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Chapter 30: Caving In
Against Shu Yichao’s purging of Thrace Plains, the Ottomains…
…had no response at all.
Momoana had mobilized nearly all of the deployable soldiers to siege Constantinople. As a symbol of her determination to win the war, she had practically brought her entire court to the frontlines.
Yet, the battle abruptly ended with Momoana’s death. Hardly any of the nobles and officials of her court managed to escape the ensuing slaughter too.
Shu Yichao’s ‘Night Fighter’ talent enhancement and System 12345’s vitality pills allowed the Elite Horse Archers to tirelessly pursue the Ottomains, be it day or night. Nobles who had lived comfortable lives couldn’t possibly have the stamina to outrun them.
Thus, most of them became additional funds to Shu Yichao under his talent ‘Scraping It Clean’.
When the Ottomain Empire learned that Sultana Momoana had died in Constantinope, it fell paralyzed like a humongous snake that had its head lopped off.
Days passed before the remaining pillars supporting the Ottomain Empire finally snapped out of their daze and made their moves.
The first thing everyone had to make sense of was who was a friend and who was an enemy. The Ottomain Empire had a culture of fratricide, where it was almost customary for a new sultan taking over the crown to massacre all of their siblings.
One sultan in the history of the Ottomain Empire even declared, “I cannot determine how many children my father has, but I can decide how many siblings I have once I take the throne.”
When news about Momoana’s death reached Edirne, her widowed consorts tacitly decided to put aside avening the deceased sultana for the time being and focus on killing the other princes and princesses first.
Some might ask how it was possible for beautiful women to have children together, but such a thing was perfectly normal in an otherworld. It was redundant to fuss over the details.
Thus, Momoana’s son and daughters began pitting their forces against one another, thus ushering in a period of internal turmoil.
Most of them were still young, with the oldest being no more than eight years old and the youngest lying in a cradle, but that was not an issue; their mothers and uncles were here to do the dirty work for them.
It didn’t help that Momoana had only taken the throne herself not too long ago, so she hadn’t had time to groom her successor either. Thus, most of the princes and princesses’ factions were equally matched.
So, the battle was extremely intense.
The metallic clanging of swords, the throes of the dying, and the explosions of gunpowder echoed from Edirne’s imperial palace and barracks. Corpses would sometimes mysteriously appear along the alleys or the streets.
Some of the powers and their armies were forced to a corner and became bandits, plundering the civilians and causing destruction wherever they went.
The usually prosperous Edirne was reduced to shambles.
No one had the spare energy to bother about what was happening in Thrace Plains.
We’re deciding who’s the next sultan here—this is an important national affair that’ll determine all of the nobles’ and officials’ fates! Stop bothering us over trivial matters at this critical juncture!
Thus, Edirne was already rife with infighting by the time Shu Yichao arrived, with smoke rising from various parts of the city.
“What’s going on here? Are the Romains in Edirne rebelling against the Ottomains?” Baffled, Shu Yichao eyed the map. “That’s not right. The Romains are indicated by green dots, but the ones fighting are red dots.”
While Shu Yichao was watching the intense battles unfolding among Edirne’s different factions, the leaders of those factions also noticed him and his highly distinguishable Elite Horse Archers.
A few nobles were gathered inside a palace in Edirne, looking unfazed by the billowing smoke and war cries outside.
“Big brother, I heard that the Romains’ twin eagles flag is outside our city,” the Second Imperial Consort nervously asked while coaxing her infantile son. “What should we do? We have already dealt with the Third Imperial Consort, Fourth Imperial Consort, but we’re still struggling with the First Imperial Consort, and the Fifth Imperial Consort is still persevering too…
“It’s terrible news for the Romains to arrive at a time like this.”
“What’s there to fear about the Romains?” A bearded military commander holding onto a shamshir drenched with blood, looking almost as if he had just returned from the battlefield, spoke with a slurred accent. “They are a bunch of ragtag mobs. I just need to bring some cavalrymen to charge at them, and they’ll scatter like rats!”
“Those aren’t Romains!” The Second Imperial Uncle, Pasha Callerga, smacked the military commander on the back of his head. “Those are Khitans, just that their leader has become the Romain’s Caesar!
“It’s not like you haven’t seen the Khitans foiling our supply chain. Ten of them can easily rival hundreds of our soldiers, yet you think you can suppress them with just a couple of cavalrymen? If you’re that eager to return to our God’s embrace, I can lend you my shamshir! Don’t bring our soldiers down with you!”
The bearded Ottomain military commander zipped his mouth.
“How many people are there?” Pasha Callerga asked the reporting soldier.
“Our estimates range from 800 to 1200,” the Ottomain soldier quickly replied. “We aren’t able to confirm the number as those who get any closer are shot down by the Khitans’ leader. He’s able to accurately shoot our people in the eye even from a hundred feet away!”
The soldier looked terrified. “The arrow pierced through the victims’ eyes and stuck out through the back of their head.”
“That’s madness! The Khitans are demons! And you said there are a thousand of them?!” The Second Imperial Consort was horrified.
She might not be well-versed with military affairs, but she could gauge how ferocious the Khitans were from the news she had received thus far. Even the Ottomains’ strongest warriors were no match for them.
Some of the soldiers even debated whether a Khitan could simultaneously deal with three or five of them.
Doesn’t that mean there are 3000 to 4000 Janissary soldiers outside the city? The forces that are currently in the city won’t stand a chance against that vicious bunch!
“Close the city gates,” the Second Imperial Consort ordered with a pale face.
She was feeling terribly insecure right now.
“We can’t close it anymore.” A military commander wailed in despair. “The Fourth Imperial Consort randomly fired a couple of cannons earlier and blew our city gates to bits. We won’t be able to repair it in time.”
“…” The Second Imperial Consort turned to her older brother, hoping that he could come up with a solution.
“A thousand Khitans, a thousand Khitans…”
Pasha Callerga paced around the room while racking his brain, but he was unable to think of a way to subdue the thousand Khitans. In the end, he raised his head and suggested, “Should we negotiate peace with the Khitans?”