1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 98: The Horn of Holy War

"Father, I heard that you are seeking help from Western European countries again, even at the cost of selling land, money, reputation and religious independence?"

"As long as we——"

"Give up on this idea."

Isaac spoke bluntly, shattering Constantine's fantasy.

In the original time and space, Constantine spent a lot of money to save the fate of Constantinople.

It can be said that Constantine XI sold everything he could sell.

He promised Mesembria and Serimbria to the Hungarian governor Hunyadi, promised several small islands in the Aegean Sea to King Afonso of Aragon, and used the taxes of Constantinople to win over the Venetians.

Constantine XI even actually invited the forces of the Roman Catholic Church to enter Constantinople and allowed them to preside over Catholic masses in exchange for the sympathy of Catholic countries.

What was the result? How much aid did Western European countries provide?

The answer is: almost zero.

After Constantine agreed to the Pope's request, Nicholas V did travel around, calling for a holy war and sending letters to Catholic countries asking them to support the defense of Constantinople.

Thus, the rulers of European Catholic countries realized very reluctantly that a terrible shadow was looming over Constantinople.

Countries have conducted extensive exchanges through diplomatic channels, but have not reached a consensus.

The newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III sent a harsh but empty ultimatum to Mehmed II, but the Sultan did not even break the fire seal when he received the letter.

King Afonso of Aragon sent a small fleet of ten ships to the Aegean Sea, but withdrew halfway.

The Hungarian Sahib and the King of Poland received the letter, but they both remembered their previous failures and were unwilling to provoke the Ottomans again.

The Genoese were angry and frightened by the Sultan's brutal behavior, but they were unable to provide any practical help - the country was no longer the prosperous West Water Griffin it once was, and the domestic situation was not much better than that of the dying Eastern Roman Empire.

The Venetians were even more indifferent, too lazy to even say nice things overtly.

"Your emperor cannot place all his hopes on us."

The Venetian envoy said this, leaving Constantine XI, who had come to ask for help, sitting alone in a daze.

At the end of 1452, the completion of the Fort Cutthroat finally gave the Venetians some inspiration and they convened a parliament.

The vast majority of senators did not agree to let Constantinople fend for itself and believed that support should be provided.

However, when it comes to specific rescue measures, these profit-seeking businessmen begin to blame, abuse and shirk responsibility against each other.

A small number of senators even proposed to abandon Constantinople directly, giving up this city that had no value anymore.

Later, the Governor gave an ambiguous order to his fleet commanders.

"We must protect the safety of Christians as much as possible, but at the same time, we must avoid conflict with the Ottomans."

What kind of behavior is Li Zhongtang!

On November 1452, 11, a Venetian captain sailed a grain ship from the Black Sea into the Sea of ​​Marmara, trying to sell high-priced grain to the defenders in Constantinople.

While crossing the Bosphorus, he refused to pay taxes to the Ottomans and was sunk by a powerful shot from the Cutthroat Fort.

Mehmed II executed most of the Venetian sailors who escaped death, took a handsome little boy into his harem, and released a few sailors back to Constantinople as a warning.

After this, most Venetian merchants no longer dared to oppose Mehmed II and avoided Constantinople.

The indifference and cowardice of the Venetians made Pope Nicholas V furious, but he could do nothing about it.

He wrote to the Venetian Senate, expressing his wish to rent five galleys from them to go and save Constantinople.

However, the Venetians told the Pope to first pay off the debt the Vatican had incurred from the Varna Crusade.

Pope Nicholas V was disheartened by the indifference of Western European countries, so he hired three Genoese merchant ships at his own expense to go to Constantinople to provide assistance.

Among the European countries in the original time and space, only Isaac's brother-in-law, the King of Portugal and Algarve, the passionate young man Alfonso V, actually organized a huge army of more than 10,000 people after the fall of Constantinople, claiming to expel the Ottomans from Europe.

However, Alfonso V's noble ministers strongly opposed it and even prepared to launch a rebellion.

Finally, Alfonso V had no choice but to send his troops to North Africa at the request of the nobles, abandoning the unattainable ideal of the Crusades and instead seizing the land that was within reach.

In the original time and space, Constantine XI betrayed the independence of religion, but in the end, he got nothing in return except being deserted by the lower-class Orthodox Christians.

As for the title of Roman Emperor, people now don’t even care about the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, let alone a heretic Greek emperor.

"Our Western European brothers give us as much aid as the Mamluk Sultan."

Citizens who originally supported the unification of the church expressed grief and anger as they did not receive the support they had imagined.

It is better to hope that Sultan Mehmed II will be bitten to death by monkeys than to place your hopes on Catholic countries.

"Father, times have changed."

Isaac sat down next to Constantine and looked at his tightly furrowed brow.

"Times have changed. The days when one could mobilize countless crusaders with just one sentence, 'For God', are gone forever."

The greatest sorrow of Constantine XI was that his request for help from the West was entirely out of religious considerations, a type of thinking that was typical of the Middle Ages.

However, the countries he sought help from were all profit-driven and had surprisingly modern thinking.

"The Venetians are not interested in whether we are willing to achieve church unity or to defend the Christian faith. They only care about their own interests."

"The Ottomans have just given them a favorable trade agreement, the Venetian commanders have an extremely good relationship with Mehmed II, and trade in Adrianople is very profitable."

"Why would they give up a market of six million people for a Constantinople that has become a complete rural area with less than 50,000 people?"

"Besides, you have hurt their interests in the Peloponnese, and I have caused them to suffer a loss in Cyprus, and they know it very well."

After this speech, the father and son were speechless for a while, sitting in the dim hall of the Grand Palace. The sun was setting outside the window, and the dim sunlight was pouring into the hall, as if it was the dusk of the empire.

"Can we defend Constantinople on our own?"

Constantine was silent for a moment, his scepter placed aside, his crown drooping, the glass ornaments on his body reflecting the dim light, looking dejected and powerless.

"I do not know."

Isaac shook his head and smiled bitterly.

This is not a question of whether we can defend it by ourselves. Apart from us, there are not many people who will come to defend it.

In the past few days, he has been running around Constantinople, carefully recalling the city's weaknesses and filling them one by one. He sent people to interfere with the Galata election early, promoted another cousin to the mayor's throne, and sent some rangers to station there to interfere with the Ottomans' possible land navigation.

He sent people to block all the side gates on the Theodosian wall with earth and rocks to prevent possible negligence.

He was able to correct all the mistakes made by the defenders in history, but he could not guarantee that new mistakes would not occur.

War is never a simple reduction of paper strength, but a gamble full of uncertainties.

"Father, we still have time. The Ottomans are not unaware of the strength of Constantinople's troops and fleet, and they will definitely prepare for a long time."

"Mobilizing military supplies, assembling fleets, summoning troops from all over the country, recruiting Christian vassal troops, and calling for jihad, all of these will take a lot of time and will not be accomplished overnight."

"The key is that you should stop contacting the Vatican. They can't give us any help, and they will only intensify the religious conflict that was about to be resolved."

"We can certainly seek help from the entire European people in the name of jihad, but we should not have too much hope in them."

"The building is about to collapse, and we can only rely on ourselves."

"Isaac, this time, do we really have no good solution?"

Isaac smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"This is a destined war. All tricks and techniques pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops."

"The only solution is to fight to the death."

……

Birinci, the capital of the Kingdom of Cyrenaica.

Nearly four years have passed since the Cyrenaica War, and this city located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Green Mountains has changed a lot.

The former Muslim-style buildings are almost invisible, replaced by Greek-style houses and churches that have sprung up.

For four years, the royal government has been operating this place as a core area, moving in batches of Greek Orthodox Christians, Yugoslav Orthodox Christians and Armenians, gradually filling the vacancies left by the original inhabitants.

At present, this big city and its surrounding areas have a population of over 80,000, more than 60,000 of whom are Europeans who migrated or were robbed.

There are more than 20,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, more than 10,000 Slavic Orthodox Christians, and the rest are mostly Armenians.

The Armenians that Isaac exchanged from the Karamanbay State and the Greek Orthodox Christians that he received from the Ottoman Empire were basically settled in this area. Then, with several large cities as fulcrums, he gradually sent reclamation teams into the depths of the Green Mountains to carry out agricultural development.

With the support of ocean trade and privateering, Bilinqi's business activities gradually prospered and the slave trade became the pillar industry of the economy.

In addition to the population trade that brought huge profits, magical navigation medicine, rare gems from West Africa, exquisite books, mellow sugar and well-made firearms also attracted more and more Italian merchants to come and trade.

After nearly five years of development, the three-field rotation agricultural improvement movement supported by Isaac finally began to bear fruit. This agricultural model made full use of the advantages of the large number of local livestock, combining agriculture with animal husbandry, allowing both grazing and farming to improve efficiency.

Now, with the addition of meat, fruit and fish, the food production of the entire Cyrenaica region is barely enough to be self-sufficient, and its dependence on Italy is gradually decreasing.

A meeting is being held in the Black Castle.

After Isaac and his family left, this place became even more empty. Only a few servants and tutors lived here with Isaac's guardian, Queen Charlotte of Cyprus, and Princess Helena would often come to visit her niece, so it was considered to be quite popular.

But today, the place is packed with ministers attending the meeting.

On the throne that originally belonged to Isaac, the one-year-old Justinian sat upright on the cushion, looking at the ministers with his big round blue eyes.

A dignified and elegant lady sat next to Justinian the Younger, listening to the reports of his subjects with him and issuing orders on behalf of the emperor.

The ministers saluted Prince Justinian and Queen Leonor in a proper manner, and then began to report on the domestic situation.

Isaac's arrangements before his departure were perfect, and some minor disturbances were quickly quelled.

The ministers of Cyrenaica had become more experienced and more adept at quelling unrest.

Leonor listened absentmindedly, with a formal smile on her face.

The situation in Constantinople became increasingly serious, and she was somewhat worried about her husband who was far away.

"Just last month, Count Adnan and a thousand-man team of the Slaves Legion officially launched a sweep against the remaining forces of Fezzan. The fake King Abdullah was trapped in an isolated city and was about to be destroyed..."

"The Fourth and Fifth Guards Legions that we started recruiting two years ago have completed their initial training and are ready to go to the battlefield at any time..."

"Your Highness, Your Majesty, this is the basic situation."

When Prime Minister Isurte finished his speech, everyone turned their attention to Justinian the Younger and Leonor.

"The situation this year is indeed good, and everyone has done a great job. I hope you will continue to work hard."

"On behalf of my husband, thank you for your efforts."

Leonor stood up and nodded slightly to the ministers.

"Next, I will make arrangements for some affairs of the territory according to my husband's wishes."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone sat up straight and paid full attention.

After the siege of Constantinople, the ministers of Cyrenaica were divided on whether to aid Constantinople. Many new classes with many interests in the local area did not want to shed blood for Constantinople.

The ministers who supported the war also had their concerns. How should the war be fought? How long should it last? When should the war end? After both sides were defeated, would other forces come to reap the spoils?

These all require careful consideration.

Leonor took out an imperial edict with a double-headed eagle emblem on it.

"The battle is imminent, everyone listen up,"

"From now on, Prince Justinian and Queen Leonor will be regents, and Count Mikhail, Prime Minister Isurt, and Butler Andre will assist in government affairs."

"I grant Prince Justinian the power to summon vassals and subordinate tribes, Count Mikhail temporary military command, Prime Minister Isurt the power to oversee administrative affairs, and Chancellor Andrei the power to manage the territory's trade affairs."

"In terms of military, the Third Guards Corps and the Fifth Guards Corps will immediately go to Constantinople to await orders."

"The Second Guards Corps, the Fourth Guards Corps, and the Oak Corps are responsible for guarding Cyrenaica, and cooperating with the Tobruk Military District Garrison to guard the fortress group and prevent the Mamluk offensive."

"The Slaves Corps will guard Surt with the assistance of the Dobruja vassal army and deal with possible attacks from the Hafsid Dynasty."

"The Knights of Saint Simon sent their foot knights and knight squires to Constantinople to await orders."

"Order Steward Andrew to spread the plight of Constantinople to every corner of the Christian world through trade routes, and attract landless knights and mercenaries from the people."

"The trumpet call of holy war has been sounded, and it is incumbent upon the people of Christ to fight."

(End of this chapter)