After crossing the city walls, the First Army was greeted not by victory, but by dense fortresses and pillboxes!

Thankfully, many of the fortresses in Constantinople were built a long time ago, mostly made of stone, and destroyed a lot in last year's Armenian uprising, and the current defense is not at its peak!

In addition to the fortifications with strong defenses, there are even more machine-gun bunkers built based on the terrain, although most of these bunkers were built temporarily after the outbreak of the Balkan Wars.

The machine gun only shone in the Bulgarian War, and it has only been more than two years now, and with the efficiency of the Ottoman Empire, do not expect him to be fully popularized!

In the offensive and defensive battle of Constantinople, an extremely embarrassing scene appeared, the Turkish army had enough fortress pillboxes, but there were not enough machine guns!

At this moment, the Bulgarian army is undergoing pre-war mobilization, the officers are using their own ways to relax the soldiers, and the veterans are also teaching the recruits the experience of survival on the battlefield for the last time.

The contest between the two armies, in addition to weapons and equipment, is also a contest of overall quality!

It includes ordinary training, a contest of personal combat quality, and more importantly, a contest of psychological quality between the two sides!

At this point, the two sides are simply incomparable. Bulgarian officers could go deep into the soldiers to boost morale, but the nobles and lords of the Ottoman army were always two classes from the soldiers, and a little deduction of military pay was not bad. It's better to talk about it, if you frighten the soldiers before the war, you will suffer!

A few miles away in the headquarters of the First Army, General Popov saw that the time was almost up, so he asked: "Are all the troops in place?" ”

The adjutant replied sonorously: "Report to the commander, all the troops have arrived at the designated place and can attack at any time!" ”

Popov nodded with satisfaction and said, "Good! Now I give the order fifteen minutes later, the artillery fire will be covered, and the fortress and pillbox in front of the target will be covered! ”

With Popov's order, the First Army began to fire a thousand cannons, covering the positions of the Ottoman army at a rate of tens of thousands of shells per minute!

Under the intensive artillery attack, countless fortresses and pillboxes were destroyed! The Ottoman army also launched artillery fire back, but unfortunately the gap in firepower, as soon as the Ottoman artillery position was exposed, it was about to usher in a dense attack of thousands of shells!

No matter how bad the accuracy was, the Ottoman artillery suffered heavy losses, and later Eder Pasha had to agree to use the artillery separately! The losses of this separate artillery were really reduced a lot, and the striking power of the artillery was also dispersed!

An hour later, under the baptism of hundreds of thousands of shells, the fortress bunkers on the surface of the Turkish army were almost destroyed, and the First Army launched a general attack!

The Turkish soldiers who came out of nowhere once again relied on the remnants of the fortresses, pillboxes and security forces.

"Fortify!"

"You go over there, stupid I'm talking about over there, run around to give the head of the security army!"

"Hurry up, the Bulgarians are coming soon!"

The Ottoman officers were still shouting loudly, and the Ottoman soldiers who ran out of the anti-artillery holes, under the command of the officers, were led to the position like puppets and took up their weapons and prepared for battle!

At this moment, the shortcomings of the Ottoman army were fully revealed, and the noble officers who were high up had no way to blend in with the soldiers.

Fighting until now, if it weren't for the cruel military law, these Ottoman soldiers would have run away long ago!

There is no desire to fight, no goal in life, and he passively stepped onto the battlefield, and his combat effectiveness can be imagined!

Often, after a round of fighting between the two sides, after being at a disadvantage, ordinary Ottoman soldiers would choose to surrender.

Anyway, there is a shortage of soldiers on the battlefield, and the Ottoman government has no way to determine the life and death of ordinary soldiers, and it is impossible to talk about liquidation!

As night fell, the battle continued.

"Searchlight!"

"Turn it on, I can't see the black light!"

"The searchlight is broken!"

"What about mechanics? Fools, hurry up and fix it! ”

"Don't mention that unlucky bastard, I was just smashed by a falling stone from the fortress and sent to the rear, I guess I've almost seen **** now!"

"Damn Bulgarians! Damn the Russians, why are they giving them so much artillery? ”

"Come on! If the Russians had heard you, they would have regretted offering too little! ”

"Forget it, I already knew that thing was unreliable, but fortunately I was prepared, and I saw that my horse lantern was reliable!"

Inside a Turkish fortress, the soldiers are laughing at each other, and it seems that this is the only way for them to relieve their stress!

"Oh no, the enemy is coming!"

"Get ready for battle!"

There was a "boom", and when the Ottoman army realized it, mortar shells had already flown over and landed accurately on the fortress.

A cannonball pierced through the damage to the fortress and landed inside the fortress, killing three or four unlucky people, and the debris from the shell wounded several people again.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the defenders had already rushed forward and solved the remnants of the enemy, and the Turkish soldiers who saw that the situation was not good surrendered without hesitation, and a fortress was conquered!

In the headquarters of the First Army, Popov asked with concern: "How is the front line?" ”

Petrov shook his head and said, "It's a mixed bag! The army advanced very quickly, but the casualties were still very large, and if we continued like this, when we conquered Constantinople, we would not have much left of the First Army! ”

Popov did not ask about specific casualties, and judging by the fighting during the day, he could also guess the approximate result. He was now concerned about when he would be able to conquer Constantinople?

"There were no casualties in the country, but three divisions from the Second Army were sent to reinforce us, and it seems that the Grand Duke has really made up his mind to take Constantinople at all costs!

Now the burden on our shoulders is heavy again, and if we can't conquer Constantinople, you and I are ready to commit suicide to thank the world! ”

Listening to Popov's words, Petrov was choked half to death, and said depressedly: "You are stimulated, it is the middle of the night and it is really time to dream!" ”

Popov sighed, immediately recovered, and said: "you, didn't I sigh!" Is it that serious?

Okay, no more nonsense. Tell me, you have found out, there is no perfect army in this world, and I don't believe that the Ottoman army has no weaknesses! ”

Petrov gave him a blank look and said: "The Ottoman army is really falling, and it is really easy to find the weakness of their army!"

In addition to the lack of training of the soldiers, the quality of the officers was inferior; During these days of siege battles, I also found that their officers were very timid!

One by one, they all hid far away, and in many front-line fortresses and pillboxes, there were no decent officer commanders at all, and they were basically some newly promoted veterans, acting as company and platoon-level officers! ”

Popov asked rhetorically: "This is not a weakness, this should be considered a strength, it shows that they are self-aware!"

The military quality of the Ottoman officers, many of them are not comparable to these veterans. If they had personally commanded it, our attack would have gone much smoother!

Hey, that's not right! are all basic officers, then their cooperation with each other is very problematic!

Under the cover of our artillery fire, their communication system is estimated to have collapsed long ago, then our chance has come! ”