Eagle Byzantium

But soon everyone understood that this was the patron's strategy of "attacking in the east and attacking in the west", no, to be more precise, it was "attacking in the north and attacking in the east" - his goal was to drive directly to Diyarbakır Fort, where the enemy was about to attack. It is the most important core fortress of the Altuki Emirate. The previously bold Assassin assassin also sneaked in from there. Therefore, the Emir of Altuki, Sokman Tutusi, bears the unshirkable responsibility. We are going to use Zhanhuo went to question him.

"Capture Diyarbakir!" All brigades and volunteer border residents quickly regained a unified understanding of the goal.

"Previously I seized property worth fifty thousand gold coins in Marash, and then Ridwan of Aleppo compensated me forty thousand gold coins. Now I put all the money in front of me. One tenth of it I Donate it to the hall of the new society, and I will give a tenth of it as a gift to my wife Anna at the court, and I will not touch the rest of it, and distribute it all to you, my soldiers, who will fight with me. equal to getting rich "Gawain proudly announced the reward on his horse, and he also promised, "I hope to return with you in triumph in the winter, when the converts (Gawain) are capturing Melitene and Sebastian. After that, the large sums of retirement funds paid by the upper-class members of the Crescent Sect who have converted will also be paid. When the time comes, I will still distribute them all to you. Of course, you will also have a share of the spoils of the expedition! "

The soldiers are going crazy. They have regarded the upcoming battle as a journey of adventure and wealth for everyone. The veterans are excited and the recruits are even more excited.

Previously, the confidential officer Philactus had expressed doubts to Gawain, "If all the money accompanying the army is rewarded, how will the military resources and baggage be raised?"

"A lion only hunts food for a day, but an ant can store food for years!" Gawain replied so loudly, but the implicit meaning was "After entering the country of Artuki, our army will be like ferocious beasts. Loot the land and supply on the spot.”

This sentence also has a more straightforward explanation, grabbing territory, grabbing food, and grabbing women.

Then Gawain suddenly asked the officers of all brigades, cavalry regiments, and border troops to start strictly counting the soldiers again according to the rosters.

As a result, at noon, more than thirty "Assassins" who had infiltrated the military brigade waiting to go out were discovered!

They were all caught off guard and could not escape. They originally sneaked in in disguise and took the opportunity to assassinate, but they did not expect that Gawain would use such a skill.

"Tie him up with a rope, take him all the way to Diyarbakır, and execute him in public."

The patron's generous lectures were over, and the majestic and mighty battle flags on all sides were erected and fluttering fiercely in the army. In addition to the red-handed cross-sword war flag and the lion flag, there are also the "reed scripture flag" donated by the monks of Armenian Archbishop Gorpanzang and the Orthodox Patriarch John of Tarsus Antioch of Syria. .The "holy flag" sent by Oxhilt jointly encouraged and guided the soldiers to rush to the goal.

After quickly entering the border of Artuki, the Oghuz cavalry and the Red Hand cavalry were divided into squadrons. They attacked and uprooted the enemy's outposts and camps like a swarm, and attacked the Armenians and Armenians living in the vast local market towns and villages. Greeks, Syrians and Kurds say:

"Back then, the Seljuks invaded and killed on a large scale, all because the Orthodox Church in Constantinople was corrupt and ungodly, incurring the Lord's sins and punishments. But now the Patron of Seleucia, the Canonized Saint, and the New Holy Apostle Stephen. Gawain has been given the might of the Lord to lead us to liberate us from the rule of the Seljuqs, so those of you who believe in the church must! Everyone must provide XX food and XX wine (wine, pomegranate wine, wine). Those who believe in Muhammad’s teachings do not need to provide wine, but they must provide double food to support the march of the army.” Gao Wen also continued to promote it along the way! : As long as the Artuki chief and his garrison are annihilated and expelled, all cities within the territory will be granted freedom.

Because wherever the army went, no one dared to hide food, oil or wine. People knelt down on both sides of the road to welcome the arrival of Gawain's army. Soon the Tarsus Guards Army advanced to camp on the edge of a lake less than 50 kilometers away from the city of Diyarbakir.

When Sokman in Diyarbakir learned that Gawain had actually come to attack him, he couldn't help but panic and hurriedly summoned two people.

One of the two people was wearing a Persian-style robe, and the other was wearing a Roman-style robe.

The former turned out to be Gabzuk Umid, a close comrade of Hassan, the old man in the mountains, and the latter turned out to be Potrufis, the former emissary sent to Marash by Emperor Alexios!

It turns out that this Potruphes is the "mysterious Greek" who planned to let the assassins infiltrate the Sylvain mission. He escaped before the destruction of Marash and wandered around Greater Armenia, determined to avenge Gawain and stop him. He wanted to disrupt any of the other party's business, so he hit it off with Gabu Zuk of the Mountain Sect.

"The clumsy assassination plan you planned has all failed. Gawain's army has approached here to raise troops to question the crime. What should I do now!" Sokman asked the two people angrily.

The two men were also a little panicked, but they said that the city of Diyarbakir has been particularly strong since ancient times. As long as Sokman is strong-willed, he can defend it as long as he wants. "If it doesn't work, you can also retreat south to the city of Mardin." go."

Then Gabzuk also had a hundred elite Assassin martyrs here, and at the same time, dozens of people had infiltrated into Gawain's military camp (in fact, all of them were captured), and they were able to seize Gawain's flaws during the long siege. His assassination is also a high probability.

Sockman hesitated and could only order all the troops to be on alert and guard the castle.

Who would have thought that the next day, Gawain's cavalry would cross several large and small lakes outside the city, cut off all the canals in the farmland under the city, and arrested the suburban residents who had not escaped in time, forcing them to cut down trees around them and build a large plani cannon with a counterweight on the hillside northwest of the city. At the same time, half of the artillery corps also dragged caravans and fire bear cannons up the mountain with thousands of cattle, horses and mules to set up siege artillery positions.

The remaining half of the artillery corps carried the same number of caravans and light artillery to dig trenches and set up fortifications on the plain in front of the city gate, covering the brigade infantry and cavalry behind them to besiege the city wall.

A correct version can be found in 1619 Book Bar!

Sokman had fought against the Frankish army in Jerusalem before, and thought he was well-informed. But who would have thought that the combat mode of the army in front of him was simply incredible - chariots, muskets, trenches, wooden fences, and equipped with Tronzak miners and Komach River workers, their work efficiency was simply terrifying - three days later, the north, west, and east sides of the Diyarbakir Castle, all surrounded by the moat, were blocked by barriers and became a dead end. Only the gate to the south without a river was still open.

But it had been cut off by a thousand Red Hand cavalry and seven hundred Oghuz cavalry.

Surrounded on three sides and missing one, Gawain then handed the choice of fighting and fleeing to Sokman. He sent someone to shoot a letter with a letter of persuasion tied to it, and it flew into the seventeenth tower of the city wall, "Before it can fly east or west, you must reply to me with your decision."