A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

He was thinking about this question in his mind when he suddenly heard Louis's horrified voice.

"Grand Commander?!"

"What's wrong, Louis?" Thomas was a little surprised.

Because his spiritual field sensed nothing.

"Hey, Grand Commander, I just saw the light on you..." Louis said cautiously. "It suddenly dimmed."

"Dimmed a circle?" Thomas didn't quite understand.

What just happened?

No!

Or, some natural situation?

"How's the light now?"

"If it was a ten-pointer initially, it's still a five-pointer now," Louis said. "Of course, it's still much better than an average person."

After hearing this, Thomas no longer cared so much.

Chapter 296: Persuading Surrender 1

The next day, before dawn.

On the top of the city wall, someone shot an arrow at an uninhabited place outside the city.

The arrow shaft and feathers were painted red, making them particularly conspicuous in the open space.

So at daybreak, a Turkic soldier came over and pulled out the arrow. It can be seen that a letter was tied to the arrow shaft.

When daybreak came, Ferdinand received the letter in his tent.

It was brought in by a messenger.

"My Lord, what's the news?"

"Just some normal news." Ferdinand said this, but the corners of his mouth still curled up uncontrollably. "Thomas is gone."

"gone?"

"Just last night!" Ferdinand said. "Just as I expected, they left with the bloody cross." He looked outside the tent, at the highest point of the distant castle. There fluttered the banner of the Knights Templar—because it was so far away, it was hard to see what it was.

Thomas had to go!

After all, although Smyrna is heavily guarded and heavily armed, Rhodes Island is completely empty.

In other words, the strongest force in the city had already left, and the actual siege hadn't even begun yet.

This is a very favorable situation.

"Everything is as expected. Let's continue as planned!" Ferdinand said.

"Sir, does this mean we are sure to win?" asked the attendant.

"No, that's not the case," Ferdinand replied after a moment's thought. "It's just that our chances of victory have increased. I'm certain the Knights still have a hidden card. And this hidden card... is likely related to their killing of Herzl Reiss during the naval battle!"

Herzl was a protector of the country who specialized in naval warfare, but he was still killed by Thomas in battle.

So Thomas must have another trump card in his hand. Many people speculated that it might be a magical artifact.

Anyway, the Pope has given him two artifacts, so it’s normal to have one more!

And this trump card will definitely stay.

In other words, although Thomas is gone and the bloody cross flag has left, there are very likely still two artifacts in the city of Smyrna.

The golem army and the unknown third artifact.

The golem army doesn't matter. Everyone knows now that these giant golems are immune to swords and bullets, but cannot withstand cannons.

It's made of wood, that's it!

There is no shortage of cannons outside the city of Smyrna.

Even if the golem remains in the city, it will only delay the Knights' defeat for a moment, but will not change the overall situation.

But that third artifact makes people wary.

Unknown things are always the most troublesome!

"Anyway," Ferdinand said, "Thomas is no longer our problem. The problem now is my old colleague..."

The face of the scribe Demetrios came to his mind.

Although this old colleague was a devout man and quite capable in both domestic and military affairs, he had weaknesses in his character.

That's because he's not strong enough in his heart.

That's why he could become a clerk, and why he could only become a clerk!

A man like Thomas could launch an expedition despite the opposition of the entire Order! He would use any means (regardless of whether they were legitimate) to advance his plans.

Leaders often share this characteristic: their inner resolve is so strong that it's difficult for external factors to influence them. They will resolutely move toward their goals, without hesitation or wavering.

Even if he fails, he will only fall on his way forward!

Demetrios, on the other hand, lacked these qualities of a leader. As long as the situation was dire enough, he would definitely compromise.

In a sense, Demetrios is the noblest of the entire knights.

Among the Knights Templar, no one has a simpler character than Demetrios—it has nothing to do with kindness and integrity, but simply because Demetrios is as simple as a blank sheet of paper.

Every bit of his desire was written clearly on white paper like the most standard traditional Chinese characters, without any stains or wipes to cover it up.

On the contrary, people like Ferdinand himself and Thomas are both filthy. What they say and do may seem righteous and reasonable at first glance, but if you analyze them carefully, you can find traces of hidden desires between the lines, in the fragments and in the hidden and obvious details. This proves that they have ulterior motives deep down.

People of the same type can best understand people of the same type.

Ferdinand knew very well that Thomas's goal was not just to reorganize the Knights Templar. He definitely wanted more, much more, without end!

He probably really wanted to conquer Anatolia, eliminate the Seljuk Turks, establish immortal achievements, leave his name in history, and even wanted to pass on his achievements to future generations!

So he is always ambitious and proactive. You never know what he will do next.

In contrast, when it comes to Demetrios' personal behavior, there is no need for further analysis. Just start from Demetrios's personality traits and choose the one that is most like what Demetrios would do. That is the most likely answer.

"But...that won't be much trouble!"

As he finished speaking, a messenger came hurriedly from outside.

It was not a Turkic messenger, but the Star-Moon Sword's own messenger.

"Great Elder, we have brought a letter!" The messenger presented the letter.

Ferdinand took the letter, opened it, took a look, and burst into a joyful laugh.

"Sir, this is..." the follower asked curiously.

"Our messengers have brought the best news," Ferdinand said with a smile. "They've brought blueprints of the Smyrna Castle and will be arriving soon!"

"Ah, how is this possible?" the attendant exclaimed in shock. "Is there a traitor among the Knights?"

And this wasn't just any traitor. He had to be in a high position to do this.

"No," Ferdinand said. "It's those Italian engineers!"

"Even Thomas... ultimately miscalculated this move!" Speaking of this, he couldn't help but smile.

Those Italian military engineers were not members of the Knights Templar.

Instead, they were experts hired by the Knights.

After they completed the castle construction work, they received their commissions and returned home. After all, they were builders, not combatants.

It seems that they have nothing to do with this war.

Even Thomas just let them go without doing anything.

This was the biggest mistake he made.

Ferdinand looked outside the tent.

For the next period of time, the entire offensive and defensive battle will revolve around the tunnel.

Chapter 297: Persuading Surrender 2

Everything went according to Ferdinand's plan.

On the third day after Thomas left, the Turks finally delivered the specially made super-large siege cannon from the rear.

This is a specially cast cannon.

This was an era when new technologies, especially warfare technologies, were flourishing, and it was already possible to manufacture such ultra-large-caliber bronze cannons.

This cannon posed a great threat to the city wall.

Fortunately, the specific structure of the bastion gave it a strong ability to resist artillery and it could not be destroyed.

Although this cannon was not powerful enough to blow down the city wall, it could easily destroy the battlements and other fortifications built on top of the wall.

Fortunately, this terrifying artillery still has several major problems, namely, there are too few of them, the firing speed is extremely slow, and the accuracy is still not high enough.

On average, it takes several hours to fire a shot, and there is a certain chance that the shot will miss the target.

In addition, work on filling the trenches has been ongoing.

At the limit of the range of their muskets, the Turks also piled up earthen mounds to create shooting positions and fired back at the city walls.

The odds were roughly 30-70, as the city walls offered a better view. For every three Knights archers killed, the Turks had to pay the price of seven men.

However, there was a fundamental disparity in the strength of the two sides. After a while, the city walls abandoned direct fire with the musketeers and instead used the firing holes pre-set in the walls to fire.

Although the casualty ratio was reduced to less than one to ten, the limited firing holes also reduced the shooting density and failed to prevent the enemy from starting a battle to fill the trenches.

However, in the following period of battle, both artillery and muskets were actually just supporting roles.

The real protagonist is the tunnel.

Dimitrios was well versed in the art of siege and defense. He built a listening device, determined the enemy's direction of movement, and quickly took countermeasures.

The defenders dug defensive tunnels to intercept the enemy's tunnels, and then sent in elite troops to engage the enemy in the dark tunnels.

In this kind of battle, the Knights are usually fully armed soldiers on the alert, while the Crescent Moon Cultists are shirtless engineers with only digging tools such as shovels or mattocks.

There was almost no suspense in the battle.

In order to kill more enemy soldiers rather than engineers (engineers were actually conscripted Christians), Demetrios set up complex traps, let some of the enemy in, and then attacked the enemy with fierce cross fire.

But all this doesn't matter to Ferdinand.

For a siege, you don't actually need to dig a hundred tunnels, all of them will be successful.

As long as one succeeds, that's enough.

Although the Knights can win ninety-nine times in these dark underground battles, they cannot lose even once.

But even if the Turks lose ninety-nine times, they only need to win once.

It was early in the morning of that day.

The Turkic army walked out of the camp and lined up to challenge and show off their strength as usual.

Of course, the Knights stayed behind closed doors. The disparity in strength between the two sides was too great, and to make matters worse, the Knights had no backup.

Every loss of soldiers and civilians in the city is a loss of one.

As long as the Turks are willing to pay a price, they can get reinforcements from other Star-Moon Sect countries.

Among the defenders on the city wall, those with sharp eyes could see that the formation today was different from usual.

The Sultan's entourage was also among the troops. They held magnificent banners to conceal their presence, so their exact location couldn't be seen from the top of the city walls. The only thing they could be sure of was that the Sultan was also watching the battle.

Andrea, standing on the top of the city wall, sensed that special atmosphere.

"Messenger!" he ordered hurriedly. "Hurry back and tell the secretary that the enemy may officially attack the city today..."

Before he finished speaking, the siege artillery opened fire.

The target was none other than the previously breached dock area wall.

Not long ago, the Knights had sent people to repair the damaged city wall to a certain extent, making it barely able to prevent the enemy from directly rushing into the city.