Chapter 109: The Messe

The situation slowly turned into a stalemate with the Romans trying their best to fill the gaps of the increasing and collapsing line of defence, while the Ottomans now are able to hold on to their captured area and still master another force led by Kudret Suvari himself pushing towards Blachnarea, where there lays his objective, the gate of Kaligaria and Regia, after that, he can pound onto the Royal Palace of Blachernae where the emperor and the kins from the house of Palaiologos lives, capturing this place is a political goal which can instantly announce that Mehmed has achieved victory in this siege.

The Gate of Kerkaporta is on a high land, or the Sixth Hill of Constantinople, standing around thirty meters in height it gives the Ottomans an unstoppable advantage as they charge down on the Roman shield formation forming down on the road trying to stop them.

Although things are going smoothly for the Ottomans as they gained an upper hand on both flanks and the frontier, Kudret Suvari still feels that something is not right and there is potential sources of trouble brewing.

Everything is going on just as his Sultan and him previously planned, the Ottomans secured a solid head start as they lay their foot prints inside the walls, pushing the Romans back further and further expanding their territory, and an seemingly endless amount of Janissaries are still rushing into the city through the gate of Kerkaporta.

However, all of these combined together does not mean Kudret Suvari has achieved his strategic target.

First of all, the gate is way too small, and there are limited space inside the city, it became so crowded that some times the Janissaries has to climb onto the roof tops of buildings, which limits the width of battlefield limiting the Ottoman advantage in numbers. Secondly, the Romans are retreating but not collapsing, the Roman commander built up a flexible defence that sacrificed some territories to regroup and reorganise their defense, and most importantly, Kudret Suvari's man on the tower informed him that the Romans still have a backup force in the palace unmoved by the current situation.

This forced Kudret Suvari to keep some of his forces in defensive positions as well waiting for the enemy back up to move, and be as cautious as possible when planning his next attack moves, while applying pressure on the direction to Blachnarea hoping for a breakthrough.

…

Night falls.

Guided by torches, the fight continues.

The Ottomans inside the city has reached a staggering one thousand, it can be said that if it is not for the immediate actions taken by Julian, the complicated and overly narrow terrain, and the gate being too small, the city would have already fallen.

Antonius observes the battlefield at the back on a balcony of a two story imperial warehouse, now with only Abraham by his side. Around him there are one hundred calvaries from Giovanni resting on the streets seated eating their rations, and inside the warehouse stands two hundred armed sailors.

A soldier, covered in blood and mud on his face and leather armour, ran beneath the tower, kneeled on one knee and shouted out to Antonius. "Admiral! My general sent me to ask for reinforcements!"

Abraham by the side asked nervously. "Is it that general Mauro is no longer able to hold his defences? Is his troops collapsing?"

"No sir!" The soldier replied panting up and down. "My general is able to hold his defence with himself fighting alongside my comrades, but as time goes by he is worried that his men cannot last that long, and he is unable to achieve a break through with the number of people he has, thus he sent me here to ask for more men!"

Antonius looked at the man beneath and slowly shook his head, then in the latter's confused and disappointed sight he replied. "Tell Mauro to hold on for ten more minutes, there are no reinforcement for him."

The soldier, although much disappointed, but still rushed back to support his general.

"Abraham, do you know how to fight on horse?"

"Yes captain." Answered Abraham in a confident tone. "I came from the lands of Itiyoophiyaa, which back in my town all of the youths master the craft of horsemanship."

"Good… I need you to lead the calvaries out to the Messe connecting the two palaces, then once you see my signal charge down right into the section of Ottomans under the gate, I need you to pierce through them and separate them…. If there is a best suited time to use the calvaries, I bet that the time is now."

"Aye! Captain!"

…

Abraham left with the one hundred calvaries, leaving Antonius only by himself continuously observing the battle situation with two hundred sailors.

Yuri's forces have engaged with the Ottomans, halting their push and dividing them into different segments. The axes of the Varangians have just started showing their brutality for the night, if it is not for the late spring darkness that makes one enable to see his fingers in such dim light, it would cause a much greater visual impact to the Ottomans, and also to the allied Genoese and Venetians.

With the new surge of fresh blood joining the war, the Ottomans are starting to take heavy losses, losing all progresses they have gained and slowly pushed back to where they came from. However, things are not decisive yet. The target of the Romans and Antonius, the Gate of Kerkaporta, is yet in foe's hands.

This is not the result that Antonius wants.

Mauro's forces and the Venetians led by Julian are now physically and psychologically depleted. They are now starting to show signs of collapse. Lesser and lesser Roman reinforcements are arriving as Mehmed increased his strength of siege on other segments of the walls.

With the youngsters mostly drafted for war, there are only the elderlies and maidens left hiding in the city, but even they started coming out of their hide outs and started gathering behind Antonius and his men, with kitchen knives, poles, broom sticks and machetes in their hands, forming perhaps the last line of defence.

But this line of defence is not what Antonius wants to see.

The men of Rome should be strong enough to keep the weak, the children, the elderlies and the maidens out of blood shed.