Constantinople.

"Your Excellency, we have come with sincere goodwill, and our request is so simple, can't you think again?"

Yang Zhong, commander of the Western Fleet of the Anxi Army, said.

The Equestrian interpreter next to him repeated his words as they were in front of an official of the Byzantine Empire, and at their feet was a huge ship more than a dozen feet long, and the soldiers of the Anxi Army Sailors in red uniforms lined up on the deck to show respect to the guests, despite the anger of their requests......

"You are an invasion, and no Roman warrior will do the same."

The count said with a gloomy face.

Well, Yang Zhong, or King Yang on another battleship behind him, demanded from the Byzantines that he would lease the Galata Tower, which was only a few hundred meters away from the walls of the giant city on the northern shore of the Golden Horn, opposite Constantinople, with Galata as the core, extending three miles north from the coast, and then drawing a line from the end of the Golden Horn to the east, and extending this line eastward to the coast, the whole piece of land about ten square kilometers. The Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine V leased this land to the Tang Empire for a period of 500 years, renting 500 gold coins per year, of course, including the right of passage of Tang merchant ships in the strait, the right to use the Golden Horn by the Tang naval fleet, the consular jurisdiction enjoyed by the Tang people in the Eastern Roman Empire, in short, there are a lot of various contents.

Then the Byzantines did not hesitate to refuse.

Of course, they could not have agreed, and who could promise to share their country's naval bases with someone else's navy? Who could promise another army to be stationed less than 500 meters away from the walls of their capital?

Still renting?

500 years of lease retention?

Why don't you just grab it?

"Your Excellency, you have really embarrassed me, maybe I should ask you to see something."

Yang Zhong said helplessly.

At the same time he stepped forward, like an old friend, under the wary gaze of the Byzantine count, took him by the shoulder, walked to the edge of the deck as if he wanted to say something private, and then pulled the rope beside him, and lowered his head with him.

The count stared blankly at a black pillar slowly sticking out below.

Suddenly, a blazing flame erupted.

"Boom!"

A loud sound like the sky cracking hit his eardrums, he subconsciously screamed, and then the battleship under his feet shook violently, and his legs fell to the sea as soon as he became weak, but fortunately, Yang Zhong suddenly grabbed him by the neck, and at the same time, a puddle of urine appeared on the deck under the Earl's feet, and he grabbed Yang Zhong's clothes as if he was going to drown, at this time heavy gunpowder smoke rose from under their feet, and he coughed violently in the smell of gunsmoke.

"Your Excellency, I solemnly ask you to think again!"

Yang Zhong said with a cruel smile.

The Count was only then awake, and he looked pale at the mud and sand stirred up by the shells on the shore.

"Your ships are great indeed, and your weapons are indeed terrible, but the Roman warriors in the light of the Lord's glory are dead and unyielding!"

He said with a resolute expression.

"It seems that this is the only way to go!"

Yang Zhong said helplessly.

At the same time, his hand pressed downward, and then he saw the barrels of the ships below stretching out one after another, and on the mast above his head, the signalman waved the signal flag in his hand, and on the blue of the Bosphorus, the twelve battleships lined up on the coast from north to south, one by one, the same barrels were also sticking out, and in the blink of an eye, three hundred cannons were aimed at the wall of Constantinople built on the coast. At the same time, dozens of Byzantine naval dromont galleys also sailed out of the Golden Horn, including four heavy dromon that were even longer than the Tang army battleships.

Yang Zhong looked at the Byzantine fleet in the distance, and then looked at the faintly visible figure on the battleship in the middle of his side, then turned his head and smiled at the earl.

"Fire!"

He said with a smile.

Suddenly, a blazing flame erupted from the barrel of the cannon in front, then a second, and then a third......

All the cannons on the starboard side of this battleship opened fire in turn in a very short time, not only this one, but all the Tang warships on the sea all opened fire, in the spray of flames and the thunderous cannons, the Byzantine count screamed in horror, grabbed a rope with both hands, and in the violent shaking of the battleship, trembled and looked at a tall tower less than a mile away, which was becoming fragmented in the splash of rubble at a speed visible to the naked eye......

Soon the shelling ended.

"Don't you think about it anymore?"

Yang Zhong said.

The count shuddered and did not speak.

The tower had been changed beyond recognition, like rotten wood that had been corroded by time, and stood desolate on the glorious city walls.

At this moment, the battleships of the Byzantine Navy sailed into the attack distance, and the six battleships behind the Tang fleet adjusted their positions at the same time and aimed one hundred and fifty gun muzzles at this fleet, and on the Byzantine Dromont warships, those heroic warriors were just like the ancient Greek times, holding their shields and drawing their swords, and beside them trebuchets, ballistas and even Greek fire were all in full array, waiting for the exciting moment, waiting for the moment when the battleships hit the waterline of the enemy ships one after another......

"Fire, focus on the boats with long pipes sticking out in front!"

On the deck of a battleship, Yang Feng, who was sitting on the throne, pointed with a fan in his hand and said.

It was a Greek fireship.

"Mada, this wall is really strong!"

Then he glanced at the walls of Constantinople and whispered to himself.

The walls were beyond his expectations.

In his plan, it was supposed to destroy the walls with a salvo to threaten the Byzantines, but it was clear that the pretense had failed, and it was no wonder that the Ottomans needed to cast a separate urban cannon for it, this lime and broken brick compacted city wall had reached the level of plain concrete, in fact surpassed the rammed earth walls of the Central Plains, and the power of the eighteen-pounder and twelve-pounder cannons was too small, which required thirty-two pounder cannons, or simply more ruthless.

He beckoned to the attendant next to him, who immediately bowed his head and listened to his instructions before leaving.

It was at this moment that the cannon rang out again.

Including the one at Yang Feng's feet, on the six warships that intercepted the Byzantine fleet, one hundred and fifty cannons began a spectacular salvo, in the dense glow of the fire, in the thunderous cannon explosion, one cannonball after another roared across the sea, and then crashed into those Dromon rowboats and splashed countless fragments. Of course, the planks of these battleships could not have been as thick as sail battleships, or even inferior to the armed merchant ships of the Age of Discovery, let alone eighteen-pound shells, even smaller nine-pound shells could easily penetrate their planks, and these shells smashed the bodies of the soldiers on the deck with terrifying kinetic energy, and then pierced the deck beneath their feet, and then smashed the rowers in the cabin with a splattery of splinter wood.

Even more terrifying were the small ships loaded with Greek fire, their outer protection against the ferocious shells, which pierced through the planks and shattered the canisters of the oil, which quickly turned them into torches.

With just one salvo, a third of the Byzantine battleships were destroyed.

All the cannons that had completed the fire were pulled back into the cabin by the artillery as fast as they could, and then reloaded, and then the doors were pushed out again, and the remnants of the Byzantine battleships were re-aimed and fired, and on the decks of these ships, the rapid-fire Fran guns fired one after the other at great speed. The poor Byzantine battleship, under the horror of almost a thousand years, as the fragments of the whistling cannonballs burst into pieces, soon turning into broken driftwood and burning torches, and the soldiers who fantasized about jumping after the impact of the angle of attack showed their valor, splattered with flesh and blood from the cannonballs from a few hundred meters away, and sank helplessly with their warship to the bottom of the sea, reduced to mutilated floating corpses under the terrified and desperate gaze of the walls of Constantinople.

"Your Excellency, don't you think about it again?"

Yang Zhong asked the earl.

The latter trembled, looking at the banner on the distant city wall and still did not speak.

"Maximum elevation angle, bombardment of the city!"

Yang Zhong said helplessly.

On all the battleships, the elevation angle of those guns was raised to the limit, all the guns were aimed at the city, and then the terrifying salvo began, the cannonballs whistled over the city walls, and fell inside the famous city, and at this time the part near the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara was precisely the residential area of the Byzantine royal family and nobles, including their Grand Palace, in fact, it was also south of the Ottoman Topkapi Palace, which was backed by the city wall, and the cannonballs fell directly on the palace after the city wall.

In this era, it is impossible to have weapons that hit more than 1,000 meters, and the landing at sea directly hit the city wall, and the landing ground is all within the attack range of the city wall, so it can be said that this area is almost the safest, but unfortunately it is not trebuchets that attack the city now, but naval guns with a range of more than 3,000 meters.

Even if it wasn't a flowering shell, the cannonballs that fell from the sky destroyed those ornate buildings.

The whistling cannonballs immediately began to wreak havoc on the Byzantine royal palace, and the buildings and sculptures that represented the splendor of Western art were shattered in the fall of the cannonballs, as the maids and servants in the palace ran and screamed in terror, and under the jaw-dropping gaze of Constantine V and all the soldiers on the city walls. Even the majestic Hagia Sophia, the building adjacent to the Grand Palace, was a favorite target for artillerymen because of its towers, and although the kinetic energy of the shells was no longer enough to penetrate the thick marble after flying more than a thousand meters, the vaults could not hold back the eighteen-pound shells, and the falling shells soon left it in full holes.

"I love destruction!"

Yang Zhong said proudly to the earl.

But at this moment, the flag on King Yang's ship suddenly waved.

"Stop shooting!"

Yang Zhong hurriedly said.

The ships immediately stopped firing.

Everyone turned their eyes to Yang Feng's ship, looking at the throne with holy white light, at this time people found that Yang Feng was gone, and at the same time, the two hatches behind the tail tower of the battleship suddenly opened, and a red giant bird slowly drilled out of the hatch, and rushed to the sea through a slipway that stretched out at the same time, and then began to move forward on the water, as it continued to move forward, the speed became faster and faster, just in the blink of an eye, it raised its head and soared into the sky, at this time a figure on the bird's back poked its head out, The Tang soldiers on the sea cheered, because it was their king.

The king drove his divine bird, and soon reached the sky higher than the mast, the wings of the divine bird slanted downward, and King Yang on the back of the bird stretched out his hand and waved to the soldiers below.

Cheers resounded across the sea.

Immediately after that, a colorful auspicious cloud dragged up behind the divine bird.

It was a spectacle that drove the soldiers crazy.

They even knelt down on the deck and bowed to the sky, and in their worship, the colorful auspicious clouds circled the entire fleet, and at the moment when the circle was completed, the sacred bird flew higher and higher with a buzzing sound, and soon turned into a red shadow in the sky, and at this moment it suddenly began to descend rapidly, growing larger and larger in people's field of vision, and rushed straight towards the walls of Constantinople.

All the officers and men of the Don on the battleship held their breath.

And on the walls of Constantinople, the Byzantine soldiers also trembled, watching this miraculous sight, watching the divine bird get closer and closer, even so close that it pressed all the way to their heads.

It was at this moment that something suddenly fell from below the sacred bird, and before the Byzantine soldiers could react, it accurately drilled into the firing port of a tower, and the divine bird also swept rapidly above the tower and soared into the air, and the next moment it seemed that a demon from hell had come out, and the whole tower was torn apart in the flash of fire. With the loud sound of the sky cracking and the earth cracking, the entire tower and the two inner and outer city walls that were tens of meters apart, the countless soldiers on the city wall, at the same time turned into countless fragments and dust, like a volcanic eruption rushed to the sky, a shock wave that seemed to be visible to the naked eye, spread rapidly in all directions, an invisible impact force, like the most terrifying storm, blew the soldiers around, and even fell apart at the same time as flying.

Well, it's just a bomb.

Five-hundred-pound aerial bomb.

It's just that Yang Feng changed it to black suo gold.

And Yang Feng piloted a small seaplane, this is a new toy he specially ordered, nothing more than a small seaplane, plus a special pylon, Xiao Qian sent him parts to assemble by himself, of course, it can also take off and land on land, mainly used to take his own beauties in the sky.

Occasional cameo as a bomber.

As for the effect......

"Your Excellency, I solemnly ask you once again to give serious consideration to our request."

Yang said sincerely.

"We, we agree!"

His Excellency looked at the banner on the city wall and said in a trembling voice.

"Ah, that's what a friend is!"

Yang Zhong said with a smile.