In the Golden Horn, Emperor Yang's old friend Hamid II looked at the fleet that sailed into the military port without tears, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and twelve destroyers, this is his once huge fleet, as for the others, including four battleships, they have all sunk to the bottom of the Black Sea, this heavy blow almost stunned the caliph who was determined to restore the glory of the Ottoman Empire, and his naval strength was set back by ten years overnight.

"Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about this, the reparations after the victory of the war will allow you to rebuild a fleet ten times more powerful." Han Fei comforted him on the side, of course, he can only comfort him now, anyway, it is useless to say anything else, in fact, he is also very speechless about the intelligence of the Ottomans, even an army commander like him feels that Makarov's trap is too low-end, but the Ottoman fleet is really stupid to jump in, and now it is good, the whole battle situation completely collapsed.

Hamid II nodded resolutely, and he felt much better at the thought of the three billion pounds in reparations, although this figure was too unrealistic, but after bargaining, there were always billions or even billions, even if he could get 100 million, it would be enough to rebuild a more powerful fleet.

"Your Majesty, now we must consider whether to continue to hold on to Istanbul or temporarily avoid the enemy's front." Han Fei said.

The enemy had already landed on the Black Sea, and Makarov's plan had been planned for a long time, of course, it would not give Hamid II time to adjust his defenses, and Emperor Yang received the news that the Russian army was preparing to launch a landing operation, but he did not know that before the naval battle was over, a British division had already set off from the Bulgarian port of Burgas, which they controlled. By the time the remnants of the Ottoman navy sailed into the Bosphorus, their fleet had reached the coastal town of Karabrun, just over 20 kilometers from Istanbul, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was pursuing the Ottoman fleet, went directly there, opened up a landing ground for them with large-caliber naval guns, and then more than 10,000 British elites quickly landed in small boats to control the small fishing port.

Hamid II couldn't help but sigh again, he never thought that the battle would be fought to such a point. Originally, I thought that Shun Shun lì Li would just pick the fruit, but who knew that the Entente was so stubborn and so capable of fighting, and actually played the game of preferring death to surrender, of course, he also knew that the conditions on his side were too ruthless, and he drove others to a dead end.

Han Fei watched the rich expression change on Hamid II's face silently, he was not worried about what irrational choice his Caliph would make, this guy would definitely not have the courage to hold Istanbul, and in fact, no one would defend the city unless the people in the city were mobilized now. The Ottoman army was all on the other side of the strait, and they were in a stalemate with the Russian army on the Sakarya front. The four armies of the Chinese European Corps were fighting fiercely with the US-British coalition forces on the Erdine front, and they were very tense in either direction, and it was impossible to send people back to Istanbul.

Before, because he was too confident about the navy, Hamid II only kept a brigade of Janissaries in his capital, and it was very suspenseful to expect this person to block that British division, not to mention that the Russian army of a corps departing from Sevastopol could arrive in more than ten hours at most. At this time, either mobilize the people of the whole city to defend the lonely city, or simply run away, the former will risk their lives, and the latter will just go out to hide. There is no doubt that the winner of this war will definitely be the Allies, which means that in the end, even if the enemy occupies Istanbul, it will have to be returned.

His Majesty the Caliph should be clear on this point.

Hamid II was struggling, of course he understood this, but if he wanted to run away, he would lose face. Risking his life if he didn't run away was undoubtedly a difficult choice for his ambition, when a piercing whistling sound in the sky suddenly came, followed by more than a dozen huge fireballs exploding in the northern city of Istanbul.

"Where did the shelling come from?" Hamid II exclaimed, his face pale.

"Russian battleships on the Black Sea." Han Fei said with a solemn face.

"Their cannons hit so far?" Hamid II said incredulously.

"陛xià. Didn't our battleships experiment with shelling directly into the Black Sea from the Golden Horn before? Han Fei said.

Hamid II only then remembered that he had really played like this, and it was only about twenty kilometers from the near shore of the Black Sea to Istanbul, not to mention the battleships. Even his heavy cruisers could hit such a distance, and while they were talking, more shells fell on Istanbul, and the fire and smoke threw the ancient city into chaos. At this time, the bombers on the Istanbul airport also took off, carrying bombs and flying to the Black Sea, but then the Russian artillery also shifted the target and began to fire at the Istanbul airport, which was in Hademköy in the west of the city, completely within the range of the Russian naval guns, and soon after the bombers took off, more than a dozen large-caliber shells fell on this airport, which means that the airport is no longer usable.

The bombers, having hastily dropped all their bombs on the Russian fleet at sea and sank a cruiser and two destroyers, had to turn west to Salonika, where they landed at the airfield.

At the same time, Hamid II also made the same decision to move towards Thessalonija, otherwise the Russian army would not be able to run the railway after landing, and for a time the whole Istanbul was in chaos, the Ottoman court, the command of the navy and the army, the headquarters of the Chinese European Legion, all kinds of institutions have burned the text of the army, or by car and train, or by merchant ships and warships in the port, in short, they have fled for their lives, even the Chinese European Army in Erdine, Both received orders to abandon the defenses of Eldine and retreat all south to defend Thessaloniki.

So Kemal in Sakarya was dumbfounded, what did he do? After the Entente occupied Istanbul, he would definitely play the same flank landing and copy his back road, you must know that he still has a full 400,000 troops on his side, crowded on a small peninsula and there is no place to run, and after learning that Hamid II abandoned Istanbul and fled, his side of the army is extremely unstable, and a large number of surrenders to the Russian army have begun to appear.

But fortunately, at this time, there was good news for them, first of all, the 21st and 22nd Chinese armies arrived in Basra and began to march north along the repaired railway, while the 15th and 16th Chinese armies conquered Tabriz, and the 8th and 11th armies conquered Tehran. Next, these four armies will all press westward, which means that if Kemal chooses to hold Sakaria, then there are two possible scenarios: first, he will hold the east coast of the Bosphorus and the Sakarya defense line at the same time, blocking the three Russian armies currently attacking him on the Anatolian Peninsula and waiting for the Chinese to arrive and completely annihilate this Russian army.

The second is that he was squeezed to death on this small peninsula by the US-British coalition forces attacking from west to east and Russian troops attacking from east to west. And, of course, he simply chose to surrender to the Russians and wait in the prisoner of war camp for the war to end.

Choosing to fight will make him an immortal hero, and choosing to surrender will make him the greatest shame for the entire Allied bloc, setting a record for the highest number of surrenders on the battlefield.

"Your Majesty, please tell General Kemal, please be sure to hold on to Sakarya, we will do all our airlift forces to ensure his material supply, in addition, he only needs to hold on for half a month, within half a month, our army including the eighth, tenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, twenty-first, twenty-two six armies can definitely rush to reinforcements, if nothing else, the earliest reinforcements can even arrive within ten days." Han Fei, who retreated to Thessalonika by train, conveyed Emperor Yang's request to Hamid II.

"Your Excellency, Commander, rest assured, General Kemal will definitely hold on." Hamid II immediately patted his chest and promised, and then he gave Kemal an order to stick to Sakaria, and in order to boost the spirit of this guy, he also named him Pasha, and invited all his family members to his palace as guests, if Kemal dared to surrender, his family probably would not be guests, not only that, but also invited all the families of the main generals of the Sakarya front to the palace, so that they could feel the emperor's favor and then have no hesitation.

However, since the Chinese side promised to guarantee the supply of supplies, and the reinforcements could be waited for in another ten days, Kemal had no choice but to bravely go down to the top of the mountain that shone with the light of heroes, and on the other side of him, the Russians were immediately anxious after knowing that this guy would not surrender, and Kuropatkin knew very well that if he could not break through this line of defense, it would be his turn to annihilate his entire army. The 400,000 Russian troops of the three armies launched a flank attack towards Kemal like crazy, and at the same time, the American and British forces occupying Istanbul did not care about continuing to attack Salonika, and went all out to attack the east shore of the Bosphorus, and launched a flank landing in the northern port of Hillais, in short, at any cost, it was necessary to solve this Ottoman army and bring the Russian army to the west bank.

The six Chinese armies are also desperately rushing westward from two roads, especially the two armies that are heading north by train from Basra are moving westward day and night, but their railways can only reach Adana, although the Russian army here has retreated north, but in the process of retreat, the Russians have destroyed almost all the railway facilities that can be destroyed. In this way, even if they continue to advance, the Chinese army can only take the road, and the remaining distance is still more than 700 kilometers, and the same is true for the four army groups on the northern road, they don't even have railways, but fortunately, the two armies have armored troops, and the four mechanized groups are formed to kill Sakarya in a mighty way. (To be continued......)

PS: The book will be completed at the end of the month