NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 29: Aggrieved
Edirne was a city located less than 200 kilometers away from Constantinope.
It had been a strategic military location before the Romain Empire broke up. Past Augustus would usually gather their troops here before mobilizing them. Conversely, those who wanted to invade Constantinope would have to first deal with this fortress.
The Ottomains had decided to make Edirne their capital after occupying it, so as to make it easier for them to advance their troops and expand their territory.
It went without saying that there were many Ottomain cities and fortresses between Edirne and Constantinope.
“Lord Emir, you mustn’t attack them! You mustn’t!”
On one of the fortress’ city walls, fifteen soldiers were currently hugging the thighs of an Ottomain noble, bawling their eyes out. They cried so sorrowfully that it looked as if someone had murdered their entire family.
“Our great Sultana died in the hands of those Khitan demons, and tens of thousands of our soldiers have fallen alongside her. We’d be courting death if we attack the Khitan now!”
They cried while desperately pleading with the Ottomain noble.
“Our death means nothing at all, but what if we provoke the Khitans and they attack our city? Those demons won’t spare anyone at all!”
While Shu Yichao and his army were passing by this fortress, the emir governing the city suddenly had a bout of inspiration and wanted to order his men to follow and assault the Khitans when an opportunity arose.
The soldiers who received the orders were scared out of their wits. Having been on the frontlines before, unlike their emir, they knew how ferocious the Khitans were on the battlefield.
Lord Emir, you should just behead us if you really want us to die! There’s no need to seek such an excuse.
Upon learning about their emir’s plans, the fortress’ military commanders rushed over to dissuade him from doing anything foolish. They knew that a single misstep here could spell the deaths of all of them.
But no matter how the soldiers cried and pleaded, the emir was unmoved. He even berated the soldiers, saying, “Cowards who escaped from the frontlines; you aren’t worthy of the real God’s blessing! Look at your pathetic sobbing faces. Anyone who doesn’t know better would think that you’re a damsel in distress!
“You’ll be going whether you like it or not! Otherwise, I’ll first behead all of you before selling your spouses and children as slaves. Don’t think about deserting. I’ll follow through with my threats if you don’t bring back some Khitan heads within three days’ time!”
The emir thought that these soldiers were too weak-hearted.
Loss is commonplace in war. The Romains might have gotten the better of us this time around, but the tides will change.
But hear the nonsense spouted by the soldiers who returned from the battlefield!
They make it sound like the Khitans are bloodthirsty demons with sharp fangs and steel bodies. What kind of bullshit is that?
And I’m not telling you to destroy all the Khitans. You just have to tail them and find a chance to get rid of a couple who’s lagging behind. Yet, you’re acting as if I’m pushing you people off the cliff!
How do you have the galls to call yourself an Ottomain warrior if you’re such a coward?
At their emir’s insistence, the Ottomain soldiers had no choice but to stagger home and make preparations.
Crying sounds echoed from their households.
The soldiers wrote their wills and instructed their family members to hide in the underground cellar. It was in such a melancholic mood that they set out from the fortress.
“Hah. Hahah. It’s all over.”
A few severely injured soldiers, who had escaped from the frontlines too, stood under the walls to watch the departing soldiers. They couldn’t help but mumble under their breaths.
“They’re going to die.”
“No, we are going to die.”
The emir’s actions had immediate consequences. It took less than an hour for Shu Yichao and his thousand Elite Horse Archers to gallop over and encircle the fortress.
“Sons of bitches,” Shu Yichao sneered, “Brothers, someone’s underestimated us. They think that they can mess with us with just fifty people. I have never suffered such grievous humiliation! Prepare to attack!”
He gestured toward the fortress’ wooden walls.
To deal with walls of such caliber, he didn’t even have to hurl a boulder over to break it down. His Elite Horse Archers could easily leap across them.
“Old rules. Kill those who are taller than a chariot.”
“Khan!” One of the Elite Horse Archers suddenly asked, “Is there a specific model to the chariot?”
“Huh?” Shu Yichao was baffled. “Model?”
Then it struck him.
“Heh. I didn’t think that you’d be so creative.”
It was a standard rule for nomads of this era to kill adults above the height of a chariot after winning the battle, but there were no details about how tall the chariot was. A 2-meter tall chariot was a chariot; a 1-meter tall chariot was a chariot too.
“Why don’t you tell me the standard you have in mind?” Shu Yichao asked out of curiosity.
Then, he saw the brawny man shyly taking out a wooden toy chariot that was around the size of his palm.
“…” Shu Yichao eyed the toy chariot. “Well, I guess that’s a chariot too.”
…
“It’s going shockingly smoothly,” Constantin XI, who was advancing with the Crusaders, remarked.
He knew that he was leading an army of misfits; they might have been stoked to action in a moment of religious fanaticism, but their feverish spirit did little to conceal their pathetic military might.
Other than a handful of mercenaries and soldiers who still looked decent, most of them just looked like armed rogues.
Thrace Plains was hardly safe either.
Other than the Ottomain immigrants that had occupied their old cities, there were occasional nomads spotted wandering in the wilderness.
Constantin XI had been worried that his group of ragtags would swiftly lose its morale after encountering a setback, just like how the ‘Poor Man’s Crusaders’ had crumbled in history. However, there were no signs of what he was worried about happening.
Not only were they not attacked by the Ottomain nomads, but they also advanced smoothly as if someone had cleared the hurdles in their path. Civilians didn’t hesitate to provide them with food and water as if welcoming their saviors.
In particular, the Romains residing in Thrace Plains, who had suffered greatly from Ottomain exploitation and slavery, rushed to throw their lots with them upon seeing their emperor’s purple twin eagles flag.
Due to that, Constantin XI’s army rapidly surged from 10,000 men to 40,000 men, and most of them were young men.
This was not surprising.
To provide for the Ottomains’ massive army, pay the pashas’ and emirs’ expensive stipends, and allow the Sultana to maintain her ridiculously extravagant lifestyle, the heretics beneath them had to squeeze every last bit of money they could.
Recently, the Sultana even ordered for the construction of the Indomitable Cannon, the mobilization of a massive army of 200,000 to siege Constantinope, and the building of a huge and majestic palace…
So, the Ottomain officials took extreme measures to squeeze out money for those projects, which resulted in many Romains dying from overworking. Furthermore, these were done with the aim to destroy the Romains’ holy city…
To their delight, the Ottomain’s 200,000-men army suffered a tragic defeat, and even the Sultana died. This was the perfect opportunity for them to join their emperor and add insult to injury on the Ottomains!
“They said they came here to join us because they felt our Lord’s omnipresent summons,” Constantin XI told Madam Marti with a speechless look. “Do you find those words credible?”
“Of course not,” Madam Marti replied with a frown. “I think they are awed by our Caesar’s indomitable might, so they decided to join us to seek refuge during these tumultuous times.”
The reason why the Crusaders had not encountered any hurdles thus far was obvious…
The leveled Ottomain cities and the mini mountains of carcasses lying around were conspicuous. Shu Yichao, who had set off ahead of them, had massacred most of the Ottomains residing on Thrace Plains, so how could they muster any resistance against the Crusaders?
…
Shu Yichao had been planning to rush straight to Edirne, but the Ottomains along the way irked him to no end.
A bunch of newbies are provoking me? Do I look like a weakling?
So, he decided to first deal with those blind fools who dared cross him.
As a result, the Ottomain bases spread throughout the Thrace Plains, as well as the soldiers who had previously fled from the encirclement of Constantinope, were wiped clean.
“How peaceful,” Shu Yichao remarked while advancing ahead, “there’s no one here at all.”
—
Starve’s Historical Trivia:
In the ancient past, whenever the Mongols won a battle, they would gather all the men and those who are taller than a chariot would be killed (namely those who are above 1.5meters).