1453: Revival of Byzantium

Antonius has returned.

His scout ships have told him about the Ottoman siege of Constantinople. Thus, after entering the Golden Horn, he stopped by the Genoese colony of Galata. There he 'politely borrowed' the tower of Galata from his countrymen, using it as a watch tower and observed the situation of the battlefield.

Then he noticed something interesting. It seems like the commander of the Ottoman army is either too confident that no enemy threat will come from the water, or trust that the Ottoman fleet has already annihilated all potential threats, thus he placed some war machines beside the Straits of Golden Horn.

With that in mind, he ordered Yuri to drag Orban and Jacob from the iron works, pausing their work to produce more artilleries and shells, asked them to climb up a tower of sixty meters immediately without considering the fact that the father and son has been working non-stop with only four hours of sleep daily since the siege starts. Later that day after seeing them, Antonius gave them no time to rest, dragged them to the window and commanded them to calculate whether it is applicable to sail up the Golden Horn and pour shells upon the Ottoman formations.

Jacob complained and groaned initially but soon turned into jovial face the moment Antonius thrown him a purse of five hundred Ducats Golden coins stating it is a bonus to acknowledge his work. From his calculations they reached a summary that it is applicable although the current artillery range will only be able to cover one quarter of Ottoman trebuchets.

But that is already enough.

Then there is what Giovanni saw just now.

Mehmed too, is shocked by this pure sight of violence and destruction. Those massive trebuchets standing ten meters get crippled by a force unknown like a man pushing down a stack of building toy blocks. But he is the Sultan, the monarch of this country, and a general on the frontline, thus he must maintain his demeanor before his subjects.

"Impressive little thing the Romans got.��� Mehmed said in a calm tone with heads up, like nothing is going on, then he continued asking. "So, anyone of you know what is that thing shooting explosive flames? Is that the so called magical Greek Fire?"

No one around the Sultan can answer that question. It took them quite a while a find an expert craftsman assembling the siege machines called Hassam from the back who supposedly has participated in the siege of Thessaloniki thirty-one years back serving under his father Murad II.

Mehmed frowned a bit hearing his father's name but quickly went on asking the old craftsman Hassam what on earth is that weapon.

"Yes, my Sultan…" Hassam replied with a shaky voice. "That is called an 'Ağır silahlar', a kind of weapons used by the Mongols and the Sericans a few hundred years back…."

"I have no interest in its history Hassam, tell me how to counter that thing!"

"Well…With respect my Sultan, your father, also my Sultan Murad II, also faced a similar situation back then when we were laying siege to Thessaloniki, and there were five Venetian vessels that are armed with a similar kind of weapons on the ships, causing quite a lot of distress among the assault forces not for its killing power but its sound, seems like the Europeans got quite an advancement in technology these years…"

"Get to the point! My question!"

"Yes, my Sultan…" The old man Hassam finally stopped nagging. "The only way we can think of is to move our forces outside of its range, or we can have the same kind of weapon of your own…"

"You mean we have?"

"Yes, your father Murad II has foreseen the potential of this weapon, and hence he has produced a bunch of them and put them into service. I believe that some Beys and Pashas did bring some of these with them…"

Mehmed gave him a cold look and questioned. "You mean I am not up to my father's standard as a commander and Sultan?"

"No…no! Sultan, I don't…"

"Drag him back to where he came from."

Two janissaries stepped forward and dragged this poor screaming old man back to his post. While Mehmed stood on a hill and scanned the ship firing shells in a safe distance frowning.

The chief of army Zaganos Pasha immediately kneeled down wearing armour pleading guilty for not having information of Romans getting a brand-new weapon. While the Grand Vizier Canderli Halil Pasha approached the Sultan from the back and asked.

"My Sultan… I do have a few 'artilleries' with my levy this time, do you want my men to take this weapon out and try to fight back against that menacing ship?"

"No need my dear Canderli Halil Pasha." Replied Mehmed to the both of them. "Stand up Zaganos Pasha, that old man Hassam is right. It is my fault for neglecting the improvement of science, I have forgot the words of wisdom by my teacher. 'Forgetting is the plague of knowledge.'."

"Canderli Halil Pasha…" Mehmed continued as the Grand Vizier hastily bowed down to listen to his Sultan's words. "I want you to gather all artilleries that we have in the army and put them united under one command. Since Selim Pasha is not around, I shall have Mahmud Pasha Angelović who has some experience with these things to be put in charge."

"Yes, my Sultan." The Grand Vizier bowed again and left.

After a while Mehmed suddenly lost interest of the scenery before him, as it is basically a one-sided killing spree by his foe which the more he watch the more pain he feels. Furthermore, as a well qualified military commander, he can already guess the difficulty next.

Since the Romans already have guns like this any sane ruler in the city will place them on those walls which will tremendously boost the defensive capabilities of the city.

But why have they not fired yet? Out of Range?