Chapter 78: What Is Next

"Now, gentlemen, can you trust me?"

"Hardly need to ask." Giovanni let out a bold laugh chortle and reached out his hand. Antonius hesitated for a moment but reached his hand out too. Seeing this, Constantine smiled, heaved a sigh of relief and reached out his hand too.

The broad hands of three men from different statues shook their hands firmly together, seems like from this moment onwards the three of them has formed a special kind of bond to sail through this ocean of hardships through corporation.

"Emperor, what do you plan to do next?" Asked Antonius after the handshake.

"I will disassemble the senate."

This sent many doubts to the mind of Antonius. "Huh? You have the power to do that?"

"Of course, I have." Constantine gave the two men a cunning smile. "Do not forget that the full name of my title is 'The Autocrat, Basileus and Dictator of All Romans", it is just that these people have forgotten that there is a 'dictator' in my title as I have never acted like one."

"Interesting…. So what excuse shall you make to keep them out of bay?" Giovanni questioned curiously following Antonius.

"Easy… I will just say that mass gathering shall be prohibited for safety precautions, say that it would be an unacceptable loss to the state affairs and government if lets say, an Ottoman cannon ball comes blasting in through the windows rolling over them, thus it would be in the best for national interest that they stay at home an carry out the functions of states in their respective home… If there is any."

The three men enjoyed a good laugh on the balcony while the senators are left there wondering what took their emperor so long in the gent's loo.

…

On the afternoon that day, Antonius moved his flag ship Formidata out into action once again trying to copy the same trick he used two weeks ago, to sail upstream the Straits of Golden Horns and suppress the enemy artillery fire.

But there is always something on this battlefield that the Romans do not know, Mehmed forced the governor of Galata, Angelo Lomellini into submission and disobeyed his vow to stay neutral by allowing Ottoman scouts and spies into the colony. With the help of the Genoese colony and tower of Galata, the Ottomans are able to have full awareness of what is going on in the naval port of Neorion, thus Mehmed got a report of a big war galley moving out of Constantinople even faster than Constantine.

When the Formidata reached the upper stream of the Golden Horn into firing position, she found out that the Ottomans have prepared a substantial surprise for her.

The moment the war galley sailed into a close range, the commander of the Ottoman artilleries ordered the soldiers to remove the cloth cover ups revealing a total of thirty medium calibre artilleries and began rapidly firing at Formidata.

The Formidata tried to exchange shots with the Ottoman artilleries but she is severely out gunned. She only has a total of sixteen guns with eight on each side. The exchange of guns lasted for half an hour, around a hundred plus cannon balls are shot from the Ottoman side mostly found itself smashing onto the hulk and deck of Formidata, while the poor lady Formidata only managed to fire around thirty shells, and the situation is worsened when one Ottoman cannon ball deactivated one canon on the ship.

Formidata is a typical late medieval war galley which has no consideration of defending against canon balls when her ship bones are being laid in the dry dock. If a ship wants to have some increased canon defence it got to use oak wood, but Formidata was built using pine wood. Another thing to look at will be her water compartments, which is the most embarrassing thing to mention, even Antonius and his sailors can hardly say they have a clear idea how many she have as she is not built by them, she is a prize gained by looting.

Nonetheless, the respected lady managed to last for a time long enough fighting back successfully plucking out five Ottoman canons, thus it can be said that she accomplished her mission of reducing enemy firepower, at a cost of course.

Her wooden hulk has turned black from explosions, countless holes caused by round shells appeared on the hulk making it look like a hornet's nest. The worst damage came from two shells which plunged into the hulk at water line position which caused water to begin flooding into two water compartments, causing the ship to tilt slightly towards the left.

At this point any prolonged engagement might lead to the flag ship sinking here, thus Antonius ran to the wheel himself and started steering out of this place, receiving a couple more hits in the process.

By the time the lady stumbled back into the harbour of Neorion, she looks totally different from the time she set off three hours ago. She is like an stylish cultivated lady whose fashionable dress got torn into pieces, her pants and shoes leaking with water, hair got torn down, a face and body full of purple bruises and scars.

It will take her half a year to be out into action again.

Meanwhile on the Ottoman side, Mehmed took this opportunity to proclaim that the newly established artillery division has achieved a great success against the Roman navy, almost sinking their flag ship, reassured his men that from now onwards they no longer face any threats from the seas. The Ottoman camp plunged into a sea of happiness as this is their first true victory since the start of this siege war.

While back in Constantinople, the citizens who are used to having the navy returning with news of victory, saw the flag ship staggering back into the harbour in this pathetic state, they could hardly believe it what their eyes have saw.

The next day, news about the navy's defeat spread across the city like wildfire.