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

"If the Sultanate of Rom survives, the fate of all of us will be changed."

"A person's destiny, of course, depends on his own efforts, but it also takes into account the course of history. But I'm curious, Orhan, how did you know this?"

At this moment, they were walking in the center of the racetrack. The sun was gradually setting in the west, revealing a decadent look, just like this ancient empire that was declining day by day.

But the sun will rise as usual, and Rome's tomorrow remains unknown.

"My wife is from the royal family of Karaman. As the heir to the most essential part of the heritage of the Sultanate of Rum, she also has the most extensive records in this regard."

"This is one of the reasons why Fatih wants to settle accounts with me. How can the old people of the previous dynasty live in this world?"

The racetrack in Constantinople was once the main venue for racing competitions, but it became famous because of the Nika Rebellion during the reign of Justinian.

"The blood that flowed under our feet eventually became the original capital of the Roman Reconquest era, and Belisarius and Narses also wrote their names on it."

"Let's talk about something else, Orhan. Where do you want to go after the war? Baghdad or Cordoba? Or a pilgrimage to Mecca? Or Jerusalem?"

Alvin thought it would be the low places he mentioned. For the majority of the Crescent Moon Church, these places are undoubtedly holy places.

But Orhan's return was beyond his expectations.

"On the contrary, it's Vilnius, Lithuania."

As if thinking that Alvin didn’t understand, Orhan explained his reasons: “One reason is to visit the mausoleum of Mindaugas, the only Grand Duke of Lithuania; another reason is the special nature of the Baltic Sea. As the Jerusalem of the North, I want to make a pilgrimage there.”

"I see... I'll probably go to the orthodox Jerusalem. Godfrey of Bouillon's resting place is there. I have to go there at least once."

"But first, I have to see the Egyptian sun."

"Saint Louis? This is on the same level as saints, haha."

Alvin smiled but said nothing.

The sixth singularity?... Actually, my journey has come to an end.

PS1: The Hellenization of the Rum Sultanate is not without precedent. One of the important reasons why Umayyad moved to the Iberian Peninsula was that he refused to be Persianized. As a result, he was killed by Abbas, who accepted Persianization. However, he was very happy to accept Andalusia in the end.

PS2: When I was looking up information, the more I read about the fifteen wild fathers that Esudan found for himself, the more disgusted I felt... What kind of brains do they have?

Chapter 157: The Second Battle of Manzikert

"Sudan......"

Virgil the Great drew aside the curtain and entered the tent. Fatih, who was about to visit Attila, had to put down his work.

“Is it good news or bad news from Anatolia?”

"bad news."

In Edirne, not far from them, the sudden outbreak of typhoid caught him off guard. In an era when the shadow of the Black Death had not yet dissipated, the increasing number of casualties forced the Ottoman army to abandon its plan to station here. As for the siege towers and battering rams that were carefully built by skilled craftsmen specifically for the Theodosian Wall, they had to make a choice.

It is hard to imagine that the precarious situation in Constantinople just a few days ago was resolved because of this sudden epidemic. I believe that the citizens of Constantinople should be celebrating at this moment, just like when Michael VIII returned to Constantinople.

"Is there any worse news than the reports of plague which the pashas in the army send me every day?"

The Sultan took the report from Grand Vizier. The current situation in the country was also unclear. Without the careful guidance of Murad II in the original world line, it would be difficult for him to cope with it alone.

On the other side of the sea, the rebels were rising one after another. The forces used to deal with this city alone had already exhausted the Yerichenis, and the entire Anatolia was probably in chaos at this time. Relying on the local governor to resist the offensive of the rebels? They should thank Allah for not surrendering to Muhammad.

"Then it depends on whether the civilians or the Yerichenis are more valuable."

"What do you mean?" Fatih raised his head alertly, "Something happened to Yericheni."

"It's not the military camp in Edirne..." After Khalil called a person's name, Commander Yericheni, who was waiting outside the tent, took off his helmet and placed a list in front of the Sultan.

"The two hundred Yerichen brothers who were sent to Rumeli Castle to support the battle died at the pass not far from Rumeli Castle. None of the brothers survived, and none of them retreated to Edirne or joined the siege troops. Although Fujimaru Ritsuka and several sultanas have already captured Rumeli Castle, they still deployed some of their brothers there just in case. Although the force is still weak, it can perfectly serve as a warning. But..."

"But what?"

"Your Majesty the Sultan, there are less than 500 Yericheni available now."

500 people...There are only 500 people in our multinational force that we can truly trust, or perhaps even fewer than this number.

"Your Majesty, the Sultan, our spies were discovered by the Romans a long time ago. It's just that Rome has been suffering from a lack of income and has never been able to deal with it. But it's different now."

At the impromptu meeting of the council, Halcyon Pasha, the spy chief, stood up and handed over a complete record as well.

"Since the end of last year, not to mention our lost intelligence personnel, the spy network in Constantinople has almost collapsed. It seems that the Romans have either invested a huge amount of tax revenue in counterintelligence work, or... there is a once-in-a-millennium intelligence genius in Rome."

"Halxien Pasha, you must know what the Roman nobles did thirty years ago. Seventy percent of the nobles betrayed their empire and headed straight for Florence with their accumulated wealth, troops, and manpower. Now the fresh blood of the Roman upper class is almost completely exhausted. Do you still expect Constantine to select talents from the common people?"

"The spy network has always accounted for a large part of the empire's tax revenue, but it has been repeatedly suppressed by a small country that is almost extinct...Isn't this just a problem of intelligence personnel?"

Shehabuddin Pasha fanned the flames at Halsian. As the spy chief, Halsian must bear the primary responsibility.

Although he was not in the core decision-making circle for many years, the Sultan's long-term travels made him more deeply aware of the defection of the Roman nobles, which directly led to the dual collapse of Rome's internal administration and economy, and also brought opportunities for the Ottomans' all-out attack after the Great Interregnum. Although he did not know much about the internal affairs of Rome, at least the decline of the nobles was visible to the naked eye. The aristocratic politics of thousands of years could not be changed overnight, at least it would take a process.

But now it seems that this process is progressing too fast. Judging from the current situation of Rome, the probability of selecting a rare talent is still too small.

"Shehabuddin Pasha, this is wrong. Listen to me."

Virgil the Great had to come out to mediate. As the Sultan's teacher and the political legacy left by the old Sultan, Khalil Pasha had the highest prestige in the imperial court and was also the main opponent of the military in the court struggle. Virgil the Great was highly respected, and neither the military and political factions nor the Yericheni would have a direct conflict with him.

"Ah, what can the noble Virgil teach his students?"

Although his tone was full of dissatisfaction, Shehabuddin Pasha still suppressed his emotions. After all, he was his teacher.

"Sultan, don't underestimate the status of the word 'Rome' in this world. This great empire lasted for nearly two thousand years on this continent, and the appeal of the Roman Empire still exists and is very strong even today. Including the Roman commander who broke our 10,000-man army into pieces under the Theodosian Walls that day, his name was Giovanni Giustiniani; and the genius who defeated our navy in the Bosphorus Strait that day, they even hung the Lion of St. Mark! Who would have thought that the first people to come to rescue the Romans at the critical moment were the Venetians and Genoese who were incompatible with them!"

"This is just one example. The existence of these two words, Sultan Rome, means that his talent pool will never wither. There will always be people from all over the world who will travel thousands of miles to defend that crumbling empire to the death."

"We must never underestimate the opponents in front of us."

The young officers were immediately displeased when they heard Grand Vizier's words. How could they be defeated before the battle? Shehabuddin Pasha, the leader, was going to refute immediately.

But everyone was shocked by the news from Armenia.

"Your Majesty the Sultan! Grand Vizier and Pashas, ​​the Mamluks and Karaman of Egypt have declared war on us! They have defeated all the troops we left at Manzikert!"

On July 1071, 7, the Battle of Manzikert took place. In this decisive battle, the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan completely defeated the Eastern Roman Empire's army and captured Basilius Romanus IV alive. After this battle, this thousand-year-old empire went downhill.

History has once again returned to its previous trajectory.

Chapter 158 In the Name of the Conqueror!

——Dead silence.

Deathly silence spread over everyone's heart.

When Ilkhan Hulagu launched the third Mongol westward expedition targeting Egypt, the Western world exclaimed that King John had returned like lightning. Hulagu's statement in a letter to St. Louis that he would capture Jerusalem and present it to the Pope further strengthened this statement. It was said that the Pope had already made plans to canonize him.

But things don’t always go as planned. In 1260, the savior of the Crescent World, “Victorious King” Baibars, the slave who captured Saint Louis in his first battle, decisively defeated the Mongolian army in the Battle of Ayn Jalut and killed their commander, saving the entire Crescent World while almost making the Pope die of anger in the Vatican Cathedral.

In his hands, the Mamluks were transformed from Saladin's personal guard into a nation, and Baibars himself was revered as a greater hero than the luxurious Harun al-Hashid and the righteous Saladin.

As for Karaman, it goes without saying that the descendants of the Seljuk family, who inherited the legacy of the Sultanate of Rum, have always been a headache for the Ottomans.

As for Manzikert, they were very familiar with it - in a sense, it was their roots; and they dared not underestimate the profound impact of that battle.

But just now, news of another defeat came from there. The Sword of Hell and the descendants of Arsalan had crossed the mountains of Armenia and were heading towards the heart of Anatolia.

"quiet!"

The court Imam Akshem suppressed all voices with his prestige and qualifications. Although he was only a small ghazi, he was the head of the court of the four Ottoman sultans after the death of Thunder Bayezid, and even Fatih was no exception.

"Sultan, Grand Vizier, Sheikhs and Pashas, ​​we only have one month to make a decision. Whether to abandon Anatolia and get Constantinople, or to abandon Asia Minor and defend our homeland, it all depends on your choice."

"I understand. The Pashas can go back first. The Grand Vizier and the Palace Imam will stay."

After all the pashas had left the tent, Fatih took the Grand Vizier and the Imam and went to his study without waiting to explain to them.

"Sudan."

"Come and take a look at this."

Fatih carefully took out a piece of paper from his book and handed it to Khalil. Big Vichir carefully took the paper, but almost died on the spot when he saw it for the first time.

"This is absolutely not allowed, Maimaiti!"

He threw the paper on the ground angrily. Seeing this, Fatih quickly stopped his mentor and persuaded him to stay reluctantly.

"Tell me your reasons, Fatih. It's not a good thing to recognize a father for no reason, not to mention that you recognized 15 at once..."

"Let's not talk about the number issue first. Most of these countries are hearsay countries. They have nothing to do with us. What's the harm in admitting them? But Sarria is a Jewish religion! And the Avars, are you trying to say that we and the Hungarians have the same ancestors?"

Not to mention the Karakhanid Khanate, they were just dogs for others!

"And Timur! The old Sultan died only a few years ago! Have you just forgotten about him?!!"

Faced with the two elders' stormy rebukes, Fatih was a little breathless for a while. After the two elders calmed down, he weakly retorted.

"So there's no problem with the Golden Family, right?"

"I don't think they can handle the blowback from Moscow."

Khalil took the list from Shehabuddin again, studied it for a while, and said quietly, "If we really want to find a father, then the Seljuks are the best choice. We can declare to the world the successor of the Sultanate of Rum - provided that Karaman is completely eliminated."

"But the one we need most right now is this one, teacher."

Fatih pointed to the third row.

"The Hun Empire, that is, the country of Attila, the 'Scourge of God'."

Combined with the girl who claims to be Altira, whose frail body conceals great power, and the legendary Sword of Mars obtained from the looting of Rome, all these coincidences and clues point to the favored child of destiny who gallops across the steppes of Eastern Europe.

"The Bulgars can claim Attila's descent, and now she is in our army, why can't we do the same?"

"Although the intelligence is not yet clear, all the evidence now tells us that the number of heroes in Constantiniya is probably much greater than ours. A hero as powerful as Leonidas was only responsible for a small fortress, but he consumed half of our Yericheniya, but Constantinople is still standing."

"...Let me ask you, Fatih, how does our current strength compare to the strength of the Caliph who besieged Constantinople?"

Khalil was, after all, a great vizier, with rich experience in battle. The Siege of Constantinople he mentioned was a turning point in the entire Arab era of conquest. The elite forces of the era of conquest were almost completely lost in this battle, which also became the root cause of the demise of the Umayyad Dynasty.

"The power of Greek fire is still terrifying. I don't think we can escape unscathed after taking a single hit. Besides, the Varangian Guards and the Gurams around Orhan are as powerful as the Mamluks."

"But the Roman Empire is no longer the Rome of the past. Manuel has been dead for three hundred years, Basil has been dead for four hundred years, and Justinian has been dead for almost a thousand years! Teacher, the Roman Empire today is just the mayor of Constantinople!"

"...Sultan Bayezid also said this back then, Fatih."

Imam Shehabuddin said slowly that the "Thunder" back then was also so ambitious, but it ended up with a sudden setback and almost destroyed the Ottoman Empire.

"If you can't convince me, Fatih, we will force you to withdraw tomorrow."

"Even if you don't say so, I will do it when the time comes."

Fatih said fearlessly that if it were the Caliphate era, he would be excommunicated and burned at the stake for his attitude towards the Imam.

"Eight hundred years! We have spent eight hundred years trying to capture Costantiniya! How many of our predecessors have fallen under those walls!"

"Now I will end it all. I will conquer Rome with my own hands and make her submit to me!"

"In the name of Fatih the Conqueror!"

Chapter 159 The result seems to have been predetermined

As early as 1413, with the help of Manuel II of Basileus, Sultan Mamet I ended the nine-year interregnum since the death of Sultan Bayezid. The two sides thus concluded a peace agreement and achieved peace for a generation.

The interregnum is extremely fatal to any country. Take the Holy Roman Empire as an example. When Frederick II, the "World Wonder", died in 1250, he left behind a country that had reached its peak strength. However, unexpectedly, his son went to see his father after only four years as emperor.

The royal lineage came to an end, and various princes began to encroach on the Hohenstaufen's territory. When the Pope finally couldn't stand it anymore, they reluctantly appointed a man from the Habsburg family in the Alps as emperor. From then on, the Holy Roman Empire began to rush towards the country that Voltaire described as "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."

Manuel II naturally had the same plan in mind. Cordoba also fell for the same reason, but the problem lay in the extremely special Ottoman inheritance system.

“The whole world knows that there was a 20-year armistice between the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire; the whole world also knows that there was no armistice at all between the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.”

Although Fatih was still preparing to persuade his ancestors to come out of retirement, the battle with Rome continued, but the battle shifted to night. The Ottoman army tried to fill the unfathomable moat during the day. Under the cover of various firepower, they dumped everything they could get at hand - soil, wood, rubble and even the bodies of their compatriots - into the trenches.

At night, the defenders, led by bold and careful generals, sneaked out of the city through unexpected small doors and secret passages in the Theodosian Wall, cleared out all the debris in the trench, and sometimes even got a few coins as rewards.

The Ottomans were no pushovers either. Countless Ottoman squads hid anywhere near the trenches, and the two sides fought extremely fiercely in the face-to-face hand-to-hand combat. The Ottomans had long been disgusted with the Greeks who had been hiding behind the city walls, and the Greeks wanted to drown the Ottomans in the Ganges, of course, if they knew about the Ganges.

Corresponding to the small-scale encounters were the Ottomans' large-scale and frequent night raids. The weak points in the city walls were all their focus. They really attacked with all their might. Each main army corps would take turns on duty and attack, just like the waves that kept hitting the beach of the Golden Horn.

Usually, in close combat, the side with stronger morale and better weapons will win. The bravery and tenacity of the Ottomans amazed even the Greeks and Italians.

"The Ottomans fought very bravely in close combat," the Ecumenical Patriarch recalled. "So they all died. It was a different era, and they still only knew how to charge with swords. It was easy to deal with them, just like in the time of Leo III, bringing a large number of muskets and crossbows, and clearly telling them: times have changed."

Although these Ottomans were well-trained, they were obviously inferior to the Roman army who were familiar with the terrain in night battles. After being attacked by such fierce firepower, they suffered heavy casualties. When they were trying to retrieve the bodies, the defenders who had been lying in ambush for a long time would have the opportunity to kill them all. The feelings between comrades in the Ottoman army were admirable. They were not afraid of death at all in order to retrieve the remains of their comrades. They would rather die ten people than leave a single Ottoman body in front of the city wall, because they believed this was a great shame.

So the battle continued as everyone expected. Both the pro-war and pro-peace factions were under tremendous pressure. But after the Grand Vizier and the Imam came forward, they had to bite the bullet and continue to charge forward, shouting "Allah is great!"

A massive bombardment resumed, continuing all night long, with the main focus on the Lycus Valley, a point known to both sides as the weakest point in the city wall.