The Storm Has Arrived

Three days of preparations for war passed in the blink of an eye.

Over those three days, reinforcements continued to arrive in Constantinople, but none came in significant numbers.

Most were civilian militias that had come voluntarily. After the Crusaders' defeat at Varna, the Catholic nations had completely cooled toward another Crusade. No matter how His Holiness the Pope urged them, there was no response.

The largest contingent of reinforcements came from the Kingdom of Candia, a Venetian vassal state on Crete. In total, it included a Venetian fleet of three large ships.

The crews consisted of Venetians and Greeks, and the ships were laden with supplies needed for the city's defense. Though they carried no land troops, those three large ships were enough to serve as the backbone of the Empire's now pitifully weak navy.

It was worth noting that although the Ottomans possessed a sizable navy, they were ultimately nouveau riche who had risen from tribal chieftains. Compared with the fiercely competitive city-states of the Apennine, there was a generational gap between them.

Including the Latin ships that had come to aid them and the small warships Constantinople already possessed, they still could not fight the infidels in a decisive naval battle. But relying on the Golden Horn for defense, they could at least hold the enemy off for a while.

As for the Empire's territory on the Moria Peninsula, actual authority there rested with Constantine XI's two brothers, Thomas and Dimitri. Neither sent any reinforcements.

The former was on good terms with the Emperor and had been assigned to northern Moria precisely to keep watch over the latter, Dimitri Palaiologos.

As for the latter—he was the crowning achievement of the Palaiologos family's absurdity.

Not only had he repeatedly contacted the Ottomans in an attempt to usurp Constantine