Let me introduce you, this is my girlfriend, the Israeli boxing champion

They are simply a bunch of cancer.

The Sultan's guards, the Janissaries, were also the most elite troops of the Ottoman Empire. These elite troops received high salaries on a regular basis, and the expenses of their weapons and equipment were borne by the Sultan himself, not the Ottoman Empire; therefore, the Janissaries had long maintained absolute loyalty to the Sultan, while the traditional Ottoman nobles could not get involved. However, the number of Janissaries was not large, and it had always maintained a scale of 5000.

In the end, things got out of control, and it was the Sultan himself who did it.

But these are not the things to think about right now. Since Maimaiti is so confident, let him understand one thing:

——Constantinople is not a place that anyone can get their hands on.

Alvin Vasak

1453 December 4

PS1: The tremendous help the Ottoman army received from Christian subjects, mercenaries, apostates, and technical experts has become a subject of repeated lamentations by European historians.

Chapter 107: The Spartan King Returns to Thermopylae

The Anatolian fortress was built by the current sultan's great-grandfather, Sultan Bayezid the Thunder, during his attack on Constantinople in 1395. Here, the strait separating Asia and Europe is only 600 meters wide, making it the best place to cross the turbulent and dangerous strait. Darius I, the "king of kings" of the Persian Empire, was well aware of this and used ships here as a bridge to allow his unprecedented Persian army to set foot on European soil to attack Athens.

During his time as Sultan Erdogan, he also built a larger and more solid fortress on the European coast, on Byzantine land, to control the sea - one of the few things he did right.

Once the strait is blocked, the supply lines of food and reinforcements from the Black Sea to Constantinople will be cut off, and the Russians and Hungarians will not be able to support Constantinople.

"The Bosphorus must be in our hands." Leonidas I murmured to himself in the biting sea breeze.

When Leonidas learned the origins of the two fortresses from El Melloi II, the Spartan king had already understood the importance and difficulty of this task.

Of course, he did not know Darius I, the "King of Kings", but his son Xerxes I would never forget this person.

Back then, the Persians took advantage of the Olympic Games to launch a surprise attack on Thermopylae. Now the Turks are also going to cut off Constantinople's throat from here. It is almost the same story as last time.

"Then let's see how good these Turks are compared to the Persians back then!

......

Thousands of masons, carpenters and laborers set out with all the useful resources to the Bosphorus. There, at the sacred estuary north of Constantinople, on the site of the Church of St. Michael, a new fortress was built. Despite the peace treaties concluded with Venice and Genoa, the Sultan, fearing an incident, decided to personally take action and complete the goal of building the fortress with great vigor.

The entire empire was mobilized for this huge project. Heavy transport barges brought building materials from Anatolia across the strait. Neatly cut stones and good-looking wood were all transported here. At the same time, a fleet of 16 warships cruised on the sea just in case.

The Sultan personally inspected the construction site on horseback and worked with two architects to plan the layout of the fortress in detail: "the distance from the outer wall tower to the main turret, the hidden cannon positions, and some other details."

The Sultan studied under Khalil Pasha. Although the Grand Vizier was dissatisfied with the Sultan's radical and crazy foreign policy, he was still very concerned about his studies. When the Sultan was still young, he hired Byzantine mathematicians and architects to give him lessons.

There was also a huge power struggle within the empire at that time. Khalil, Zagan, Shehabuddin and Salja, four people representing traditional Turkic nobles, religious fanatics, converted former Christians and emerging military nobles, fought and attacked each other, bringing great instability to the political situation of the Ottoman Empire.

Seeing this, the Sultan divided the fortress project into four parts and handed them over to the four people to supervise respectively. He privately encouraged them to compete with each other and complete their respective tasks as soon as possible, and hinted that he would reconsider the position of Grand Vizier.

The four powerful men were greatly encouraged, and even paid for the construction of the fortress themselves. Mehmed II himself was responsible for riding around the construction sites with his guards, directly sentencing those who were slacking off to death, and when appropriate, he spent a lot of gold coins to encourage the craftsmen to work faster and better.

In this atmosphere of intense competition and fear, even the nobles felt compelled to personally carry stones and lime to the sweating stonemasons in order to boost morale and win the Sultan's favor.

Overnight, thousands of tents sprang up like mushrooms after rain; ships shuttled back and forth on the turbulent strait. Smoke belched out from the slightly burning lime pits; hammers clanged in the warm atmosphere; people shouted loudly from time to time. Construction continued day and night, torches burned until late at night to greet the dawn of the next day, and a solid fortress rose from the ground at an astonishing speed.

On August 1452, 8, Mehmed II rode his horse to inspect his fortress with satisfaction. This large fortress was more like a small city than a fortress. The solid wall was 31 meters high and 15 meters thick. It was a mixture of Eastern and Western architectural techniques and was fully capable of withstanding most siege weapons of that era.

The new fortress was named Rumeli Fort, which means cut throat. As the name suggests, they cut off the only way for Byzantium to communicate with the outside world. Now the empire was on the verge of death, as if it was strangled by someone.

Forts like Meli and Anatolia were equipped with cannons that could fire 300-kilogram stone bullets with straight trajectories close to the water surface, flush with passing ships, just like stones skimming across the surface of a pond.

From this time on, not even a bird could fly freely from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

"How is it, do you understand everything?"

Romani's voice as gentle as jade sounded. She had transmitted all the relevant information about the two fortresses in Chaldea to Ritsuka and the others through the summoning circle.

"I understand roughly, but I still have a question for His Highness Nero."

"You may say it at your own will, Miss Ophelia."

Ophelia cleared her throat. "The Sultan in this singularity cannot participate in the construction of the fortress at all, so who built Rumeli Fort?"

"Could it be that Eldogan?" Aku Hinako gave the most unreasonable answer. In comparison, Mashu's answer seemed much more reasonable.

"Sultan Murad II?"

Nero just shook his head at these answers, and Tamamonomae and the others just smiled bitterly. Finally, Elizabeth, unable to hold back, announced the answers.

"The one who built the Rumeli Fortress was the deceased Sultan Erdogan."

......

"...We also need a fleet. The Ottoman navy must at least be able to defeat the Genoese. After conquering Constantinople, it will be the Hospitallers' Rhodes, the Greek colony of the Venetians. In the future, we will also need a strong navy to march into Italy, France and England."

Mamtim II described his grand dream in his plan. He believed that his plan would not go wrong at all. The empire must not only survive in this small piece of land. The entire European continent was the real stage.

And the first step begins with conquering the City of World Desire.

PS1: Nanxi said that the word Muhammad is too dangerous. After discussion, we adopted the domestically evolved version of the name Mamtim. Please pay attention.

PS2: I will go north to the capital tomorrow, I hope there will be fewer people.

Chapter 108: Fire at the Ottoman Empire for our loved ones!

Early in the morning, an Ottoman captain drove a merchant ship to Venice. On board were handicrafts and a lot of food ordered by the Venetian Doge Jossenigo. However, the consignee of this batch of goods could no longer sign for it.

After Sultan Erdogan built the Rumeli Fort a year ago, he completely strangled Constantinople's throat and made the Ottoman fleet no longer threatening.

After the first mate at the bow saw the two familiar fortresses from afar, he left the bow and went to the captain's room.

"Captain, the Anatolian Fortress and the Rumeli Fortress are ahead."

The captain, who was originally studying the nautical chart with a magnifying glass, ignored the first mate's words and continued to lie on the nautical chart.

"You don't need to ask me about this. You have to know that this is the Sultan's territory. Those white pigs in Constantinople will never stick their heads out to do anything."

After that, the captain placed the magnifying glass on the map.

"Raise the sails to full height and hoist the imperial flag."

"Yes."

When the ship approached the fortress, the captain ordered the mast to be pulled to the maximum and passed through the waters with the help of the sea breeze. What they didn't know was that their every move was clearly seen by Leonidas I on the fortress.

"General, what should we do next?" The accompanying soldiers spoke with some anger when they saw the arrogant Ottoman ship.

"Speak your mind."

Leonidas posed this question to them, and the Spartans wanted to hear the Byzantines' answer.

"Only one battle!"

"The longer we hold out here, the better it will be for Constantinople."

"The Turkic barbarians didn't let us go, so why should we be merciful to them?"

There were various answers, but most of them were Byzantines. Leonidas remembered that there were also Ottomans among the people he brought this time.

"You, yes, you, come here."

He found a man wearing a white hat in the crowd. There was no doubt that this was the "Turkic barbarian" that the Byzantines had previously mentioned.

"General, I..."

"Tell me what's on your mind."

This was a man with a big beard, who looked to be in his thirties. Perhaps because he was personally named by Leonidas I, he was actually a little nervous.

"Relax, man, there's no one else here but you, my brothers in the army. Come on, take a deep breath."

call--

"Very good, that's it, tell me about your experience."

Under Leonidas' constant encouragement, the Ottoman finally stammered and told his story.

"...I come from a village outside Edirne. I have my parents and a younger sister. I usually go out to graze the sheep with my father. Every month, we go to the market in the city to exchange some daily necessities for our family. This situation lasted until the battle in Varna."

"That day, I took my family's sheep out to graze as usual, but when I came back——"

At this point, he became so excited that he could hardly control himself. Leonidas patted him on the back, and the soldiers became quiet.

"——My house is gone. It was burned down by those Yericheni. They did it just to plunder supplies."

"After that, I had nowhere to go. Edirne did not welcome refugees like me. I had nowhere to go and wanted to die, but at this time, the door of Constantinople opened to me."

"I am now a father of two and I run a pub, but I can never forget the memories I had in Edirne nine years ago."

"So, I signed up for the Army, not only for myself, but also for my wife and lovely children."

When the Ottoman soldier finished speaking, there was no movement on the city wall and the air was silent.

At this point, Leonidas applauded.

"Well said, soldier. Let me tell you my story, too."

"I'm sure you all know my name and deeds. So let me ask you a question: why did the Ottoman sultans choose to build a fortress here?"

The soldiers shook their heads. Perhaps shaking their heads was the best answer at this time.

"Xerxes I, the King of Persia, crossed the strait here to attack the Balkan Peninsula. Of course, before launching the attack, he specially sent an envoy. Can you guess what the envoy said?"

"——We just need your water and land."

The soldiers were initially confused by this answer, but soon the expression turned into abuse.

"Very good, soldiers, it seems that you all know what this sentence means. Of course, we are not vegetarians either. The Athenians threw the messenger into a deep pit, and we Spartans kicked him into a well. After all, the water and soil he wanted were in there."

"Looking at your faces, I should know what's going to happen next. That's right, it's Thermopylae."

"Before setting off, I went to the Temple of Delphi to ask for the oracle."

Oh, you who live in the broad streets of Sparta!

Your glorious town will either be plundered by the sons of Perseus, or spread across the vast land of Laconia.

Mourn the fall of a king, the descendant of Hercules!

"As you can see, I lost, but we won."

“Sometimes we work so hard not for the applause of others, but to make the people around us smile.”

"So, soldiers, move forward! Take out that damn ship!"

Amid the roar of cannons, a round of shells passed low over the sea, and one of the giant stone bullets hit the hull of the merchant ship, smashing it to pieces. The captain and other 30 survivors were arrested after escaping to the shore, and what awaited them was an unimaginable punishment.

In order to attract more Ottomans to attack the fortress, Leonidas I made an extremely bloody decision: all the people except the captain were beheaded, and Captain Antonio was inserted into the buttocks with a sharp wooden stake and pulled out of his mouth - this was mentioned to him by the King of Romania when he was chatting with Vlad III in Valhalla.

The next day, the corpses were piled up on the road outside Rumeli Castle. No one dared to collect them, and eventually the rotten corpses were torn to pieces by vultures.

"He is indeed the Impaler. He should still be in Hungary being taken care of by Hunyadi. But this is really going to become Thermopylae."

Leonidas I smiled bitterly, then he looked back into the distance, which was the direction of Constantinople.

"You must hold on, everyone."

PS1: RNM, give me your money back!

The 2021 Premier League season is over!

How do you explain the 1-6 defeat by Tottenham?

Let's disband with Faze!

Chapter 109 Osman, the Son of God

"The Ottoman army's preparations for the siege progressed rapidly. Engineers began to raze the orchards and vineyards outside the city to create an open firing range for the artillery. They also dug a trench 250 yards away from the land wall and parallel to it along its entire length. In front of the trench, an earth wall was built to resist our artillery fire."

At the Gate of Charasius, El-Melloi II pinched his brow and wrote down with a quill pen everything he had seen during the day.

Today is April 4th, and everyone in the city knows that the Ottomans will launch an attack tomorrow. Constantinople is probably the quietest tonight. But even so, the lights are still on.

"Behind this line of defense, the Sultan deployed his main force to the final position a mile from the land wall. As usual, tomorrow's Ottoman army will be lined up separately by regiment. The Sultan himself will be in the center, commanding everything, and next to him will be the white-hatted Janissary archers, Turkish and European crossbowmen, musketeers and artillerymen. The red-hatted infantry will be on his left and right, with the cavalry in the rear. The entire army will attack us in this formation. This move can be said to be an open card."

It is worth mentioning that Mr. Kong Ming, who had been slacking off for a long time, finally couldn't sit still anymore. However, he did not make suggestions as he did in the past, let alone take charge of internal affairs - he just wanted to slack off every day.

The world-famous Wulong was completely awakened by the generosity of the Ottomans. Having never fought a large battle in his life, he was already envious when he saw this well-trained army.

"What's the matter, teacher?"

"It's nothing, Alvin, it's just that Zhuge Kongming finally woke up."

The prime minister finally woke up in the thatched cottage?