Historical records indicate that when Venice sea ships loaded with Frank knights irrationally broke into Golden Horn Bay, the first reaction of Constantinople's defenders was stupefaction.
The news reached the Golden Governance Palace, and the expressions of the two reigning monarchs were also stupefied, even involuntarily asking their ministers to confirm whether it was a false alarm.
After all, Constantinople hadn't experienced an invasion for hundreds of years.
The Franks landed on the unprotected Galata Peninsula opposite the main city district along Golden Horn Bay and quickly occupied the nearby industrial park.
The sparse police force and sheriffs were no match for these knights.
The remaining defenders could only retreat across the Galata Bridge to the main city district, where they joined the rapidly assembled Capital Guard and started setting up machine-gun defenses along the bridge.
