Of these, the most frightening of Abuhe and all the sailors were the "fire skull" warships, which were entirely death squads of the sea - such ships often did not act alone, they sometimes hid in the shadows of the islands of the inland sea, and sometimes they fought with the rest of the light ships, and the Maldean or Greek sailors on them were all ruthless characters who were hired to volunteer their lives with high salaries, and they filled their cabins with Khitan snow, sulfur, hay bales, Armenian light oil, and there were no fighters on deck. Only the side flaps that shelter the arrows, and the personnel are all oarsmen, taking advantage of the fact that the large ship is besieged and entangled by the rest of the skuas, suddenly attack-the wind gallops to guide their ships to the target, and then ignite the contents of the cabin and die with the other party!

During the battle near the Sea of Gallipoli, Abuhe saw two "fire skuas" suddenly sail out from the north side of a small island and pounce viciously on a large Venetian ship named "Holy Angelo", and then violent fire and explosion stirred up in the trembling and converging waters, and the long and iconic mast and battle flag of "Holy Angel" were broken, and the hull and most of the crew were buried in the flames. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

On the burning water, Abuhe trembled, watching the huge wreckage of the "Holy Angel" billowing out of the smoke, and the terrifying sight of drifting with the waves, many Skua ships bypassed it and pounced on more targets.

The two fireships that hit the "Holy Angel" were not spared, and the hull of one of them had been burned into a wooden board with whirring flames, and the miserable and twisted charred corpses of many sailors were lying on it, slowly drifting in the direction of Abuhe's ship.

Abukh hastily ordered all ships to sail into the port of Gallipoli to guard against the invasion of the enemy with the wooden fences and thistles that blocked the access to the waterways, and the towers on the shore.

A week before the feast of the Feast of the Virgin's Induction, the number of Tarsus soldiers who had landed on the Gallipoli coast was already a brigade, accompanied by two detachments of artillery regiments, who relied on the fractured mountain rock "Sestus" in the middle of the peninsula to set up a camp, cut the passage between the Gallipoli fortress and Erainus, and received more successor echelons to ascend in a steady stream.

Three days later, the Gallipoli fortress and the external earthen ramparts were under heavy shelling, and the shells whistled and smashed into the icy trenches of the earthen rams, and the broken ice and frozen ground flew everywhere, and the garrison here was the Hungarian royal general counsellor Klembaude and three thousand soldiers brought by his own country, who had received three successive letters of surrender, but John's request from Constantinople became more and more severe, "Hold out until spring comes, and then reinforcements will arrive from near and far!" ”

What John said seemed to be true, that Hungary was gathering another cavalry force of 5,000 men and began to reinforce the city of Niš as the central passage. And the great nobleman of Thessaloniki, Zezes, is said to have rushed here with 2,000 soldiers, and there is also assistance from Tiracum and Sicily.

In addition, John sent an urgent warrant to Gallipoli's fleet, "to break through the enemy's interception and cross the Bosphorus to cut off the sea route of the port of Medea." ”

At this point, Abuhe could not help complaining about the emperor's unrealistic and arbitrary command, but he did not dare to disobey, so he could only order the remaining seven or eight large ships of the whole fleet to collectively raise their fires and sail in a column, and march towards the target strait.

Two days before the feast of the Feast of the Virgin's Initiation, Patriarch Masdas himself led the high deacons through the long roads of the city and marched towards the royal palace, first from the Patriarch's residence, and then through the Constantine and Theodosius Squares, where the pillars of merit continued to rise, the stones paved in the streets and squares still shone brightly, and the people who came out of the various commercial districts such as Pisa, Amalfi, Venice and so on gathered around the feast, accompanied by the dense and fierce cannon fire in the distant sea, although their sound reached here, It's like the chirping of insects, but it's real: the situation is already on the way.

Walking between the official residence and the Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, Maastas looked up with a little melancholy, raised his dense forehead wrinkles, and saw the tall and magnificent "Statue of Justinian" standing in front of him, the statue of the emperor centuries ago, the style of armor is ancient Roman style, the hat and helmet are exaggerated like a feather fan, the emperor is riding a war horse, holding a gold ball with a cross in his hand, facing the far east, this image gives all the world a huge impact and oppression, birds and clouds pass by both sides of the emperor's statue, and the huge statue overlooks the capital, the bay and all living beings, its whole body exudes a strong "universal imperial head" color.

And the enemy besieging the capital came from the east.

The golden ball with the cross, as Anna had mentioned to Gawain earlier, "must hold it, because to hold it is to grasp the power and glory of this world." ”

John's royal procession, in front of the Chapel of the Holy Apostles, built by his father during his lifetime, awaited the arrival of the Patriarch - twelve warriors carrying vermilion flagpoles and purple flags, surrounded by the Virgin's Veil, a treasure from the Holy Abbey of the Royal Palace.

The Patriarch is to bring it back to the altar of the Cathedral of the Wise and to soak it in the waters of the Golden Horn with the robes of the Virgin Mary on the day of the Feast of Initiation and the procession.

The young emperor himself was dressed in glittering armor and cloaks, and rode on a war horse, and in front of him was a "demonstrator" and four palace guards with swords, who were responsible for calming the whole scene. The Church of the Holy Apostles was surrounded by bureaucrats and subjects in the imperial capital, all holding icons and chanting slogans of praise, but there was a dark cloud in the hearts of most people.

Because just outside the city, just to the left of the fortress of Gallipoli, the enemy has begun to lay siege to the eternal city, not by pagans, but by Anna, the eldest princess of the former empire.

Although it was rumored that Anna and Gawain were strong, many of them were still quietly encouraging the hearts of others: "The hundreds of thousands of Saracen heretics and two thousand warships came to attack, and at last only five of them were able to return by the will of the Lord; The Varyags also came to the city in a turbulent war, and their longships were equipped with sails and wheels that could sail on land as they did in the sea, but in the end they also retreated? ”

"We have heard that the Hungarian prince will soon come to reinforce us, and he has many Scythian cavalry who can easily kill the enemy and force them to flee from the walls."

"It is said that the emperor handed over the other half of the secret recipe of the 'Imperial Fire' to the craftsmen and officials there from the imperial ordnance workshop yesterday, and this weapon is about to be activated, and the Varyag barbarian's ship will soon be burned to the ground!"