Late September 1453, Asia Minor, on the southern shore of the Marmara Sea

After a brief rest of a few days, the 10,000-strong army led by Emperor Constantine XI could not wait to leave the dead and rotten city of Nicaea and continue along the grassy and dilapidated esplanade to advance towards the old Turkish capital of Bursa.

Riding a horse on this piece of imperial territory that had been lost for hundreds of years, Emperor Constantine XI couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion for a while.

On both sides of the road, you can see the ruins of ancient palaces, temples, fortresses and churches in the Greco-Roman style, as well as the exquisite stone columns and marble statues scattered throughout, all showing the strong traces left by the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations on this land.

Asia Minor, a huge peninsula connecting Europe and Asia, was the core territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. In ancient times, it was home to the Hittite civilization, the Lydian civilization and the famous Trojan civilization, as well as the heroic expeditions of the Persian emperors and Alexander the Great. During the Roman Empire, it was one of the richest areas in the whole of Shijie.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, plagues, and successive invasions by Persians and Arabs, Asia Minor declined dramatically in the early Middle Ages. But by the 9th century, with the revival of the Eastern Roman Empire, Anatolia had once again settled down, agriculture and animal husbandry had all come back to life, and markets had found in important cities such as Constantinople. Thanks to the efforts of the Greeks, the coastal valleys of the western peninsula of Asia Minor were filled with olives, fruit trees and wheat fields. The steppe and mountainous areas of the interior are full of cattle and sheep.

However, in the 11th century, the Eastern Roman Empire declined again. Countless Turkic nomads poured into Asia Minor from the Central Asian steppes of the East. Tearing apart the defenses of the Eastern Roman Empire. After centuries of back-and-forth, the defeated Greeks were squeezed into port cities on the Aegean coast, where they were one step away from being driven out to sea, forced to submit to the Turkish conquerors and pay heavy tribute in order to survive. The vast interior of Asia Minor was completely "de-Hellenized". It has completely become a paradise for Muslim nomads to gallop on horseback.

Now, in order to recover the lost territory in Asia at the lowest possible price, the Turks who have been breeding on this land for many years are eliminated. Emperor Constantine XI did not hesitate to use modern bacteriological weapons to rain down the "undead natural disaster", pushing this devastated land further into the arms of death.

After several days of trekking, the Eastern Roman army finally arrived at a small town outside Bursa and set up camp. When you are ready to start fighting. Constantine XI and his travelers were slightly horrified to find that the town mosque square was surrounded by a pile of lifeless black ruins, except for blackened bricks and stone walls, and burned wooden beams and columns, but there was hardly a complete house to be found.

Crumbling rubble has clogged the streets, magnificent mosques have burned to the ground, and summer sea breezes have howled through the ruins. It sounds like the cries of countless souls - the townspeople set fire to their homes in order to prevent the spread of the plague......

-- These villages and towns on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. Due to its geographical location, the large number of Muslim refugees who fled from Eastern Europe with bacteriological weapons has now become a deserted haunted land. According to what you see along the way, after the baptism of war and the ravages of the plague, the bazaar here has become a cemetery, and the manor has become a cemetery. Thousands of people died in their homes. The corpses were piled up on the road and rotted and stinky, with no one to pick up and bury. Patches of crops were unharvested, and heavy ears of wheat rotted in the fields along with the sick and dead farmers...... Most of the surviving inhabitants fled, and there was nothing left but the dead bodies.

This situation and this scene are really infinitely sad, like the legendary apocalyptic wasteland, which makes people feel sour.

However, Emperor Constantine XI, who personally started this devastating catastrophe, did not regret the choice he had made.

-- According to later historical records, in Asia Minor, where territory was limited, only one of the Greeks and the Turks survived, and the other had to be destroyed. Therefore, in the cruel war with the Turks, there was never a trace of superfluous compassion in the mind of the time-traveler Emperor Constantine XI: all for the sake of striking the Turks, all for the sake of killing the Turks, all for the destruction of the Turks, as long as the above objectives could be achieved, he would never mind employing any means, whether it was insidious, despicable, or inhumane.

In short, in the eyes of Constantine XI, this terrible catastrophe was now regarded as a radiotherapy for the Eastern Roman Empire, which was covered with tumors - the old ones don't go, and the new ones don't come.

What's more, although the deserted situation of the villages and towns along the way seems so shocking, it is not so bad that it is extinct to the extent of human extinction. In fact, many of the local residents took refuge in the remote mountains and wilderness just to escape the plague and war, and did not go far - when the Imperial army set up camp in the abandoned town, the Patriarch Gregory and a group of black-clad priests who came with the army erected crosses and icons in the town square, rang the clear bronze bells, and announced that they would distribute the all-encompassing "holy water", "holy oil" and "holy bread" to all Christians. Treehouses and other strange places came out one after another, knelt down in front of the Orthodox priest and wept bitterly, smashing his forehead against the stone steps until blood oozed out.

While cursing the Turkish landlords who had abandoned their sharecroppers and taken refuge in the city of Bursa, they prayed to the priests for God's forgiveness and protection, as well as for the elixir of the plague...... According to the basic policy drawn up before the expedition, the spiritual and material demands of these Greeks were satisfied, and for a time the whole town was filled with joy. Everywhere there were cheers of praise to God and praise of the emperor.

And seeing so many Greek Christians who were native, familiar with the terrain, and had a sturdy physique, Emperor Bixia couldn't help but feel a stir in his heart.

-- Although in order to launch this "holy war". The Eastern Roman Empire court smashed the pot and sold iron and did its best to gather 10,000 troops, but Constantinople, as the base camp, could not completely leave no troops to defend after all, and the newly occupied city of Nicaea also needed to stay behind troops, and then deduct the garrisons of the military stations that maintained the supply lines along the way, at this time, the combat troops that were really brought to the outside of Bursa by Emperor Constantine XI were about 6,000. If you want to attack a large city with a population of more than 100,000, the number of troops is still a little scarce.

For siege warfare that requires flesh and blood to fill trenches, more cannon fodder is always better.

Thereupon. The emperor simply erected a recruiting flag outside the camp, and through the shouting and propaganda of the Orthodox priests, he recruited strong men of Greek Christians among the medical seekers on the spot, and the able-bodied ones served as auxiliaries. Those who are not physically strong act as porters. In order to prevent Turkish Muslim spies from infiltrating the army and causing rebellion. Each of these newcomers was forced to eat a small slice of pork before they were enlisted...... For a while, there were such a cloud, and the scene was very lively.

-- In both the East and the West, when the poor who are hungry and cold are on the verge of despair, serving as soldiers and eating food is a great way to reduce their family's expenses and fill their stomachs; although they are not unaware of the simple and fatal truth that being a soldier means working hard, they also understand the benefits of being a soldier and having enough to eat -- it is not unacceptable for people who have no way to live to ask them to work hard for food.

Now the Greek peasants were at the end of their rope: a great plague on the eve of the autumn harvest and a large number of soldiers had crossed the border. Turned the city of Bursa into a battlefield, and the crops rotted in the ground. Seeing that the year's harvest was going to be lost, and it seemed difficult to count on relief from the Eastern Roman Empire or the Ottoman Turks. If we don't find a way to earn a living as soon as possible, the whole family will have to go out to escape the famine in a few months - in the plague period when the Black Death was rampant, the mortality rate of leaving home with a hungry stomach was much higher than that of fighting in the army!

Coupled with the appeal of religious belief - the two "miracles" that took place in succession in Constantinople and Adrianople were naturally heard of by the local population and regarded as evidence of God's protection of the Eastern Roman Empire.

And the "holy water", "holy oil" and "holy bread" that can drive away the plague are even more popular with everyone...... After all, these God-given "holy things" can be used to save lives. In these plague years, it is much more precious to have such a life-saving elixir than titles, land, and gold. In gratitude to the Orthodox Church, which generously distributed the elixir, all Christians did not hesitate to fight for it.

Thus, after learning that participating in this "holy war" would not only "please God" and keep away from illness, but also be able to feed every meal, and even have extra surplus food and military pay to support their families, the Greek Christians who remained stranded around the city of Bursa carried all kinds of strange "unique weapons" -- from sickles to pitchforks -- from seventy-year-olds to eight-year-old children, as well as the disabled and women, all came to join in the fun, as if they were going to fight in a group, and the chaos and noise were as if they were rushing to a market.

Looking at these Greeks from Asia Minor who came to join the "holy war" in a mess, Wang Qiu couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "...... Alas, after looking at the current scene, I finally understand what the legends in the ancient texts are about: "Raise your arms and shout, and the responders will rise like clouds" -- a rabble like this, as long as they have money, food and fame, who will not be able to pull it up......"

Although the combat effectiveness of these rabble is quite low, and it is basically the goods of filling trenches, the arrival of this new force, after all, can replace some miscellaneous jobs with low jishu content, help the army liberate a part of the mobile force, and speed up the development of the battle.

According to the Emperor's Operational Guidelines, his most elite professional mercenaries were divided into small units and used to raid the outskirts of Bursa to avoid being attacked during the siege; The main force, which was mixed with a large number of recruits and civilians, marched under the city of Bursa, monitored the gates, blocked the Muslims in the city from the outside world, and staged tentative attacks.

At the same time, Turkish Muslims in Bursa are in a state of hysterical panic. (To be continued.) )