Upon receiving the Caesar's direct order, Tukharovsky, standing before Manuel, was momentarily stunned.
Your Majesty, please reconsider! The enemy's city walls haven't even been breached yet!
The Army Commander, realizing the gravity of the situation, rose in fear, attempting to persuade his monarch to avoid issuing this command.
Then let the artillery of the army and navy coordinate their bombardment. You must have heard the intelligence that just came in: the Ottoman Ankara Legion has already broken through several of our temporary fortifications in the plains and is heading straight for Sinop! Holy Father above, we have no time! Open fire and storm the city immediately, this is an order!
Manuel, having learned of the Ottoman's movements, was incredibly anxious. Extremely afraid of being counter-attacked by those troops under the Ottoman's command, he now completely disregarded everything else.
Simply put, he was in a hurry.
After repeated attempts to persuade him failed, the generals had no choice but to prepare for the artillery bombardment and assault on Sinop's city walls, as their monarch had instructed.
As Bosporus prepared for the assault, the Kandar Bey Isfendiyar and his subordinates, trapped in Sinop, were not calm either, corresponding to the Romans outside the city. In fact, Sinop, having been besieged for over a month, was already restless, and it was only thanks to their esteemed old Bey Isfendiyar personally taking to the field that the situation was stabilized. Otherwise, with the temptations of Bosporus and their thirst for gain, the Christians, who made up nearly half the city's population, would have long since attempted to rebel against the Turks above them.
Father, by the grace of Allah, today we have again blocked a group of Christian communities with traitorous tendencies.
On the morning of the day the Bosporus Army was about to launch its assault, Isfendiyar's eldest son, Taceddin Ibrahim, routinely came to the palace to report to his father on his success in dealing with potential traitors.
Isfendiyar nodded approvingly at his heir's actions. However, noticing the problem within, he felt it necessary to admonish Ibrahim,
Although, Ibrahim, it's best not to go too far. You must know that even now, Sinop is a large city with a Christian population of nearly 50,000.
Facing his son's attempt to argue, Isfendiyar couldn't help but sigh,
These past few days, the Christians in the city have indeed been suppressed without any trouble, but this has come at the cost of their property and personal safety not being guaranteed. Currently, with me suppressing them, it's still manageable, but once you truly succeed to the throne, you can no longer act like this.
Just as the old Bey was about to continue his lecture, he suddenly heard the roar of cannon fire, both loud and soft, and at that moment, his Vizier Ismail requested an audience.
Let him in quickly.
Isfendiyar frowned, sensing that things were not simple.
Soon, the Bey understood the reason for the earlier disturbances from his Vizier: the Bosporus Army outside the city had begun its assault.
Damn the Romans!
Isfendiyar gritted his teeth and roared, then ordered his horse to be prepared, intending to personally go to the city wall to supervise the battle and repel the enemy.
Outside the city, a fierce battle was already raging. In order to quickly break into Sinop, Manuel, whose patience had completely worn thin, no longer sent orthodox soldiers to persuade the defending enemy before attacking, as he had done previously. Instead, he directly ordered the army and navy's artillery to bombard Sinop's city walls simultaneously, intending to blast holes in the walls directly to allow troops to enter, assisting in the upcoming assault.
Facing the artillery bombardment of the Bosporus Army, the fortresses on coastal plain cities like Sinop indeed could not resist for too long. After three consecutive days of indiscriminate artillery strikes, Sinop's city walls were breached.
Seeing Sinop's city walls with several large breaches, Manuel, personally commanding the army at the front, became exceptionally excited.
Thank the Lord, hope is in sight.
With this thought, he immediately ordered the entire army to advance, seeking to storm the city.
Soon, under the Caesar's command, the mercenaries and conscripted militias of the Bosporus Army were the first to ascend the scaling ladders and siege engines, launching a fierce assault on Sinop's city walls, some with greed, others with trepidation.
This time, it was the Romans' turn to become the surging
tide.
The ferocity of this vanguard, spurred by threat and encouragement, momentarily startled the defenders, even reminding some veterans of the Ottoman army they had faced over a decade ago.
However, to the Bosporus's great regret, this momentum did not last long. Because at the very first moment he learned of the wall's damage, the elderly Kandar Bey Isfendiyar personally ascended the city wall, and had his eldest son and Vizier wave the white-based, dark-red six-pointed star flag, symbolizing Kandar, to show the defenders that their Bey was present.
The news of Bey Isfendiyar personally leading the troops on the city wall quickly spread among the defenders. The encouraged Kandar soldiers' morale greatly increased, and the old Bey did not disappoint their expectations, beginning to use his years of accumulated experience to vigorously intercept and repel enemy forces repeatedly attempting to ascend the wall.
Below the city, Manuel, as the attacking party, couldn't help but admire the opposing Bey when he learned that he, despite his old age, was personally risking danger to obstruct him. However, this admiration quickly turned into anger after a day of no results.
What a joke, nearly two thousand dead and still unable to take a single section of the wall?!
On the first night of the assault, facing the lack of progress, Caesar Manuel in the central camp felt his mood was quite complex.
So, Your Majesty, let's slow down a bit...
Tukharovsky, seeing the situation, quickly interjected his opinion, hoping to make his monarch change his mind.
No, impossible!
Manuel immediately gritted his teeth and rejected the Army Commander's proposal.
If these useless militiamen and mercenaries can't do it, then send in the peasant soldiers and Philaka Soldiers. No matter what, Sinop must be taken this week. I don't want casualty figures, I want Sinop!
These Kandar Turkmen won't last much longer! Trust me, as long as we can occupy Sinop before the Ottoman army arrives, all of this will be worth it.
The next morning, Tukharovsky, having received the Caesar's direct order, had no choice but to relay the command to the mid- and lower-ranking officers, instructing them to lead the most elite military forces of the Autocratic State into this bloody and meaningless assault.
As Manuel had suspected, after five consecutive days of brutal assault and nearly three thousand casualties, even with the old Bey personally overseeing and commanding, the Kandar defenders could not hide their decline. Facing the fierce and frenzied offensive of the Bosporus Army, the Kandar were finally on the verge of collapse.
But just as Manuel, full of confidence, was preparing to go to the front lines to lead his troops in a final assault on Sinop, a report that made his heart stop was delivered to him.
The Ottoman had arrived.