Eagle Byzantium

Among them, what frightened Abuhe and all the sailors the most was the enemy's "Fire Skuas" warships. They were completely the death squads on the sea - this kind of ship often does not act alone. Sometimes they hide in the shadows of the inland islands, and sometimes they fight with other light ships. The Maldet or Greek sailors on them are all ruthless characters who are hired with high salaries to volunteer to sacrifice their lives. They filled the cabins with Khitan snow, sulfur, hay bales, and Armenian light oil. There were no combat members on the deck, only side baffles to block arrows. All the personnel were rowers. When the large warship was besieged and entangled by the other skuas, they suddenly attacked - they guided their ships to the target at lightning speed, and then ignited the things in the cabin and died together with the opponent!

In a battle near the Gallipoli Sea, Abhu saw two "Fire Skuas" suddenly sail out from the north of a small island and fiercely pounce on a Venetian ship named "Saint Angel". Then violent flames and explosions were stirred up on the trembling and shaking water surface. The long iconic mast and battle flag of the "Saint Angel" broke off, and the hull and most of the crew were buried in the flames.

On the burning water, Abhu was trembling with fear, watching the huge wreckage of the "Saint Angel" emitting billowing smoke and drifting with the waves. Many skuas bypassed it and pounced on more targets.

The two fire ships that hit the "Saint Angel" were not spared. The hull of one of them had been burned into a wooden board with roaring flames, and many sailors' miserable and twisted charred bodies were lying on it, slowly floating towards the direction of Abhu's ship.

Abhu hastily ordered all ships to enter the port of Gallipoli, and to guard against the enemy's invasion by blocking the waterway with wooden fences, caltrops, and tower fortresses on the shore.

This was equivalent to handing over the sea control to Gao Wenfang. A week before the Feast of the Incarnation, the number of Tarsus soldiers landing on the coast of Gallipoli had reached a brigade, accompanied by two detachments of artillery regiment task forces. They set up camps and forts relying on the broken rock "Cestus" in the middle of the peninsula, cutting off the passage between the Gallipoli fortress and Erainus, and receiving more successor echelons to land continuously.

Three days later, the Gallipoli Fortress and its outer earthworks were heavily bombarded. Shells whistled into the frozen trenches of the earthworks, and broken ice and frozen soil flew everywhere. The garrison here was Klembod, the Hungarian royal counselor-in-chief, and 3,000 soldiers brought by his own country. He had received three consecutive letters of persuasion to surrender, but John's request from Constantinople became more and more severe, "You must hold on until the spring, and then reinforcements will arrive from far and near!"

What John said seemed to be the truth. Hungary was gathering another 5,000-man cavalry team and began to reinforce with Niš as the central channel. And the great noble Tsetse of Thessalonica was said to be rushing here with 2,000 soldiers, and there was also help from Dirashum and Sicily waiting to be sent.

In addition, John also sent an urgent order to the Gallipoli fleet, "regardless of the consequences, break the enemy's interception, cross the Bosphorus Strait, and cut off the sea route to the port of Media." At this point, Abhu could not help but complain about the emperor's impractical and reckless command, but he did not dare to disobey, so he could only order the remaining seven or eight large ships of the fleet to collectively light fires and sails, form a single column, and rush towards the target strait while encircling it. Two days before the Feast of the Enthronement of the Virgin, Patriarch Masdas personally led a team of senior deacons and walked through the long city roads, chanting towards the palace. They started from the Patriarch's residence, and then passed Constantine Square and Theodosius Square. The memorial columns continued to rise, and the stones paved on the streets and squares were still shining. People from various commercial areas such as Pisa, Amalfi, and Venice came to pay homage, accompanied by the dense and fierce sound of artillery in the ocean in the distance. Although their sounds here were like the chirping of insects, they were indeed there: the situation was already under siege.

Walking between the official residence and the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, Masdas, with a somewhat melancholy mood, raised his dense forehead wrinkles and saw the majestic "Statue of Justinian" standing in front of him. This statue of the emperor from several centuries ago, the style of armor is ancient Roman style, the helmet is exaggerated like a feather fan, the emperor rides a war horse, holding a golden ball with a cross in his hand, facing the distant east, this image has a huge impact and oppression on all the people in the world, flocks of birds and flowing clouds pass by on both sides of the emperor's statue, the huge statue overlooks the capital, the bay and all living beings, and its whole body exudes a strong color of "head of the universal empire".

And the enemy who besieged the capital came from the east.

The golden ball with the cross was what Anna had mentioned to Gawain before, "You must hold it, because holding it is equivalent to holding the power and glory of this world."

John's royal team was waiting for the arrival of the Patriarch in front of the Holy Apostles Church built by his father. Twelve warriors holding scarlet flagpoles and purple banners surrounded the sedan chair, which contained the treasure of the Holy Monastery of the Imperial Palace, the "Veil of the Virgin Mary".

The Patriarch was going to bring it back today and place it on the altar of the Holy Wisdom Cathedral, and wait until the day of the Feast of the Temple and the procession to immerse it and the Virgin Mary's robe in the sea water of the Golden Horn Bay.

The young emperor himself was wearing shining golden armor and cloak, riding on a warhorse. In front of him was a "shiming official" and four palace guards carrying swords, responsible for calming the whole scene. The Holy Apostles Church was surrounded by bureaucrats and subjects in the imperial capital. They all held holy images and shouted slogans of praise, but most people had dark clouds in their hearts.

Because just outside the city, near the Gallipoli Fortress, the enemy had begun to besiege this eternal city. The besiegers were not pagans, but Anna, the eldest princess of the former empire.

Although it was rumored that Anna and Gawain were well-armed, many people were still quietly encouraging others: "Hundreds of thousands of Saracen pagans and two thousand warships attacked, but in the end, only five of them were able to return by the will of God; the Varangians also came to the city in a raging force, and their long ships were equipped with sails and wheels, which could gallop on land as well as in the sea, but didn't they retreat in the end?"

"I heard that the prince of Hungary will come to reinforce us soon. He has many Scythian cavalry, which can easily kill the enemy and force them to flee from the city wall."

"It is said that the emperor personally handed over the other half of the secret recipe of 'Defense Fire' to the craftsmen and officials in the Royal Armory yesterday. This weapon is about to be activated, and the ships of the Varangians will be burned to ashes!"