Great time travel

Chapter 1, Crescent Banner Falls

Republic of Türkiye, Istanbul

The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Turkish Empire is located at the border between Europe and Asia, where the Black Sea and the Mediterranean meet.

Since Constantine the Great in the late Roman Empire established Constantinople here, the city has become a symbol of empire, hegemony, majesty and glory, and has attracted countless careerists in the Western world. .In the thousands of years of history that followed, believers in God and Allah were like moths to a flame, launching countless wars to compete for this great city, and almost shed the last drop of blood for it.

The Ottoman Turks, who were originally just a remote and backward Turkic tribe, really inherited the mantle of the Eastern Roman Empire because they captured Constantinople in 1453. Since then, they have been reborn and soared into the sky. He is invincible, sweeping across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, sweeping across the Balkans and North Africa, approaching Vienna, and drinking the Danube, which has given European Christians a nightmare for more than two centuries.

Although the subsequent Turkish Empire gradually decayed and declined, and its territory shrank significantly, as long as they still control this great city and the strait arteries connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, they still have the capital to challenge on the international stage.

After nearly five centuries, another equally brutal offensive and defensive battle fell on this famous city once known as Constantinople.

However, compared with the offensive and defensive battle of Constantinople that ended the Byzantine kingdom in 1453, this time the offensive and defensive camps have subtly switched positions... The only thing that is the same is that the defenders All the same powerless, helpless and bleak prospects.

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——As life-and-death enemies who have fought a full eleven Russian-Turkish wars and bloody battles for 300 years, the hatred between Turkey and Russia can be described as unforgettable, higher than the sky and deeper than the sea.Because Turkey is located at the intersection of Eurasia and guards key strategic routes.Therefore, at the beginning of World War II, envoys from various countries flocked here, hoping to shake the neutral position of the young republic with various conspiracies and tricks.

However, although the Republic of Turkey has always had deep-seated hatred for Russia, it also does not believe that "the enemy of the enemy is a friend." In the last world war, Ottoman Turkey unfortunately stood on the wrong team because of hatred for Russia. It led to the disintegration of the huge empire and the fall of the Ottoman family's crown... If it wasn't for the great hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who stood up at the most critical moment to turn the tide, then according to the power-defeating and humiliating "Sex Buddha" According to the Treaty of Seoul, the Turks may have to say goodbye to the Aegean Sea and Istanbul from now on, and they can only linger in the most barren and desolate corner of the northern Anatolian plateau, and they can't even keep their current territory.

In view of the above-mentioned painful lessons, the strategy of the Republic of Turkey in World War II was very conservative, even cowardly. It had no ambition to restore the territory of the heyday of the former empire. It only signed a trade agreement with the warring parties, in exchange for both parties Acknowledgment of one's own neutrality.Throughout the war, Turkey exported ore and other resources to Germany and the United Kingdom at the same time, in exchange for weapons to defend itself, and sought opportunities to ask for various benefits, such as asking Germany to help Turkey build roads and railways, and asking Britain to help Turkey build airports and ports. What do you think? They are all petty.

Relying on such a sloppy policy, the Republic of Turkey used its own chromite and copper ore to exchange some weapons from abroad and formed an army of 80 people, but it was basically light infantry, with firepower and combat effectiveness about the same as The Beiyang Army during the Republic of China was similar—according to the description of the Turkish army by a British diplomat at the time: "...they do not have any modern weapons, and these modern weapons have proved to be decisive since May 1940. The Air Force also Extremely backward and pitifully fragile. They have neither tanks or armored vehicles, nor ammunition factories to manufacture and supply weapons, nor trained personnel and officers and soldiers to use these weapons. They hardly have any anti-aircraft or anti-tank guns. Their alarm The systems are also pretty outdated and they don't know anything about radar. They also lack the military literacy to include the ability to accept all these modern developments..."

No way, Turkey's title of "Sick Man of West Asia" is not for nothing.Although I am in the Eastern Mediterranean, I am almost watching the outbreak of the European Industrial Revolution at my doorstep.However, due to the hindrance of religious factors, the acceptance of modern industry and science by the Turks is even worse than that of the Japanese and Chinese of the same period.Any slightest technological introduction and reform must carefully consider whether it is in line with the teachings of more than 1000 years ago, and then trigger a national debate, and even lead to bloody conflicts.For example, a technology as basic as printing was banned in Turkey until the nineteenth century.And things like toilet paper have been theoretically banned until the 21st century (because workers have to wipe their butts with their hands, so the halal food produced must have excessive bacteria and substandard hygiene).No matter how bad China was in the late Qing Dynasty, it had its own steel mills, shipyards, textile mills, and self-built railways.In the same period, Ottoman Turkey was a purer agricultural country than the Qing Dynasty. Even flour, sugar and cloth were basically imported. The railway built by the Germans was inexplicably built into a dead end...

Such an empire, which is on the street, obviously cannot survive in the western world where the great powers are vying for hegemony.During the First World War, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was still able to rely on its vast territory and huge size, as well as the arms provided by Germany, to bite the bullet and deal with the third-rate motley army (mainly Indians) in the British colonies.By the time of World War II, the territory of the Republic of Turkey was only 80 square kilometers, and the population was less than 2000 million. Although the industrial construction has improved slightly after the Kemal reform, it is based on light industries such as textiles. Mainly, the scale of heavy industry is extremely pitiful. The navy fleet was wiped out once in the early days of the founding of the country, and it is still almost non-existent at this time. The army's firearms and ammunition also have to rely on imports to a considerable extent.

Compared with the European powers, the Republic of Turkey is not only inferior in industry, but also terrible in the navy and air force. The army is also unable to cope with a mechanized war, and even the population is only half that of France and a quarter of Germany. (Turkey at this time has not yet fully started the population explosion. In the feudal era, its own population has remained at around 1000 million for a long time), even if it wants to fight for the head, it is impossible.

According to the international rankings at the time, the military strength of the Republic of Turkey was even lower than that of Belgium, Portugal and Greece!
Seeing such a bad set of cards in his hand, the then President of Turkey, His Excellency Mustafa Ismet Inonu, naturally did not have the guts to rashly join the arena of the World War, and has been swaying left and right until the fall of Nazi Germany. Two months ago, it barely verbally declared war on Germany.

Later, when the British wooed allies to fight against the Soviet Bolsheviks throughout Europe, the Republic of Turkey also strictly maintained its neutrality and refused the entry of the US and British allied forces. It's not that you can avoid being beaten by shrinking your head.What's more, with the traditional hatred accumulated for hundreds of years between Russia and Turkey, there is no reason at all to start a fight!
As a result, as the armored torrent of the Soviet Red Army was victorious on the European continent, the fate of the Turkish Republic became increasingly bleak.

When the 60 Eastern European coalition forces of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, and Red Greece gathered on the Thracian Plain (the home of Spartacus) on the banks of the Maritsa River, and another 60 Soviet troops marched in Georgia and Armenia, the Turks were like Waking up from a dream, he hastily dispatched additional troops to his own European territory, deployed a heavy army group in the border town of Edirne, and confronted the enemy on the opposite side. The U.S. and British troops in the Middle East asked for help... However, it was too late for all these preparations!
In the face of the Russians who have swept across Europe, the only family property in the Republic of Turkey, I really can't bear it for a week!
And the U.S. and British troops, which have long been unable to protect themselves, are unable to provide the Turks with any substantial military assistance at this juncture.

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After the war officially broke out, the Soviet Union still used atomic bombs to open the way, dispatching a large group of strategic bombers from Georgia and Armenia to break through the Turks' almost non-existent air defenses, and attack the Turkish capital Ankara, as well as Bursa, Antalya, Twenty atomic bombs were dropped on major cities such as Eskişehir and Konya, which almost destroyed the heart of Turkey's Anatolian plateau.By the way, the entire central government of the Republic of Turkey was blown up to the sky—in this era, even the European and American powers still don’t know how to fight a nuclear war, so they can only grope slowly in the war, and Turkey, as a backward country , it is even more impossible to know how to dig the underground bunker headquarters against nuclear bombs.

At the same time, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet also made a big move, calling names directly along the Turkish ports on the southern coast of the Black Sea, and soon wiped out the Turkish naval fleet staying in the Black Sea, and the remaining ships had to flee to the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Aegean Sea. Avoid the pursuit of the Soviet fleet.

Next, the Kurds entrenched in the southwestern interior of Turkey also took the weapons that the Soviets had successively assisted in the past few months, openly raised their flags and rebelled, attacked the Turkish army and police from behind, and announced that they would establish their own "Kurdish people". Republic of Stan!"
——Two-sided attack, land and sea attack, nuclear bomb blast, internal ghosts causing chaos, and beheading tactics... Such a set of deadly compound punches, even the militaristic Nazi Germany, would be paralyzed in an instant, not to mention Is it Turkey, known as the "Sick Man of West Asia"?
Of course, only 24 hours after the start of the war, the Eastern European coalition led by the Soviet Union broke through the important border town of Turkey and guarded the junction of Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria. Ten thousand Turkish troops were crushed to pieces.At the same time, the Soviet Marine Corps also landed in Trabzon on the southern coast of the Black Sea, and cooperated with the Army to penetrate Turkey's Caucasus defense line from behind.

At this time, the Turkish central government and military command organizations have been wiped out in the nuclear explosion. The troops in various places can neither receive orders nor reinforcements, nor even supplies. Naturally, one defeat leads to the next.

In this way, on the third day of the war, tank units of the Soviet Red Army had appeared on the outskirts of Istanbul, which aroused great panic among the citizens in the city and triggered a huge wave of refugees...