Chapter Twenty-Six: The Landlubber Fleet Doesn't Lift Up (II)

Since ancient times, nomads have rarely succeeded in navigating the navy - the career span from the steppe to the sea is inevitably too large!

And the Turks at this time, by any point of view, were still a nomad on horseback. ,!

Although the wealthy Sultan Mehmed II, in order to assemble a fleet that could rival the Venetians and the Genoese, invested astronomical sums of money in one fell swoop, and miraculously assembled a navy of 20,000 in only half a year - this Turkish fleet is comparable to the total strength of the Venetian navy, the current hegemon of the Mediterranean, in terms of numbers alone, but the problem is that for a navy that has neither seafaring traditions, nor has accumulated experience, and has not been perfectly trained, it has been hastily pulled into battle, Its expansion rate is basically proportional to the speed at which it finishes.

As the founder of this "crash navy", the commander of the Ottoman Turkish Imperial Navy, His Excellency Suleiman the Bulgarian, knew very well what kind of wrecked ships his fleet was full of, and what kind of stupid people were who operated these broken ships.

- Due to the rush of preparation time and the lack of a well-developed shipbuilding and repair industry system, the timber of most of the newly built warships did not have time to dry and process. These ships, barely made of damp wood, usually disintegrate after a year or two of use. The ready-made ships purchased on the other hand, mostly old merchant ships resold by Italian profiteers, were not only clumsy and slow to operate, making it difficult to install combat facilities such as ramming horns and ballistas, but also had a widespread problem of leakage at the bottom of the ships. It's not easy to get out of the port.

Even more terrifying, in order to recruit enough sailors in a very short time, Commander Suleiman had to turn his fleet into a magnificent ethnographic and linguistic museum, filled with Tatars, Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, Albanians, Arabs, Turkish officers who served as overseers, and even Genoese and Pisan sailors who had been forcibly captured. And, in order to save time. The entire fleet of oarsmen were bought from the slave market, and had to be chained and whipped with whips. What's worse is that they don't know how to paddle...... As a result, inside this hodgepodge of fleets, every day there are problems of religious beliefs and ethnic contradictions. And all kinds of group fights broke out. And there were often people fleeing and rebelling, and morale was negative from the start. Not to mention the fact that people often drown - the vast majority of the "sailors" in the Turkish fleet have not learned to swim so far!

In addition, given the poor level of education of medieval Europeans, General Suleiman's subordinates were largely illiterate and unlikely to know several foreign languages, making it difficult for them to communicate with each other. In order to solve the problem of language barriers, Commander Suleiman had to prepare a dozen interpreters for each combat meeting, and often misunderstood because of the poor quality of the translators, who had only been recruited for two or three months, and had no translation qualifications at that time. So their language proficiency is also very questionable.

Of course, even with all the above-mentioned disadvantages, as long as it is a long-term run-in, there is still hope to overcome these shortcomings and train a more decent navy - the future Age of Discovery. In the Caribbean, there are many notorious pirate ships, even sailors of all races, but the level of ship management and naval warfare is more fierce than that of the regular navy.

But the problem is that the young and irascible Sultan Mehmed II seems to be in a hurry to storm Constantinople by land and sea, so he only gave it to poor General Suleiman from beginning to end. It took less than half a year to prepare—less than half a year from the start of shipbuilding to the time of going to sea, and 20,000 sailors had to be recruited or purchased from the slave market during this time—and as a result, many hastily appointed captains had already set anchor and set sail in confusion before they could even figure out how many people were on their ships.

Of course, this hodgepodge fleet is constantly causing accidents almost as soon as it goes out to sea, bumping into boats from time to time, and disasters such as running aground, running aground, leaking, and catching fires continue to occur, and there are still people driving boats on the way...... In this case, according to General Suleiman's own estimates, if this fleet were to sail from Constantinople to Spain, the size of the fleet would shrink by at least three-quarters of its own on the way!

Not long ago, when Commander Suleiman, with more than ten times the superior force, commanded this huge Turkish fleet to block the Genoese reinforcement fleet, he was in danger because of serious command confusion. Thanks to the fact that the opponent is also an enthusiastic volunteer army with poor tactical command and coordination, the ships are also mainly transport ships, there are few professional warships, and the battlefield is in the narrow Dardanelles Strait, there is no room for maneuver to divert and move, and the Turks can still get fire support from coastal fortresses...... This was a dismal victory at a very heavy cost.

However, the Turkish fleet was now facing the walls of Constantinople, and Commander Suleiman was completely helpless against it.

Nevertheless, the Sultan's orders were to be carried out without compromise...... So, even without confidence, he issued a general attack order:

“…… Trumpet! Beat the drums! The whole fleet moves on! Even if you can't break through the city, at least you have to touch the walls of Constantinople! ”

Standing on the shaky undulating deck, facing the golden sun hanging high, he drew his scimitar and shouted.

Then, with the herald shouting and repeating Commander Suleiman's order, several black drummers, who had been waiting for a long time, waved their muscular arms and smashed their huge drumsticks on the cowhide war drums.

“…… Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock......"

Amid the rhythmic sound of war drums and the whipping of rowing slaves, the massive Turkish fleet began to move slowly forward.

——————————————————————————

Then the Turkish fleet was just outside the walls of Constantinople. met with the most stubborn resistance, hitting his head and bleeding.

- First, before reaching the wall that plunged into the sea, the two ships were cut open by sharp wooden stakes that the defenders had set up at the bottom of the water; Then, as soon as the Turkish fleet came into range, the soldiers and civilians of the city, who had been preparing at the top of the wall for a long time, immediately shouted and pulled the thick cable on the trebuchet lever. A long-range attack was launched against the approaching enemy fleet.

Dull, terrible sounds rang out over the towers of the walls of Constantinople, followed by a long roar through the air.

“…… Whoa—whoa—whoa—"

“…… It's a stone bullet! Oh! No - and fireballs!! ”

The crew of a Turkish battleship. Immediately there was a cry of terror. But the clumsy battleship obviously couldn't avoid the blow that broke through the air...... Black shadows flashing with smoke and fire flew towards them from the city walls.

A wave of scorching scorching stench. It almost brushed the top of the sailor's head, causing their hearts to stop beating in an instant. And when the fireballs and boulders finally fell to the surface of the sea and splashed a wave, every Turkish sailor who escaped death could not help but sigh with relief.

However, due to the fact that there were so many Turkish warships gathered on the sea, there were still a few unlucky ships that were hit head-on by trebuchets.

“…… Boom-boom-boom-"

With a loud roar, the mast of a certain battleship was hit by a stone bullet and broke off and collapsed. The toppled mast pulled up a large part of the deck, tearing the hull structure to pieces. The flying wood chips swept the surviving sailors in large chunks.

Then another dull roar rang out from the side of the poor battleship—the blow of the collapsed mast caused a huge crack in the side of the ship, and the raging sea water plunged into the cabin. Let this ship slam in an instant!

In the case of veteran Venetian or Genoese sailors, they might have struggled to mend their ships and plug the gaps, but in this demoralized and inferior Turkish fleet, everyone was busy jumping into the sea to escape, or scrambling for the dinghy that was fixed to the deck...... A moment later. The small warship, which had been smashed by trebuchets, disappeared forever into the waters of the Sea of Marmara.

However, the fate of another sail warship that managed to stick to the base of the Constantinople wall seems even more tragic than that of the ship that was smashed by the trebuchet, when the Turkish light infantry carrying it had not yet climbed the ladder to the top of the wall, a bronze nozzle appeared on the battlement of the wall...... A strange foot soldier in leather armor with a huge jar on his back, who looked a bit like an old vegetable farmer spraying pesticides, entered the battlefield confidently under the cover of a group of Eastern Roman infantry with large shields. I saw that he was holding a bronze nozzle in his right hand, and a metal lever was pressed in his left hand, and an assistant knocked a candle on the top of the nozzle, and suddenly a flame was lit with white smoke.

The Turkish soldier, who was still climbing on the ladder at this time, was shocked and changed color, and turned around and jumped into the sea regardless of it. But a large cloud of dazzling orange-red flames had already shot out from the flamethrower's bronze pipe, and in the blink of an eye, it was more than twenty meters away...... Almost chasing the besieging soldiers' butts, turning them into piles of humanoid torches, and then setting the wooden ships on fire, forcing the attackers to struggle in flames.

“…… Oh no!! It's wildfire! Flowing fire! Greek fire!!! Devil's thing!! ”

Cursing, wailing, and shouting in all languages immediately resounded under the walls. Many soldiers on fire struggled to roll on the deck, but the flames were like hellfire, and they could not be extinguished, but instead ignited the tung oil-coated cables and sails......

Looking at these poor worms screaming in pain, the people next to them could only retreat in horror, and when someone was held tightly by the person waving his arms in pain because he didn't have time to retreat immediately, a new scream immediately joined the symphony of death, until these living "torches" finally turned into a cloud of white smoke in the form of black charcoal, or the entire battleship turned into a huge fireball that was blazing into the sky......

- This is the secret of the Eastern Roman Empire for thousands of years, the oldest flamethrower in the history of mankind: Greek fire, or mobile fire.

From the time the Arab fleet first attacked Constantinople seven hundred years ago, it became the greatest nightmare for the infidels of the Middle East.

——————————————————————

Against the overwhelming barrage of stone projectiles, fireballs, and crossbow arrows. Squeezing through the burning wreckage of the ships, one Turkish battleship after another pasted onto the walls of Constantinople, and then struggled to erect ladders on the deck that undulated with the waves, trying to force their way up. But under the boiling oil and stones of the soldiers and civilians defending the city, and the spray of Greek fire with a range of twenty or thirty meters, all of them were in vain, and almost no one was able to climb to the top of the city alive.

Some self-proclaimed Turkish soldiers. Standing at the bow of the ship and looking up at the city wall that could not be attacked, he angrily waved the chain hammer in his hand, smashing the wall roots that could be reached one by one. It seemed that he was about to smash the city wall in front of him, but this majestic city wall, which was wide and thick enough to be able to compete in the racecourse above, was obviously not something that could be shaken by a mere chain hammer...... And due to the height difference between the two. The small trebuchets and ballistae on the deck of the battleship were difficult to kill and injure the defenders of the Eastern Roman Empire standing on top of the wall, and they could only leave shallow marks on the solid city walls in vain.

Some of the Turkish warships seemed to be completely frightened by the heavy casualties ahead, and after holding out for a while, they tried to retreat, but often before they could turn around, other ships crashed straight into them from behind...... The botched navigation jishu and chaotic battlefield command made this siege battle soon completely out of rhythm. All the battleships were tangled in disarray, wailing to withstand the ferocious bombardment of the defenders.

Looking at the poor performance of his landlubber fleet, the commander of the Suleiman Navy on the flagship suddenly felt his eyes darken, and he almost fainted.

- Although he knew for a long time that the combat effectiveness of this fleet was poor. But I didn't expect it to be so bad...... Even a more orderly attack and retreat could not be done, so they could only gather hedgehogs under the city walls in a mess, and endure the torture and slaughter of the coastal defense fortresses of the Eastern Roman Empire on one side!

In fact, in order to be able to climb the walls of Constantinople, Commander Suleiman had previously delved into the experience of the Fourth Crusade in storming Constantinople from the sea. Considerable preparatory work was done - siege towers about 12 meters high were erected on the largest warships so that soldiers could rush directly to the coastal walls for hand-to-hand combat, and a thick layer of ash was sprinkled on the deck of the ships, and soaked fur and asbestos were wrapped around the hulls to protect against the famous Greek fires...... But the problem is that due to the temporary pull of the "sailors" captured by the Zhuangding. His poor ability in navigation, coupled with the passive resistance within the fleet, whether intentional or unintentional, made all his preparations useless to Zuihou.

- Commander Suleiman's six special landing ships, because the addition of tall siege towers seriously affected the ship's center of gravity, and the ship was driven by a group of extremely poor level laymen, so all of these ships capsized and sank on the way across the Sea of Marmara, and none of them remained...... In addition, the lives of the most elite 400 Turkish advance death squads - all of whom could not swim......

And the various fire prevention measures he ordered to be prepared, also because the combat effectiveness of the sailors was too low, still did not help this one-sided situation.

At this time, as if noticing the banner of the commander of the Ottoman Turkish Navy, the fire of the defenders gradually began to pour down on Suleiman's head.

- Just as His Excellency Commander Suleiman was beating his chest, with a scream tearing through the air, a row of slender black shadows suddenly crossed the sea and stabbed fiercely at the flagship...... In the stunned eyes of His Excellency the Commander, a heavily armored guard beside him suddenly seemed to have been hit by an invisible fist, and the whole person suddenly flew backwards, accompanied by a terrified scream that was completely out of tune, flew over the entire deck from above, fell into the murky sea, and stirred up a huge wave.

Immediately afterward, more crossbow arrows pierced the bulkhead of the battleship, causing a burst of sawdust on the deck and in the cabin, stumps and bones flying all over the sky, large balls of blood staining the planks red, and even the mast "creaked" down - the heavy ballista used by the Eastern Roman Empire, which relied on a complex set of pulleys for winding and had to be fired from a fixed base, each of which was the size of a broomstick, and its penetrating power was so powerful that it could not only knock off knights in heavy armor, It can even directly pierce the bulkhead of the battleship!

The same heavy ballistas, which were also equipped in the Turkish fleet, but hit the majestic walls of Constantinople as pitifully as an itch.

In short, looking at his flagship because it was too far forward, it was almost beaten into a hornet's nest in an instant...... This stimulus was like a straw that broke the camel's back, allowing Suleiman to signal "retreat" while jumping into the dinghy to change to other warships.

Those Turkish warships, which had not yet been put into battle, suddenly turned around and retreated as if they had been amnestied. But at the closest point to the city walls, quite a few ships had their masts broken by ballistae and thus lost their mobility...... As the defenders spewed Greek fire from the walls and poured oil and red-hot charcoal, the abandoned ships were quickly plunged into a hell of fire......

- As in the original history, the Turks looked like a large landlubber fleet and did not pose any threat to Constantinople from the sea......)

!