As for how long the city can last if the Ottomans don't do it, nobody other than the Ottomans is going to be taking Constantinople for a long time. The Ottomans had the first significant artillery train in the region, and even with that and overwhelming numerical superiority they had some trouble at Constantinople.
They took it in seven weeks. That's barely even to the point of "inconvenienced" by the standards of taking heavily fortified places - especially given how long it took to take Thessalonica a generation earlier.
So what is this 'some trouble"? That they didn't take it on the first assault of the walls?
I'm willing to grant that Mehmet might have trouble with Candarli if the assault fails and he's not able to make another assault the following day for some reason.
But if we're talking about whether or not militarily the Byzantines had a chance, I can only wonder what possible thing the defenders could have done other than put off their doom a little longer.
slydessertfox: Point, but having it last a couple more years doesn't seem to really mean anything. I suppose it would technically count, but unless we see Mehmet getting overthrown or something, that seems unlikely to matter.
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