Eagle Byzantium

As expected, Molitor arrived at the beautiful city of Laodicea a few days later.

At this time, Monomachus and Birel led many teams of border people on foot and bicycles, and had already marched to the troubled Lydia area, preparing to cooperate with the Nycar Brigade to resolutely suppress the orthodox fanatic believers who had risen to make trouble, and " Luo Lan, the general secretary of the new society, followed the army behind the scenes and handled various non-military matters.

Molito, who was a little frightened, walked into Gawain's camp and met the king of Anatolia.

In front of the scarlet tent, Gawain personally came out to greet his old friend.

Molitor has not changed much from when he first came to Bari City. He is just a little older. Of course, he has a higher rank and his clothes are more gorgeous. His black silk soft hat is filled with bright feathers, which is blowing gently in the wind. Swinging.

As for Gawain, he had completely changed into Byzantine-style noble decoration today, with cross shoulder straps studded with diamonds, long and loose robes, and self-taught crimson boots. "Before, you looked like Frank or Apu. The knight of Leah is now like the chief noble of the Roman Empire."

"Because I find that this kind of decoration can indeed better reflect class and majesty - welcome to my shabby temporary military camp, my friend." Gawain stepped forward and hugged Molitor tightly, and then rubbed the tips of each other's noses to express There was joy in the intimacy, and then Gawain pressed the other person's shoulder , his light blue eyes stared at Molitor, "I will not have complicated etiquette, nor will I have calculations like the Merchant of Venice. So I ask you, why did your fleet sink my ship and kill my sailors? ? Can't I claim sovereignty over Crete and Rhodes?"

"There was a small glitch, and it was an avoidable technical error." Molitor tried his best to explain with a sincere smile, "Because when Emperor John asked for reinforcements from the country, he only said that an anti-imperial uprising broke out in Crete. The rebellion does not mean that you are involved in it, Gawain.”

Gawain blew his beard a few times, then laughed. Then he took a few steps back, raised his hand and directly showed his cards, "Does this mean that Crete must be a forbidden area for your country? Molitor, I am not stupid. Your noble commander has sent me a very unfriendly letter of challenge before. You will always be arrogant in the ocean."

"No, the original noble commander has been replaced. Of course we have always maintained the most kind attitude towards you. The new consul of the state is just anxious that His Highness Caesar continues to grant trade charters to the city-state of Hot Duck and Pisa. That’s all.”

At this time, the two of them had already entered the tent. Gawain held on to the central table for a while, then turned around and reported the conditions, "I will temporarily give up my claims on Crete and Rhodes, and I can also open Cyprus to your country." The port on the island, do you think this is okay?”

Molitor beamed with joy, "That's good. I guarantee that the warships of this country will never launch any attacks on you again, and the Venetian ships will pay customs duties in accordance with the standard in your port and will not get any privileges."

Because the island of Cyprus is also an extremely important transit point in the Levant Sea, Molitor believed that as long as they could occupy Crete and Cyprus, their city-state would be able to operate the best route for Eastern trade and soon seize hegemony and conquer the rest of the world. The city-state expelled the people from the eastern sea without offending Gawain too much: this was the best diplomatic strategy he could think of.

"No, it's not enough. I want you to promise that firstly, you will not contact Bohemond to secretly trap me or do anything detrimental to me; secondly, in two years' time, together with pizza, hot duck and Amalfi, Provide about six warships to help me siege Tripoli." Gawain stretched out his finger, and his nickname of "Eight-Clawed Spider" was by no means unfounded, and he would never provide free stoves and meals.

Molitor said that he could agree to this condition on behalf of the city-state and the Senate, but then Gawain would have to provide the military pay and supplies on the battleship.

When the agreement was reached, Molitor asked specifically, "Can you tell me the answer to why you postponed the siege of Tripoli until two years later?"

"It's very simple. Next year I will focus on destroying Trabizond, Danishmund, Sagittus and Georgia." Gawain held the opponent's hand tightly and said in a casual tone. , as easy as going to the market to buy a few capons.

"Oh..." Some of Molitor's words were blocked in his throat, unable to come up or down.

After the Venetian envoy left, Gawain breathed a sigh of relief and fell down on the couch again with some fatigue. The Turkic military servant who had been sitting cross-legged on the felt next to him stood up. The arrows and the helmet hanging on the hilt of the sword jingled. He helped take off his master's crimson boots and asked very carefully, "The master wisely reached a peace treaty with the city of San Marco, but what about the future?"

"I have only one goal in taking the national debt, and that is to build a fleet capable of guarding two oceans, and then cooperate with the army to defeat Venice and completely defeat it."

"I didn't know Master you had such great hatred for Venice."

"No, I don't hate it. But I must destroy it. The responsibility comes with what I gain, Muzafiadin." Gawain murmured, "I remember the time when I went to the beautiful floating island city with Ingrina. The sky, the river and the rainbow were so beautiful, like a painting, but it was also a terrible fortress, suppressing and threatening my future seat and the life of the country, so when the time comes, I will destroy this painting without hesitation... Muzafiadin, prepare horses for me tomorrow. Anna has returned to Tarsus, and I will go to Iconium, because Theodorus from the north line is here to compete for the eastern territory of Paphlagonia again. I want to force him back and then destroy him in the snowmelt season next year."

After the arrangement, Gawain covered his eyes with his hands and fell asleep...

In the wilderness north of Philadelphia, 40,000 rebellious fanatics lined up in a dense and endless formation, shouting and making a lot of noise, stretching from the high point to the wasteland at the foot of the mountain.

Check out the correct version in Book 16-9!

This team burned many villages along the way. When preparing to attack Philadelphia, they found that the road ahead was blocked by a Tarsus army coming from Laodicea: Birrell instructed 3,000 infantry, including 2,000 Pisidian border troops and 1,000 Niketas followers, to use 12 large covered wagons covered with iron bars and shields, and dozens of back carts and simple mule carts to form a rectangular car barrier in front of Philadelphia. Niketas' party guarded the fort, while the border residents were arranged on both wings.

Monomachus led 300 border cavalry, plus the same number of Oghuz volunteer cavalry, and also received help from Gaia Sansavall's Comaloi cavalry regiment - about 2,000 cavalry were arranged independently on the slope beside the car barrier.

Further north, General Capenus's Nika Brigade, which was more powerful, followed and formed a pincer attack, encircling tens of thousands of fanatics on the hill.