On the second day of October, Trilig led his army to the city of Constantinople, which was several days faster than the time expected by the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The barbarian army outside the city was not only the Bulgars, but also a large number of Slavs, Thracians, Germans, and even Saxons.
This army set up densely packed tents outside the city.
Most of these people wore animal skins, A few wore tattered linen and straw sandals, all of them had disheveled hair, and they picked up a variety of weapons, most of which were of strange shapes.
Standing on the high archery tower on the city wall, Leo IV and his ministers saw that the barbarian army under the city was as dense as locusts and ants.
They were countless and could not be seen to the end.
There were tents and tattered banners erected everywhere.
Various animal totems are painted on them.
The shapes of the flags are triangular or rectangular, and they come in various colors such as black, white, gray and red.
Triaeus, the consul, snorted coldly on his forehead and couldn't help but wipe it with his sleeve.
He squinted his eyes and the muscles on his face kept shaking and said, "I'm afraid there are not a hundred thousand people here."
Lucis, the general of the Guards, snorted coldly: "What are you afraid of?
One hundred thousand people are nothing.
Even if they have one million, they can't even think of breaking through Constantinople.
It's okay for them to fight on the flat ground, but they want to break through our fortress."
Incomparable Constantinople is a wishful thinking” Leo IV said to Lucis: "You are fully responsible for the city defense operations.
You must persist for two to three months.
I believe that as long as we persist for two to three months, the barbarians will retreat.
They went south to plunder just to solve the problem of insufficient food and grass in winter.
What's more, this time Trillig launched the southern invasion for the purpose of gaining prestige for himself, but no matter what, they will definitely retreat before it snows heavily, otherwise countless of his tribesmen will freeze to death.
It is already October, Maybe they can’t hold on and withdraw after only fighting for a month.”
The finance minister said: "This is hard to say.
Every time the barbarians invaded these years, many people stayed in Thrace and refused to leave.
They no longer just burned, killed and looted, but occupied villages and fields and settled down.
They didn’t pay taxes to us, so we sent troops to collect taxes, and they ran into the mountains.
When we left them, they came back again, which was really a headache.”
Leo IV's face turned bad again, and the finance minister expressed his worries.
If the barbarians stayed in Thrace this time, it would be really bad.
"Even the people they left behind are not completely nomadic tribes, they must be semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural tribes.
The real nomadic tribes really can't stay here, and they still need to transport all the supplies they grabbed back.
They can't Might stay here forever.”
Leo IV had a very deep understanding of the Bulgars, and he was right.
Under the city wall of Theodosius, Bulgar Khan King Trilig, who was on horseback observing the city walls, fortresses, gates and arrow towers, said to the tribal leaders: "Everyone, it is already October, and we must fight in the middle of winter.
Bring supplies and return to the Khanate before arriving, otherwise many of our people will freeze to death and starve to death, so we only have one month.
If we cannot conquer Constantinople within one month, then we will have to withdraw our troops. " The leaders all nodded.
These Bulgar tribes are not the same tribe, but they are all separated from a large tribe.
The Bulgars are one of the Ugur races.
They originally lived around the Ural Mountains.
Powerful Turkic tribes from the east attacked them.
Habitat, they had to divide into several groups to migrate.
One of them went to the north and was called the Volga Bulgars, but it has now been annexed by the Western Qin Kingdom.
Several others migrated westward.
Those living in the lower reaches of the Danube River are One of them is the only one that still survives.
Trilig looked at Fatli and asked, "Are you ready?"
Fatli nodded and said: "We are ready, we can attack the city at any time."
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"Well, let the Slavs 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.
Slavs are the main ethnic group of the Balkan Peninsula.
Over the past few hundred years, they have Reproduce quickly and the population is very large Although they are large in number, they have never occupied a dominant position in the Balkans, or even established political power in the United States and Europe.
The Balkan Peninsula and the middle and lower reaches of the Danube have always been ruled by other barbarians.
Compared with the Slavs, the Bulgars are obviously More ferocious and aggressive.
Following an order, a large number of ragged Slavs rushed towards the city wall carrying weapons and ladders.
The open space in front of the city wall was densely packed with Slavs.
These people had lived in poverty all year round and had already developed extremely strong With endurance and a fearless spirit, as long as they can have a better life, death is not very scary to them.
What is more, death is really nothing compared to cold and hunger.
The Eastern Roman soldiers and civilians on the city wall immediately launched defensive operations.
A large number of arrows and crossbows flew towards the Slavs under the city wall.
Some people were shot to death and some were injured.
These pitiful casualties could not scare away the poor Slavs.
What's more, there are Bulgars supervising the battle behind.
The Bulgars' siege equipment was not crude.
They even hired craftsmen from the Thracian region to build siege equipment for them, such as catapults, rams and siege engines.
However, they did not have any tactics for siege.
These siege equipment did not cause much damage to the walls of Constantinople.
The siege continued for more than ten days.
The Slavs responsible for the siege suffered heavy casualties and their morale was somewhat low.
Trillig decided to replace the Slavs and let other barbarians attack the city.
In order to boost morale, Trillig even He also personally led troops to attack the city, and a company After attacking for two days, although they still failed to break through the city wall, they still managed to climb onto the Theodosius Wall.
This indeed brought great confidence to the warriors of the barbarian army attacking the city.
In their view, as long as they could climb onto the wall, Isn’t it only a matter of time before the city wall is destroyed?
But they thought wrong.
They underestimated the determination of the Byzantines to defend Constantinople.
When the whole city was likely to be destroyed, the church, government and other forces in Constantinople were already in danger.
They gave up all their prejudices and gathered all their strength to defend the city, because they all knew that once the city was destroyed, no force in the city would be immune.
The strength of the walls of Constantinople is undeniable, but the reason why Constantinople is so difficult to break is not because its walls are strong, but because of its unique natural geographical advantages.
It faces the sea on three sides and only one side.
It is land, and there are city walls in the direction of the sea, so enemies coming from the sea can only look back.
Xingtan, you can't attack the city from the sea, because there is no foothold at all, and you can't set up siege equipment.
If you want to attack the city, you can only attack on land in the west.
No matter how many troops you have, you can only use it on one side. direction, this also allowed the defenders of Constantinople to concentrate their forces on defense, and the limited forces would not be dispersed.
After more than twenty days of attack, the barbarian army attacking the city suffered numerous casualties and their morale plummeted.
Trillig was reluctant to let his tribesmen attack the city.
They were all cavalry.
It was a pity to use them to attack the city.
The war could only be carried out by cavalry.
Pause.
"Withdraw troops and return to camp" Trilig threw out the spear in his hand, shouted, turned his horse around and drove away.
The spear flew far away and stuck on the city gate, making a loud noise.
The weather turned cold, and Trilig was in a bad mood.
There seemed to be no hope of conquering Constantinople.
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He summoned the leaders of various ministries to discuss the next plan.
"Everyone, this battle has been going on for more than 20 days.
We have scaled the city wall several times during this period, but they were driven down every time.
The warriors in each department suffered heavy casualties and their morale is very low.
I am calling you here today.
I just want to discuss what we should do next, whether to retreat or continue to attack the city."
A Slav leader stood up and said: "I think we can't fight anymore.
This city wall is too strong.
We can't do anything about it.
We have killed so many men in vain.
King Khan, I want to withdraw my troops.
Our troops are attacking the city this time."
The loss is too great, we need to go back to recuperate.”
Trilig looked at some other barbarian leaders and asked: "What are your opinions?"
"I also think we should retreat.
We have already looted enough.
The food and things we looted this time are enough for us to eat for two years.
If we continue to fight, it will only increase casualties.
Now those warriors are very resistant because of the heavy casualties.
I can't control my emotions.
If I don't retreat, I doubt they will overthrow me and establish another leader."
Other barbarian leaders also agreed, asking to withdraw their troops and look for opportunities later.
Trilig looked at Fast and asked, "What do you think?"
Fast stood up and saluted: "King Khan, I also think we should retreat.
If there is not enough, we can't retreat quietly.
In the past, when we won, we would ask the Byzantines to cede territory and pay compensation.
We can do the same this time.
I think We should send people over to negotiate with them and get them to sign an armistice treaty with compensation and land cession.
In this case, we can not only rob a large number of slaves, grain livestock and other materials, but also receive a large amount of compensation and more land. , wouldn’t it be better?”
Trilig was overjoyed, pointed at Fatli and said: "You are our wise man, your method is great, immediately send people to negotiate with Byzantium, negotiate with him, let them cede territory and pay compensation, and sign an armistice treaty as soon as possible, otherwise We will continue to besiege the city.”
Fast nodded in agreement: "Yes, King Khan, your decision is correct.
Now a large number of the Eastern Roman Empire's troops are contained by the Western Qin State in eastern Syria and Canaan.
Their troops in Constantinople It is extremely limited, and the supplies in reserve are also limited.
They cannot last long.
In order to resolve the crisis, they will definitely agree."
When the Bulgars' request for territorial reparations was sent to the palace, Leo IV saw the various treaties drafted by the Bulgars for reparations.
His nose became angry and he shouted: "Bulgars, I will fight you until death
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