Eagle Byzantium

Immediately afterwards, the other three long perfume bottle cannons in front of the Holy Apostles Cathedral also began to emit flames and smoke and began to shoot. The most skilled and highest-paid gunners controlled them, and fired the shells slightly tilted and accurately into the front line of the Georgian army. One shell passed through and could penetrate two or three rows of soldiers at the same time. Every time it hit, a huge cheer broke out in the fort.

After the eagle flag was smashed, builder David rode his horse less than a hundred feet behind. He looked at the opponent's big gun with embarrassment and some horror. It fired a cast iron shell between the walls of the opposite cathedral. In a blink of an eye, it whistled and hit his flag and flag bearer.

Then, shells were fired from the fort over there, knocking down his dense front line soldiers one by one.

This was the first time that builder David felt the horror of firearms.

In the previous battle of Roy, he looked down on the musketeers of the two small Kurdish countries, thinking that they were just hollow iron rods that could spray out some smoke to cover the battlefield and make strange noises. But now that he saw the might of the artillery in Gawain's chariot, he felt that this thing was simply a sower of death and chaos.

"Charge, charge." Soon the builder David saw that the Tarsus Guards had three artillery pieces lined up outside the carriage, each with earth baskets, stone cages and wooden shields piled with earth as a barrier, so he eagerly asked his Cuman and Alan cavalry to use their speed advantage to rush over.

Under such orders, hundreds of Georgian light cavalry pressed their bodies against the saddles, holding their lances and shouting like a whirlwind, aiming at the red hand flag hanging on the spire of the Holy Apostles Cathedral, and scrambled to cross the gap left by the infantry.

However, the gun positions in front of the Tarsus fortress showed no signs of panic. Facing the fierce attack of the Georgian cavalry, the gunners still calmly cleaned the barrels, pushed in the gunpowder bags and projectiles, aimed, and fired. In the entire Georgian army array rushing down the mountain, there were groups of soldiers who were hit at various landing points, and several or even dozens of people fell down and were injured or killed, but they still continued to move forward, following the cavalry with their horses' tails raised and rushing towards the enemy.

When the Georgian cavalry rushed into the distance of 200 feet, the shooting musketeers of the Yefan Duney Brigade all stood up behind the fence and light chevaux de frise, either crouching or half-kneeling, and placed their long muskets on the forks or chevaux de frise, one after another, with smoke floating from the twisted matchlocks. Many shrimp-whisker muzzles loaded with shotgun shells were sticking out from the carriage boards behind them, and a new type of large musket was set up - it was operated by three or four people, but its body was larger than the ordinary light long musket, using a small copper musket to fire bullets continuously, aiming at the Georgian cavalry galloping in front.

The Georgian cavalry had rushed to within a hundred feet of the chariot. They had pre-determined that the enemy's musketeers would fire prematurely because of panic, but they did not. They all stayed very calmly behind the bunkers and fences. Even though the cannons roared or arrows flew around them, they remained indifferent. The people and the long muskets and shrimp cannons merged into one, showing a calm and terrifying weapon.

"Shoot!" A senior sergeant of the shooting army behind the barricade bent his elbows, raised his musket and slightly raised his body, aiming at a Georgian cavalryman with a ferocious expression who was almost rushing to his nose, and pulled the trigger decisively. The dragon head hook dropped, sparks flashed behind the wooden butt, and his shoulder was hit hard, and his whole body was staggered backwards - then there were deafening shooting sounds and bursting gunpowder smoke all around him, and the blurred figures of the Georgian cavalrymen and horses fell down one after another with neighs. But this was not the end. As soon as the sergeant retracted the muzzle of his gun, he saw more Georgian cavalrymen in the smoke and fog continue to bravely ride over the corpses of their comrades in front of them, and attack him with long spears. Many spear blades and javelins were thrown on the chevaux de frise and wooden fences, making crackling sounds. At the same time, the numerous shrimp cannons behind the carriage board erupted, and they were filled with shotgun shells, hitting the bodies of the Georgian cavalrymen in the queue behind them like a storm, and more people fell down immediately.

Between the trenches and the fences, the shooting soldiers threw down their long guns, raised the iron forks and halberds that served as supports, and some drew their swords and fought with the cavalrymen who broke in. Then the soldiers of the Yefanduni Brigade behind the car barrier also used bows and arrows and axes to reinforce the shooting soldiers on the front line.

Amid the sounds of cannons, gunfire and shouts, builder David saw smoke everywhere and the cavalry running swiftly. He was a little confused, and the falcon "Mitra" continued to stand firmly on the shoulder of its master, "I must find a commanding height to see the overall situation of the battle..." Then he rushed up a small hill and saw the battle on the eastern and northern slopes of the Shanuhe Highlands. The rectangular chariot fortress position guarded the iconic Holy Apostles Cathedral and was firmly resisting his infantry, while a Georgian cavalry team was blowing trumpets and rushing along the road on the flank of the chariot fortress to the Tarsus army camp on the high ground.

Suddenly, a burst of flames and bullets erupted violently from the western flank of the Tarsus chariot camp, shocking David so much that he shook back in the saddle, his eyes seemed to be completely dyed red by the scene before him: the cavalry team was engulfed by the smoke, and many people rolled off their horses and fell motionless in the thorns or pits. It seemed that they had suffered considerable losses in an instant.

Hundreds of infantrymen armed with huge spears marched out from the Shanuh camp, and on both sides and outposts were small teams of musketeers. The musketeers used forks to defend their shooting weapons. Every time the phalanx of spears advanced, they stopped to reload ammunition and fired a volley. Then the spearmen shouted "Hallelujah" in unison, and all the spears were leveled and walked down in unison, forming a torrent of iron tips, forcing the Georgian cavalry to not move forward.

The builder David saw with his own eyes that the cavalry under his command bravely raised their swords and rushed into such a phalanx of spears, trying to guide everyone to bravely fight forward, but the next second their heads were split by several spear blades, and they fell backwards from their horses and died.

Soon, the fire from the muskets and spears from the Shanuh Plateau, as well as the continuous side fire from the chariots, intertwined and trapped the thousands of Georgian cavalrymen who were charging in the front. They kept falling down with wailing, and the bodies of men and horses slowly filled the area between the stream and the plateau. The remaining cavalry also lost the courage to fight again and turned to flee towards the Chakmak Mountain.

On the other front, that is, on the western battlefield, nearly a thousand archers from the Trebizond peasant army were deployed along the rocks and high hills, facing the rising sun, drawing their bows with their right hands, and began to fiercely shoot at the Tarsus Brigade formation below them.