"The army rested for fifteen days and continued its march towards Italy, and this time the problem of the whole of Italy must be completely solved." Basil II declared.

"What are you going to do with the Hungarians who broke through?"

"Leave them to the Slavs to be dealt with! Didn't that woman want the northern Bolan region? If you want such a big piece of fat, you can't do it without making a effort. ”

Eastern Roman generals: "........................"

——————————

Unlike Randy's perception, Eastern Europe is where the king's achievements are.

Basil II! No, it should be said that in the perception of the vast majority of Greeks, Eastern Europe is a very vast, sparsely populated, barbaric, unexplored and wild land, and its value is far less than the original territory of the Roman Empire, that is, the legendary Mediterranean Sea, Gaul, South Germany, and the original Roman Empire are very important.

Therefore, there is nothing wrong with handing over these wild places to his allies, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which also believes in Orthodox Christianity, and an outdated Hungarian king with less than 2,000 men left against an insignificant Slavic duchess, this is just right, and the strength of both sides is just right.

This was the end of this military meeting in the Eastern Romans, and the generals began to return to the army, and they were in full swing preparing to go out again......

In fact, the Eastern Roman Empire's military discussion in Budapest invisibly helped the Norman Offshore Fleet a lot!

While the Eastern Roman Empire was deploying troops and advancing by land and sea to approach Italy, a conspiracy of the Norman king Randy was also realized little by little.

Surprise attack on Constantinople!

This is also thanks to Randy's imagination, as one of the three holy cities that are said to be the strongest in European civilization, never fall, and God's favorite, and now the most powerful country in Christian civilization, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, with tens of thousands of standing troops, hundreds of thousands of residents, and tens of millions of gold coins in taxes every year, Randy just made a surprise attack lightly, and then ignored it.

"It's so fatal!"

Every time he thinks of what kind of opponent he will face, the commander-in-chief of the Open Sea Fleet, Field Marshal Carter, feels a big head for a while, but fortunately, Randy's order is not crazy for Carter to win the largest city on the European continent with 10,000 open sea navy, just let him feint and show his presence.

But even if this is the case, the odds are only two or three layers!

The possibility of completing this mission and leaving the majority of the fleet intact is basically zero, and the danger of inland rivers is aside, once entering the Black Sea, it is very likely that they will face the enemy's Black Sea Fleet, even if they succeed in evading the Black Sea army and crossing the Bosphorus Strait into the Sea of Marmara.

But Randy's order was to feint Constantinople for at least three days.

During these three days, the Eastern Roman Empire will definitely make some way to deal with it.

For example, the Aegean Fleet was sent to blockade the Dardanelles, so that the Norman Offshore Fleet could not cross the Dardanelles into the Mediterranean, and then the Black Sea Fleet would blockade the Bosphorus.

In this way, the Norman offshore fleet was trapped in the Sea of Marmara, and if it wanted to break through, it had to face the north and south attacks of the two navies of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the slightest mistake would wipe out all the troops.

The reason why the Eastern Roman Empire's military discussion increased the chances of winning this surprise attack was because the Eastern Rome transferred the Aegean Fleet to other places in order to transport reinforcements to Sicily as soon as possible, so that it became completely impossible to blockade the Dardanelles, and the current situation increased to at least fifty percent for Carter.

As for the remaining fifty percent, it's up to you to try your luck!

As long as the Black Sea is not bumped into by the opposing naval fleet, the news will not be revealed, and the effect of a surprise attack can be achieved.

The speed of the fleet is much faster than that of the army, because it can be a non-stop prospect day and night, so even if the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which knew about this in advance, wants to give the Eastern Roman Empire a wake-up call, I am afraid it is already too late.

When the fleet sailed out of the mouth of the Dnieper and completely entered the Black Sea, Carter became even more nervous!

"The whole fleet, full sails, go as fast as you can."

Around the same time as the Catholic coalition raided Venice, the Norman Offshore Fleet also arrived in the legendary Constantinople, north of New Rome and Tsargrad, known as the Golden Horn.

At this moment, the huge fleet is already unable to hide, especially the heavy ballista battleship, with its huge silhouette, hideous ramming angles, and huge ballistae in the bow and side of the ship, which is chilling.

The people of Constantinople did not expect this to be an enemy attack at all.

On the docks, there were also people among the ships moored at the docks, merchants and sailors from Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Latin, just looking at this fleet with curious eyes, some even claimed that it was a detachment of the Imperial Royal Navy, some said that it was the private merchant fleet of some wealthy man, and still others claimed that it was the official fleet of Constantinople from the far east, passing through thousands of mountains and rivers to trade.

But no one expected that this was an enemy fleet from an enemy country, from the Norman kingdom, which had been angry throughout the Catholic world, and was filled with lawless Vikings.

I didn't expect it at all, it was beyond imagination that someone in this world would be so bold!

After crossing the entire continent of Europa, it is unbelievable to launch a naval raid on the imperial capital on the other side of the continent.

In fact, before that, Constantinople was not without enemy attacks.

When the Second Persian Empire arose, when the Umayyad Empire arose, when the Hungarian cavalry galloped across Europe,

The Eastern Roman capital province of Thrace, as well as the imperial capital of Constantinople, were both under the most direct attack, so it cannot be said that the Greeks who lived here were not vigilant, but it is incredible.

At least in the previous few attacks, the opponent from the east, north, the Eastern Roman Empire and other territories to invade a little bit here, with the defeat again and again, again and again lost territory, the Greeks will be ready to wake up and fight, when the enemy attacks, the heavily armed Greeks will rely on the strong city defense system of Constantinople, to give the other side a profound and unforgettable lesson.

But now it's completely different!

The other side appeared suddenly from the sea, there was no war letter, let alone news of defeat from the front, everything seemed so sudden.

When the sailors on these ships did not respond to their waving cries as one might expect, people already sensed that things were a little different from what they had imagined.

"Fire!"

In the front row of the fleet, the scorpion crossbows on more than a dozen ballista battleships, including the flagship, were all loaded with burning crossbow arrows, and these crossbow arrows were all aimed at the houses on the dock, people, ships,

These flaming bolts weren't even aimed at their targets, they were just shooting aimlessly.

"What's going on?"

Seeing dozens of spear-like, still burning giant crossbow bolts shooting at them, people began to cry out in surprise, but this was only the beginning.

After landing on the docks, the battleship's gangplank was set up, and then the rude, hideous, and long-standing Vikings laughed wildly and scrambled to run off their ships.

The first to disembark was a pirate with a horned helmet, leather waistcoat, and bare arms, and without hesitation, he pulled out his battle axe and aimed it at a Greek who was still at a loss.

Even at the moment when the Norman pirate tomahawk slashed at him, many Greeks still did not understand what was going on. Why are there enemies? Could it be that the front line has already been defeated? So why hasn't there been any news? Is it blocked?

As a civilian, he was cut in half with a stomach full of questions.

Fear finally spreads as the large numbers of civilians on the docks, the slave laborers who carried the goods, and the merchants from Arabia, Latina, Rus', and beyond are killed one by one, the fear finally spreads.

The screams of panic mingled with the slightly hideous laughter of the Vikings.

The harbor of the Golden Horn was thus ransacked, and the harbor guards, numbering only two hundred men, did not even put up a decent resistance.

Completely unarmoured, with only short spears and ornate costumes more like honor guards, they were cut down more than half by the pirates in the first round of fights, and the rest were chopped into meat sauce by the swarming Vikings before they could arrange a similar formation.

After more than an hour of landing, 4,000 heavily armed Norman pirates landed and spread around the dock in groups of 100 people.

In the same pirate style, locusts pass through the border without leaving an inch.

The pirates have a clear division of labor! Half of them were responsible for cutting people, and the other half were responsible for looting things, and it was extremely efficient to loot all the buildings that looked good near the Golden Horn, including two monasteries and dozens of private villas.

The ships of the Outer Sea Fleet began to plump up little by little, and the Eastern Rome was worthy of being a world-class power, and the Golden Horn was also worthy of being a world-class trading center, and soon the Vikings sadly found that their fleet did not seem to be able to hold so many gold, silver, jewelry, cloth, silk, and porcelain.

Do you want to throw away some of the food and fresh water?

No kidding! The Vikings are all veterans of the sea, so they naturally know how important these two things are on the sea.

So the pirates began to choose carefully, throwing away silver for gold, cloth for silk, ordinary blankets for Persian carpets, and the discarded goods were unfortunately thrown into the water or piled up by the docks and burned.

It was already an hour after Constantinople got the news, and when the soldiers who came to report the news ran to the headquarters of the Constantinople garrison in a panic, the commander of the garrison was stunned and did not believe what they said.

"Did you drink too much? This is Constantinople! Constantinople! Did the enemy fall from the sky with wings? ”

It was because of the commander's inaction that the Norman pirates were given nearly an hour, until His Excellency Sergius II, the Ecumenical Patriarch, received an alarm from the church outside Constantinople, and hurried from the Hagia Sophia to the roar of the garrison regardless of his identity, that the commander of the garrison was really stunned and believed this matter.

"But it's incredible! The defenders of Constantinople are 50,000 men, and the opponent dares to attack us with only a few thousand soldiers and horses, are they crazy? ”

At the final military council, the other Eastern Roman generals expressed disbelief.

"But now is not the time to discuss these issues, the real problem is that our people are being ravaged by these heretics, generals, the best thing you should do now is to organize your army, to rush out of the city to defeat those heretics, to repel all those Catholic enemies, instead of sitting here and talking."

In the end, it was the patriarch who scolded the young generals before they lowered their heads.

"But now that the enemy's situation is unknown, wouldn't it be worse if we attack rashly, in case of failure? It's better to close the city gates first and wait for the news to come true before making plans. ”

The words of the commander of the garrison corps were unanimously agreed by the generals of the other legions, which did not mean that these generals could not fight, let alone that the Eastern Roman garrison of Constantinople was a waste, but because they were afraid of responsibility.

Something so big, even the slightest chance of failure.

What if it fails? Anyway, I didn't receive an order from His Majesty the Emperor, and this is not the enemy's territory, so it's not easy to rob if you want to, there is no military merit, and there is no benefit, who wants to take such a responsibility?

"The number of enemies is not much, only a few thousand, they landed at the docks, they came by boat, only a few thousand, a few thousand! Can't you guys beat even a few thousand? The Patriarch trembled with anger.

"Alright, Your Excellency the Patriarch, dissipate your temper! It's a big deal! ”

The reason why these generals dared to be so disrespectful to the patriarch was because in the Eastern Roman Empire, the so-called ecumenical patriarch Sergius II, the largest leader of the Orthodox Church, was in a rather awkward position.

Although nominally in control of the entire imperial faith, the patriarch did not have much power, and in many cases only existed as a bishop of Hagia Sophia, as well as the emperor's court priest, and the Eastern Roman emperor claimed to be parallel to the position of Jesus Christ, so he did not pay much respect to a patriarch.

This world is like this, although the prestige and reputation are very high, but if there is no real power, it is useless to say anything, plus Basil II is a typical military emperor, and he attaches more importance to the army and the expansion of the territory than faith, so this vote of generals are spoiled by Basil II, and the attitude towards the patriarch is very unfriendly.

(End of chapter)