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

Alvin lay down again, looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. The scene of hell on earth lingered in his eyes for a long time.

Da Vinci kept holding her left hand tightly with both hands. She knew what that meant. When the incident was exposed, it was she who withstood all the pressure and fought for another chance for herself. Now, she stood by her side again.

"Then, let's begin."

What happened in Constantinople on May 1453, 5 is recorded vividly in historical documents, and even Fatih himself regretted it - he had already made this city the great capital of the Ottoman Empire, but he failed to stop the crimes committed by the soldiers who had already gotten out of control in time.

It was a scene of horror, misery, and tragedy beyond any tragedy. Women were violently dragged from their bedrooms, children were taken from their parents, the elderly who were unable to escape, as well as the mentally retarded, leprous, and infirm were mercilessly killed; newborn babies were thrown into the square, and women and boys were treated unspeakably. The Ottomans tied up groups of captives of all kinds and dragged them away savagely, drove them around, beat them, humiliated them, pushed them, and drove them to crossroads in an ugly and shameful way, constantly insulting and abusing them. The horror and torture suffered by some survivors, especially young women from noble and wealthy families, who were well-behaved and accustomed to staying at home and not showing their faces, was unimaginable. Some young girls and married women would rather commit suicide by jumping into a well than endure such humiliation. Ottoman soldiers fought for the most beautiful girls, and some were killed.

The doctrines laid down by the prophets had lost their meaning, and only primitive instincts were left driving them to commit crimes that were destined to bring them hell.

They paid particular attention to churches and monasteries. Those near the land wall, such as the Military Church of St. George, the Church of St. John the Baptist in Petra, and the Monastery of Korra, were quickly looted.

The statue of the Virgin of the Way, which was considered to have divine power, was cut into four pieces and distributed among the soldiers, because its frame was very valuable. The cross on the church roof was knocked down; the soldiers opened the tombs of the saints to look for treasures, and the bones in the tombs were torn into pieces and thrown into the streets. The church's property - chalices, goblets, sacred works and precious and gorgeous robes embroidered with gold thread, decorated with gems and pearls were looted, precious metals were melted down, sacred altars were demolished, and the walls of churches and temples were searched for gold.

The Ottomans desecrated women in front of the statues of saints. They stormed into convents and raped the nuns. Monks were killed in their cells, and those who had taken refuge in churches were dragged out and driven away, subjected to all kinds of humiliation.

The Ottomans used iron bars to pry open the tombs of successive emperors, searching for hidden gold. The atrocities were numerous. Their search for loot became increasingly frenzied. The Jewish quarter on the shores of the Golden Horn was targeted early on because it was a traditional place for the jewelry trade; Italian merchants were also highly favored targets by the Ottomans. The collection of loot gradually became more organized. The first soldiers to enter a house would put up a flag outside the house, indicating that the house had been looted. Other soldiers would see the flag and look elsewhere.

As the massacre and looting gradually unfolded, the Ottoman army that was supposed to carry out the blockade of Galata made a crucial decision. Seeing that their brothers from other armies had already rushed into the city, they were afraid that they would lose the opportunity to rob, so they decisively gave up the blockade of the Golden Horn and instead searched for gold, jewelry and other treasures. They rushed to the shore of the Golden Horn and completely ignored the people fleeing from the city walls.

In this respect, Skanderbeg was able to meet the surviving warriors in Epirus perhaps thanks to these beasts who only cared about wealth.

"So they planted their flags everywhere, even over monasteries and churches. The soldiers divided into groups and carried the captives and booty back to the camp or the ships, then returned to continue the looting. Nothing was spared. Churches, ancient catacombs and cemeteries, monasteries, basements, secret rooms, cracks in the walls, caves and caves. They also searched all the hidden corners and dragged out anyone or anything hiding in them. Some even stole the booty that was piled up in the camp without anyone guarding it."

"Compared to the indiscriminate looting and destruction of these people, the actions of the Fourth Crusade seemed particularly gentle. In just a few hours, Constantinople, which had lasted for 1000 years, was gone.

"In the face of this raging torrent, the Greeks were helpless. Those who were still able to flee did everything they could to escape. Driven by instinct and superstition, many people ran to Hagia Sophia. They remembered the ancient prophecy - the enemy could only advance to the colonnade of Constantine the Great, which was near the cathedral, and then the angel of revenge would descend from the sky with a sword in hand, inspiring the city defenders to drive the enemy out of the city, expel them from the Western world and Anatolia, and drive them all the way to a place called the Red Apple Tree on the Persian border - and then they would be wiped out."

"I kind of regret getting rid of those chimeras."

Aku Hinako felt deep regret from the bottom of her heart. If possible, she would rather let those fantasy seeds go and give those guys a good lesson.

"Is this why you set fire to Constantinople?!!!"

"Ah, that's right."

PS: Messi's departure from Barcelona is not only the end of an era, but also the beginning of a mid-life crisis...

Chapter 216 The calm before the storm

Compared with those two-legged beasts, Fatih was more humane. He sent envoys to negotiate with some of the city's outlying districts and eventually obtained their collective surrender.

As the population within the walls of Constantinople declined dramatically, certain areas of the city had developed into separate villages, each with its own walls and palisades. Among them, Studion on the Sea of ​​Marmara and Petrion, a fishing village near the Golden Horn, chose to surrender their cities on the condition that the Ottomans would not loot their houses. The head of each village was brought before the Sultan to formally surrender.

Compared to the conqueror in the original world line, Fatih, who had experienced ups and downs for ten years, was naturally tolerant. After accepting the surrender, he immediately sent a team of military police to protect these villages. According to the war rules of the MSL, the enemy should be protected after surrendering in this way, so under his instruction, some churches and monasteries were preserved intact.

But more people are not so lucky.

"Damn it! Who made me wear a toga? Don't you know it's inconvenient to run with this thing?"

It was not until he started running that Alvin realized what he was wearing. The oldest off-shoulder dress in human history was a formal ceremonial dress. If he had a pair of scissors, he would have cut it into a short-sleeved tunic.

The injury to his right hand greatly slowed down his movements, and it was this hand that helped him find many people.

"...It looks like you're not much better."

Barto leaned against the ruins of the Blachnell Palace, with an artificial incision made in his abdomen. He didn't have much time left.

"I paid a huge price to allow you to receive proper treatment."

"Thank you very much, is there anything I can do for you?"

Alvin slowly laid him flat on the grass with his left hand, trying not to pull his wound. He could even see an organ leaking out of the Venetian's body.

"Take this."

Balto grinned and fumbled around in his waist to pull out a musket.

"Kill a few more pagans, and then save the world like the heroes in history and mythology."

"Like what?"

"As Charles Martel did at the Battle of Poitiers."

"I see. The medical staff will be here shortly."

"...Then I'll close my eyes for a while."

As he said this, he trembled slightly, yawned deeply, and slowly closed his cloudy eyes.

The fighting continued. Elsewhere, small pockets of defenders put up a heroic, if desperate, resistance. On the shore of the Golden Horn, a group of Cretan sailors held three towers and refused to surrender. For the entire morning, they resisted the Ottomans who tried to drive them out.

On the sea wall far from the land wall, many people continued to fight, often unaware of the real situation until the enemy suddenly attacked them from behind. Some defenders committed suicide by jumping over the wall, while others surrendered unconditionally.

Likewise, the struggle for survival of ordinary people continued. In the morning, hundreds of citizens were lucky enough to escape. With the help of his servants, Cardinal Isidore took off his magnificent bishop's robe, put on the clothes of a fallen soldier, and put his own bishop's robe on the dead man. The Ottoman soldiers soon encountered the corpse in the bishop's robe, cut off the head, and held it in a triumphant parade in the streets. The elderly Isidore was also quickly captured, but the enemy did not know his noble status, and he was old and weak, and it seemed unworthy of being sold as a slave. So he spent a small sum of money on the spot, redeemed his freedom, boarded an Italian ship anchored in the port, and ran back to Naples overnight.

"Orhan? Shouldn't you be over there at the sea wall? And the leader of the Tekopo mercenary group?"

"Plans can never keep up with changes, and as you can see, it has already reached the stage of street fighting."

After accurately chopping off an Ottoman soldier's head with a Damascus scimitar, Orhan simply pulled off the man's helmet and put it on himself. As for the helmet he was originally wearing, he threw it into Alvin's arms.

"Take this, a Yerichen soldier's helmet, it may save your life."

"It's better to use this weapon. The ammunition for the musket will eventually run out."

The leader of the mercenary group handed his sword to Alvin, and he himself took one from the body of the dead Yericheni and continued fighting.

"You can leave from the sea wall."

"Fatih won't let me go so easily. Let's leave here. Alvin Vasak, I'll ask you to go to Vilnius, Lithuania on my behalf."

"Go and meet His Majesty Basilius, if you still want to eat meat with us."

Orhan's mercenary leader and two others urged Alvin to leave. Facing these two extremely decisive people, if it weren't for the injury on his right hand, it was not impossible that they would have slashed him a few times or kicked him away.

"Don't just die like this. Hey, this is quite suitable for you, Your Highness."

"Think about the sin you have committed by eating meat."

They held blades in their hands, looked up to the sky and laughed as they walked towards death.

"The Catalans from Sicily held out until all were killed or captured. But the Ottomans were unable to dislodge the Cretans who were holding out in the towers near the Golden Horn. Eventually someone reported the situation to Fatih, who, in a typically quixotic gesture, allowed them to leave in their ships. After some hesitation, they accepted the offer and fled Constantinople at liberty."

The distance from the land wall to the city center is three miles. At dawn, groups of determined guardsmen have already advanced along the main avenue from the St. Romanus Gate and headed for Hagia Sophia. In addition to the legend of the red apple, there is another legend circulating in the Ottoman camp - that the basement of Hagia Sophia stores a huge amount of gold, silver and gems. The guardsmen strode through the impoverished squares and empty avenues, passing the Bull Square and Theodosius Square, and marched along the central avenue leading to the heart of the city.

The Yerichenians met little resistance along the way. They arrived at the Forum of Constantine, where the founder of the city looked down upon them from his great colonnade, but no angel descended from heaven with a flaming sword to drive them back.

For many, the Golden Horn seemed to offer the best chance of escape. In the morning, hundreds of deserters and civilians streamed through the narrow alleys, hoping to board Italian ships anchored in the harbor. The gates of the sea wall were in chaos. Many people desperately jumped into crowded rowboats, causing them to capsize and sink, drowning everyone on board. The tragedy was made even more tragic by the decisions of some gatekeepers. They saw their fellow Greeks fleeing to the beach and remembered the prophecy that the enemy would be repelled at the statue of Constantine the Great. They decided to seal the gates, hoping to persuade their compatriots to return to fight.

They threw the city gate keys from the top of the city wall to prevent the refugees from escaping. The way to reach the Italian galleys anchored on the shore was completely cut off, and the scene on the coast became more and more tragic: men and women, even monks and nuns, cried loudly, beat their chests and stamped their feet, begging the Italian ships to rescue them. But the people on the galleys were also panicked, and the captains were in a dilemma, not knowing what to do.

Two hours after the front collapsed, the first Genoese to flee reached the shore, where they had only two choices: swim to the ship or wait for the Turks to come. Risking drowning, he took off his clothes, swam to the ship, and was pulled aboard. He arrived just in time. Looking back, he saw about 40 soldiers taking off their armor and preparing to swim to escape, but they were caught by the Ottoman army. The mayor of Galata rescued some refugees on the other side and allowed them to take refuge in the relatively safe Genoese colony.

The people on the Italian ships were at a loss, not knowing what to do, and were almost paralyzed. In the early morning, they heard the church bells that announced their determination to resist gradually fade away; when the Ottoman sailors drove their ships to the shore and hit the sea walls of the Golden Horn, their shouts echoed across the sea. The refugees begged the Italian captains to bring their ships to the shore or swam to the ships, and many of them drowned.

The Venetians also saw this miserable scene, but they did not dare to sail to the shore. In addition to being afraid of being captured by the enemy, they were also worried that a large number of refugees would rush on board and cause the ship to capsize. In addition, many crew members of the galleys had been sent to defend the city, and the crew was seriously insufficient. However, the Ottoman navy had been completely annihilated in the previous battle, and the Roman refugees had the last hope of escape, although this luck would not last long.

"What about Galata?"

"The people of Galata were also hesitant and uneasy. When the news of the fall of Constantinople came, the citizens of Galata fell into panic. The mayor of Galata knew that once Constantinople was captured, Galata would be finished. The question before him was how to respond."

Fatih's belief that the Genoese were in collusion with Rome was not groundless. Most of the able-bodied Galatans were indeed fighting across the Golden Horn, including the mayor's nephew, and their attitude towards the Genoese was still unclear. There were only 600 people in Galata at this time. Many wanted to escape as quickly as possible. A large group abandoned their homes and property and boarded a Genoese ship to escape. Another ship (mostly women) was captured by the Ottoman warships - it is hard to imagine what happened to them.

But Lomellino, the mayor of Galata, decided to set an example by staying behind, reasoning that if he too abandoned the city, it would inevitably be sacked.

In the midst of these deliberations, the Venetians came to Galata to discuss countermeasures with the mayor of Genoa: should the Genoese and Venetian ships unite to fight the Ottoman army, and the two Italian republics jointly declare formal war on the Sultan; or should they flee?

The south wind that had blown the Genoese ships at the end of April, allowing them to move quickly northward in the strait, had turned into a strong north wind with a speed of 4 knots.

At noon, with the help of God, the Italians set sail in their three-masted ships. A small group of ships of various types from Venice and Crete also fled with them. A large galley from Trebizond had lost 164 crew members before, and was seriously short of manpower, so it was very difficult to set sail, but because no one stopped them, they successfully sailed south of the Sea of ​​Marmara, passing by the bodies of Christians and pagans floating on the sea like watermelons floating on the shore of the canal, and rushed to the Dardanelles. They were both grateful for their luck and sad for the crew members who died, some of whom were drowned, some died in enemy bombardment, or died in battle.

These ships carried 400 survivors who had escaped in the final chaotic moments, as well as many Byzantine nobles who had been on board before the fall of the city. Seven Genoese ships also escaped safely.

As they fled, Hamza Bey regrouped the Ottoman fleet and sailed around the entrance to the Golden Horn, capturing 15 ships still anchored there, some of which were so overloaded with refugees that they could not sail. Many refugees stood on the foreshore, wailing miserably and begging for the departing galleys. The Ottoman sailors rounded up the refugees and drove them onto the beach.

“The Sea of ​​Marmara was red that day.”

......

"...Is this the origin of helmets, muskets, and swords?"

Ophelia recalled the three weird products in the spirit particle transfer chamber at that time, and had no idea that there were so many stories behind them.

"Senior Ophelia, can you tell me about Orhan's ending?"

"Prince Orhan... he was not so lucky. Although he was dressed like a common soldier and spoke fluent Greek, the Ottomans recognized him and chased him. When they fought to the last man, they cut off his head and presented it to Fatih, who had been waiting anxiously for news about Prince Orhan's fate."

"I see... this might be the best ending for him."

After Alvin finished speaking, there was silence in the medical room. If a toothpick fell to the ground, perhaps a sound could really be heard.

"finished?"

"I really hope that my memories will end here in such a dull manner, but unfortunately, this is only the final calm. Dr. Romani, what is the fourth item I brought back?"

"A purple robe, a toga made of purple."

"While you were celebrating in Hagia Sophia, I found Constantine among the dead bodies at St. Romanus Gate."

Chapter 217 You look really miserable now, Constantine

"After breaking through the Danube defense line, the Polish and Hungarian armies split into two groups. The Poles are heading for the Principality of Karlovna, while the Magyars have captured Tarnovo in Moesia. In the Balkans, Skanderbeg has already taken Epirus. Our only defense line in the Balkans is the coastal area from Thessalonica to Adrianople."

"It's normal that Sarja Pasha can't beat Skanderbeg. There are few who can fight better than him in this era. But Zagan Pasha still has a lot of light cavalry. As long as Zagan Pasha launches an attack, everything will get better."

"Sultan, Zagan Pasha..."

"Zagan Pasha has surrendered to the Poles in Varna."

"The last of the Balkan Legion's strength was crushed head-on by the Magyar Black Army."

Fatih, who originally felt that he had won, lowered his head to look at the map after hearing the news, then sat back on the blanket trembling, his hand holding the water cup shaking slightly.

"Khalil, Akshem, and Shehabuddin stay, the rest of you go out."

The Grand Vizier, the Court Imam and the last Bey and Pasha of the Balkan Legion are the few people in the Sultan's court who can participate in the central decision-making.

"That was an order! It was an order for Zagan Pasha to defend along the Danube! That's what the Romans did in the past! Who does he think he is to risk disobeying my orders?"

"How could it have come to this? The army deceived me! Everyone deceived me, even Yericheni! All the Pashas are nothing but a bunch of shameless and disloyal cowards!"

"Sultan, I cannot allow you to insult the warriors who shed their blood for you."

"They are nothing but cowards! Traitors! Gadgets!"

"What you say is truly unheard of."

"You Pashas are corrupt scum! You have no honor at all!"

"You call yourselves Pashas only because you spent a few years in Adrianople and learned to eat with a knife and fork like the Romans!"

"The army has only been hindering my actions! It has only been holding me back in various ways!"

"Look at Costantiniye! That is the future great capital of the Ottoman Empire! Who would allow soldiers to plunder their own capital? I think the doctrine has to be changed!"

The three people just stood there and listened to Fatih's scolding. When Fatih calmed down, he looked at the map behind him and said slowly:

"I have been away from the center of power for nearly ten years, but I conquered the City of World Desire by myself and my own strength!"

"traitor."

"I have been betrayed and deceived from the very beginning! This is a great betrayal of the Ottoman Empire! But all traitors will pay! They will pay with their own blood! They will drown in their own blood!"

"Please calm down, Sultan."

"My orders have fallen on deaf ears. How can I deal with the situation in the Balkans under such circumstances..."

"It's over. We have taken Constantinople, but the war is lost. Everything we had in the Balkans has been wiped out."

"With the support of those Western European countries, Wallachia and Serbia will be our biggest enemies in the future, especially Serbia. Remember what happened in 1389? And don't forget the glory of the Nemanja Dynasty of the Serbian Empire. That was our biggest enemy in the past."

"But if you think I'm going to leave Bokostantiniya, you're wrong! I'd rather put a bullet in my head!"

"Khalil Pasha, pass on my order, go into the city, and if there are any blind guys who continue to loot, kill them directly - preferably in front of me."

Even if the entire Balkans were given to the Slavs, Constantinople must not be lost. Fatih knew this very well, and this was what Basil II of the Macedonian dynasty did in the past.

Since the Bulgarian ophthalmologist was able to push Bulgaria back when there was only one city left in the Balkan Peninsula, it is not impossible for me to be a Serbian ophthalmologist...

No, forget about the ophthalmologist. It would be better to send him over to renovate the mosque.

The Grand Vizier originally intended to pretend to obey Fatih's order, but when he rode into the city and saw them attacking children, he rushed forward to purge the corrupt elements without waiting for those around him to react.