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

Even though you are the loser, you are also the winner.

"Although I still have some knots in my heart, at least I am still myself, still Nero Claudius."

Nero said with a smile, holding her injured wrist. She could feel that in the Golden Horn Bay beneath her feet, the real Golden Theater had already set sail. It would break through the blockade and reconnect the road of pan-human history.

"So you're still with us?"

"It's just a mercenary contract. Now the time has come."

Scathach spread her hands in boredom. In fact, both of them knew each other well from the beginning. It was impossible for her to defend Alvin to the death, and Alvin did not expect that he could send Nero back to the Throne of Heroes.

"time?"

"He just wanted to delay you here, but now he can't sit still anymore. Now, we are no longer the protagonists of the battlefield."

But those who truly belong to this era.

Even at this point, Alvin still had a last resort, but the last hope of all Rome came to an abrupt end here.

"That is all, our Aetius."

Alvin looked at the woman standing in front of him. Although she was dressed in the same bright red color as Nero, the sword in her hand and the sun-like mark showed something different.

——That is the family crest of the Macedonian family.

"There is only one Macedonian emperor in the Golden Age... I see. Is this the real reason for celibacy?"

"Bashir II."

"That's about right. After all, no one would accept two Basilisas."

Her bright red hair was so eye-catching in the night, like a burning flame. Her graceful figure, the silk robe shining in the moonlight, and the exquisite high heels together gave her a noble image, as if she was supposed to be so.

"Although I appreciate everything you have done for Rome, this is all I can do."

"It's not up to you."

He was about to draw out his seldom-used pistol, but just as he was about to shoot himself in the head, his hand was firmly grasped by someone.

"You are from the distant future. Why would you do such a thing for an aging country?"

"I don't like things like borrowing power from demons."

Before Alvin could see who the man was, Bashir's surprised voice revealed his identity.

"Mr. Justinian! Didn't you go to meet the God Ancestor?"

Justinian...

"Put it down, kid."

Facing Justinian, Alvin finally had no choice but to let go of his hand, and the Desert Eagle he had carefully selected completely became a decoration. Of course, the Desert Eagle was destined to be a decoration from the beginning of its design.

"This power should not be used in this already corrupt country, but should be used where it will be more needed in the future. If possible, I would like to go back in time and stop you from accepting this power."

Justinian bent down, picked up the pistol that had fallen to the ground and handed it to Alvin.

"Thank you for your help, but that's all."

"Do you think she is beyond help?"

He looked at the figure that was about to leave and couldn't help but ask, not only asking the two emperors, but also asking himself.

"Enough, enough is enough. Not only is she too old, but she has fulfilled her mission."

"More importantly, the world no longer needs Rome."

After he said this, the two emperors left.

Alvin was left alone watching the fireworks over the Golden Horn.

Chapter 171 Time is running out for Constantinople

Although these legendary emperors and heroes are almost omnipotent, it is human beings themselves who truly determine the fate of the times.

For some unknown reason, perhaps stimulated by the silence and tension during the approach, or annoyance at the indefinite postponement of the attack opportunity by the Genoese, or out of the desire to become famous and save the world; Ioannis Komnenos suddenly abandoned his carefully formulated plan, took the initiative to lead his fire ship to break away from the fleet, and rushed forward at full speed.

In the dark night, there was a burst of cannon fire. It was obvious that the Ottomans were no longer as reckless as before. Under the personal command of the Sultan, they quickly realized the Romans' extremely bold military action plan. Of course, there was also a great possibility that the news was leaked by spies in the city.

Several shells landed around the captain, and the huge water column produced by the explosion turned the warship upside down. Then a shell hit the center of the warship directly. With a loud sound of wood breaking, the warship broke in two and quickly sank into the water. In an instant, the armored soldiers and rowers fell into the sea under the night and soon disappeared without a trace.

"He's crazy. The supporting troops for the land attack haven't even arrived yet. How could he do this?"

Giovanni stood on the deck, holding the railing tightly, looking at the Ottoman artillery on the shore, his eyes full of helplessness: "With the advantage of being high above us, we are in big trouble."

He had seen all the types of Ottoman artillery on the city wall during this period, and had a clear understanding of their power and firing rate. The only ones that could blow the Foster warship in two with one shot were the few cannons next to the one that exploded.

In the defensive battles of the previous few days, Giustiniani clearly felt that the Ottoman artillery was still in the Lycas River Valley area, which had always been the main attack direction of the Ottomans.

But now it seems that everyone, including himself, has been tricked by the Sultan.

"Soldier, how far are we from the maximum firing range of the Greek Fire?"

"There's still a hundred meters to go!"

"It's troublesome."

Giovanni knew that the entire fleet was now in a difficult situation, and what was worse was that the ships behind them had no idea what was happening in front of them and continued to move towards their destination. More artillery also joined in the bombardment, and as the distance got closer, the enemy's accuracy became higher and higher.

But if they don't keep moving forward, they won't be able to fight back. It's really ironic that the Greek fire, which was once invincible in the Mediterranean, would one day become the biggest stumbling block.

Even more disturbing was the sudden appearance of a thin mist on the sea, which caused the Christian ships to lose contact. The galleys surrounding the merchant ships chose to retreat because of the constant bombardment. Fortunately, the Ottoman artillery also lost its target due to the fog.

"retreat!"

At this moment, Giovanni was thinking deeply about his fellow Genoese who were holding him back.

But in the chaos, two large carracks still stayed on the battlefield, and deployed their defensive positions as planned, without noticing that the other ships had already retreated. Seeing that the two ships were unexpectedly left alone, the Sultan wanted to order his navy to forcibly seize the two ships, which were extremely important to him, but after a brief excitement, he came to his senses and sadly found that his navy had already disappeared.

In a rage, he ordered the archers to shoot at the two lone ships, just as the Persians did in the Battle of Thermopylae. Arrows came like a torrential rain, cannons roared from time to time, and many Ottoman soldiers excitedly raised their scimitars and muskets, shouting the name of Allah.

But other than that, there's nothing they can do.

After this, the two sides broke off contact and called off their respective campaigns, but Giovanni's wonderful adventure was not over yet. He wrote in his diary:

"When I led the fleet back to the port, I happened to see the strange giant ship leaving. Its appearance was very strange. There was a statue of a goddess on the bow, which looked like the work of Florence. The cannons on the ship were made to look like musical instruments. It was hard to imagine what kind of proposal the designer received when designing it."

"But none of this matters. What matters is that it destroyed almost all of our naval power, and our continental blockade of the Ottoman Empire completely failed..."

The military operation planned by the Romans ended in failure. In this battle, the Ottomans won a brilliant victory with almost no losses. This was the first victory of the Ottoman army since the siege. The Sultan even personally rewarded the soldiers who fought bravely and generously rewarded the gunners on the fort with a large amount of gold. The low morale of the Ottoman army was instantly ignited.

After listening to the report on the war, Constantine nodded silently. The suffocating feeling of oppression in the past once again weighed on his heart. The failure of the military operation had already foreshadowed the complete loss of the Golden Horn. The originally good situation suddenly turned into a complete dead end.

The captured soldiers were executed. A sharpened wooden stake was inserted into each person's body. The executioner then held a large wooden hammer and hammered it with all his strength. The stake was slowly inserted into the body inch by inch. They would either die on the spot or struggle until they bled out.

Moreover, the Yericheni carried these poor creatures to every gate of the land wall and set them up there, where the stakes were driven in and the victims died miserably in full view of the defenders of the wall.

In retaliation, all the Orthodox believers who had been divided by the church union also began to unite under the sacrifice of the Italian Christians. Groups of citizens, accompanied by the defenders, took more than 300 Ottoman prisoners to the city wall and tied the noose around the prisoners' necks in front of the Ottoman army. They were hanged on the city wall, and the defenders burst into earth-shaking cheers, as if it was a festival.

In this way, in this war, piety, faith, kindness and gentleness have all disappeared, leaving only cruelty and more cruelty.

This tragic night attack severely damaged Constantinople's strength. The emperor and his generals pondered the reasons for the defeat, and soon there was a fierce quarrel among the Italians. It was obvious that there was nothing wrong with the plan that everyone had agreed on at the beginning. The biggest problem was the repeated delays in the attack.

The enemy had obviously gotten wind of the situation from some sources, so they were able to wait in the Spring Valley. Mamtim even moved more artillery to the Spring Valley, preparing to ambush the Christian raiding fleet. The light on the Galata Tower was obviously someone inside the Genoese colony tipping off the Sultan. "

The mutual accusations between the various factions of Italians are becoming more and more serious, fierce and irrational.

Time is running out for Constantinople.

PS: If this gets out, the mayor of Constantinople will have a hard time.

Chapter 172: The blame-sharing meeting

After the operation failed, the Roman defenders immediately broke out into acrimonious and violent arguments over the responsibility for the failure. The Venetians were furious at the heavy losses they suffered in this disastrous defeat and sought out those they believed were responsible.

"The Genoese are traitors! Shameful traitors!"

Barto cursed all the time at the round table: "They are using the lives of our comrades and the survival of the city to seek credit from the damn Sultan. They are a group of traitors who have abandoned the Christian faith!"

Alvin, who was slumped in his chair, rolled his eyes. Traitors who betrayed the Christian faith? He also wanted to ask if the Dandolo family were Venetians.

Minotu, who always acted as a middleman and played a mediating role, angrily found Emperor Constantine this time. He denounced the Genoese for their perfidious behavior. He said that some people in Galata were both volunteers to defend the city and spies of the Sultan. They must have informed the Ottomans of the news of the night attack.

He even made specific accusations: the governor of Galata sent spies to report to the Sultan, and they also told the Sultan the defensive deployment of the walls of Constantinople, so that Namamat knew the troop movements in the city very well and was able to quickly pull the cannons to the Spring Valley for defense.

The Genoese retorted that the Venetians were solely responsible for the defeat. The Venetians' long preparations for battle were necessary, and the captain from the Komnenos family was a mere fame seeker who ignored orders and attacked on his own, bringing disaster to the entire operation.

"Ah ha? If it weren't for what Dandolo did back then, would things have ended up like this? You Venetians are a bunch of unreliable wild dogs, wild wolves with white eyes!"

When Minotu heard the Genoese's accusation, he stood up as if insulted and shouted that all Venetians obeyed the order of Emperor Constantine and unloaded all the goods and money on the ship ashore.

"We Venetians have done everything we can to survive, and we will fight to the bitter end in this city. And you, can you also keep the valuables and sails on your ships in a safe place in Constantinople?"

Minotto looked at the Genoese provocatively. In his eyes, these people were either traitors or speculators, and except Giovanni, none of them were of any use at all.

"Shed your last drop of blood?" Barto sneered. "I'm afraid you are sitting in the city dreaming of the Ottomans coming in. Then you can take our heads and claim the credit."

The Genoese did not directly answer Minotu's question, but argued that they had no intention of fleeing the city. Unlike the Venetians, their wives, children, and property were all in Galata. For the safety of Galata, they would continue to fight in Constantinople until the last drop of blood was shed.

They also dug up old records and accused the Venetians of secretly loading all the gold, silver and money onto the ship, and even the holy objects in Hagia Sophia and the tomb of Justinian the Great were not spared.

"FNNDP! Who was the leader in 1204? Are you complaining again now? We were sent by the Pope to support you, you traitors to God!"

At this moment, Giovanni, a Genoese, remained silent and stood alone in the corner, watching his compatriots arguing loudly with red faces. Although they refused to admit it, he had guessed the truth of the matter, so he didn't say a word at this moment.

"Come on, we know exactly where the Aragonese Crusaders came from." said the Aragonese from the Iberian Peninsula in a Catalan accent.

"Instead of supporting the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which only had Acre left, the Pope announced to the whole of Europe that the target of the Crusade was Aragon. Anyone would think that there was something wrong with the Pope's thinking."

However, although he is a Catalan, he actually comes from the Kingdom of Trinacrea. One of the reasons why the Kingdom of Trinacrea, which is from the same family as Aragon, was willing to participate when the King of Aragon gave up support was largely due to the Sicilian Vespers War.

"a ha ha ha......"

The Frenchman sitting next to him could only smile helplessly. After all, he was from the Kingdom of Naples, and judging from the cause, process and outcome of the Sicilian Vespers War, the popes at that time did have something wrong with their brains.

Take Charles of Anjou, the real father of the Pope, for example. Pope Urban IV used the money he plundered from France, the Holy Roman Empire and Italy to raise a crusade. He pretended to be the King of Sicily in 1266, and a year later he marched into the Principality of Achaia and obtained the suzerainty of the Latin Empire. A year later he executed a sixteen-year-old child in the market of Naples. Three years later he became the King of Albania, and in 1277 he bought the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. After Vespers in Sicily, the Pope launched a crusade, and the designated beneficiary was still his nephew...

"You could have brought the forces of kings and other devout Christians to the aid of the Holy Land, but you have set kings in arms against one another, and are about to attack a Christian king and Christian Sicilians, in order to recover Sicily, which has taken up arms in rebellion because of the sting..."

The leader of the Tekopo mercenaries was reading a letter that he had taken out from somewhere, and all the Catholics present turned pale. It was because this was a suicide note sent to the Pope by a Crusader when the Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed in 1291.

"So, after all the quarrels, you guys are just paying for the problems that were planted before. I, as the Turk you call me, know that I can never believe that a commercial republic will fight for its so-called beliefs."

——The quarrel became even more intense.

Constantine looked at the increasingly aggressive Italians, the trembling French and the two leaders of the Knights who had nothing to do with it, and couldn't help sighing in his heart, how much better it would be if the people coming were not from the Kingdom of Naples, but from France. After all, with the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, France was the only country in Europe with the best combat power.

The problem is that they are still fighting the War of Succession, which has been going on for almost a hundred years on and off. We can't rely on them at all.

How come the Capet family suddenly became extinct?

He looked at Alvin, who spread his hands and shook his head with a helpless look. The conflict between Genoa and Venice could not be resolved in such a short time.

No matter what time it is, the cards in my hand are always so bad.

But there is no way, who calls himself Basilius?

PS: The history of the Tekopo Mercenaries can be traced back to the period of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Chapter 173 In Taberna

Faced with the deep hostility among the Italians themselves, the emperor quickly intervened. Although the two sides argued fiercely, they temporarily put aside their grievances when the emperor personally mediated.

In any case, the ambiguous attitude of the Genoese in Galata made them the target of accusations from all sides, with almost everyone accusing them of being traitors who had deceived their allies - including Giovanni.

But from the perspective of hindsight, the Genoese were relatively reliable throughout the siege. Although they had a very important trade relationship with the Ottoman Empire, they were sympathetic to other Christians by nature. For the survival of the city, a large number of Genoese fought bravely on the front lines and intervened in this battle at the cost of angering the Ottomans to the extreme.

In addition, these commercial republics all knew that if they wanted to maintain their trade in the Black Sea, they had to keep this ancient empire alive so that they could continue to suck her blood.

At the very least, the territory of 1081 had to be restored. As for whether Constantine could turn the tide like Alexius did and save the collapsing empire, that was not their concern.

But then again, after all, there are the examples of Burgundy and France. The private transactions between Galata and the Ottomans were more between the mayor of Galata and the Sultan, and it is not impossible to argue that it had nothing to do with other Genoese... or maybe it was only slightly related.

But after Nero's appearance at the Golden Theatre, the Golden Horn itself became the unresolved problem. The Venetian fleet was actually afraid of the enemy's night attack and two-sided attack, and did not dare to relax at all.

The sailors were on alert day and night, carefully tracking the movements of the deus ex machina. Near the Valley of the Springs, the Sultan also kept a close eye on the movements of the Christian fleet, with his cannons ready to respond to a second attack.

The Venetians reorganized their fleet. A new commander, Dolphin, was ordered to take over Coco's job. At the same time, they were considering whether they could use other methods to destroy those artillery positions that were high above the ground. After the failure on April 4, the sea attack that was originally very sure became treading on thin ice in an instant. In the end, everyone sat down again and started to argue with each other. This scene reminded people of the scene of the former Imperial Senate.

After almost a day of noise, everyone finally came up with the previous two-pronged attack plan again, but made some minor adjustments;

"Instead of attacking from both the water and land routes of the Golden Horn, they chose a pincer attack from the St. Romanus Gate in the Lycus Valley and Galata?"