Edirnetsicat Grand Bazaar, Edirne Siege Advance Camp, Seventh Day.

The walls and the elite defenders within the walls completely made John lose the desire to storm the inner city, and apart from surrounding the inner city on three sides, the empire did not pose the slightest threat to the Ottoman city defenses. Or rather, the empire was waiting for the signs of the Ottoman collapse.

Judging from the previous reports issued by the inner line, there are almost no materials stored in the inner city, except for the delicacies reserved for the nobles and bureaucrats of all levels in the royal court, the only food that can be called food in the inner city is probably the rats scurrying all over the ground.

"Giovanni, how long do you say people can go without eating?"

John sat calmly in the middle of the bazaar, which was the former Ottoman bazaar, and there were still many good things in it that had not had time to be withdrawn, and it could be regarded as replenishing some supplies for the coalition army. After a rudimentary transformation, the Tsicat Bazar temporarily became the Empire's command center in the inner city of Edir.

"Your Majesty, if you let me go without enough food for a day, I will strike immediately." Giovanni replied decisively, "Food supply is the lifeblood of the army, and if there is not enough food, the loss of morale of the army is immeasurable, especially for the besieging side. ”

"Of course, the siege has reached this point, and I believe that my father would have raised enough food from the West even if he sold the precious collections in the palace and the Hagia Sophia." John's tone shifted, "And what if it's the defenders, the kind of defenders who have no way to retreat?" ”

"Then it depends on how strong the will of this army is...... If it is an ordinary mercenary, it will collapse and surrender in two or three days, while a loyal soldier, it can hold out for four or five days, but if it is the elite of the elite, then ...... Immeasurable. They may kill horses, they may catch bugs, they may extract the sinews from their armor and boil them to satisfy their hunger. If you really want to hold on to a lonely city, you can hold out for a long time, and I think the defenders of Edirne are in this range. "This is Muhammad's last chance in the Balkans, and I think he knows that our supplies and rations are also tight, otherwise there should be no reason to hold on to the dead city." ”

"......," John muttered for a moment, and suddenly shouted to a Hungarian soldier guarding outside the camp, "Hey, little brother, give me one of your arrows." ”

"Huh? Yes! Yes, Your Majesty John. The guard looked back visibly stunned, but still took an arrow from the quiver and handed it to John, "Your Majesty, be careful...... This arrow is very sharp......"

"We don't need sharp arrowheads." John directly cut off the arrow with a sword, leaving only the tail feathers and the body of the arrow, "Such an arrow should not be lethal, right?" ”

"Unless you can hit the eyeball, it's hard to even hurt someone." Giovanni leaned in and looked at it, "What does Your Majesty want to do?" ”

"So, Giovanni, you call all the people in the coalition army who can write Turkic scripts to the bazaar, and the Ottomans would rather die than surrender, and we must also do their psychological homework." John laughed. This kind of thing has been used in many battles, and at critical times, this strong psychological pressure will produce a special chain reaction, "Let these people write a letter of persuasion overnight, and then insert it in this feather arrow with the arrow cut off, and let people shoot all into the inner city!" Shoot a round every two hours, write quickly, the richer the writing is and the more sincere it is, even if the words are good, there will be a reward! After the city is broken, they are the biggest heroes! ”

"Your Majesty...... You don't think you're going to force the Ottomans to surrender in this way, do you? Ordinary soldiers are better to say, there are still a large number of Ottoman Sultan guards inside, and any soldier who dares to show the desire to surrender will probably be killed by them on the spot...... Wait a minute! Your Majesty, isn't it your purpose to get them to open the gates and surrender? ”

John nodded slightly, "No matter how loyal they are to Muhammad, no matter how strong their defensive ability is, but the panic caused by the shortage of food is real, maybe the Sultan guards can be absolutely loyal to their majesty, but these ordinary soldiers, by no means." ”

"The harsh conditions of hunger and oppression, combined with the sincere language of these letters of persuasion, will undoubtedly shake their hearts, and the worst possible outcome of this sentiment is rebellion! It's a pity that Vasika isn't here, otherwise we should have more chances to 'persuade' Karacha to help us retake Edirne. John looked with some regret at Karacha, who had fainted after being tortured.

"I'm afraid that the rebellion is our best chance to take the inner city, but given that our lives are under threat, this operation must begin immediately...... Giovanni, please. ”

"Your Majesty, this is just a minor issue. What we really need to watch out for is the last wave of the Ottomans' offensive that could be launched at any time. Regardless of whether the soldiers can be rebelled by us or not, I believe that with Muhammad's character, he will definitely desperately break out of the encirclement, and the impact of the Sudanese guards, with a weak encirclement like ours, I am afraid it will be difficult to resist! Giovanni said with some concern.

"We've closed all the gates of the outer city, and even if he rushes out, where will he go?"

"I hope so...... Capture Muhammad, the Balkans, and even Asia Minor, and the Ottomans should no longer be able to make any waves. ”

"Your Majesty! Mamluk rush! While John was still thinking about what language to use to infect the Ottoman defenders, an urgent war report was sent to the bazaar.

After the Mamluk navy encountered the main Ottoman fleet near Cyprus, a huge naval battle broke out, in which the Mamluks were defeated and suffered heavy losses. On the army side, under the leadership of the Ottoman governors and the Pashas, the Ottoman army in Armenia also successfully resisted the land invasion of the Mamluks and counterattacked!

"A bunch of rubbish!" Before Giovanni had finished reading the war report, the whole paper had been torn in half by John, and the Ottoman navy was completely liberated, so the imperial coastal blockade in the Balkans would be greatly threatened.

"Quick! Write to Vasica and Francisco now! Let them stop all active attacks in Asia Minor and withdraw the Phoenix fleet to the Balkan coast and defend the coast! I couldn't have imagined it! Ta Mamluk has such a big advantage, even if he lets a pig be the commander, it is impossible to lose so quickly! So embarrassed! ”