People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 664 Minced Meat
The battle lasted from noon to dusk.

The sticky blood flowed freely on the city wall, and after drying it turned into a black and red picture of hell emitting a pungent fishy smell.

The Ottomans retreated, leaving behind countless bodies.

As it was getting dark, they obviously had no interest in fighting at night. Instead, the enemy's artillery positions showed their power again, firing a barrage of shells into the city, but with little effect, and it seemed more like a meaningless venting of anger.

Constantinople also had its own artillery.

It was previously built by Urban for Constantine XI, but due to funding constraints, the caliber was very small. After Urban inspected the structure of the Theodosian Wall on site, he concluded that it was difficult to install cannons in the tower.

It is too old. When this thousand-year-old wall was first designed, it was not considered to install artillery, so it is naturally unable to fight back against the enemy's artillery fire.

Losa didn't know whether to say that Constantine XI was kind-hearted or stupid.

Urban was familiar with the structure of the Theodosian Wall and was also a cannon caster. You couldn't even afford to pay him a salary, so didn't you realize how dangerous he was? For such a person, since you couldn't use him and couldn't guarantee his loyalty, even if you didn't execute him directly in secret, you should have sent more people to keep a close watch on him.

A messenger from Mahamu II was sent to the city, proposing a temporary ceasefire between the two sides to collect the corpses. The ceasefire agreement would last until tomorrow night.

Losa naturally would not refuse this request.

The horror of the Black Death left a deep impression on every intelligent life. In yesterday's world of battleships, even the giants in the Far North lost 80% of their population due to the Black Death.

The holy light of the clergy can only heal external injuries. Urdin once served as the Archbishop of Milan and was already considered a high-ranking clergyman. Clergymen of his level still had to use herbal medicine to treat most diseases.

Neither the defenders nor the attackers wanted to see this tragedy happen again. The plague did not discriminate between race and status, and a large number of royal relatives died from the Black Death.

The period of time when the bodies were being collected became a rare moment of peace.

The exhausted defending soldiers fell asleep, some of them still holding food brought to the city by the citizens. The wounded moaned in pain, and some women and children whose relatives had died stood inside the city wall and cried bitterly.

The defenders threw the enemy's bodies into the filled trenches outside, where they sank into the mud. The Ottomans then sent civilians to drag the bodies out, load them onto carts, and take them to a distant place for collective burning.

The Zoroastrian imams gathered together and read eulogies. Some Ottomans wearing large turbans danced around the fire, which was also quite solemn and beautiful.

Lothar listened carefully to the news reported from various sections of the city wall. The defenders in the southern section suffered more than forty casualties today.

The middle section was the focus of the enemy's attack. Even with him personally in charge, there were as many as 230 casualties, most of whom were killed and wounded by members of fraternities and sororities who possessed extraordinary powers.

The northern section of the city wall was not much better. The walls near the Golden Horn and the Blahena Palace were also weak points in defense. The Ottomans were well aware of this and concentrated dozens of large-caliber artillery to bombard the city walls.

If Giovanni had not personally led the team to fight the enemy and eliminated a flag-bearing pasha who led the enemy team, the losses would probably not be much less than that of the middle section of the city wall.

In just one day, the defenders lost more than four hundred people.

Even the Ottoman losses would certainly be ten times or even more than that of the defenders.

But they can afford the loss.

After all, so far, their real core force, the most elite Janissary Corps has not been sent to the battlefield. Although the vassal army has suffered heavy losses, as long as Mahamu II can withstand this pressure, it can become an opportunity to weaken local forces.

"The enemy's manpower is endless, and our soldiers are being lost every moment."

Lothar sighed softly and patrolled the city wall, patting the tired soldiers on the shoulders from time to time and praising them for their brave fighting today.

He had just executed a group of surrenderists and confiscated their property. He now generously took out some coins to reward those who had made outstanding contributions in this war. This was much better than the original miserable situation where he had to melt the church decorations and mint silver coins to reward the soldiers. 
Unfortunately, the gold coins produced by the system with his portrait printed on them could not be withdrawn, but the spoils of war could still be recycled, allowing him to accumulate a batch of coins that he could use to reward soldiers in the next battle.

In the evening in Constantinople, the sky was still gloomy, with dust and smoke filling the air between the sky and the earth. Many of the houses near the inner side of the city wall were affected by the artillery fire and collapsed into ruins.

Fortunately, these houses had been uninhabited for a long time. After the collapse, it was easier to dismantle them and use them as materials for repairing and reinforcing the city walls.

The magic circle of the Theodosian Wall is not indestructible forever. At least, the tower that was destroyed today is enough to prove this.

Lothar didn't know how long the Theodosian Wall could last. The team of spellcasters responsible for repairing and maintaining the wall had died hundreds of years ago. The spellcasters in Constantinople didn't even dare to charge it easily for fear of damaging its magic patterns.

The wounded soldiers were carried down from the city wall by the laborers.

But most of them had relatively minor injuries and still stayed at their posts. The number of soldiers defending the city was limited, and it was difficult to achieve orderly rotation. They could only transfer here the soldiers stationed in the remaining sections of the city wall who were not under the enemy's main attack, just like tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall.

As for the reserve troops, they must never be used lightly. They must conserve their strength and be used in the most brutal battles at the most critical moments.

Under the city wall, the corpse collectors sent by the Ottomans were like packs of hyenas. They pulled off the necklaces from the necks of the dead and picked up the dead's belongings and put them into their pockets, although most of this harvest would definitely be exploited after they returned.

"God bless!"

A corpse collector from the Rumelian Legion excitedly tore off a soldier's necklace, and without any disgust, hung the necklace with a silver Orthodox cross around his own neck.

"God will not bless people like you, traitor."

On the city wall, Greek soldiers cursed angrily.

The corpse collector looked up and saw a Greek soldier with a conspicuous dent on his helmet and blood on his face, sticking his head out and scolding him.

He shrugged. "Man, if I were you, I'd just lie down and pray to live through the next day."

"Hehe, I'll give you this in return."

The Greek soldier sneered and raised the crossbow in his hand, indicating that he could take the corpse collector's life at any time.

"Thank you."

The corpse collector didn't care about it. Maybe tomorrow he would be driven onto the city wall, the first to fight with his fellow clansmen, and become the target of a new batch of corpse collectors. By then, new people would tear off the necklace from his neck.

But it is easy to say that we do not serve the pagans.

Even the lords had laid down their arms and acknowledged the rule of the Ottomans. What could ordinary people like them do in this situation?

Resistance will only lead to bloodier repression.

Some clergymen of the Orthodox and Latin Churches came to the city wall holding statues of the Virgin Mary.

They radiated holy light with healing effects, soothing the soldiers' pain.

Some dying people who were difficult to save also stopped wailing, and the pain on their faces gradually faded.

A priest in cassock smeared consecrated olive oil on his forehead and said: "Rest in peace, child. You fought for Christ until death. All your sins in life will be forgiven and you will ascend to heaven."

The dying person's expression gradually became calm and he no longer wailed.

Finally the priest closed their eyes and silently said a prayer.

The corpse collector looked at the solemn scene on the city wall with some envy and silently made the sign of the cross on his chest.

The Ottomans did not ban the Orthodox faith, as the Saracens had done, but only restricted it.

But if they were injured, there would be no priest to say a last mass for them.

The emperor watched this scene in silence.

“A lot of people died today.”

Viviana's footsteps were light, and her combat boots decorated with white tassels stepped on the city wall, but there was silence.

"The enemy died more."

The Candle Knight asked, "What if Mahamu II is really determined to sacrifice human lives?"

Losa said without hesitation: "Then let's fight him."

The Ottoman Empire was a big country with great power, but its internal conflicts were actually not small at all. He did not believe that the young Mahamut II would be able to suppress the old ministers left behind by Murad II if he really faced a very tragic price.

He just didn't believe that Mahamut II could sit still forever.

As long as Mahamu II can't sit still and takes the first step, his chance will come.

Viviana couldn't help but frown. This attitude of not taking human life seriously was really like her father and the Emperor.

That’s right, isn’t he also the Emperor now?
"In our time, some scholars proposed that in order to eliminate war, we might be able to rely on knightly duels to resolve international disputes in the future."

"So, I discussed with Mahamu II to set up a fighting arena? The winner gets Constantinople? I'd love to do that. But it would be great if everything in the world could be solved so easily."

Lothar's tone was a little irritated. War was a meat grinder, and he was not a heartless man. He didn't want to see deaths more than most human monarchs, but having this mentality would only lead to more deaths.

"I just"

Viviana hesitated to speak.

When she supported the fleet in the Golden Horn today, she burned a small Ottoman boat and two large ships.

The rowing boats of this era had a large number of crew members. Even a small rowing boat had more than a hundred people. The Ottoman three-decker rowing ship, including slave rowers, had a total crew of up to four hundred people.

Even with a conservative estimate, she killed five hundred people today.

This was more than all the people she had killed in the first half of her life, multiplied by a hundred times, because she had only killed two evil bandits during her travels, and in the knight competition, she had only accidentally killed an opponent that she had to go all out to defeat.

"Feel sorry."

Lothar rubbed his brows and said, "My tone was a little hasty. But, Miss Viviana, this war was not started by my will, and it will not end by my will."

Viviana was silent for a moment, then whispered, "I should be the one to say sorry. I failed in my duty."

Lothar sighed softly: "You have done well enough, when I fought for the first time."

"Not even as good as you."

He told a white lie.

In fact, the first time he fought in a battle was in a confrontation with the Magyars. At that time, he was not nervous at all and killed to his heart's content.

But no way.

He couldn't expect everyone to be like him.

Viviana is a genuine young girl, who cannot be compared with Cerinina, a bloodthirsty wolf assassin; nor can she be compared with Jeanne, a heroic spirit who has lived for hundreds of years and was a killer when she was alive.

Not to mention a monster girl like Fulin, killing someone is like crushing an ant to her.