Chapter 22: The Heads Rolled Back

1st November 1452, outside the gate of Charisius, Constantinople.

A hooded man walks wearily likes a zombie, his eyes seems dead and seems to be in a state of subconsciously awake. The man carrying a huge bag tainted dark red with a thick, creamy liquid dripping down onto the dirt road. The passers-by gave him a curious look but soon carried on finishing their daily chores. It is not their first day seeing a man in this state, perhaps he is robbed by an armed bandit or something.

The man walked into the gate and upon seeing the Roman guard, his eyes finally rolled and donned a smile of relief. Before the days being exhausted on the road with neither food nor sleep got into him. He could sustain himself no more, cannot move a muscle and fatigued, he collapsed on the ground.

The chit-chatting guards soon noticed the abnormal behaviour of the man and approached to check. One guard turned the man over, and to his horror, the man is out of breath.

"Blood." The guard told his companions, as he touches the stains on the man's fur coat. He soon found a tag that displays the man's name and position. "It is one of the ambassadors that were sent to negotiate with the Ottomans."

Another guard nodded and went forward to check the stained with red bag. The soon he opened it, a scent of disgusting rotting smell came to him and he stepped back dropping the bag, which sent the things inside the bag rolling on the road.

Its three bloody heads tainted in dried blood, with the eyes still wide open as-if their last moment is frozen in a state of shock. The sight of three heads rolling on a road immediately sent a wave of screams and shrieks among the crowd, causing a disarray at the gate in early morning.

The news of three ambassadors decapitated and another dropped dead on the road soon reached the palace, which immediately spurred another wave of chaotic debate among the advisors and courtiers.

"Such barbaric action is a declaration of war!"

"We cannot fight them!"

"It is safer to just stay within the walls!"

"The beheading of our ambassador cannot go unanswered!"

"We should send a gift to the Sultan to soothe his anger!"

"We must strike back!"

"We must teach that young sultan a lesson on how Roman handle brutes!"

"Hahahaha…"

Constantine, the Emperor, frowns holding his forehead as he watches these bunch of brainless arrogant folks dancing up and down. The Mega Doux Loukas Nataras stands upright on the left-hand side of Constantine under the fleet of stairs. While George Sphrantzes, Constantine's Protevestiarites, or Lord of the Imperial Wardrobe, and most trusted man stands closely to the right-hand side of Constantine on the stairs, acting as a history recorder.

Constantine could bear this noisy orderless circus-like environment no more, he stood up and slammed his doubled-headed eagle sceptre onto the floor.

"Who will teach Mehmed that lesson! Mind telling me. You? Or is it you?" Constantine shouted in frustration at the courtiers laughing and joking which immediately sent a chilling tornado that turned the whole hall into an ice cellar. He gave the jesting advisor a stare that could have frozen the Mediterranean.

"Mehmed is a beast, but we cannot deal with him using force and armies. We must appease Mehmed, avoid all potential conflict with the Ottomans until aids from our Catholic allies in Europe arrives…" The Emperor continued, in the hope that his advisors and courtiers will be patient and listen to him on important matters like this. However, he is immediately interrupted disrespectfully by his own appointed head of government, Mega Doux Loukas.

"If, the Catholics are our only hope against the Ottomans, then we are destined to be doomed!" Loukas, still with his back facing the Emperor, ungraciously denied the words of the Emperor. Constantine is stunned for a brief moment of time but soon realised that his very own left-hand man is against him.

Loukas, seeing that there's no reaction from the Emperor and the rest of the people, continued in his unique high-pitched voice. "I would rather see an Ottoman turban in the midst of the city, than a Latin mitre inside these walls!"

Behind Loukas, Constantine shook his head n disagreement, veins almost popping in his temple and his fists tightly clenched gripping his sceptre. However, as a matured politician that is experienced in dealing with this kind of matters even before becoming an emperor, he knows that it is not the best time to start an internal strife before an external threat.

Thus, Constantine stepped down the stairs and shouted. "Orderr !!!" It took him quite a few shouts before he could re-gather the attention of the crowd. Constantine took a deep breathe and said in a convincing tone.

"Listen, Lords! We…including you and me, no matter whether you are Catholics or Orthodoxies, we are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of God… Facing a situation like this, we will have emissaries sent to the Vatican, Venezia, Budapest, Vienna, Paris, and every other court of our Catholic allies for any form of help possible to secure our defense."

Constantine took a moment of pause and caught sight of Giovanni and Antonius sitting at the back in one corner, eating peanuts and watching this boring fussy meeting. Constantine hesitated for a while, pointed towards them and continued.

"With God's blessings and grace, our dear Genoese friends have arrived, first of many, and have already taught Mehmed a lesson on the seas. Hopefully… Hopefully! Troops and aids from the Pope should be reaching in the coming weeks, we will have nothing to fear for by then!"

After that inspiring speech, no matter inspired or not, the Roman advisors raised their arms and fists and shouted in excitement.

"Long Live the Emperor!"

"Long Live Roman Empire!"

Antonius threw another peanut into his mouth and nudged Giovanni by his side. "Seems like they have forgot your words of wisdom that hope can get them killed in a war."

Giovanni, shaking legs and chewing another peanut, raised his eyebrows and replied. "Aye, seriously speaking I think that they are the ones who needs to be taught a lesson… We've been here for so long and they haven't talked about the real deal yet."

"You mean the fortress the Ottomans are building by the side of Bosporus?"

"Aye, that is the real deal." Giovanni nodded, cleaned his hands of the peanut remnants and stood up shouting out to the emperor with his blaring voice.

"Emperor! I suggest you talk about the fortress that Ottomans are building on the European side of the Bosporus!"

Giovanni immediately grabbed the attention of everyone in the hall with his charisma. The emperor, seeing that finally someone came out and changed the topic and ended the potential further argument, followed and asked Giovanni back. "Yes, please, Lord Giustiniani, but I believe that with hope from our allies…"

"There is no more time for hope! Emperor! It is a countdown of life and death!"

Giovanni stopped Constantine from further living in his fantasies of his potential 'Western Allies'. He stepped forward into the centre of the crowd, spread open a map of the Bosporus, looked up at Constantine and elaborated on the threat of the fortress.

In order to better tighten their iron grip on Constantinople, Mehmed II ordered his most loyal man, Zaganos Pasha to construct a new fortress on the European side of Bosporus channel connecting between the black sea and the Aegean. The fort is built strategically on the narrowest portion of the Bosporus channel, making it able be in range to threaten every single ship passing through the channel, thus stopping almost all reinforcements, aid and supplies by Roman allies in the black sea from reaching the Golden Horn, Constantinople.

"Emperor! Lords! We need to get rid of the fortress, if we cannot control it, then we must destroy it! If not, emperor, those European allies you mentioned, those Christendom around the Black sea like Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Wallachia and Genoese colony in Cherson, they will not make it here."

Giovanni glanced at every single men in the hall, from their faces Giovanni can know that half of them either don't care about the fortress or they have something else on their plate like Loukas. While the other half who understood the severity of the problem either have turned as white as chalk in hopeless or desperately arguing for a solution, like George Sphrantzes and Andronikos Laskaris.

Constantine, being a good listener, asked back. "Lord Giustiniani… I understand the problem now, so what is your proposal?"

"Emperor, I plan to sneak to near the fortress under the cover with the help the Genoese governor of Galata, Angelo Lomellini, then we will surprise attack the Ottomans inside and then burn down the unfinished fortress. If all goes well, it should be done within a few hours, giving the Sultan no time to react."

Numerous thoughts ran through the mind of Constantine, in the midst of another debate in the hall, he stood up and halted his advisors, and replied formally. "Lord Giustiniani, I approve your plan of your attack on the fortress, and…"

"I shall be going together with you. One more blade can prove useful."

This immediately sent another wave of uproar among the Roman advisors, they immediately rushed forward in protest of the Emperor's decision to march onto battlefield, but Constantine halted them once more.

"Lords, this is the moment of life and death of the empire… the prophet says that Constantinople rise with one Constantine and will fall with another Constantine…. I don't prepare to be that Constantine; thus, I will try every bit to stop Mehmed and his menacing plans."

While Constantine is reassuring his men, in a dark corner Loukas passed a paper slip to an attendant and whispered. "Send this to our old friend in Edirne."

But suddenly, he felt a shiver down his spine as he feels someone is looking at him, he turned back and saw Antonius, staring at him. Seeing Loukas turned back, Antonius made a suggestion to Constantine.

"Emperor, I suggest that you bring Loukas alongside with you this time, with both the Roman emperor and Mega Doux, I bet that the solders will be more motivated than ever."

Loukas trembled and dropped the silver cup he is holding, again.

…