The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 354 Constantinople

On August 1815, the 9nd year of Tiangong, September 10, in the Western calendar, the new era of the siege of Constantinople officially began at midnight.

The main fleet of the Ming Navy's Mediterranean Fleet was divided into several detachments, each targeting a section of the coastal Constantinople wall, preparing to directly destroy this famous city defense system.

At the same time, all warships turned on their searchlights and aimed the dazzling beams of light at the city of Constantinople to guide the direction of the air force's attack.

The Ottoman authorities did not actually abolish the name Constantinople.

But the name Istanbul has indeed existed for a long time and was not created during the modern nationalist period.

The original meaning of Istanbul should be "the city of Constantinople" or "the upper city of Constantinople", which refers to the old city area within the walls of Constantinople.

Just like the inner city of Shuntian Prefecture.

The urban area of ​​Istanbul, together with the suburban areas outside the city, is collectively called Constantiniere, which is the Ottoman transliteration of Constantinople.

The city of Constantinople has a very advantageous geographical location, the most suitable place to serve as a commercial center between Asia and Europe.

Constantinople was indeed a commercial city, not the traditional plain agricultural city of Shenzhou, surrounded by a developed water transportation system.

The defense level of Constantinople was also the best in the classical era.

The main urban area is located on a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides. The Bosphorus Strait next to it has fast-flowing waters, and small wooden ships from the classical era found it difficult to stay stable here.

Because of the different salinity levels of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, surface water flows from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and bottom water flows from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.

Most armies of the classical era were almost unable to launch an attack from the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosporus Strait.

The flow of the Golden Horn on the west side of Constantinople is relatively slow, and Constantinople is blocked with iron chains.

Constantinople gradually built up rock-masonry stone walls up to five meters thick, which were difficult to forcibly destroy during wars in the agricultural era.

Constantinople's location is too important. Historically, wars involving Constantinople are usually not just matters between the two warring parties.

Other powerful countries outside the region will usually intervene in local affairs forcibly for their own interests and concerns, and the warring parties must also consider their relationship with foreign forces.

The final battle during the period of dynasty change in Shenzhou is usually an extreme showdown between all forces in the entire region without interference from external forces.

A similar pattern of warfare hardly ever really occurred around the city of Constantinople.

When the Ottoman Empire finally captured Constantinople in history, only an isolated city was left of Constantinople.

There were only 8,000 defenders left in the city, and they could barely defend the land part of the city wall.

If it were in the Shenzhou region, such an isolated city would be impossible to defend. All we would have to do is besiege the city, cut off its water and food supplies, and wait for the other side to surrender.

But Constantinople itself is a commercial city. On the east side of the city is the Golden Horn, and across the Golden Horn is a colony of the Republic of Genoa.

This was the period when commercial republics such as Genoa and Venice were at their most prosperous.

Genoa remained neutral in name only, but in reality sent ships to Constantinople to supply it.

At that time, Ottoman Empire did not want to directly confront Genoa in the Mediterranean, so it could only watch the two sides interact privately.

If the Ottomans could not force their way into the city, Constantinople might never have surrendered.

The Ottomans were unable to breach the walls of Constantinople from the front, nor were they able to attack with gunboats in the turbulent Sea of ​​Marmara.

The Golden Horn, suitable for attack from the sea, was blocked with iron chains by the colonies of Constantinople and Genoa.

(Schematic diagram of Constantinople and the route of the Ottoman attack on Constantinople.)
Eventually the Ottomans built a dry boat, using sticks as wheels to prop up a light ship, bypassing the Genoese colony on land and sending the Urban cannon into the Golden Horn.

Then the city of Constantinople was bombarded with cannons from inside the Golden Horn.

The destructive power of the action itself was not actually strong, but the defenders of Constantinople were caught off guard.

The key point is that there were too few defenders in Constantinople, and with an additional wall to defend, the already small number of soldiers was even more stretched.

The Ottomans eventually broke into the city while the defenders of Constantinople were exhausted.

If an emperor in Shenzhou wants to unify the world, when facing his main enemy, he must first eliminate the auxiliary forces around him and then deal with him himself.

When facing a strong city like Constantinople, they must first deal with the Genoese colony and then launch a full-scale attack on Constantinople.

But there are no such conditions in Europe, and we can only fight under multiple constraints.

But now the situation has changed. Although the Ottomans still have allies, they are still very powerful allies in the classical era.

Russia in Europe and the Shun Kingdom in India, as well as the forces on most of the Central Asian steppes.

But their enemies were more powerful.

The Ming Dynasty had power in China, America, and Australia, and also controlled most of Europe and the entire Africa.

Now, most of the world's power is coming together to besiege these three countries.

The alliance of Russia, Shun and the Ottoman Empire only considered holding out strategically for the time being. In the first stage, they could only hold out on their own and wait for the Ming Dynasty to show signs of fatigue.

They can provide little direct support to each other.

Now that the war has started, the Ming Dynasty released the power it had accumulated over the years and caught Constantinople off guard.

The Ming fleet sailed directly to the city of Constantinople, and the Ottomans inside and outside the city were unprepared.

The sky, which was originally almost pitch black, was suddenly lit up by countless searchlights.

Thick beams of light pointed towards the sky above the city.

Then there was a sharp whistling sound in the sky, as if countless demons were roaring madly in the sky and then pounced on the city on the ground.

Many residents inside and outside the city had been awakened at this time.

Residents living near the edge of the city could directly see the terrifying beam of light outside the city, and the lucky residents saw a huge gray monster flashing across the sky.

Those things looked like birds, but they were too large, and most importantly, there was a strange light radiating from their eyes.

Many people screamed in panic or stood up.

Their worries did not last long, as the low-altitude shells did not take long to hit the ground.

Before the awakened citizens of Constantinople could fully regain their consciousness, flowers had already begun to bloom all over the ground in residential areas inside and outside the city.

A blinding flash of fire suddenly burst out, and a terrifying explosion suddenly was heard. A large number of ordinary houses that were not strong enough collapsed directly, and the residents howled in the dizziness.

Residents whose houses were not directly blown up by the bomb immediately saw an even more horrifying scene.

The streets outside the window, everything within sight, suddenly caught fire, as if it was the devil's fire that had fallen from the sky, burning fiercely without any support.

Ottoman Sultan Selim had just fallen into a sound sleep when he was awakened by the horrific explosions and screams outside.

The Sultan subconsciously thought that the Janissaries had rebelled, so he hurriedly put on his clothes and asked the guards to call Mustafa, the Grand Vizier and commander of the new army.

Before the Sultan put on his clothes, he heard a sharp whistling sound and fell to a place very close to his bedroom.

Then there was a horrible explosion, the entire palace ground shook violently, a wall cracked and collapsed, and a large section of the ceiling fell off. The Ottoman Sultan and all the guards and servants around him were all shaken and flew to the side.

Fortunately, there were several guards blocking the way, and the Ottoman Sultan only fell hard, otherwise he might have suffered serious injuries.

The Sultan's current guards are all new troops that he reformed and rebuilt. They are loyal to the Sultan and respond quickly.

The guard immediately started to curse and helped the Sultan up:
"How is your majesty?"

The Sultan felt pain all over his body, but he quickly confirmed that he was not injured, so he sighed, shook his head and waved his hands and said:
"I'm fine, but what is going on? What happened? Are the guards rebelling again? Are they going to assassinate me?"

The captain of the guard thought for a moment:
"Your Majesty, please calm down. This time it shouldn't be the Royal Guards. The Royal Guards can't make such a big noise.

“There are explosions everywhere outside, and terrifying flames falling from the sky. It seems like this world has been punished by God.

"Let us escort you out of the palace first..."

As if to verify the captain's words, the noise outside the palace grew louder and louder.

There were panicked screams everywhere, mixed with the occasional terrifying howls and the explosions that followed, and the night sky gradually being dyed red by flames.

The public servants were already terrified, and many people did subconsciously feel that the end of the world was coming.

The cognitive level of ordinary people in the classical era was very limited, and the ruling groups often used religion and theocracy to maintain their rule.

As a result, ordinary people in ancient times were far more superstitious than modern people, and were more easily obsessed with religion and various mysterious information. In contrast, the ancient ruling groups did not believe in these things so much.

If the ruling group deliberately relies on "shamanism" to maintain its rule, the enemy can also retaliate in their own way.

When encountering an enemy who is more skilled in "shamanism" than himself, the morale of his men will drop greatly.

However, the Ming army now is not "dancing gods", but is using the technology and weapons of the industrial age to launch attacks on the enemy that are almost like divine punishment.

The Ottoman Sultan looked out at the chaos:
“Rather than saying it was a divine punishment, I would rather believe that it was the Ming Dynasty that launched the attack and that it was the Ming Dynasty that created the attack that was like a divine punishment.

"Now that there are explosions everywhere outside, the Ming people are launching an attack on the entire city.

“There is no safer place in the whole city than my palace.

"I'll wait here for the Grand Vizier to come and discuss matters."

The Ottoman Sultan’s thinking was not wrong. He really waited for Grand Vizier Mustafa in the palace.

The Grand Vizier reported to the Sultan with an extremely serious expression:
“Your Majesty, it is highly likely that the Ming people launched the attack, using their flying cavalry to directly cross hundreds of kilometers of the sky and attack Constantinople directly.

"You should leave Constantinople as soon as possible and go to Ankara to take command of the overall situation."

The Sultan was stunned for a moment:
"You can only say that it is most likely an attack by the Ming people, which means that the city system is almost out of control, right?"

The Grand Vizier sighed and nodded, saying:
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I cannot say that the situation is completely out of control now. It is just that everything happened too suddenly. I do not have enough time to control the situation."

The Sultan thought for a moment:
"How long do you need?"

The Grand Vizier hesitated for a few seconds:

“By daybreak at the latest, I should be able to figure out the situation.

"I will prepare a boat for you to cross the strait, and you can decide whether to set out at daybreak."

The Sultan nodded:

"Okay, go ahead and do it. I'll give you all the authorization."

The Grand Vizier bowed and accepted the order, then immediately left the palace to deal with the city defense situation, and the Ottoman Sultan began to pack up.

Even though the Ottoman Sultan and the Grand Vizier had witnessed the firepower of the Ming Dynasty's offensive, they had not yet realized that the city was about to fall.

They subconsciously felt that the siege of Constantinople would take a long time, at least days, months or even years.

However, the operational objective of this operation by the Ming Navy and the Arabian War Zone was to capture Constantinople in one fell swoop.

The navy blocked the Strait of Transporus, and it was too late for the Ottoman leaders to escape.

Large numbers of air force fighters took turns attacking in the sky, and the flames of explosions and incendiary bombs lit up the sky.

The main gunboats on the sea approached the shore, suppressed the firing points on the city walls with ship-borne machine guns and small-caliber artillery, and bombarded the city walls on the coastline at close range with artillery.

The Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosphorus Strait under the city of Constantinople have fast currents, making it difficult for small wooden boats of the classical era to fight there.

But the Ming Navy sent ocean-going warships, large warships that could sail around the world. Even if they couldn't walk on flat ground in such a place, at least they could move freely.

The walls of Constantinople are five meters thick and are built directly with rock. Their defensive power was top-notch in the classical era.

However, when facing modern cannons, its defense is not as good as Shenzhou's rammed earth and brick walls.

Rammed earth walls can be made thicker. The thickness of the city walls of Shuntian Prefecture and Yingtian Prefecture is as high as fourteen meters. The key is that rammed earth can better disperse and dissipate the impact force of artillery shells.

Rammed earth walls are elastic to cannonballs, while rock masonry walls can be considered rigid.

When an armor-piercing shell penetrates and explodes, it can directly tear off a large piece of the body. If a large number of artillery fire at the same time, it can also have a similar blasting effect.

The Ming Dynasty had complete control of the air and sea, and its firepower was enough to overwhelm the enemy, and high-powered naval guns could be delivered to the front for continuous bombardment.

A stone wall that is only five meters thick is equivalent to concrete without steel bars and can be completely removed by force.

While the planes were bombing, the defenders in Constantinople did not realize that the real threat came from the light beams from the sea.

More than 30 large and small warships and more than 300 cannons fired countless shells, continuously hitting the city walls.

Amid the deafening explosions and the dazzling light of the flames, the ancient city walls and the ground beneath the feet continued to tremble.

Broken rocks and shrapnel flew everywhere, and the stones on the city wall peeled off layer by layer.

As the bombardment lasted longer and longer, the defenders in the city slowly organized themselves and gradually realized what was happening outside.

There are a lot of large artillery attacking the city walls on the coastline.

Grand Vizier Mustafa even led a team to take a look in person.

I observed the situation here from a distance across the street, listened to the thrilling roar of artillery outside, and felt the terrifying shock of the earth and city walls shaking continuously.

The Grand Vizier subconsciously wanted to arrange manpower to build a new city wall inside the city wall.

But they soon realized that it was pointless, as the area of ​​the wall under attack was too large, at least two kilometers long.

I don't have time to build a new city wall that is strong and thick enough.

Whether it is the bombs falling from the sky or the cannons roaring outside, they should be able to easily destroy the simple city wall that has just been built.

The Grand Vizier now knew that Constantinople could no longer be defended, so he immediately went into the palace with his guards to meet the Sultan.

(End of this chapter)