Loser System and Berserker Me

Chapter 22: Surprise!

Under the cover of the night, countless slaves, craftsmen, and coolies placed wooden logs on the ground and slathered them with buckets of grease.

Meanwhile, a massive Ottomain warship quietly approached the shore.

The warship dropped a huge number of ropes, and those who had been waiting a long time for its arrival rushed forward and either grabbed the ropes themselves or tied it around a livestock or a slave.

A horn echoed, and everyone began pulling the ropes.

The warship was pulled on shore before slowly moving on land via the greased wooden logs positioned beneath it.

“To think it works…” The Ottomain admiral, Pasha Baltoghlu, was bewildered.

Most of the Ottomain generals had thought that Momoana’s plan was unrealistic after listening to the details. She had sought to create a path out of rolling logs to heave their ships to shore, so that they could bypass the Golden Horn’s great chain barrier and reach Constantinope.

This would force the Romain soldiers to split their forces between the west wall and its harbor.

Your Majesty, you’re obviously daydreaming!

Yet, Momoana insisted on having her subordinates carry out her plan.

Pasha Baltoghlu, who had nearly lost his life a while back, had no choice but to do as Momoana requested. To his shock, Momoana’s seemingly ridiculous plan worked! Seeing the ships slowly traversing on land made Baltoghlu feel like his common sense was shattering.

Do I really understand the navy? Baltoghlu, who had spent half his life on the battlefield, fell into self-doubt.

“What are you waiting for, admiral?” Momoana called out to the stupefied Baltoghlu. “Steer the warships into the Golden Horn now.”

“Yes, my Sultana.” Baltoghlu lowered his head.

Whoosh!

When the first ship safely slid into the sea and floated up, all of the Ottomain soldiers quietly cheered for their success. This revved them up, and they diligently transported the other ships into the Golden Horn too.

Halfway into the night, they had already transported 50 warships.

“Hmph! By daybreak, those pitiful heretics will find a huge fleet awaiting them in their little backyard!” Baltoghlu smirked in confidence as he looked at the swiftly growing fleet in the Golden Horn. “I wonder how panicked they would be.”

“Mmhm.” Momoana nodded. “This will force the heretic emperor to split his troops both ways. Constantinope only has 5000 to 6000 garrison troops, so the defenses at the west wall would be pitiful by then. No matter how valiant the Khitans are, they can’t protect the entire stretch of the west wall by themselves.”

“Hm?”

One of the Ottomain commanders supervising the transportation of the warships suddenly looked at the sky. He thought that he had heard ‘shoo shoo’ sounds.

But there were no birds nor bats in the sky. There were only specks of flickering lights.

“What are those?” The Ottomain commander tilted his head in confusion. “Shooting stars?”

The specks of flickering lights slowly enlarged into bundles of blazing flames.

“This is terrible!” The Ottomain commander was horrified. “They are arrows; fire arrows!”

Shoosh shoosh shoosh!

The rain of arrows caught the Ottomains off guard, and many fell victim to it. Wails of agony echoed, as blood splattered everywhere.

An army of cavalrymen suddenly charged out from the shadows.

The Ottomain commander recognized their leader—it was the Khitan Baturu!

“KHITAN! IT’S THE KHIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAN!!”

“Hahaha!” Shu Yichao laughed manically as he fired arrows and charged straight ahead. “Traversing ships across dry land—it wouldn’t be the Fall of Constantinople without this classic event!”

There was no way he would be blindsided when he knew about this from history. He had been keeping an eye on the Golden Horn for days now, and he was ready to confront the Ottomains here at any moment.

When he saw a huge number of Ottomains gathering here on the minimap, he unhesitatingly abandoned his night assault plan and turned his attention here instead.

He understood that a man was the most vulnerable when caught with his pants off, which was why he waited till the Ottomain to move half of their ships over before launching his assault.

The Ottomains were in misfortune.

They were already exhausted from moving the ships, and many of their hands were bleeding. Furthermore, they weren’t expecting an enemy assault while moving the ships, so none of them brought weapons along.

Even Momoana was caught with her pants off.

The Golden Horn was located northeast of Constantinope; the area here wasn’t as vast as Thrace Plains. There was no way to plant troops here beforehand. Besides, Momoana had ordered her men to scout this area before commencing the operation.

It was unthinkable to her how so many cavalrymen could appear out of the blue.

How is this even possible?!

It didn’t take long for the Ottomains to succumb.

Shu Yichao heartily slaughtered the Ottomains in his path.

At the same time, he set fire to the wooden logs, which were highly flammable after being slathered with grease. The warships being transported on the logs also blazed into flames.

War cries, screams of agony, and the crackling of flames filled the night sky.

Having her plan foiled by the same person once again made Momoana’s legs turn jelly.

“Are those the commanders?”

It didn’t take long for Shu Yichao to notice the high-ranking commanders and elite troops huddling around Momoana.

“Get them!” He unhesitatingly led his army on a charge toward Momoana. “Slay their general and claim their flag!”

“Your Majesty, you need to escape!” The sight of Shu Yichao charging at them scared the soul out of Baltoghlu, but he mustered his courage and stepped forward. “I’ll cover you!”

“Damn it!”

Momoana bit her lips. She frantically racked her brain, but she couldn’t figure a way out. Her mind was completely blank. Rather, it was her failure that made its rounds in her mind instead.

Her failure here didn’t just spell losing the people here.

Half of the Ottomain’s fleet were now on the other side of the Golden Horn. They would be annihilated if they left them to the lurch.

The Ottomain’s navy was weak in the first place. Losing half of their manpower would unravel their lockdown on Constantinope’s sea routes!

Constantinope was already a formidable fortress by itself, and the Khitans’ aid only made them stronger. If their encirclement on Constantinope broke on top of that, Momoana would have no idea how she could siege it anymore.

“Your Majesty!” Baltoghlu further panicked when he saw how easily Shu Yichao crushed the elite troops guarding them. “You are our God’s envoy, our empire’s hope. Nothing must happen to you! I’m begging you, Your Majesty, you need to leave right now!”

Baltoghlu knelt on the ground and frantically kowtowed. His head bled profusely.

“…”

Momoana closed her eyes, as indignant tears trickled down her cheeks. When she opened her eyes once more, she had already reverted to her usual composed and cold self.

“Let’s go!” Momoana ordered with clenched jaws.

She took off her extravagant robe and conspicuous coronet before leaping onto a horse and fleeing under the escort of her personal guards.

“Haa!” Baltoghlu heaved in relief when he saw Momoana disappearing into the distance. He drew his scimitar, pointed it at Shu Yichao, and roared “Brave warriors of the Ottomain Empire, it’s turn for you to lay down your lives for our Sultana! Charge alongside me!”

Baltoghlu led the remaining soldiers on a charge against Shu Yichao and his cavalrymen. It took only an instant for them to be enveloped.