damage.

Obviously, the bastion cannot be easily breached by siege artillery like the old city walls.

After discovering that the front wall was not easy to break, the attackers began to change their tactics.

At dawn the next day, they began bombarding the weakest part of the city wall—the small area near the port area.

The geological structure here could not support thick city walls, so the Knights had no choice but to build the walls here very thin.

Although this cannot be seen from outside the city, the Turks had already obtained detailed information about the city walls.

The quality problems were now clearly visible, and the effects of the artillery bombardment were seen almost immediately.

After several hours of bombardment, the city wall on this side immediately showed signs of collapse.

On the distant cliff, Ferdinand and his men

He had moved his camp to a place near the sea cliff, so that he could easily observe the entire battlefield situation.

The only drawback is that it's too far away—as a commander, orders must be delivered quickly, so this is not an option. But as a bystander, that's perfectly fine.

"Sir, if this continues, the wall will collapse within half an hour!" the attendant beside him judged.

"It's just a small gap." Ferdinand said nothing.

"When the Turks break into the city, Smyrna's port area will definitely be captured!" said the attendant.

Ferdinand chuckled and shook his head.

"Don't you think so, sir?"

"The Sultan is cutting corners," Ferdinand laughed. "Of course, it's human nature to want to take shortcuts."

"But……"

"Now, if it were any other force, perhaps this move would have been enough. Once the city walls were breached, the defenders panicked and retreated to a secondary line, surrendering the port area... But the Knights Templar are different. As I said, all members of the Knights Templar are of noble descent, convinced that their mission is to fight for Christ, so morale is already high. And since taking office, Grand Master Thomas has led his troops across the Mediterranean, experiencing countless battles and remaining invincible without a single setback. He has established immense prestige. A mere breach won't shake their morale!"

"With such a small gap and narrow terrain, the Turks, even with their superior numbers, can't deploy them! Since they can't gain an advantage through numbers, they can only rely on quality... and speaking of military quality..."

Ferdinand smiled softly.

"There's no way the Turks can defeat the Knights! Even sending the Sultan's own troops won't work!"

"Then... Sultan... doesn't know this?" asked the attendant in surprise.

"He probably knows." Ferdinand thought carefully. "But he just doesn't care."

"Even if he loses, the Sultan can afford it. So, why not take a gamble? Besides, the divine artifact I gave the Sultan, which can help him fight against the Bloody Cross Flag, has given him a lot of confidence!"

He handed the telescope to his attendant and said, "I'll go back and rest for a while. I'll come back this afternoon."

"But, my lord, the battle is about to begin..."

"There's no point in fighting when the outcome is known in advance," Ferdinand said. "Just watch. Tell me the details this afternoon."

The young follower did as he was told.

Just as he expected, after half an hour of bombardment, that small and thin section of the city wall collapsed.

The artillery immediately switched to suppressing the enemy's firepower on the city wall, while on the Turkic side, the well-prepared engineers immediately pushed the carts forward.

These are rickshaws, and each one is filled with earth and rocks.

They rushed to the trench and dumped the earth and rocks in the car into it.

Filling up a ditch to create a path wide enough for siege engines is difficult, but filling up a small section to allow people to walk through is not difficult.

The archers on the city walls fought back with all their might, and engineers were constantly shot dead on the way and under the city walls, but the landfill work continued to proceed very quickly.

The trench was filled in.

Then the engineers withdrew and the regular soldiers in armor began to charge.

The defenders on the city wall fought back with all their might, but it seemed futile. Even though a few of them were knocked down, they were still unable to stop the Turkic charge.

In the blink of an eye, the Turkic soldiers had rushed into the city.

Faced with this scene, the entire Turkic camp was filled with cheers.

On Haiya's side, or in other words, the young followers watching the game in the audience seats felt their blood boiling.

But after all, he had been influenced by his master for a long time, so after a brief excitement, he also realized that something was wrong.

For such a city, this breakthrough is too small.

Without being distracted by other places, the Knights could without any worries transfer their main forces here to fight the invading enemy.

Moreover, the Knights had ample time to prepare in advance. They could deploy archers in appropriate locations and then dispatch melee troops to engage the siege troops.

The Turks who rushed in did not have enough shooters to counterattack.

With too many archers and insufficient melee combat capabilities, they will be crushed by the melee forces of the Knights.

Without enough shooters, the long-range attack capability is insufficient, which is equivalent to standing still and getting beaten.

Even though they had an overwhelming military advantage, they could not make use of it in this small area.

It was almost dusk when Ferdinand climbed up the sea cliff again.

"Sir, you are here!" The young attendant handed the telescope to his master.

"Well, is it over?" Ferdinand picked up the telescope and took a quick look into the distance.

As far as the eye could see, corpses were strewn across the ground, with only a handful of people cleaning up the bodies.

"Tell me about it. How was the fight? What lessons did it teach you?"

"At the beginning..." the attendant said, recalling carefully. "The magic was released a little late. The Knights' soldiers, blessed by the Bloody Cross Banner, were incredibly powerful, while those of us holding the divine artifacts were slightly behind. As a result, the first group of soldiers who rushed in were slaughtered unilaterally!"

The Bloody Cross Banner could grant soldiers numerous magical powers, and anyone with some knowledge of magic could imagine the effects. They were simply a group of armored monsters, no mortal soldier could possibly match them.

"Well, that's no wonder," Ferdinand commented. "The sacred object must be in the hands of trusted personnel. If it's lost on the battlefield, it's a disaster. To prevent being shot at the beginning of the battle, if the sacred object is lost, we have to fall behind. What's next?"

Chapter 284 Breaking the City 2

"A chaotic battle ensued," the attendant explained. "Although the Knights had been freed from their enchantment, they remained heavily armored and formidable. The Turks, while equally valiant, fought with less fortification than their opponents. Furthermore, not all of the Knights had been freed from their enchantment. Only a fraction remained, but some still retained their enchantment!"

"What else?" asked Ferdinand.

"In terms of martial arts, the Knights are also superior." The follower sighed.

Ferdinand smiled faintly. The Knights were truly elite troops. Among the official members of the Knights, only a few were core members; elite troops were the norm. With a small group of elite troops, combining their extraordinary abilities and working in perfect harmony, an enemy ten or twenty times their number wouldn't be able to gain any advantage.

This was confirmed the last time the Byzantines attacked Smyrna.

Even if some members of the Knights were in the navy, there were still at least a hundred people left here. And among these hundred people, at least fifty would be organized into a mobile force to provide support in various places.

So in terms of quality, the Turks have no advantage.

"Did you see anyone special?" Ferdinand asked. "Did Grand Master Thomas participate in the battle?"

He wondered if Thomas had personally participated in the battle.