The first shells landed at dawn.
Not against Constantinople itself, but against the illusion that the city was still distant from the war.
On the low hills west of the capital, Montenegrin artillery crews finished calibrating their guns as mist still clung to the grass.
The men moved with the quiet confidence of soldiers who had drilled the same motions a thousand times—not hurried, not hesitant.
Range tables were checked.
Wind was measured.
Orders were repeated once, clearly, and then executed.
The guns spoke as one at a precise time.
The sound rolled toward the city like thunder dragged low across the earth.
It was not the roar of a full barrage, not yet.
It was measured.
Intentional.
A warning rather than an assault.
Inside Constantinople, windows rattled.
Birds scattered from rooftops.
Within the city mismaintained walls and structures collapsed from the aftershocks brought about.
Panic did not erupt immediately.
Instead, there was confusion.
People paused in the streets, listening.
Shopkeepers froze with shutters half-opened.
The newly raised levy units flinched at their posts, fingers tightening around rifle stocks they had not yet learned to trust.
Then the second round landed.
A number of artillery pieces launched warning shots that landed near the city walls but not close enough to actually cause damage just show the armies intent to fight should the Capital not open its doors and surrender.
Then came a second, followed by third barrage of warning shots.
~
Inside the city panic began to take hold as the 'thunder' in the distance repeated itself on a fixed interval, timely enough to know this was no act of nature, and now the once proud citizens of the Empires greatest city found themselves at a loss.
They had been told the war with the Russians was going well.
And now they woke up to find the enemy was quite literally outside this very city itself?
~
In the palace, a junior aide burst into the Sultan's chamber without ceremony, breath ragged, face pale.
"Sire, the enemy has come, they are waiting our reply outside the city" he said.
The Sultan did not shout, simply shuffling off his bed, removing drapped arms, and limbs from atop his body not caring about disturbing his still sleeping harem members.
He stared at the far wall from the foot of his bed, at a tapestry depicting a triumph from centuries past—armies crossing rivers, banners raised, enemies in flight.
For a long moment, he said nothing at all.
"They have not attacked," he finally replied.
"No, Padishah."
"Then they are not reckless," the Sultan said softly. "or perhaps mean to make me think they are stronger than they really are, hoping i'll surrender the city and flee..."
~
Outside the city, the First Army, had completed the first trench closest to the Artillery lines that still thundered out a warning shot ever 20 minutes, Tens of Thousands of strapping young men dug the earth, forming snaking trenches that blocked off all possible escape for anyone who dared try to travel west into Europe.
With each trenches completion the line moved forwards another fifty or so feet before digging once again.
The Montenegrin forces were not remotely expecting the Sultan to abandon his city, not even if that was the case did they expect the storied city to surrender willingly to an invading army.
Instead they prepared for the fight that was sure to come.
Trenches to protect again Cannon Fire along with Early artillery pieces, barbed wire to stop cavalry charges in their tracks.
Only once Elias was certain his own lines could not be breeched would he commit to the invasion of the city.
His artillery crews already given direct orders over the system to avoid targetting key cultural locations.
He might be called a tyrant in the future, but he was not willing to allow history to simply wash away the great works of the world.
Even if those same sacred places became the hiding place of his enemies he would perform the nessessary dragged out fight costing the lives of his summoned soldiers just to keep them intact and in doing so eventually earn the favor of his new citizens in the process.
~
Within his command post, Elias was content.
It had been hours since the warning shots started raining outside the Ottoman capital, but even still no response had been given, not even a request to Parley.
This alone indicated the oppositions intent to fight, to drag things out as long as they could to prepare.
But he didnt mind, the secret was already out, but it didnt matter.
The Strait was secure with his navy preventing any chance of the city being relieved by their navy, or armies pulled from middle eastern lands.
Meanwhile the northern border was equally as fortified protecting the first armies rear against possible incursion by the Slavic forces being led by Russian Generals as the Ottoman forces began to collapse thanks to losing their supply lines, and receiving no reinforcements to contend against their foes enormous numbers.
His current focus thanks to the lull was to correct the small issues within the rest of the lands.
The continued deployment of new forces to shore up the local garrisons and police to assist in securing the land all while making sure they are properly cared for.
With template summoned units being those who performed these duties would eliminate all forms of corruption and extortion by the government forces, allowing proper focus on the criminal elements while making sure funds used on a region are actually used to develop that region.
The other focus is on making sure the backwards regions of the Ottoman empire, would be able to develop and quickly accelerate towards the current modern age.
Thanks to this development he could then transition the lands from a purely agricultural focus to one of industrial might, using advanced mechanical techology produced by the system they could even try to reverse engineer them allowing for a boost of mechanized agriculture this, cuppled with the use of fertilizers and proper irrigation would cause food production to explode even further than it already had, earning a tidy profit for the kingdom, just like it had for the Russian empire before, only as each nation also developed and used these technologies to their own nations food production, droves of citizens would leave to the cities, and most of those would find employment in the army.
Endlessly causing build up until the powder keg finally was ignited and the whole world was brought into a state of war, both exhausting the freed up manpower, while also getting to experiment and test their latest military innovations further driving the technological progress by leaps and bounds.