The remnants of the Haiphong Garrison led by Ferhan and Dait were soon reinforced, and large numbers of civilians were sent up onto the walls to help fend off the Russian assault.
At that moment, they received another piece of good news: the New Army inside the city had finally begun to move.
There were a full twenty thousand New Army troops in Istanbul. If they joined the battle, even if they could not drive the Russians back into the sea, they could at least hold this line of defense.
Only then did Ferhan and Dait remember that less than a kilometer behind them stood the imperial palace. No matter how much the New Army wanted to preserve its strength, it could not possibly remain idle any longer. They were instantly exhilarated.
The Russian commander in charge of the land battle was Stepan Khrulyov. He could hardly be called a military strategist, given how scant his contributions to military affairs had been.
Likewise, Stepan Khrulyov could hardly be called a master tactician, for he had displayed little tactical brilliance in battle.
The reason Stepan Khrulyov had become the supreme commander of the army in this campaign was simply that he was the only army general who supported Nicholas I.
Stepan Khrulyov was a typical soldier-general, and the sort of frontline hero Russians admired most. He fought with great courage and even dared to lead from the front in hand-to-hand combat.
Stepan Khrulyov had previously served in the Caucasus. His long experience fighting Chechen rebels had taught him that when faced with a mountain too difficult to conquer, the best course was to go around it.
Stepan Khrulyov immediately ordered his men to bypass the wall before them and head straight for the main gate of Topkapi Palace by way of