NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 33: Blood Twin-headed Eagle Flag
“Ah?” The Second Imperial Consort was stunned.
Does my big brother mean to give up on Edirne? But this is the capital of the Ottomain Empire! It has great political significance; only by occupying this place can the sultan give out orders to the arrogant military and chieftains.
How can we give up on it just like that?
“Big brother, we…” The Second Imperial Consort tried to dissuade Pasha Callerga.
“We overestimated ourselves,” Pasha Callerga interjected. “The Khitans don’t see us worthy of negotiation, be it us, the First Imperial Consort, or the Fifth Imperial Consort. To them, we’re just a bunch of lambs in the slaughterhouse.”
He turned to the Second Imperial Consort and asked, “Would you bother negotiating with the meat that you eat every meal?”
“…” The Second Imperial Consort found it ridiculous.
When did our Ottomain warriors fall to such a plight? We have always been the one plundering. Our enemies have always been the one trembling before our bloody shamshirs.
How did the tables suddenly turn on us?
“We’ll disguise ourselves and escape from the city right away,” Pasha Callerga instructed. “We need to flee before the Khitans notice us, or else it would be the end. For now, our goal is to find the Morean army and join hands with them. If we succeed, there might still be a chance to turn things around.”
When Pasha Callerga chose to give up on the capital, the Ottomains’ First Imperial Consort made the same decision too.
With the two imperial consorts taking away a substantial number of Edirne’s troops, the remaining soldiers couldn’t put up an effective defense. Their only fate was to be slaughtered by Shu Yichao amidst despair.
Just like that, Edirne, the Ottomain Empire’s capital, fell into Shu Yichao’s hands.
“Tsk.” Shu Yichao clicked his tongue after ending the last opponent.
He quickly assessed his losses, and he felt his heart bleeding in pain. “I lost nearly a hundred people? Tsk! Street fights are the worst.”
Mounted units needed a wide space to build up momentum. While Edirne had a few wide streets, the majority of the city was a messy layout, with trees and houses at every turn. Some of the alleys were so narrow that foot soldiers couldn’t even get into a decent formation.
It was impossible for the Elite Horse Archers to build up momentum at all.
Often, Shu Yichao and his Elite Horse Archers had to brawl like hoodlums, which meant relinquishing their advantage as mounted units.
On top of that, they were currently in the Ottomain Empire’s capital, so their soldiers were superior to that of other cities on Thrace Plains in terms of quantity and quality. They were more resourceful and knew how to leverage on their strengths of fighting on their turf.
Shu Yichao and his Elite Horse Archers stumbled into ridiculous situations at every turn, like fecal water tossed from the corner of the street, searing oil dropped from the houses, explosives in the trash pile, and so on.
At this point, Shu Yichao heaved a deep sigh.
“I need more soldiers. I can’t afford any more casualties,” he concluded.
“Forget it!” He turned to his Elite Horse Archers, who were looking at him with gleaming eyes, and said, “Brothers, you have worked hard. It’s time to do what you have been looking forward to. Go ahead and plunder whatever you want!”
First, he had the Elite Horse Archers escort the prisoners of war out of the city.
Following that, he started on a cycle of conquering the city, plundering its resources, abandoning the city, then conquering the city once more, plundering its resources again, and abandoning the city yet again…
It was smooth like a streamlined assembly line.
…
“My Lord.”
Days later, when Constantin XI and his army of 50,000 crusaders arrived belatedly at Edirne, they couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment.
“Our Caesar has really taken down Edirne?”
Despite having guessed that Shu Yichao’s target was Edirne, Constantin XI didn’t harbor great hopes since Edirne was bound to be heavily fortified, being the Ottomain Empire’s capital.
Besides, the heretics of the Ottomain Empire, fueled by religious fanaticism, would have been fierce and hard to deal with.
The Khitans were incredible warriors, but it was much more difficult to siege a fortress than to guard a fortress or defeat enemies in skirmishes, not to mention Shu Yichao’s army was much smaller than the Ottomain’s forces…
How could an army that numbered less than a thousand possibly siege a fortified fortress with tens of thousands of troops?
Constantin XI simply couldn’t see it happening.
The most optimistic outcome he had foreseen about this Holy War was to eradicate all other Ottomain bases in Thrace Plains and parade their victory to Edirne before retreating. He didn’t think there was any power that could confront the Khitans head-on anyway, so the Ottomains would only suffer heavy losses if they dared pursue them.
Yet, Edirne, which they had lost for nearly a hundred years now, was taken back just like that!
This signified a huge change in the Romains’ battle strategy going forward. They no longer had to confine themselves to just a defensive battle.
Warm tears flowed down Constantin XI’s eyes.
As for the crusaders, they were already trembling with excitement from the moment they saw the twin eagles flag flying on the city walls, as well as the thousand of prisoners of war slouching in depression outside the city.
“Long live the Priest King!”
“Long live the Khitan Caesar!”
“All hail the Holy War!”
While the crusaders were cheering thunderously, Shu Yichao spotted Constantin XI.
“Yo!” Shu Yichao, who had just finished looting another mound of corpses with his Elite Horse Archers, galloped over and called out, “Cons Eleven, you’re here!”
He gleefully pointed to the mound and said, “I just built it. What do you think?”
Constantin XI shuddered despite knowing that Shu Yichao was a friend and not a foe. He quickly replied with a polite smile, “Caesar, congratulations on your brilliant victory! I believe our enemies…”
“Hm?” Before Constantin XI could finish his words, Shu Yichao noticed Madam Marti was bringing something over. “What’s that? Is that for me?”
Madam Marti noticed Shu Yichao’s gaze and presented the item over.
It was a bright red flag reminiscent of fresh blood, with a golden twin-headed eagle spreading its wings in the center. The twin-headed eagle held a whip in one hand and a scimitar in the other. Its eyes looked feral and domineering, as if it sought to conquer the world.
“Hahahaha!” Shu Yichao guffawed in delight. He took the flag and said, “Blood twin-headed eagle. I love it! I had been wondering why the Roman flags in this mod are purple, but it turns out there’s an easter egg here. I guess the player will only receive the red twin eagle flag after accomplishing the main storyline to a certain degree.”
Shu Yichao ordered his troops to switch to this flag and said, “With this, we are true Romans from now on! Brothers, let’s continue to revitalize Rome! A bunch of people who escaped from the city earlier. Do you think that’s acceptable? Pursue them!”
Seeing Shu Yichao happily leaving with the blood twin-headed eagles, Constantin XI turned to Madam Marti and asked, “How did you know that our Caesar likes red flags? We don’t speak his tongue.”
Constantin XI was planning to gift Shu Yichao a purple twin-headed eagle flag, but Madam Marti strongly advised him to go with red instead.
Madam Marti looked at the towering mounds of corpses outside Edirne, the crows that persistently circled the area, and the prisoners of war, and she said, “I don’t know why either. Maybe I just thought that red fits him the best.
“Let’s enter the city, Your Majesty. We have much to do in Edirne.”