Chapter 5: The Frustrated Traveler (I)

“…… All the nations and peoples of the whole world praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Trinity, the same glory and the same respect, the source of all things, the foundation of all blessings. [520xs] Amen. ”

Amid the brass bells of the Archbishop of Constantinople, the faltering Eastern Roman Empire was about to usher in the New Year of 1453 AD.

Of course, it is also very likely that the history of the Eastern Roman Empire is zuihou a New Year.

The red sunset slowly slipped from the western horizon, and the brilliant sunset covered the entire sky and shone on the walls of Constantinople.

One evening in Zuihou in 1452 AD, Emperor Constantine XI stood on the easternmost wall of Constantinople, overlooking the undulating Sea of Marmara in front of him.

The Sea of Marmara at dusk is a romantic landscape, with golden-red clouds burning in the twilight, and the afterglow of the setting sun falling on the beach, blending with the mottled yellow sand. The sparkling tide rolled up and down, endlessly crashing against the ancient dark seawall and rolling up countless fragments of white foam. The smoke on the sea blew the emperor's purple robe, which was not very cold, but made him feel comfortable and cool.

However, at this time, Emperor Constantine XI had no intention of feeling the silence of the winter sunset and enjoying a rare peaceful time.

It won't be long before the Turkish fleet with the crescent moon flag will appear on this sea!

-- Two more years passed, and Emperor Constantine XI's straight spine began to grow stiff, and his once thick black hair turned gray. On the one hand, the years are unforgiving. On the one hand, it is because of exhaustion.

In the past two years, he has worked hard, struggled, and indeed made changes to history, but everything still goes wrong and he suffers setbacks everywhere.

And the fate of the Eastern Roman Empire is still galloping on the ramp to the abyss of destruction - even worse than the historical situation.

First of all. The conqueror who destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire, the warlike Ottoman Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, ascended the throne as smoothly as in history.

Spring of 1451. While comforting his newly widowed stepmother with a pleasant face, the ruthless young man secretly sent someone to drown his infant brother in the bathtub, thus removing the obstacles to the throne. In the autumn of the same year. He also led an expedition to Asia Minor, suppressed the rebellion of the Karaman chief Ibrahim, and basically stabilized the situation in the country. At this point, the internal factors that could contain the Turks from gathering a large army to besiege Constantinople had been quickly eliminated by the decisive Mehmed II. Especially after Mehmed II signed an armistice with the Hungarians in the north, temporarily stabilizing the northern border, the signs of another siege of Constantinople were already very clear.

Secondly, on the side of Emperor Constantine XI, the situation remained as desperate as ever—diplomacy was still making no progress, and the emissaries of the Eastern Roman Empire were roaming the courts of Europe as best they could. But he failed to pull in reinforcements from a single soldier, only in exchange for a pile of waste paper-like promises.

Although Pope Nicholas V enthusiastically stated that he would not sit idly by and watch the eastern gate of the Christian Shijie fall, the city itself was on the verge of riots and civil war. Until the Pope secured his position, he was powerless to come to the aid of distant Constantinople.

In order to enlist reinforcements. The Emperor even went to Rhodes himself to ask for help from the Knights Hospitaller, the crusaders in Zuihou, but nothing could be obtained except for a few empty words.

Then, by the time the light passed by the spring of 1452, the situation in Constantinople quickly became more tense.

Mehmed II had just returned to Adrianople from the suppression of the rebellion in Asia Minor. An army was immediately sent to "clean up" the towns and villages outside Constantinople, drive these Zuihou Roman subjects into the city, and at the same time build the Rumilili-Hissar Castle a few kilometers north of Constantinople, at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, in an attempt to choke the choke point from Constantinople to the grain-producing regions of the Black Sea.

In its original history, the Eastern Roman Empire did not dare to stop this hostile move of the Turks except by sending emissaries to protest. And in this time and space, the emperor Bixia, who refused to sit still, tried his best to cobble together 2,000 soldiers, mustered up the courage to go out of the city and attack, once expelled the Turkish construction team, and destroyed the fortress that had just started. But before the soldiers and civilians of Constantinople had time to cheer and celebrate, the wealthy Sultan Mehmed II immediately sent another 10,000 elite cavalry to retaliate. The outnumbered Emperor Bixia was soon defeated by superior enemy forces in the field, and had to retreat behind the city walls again in disgrace, watching as the Turks demolished all the ancient monasteries and churches in the area, transported stones to the construction site, and completed the fortress little by little.

In the late autumn of 1452, just a few months later than in history, the castle of Rumili Hissar was finally completed and the Bosphorus was blocked with artillery fire, sinking all the merchant ships trying to cross it—cutting off Constantinople's lifeline for food from the Black Sea region.

And Emperor Bixia's initiative to change history this time not only failed to achieve any results, but also buried one-third of the city's troops.

Although the food supply line connecting the Black Sea was thus unblocked for several months, allowing Constantinople to stock up on an additional batch of food, it also caused more citizens to flee by boat, including many mercenaries - this failure of the initiative seriously shook the morale of the defenders of Constantinople, and made the Genoese and Venetians, whom the emperor saw as a lifesaver, even more hopeless about the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Obviously, as shrewd merchants, the Genoese and the Venetians were absolutely unwilling to throw money into a junk stock.

As a result, both Genoa and Venice resolutely rejected the Eastern Roman Empire's request for help, and at the same time took advantage of the fact that the sea routes were still relatively clear for a period of time in Zuihou, and tried to evacuate their own nationals and employees stranded in Constantinople. Except for a few volunteers who went to war, nothing was left for the emperor.

As 1452 drew to a close, Emperor Constantine XI was increasingly dismayed to find that his entire fortification was a fraction of that of the same period in another history, and that he had to defend himself against a Turkish army of 3,500 soldiers. (You are welcome, your support is my biggest motivation.) )