Eagle Byzantium

After arriving at the mansion, very bad news came. Axepochus told him, "Gawain returned with the main force to besiege Prusa, and it seemed that he was going to fight to the end. And General Titicius lacked weapons. He Liangmo started to ask for help from us."

"First let the ship deliver four newly cast bronze cannons and three hundred fire blunderbuss. Also tell Taticius that I am trying to raise more supplies and military pay, and ask him to persevere." John immediately ordered.

Akseipo paused for a moment and told the emperor the second and more important bad news, "Two great indigenous nobles on the island of Crete set off a riot against our rule. They held up St. Titus. The battle flag has obtained sufficient rebel personnel from various villages on the island, and began to move north to besiege the empire's mansions and fortresses. "

John couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the news.

The two great nobles of Ginat who organized a rebellion are Kurtatzis and Kalergis. The former lives on the Messala plain, the most fertile island on the island, and has the loyalty and unity of most village communities; while the latter He is the king of the towering white mountains and has won the love of countless mountain people, archers and ship sailors.

It is almost certain that the Cretan uprising against Emperor John was instigated by Anna Doukas. It is said that she met with local public opinion representatives, paid a large sum of money, and promised to provide military assistance to the rebels. .

"The Kurtatzis family responded to Apate's call and was willing to accept the rebel country of Tarsus as its suzerain. However, the Kalergis family refused to be loyal to Gawain. They were only willing to assemble under the banner of Saint Titus and propose "We want to seek justice for the dead former emperor, but in fact, we may want to establish a country that is outside our control." Then, Aksepokos analyzed the details of the other party.

With a heavy heart, John's fingers trembled. He turned his back to his trusted slave and hesitated to make a decision.

"Your Majesty, we must put down the rebellion. If Crete is not protected, the rebellion will soon spread along the ocean to the Moria and Thessaly regions."

"I understand everything you said..." the young emperor replied, full of distress and exhaustion, "But where does the empire have warships and mobile teams to send? There are no troops to send, no troops to send."

Aksepokos gritted his teeth, then avoided the others and expressed his true thoughts, "Why don't we borrow troops from the Venetians to help suppress it."

"What!" The young emperor was immediately surprised. He had considered such a plan, but never dared to mention it. "Previously, I ceded the harbor on Corfu to the Venetians, which has caused me great criticism from the people. Now, Where can I get the leverage to borrow troops?" The emperor quickly rejected this plan of drinking poison to quench his thirst.

"The only way is to cut off Modon on the southern headland of the Peloponnese so that the Venetian route can directly bypass it and enter the Holy Sea. Also, open up the Venetian tax-free rights in several seaports on Crete." Aksepokos knew His Majesty’s current difficulties, but “For the survival of the empire, we can only do this, just like what your father did. In the end, your father did not get the help of the Venetian city-state to repel the Norman bandits.” Invasion?"

John was very painful. For a dignified Roman emperor, before realizing Romana's glorious ideal, he actually had to start the drama of ceding territory and borrowing teachers in front of countless subjects. This does not mean admitting to them, "I and my Is the empire no longer good enough and unable to cure its chronic diseases by its own strength?”

"Do you really want to do this..." The emperor finally closed his eyes and asked with a trembling voice facing the dazzling light in the narrow window.

"As long as you do it more covertly, you should be able to deceive it. In addition, this empire belongs to your Majesty. If you cede some things to others, it will be worth it as long as you can get greater benefits - after all, Crete There are half a million of your people here. The long-term loss of this place will be irreparable. The father of the family master, in order to meet the urgent need to sell some things in the family, does he still need the approval of his subjects? In addition, while we are persisting in the defense of Prusa, we must also conduct diplomatic activities and try to create more news for Gawain. There are many enemies, such as Bohemond, who is currently besieging Antioch with a strong army."

After hearing these words, John lowered his head and raised his hand, waved it vigorously a few times at the end, and added, "I agree with your plan in Crete, just go ahead and do it. In addition, the Apsomat on Cyprus "Si, it's just a piece of meat that's rotten and can't be eaten anyway. It's better to let it play its last remaining value and attract more jackals to bite it." It means that this matter will be left to you. .

At the same time that Aksepokos took the order and began to have close contact with all parties, Gawain's "Big Turtle Fort" under the city of Prusa had begun to play the role of a siege base.

Under the scorching sun, Titicius and the guards at the top of the city could clearly see that on the simple road built behind the big earthen fortress opposite, there were many people coming from the Sakarya River, Doli Laem Canyon, and Ore. From all directions in the canyon, vehicles pulled by mules, horses and oxen roll in. Continuously, the soldiers and craftsmen of the Tarsus Guards took out pieces of stone from them, used various tools and instruments, pointed them towards their own side, and used the stones to follow the steps of the earthen ramparts layer by layer. Covering upwards, a barrier of earth and stone is quickly formed.

Then, the cannonballs fired from the long-barreled copper cannon on the tumor base hit the stone. Even the earth and rain could not lift it. They could only emit small balls of green ash, which could not cause any harm to the soldiers of Gawain on it. and frightened.

While Taticius was thinking hard about what to do, Gawain's cannon arrived.

In fact, it was a series of bronze cannon barrels transported by ox carts and mule carts, and then spliced ​​together on the artillery fort with iron hoops. The giant cannon had a terrifying length, and the bulging charge chamber at the back was cast very large, like the big fat buttocks of a charming woman, in order to increase the amount of Khitan snow used and to more effectively propel the stone balls fired.

In the end, a total of three standard "giant cannons" were assembled, two of which were deployed on the Great Turtle Fort, facing the southeast corner tower and tumor-shaped fortification of Prusa, and Gawain specifically requested to leave one in the Mashikatus River Valley, facing the open field - every once in a while every day, a thunderous test firing was carried out.

Yes, it was a test firing.

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"Don't waste precious projectiles and a huge amount of Khitan snow on the cannon on the Great Turtle Fort. Use this gun for test firing first, and the cost is worth it. Then, Geddie and Leotius will make a firing table for all the test firing data according to the practice when the little sunfish was still in the military camp." This is another request from Gawain.

Now, the light artillery cast in Tarsus will be tested after completion to test the quality of the barrel and figure out the conversion records between different angles, charges and ranges when firing projectiles of roughly the same mass. This is the firing table.

And this kind of siege cannon cannot be made into a firing table before formal assembly, so it can only be fired and calculated here.