Even if the pack horse on the post road broke his leg, it would take at least half a month for Giovanni to complete the emergency assembly and rush to Constantinople with the Phoenix Legion, which had not yet fully recovered, and during this period, if Mehmed II did not intend to spare the Roman Empire's lands in Anatolia, then the Ottomans would definitely have enough time to complete the siege of all the fortresses on the east bank.

"Your Majesty, although the Fourth Legion is now unable to fight, we can still send a small number of garrisons from the Imperial Capital to relieve the siege. It shouldn't be a problem to hold out until the Holy See and the Phoenix Legion arrive. "Osini, who had just experienced a fierce battle, still had bandages on his arm, but he had apparently regained his freedom of movement.

"In addition to having a sea wall on the west side of Cutthroat Fort that can support our fleet with soldiers, we can even get the troops to withdraw from the other forts...... Fortify Cut Throat. In this way, we can preserve our vitality to the greatest extent. "However, His Majesty the Emperor, who is forty-three years old and has devoted most of his life to the war against the infidels, clearly knows the Ottomans better, knows Mehmed II," the Ottomans took the fortress of Gebzel...... Apparently it proves that they took out what was at the bottom of the box. ”

When Constantine and Prince Thomas were defending the Peloponnese, the Ottoman Sultan Murad had opened the Ottoman era of firearms in front of the six-mile wall. The bombardment of Turkish artillery was enough to destroy the fortified six-mile walls, and, apparently, for the outer walls of Gebzeil, they adopted the same weapons.

Although the Ottoman artillery at this time was much less powerful than the Orbán cannon or even the folding artillery, it was still a skilled destroyer of the medieval city walls. Although a snowfall blocked Murad's way to Mystras and gave the empire some respite, the fall of Gebzel suddenly reminded me of some desperate facts.

In Anatolia, the Ottomans were able to use far more means than the imperial army. The disadvantage of heavy siege artillery in Anatolia was gradually eliminated, and a large number of ploughing cattle and pack horses could rely on the fortresses dotted on the east coast as a transit to quickly transport these multi-ton behemoths. So

"That's it...... The difficulty of defending the fortress cannot be measured by the number of defenders. Agrippa returned to his position worriedly, turning his gaze to John from time to time, "It's too late to reinforce the walls, but how can we just give up the territory we have so hard won in Asia Minor......"

"It is absolutely impossible to give up, the Ottoman legions have just received heavy losses, the Mamluks are on the border, and Mehmed II will not have much energy to divide and fight a head-on war with the Empire. If their hole cards were just a few guns, there would be no need for us to be afraid. ”

"Your Majesty, the outer edge of the Cut Throat Fort is an open field, and the conditions for erecting artillery are very ideal, and no matter how many cannons the Ottomans have, they will not encounter too many obstacles when storming the walls." "With just a few small cannons and a large cannon hoarded in Cutthroat Fort, I'm afraid it's hard for us to hinder their siege too much. ”

This is just one of John's many worries. In an era when artillery had no accuracy to speak of, it was a complete fantasy to point to which to strike, let alone rely solely on artillery to destroy enemy artillery positions. What's more, the urban cannon could not be erected on the city wall at all, and it was placed in the Throat Cutting Fort just to avoid wasting time during emergency dispatch, and as a weapon to defend the city, the cannon could be said to be useless.

The remaining plans that could be considered were also difficult to implement, the garrison in the Cut Throat Fort had no cavalry formation at all, only a few sentries had mastered horsemanship, and it was impossible to rely on them to charge in a plundering formation. Although concentrating forces on Cutthroat Fort would allow the entire fortress to hold out more time in the ensuing white-knuckle battle, it would inevitably end up retreating.

After all, for the Ottomans, it was better to completely destroy the Cutthroat Fort than to let the Imperial soldiers defend it. This is tantamount to putting a sharp knife in their hearts.

"Give up defending the walls—"

After a moment's scrubbing, John suddenly made a startling decision.

John ...... What do you mean? Constantine XI wondered.

"Quite simply, with the information we have at the moment, we can't even tell exactly how many enemies there are. It only took them a small amount of time to destroy the walls of Fort Gebzeil, and to disperse or annihilate the defenders—" John stood up and glanced at the crowd, "the only possibility is that they have used artillery or other large siege equipment, and have lost the protection of the barriers, and it should not be a problem to quickly deal with the four hundred terrified city defenders." At least they lack training, and they are likely to flee the battlefield because of a demoralization breakdown. ”

"We can't still keep our minds fixed in the shadow of the past, in the shadow of repeated defeats against the Ottomans, and against the Turks. They were also only mortal creatures, and from the time of Varna onwards, the Ottomans had hardly won any victories and lost a large number of key territories, except for Athens, which had taken us by surprise with a sneak attack. But the report given by Vanikiphros about Trabzon is accurate, and the Ottomans are definitely overstretched at the moment. ”

"Your Majesty...... What do you mean...... There weren't many of these Ottomans other than heavy firearms? Agrippa asked tentatively, "Then how dare they attack this well-defended fortress?" If we had misjudged and voluntarily abandoned the fortress, we would no longer have had such an excellent springboard to help us counterattack in the future, and we would not have been able to gain the Ottomans so quickly! ”

"I think Mohammed may have used this to keep us from crossing the strait for reinforcements." John rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "Both sides are gambling, and it's who is more daring." But even by the most pessimistic estimates, I don't think the actual number of Ottomans should have exceeded 10,000, probably around 8,000. ”

Ossini quickly echoed John's speculation that not only did the Ottomans lose a large number of their elite in the Battle of Trabzon, and most of the Sultan's guards were lost, but the fire must have caused serious secondary injuries during the escape. It is likely that there are many more generals and soldiers who will not be able to fight for a long time because of burns.

The empire had nearly 3,000 men on the other side of the strait, and even if it was difficult to win, it might be able to wait for reinforcements to arrive and destroy the Ottoman army in one fell swoop.