When Vitus mentioned what had happened two years earlier, he asked, "Back then, Manuel II and Murad II signed a truce. It didn't say we couldn't build a wall in the Peloponnese. What does this mean?"
The envoy raised his chin haughtily. "This is a newly added clause. You have one month to restore this place to its original state. Otherwise, you'll bear the consequences."
With that, the envoy turned his horse and rode away.
Watching him disappear into the distance, Vitus silently weighed the situation.
The Ottomans were now facing war on three fronts. First was the Balkans, where they were embroiled in ongoing border skirmishes with Serbia and Hungary.
Next was the Aegean Sea, where the Venetian Fleet was slaughtering Ottoman warships, merchant ships, and fishing boats.
Then there was Anatolia in the east. Murad II's centralizing policies had left the Turkic nobles across the region resentful. Aydin, Germiyan, and Menteshe were the most rebellious, and rumors had it that the Ottoman main force was busy suppressing internal unrest.
"I don't believe you can fight a war on four fronts."
Vitus ignored the Ottoman warning and continued construction in an orderly fashion.
In early 1426, scattered Turkic cavalry began appearing on the open ground outside the city. A junior officer charged toward the construction site and shot an arrow into the air, a declaration of war tied to its shaft.
Vitus could hardly believe it. He had never imagined the Ottomans were so determined that they would actually start a fourth war!
By then, the construction crew had built only 2.3 miles of the eastern outer wall. In the west, they could rely only on the original inner wall for defense. The garrison commander, Psilos, found Vitus.
"Your Highness, what do we do now?"
"Prepare for battle. You and your troops will follow my command!"
Besides Psilos's eight hundred garrison soldiers, Vitus had his entire field force here, totaling sixteen hundred men. They were divided into five melee companies (a mix of spearmen and halberdiers), five matchlock companies, one artillery company (twelve Three-Pounders), and one heavy artillery company (six heavy siege guns).
The heavy artillery company would be of no use, so Vitus had already broken it up and distributed its personnel among eight militia battalions of a thousand men each, where they would serve as commanders.
"Marcus, Damien, Uranus, assemble the troops!"
Amid the clamor of gongs, the eight thousand workers who had been building the wall returned to camp and formed up into eight square formations on the open ground. They then went one after another to the warehouses to collect spears and simple crossbows.
The militia had poor fighting ability and little will to fight; they could only be used to defend the city. While the enemy's main force had yet to arrive, Vitus had the officers give them a crash course in the basics of defending a city.
Five days passed. A vast, disorderly camp appeared outside the city. Judging by the number of tents, it held more than ten thousand soldiers.
The two sides were close in numbers, and the enemy's discipline was poor, with few cavalry. Vitus came up with a bold idea.
He found Psilos. "Take your troops and the militia to defend the inner wall and the eastern half of the outer wall. My Tuna Legion will stay put and wait for a chance to sally out and ambush them."
"Uh, that doesn't seem like a good idea." Psilos wanted to refuse, but Vitus outranked him, so he had no choice but to obey. At the same time, he sent someone to Mistra to inform Theodore of the situation.
Another week passed. Cannons continued arriving at the Ottoman camp, and on the eve of the attack, Theodore arrived with two thousand reinforcements. Vitus was overjoyed and asked him for two hundred cavalry and a thousand infantrymen.
"You're in charge of defending the walls. You won't need them. Lend them to me for now."
Theodore objected. "How can we not need them? Do you think those militiamen can be relied upon? At the critical moment, only armored soldiers can hold the line!"
Vitus said, "That's exactly why I plan to launch a surprise attack from outside the city. Once the Ottomans have committed all their forces to the attack, I'll strike their flank, destroy their supplies, and force them to retreat."
On January 15, the Ottoman army finished assembling. Its commander, Sudak, inspected the area outside the city with his retinue. He first examined the newly built eastern half of the wall. At first glance, he judged that its thickness had been designed specifically to withstand artillery fire. So he skirted the eastern outer wall and led his men toward the west.
Sudak suddenly raised his riding crop and pointed to a section of wall.
"In 1422, Turahan Bey used cannons to blast through the Hexamilion Wall and invade the Peloponnese in one fell swoop. Even though the Greeks repaired the breach, the defenses in those sections are far weaker than before. Set up the artillery here."
At his command, the Ottoman army brought in forty cannons of various calibers. Compared to the earlier Siege of Constantinople, this force of artillery was even larger.
At ten in the morning, the bombardment began. All the cannons concentrated their fire on the repaired section of wall. The garrison soldiers on top could clearly feel the wall shaking and were forced to abandon the area.
Sudak's guess was right. The repaired wall was far weaker than before. The bombardment continued until three in the afternoon, when the wall finally gave way. After a thunderous crash, bricks and stones cascaded down. When the dust cleared, a breach ten meters wide lay before them.
At once, a thousand-man unit that had been waiting for the moment charged toward the breach. They held their round shields at an angle to ward off crossbow bolts from above, quickly covered the two hundred meters, then climbed the steep slope formed by the fallen bricks.
Behind the breach, the Eastern Roman army had hastily built a low wall out of wagons and dirt and dug a two-meter-deep trench. Theodore stood behind them with his sword raised, directing the battle and forbidding anyone from retreating.
Soon, the Ottoman soldiers charged over the slope. They were met by crossbow bolts, hand cannons, and lead shot from the ribauldequins. Large numbers of soldiers fell. The survivors hesitated, but the men behind them shoved them through the breach.
"Do not retreat!"
At Theodore's urging, the Eastern Roman soldiers stabbed at the oncoming enemy with their spears. The defenders on both sides of the breach hurled stones and fired crossbows down at them. Every so often, they tossed down a clay pot full of black powder, instantly clearing a small patch of ground.
In just two minutes, the Ottoman unit's casualties had surged. The surviving soldiers ignored their officers' orders and gradually retreated to their starting positions.
The assault had failed, but Sudak was not angry. He ordered the artillery positions moved, preparing to blast open more breaches. Then tens of thousands of troops could attack at once and crush the Greeks' defenses completely.
On January 20, the Ottoman artillery had blasted open seven breaches in total, the widest more than twenty meters across. Sudak drew the curved saber at his waist and ordered the various units to launch an all-out assault according to the plan.
From a tower on the eastern side of the wall, Vitus confirmed the Ottomans' movements, then gave orders to the commanders beside him. "It's our turn to move."
As the city gates slowly opened, twenty-eight hundred soldiers marched out onto the open ground. A small number of light cavalry were roaming nearby, but Vitus paid them no mind. He led his troops west to circle around behind the Ottoman army.
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