"Oh no! A section of the walls of Theodosius in Brachne has been blown down!"

Soldiers from the northern defense area stumbled into the New Palace (known as Topkapi Palace, known as the New Palace until the 19th century, and then officially known as Topkapi Palace) to report the bad news to the Grand Vizier and the Imperial Bureaucrats.

After hearing this news, the first reaction of Koprulu and the bureaucrats was that it was impossible, after all, the walls of Theodorius had not been destroyed by siege machines since they were completed, and there were other reasons for the fall of the two times.

But now, someone actually came to tell them that the city wall had been blown down, or was it blown down by Chinese from afar......

Did the gods who sheltered the walls no longer protect the Ottoman Empire after they came to Constantinople?

The bureaucrats were enveloped in a faint sense of fear for a while, and Koplulu looked at their appearance, and his heart was also a little anxious, but he knew that as a decision-maker, he must stabilize his emotions and stay calm at all times.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the anxiety in his heart, Koprulu looked at the bureaucrats present, called the name of the Minister of War in charge of the commander-in-chief of the defense of the city, and asked, "How is the garrison in the Brachne district, and how many soldiers are in charge of defending there?"

"Three thousand soldiers of the garrison of Constantinilla, four thousand soldiers of the Thracian province, and eight thousand militiamen were deployed on the walls of the Brachne district, and the streets near the walls were largely blocked and fortified for defense." The Secretary of War replied.

Because the district of Brachne was located in a prominent part of the northern part of the city, it had always been one of the targets of the enemy attack on the city, so the defenders deployed more troops here for defense.

Hearing that 15,000 soldiers were deployed in the Brachne district, Kop Lulu was relieved, but for the sake of safety, he decided to send reinforcements to the Brachne district to replenish his troops.

At present, the city of Constantiniye was well armed, and the garrison of Constantinier, together with the garrison of Thrace, some of the soldiers of the field regiments transferred back to the capital by the Sultan, and the militia mobilized in the city, added up to at least 80,000 soldiers.

In Koplulu's opinion, such a large garrison, and the abundant food in the city, should be enough to survive the enemy's long siege, and when they can no longer bear to retreat on their own.

"Evacuate the citizens of the Brachny district, organize militia reinforcements in the Brachne district, and build a new defense line based on the streets of the city as soon as possible before the Xia army breaks through the existing defense line." Koprulu commanded.

The Minister of War agreed, and after a brief meeting to discuss the situation in the city, the bureaucrats departed, and Koplulu walked to the highest terrace of the new palace, and looked down on the besieged city.

It can be seen that fierce fighting is breaking out in some streets of the city near the Golden Horn, from where the sound of dense gunfire is heard, and black smoke from the smoke and flames rise into the air, and the fighting is fierce.

His gaze crossed the coastal walls and threw himself into the Golden Horn, where countless Christian warships cruised on the sea, occasionally firing cannonballs at the coast, which whizzed over the walls and fell into the city, causing damage to the houses of the people.

Constantinniye has become an isolated city, which cannot be changed.

Internationally, the Ottoman Empire has always oppressed and invaded its neighbors in an aggressive manner, and friendly countries did not dare to express their stance because of the strong military strength of the coalition forces, and France, the only apparent ally, sent envoys to announce the severance of the alliance between the two countries long before the siege.

Konstantiniye had no foreign aid, they could only rely on themselves to repel the siege of the enemy army, as long as they could support the coalition army until their own supplies were exhausted and unable to continue the siege, they paid some more price to end the war, and the empire still had hope of re-rising.

It's just that I don't know what the situation is in the Sultan now, the news of the fiasco of Edirne is no longer a secret within Konstantiniye, and most of the military and civilians have already learned about it through various channels.

No one knows the whereabouts of the Sultan, not even the Grand Vizier himself, no one knows whether the Sultan died on the battlefield, became a prisoner of the coalition forces, or managed to escape, but Koprulu

It is guessed that the Sultan must not have fallen into the hands of the enemy, otherwise the Sultan would have been pushed out by enemy means and forced to surrender.

The Sultan did not fall into the hands of the enemy, so where did he go? Koprulu's thoughts drifted to his mind, almost imprinted on the map of the empire.

At the moment, they had the news that the Empire's territory in the Peloponnese was almost occupied by the Holy Alliance, and that the Kingdom of Greece had been established with the support of the Pope, and that only Macedonia seemed to be the Empire's territory in Europa that was safe, and that if the Sultan managed to escape, it was likely that he would flee to Macedonia.

It's just that Macedonia doesn't have many garrisons, and it's not completely loyal to the empire, and if the Sultan really flees to Macedonia, he's afraid that it will be more than lucky.

There are many people who are worried about the Sultan as much as Koprulu, but a large number of them are concerned about where the next candidate for the Sultan should be chosen if something happens to the Sultan.

In their view, the safety of the Sultan is not important, what matters is their own interests, and if the Sultan is hung up or captured, they can directly push their favorite candidate to the top for their own benefit.

As for the siege of the capital, it is not a problem at all, the Ottoman Empire is vast and rich in products, so it is a big deal to sign a sub-city alliance with those countries, cede some areas and lose some money, and they still have a chance to rise.

Regardless of what the upper echelons of the empire thought, after the walls of the Brachne district were blown down, the defenders deployed here began to move, trying to pull up a line of defense before the Xia army attacked.

Mahmood, the commander of the company of the Constantinniye garrison, and his men weaved through the chaotic streets, where the terrible shelling of the houses and buildings near the city walls collapsed, and the streets were littered with broken walls and fragments of masonry, as well as the bodies of human beings buried with only part of their torsos exposed.

"G-gh—"

Some of the recruits, who had only been drafted from the city for a short time, looked at the corpses in that place, and even when they trotted, they couldn't help but churn in their stomachs and retched from time to time.

Mahmud ignored the retching soldiers, and his eyes were on the tall walls of Theodociosius, which had not yet collapsed, and many soldiers were still stationed on them.

At the gap in the collapsed wall, the collapsed ruins formed a steep slope, behind which many soldiers piled up obstacles on the orders of the officers to use as cover for the rest of the battle.

Soon, Mahmoud and his men came to the bottom of the city walls, and his superiors ordered him to lead his company up the walls to join the defense, and their task was to help defend the city walls, taking advantage of the height of the walls to shoot condescendingly after the Xia army approached.

After receiving the order, Mahmoud and his men climbed the city wall, where there were more soldiers than he had imagined, and the situation here was even more tragic than he had imagined, many of the battlements were destroyed by enemy shells, leaving only a bare gap, and the stone bricks on the wall had been stained red with blood, and even if they were washed with water, they would still leave conspicuous marks.

"Mahmud, your company's mission is to defend this city cannon, no matter what the cost, it must be defended!"

"Yes!"

After watching the regimental commander who came to give the order leave, Mahmoud withdrew his salute gesture, looked at his soldiers, and said solemnly, "Did you hear that? No matter what the cost, the city must be defended."

The soldiers all nodded silently and agreed, and at this moment, the unique and passionate horn sound of the Xia army suddenly sounded outside the city wall, and at the moment when the horn sounded, all the soldiers on the city wall were excited, and subconsciously turned their eyes to the outside of the city, looking at the Xia army formation that stretched for several miles.

Pedal Pedal –

In front of the Xia army, Zhang Pu rode his horse in front of the military formation, he looked at the line infantry that were neatly arranged and held high, and a heroic spirit was brewing in his chest.

As the son of Zhang Mingzhen, the Duke of Dingguo, Zhang Pu was deeply trusted and relied on by Fu Xinghua, so when Fu Xinghua was in charge of the Chinese army, Zhang Pu was able to inspect the former army on his behalf.

As the horses galloped, so did the eyes of the soldiers

As Zhang Pu and the Xia Army battle flag behind him that was held high by the standard-bearer and fluttered in the wind moved, Zhang Pu raised his saber and shouted:

"The general has an order, the whole army attacks, and the soldiers are united in hatred of the enemy, vowing to take Konstantiniye!"

"Xia Jun wins!"

"Xia Jun Wansheng !!"

Amid the roar of the soldiers, the snare drummers of each company also began to beat the snare drum rhythmically, and the soldiers immediately marched forward to the sound of the drums.

"From—"

In addition to the line of infantry marching in orderly steps, the tall siege towers also slowly advanced towards the city wall with the vigorous push of the Turkish prisoners of war, although they were unwilling to help the enemy, but under the threat of black hole muzzles and sharp bayonets, they could only push the siege towers hard.

At the same time, some of the artillery barrels on the Xia army's position were also put into battle again, and in the deafening roar, many shells whistled over the heads of the marching soldiers, smashed on the walls that had not yet collapsed, or fell into the gap, killing and wounding the defenders who were waiting behind.

"They're finally here."

Mahmoud muttered, checking the flintlock pistol again, and he saw that the soldiers on the entire section of the city wall had already entered their combat posts, and the shirtless artillerymen were in danger of reloading the city's anti-aircraft guns.

"Dodge shelling!"

The regimental commander not far away tore his throat and roared loudly, and as soon as his words fell, dozens of shells fell with a whistling fall, smashing on the city wall one after another, tearing some soldiers who did not have time to dodge to pieces, or overturning the heavy city artillery completely.

Mahmoud saw with his own eyes that a cannon was accurately hit by a cannonball, the barrel of the cannon was smashed and twisted and flew up, rolled in mid-air and then smashed down heavily, smashing several artillery pieces flat, blood mixed with brains slowly oozing out, extremely bloody and cruel.

"Damn! It's horrible!"

When several recruits saw this scene, they vomited on the spot, and Mahmoud silently mourned for the tragic death of the robe, and continued to look at the Xia army formation outside.

Under the cover of his own artillery, the Xia infantry swept towards the strong city wall like a red torrent, looking at the endless sea of red, Mahmud suddenly had the illusion that he was standing on the embankment, about to meet the impact of the flood.

Soon, the Xia army entered the range of the city's anti-Japanese artillery, and several artillery pieces on the city wall launched artillery bombardment one after another, their target was mainly the extremely conspicuous siege towers, and the solid cannonballs smashed on the siege towers, leaving a huge gap in the wooden equipment, sawdust flew sideways, and the entire tower shook and trembled.

But this did not stop the siege tower, and the shelling of the city artillery instead attracted the attention of the Xia artillery, which concentrated its fire on the area where the city artillery was located, and several shells fell, destroying several artillery pieces one after another.

The city wall was also chaotic for a time because of the artillery bombardment of the Xia army, and the soldiers scattered in panic to avoid the shelling from the sky, completely ignoring the enemy who was gradually approaching the city wall.

As time went on, gunfire erupted inside and outside the walls, and both sides came within range of muskets, and the siege towers were positioned at the top of the towers to be a head higher than the walls, allowing the light infantry deployed on the top of the towers to fire condescendingly at the defenders on the walls.

Under the accurate sniping of the light infantry, the defenders on the city wall fell one after another, shouting and shouting as they fired back at the top of the tower, but most of the projectiles hit the bunkers.

The light infantry succeeded in attracting most of the defenders' firepower, and the siege tower then slowly approached the wall, stopping at a distance where the drawbridge could land on the wall, and a large number of soldiers moved up and down inside the siege tower, gathering behind the drawbridge.

"After the drawbridge is lowered, rush in in one go, don't hesitate, don't stop, do you hear it?!"

The company commander looked at the nervous soldiers with their guns in their hands, and told them, after which he shouted overhead.

As his voice fell, the drawbridge fell with a bang, slammed into the wall, and shook a puff of dust, and when the drawbridge fell, the company commander put the whistle to his mouth and puffed out his cheeks

The force blows.

In the next second, at the sharp whistle, many line infantry rushed onto the drawbridge with their rifles up, trying to jump into the city wall to fight the Turkish army, but they had only rushed out a few steps before the soldiers who were running in front were shot by the oncoming projectiles and fell to the ground.

The Turkish troops on the city wall raised their guns and fired at the drawbridge and siege tower, and in the continuous gunfire, the Xia soldiers rushed onto the drawbridge one after another.

At this moment, a Turkish soldier close to the drawbridge took the opportunity to throw a can of Nafa oil into the tower, only to hear a bang, the tower ignited a raging fire, and the Xia soldiers who were still in the tower were instantly engulfed by the flames, letting out a heart-rending wail.

They screamed and rushed out of the siege towers, jumped in both directions, fell from the sky and fell to their deaths, or continued to charge at the natives on the walls with flames, trying to infect them with flames, but were quickly killed by random gunfire.