1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 157 Iron-clad Paladin

"Your Majesty, just three days ago, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II led an army of 100,000 and surrounded the city of Belgrade. There were only 6,000 defenders led by the eldest son of the White Knight Hunyadi, Laszlo Hunyadi, and several thousand civilians in the city."

In the Carthaginian palace, Isaac looked at the anxious Prime Minister Isurter, slowly made himself a cup of coffee, and brought a glass of wine to the Prime Minister.

"One hundred thousand? There are still so many..."

Isaac looked calm and continued talking to himself.

"Among the 100,000 troops, nearly 20,000 are knights and civilians from Serbia. The White Knight Hunyadi really went too far and forced the nobles who originally held a neutral attitude to side with Mehmed II."

"What did he do?"

Isaac took out the latte art pitcher, poured milk foam into the brown coffee, admired the milk foam he had made with satisfaction, and took a sip comfortably.

"Last year, in view of the Ottomans' growing power and the fact that he was overwhelmed by doubts at home and abroad, the White Knight Hunyadi announced an open reconciliation with all his enemies, and together they would deal with the aggressive Ottomans, including Grand Duke Durand."

"The White Knight Hunyadi and Grand Duke Durand joined forces and initially achieved considerable success. They even sent a detachment to bypass the Ottoman army and head straight to the Bulgarian region, forcing the Ottomans to return to defend."

"Isn't this nice?"

"After the Ottoman offensive was temporarily halted, the White Knights began to become arrogant again. Not only did they send people to confiscate all of Grand Duke Durand's properties as military funds, they also ridiculed the nobles who had previously supported the Ottomans."

"Meanwhile, Mehmed II took steady steps, continuing to assemble his army and inland navy while using diplomatic offensives to win over the Serbian nobility."

"Many Serbian nobles already hated the White Knights, and Grand Duke Durand himself was suspicious of the arrogant Hunyadi family. The alliance between the two sides soon collapsed again."

"Then, the Ottoman army continued to march northward. Hunyadi was unable to stop them, so he retreated to Belgrade to defend it. He sent his eldest son Laszlo as the chief of the city defense, and returned to Korvin Castle to gather reinforcements."

"I have written to you in several letters that it is clear that you really do not care about the situation in the Balkans?"

Isurte's eyes turned red with anger and he slapped the table.

These days, he has been ordered to coordinate the integration and stability of the African region, establish administrative agencies, and plan land distribution, and he is very busy.

"Look, he's in a hurry."

Isaac took out a map of Belgrade and waved to the prime minister, asking him to look at it.

"Belgrade is a fortified city. It was built to resist invasion. The entire city is roughly triangular in shape, with only the southeast facing the enemy. The other three sides are surrounded by the Danube and Sava rivers, and can receive a steady supply of supplies via water. It is truly a shield of God."

"The Danube River flows from northwest to southeast. The Hungarian navy goes downstream, while the Ottoman navy must go upstream, which puts them at a disadvantage inherently."

"As long as Hunyadi can defeat the Ottoman navy, which is not strong to begin with, and open up the transportation line to Belgrade, the Hungarian army will have the possibility of holding out for a long time."

"Whether the two sides will continue to fight or decide the outcome of the battle depends on the opinions of Hunyadi and Mehmed II."

Isaac drew a circle on the map.

"Whether they win or lose has little to do with us. It's best if we can fight to the death."

"If Mehmed II loses, his prestige will fall further, which will give us an opportunity to regain lost ground."

"If Hunyadi loses, his enemies in the Kingdom of Hungary will surely take advantage of his misfortune. The young King Ladislaus is a wimp, but his uncle, Count Ulrich of Celje, has always been very dissatisfied with the power of the White Knight. The conflict between the Habsburgs and the Hunyadi family will erupt."

"The prerequisite is that they have to fight hard in Belgrade."

Isurt understood a little and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"I see. Is this why you don't transfer the army back to the Balkans?"

Isaac nodded.

Due to the butterfly effect he brought about, Mehmed II lost the Battle of Constantinople, failed to gain the high prestige in the original history, and did not rely on his unparalleled bravery as in the original history and rush headlong into Belgrade.

After fighting in North Africa for nearly two years, the defenders of Constantinople could only protect themselves. Under such circumstances, Mehmed II chose to act cautiously and did not officially besiege Belgrade until the spring of 1457.

If he had always defended Constantinople and had not opened up the North African battlefield, Mehmed II might never have had the desire to invade Serbia.

In this case, even if they had accumulated strength and experience for ten years and happened to defeat Mehmed II in a field battle, foreign powers would inevitably flock to him to seize the fruits of victory.

"But, Your Majesty, our army has just finished its conquest. It will take time to rest and replenish our troops. If Mehmed II wins the war, how will we respond?"

Isurt continued to ask questions.

"It doesn't matter. According to my plan, when the decision was made to attack Belgrade, Mehmed II had already lost. He lost completely."

"In the Balkan Wars of these years, the Ottomans, Hungarians, Serbians, even Wallachia, Moldavia, and Venice, they were all losers."

Isaac opened his hands to cover the entire Balkan Peninsula, his eyes were scarlet.

"The only winner is me."

……

Belgrade, Balkans.

On the other side of White City, on the plain surrounded by rivers, tents were densely packed like black clouds, pressing towards the city and the defenders on the city walls.

In the large red and green tent, Mehmed II was in good spirits, talking and laughing loudly with several of his trusted ministers.

"Your Majesty, as you expected, the Greek emperor is stuck in the quagmire of North Africa. His army is deployed in various cities to stabilize the situation and has no intention of going north."

"I heard that when Grand Duke Durand heard about this, he cried out that he had been deceived and vomited blood. He has been bedridden ever since and I'm afraid he won't live long!"

"As long as you defeat the White Knight, the Balkan Treaty, which only existed on paper, will completely fall apart, and Isaac, who is alienated from his loyalty, will no longer be able to obtain any assistance from the Christian countries in the west."

"By then, won't Constantinople be yours?"

A middle-aged Pasha exclaimed and drank the juice in his hand.

Mehmed II also nodded slightly with a smile on his face.

In his view, the Emperor of Constantinople's war against North Africa was undoubtedly a failure, and his indifference to his Balkan allies made Constantine and his son lose the prestige they had worked so hard to establish.

After all these years, is the flawless Emperor Isaac finally going to be exposed?

"Ibrahim, you are worthy of being a member of the Chandarle family. We really envy your eloquence, haha..."

Next to the sword-wielding vizier Mahmud, a Janissary legion commander from the Devshirme system spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Chandar Ibrahim's face suddenly turned ugly. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Mahmoud who stood up.

"Your Majesty, from what I have heard, the White Knights are gathering an army, and a priest named Capistrano is also calling for a crusade. We don't have much time left."

"As for Ibrahim, he doesn't need to command the battle, so he naturally doesn't understand the hardships the soldiers are going through."

Mahmoud glanced at Ibrahim, whose face turned blue and red, and he had to hold back what he was about to say.

Mehmed II watched his subjects fighting each other with a smile and did not stop them.

After the death of Grand Vizier Khalil, the warlord Mahmud rose to power, and the power of the Devshirme faction also grew.

Mehmed II originally wanted to support Zagan Pasha to fight against Mahmud, but Zagan Pasha's deteriorating health and fading utilitarianism quickly aborted the plan. The Sultan had to find new weights to maintain the balance of power.

Perhaps because he felt a little guilty towards his teacher, or perhaps because he remembered the contributions the Chandar family had made to the empire, Muhammad II began to rehabilitate Khalil Grand Vizier. Not only did he erect a pillar named after Khalil outside the palace to commemorate him, he also re-employed Khalil's son Ibrahim the Younger and returned part of the confiscated Chandar family property to them.

Mahmoud Pasha was of course quite indignant about this, but he also had to admire the political acumen of Khalil Grand Vizier.

If it were him, in such a desperate situation, he would most likely start a rebellion and give it a try, instead of being like Khalil, who sacrificed his life heroically in exchange for the preservation and revival of the Chandar family.

"Well, you are all the backbone of the country, and we should work together to overcome the difficulties."

Mehmed II said seriously and began to get the meeting to the point.

"Isaac's army is stranded in North Africa, Vlad III is busy at home, Skanderbeg is powerless, and Hungary is in turmoil. This is an opportunity given to us by Allah." "László Hunyadi, the commander of the Belgrade garrison, is ambitious but incompetent. We should try our best to capture the city before the White Knights lead their reinforcements."

Mehmed II turned to the fleet commander in the corner.

"Baltoglu, what's the situation with the fleet?"

"Reporting to His Majesty the Sultan, we have confiscated civilian ships and gathered more than a hundred large and small ships. All of them have entered the Danube and Sava rivers, cutting off Belgrade's water transportation routes."

"Very good. I hope you will make amends and stop Hunyadi's reinforcements on the other side of the river."

Mehmed II nodded.

"What does Venice say?"

"Your Majesty, after the Greek emperor destroyed the Hafsid dynasty, he joined forces with Italian forces to force Venice to sign the humiliating Treaty of Lodi."

"The treaty stipulated that the Republic of Venice would return Negroponte Island, Modon and Koroni Port to Constantinople, cede the Karpathos Islands to the Knights Hospitaller, return several Italian cities occupied in previous years to the Duchy of Milan, and give up commercial privileges in Constantinople and Albania."

"It is said that if the new pope had not intervened, even the Naxos Islands would have been divided up between the Greek emperor and the Knights Hospitaller."

"For this reason, the former Doge of Venice, Foscari, resigned and died soon after his resignation."

"I'm afraid these profit-seeking businessmen will no longer easily support our war."

Mehmed II twirled his beard and made silent estimates.

"This may not be a bad thing for us. After the Venetians lost a series of colonies, they became more dependent on our coastal ports. They have also become mortal enemies with the Greek emperor. We may be able to take advantage of this."

"The most valuable island of Crete is still in their hands. Although the loss is huge, it will not cause them to be devastated."

"In the final analysis, we must win this war, threaten Constantinople with victory, curb the Greek emperor's momentum, and give his enemies hope to attack him together."

Mehmed II concluded.

He stood up and looked at the civil and military officials present.

"Tomorrow morning, we will cook and move our entire army forward to attack the city with artillery fire."

"We must take this city before summer comes, and make sure Hunyadi never returns!"

……

"On February 1457, 2, Isaac III, the co-emperor of the Roman Empire, went hunting in the forest with his relatives and ministers, and the sheikhs of various tribes. He shot three times and got a wild boar and two hares. All the ministers rushed to congratulate him..."

"After that, the emperor moved to the parade ground and showed his mighty military might to everyone. Everyone was amazed and shouted "Long live the emperor..."

At the newly opened hippodrome outside Carthage, Isaac tried hard to decipher the ancient Latin characters, reading the manuscript in his hand word by word, wishing he could throw the parchment in the historian's face.

Lake in front of him accepted Isaac's scrutiny openly and seemed very proud of his masterpiece.

"I've told you not to use such unfamiliar words to describe things, but why won't you listen?"

As a co-emperor of the Roman Empire, Isaac certainly recognized Latin, which was once the official language. However, Lake in front of him deliberately used some ancient characters to show his literary talent, making Isaac's reading experience very poor.

"Your Majesty, I thought you hired me as the royal historian because you liked my writing style."

"If you really don't understand, I will translate it again in Greek later."

Isaac took a deep breath and returned the parchment to the cheerful and cheerful historian.

If he had not had some real talent and knowledge, and if the maps of the Maghreb he drew and the human chronicles he compiled had not provided a lot of help to Isaac, Isaac would not have agreed to his request and hired him as his royal historian.

"After all, my ultimate goal is to write a true history that is destined to be incomprehensible to the world..."

Pushing the chattering Lake away, Isaac refocused his attention on the racecourse.

On the spacious parade ground, four hundred heavily-armored knights were arrayed in a strict formation, with both men and horses fully armed. The majestic knights rode their tall horses and galloped on the hard ground. Every step they took shook the earth and also shocked the hearts of the onlookers.

This is the cavalry regiment recently formed by Isaac, and it is also the only heavy cavalry in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Armored knight, armored paladin.

As the most prestigious special force in the Eastern Empire, the Armored Paladins were once active on battlefields everywhere and established a great reputation.

Compared to the knights-errant in Western Europe, the Armored Paladins were organized, disciplined, and absolutely loyal to the emperor, the Senate, and the Roman people. They were a real sharp blade.

Isaac had tried to rebuild this powerful heavy cavalry a long time ago, but due to his limited funds and the presence of a powerful enemy, he had to put it on hold temporarily and chose more cost-effective infantry and firearms.

Despite this, Isaac still gathered the last few talents who had received Ironclad Paladin education and made them instructors of the Royal Knights Academy, laying the groundwork for its subsequent reconstruction.

After the victory of the Carthaginian War, Isaac, who had obtained a large amount of funds from the West African trade and the trans-Sahara Desert trade, immediately put the establishment of the Ironclad Paladins on the agenda, allocated 8,000 ducats, and asked Instructor Di Lin to select strong soldiers from the army and the Knight Academy according to the most stringent standards and reorganize them into the Ironclad Paladins.

This legion was extremely expensive. The matching armor and horse armor, lances and maces were all customized to the highest standards. The horses and servants were strictly selected. In just over half a year, more than 8,000 ducats poured out like water, and finally this 400-man heavy cavalry regiment was forged.

Due to political needs, the Royal Knights Academy has now become a place for the children of nobles and wealthy merchants to gild themselves. Isaac ordered Instructor Di Lin to rebuild the Armored Holy Cavalry Academy in Carthage, which is specifically responsible for training suitable heavy cavalry talents.

All members of the Iron Knights are Orthodox Christians, but there is no strict regulation on nationality. In addition to the Greeks who make up the majority, there are also a considerable number of Berbers, Slavs, Armenians and southern French people. All of them have undergone three rounds of political review to ensure their absolute loyalty.

Anyway, according to the registration books, they were all real Romans.

Isaac divided the Iron Knights into two groups, named Belisarius and Narses, each with 200 men and 400 attendants and servants.

In terms of combat methods, the Belisarius Legion mainly used lance charges, and used maces as close combat weapons. The men and horses were heavily armored. In addition to war horses, they were also equipped with a riding horse and two camels for transporting goods, and their function was to counter infantry.

In fact, the Armored Paladins were not originally designed to simply attack heavy cavalry, and charging with lances was not their main method of combat. Horse bows and javelins were also their important weapons.

After Manuel I of the Komnenos family came to power, he was very fond of Western European knights. He used the Norman knights as a model for the armored paladins, and changed them beyond recognition into their current appearance.

Isaac's Belisarius Regiment was also a Western European style heavy cavalry. As for what the original armored holy cavalry looked like, how they were trained, and how they marched and fought, Di Lin was not sure, and neither was Isaac.

As for the Narcissus Group, it was a different story.

"Narsis Regiment, charge!"

On the racecourse, Instructor Di Lin waved his flag and another group of heavy cavalry began to charge. Their mounts were tough and enduring Turkmen horses, which gave up some speed in exchange for stronger charging ability and endurance.

The cavalry of the Narses Legion wore medium armor, and the horses only had armor on their heads, making them lighter and more flexible.

Their weapons were not heavy lances, but a special iron short-handled hammer that was thick at the front and thin at the back.

"emission!"

The cavalrymen dispersed, raised their strange-shaped weapons, aimed them forward, and lit the fuse.

Bang bang bang!
After a burst of smoke, the target was riddled with bullets.

The three-eyed musket is the wisdom from the East.

As early as several years ago, Isaac personally drew the blueprint and asked the craftsmen to manufacture this weapon that has both long-range shooting and close combat capabilities, but he has never succeeded.

The Christian world’s cast iron technology was so poor that it either leaked air or was too heavy to satisfy Isaac.

Later, Isaac sent people to the east, and coaxed and kidnapped several Islamic craftsmen from Samarkand, and only then did he break through this technology and put it into practice.

In addition to the three-barreled musket, the Narses Regiment was also equipped with sabers, which were used to fight against cavalry. They were Isaac's unique weapon specifically used against Berber cavalry and Turkic cavalry.

Looking at the stunned expressions of the tribal sheikhs, Isaac was very satisfied.

The armored paladins were still inexperienced, lacked coordination, and did not fully grasp the new weapons, but despite this, the semi-finished heavy cavalry still shocked these frogs in the well who had lived in the mountains all their lives.

Isaac raised the corner of his mouth and raised his right hand, feeling the thunderous shouts of "Long live the emperor".

Iron-clad Paladin should actually be translated as Armored Knight. For the sake of fun, I use the translation of Paradox here. It is actually wrong. Just know it.
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(End of this chapter)