paranoianovel Chapter 671: Knights Hospitaller of St. John
Chapter 671: Knights Hospitaller of St. John
Chapter 671: Knights Hospitaller of St. John
As Giovanni had expected, the central section of the wall suffered the heaviest attack.
Because it is located in the Lex River Valley, the city walls here are relatively low. In addition, due to the fierce attacks of the Ottoman soldiers in recent days, the trenches were filled and the first low wall was collapsed. It is much easier to climb to the top of the city than other places.
Fortunately, the middle section of the city wall was the first to discover the enemy, and the emperor immediately dispatched the Qiexue Army to assist in the defense. Although the balance of the battle had tilted towards the enemy at this time, the defenders were not defeated. Instead, they tenaciously formed combat teams, blocked the narrow passage and stopped the enemy.
Moreover, as time went on, the towers on the second and third city walls also began to support the battle in front. The Ottomans also occupied several towers. They wanted to use them to provide long-range support to their own people from a high position, but soon after they appeared, they were shot and killed by the Qiexue troops deployed on the second city wall.
These were arguably the best armored cavalry in the human world at this era, the last glimmer of nomadic Qiexue Army, all of them elite troops carefully selected by Lothar. The sound of bows and arrows hitting armor plates was incessant, and even in the dark night and rain, most of the arrows could still hit the target.
At this time, the emperor's purple robe of the Holy Cross Plate Armor was soaked with blood and rain, and the corpses under his feet piled up into a small hill.
The enemies who were besieging him originally filled the entire city wall. Countless Janissaries rushed towards the imperial flag one after another, trying to break it, but when the Janissaries on this part of the city wall were almost cleared out, the emperor still stood tall.
Even though these Janissaries had taken banned drugs, they couldn't help but feel terrified when they saw this scene. For a moment, these warriors who were known for their fearlessness and bravery, holding their shields, did not dare to get any closer to the figure.
"keep going!"
"Those who retreat will die!"
Ibrahim Pasha roared. He used to be the confidant of Grand Vizier Kandali Khalil, who advocated peace with European countries. But now, after the new king took the throne, the Grand Vizier's faction had become a broken ship that could capsize at any time.
If he wants to jump ship in time, he must prove his loyalty to the new king.
He knew very well what would happen to him if he brought back news of failure.
The Janissaries were indeed the most powerful army in the world at that time. After taking banned drugs, they quickly reorganized a new round of offensive.
Whoosh.
The Venetian militiamen armed with crossbows shot at the enemy from their high ground. The crossbow arrows hit their helmets, making clanging sounds. From time to time, someone was shot in the vitals and fell to the ground, being stepped on by his companions.
But more of the Janissaries, even though their bodies were pierced like hedgehogs, or even their arms were chopped off and their eyes were blinded, they still shouted and fought fiercely, never retreating a single step, just like devils from hell.
If it weren't for the emperor's royal flag, which never wavered as he had promised, the first city wall would have been captured by the Ottomans long ago.
"Protect Your Majesty!"
Finally, a team of Venetian mercenaries came to support Lothar. At this point in the battle, almost all of his personal guards had died.
As soon as this group of Venetian mercenaries formed their battle formation, they felt the Ottoman offensive like a tide hitting the shield wall. The arms holding their shields began to tremble. They were horrified and felt an extreme awe for the Greek emperor who had survived such an offensive and had not even taken a step back.
How on earth did he do it?
Could it be that he is really blessed by God?
Suddenly, a group of Janissaries made way in front of the shield formation, and a Janissary who was more than two meters tall and wore a spiked helmet strode out carrying a huge war hammer that was as tall as a person.
He swung the hammer in his hand and smashed it on the shield wall with earth-shattering force.
The Venetian soldier holding the shield was suddenly knocked away. The shield in his hand broke into pieces, and the arm holding the shield was broken in half with a snap, revealing the white bones. Blood gushed out of his mouth and nose, and he fell to the ground and died.
Amid the excited cheers of the Ottomans, the giant Janissary laughed and swung his hammer again.
Although the Janissaries are also translated as the Royal Guards, in fact, there is a real Royal Guard under the command of Mahmud II. That is his most trusted team, not the one inherited from his father Murad II.
Naturally, Mahamu II spared no effort in investing in this trusted force. A considerable number of them had drunk various magic potions and possessed extraordinary strength.
This giant Janissary holding a two-handed war hammer is obviously one of them.
"Your Majesty, why don't we retreat?"
The mercenaries complained bitterly. They said they were mercenaries, but in fact they were Crusaders who came to the war voluntarily. Their fighting power was naturally stronger than that of ordinary Greek militia, but they could not confront such a powerful enemy head-on.
"No, I said I won't take a step back."
The emperor pushed away the Venetian mercenaries beside him, holding the sword in both hands, and rushed out from the gap in the shield formation. Without any movement, the Janissaries, who had just shown his might and swung his hammer like a giant, suddenly stiffened.
The head wearing the iron helmet rolled down with a clanging sound, and the neck cavity without the head was spurted with boiling hot blood everywhere.
The Ottomans' laughter stopped abruptly, like a turkey with its throat strangled.
But the battle situation will not change because of one person.
The number of enemies was almost equal to that of the defenders, but there was obviously an insurmountable gap in the level of elite forces between the enemy and us. Even though the defenders had the advantage of geographical location, large sections of the city walls began to fall under the Ottomans' reckless attack.
He and these Venetians seemed to have become lone sails in the ocean.
"Your Majesty, if we don't retreat, we will be completely surrounded."
The Venetians looked at the emperor, whose sword-holding arm was still steady despite the fierce battle, and had no idea what was going on beneath his golden, iron mask.
"You guys retreat."
The emperor sighed softly, and under the mask and helmet, his eyes lit up with golden light, and dragon blood flowed in his body.
Things have come to this point. If we want to ensure that the first wall does not fall, the trump card can no longer be hidden.
He could sense that the Ottomans still had strong men hiding and had not yet made a move. Their target of vigilance was obviously Viviana, who had previously shined. As long as Viviana did not make a move, they would not make a move.
He originally thought that the enemy would send a powerful assassin to carry out a decapitation tactic against him, and then shoot him to death with a dragon-shooting crossbow, just in time to reveal the trump card to Mahamu II to reassure him.
But Mahamu II's arrangement was obviously more cruel than he had imagined.
The Janissaries, which was considered a top-notch army in the whole of Europe, were thrown into the bloodbath without regard for cost. The real strong men watched these elite troops being consumed and just stood by and watched.
Now that things have come to this, he can't use the dragon-shooting crossbow that is used to deal with single enemies to deal with these Janissaries, right?
"Your Majesty, look!"
A Venetian soldier suddenly shouted.
Suddenly, there was a commotion among the enemies on the distant city wall. A golden light flashed, and a group of knights bathed in the holy light and chanted hymns, rushing forward like a tiger into a pack of wolves.
"Hallelujah!"
"In the name of the Father!"
The flag they carried was the white cross on a black background that Losa was very familiar with.
The only difference was their attire from the traditional Hospitallers. More than half of them wore red robes with a white cross printed on them instead of a black background with a white cross.
Every knight was surrounded by a holy glow. These knights, who had been displaced from the Holy Land and retreated to Acre, Cyprus, and finally to Rhodes, represented the most powerful armed group in the Catholic world. At this critical moment, they joined the battlefield like gods descended from the sky.
They chanted blessings that had buff effects on themselves, and with the help of their enchanted armor, ordinary attacks could not hurt them at all. The knight in the front, holding his shield, rushed forward like a steamroller, knocking over the scattered enemies and knocking them aside.
The knights and servants behind him followed suit, and for a moment, the ferocious Janissaries were swept away by them like fallen leaves in the autumn wind.
"It's the Knights of St. John of Rhodes Island!"
Infinite brilliance blooms in the desperate eyes of the Venetians.
No matter how powerful the Janissaries were, they were already exhausted after this brutal siege.
Just when they were about to take the city wall, unexpectedly, the enemy had such an elite fresh force. As the effect of the banned drugs wore off and the sequelae came on, their morale could not help but waver.
Lothar could obviously see that the enemy was already at the end of its strength, and he gave the order without hesitation: "Blow the horn of counterattack, and tell these pagans that Constantinople is not a place they can come and go as they please."
As the horn sounded, the defenders who had been gradually retreating to the second city wall suddenly burst out with strength in their exhausted bodies, and together with the soldiers who came to support them from the north and south walls, they launched a counterattack against the enemy.
On the other side, no matter how angry Ibrahim Pasha was, their foothold on the city wall was still quickly squeezed out and recaptured.
When the rain stops and the sky clears up, a pale glow appears on the horizon.
Most of the remaining enemy troops on the city walls have been eliminated, and only in a few scattered towers are the enemies still resisting stubbornly.
The leader of the reinforcements, a blond man holding a helmet and covered in blood, strode towards Lothar.
The two did not speak to each other, but just looked at each other.
Raymond looked at the emperor covered in blood. He was very imposing, as if he had the spirit of a giant hidden in his body. He made people feel awe. Considering the battle record of this emperor that he had heard about when he arrived, he could not help but sigh that this Constantine XI was very different from the Greek emperor in his impression.
Perhaps under his leadership, we can really defeat the arrogant Ottomans this time.
Raymond was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, Raymond de La Marche, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, has come to support us at the orders of His Holiness the Pope and the Grand Master with more than 500 men."
Losa was a little emotional: "I didn't expect that Grand Commander Bangpal still sent you here."
He didn't expect that his letter would actually bring about reinforcements that had never existed in history.
“The process was definitely not easy.”
Raymond said with a double meaning.
In fact, when Grand Master Bompard asked him to lead a detachment to Constantinople, not only were there many opponents at the internal meeting of the Knights Templar, but even he himself hesitated.
After all, the Knights Hospitaller had suffered a lot along the way, their strength had greatly weakened compared to their heyday, and they had just experienced a great battle with the Mamluk fleet, so their financial resources were not really wealthy.
Moreover, the Aegean Sea had become the domain of the Ottomans at that time. Even the merchant ships of Venetians and Genoese had to stop and be inspected. It was not easy to break into the Golden Horn through such a blockade.
Perhaps the reinforcements had not yet arrived and were sent into the sea along with the ships by the Ottomans.
Or perhaps, by the time they arrived, the crescent flag had already been raised over Constantinople.
"But you finally came. This is God's will."
Raymond could not help but stand in awe when he recalled that when they were being chased by the Ottoman fleet, a sudden gust of sea breeze helped them escape the enemy, and on this stormy night, they miraculously connected with the Roman fleet and safely sailed into the Golden Horn.
He solemnly made a sign of the cross on his chest: "It is God's will that we rush to the battlefield at the most critical moment of the battle; it is God's will that gives Constantinople an emperor of unparalleled bravery."
The emperor smiled generously.
He looked at the soldiers guarding the city, who were covered in blood and exhausted in the dim morning light. They climbed up the city wall with vigorous steps, raised the double-headed eagle flag, and gave a hearty shout:
"Long live Rome!"
"Long live Rome, long live the Emperor!"
Not only the Greeks raised their arms and cheered, but also the Venetians, Genoese, and almost everyone, except the knights who had just arrived in Constantinople, raised their arms and cheered.
In fact, whether it was the Venetians in the concession or the Genoese in Galata, located on the other side of the Golden Horn just across the strait, many of them knew that they had become abandoned children of their motherland.
Those who could afford it either fled or were convinced that they could still preserve their lives and property even under Ottoman rule.
It turned out that the Republic could not shelter them.
But Rome can.
Their emperor can.
"Long live!"