1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 88: Tenth of March

Tenth of March 1453 AD, one month into the siege of Constantinople.

Abdullah can be seen on the walls hugging a piece of shattered mirror and crying. Beside him Angelo stares at him with eyes of despise. Abdullah is crying because the merciless unstopping Ottoman shelling destroyed his work which he thinks is an ingenious piece of design which shall mark his name in the long run of history. Apparently the Ottoman shells shattered his hope and ambitions by shattering his 'masterpiece', his mirrors.

"Stand up, big man, look at you" Angelo tried pulling Abdullah up but Abdullah has gained his weight back, giving Angelo a hard time.

Suddenly a shell that came from nowhere flew above Angelo's head, the cold air gave him a shiver down his spine, and he crouched down by instinct.

"Well, I guess we should not stand up for now"

The two men with other guards take cover behind walls as they occasionally take a peek down the arrow slit making sure no foes are trying to give them a surprise. The Ottoman shelling has caused a havoc inside the ages-old walls, but at night the Romans will take advantage of the crushed stones and gravels to refill the gaps in between which absorbed most energy of the canon shells making it even more difficult for the Ottomans to blast through instead.

Angelo lies low on the walls gaping for breathe from the shock that shell gave him just now, while Abdullah continues choking beside him.

"This kind of sudden surprises is no good for the body and mind of an old man" Angelo complained to himself.

Abdullah stopped choking and stared at the old man on the ground.

After a while Abdullah poked the old man by his arms.

"Do not disturb me, I need to have some rest." Angelo groaned with his face facing the ground.

Abdullah poked him again.

"What do you want from me?" Angelo raised his head impatiently with his eyebrows curved in irritation as he looked up at Abdullah.

"My friend, you need to change your trousers later."

Angelo did not understand what is this man talking about in the first place, but immediately he realised something and scrambled up, then what he saw traumatised him, his trousers are damp with some unknown liquid which continued leaking out onto the walls.

"Well, you know mate, this kind of things happens sometimes I am an old man in my sixties, have poor control over my membrum virile, you see" Angelo tried to explain.

Without the need of him having to finish his words, Abdullah starts nodding his head.

Both of them remained speechless for a while trying to find a way out of this awkwardness.

But their awkwardness will not last long, the Ottomans got them another surprise this time. The enemy trebuchets stopped flinging projectiles and boulders, instead they are now throwing something that looks like cans and jars?

"What do they want to do this time?" Abdullah murmured doubtfully and asked Angelo as he has his eyes on these strange jars flying across the skies and splashing onto the roofs and ceilings of houses inside the city.

"How am I supposed to know?" Anjelo shrugged his shoulders. "Aren't you the smart one?"

They continued watching countless jars and cans splattering on various parts of the city wandering about the intentions of those folks outside the wall, when suddenly a jar landed right a few meters from them causing a fright down their spines as the shattered ceramic is sent flying right in front of their face, and a paddle of unknown slimy black liquid splattered all across the floor creating a stinky smell like that of a rotten egg.

"What is this thing? Did the Ottomans fling their morning piss into the city?" Angel, out of curiosity, stepped forward and scooped his fingers into the liquid to have a closer inspection of this thing.

Abdullah lifted his eye brow upwards, he knows this thing, he once saw the Seljik Emirs and lords of Mesopotamia uses a similar kind of thing to pave roads when he was on a college field trip to the remnants of Bayt al-ikmah, or the house of wisdom.

But what is the intention of this action? What can this kind of liquid do?

A question which answer is commonly known even among the children centuries later is now still a mystery to even the deftly educated folks in this era.

Suddenly, Abdullah remembered something, without any hesitation he grabbed Angelo by the shoulder and ran up the tower while yelling and ordering other men in the area to clear off and avoid this black liquid.

The surrounding guards and soldiers are still in a state of bewilderment when suddenly a series of shouting in agony can be heard in a distance. A man who was carrying a crate of arrow heads into the arm stoke standing right next to a fire torch was engulfed in flames, the fire spread quick from his boots to his cloth eating this poor man up within seconds.

"Run! Run if you want to live!" Abdullah exclaimed in the top of his lungs.

The Ottoman projectiles changed too, what coming down is no longer jars and cans filled with this strange liquid, it became incendiary munitions landing right into the buildings and walls which is already well covered in these black substances that are like Greek Fire.

Abdullah and Angelo watches and gapes in the tower at the horrendous sight as a chain of vigorous chemical reactions takes place below them, when fire met these black liquid, it immediately turned into an everlasting fire transferring the surrounding woods and plantations into a nether world. The wall is sent burning as well as Roman guards run around welding and rolling on the ground trying to extinguish the flames on their backs but ended up helping with the spread of fire.

"I remember this thing!"

"What is it?"

"It is an inflammable substance something like Greek Fire, that they use in Babylonia and Daylam for lamps!"

"What can we do to stop it burning ?!"

"I don't know!" Abdullah stared at the burning city. "I don't know"