Rasputin of the East

46

Dardanelles Strait. The British Black Sea Defense Force’s flagship HMS Dreadnought.

“Damn you motherf*ckers!”

Admiral Fischer cursed both the deskbites in London and the enemies who fired artillery there.

The flagship has already been moved.

The flagship Rod Nelson-class battleship HMS Agamemnon was sinking with the Ottoman army’s coastal guns, and the same type ship, HMS Lord Nelson, who was about to be moved, was struck by a mine while evacuating from Agamemnon.

The Mediterranean fleet did not even have a proper battleship. The Lord Nelson-class was the best battleship in the Mediterranean fleet, but at the same time, considering the entire fleet, it would be no wonder that it was retired immediately.

So it was moved to the HMS Dreadnought. Of course, there were a few more King Edward VII class battleships, but they were too far away, and it was an inevitable choice to minimize the command gap.

Admiral Fischer, who had been shouting at Churchill as well, was not able to withstand the pressure of the entire cabinet united in London to stop Russia from moving south quickly.

Although Constantinople is said to be united to stop the attack under the command of the defense minister, one side of the strait has already been taken over by the Russian army, and the Russian army trying to eat the other half and the Ottoman army trying to watch half of the European side are fighting in the Golden Horn Bay. said to be happening in

In fact, since Constantinople is the largest city in Europe (1,830 km² in area, 1,848 km² in area of Jeju Island by the way) by itself, Constantinople was not a city that could be conquered overnight. it was

And that the Ottomans would eventually be defeated was also foreseen by everyone.

Even in London, the general consensus was that the only difference between the end of the year or the beginning of the year was that the Interior Army would declare the occupation of Constantinople.

-bang!

An explosion occurred in the aft of the ship with gunfire.

“Damn it! Report the damage!”

“……”

“Harm! Report damage! Director!”

The captain yelled at the whale whale, but the captain didn’t answer.

“Captain.”

“Admiral?”

“Can’t you feel something strange?”

“What is more…”

For a moment, the captain’s words stopped.

“They have stopped firing.”

“…………”

At that time, a signal shot flew from the strait.

“…what do you think they are up to?”

“that……”

“Captain! It’s a glowing signal!”

***

After a while, there were people sitting in the captain’s room of the HMS dreadnought.

The captain could not sit in his room, but stood behind him. The two of them sat facing each other with a table between them, poker faces.

“Is it too much to ask for an interview all of a sudden? Did any bullets drop?”

“You have enough to sink three or four more battleships.”

The man who answered, Colonel Mustafa Kemal, chewed his lips.

“Let’s stop watching and get to the point, we, Gallipoli of the Ottoman Empire, and the entire army of the Dardanelles will surrender to the British.”

“What are the conditions?”

“Maintaining arms, providing medical assistance to the urgently wounded, and maintaining organization.”

“…is that surrender?”

“You’re going to let the Dardanelles pass you by.”

“How do I trust you?”

“…I don’t know if you know, but Russian troops entered Konstantiniye, the Russian Interior Army, and the Germans called them Krakow’s demons.”

“So you want to surrender? Is there no point in keeping it?”

“No, I am saving this country.”

The reason for refusing disarmament was the same.

He had to work with the British Army.

If Constantinople falls, Anatolia will be communist.

What about Bulgaria and Romania? How will neutral countries, including Greece, behave?

Even if it’s not the internal military, it’s not a situation that can’t be stopped. It is impossible for him to get to Anatolia through the road opened by England.

It is another great power that can stop it, and the country that wants to stop Russia’s expansion.

It was only the UK.

“If you wish, I will destroy all of the coastal artillery under your supervision and hand over the mine maps, then will you trust us?”

Rather than recovering the Ottoman Empire’s corpse by Russia, we should cooperate with Britain to retrieve the corpse.

If you disarm, you can’t do anything in case of an emergency, so shouldn’t you have at least one hand to negotiate?

I am not concerned about the Russian and British forces. The Russian army will be blocked by the British in all likelihood, and the British will try to install a ventilator on the Ottoman Empire to prevent Russia from advancing into the Mediterranean.

On the contrary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, where the possibility of sudden action is high, were several times more dangerous.

And even more dangerous are the Greeks and Armenians and other peoples within the empire. At least the national army can be blocked by pressure from other countries, but since they do not have a unified command line, they are highly likely to run wild.

In that situation, if even the last army of the Ottomans, themselves, had been disarmed, the situation would have been really bleak.

***

Topkapi Palace, Constantinople.

“The birthday party is gone.”

“why? It seems like we are all winning now.”

“The British are coming. A man named Colonel Kemal is negotiating with the British.”

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My birthday is a little less than three weeks away, and I’m afraid the others will be bothered, but at least if the British allies, ostensibly, negotiate a deal with Atatürk for the last time, and run to Constantinople, I’ll have to push and pull with him, so take it easy. It’s not going to be a birthday party.

I got up from my seat and looked around.

“Gentlemen, the pirates are coming to give us a spoonful of our victory. Should I let you go?”

“no!”

“The Ottoman wastes are obsessed with the pirates, dreaming of extending their lifespan. Before they can negotiate, they take full control of Constantinople and advance further towards Anatolia to secure a buffer zone. After all, it was confirmed by reconnaissance that Anatolia was nothing more than a communist state! Should I miss this opportunity?”

“no!”

“Before the moon sets, hang the double-headed eagle in Dolmabahce Palace, this is an order!”

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Most of the areas are almost gone. This was possible because of my unexpected response.

Other peoples living in Constantinople formed militia and actively supported us and responded.

Thanks to this, we were able to significantly reduce the expected losses in street fighting.

However, there were also fortified areas that were difficult to break through that way. The Dolmabahce Palace was an example.

Like the Imperial Palace at the Battle of Berlin, the last troops of the Ottoman Empire, who knew that they would not be able to win, were still there, receiving shelling support from enemy ships anchored in the Golden Horn, even as the other strongholds were being cleared up one by one.

– Kwaang! bang! Whoops!

And the gunshots began to sound. It took a day to bring the heavy guns to sink the enemy ships. Now the train guns arrived and were firing lightning at the enemy ships.

They were not battleships, but relatively small ships, but they were a very troublesome opponent from the perspective of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which had no surface power at all. Thanks to that, crossing over the strait was quite troublesome.

But that’s over now. A deafening roar echoed in the distance.

“A report from the artillery! Enemy ship blast! Now the forces surrounding Dolmabahce Palace have begun to attack!”

“I get it.”

The complete occupation of Constantinople was planned from the moment the warship that held our ankles was sunk anyway.

At that moment, a murmur was heard outside the headquarters.

“What’s going on?”

One of the staff went out and yelled at the soldiers before returning with a puzzled expression.

“Sir, you need to come out for a moment.”

“Something? Who is here?”

“No, it’s not like that… in the sky…”

“What, did an air strike fly into the sky?”

“It’s a lunar eclipse.”

“yes?”

“The moon is losing its light.”

***

Constantinople has a legend whose origins are unknown.

Legend has it that the Roman Empire will be destroyed under the reign of an emperor with the same name as the first emperor. Romulus, the founder of the Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor, and Constantine the Great and the last Eastern Roman emperor. Konstantinos Dragasis Paleologos was matched.

This legend was even true of other nations that claimed to be the successors of the Roman Empire. Charles the Great who founded the Holy Roman Empire, Charles I of Austria-Hungary who claimed to be the successor of the Holy Roman Empire, Wilhelm I who founded the German Empire and Wilhelm II who destroyed them, and Tsar of Bulgaria and the Romans Simeon I, who was named after Simeon I, and Simeon II, who became the last monarch of Bulgaria, Baldwin I and Baldwin II, the first and last emperor of the Latin Empire, Mehmed II who proclaimed the Ottoman Empire, and Mehmed VI who saw the fall of Ottomans .

‘If there is an exception, it is about Russia.’

There is a legend that fits just like that.

Constantinople never falls while the moon is up.

On the day the Eastern Roman Empire fell, a lunar eclipse occurred in Constantinople.

And even at this moment, a lunar eclipse was taking place. It was an event enough to cause the soldiers to agitate.

Well, I couldn’t predict it, but if there’s a variable like this and feed it, there’s no reason not to use it.

“Constantinople does not fade while the moon rises, but behold! Where is the moon now!”

The moon is in Earth’s shadow, but that doesn’t matter.

“God covers the moon! This is a sign that we will capture Constantinople! Fight! my comrades! Only victory awaits us!”

“Wow! Whoa!”

I could see the morale of the soldiers soaring in an instant at the shout I squeezed out on the spot.

Then someone intervened.

“Today, Constantinople will return to the arms of us Christians! God, the Count, and I, who inherited the blood of the imperial family, are with you! There is only victory before us!”

When Olga suddenly jumped out and shouted, the atmosphere heated up.

“attack! Attack! Today the double-headed eagle will nest in Constantinople! Attack!”

Even with religious upliftment, extremely excited soldiers spit out cheers, and even many of their staff couldn’t control their excitement.

“After all, God was on our side! The Count has been sent by God to restore Constantinople from the hands of the heathen!”

When one of my subordinates said that, I just lost my laughter.

“It is not the right attitude of faith to override the will of the Almighty…”

Well, he didn’t seem to hear me when I said that, so I decided to just stop talking.