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In medieval Europe, there was hardly any other city that could rival Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. ,!

This great city, located on the southeastern border of Europe, is on a steep headland at the southern end of the Bosphorus, which juts out from the European side of the strait to the opposite Asian coast, as if to block the rapids flowing from the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmara. Thus, Constantinople had the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Gulf of the Bosphorus to the north, thus forming an important port, the so-called Golden Horn. On the outskirts of the city, there are two natural sea gates, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, which can defend against enemy fleets from both the Aegean and Black Seas.

Ever since moving to the "New Rome" of the East, the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire have been building their homes with great enthusiasm and staggering financial resources, making Constantinople far larger than the "Old Rome" on the Italian peninsula.

A hundred years after the birth of Constantinople, with the invasion of the Germanic barbarians and the gradual fall of the Western Empire, a large number of Romans abandoned their Italian homeland and crossed the sea to take refuge in the Eastern Empire, resulting in the rapid growth of Constantinople's population in the 5th century, once reaching as many as one million. To this end, Emperor Theodosius II built the walls of Theodosius in the west, tripling the size of the city. The enlarged walls of Constantinople are 21.5 kilometers long, including 8 kilometers on the Sea of Marmara, 7 kilometers on the Golden Horn side, and 6.5 kilometers on the land side. The walls are connected to the natural barrier of the Balkan Mountains, along with the sea on both sides of the city. The overland import of Constantinople was fully defended, and due to its majestic height and impregnability, it was reputed to be a wall blessed by the Virgin Mary. As a result, during the millennia of Roman Empire's rule, the city was rarely breached, although it was often besieged.

On the map, the whole of Constantinople approximates an irregular equilateral triangle. On one side is the land, and on the other two sides is the ocean. On a small hill at the end of this triangular peninsula sits the Grand Palace of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Grand Palace is also known as the "Holy Palace". It is located on the commanding heights of the city, bordering the Sea of Marmara in the south, covering an area of more than 600,000 square meters. It is the most luxurious complex in the whole of Constantinople.

In addition to the royal family, there were also groups of palace ladies, eunuchs, forbidden soldiers, priests and court officials, with a population of 20,000, almost equivalent to a city. It consists of several adjoining palaces, including La Maniol Palace, which is dedicated to official ceremonies, Dafna Palace, which is used as a royal residence, and Schalke Palace, which doubles as an exhibition hall, among others. The various palaces are connected by arcades, and the courtyards between the palaces are opened up as the Imperial Huā Garden. On this basis, successive emperors continued to expand its scope, adding palaces, raising floors, adding towers, and building high platforms. The perimeter of the palace was supplemented by various outbuildings, such as churches, chapels, baths, playgrounds, treasure halls, archives, stables, factories, warehouses, guard barracks, and so on. In this way, the palace became a palace that was both the residence of the emperor, the seat of government, and the seat of the highest organ of the church.

In addition to the Grand Palais, there are many other magnificent buildings in the city, such as the Colosseum, the Avenue de Messer and the Hagia Sophia. They are all the culmination of the architectural and artistic achievements of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Constantinople, the "new Rome" in its heyday, had 2 large theaters, 4 "multi-functional civic activity centers", 8 luxurious public baths, 153 private baths, and 52 colonnades along the street. 5 granaries, 8 elevated aqueducts, 14 churches, 14 palaces and 4,388 noble mansions. A small river called the Likos River crosses the entire city and flows into the Sea of Marmara, which the poet seconded as the new Tiber. An intricate elevated aqueduct brings clean water from the Thracian plain, 30 kilometres away, to supply the city's daily necessities.

In the dark Middle Ages in Europe, the city was synonymous with civilization, abundance, luxury, and supreme glory.

However, just as everyone has their birth, old age, sickness and death, every city has its rise and fall.

By the time the wheels of history rolled to 1453, Constantinople had become a dying city abandoned by the times.

Even if you just take a yacht on the Golden Horn outside the city, you can already get a first taste of the city's depression and decline - the dark green sea is empty, except for a few warships, the prosperity of the merchant ships of the past is long gone. The pier was so rotten and broken that it was hard to find a place to put your feet. The former glorious imperial shipyards by the sea have long been dilapidated, making it impossible to stand it. Although the double-headed eagle flag representing the royal family was still fluttering at the door, there was no longer the sound of workers working, and the sound of hammering, sawing, or shouting could not be heard. The old rope-making workshop is covered in a thick layer of dust, and birds nest in the slipways and sheds......

In fact, the navy of the Eastern Roman Empire had long lost the ability to build ships and had to rely on the Genoese and Venetian fleets for security - but this protection was not free, and in order for the Venetian and Genoese fleets to defend their maritime borders, the Eastern Roman Empire had to grant the Venetian and Genoese merchants the super-preferential state treatment of "zero tariff, zero transaction tax, and zero port tax".

Not only did this cost the empire a huge chunk of its revenue – four hundred years ago, the tariffs levied in Constantinople alone amounted to seven tons of gold per year – but it also bankrupted the Eastern Roman Empire's own Greek merchants in competition, leading to a further depression in the domestic economy.

In a sense, the current Eastern Roman Empire has become a comprador regime manipulated by Italian merchants.

So, the city behind this bleak coast looks even more miserable.

Although the towering walls seem to be majestic, the buildings inside the walls have either collapsed and disappeared, or only a shiny shell remains—the Blancheen Chapel, where the veil of the Virgin Mary is stored, looks like an empty shell that has been burned by fire. Or the "foreign archway" in Macao, China in later generations. At the highest point of the city, the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, where Constantine the Great is buried, has almost collapsed into a pile of rubble, leaving only ghosts still climbing among the abandoned columns of vines. The ruins of the old Eastern Roman Empire's Senate were crowded with homeless tents like mushrooms after rain, lit campfires and raised clouds of smoke. Stained the remnants of mosaics and marble verandahs.

As for the state of the city's civilian districts, it is even more poignant - in its heyday, Constantinople used to have a large number of exquisite and ornate huā gardens and squares scattered throughout the city's districts. Planted with manicured, lush, and beautiful huā grass shrubs, it is adorned with Greco-Roman fountains from the classical period, bronze or marble statues, and polychrome porcelain mosaics characteristic of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Now. Not only are these ornaments long gone, but they have been stolen and sold to the Renaissance West, where they have resettled in the squares of Italian city-states or in the castles of French aristocrats. Even these squares and huā gardens themselves have been replaced by vegetable patches, corrals, and orchards. Many of the residential areas that were once crowded with shops and mansions are now idyllic rural scenes, with wild roses blooming in the city in the spring and nightingales singing in the woods at night. This is true even on the Boulevard de Messer, the busiest in the city.

As for the neighborhoods that have been completely abandoned because they are uninhabited and cannot be converted into farmland, they look almost destroyed by nuclear weapons. Not only is it inaccessible and lifeless, but it is even difficult to find a decent, intact house, which is full of ruins, broken bricks and tiles.

In this sad and dilapidated city. Even the royal family of the Eastern Roman Empire had a terrible time - the Grand Palace, located in the southeast of Constantinople, had been destroyed by Western European knights as early as 1204 when the Crusaders sacked Constantinople, and not only did all the gold, silver and jewels be looted, but even the roof of the palace decorated with exquisite reliefs was completely demolished by the Venetians. All that remains is a pile of forest-like stone pillars.

Even after the Palaiologos dynasty recovered Constantinople and rebuilt the Eastern Roman Empire, due to the greatly reduced territory of the empire and the extreme financial embarrassment, even if the emperors of Zuihou did everything possible to loot, expropriate and expropriate, and forced the army to rebel due to arrears of wages, they could not make up the cost of repairing the palace.

Next door to the Grand Palace in Constantinople, the former Colosseum is all that remains of the ruins. The "Episcopal Palace" next door is still nominally the headquarters of the Orthodox Church, but the Patriarch of Constantine did not dare to "venture" to live in this crumbling temple, and had to choose to move like the emperor - in fact, due to the shrinking of the empire and the decline of citizens, the Orthodox Church's worship income gradually dried up, except for the Episcopal Palace, most of the churches in the city were also abandoned, and only the grandest Hagia Sophia still barely retained its former glory.

Looking at the ruined Constantinople, the little bird Yu Mahaku sighed that the scene of this place is a bit like Detroit in the United States in the 21st century, but it is more dilapidated, while the Russians can't help but think of the abandoned city of Siberia - every family really has a difficult scripture to read!

The only place in Constantinople that still looks prosperous, or not so ruinous, is the concession established by the Venetians on the shores of the Golden Horn - a densely populated commercial community of warehouses and docks that not only facilitated the Venetians, but also gathered merchants from Sicily, Florence and Catalonia, and there was even an independent Jewish settlement nearby that specialized in usury.

Genoese merchants, who were more trusted by the Eastern Roman royal family, had another concession of their own on the other side of the Golden Horn at Galata.

Relying on the consumption power provided by these foreign business travelers, a number of hotels and brothels were finally born here, giving the city a little bit of prosperity. The few remaining hospitals, libraries, and baths in the city of Constantinople that are still in operation are basically concentrated here, providing a minimum of benefits for citizens and business travelers.

The new palace of Emperor Constantine XI is also perched on a hill on the shores of the Golden Horn, next to the Venetian Concession – for most of the city of Constantinople has been completely reduced to a "great ruin" without this pitiful "bustling area".

But. This so-called "royal palace" is really not royal at all, it looks gray, small and dilapidated, with few decent ornaments, except for a so-so little huā garden, which is almost like a group of warehouses. Not only is it not at all comparable to the magnificent old palace in the past, but even the mansion built by the head of the Venetian Chamber of Commerce in the concession is slightly inferior - in Wang Qiu's eyes, if his family's small western-style building in an urban village is expanded by three or four times. It's probably about the same as the palace of the sad emperor.

Such a small and shabby palace naturally has no pomp and circumstance, and it is impossible to afford many palace maids - according to Emperor Constantine XI. Even if the cook and the old janitor were counted in his entire court, there were only twenty servants at full. As for the harem concubines, there is no one...... Such a tragic throne really makes people feel that there is no taste at all.

In short, if the city had life, Constantinople in 1453 was undoubtedly in its twilight years, and the brilliant huā that had survived from the Greco-Roman classical civilization was slowly withering and withering, and was on the verge of death......

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No matter what emotions and sighs the people on board had, the "White Bird" yacht finally slowly approached the dock of the Golden Horn.

Then, on the empty embankment where ships are scarce. The only two trumpeters puffed up their cheeks, pointed the old brass trumpet, which had been polished a little whitish, diagonally to the sky, and tried to blow the clear trumpet of welcome.

The "Mongol crusaders", who had long been gathered on the deck of the ship, stepped on the rickety dilapidated trestle bridge on the gangplank. While looking curiously at the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire who had come to welcome them, all of them seemed to be yellow-skinned, ragged, and destitute, it was evident that their lives must have been very difficult. And the few radiant and well-dressed guys were mostly Italian merchants who came to see the excitement......

Seeing that the yacht "White Bird" finally approached the dock, Emperor Constantine XI, who had been waiting impatiently. Immediately got up from his seat and strode up to meet him. At the same time, Franz, the secretary of state of the Eastern Rome who was temporarily a guest ceremonial officer, who had no money to support a special ceremonial officer because of the shy emperor Bixia in his pocket, also took the trouble to hold up a scroll and began to shout in a hoarse voice: "...... Great, supreme, recognized by God and appointed by Christ the Lord, heir to rule Gaul, commander of the Lord by the Britons, conqueror of the East...... The only Roman emperor on Shijie (this phrase was added by the Eastern Roman emperors in order to show that they were the true successors of Rome after the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany) Bixia arrived! Welcome from across the Black Sea! ”

-- Although the lands and nationalities included in these honorific titles are no longer under the rule of the emperor, this does not prevent this kind of boasting of cannons.

Then, despite the fact that very few people could actually hear what he was saying, there was a flood of cheers on the pier.

“…… Long live Emperor Bixia! ”

“…… Long live the eternal Roman Empire! ”

“…… Long live the great city blessed by the Virgin Mary! ”

What made the citizens of Constantinople even more excited was a carriage coming along the seaside avenue -- in the slightly confused eyes of Wang Qiu and others, the citizens gathered on the dock at this time, except for a few dignitaries and wealthy people, did not care about the "Mongol crusaders" who continued to watch the trestle, but scrambled desperately towards the carriage, and raised their hands high, like beggars begging for something.

While the traversers were wondering, the soldier standing in the carriage stooped down and reached out to lift the coarse cloth that covered the carriage, picked up pieces of bread as black as bricks, and threw them out. And these citizens of Constantinople, who stretched out their hands, also shouted "Give it to me!" one by one! "Give it to me!" began to scramble for it regardless of decency...... It didn't take long for the cart of black bread to be wiped out, and most of the citizens were still empty-handed, so they had to return to the dock in despair, listlessly watching the "Mongol crusaders" come ashore one after another.

Seeing this scene, the traversers suddenly realized that they were sending bento boxes to the "extras"!

“…… That's what you mean by free bread? But how is it just a car? There must be at least a few thousand people on the docks! ”

Taking advantage of the opportunity to hug and greet each other on the dock, Comrade Maimaiti, who pretended to be the "Tatar Prince Arslen", leaned into the emperor's ear and whispered, "...... Even if you give a bento to the extras, you can't pick the door like this! It's really cheap! ”

“…… The empire's financial resources are limited, and it would be good to be able to take out so much bread, anyway, it has already been distributed according to the contract, and it depends on whether they can grab it or not. ”

Constantine XI shrugged his shoulders and smiled very scoundrelly, "...... The treasury is so clean that it can't even pay the mercenaries, and the next thing is up to your generosity...... Did you bring everything? I can't wait! ”

“…… All brought! Don't forget that the time flow rate between the two sides is fifty times different, and it takes a lot of work for us to prepare these goods! ”

Looking at the traverser emperor who had turned into a wealth fan, Maimaiti couldn't help but sigh, then turned around and snapped his fingers.

Then, to the amazement of many soldiers and civilians of Constantinople, boxes of fragrant pepper, cloves, cardamom, saffron huā and ginger, as well as sparkling white sugar and refined salt, as well as splendid silk and fine porcelain, were lifted out of the cabin like flowing water............)

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