On the second day of October, Tellilig arrived at the city of Constantinople with a large army, several days faster than the Eastern Roman Empire's imperial courtiers had estimated.

Outside the city, the barbarian army was not only the Bolgars, but also a large number of Slavs, Thracians, Germans, and even Saxons, and this army set up dense tents outside the city, most of these people wore animal skins, a few wore tattered linen cloth, straw sandals, all of them were disheveled, and the weapons they picked up were also varied, most of them were strangely shaped.

Standing on the high turrets of the city walls, Leo IV and his ministers saw that the barbarian army under the city was as dense as locusts and ants, innumerable and endless, and everywhere were erected tents and tattered banners, on which were painted various animal totems, the shape of the banners was triangular, and there were also rectangular, black, white, gray, and red colors.

The consul Triaeus snorted coldly on his forehead, couldn't help but wipe it with his sleeve, squinted his eyes, the muscles on his face kept shaking, and said: "I'm afraid there are not 100,000 people!" ”

The general of the Praetorian Guard, Lucis, snorted coldly: "What are you afraid of? What is 100,000 people? Even if they have a million, they don't want to break through Constantinople, they can fight on flat ground, but they want to break through our impregnable Constantinople is wishful thinking! ”

Leo IV said to Lucis: "You are solely responsible for the defense of the city, and you must hold out for two to three months, and I believe that as long as we hold out for two to three months, the barbarians will retreat." They went south to plunder nothing more than to solve the shortage of food and grass in winter, and this time Tellarig launched a southern invasion for the purpose of his own prestige, but in any case, they must retreat before the heavy snowfall, otherwise his people will freeze to death countless times! It's already October, maybe they won't be able to hold on to the withdrawal after only a month of fighting! ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "This is not good, for every time the barbarians have come to invade over the years, many of them have stayed in Thrace, and they have not only burned and plundered, but have occupied villages and fields and settled down, but have not paid us taxes!" , we sent troops to collect taxes, and they ran into the mountains, and when we left, they came back, and it was a great headache! ”

Leo IV's face turned bad again, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer said what he feared, and it would be terrible if the barbarians did not leave Thrace this time.

"Even the part of the people they left behind is not a complete nomadic tribe, it must be a semi-nomadic and semi-farming tribe, the real nomadic ministry can't stay here, and they still need to transport back all the materials they have looted, they can't stay here forever!"

Leo IV still knew the Bolgars very well, and he was right.

Under the walls of Theodosius, the king of the Bolgar Khan, Trilig, who was on horseback and observed the walls, fortresses, gates, and turrets, said to the tribal leaders: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is already October, and we must return to the khanate with supplies before the arrival of winter, otherwise our people will freeze to death and starve to death, so we only have one month, and if we cannot break through Constantinople within a month, then we will have to withdraw our army!" ”

The leaders nodded. These Bolgar tribes are not the same tribe, but they are all separated from a large tribe, the Bolgars are one of the Oghur races, originally lived around the Ural Mountains, and the powerful Turkic tribes from the east attacked their habitat, so that they had to divide into several groups to migrate, one of which went to the north, known as the Volga Bolgars, but now it has been annexed by the Western Qin State, and several more have migrated westward, and the lower Danube region lives in one of them, which is the only one that has survived to this day.

Terririg looked at Fatley and asked, "Are you ready?" ”

Fatley nodded, "Ready, ready to attack the city!" ”

"Alright, let the Slavs go to attack the city first!"

"Yes, King Khan!"

There are a large number of Slavs living in the Balkan Peninsula, especially in the plains and mountains of Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Thrace, and there are a large number of Slavs, the Slavs are the main ethnic groups in the Balkan Peninsula, these hundreds of years, they multiply very quickly, and the population soon exceeds that of other peoples, although they are numerous, they have not been dominant in the Balkans, and even the United States and Europe have established regimes, and the Balkan Peninsula and the middle and lower Danube regions are always ruled by other barbarians, compared with the Slavs, the Bolgars were clearly more ferocious and aggressive.

With an order, a large number of ragged Slavs rushed towards the city wall with weapons and ladders, and the open space in front of the city wall was all densely packed with Slavs, these people lived in hardship all the year round, and already had a strong endurance and a spirit of not fearing death, as long as they could have a better life, death was not very terrible for them, compared to cold and hunger, death was really nothing.

The Eastern Roman soldiers and civilians on the city walls immediately launched a defensive battle, a large number of arrows and crossbow arrows flew towards the Slavs under the city walls, and people were constantly shot dead and some wounded, this poor casualty could not deter the poor Slavs, not to mention that there were Bolgars behind to supervise the war.

The siege equipment of the Bolgars was not rudimentary, and they even brought in craftsmen from Thrace to build siege equipment for them, such as catapults, rampagers and siege engines, but they did not have any tactical rules for siege, and the siege equipment they created did not do much damage to the walls of Constantinople.

The siege has been going on for more than ten days, the Slavs in charge of the siege suffered heavy casualties, and their morale was a little low, Tellerig decided to replace the Slavs and let other barbarians attack the city, in order to stimulate morale, Trylig even personally led the troops to attack the city, and attacked for two days in a row, although he still failed to break through the city wall, but he still climbed the wall of Theodosius, which did bring great confidence to the warriors of the barbarian army besieging the city, in their opinion, as long as they can climb the city wall, it is not a matter of time before the city is broken?

But they were wrong, they underestimated the determination of the Byzantines to defend Constantinople, and when the whole city was likely to be destroyed, the church, government and other forces in the city of Constantinople had abandoned all their prejudices and gathered all their strength to defend the city, because they all knew that once the city was broken, no force in the city would be spared.

The solidity of the walls of Constantinople is undeniable, but the reason why Constantinople is difficult to break is not because of its strong walls, but because of its unique natural geographical advantages, it faces the sea on three sides, only one side is land, and there are walls in the direction of the sea, which makes the enemy from the sea can only sigh, you can't attack the city from the sea, because there is no foothold at all, and you can't erect siege equipment, if you want to attack the siege war, you can only attack on the land in the west, and no matter how many troops can be used in one direction, which also allowed the defenders of Constantinople to concentrate their forces on defense, and the limited forces would not be dispersed.

More than 20 days of attack, so that the siege of the barbarian army suffered countless casualties, morale plummeted, and Trilig was reluctant to let his people to attack the city, those are cavalry, it is a pity to use it to siege the city, the war can only be suspended.

"Withdraw your troops and return to the camp!" Tryrig threw the spear in his hand, shouted, and turned away, and the spear flew far away and stuck in the city gate with a loud noise.

As the weather grew colder, Tririg was not in a good mood, and there seemed to be no hope of storming Constantinople, so he summoned the chiefs of the various tribes to discuss the next steps.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this battle has been fought for more than 20 days, during which we have climbed the city wall several times, but each time we have been driven down by them, the warriors of all departments have suffered heavy casualties, and the morale is very low. Will you retreat or continue the siege? ”

A Slavic leader stood up and said: "I don't think I can fight anymore, this wall is too strong, we can't do anything about it, and we have killed so many sons in vain, King Khan, I want to withdraw my troops, our troops have lost too much in this siege, we need to go back to recuperate!" ”

Tririg looked at some of the other barbarian leaders and asked, "What do you think?" ”

"I also think that we should withdraw from the army, we have already robbed enough, the food and things we have robbed this time are enough for us to eat for two years, and if we continue to fight, it will only increase the casualties, and now those warriors are already very resistant because of the large casualties, I am about to command not to move, and if I don't retreat, I suspect that they will overthrow me and set up another leader!"

The other barbarian leaders also chimed in, demanding to withdraw their troops and find another opportunity in the future.

Tellariig looked at Fast and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Fast stood up and saluted: "King Khan, I also think that we should withdraw our troops, not enough for us not to retreat so quietly, in the past, we would ask the Byzantines to cede land and pay compensation, this time we can do the same, I think we should send people to negotiate with them and let them sign an armistice treaty of indemnity and land cession!" Wouldn't it be better if we could rob a large number of slaves, grain, livestock, and other supplies, and receive a large amount of indemnity, and more land? ”

Trilig was overjoyed, pointed at Fatli and said: "You are our wise man, your method is too good, immediately send someone to negotiate with Byzantium, negotiate with him, let them cede the land and pay compensation, and sign an armistice treaty as soon as possible, otherwise we will continue to besiege the city!" ”

Fast nodded and agreed: "That's right, King Khan, your decision is correct, now a large number of troops of the Eastern Roman Empire are contained by the Western Qin State in the area of Eastern Syria and Canaan, their troops in Constantinople are extremely limited, and the reserves of materials are also limited, they can't last long, in order to be able to resolve the crisis, they will definitely agree!" ”

When the Bolgars' demands for reparations were sent to the palace, Leo IV saw the treaties drawn up by the Bolgars, his nose was crooked, and he shouted: "Bolgars, I will not die with you!" ”