1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 292: Melt

"Silent enim leges inter arma - Laws are silent in times of war."

-        Cicero

The war is back to its normal state after the two biggest Ottoman commander settled their disputes, the head of those Ottoman officers responsible for this are chopped off right in front of the crowd of naked soldiers giving a visual shock to every one on the spot as blood started spilling out like fountains right on to their feet and head rolling around. But they are already too exhausted shivering in the cold for too long, and in the end of the event they still had to begin charging towards the walls half naked after standing against the cold for hours. 

With the blowing of the horns the battle entered its seventh day, with their advancement lined up according to their traditional society structures. The supervising cavalries sitting all the way at the back, followed by the Ottoman warriors commanded by their smaller lords and nobles, in front of them are the drafted peasants and finally the slaves charging at the direct front. 

It went accordingly just like the usual way with the slaves charging to a distance close enough to the defensive walls enduring heavy casualties from the downpour of arrows, blasting of smaller artilleries, throwing the rope loops on to the wooden logs and start trying to pull it down. 

However, after a couple minutes of trying hard the wall persevered standing there firmly not moving by a single inch. 

"Why, why can't our men pull their wall down?" Realising this the front line commanders all started feeling anxious and horrified as they knows that with each second wasted in to this their men shall suffer an unimaginable amount of loss. But of course, no one has an answer to their questions, all they could do is to continue doing this fruitless work. 

Of course it is not because the strength of the people pulling the ropes have weakened, there is a very simple reason behind why they are unable to pull it down simply like last time, there are way too many people and animals who lost their lives just beneath these walls and their blood flew on to the ground sipping in to the holes, cracks, slits on the ground in to the foundation of the wooden walls, and by coincidence the temperature of this battle field during night just happened to fall below the freezing point of zero degrees.

The blood froze and clotted in the soil around the wall forming brick hard solids enhancing the wall's foundation by a lot, and thus when the pathetic slaves tried to use their save old trick of playing with the wall with the rope at its tip exerting force at the furthest point of the pivot which is the base of the wooden logs forming the greatest pulling strength, it failed terribly, as the wall's foundation is now literally joined together to the entire Earth, and no doubt these slaves are unable to pull the Earth with a rope.

The front line commanders immediately reported this situation back towards the heard quarters and the reply they got from Ibrahim Pasha is; This is the last wall between the Rumelians and their formidable army, there is no need to hold back their strength, unleash more horses and slaves with tighter ropes and try for another time, report back only if this fails too.

"Huh? What does he mean by report back only if this fails too?" Mahmud Pasha Angelovi raised his eye brows and shouted back at the messenger. "Go ask Ibrahim Pasha one more time, what if our mounts all died? What if our slaves all died? With out the mounts, what will my Sipahi cavalries become? GO remind him that the Rumelians too have a large cavalry force, and what do we do if they decide to launch a counter offensive?"

"Go tell Mahmud Pasha Angelovi, that if he breaks in to the Rumelian walls he would not have the need to fear about their petite cavalry coming at him!" Ibrahim Pasha too is pretty fed up with the front line situation giving him so much trouble only two days after he has taken office. "And if they do, he still has a firmly well defended base camp behind him, and if things escalated that bad to the step we need a retreat, I will be rear guard!"

Hearing this reply from the messenger Mahmud Pasha Angelovi made a deep sigh and said no more words. He grabbed his turpan helmet jumping off to his mount waving the flag ordering all the Ottoman horse men to get off their horses and send them to the Rumelian walls to pull the rope, starting from his own horse, a pure Transoxianan breed that has been accompanying him for three years.

This abrupt order sent a wave of up roar and distress among the Sipahi cavalries totally not expecting their general would let their valuable horses, which is like their friends and soul accompanier to go die on only themselves in a piteous state like those slaves. They wept and protested hugging their horses holding the kneels preventing the others from taking it. While the horses too being a perceptive smart creature realised some thing is going on licking and touching their riders gently. But all of these weeping and hugging is futile, under the strict command by Mahmud Pasha Angelovi they are forced to be separated and tied up with linen ropes.

Seeing this scene Mahmud Pasha Angelovi could no longer control himself throwing his whip on to the ground and roared towards the sky. "Where are our artilleries! Huh? Where! Are! Our! Artilleries!"

The commanders behind him looked at each other not daring to answer the question, although it is all transparently clear to even soldier that these artilleries are most probably caught up in the nation wide traffic jam at the roads and junctions due to the lousy and poorly planned Ottoman logistics system supporting such a large operation for the very first time since the nation entered feudal life and implemented the drafting system.

"You know what, honourable pasha." A janissary captain could not control his desire and said in a crying tone. "I think we are looming our own foundation of the army in a deep cast of dark clouds."

Mahmud Pasha Angelovi bite his lips and did not answer his words.

The next round of offensive finally started in the after noon, although a fresh amount of horses and slaves joined the pulling force the foundation of the wooden walls still remained securely in tact despite the middle section showing bit of marks and tears. Seeing this craziness displayed by the foes Julian knows that by some magic force that the Ottomans are unable to pull down their defenses, and with a cold sneer he ordered all archers and cross bow men to stop resting and get their feet up the walls to slaughter off the horses as fast as possible aiming for the best effect of a massive barrage shot. 

The Ottomans suffered great losses in horses to a point where by they had more horses dying than man, and they can do nothing about it, the only thing they can do is to send out envoys requesting more horses from Ottoman tributaries in the Crimean steppe, Caucasia and Persia for more horses as tributes immediately, but how long will that take? It only takes one day for half a brigade of Sipahi and Aknc cavalries to lose their horses, and if the war drags on for ten days it means that the Ottomans shall lose all of their horses they brought in to this battle! This is so ridiculous that perhaps it is only possible to happen in a story. 

The Ottomans grinded under the third wall for another three days showing little progress, with both sides desperately putting all of their strength wrestling over this merely four meter tall wooden walls that seemed to be even harder to take than the majestic Theodosian walls of Constantinople, with the archers seemingly getting back their glorious past old days as the main protagonist of the battle field. The war has escalated to such a state that no one is now proposing they should retreat as the hate and rivalry between both sides has escalated to such a level that any one who proposed this idea shall be viewed as the traitor to the people, due to the fact that almost every one here has a friend or family member that lost their life in the exchanging of arrows and spears. 

But after three days the climate of Thessaly started having some changes where by the freezing northern wind from the land of Rus has diminished accompanied by the return of the warm tidal wind from the eastern Mediterranean with the warmer rays of sun light added up together making the weather take a slight change raising back above the freezing point. 

Which means that the blood clotted ice in the foundation of the walls is now melting.