Eagle Byzantium

The Denje River runs from north to south. It originates from the Bulgarian mountains, and its origin is only sixty miles away from Sofia, forming a standard "cross" with the other three rivers mentioned by Gawain.

The small triangle formed by Adrianople, Vykron Castle and Arcadiou Castle is located at the hub of this cross.

Therefore, once Gawain forces the Mosiah rebels out of the defense circle of the imperial capital, he will launch a large-scale counterattack.

During this period, Berdin, who had been "hunting" in Sofia, noticed that two of the most elite brigades of Melo were withdrawn at the Trajan Gate in front, and immediately launched a tentative attack on its fortress.

But Gawain had left a detachment of the artillery regiment for Melo (the artillery regiment now had three detachments, and Gawain was also preparing to form a brigade-affiliated field artillery), plus the strong fortresses that Melo had ordered his soldiers to build in advance, which were integrated with mountains, castles, and plains, and the might of the shooting army, and Berdin was knocked out by just "testing" - the fierce attack of 15,000 Serbian soldiers lasted for three days without any progress, so Berdin gritted his teeth and pulled out the stone-throwing cannons and gunpowder bought from the Ragusa arsenal, ready to push them over to fight against Melo's army, and sent his brother Vladimir to lead a branch of the army, trying to flank the defense line of the Trajan Gate.

But Melo resolved them one by one, "I have three brigades of soldiers, and the emperor's direct artillery to help. How could the same number of Serbian barbarians break through my camp?"

When the rain of bullets and gunpowder from the Trajan Gate slowly dissipated, and the enemy's camp remained motionless, Berdin became anxious and frightened. He had heard that the Bulgarians had retreated in the North Thrace theater. If Gawain pressed his main force here again, would he be able to resist in Sophia Castle?

The local nobles under his command also had different opinions. Generally speaking, there were two propositions. One was to follow the old wisdom of Sham'el (then the Bulgarian Tsar) who defeated Vasily II (Vasily the Younger) in front of the Trajan Gate a hundred years ago, that is, to hold on to Sophia Castle, inflict heavy casualties on Gawain's siege troops, and then launch an outflanking counterattack. But the question was, would Gawain attack Sophia Castle now? Instead of adopting a two-wing outflanking tactic, attacking Macedonia and Bulgaria and then pincer attacking himself? That would be like sitting and waiting for death; the second is to take the initiative to attack. Since the Trajan Gate could not be opened, this group of nobles thought of another attack route, that is, to go south along the Strymon River to attack Gawain's military station in Philippi and tear apart its connection with the Branas Front.

The Strymon River and the Vardar River, one flows east of Thessaloniki and the other flows west of Thessaloniki. They are also key rivers since ancient times. When Persia invaded Greece in the past, it used the Strymon River as a supply line. It is said that Xerxes buried nine boys and nine girls alive to appease the river god.

Now the Strymon River flows into the Thracian Gulf, just cutting between Thessaloniki, Philippi and Amphipolis (located at the mouth of the river). If the Serbian army can hit this weak point like a steel knife, Gawain will inevitably be in a state of panic - this is the surprise attack plan proposed by some Zupans.

If you insist, this plan is not unfeasible. Just when Baudin was hesitating, the Sophia camp received great good news: Old Roger of Sicily passed away.

No, of course it is not that Old Roger's death is good news.

The successor to Old Roger's throne was his eldest son Simon, and the new king's younger brother Roger the Younger used means to work closely with Matilda to incite the nobles of the Saxon territory of Germany, so Henry V could only return home with his army in dissatisfaction. In this way, the entire chess game in Italy came to life again. The Kingdom of Sicily immediately assembled its army to prepare to go north to attack Amalfi to Bari.

In addition, Sicily and Hungary both agreed to send a reinforcement of about 5,000 people each, and launched a new "holy war" against Gawain in accordance with the will of the Pope of Tuscany.

This time, the holy war was no longer about conquering the Fatimids in Egypt, the Seljuk Turks, or the Caliph in Baghdad. It was about Stephen Gawain, the original "holy warrior idol" who was established by the Vatican. Now he had usurped the throne of the Greek emperor, occupied Asia Minor, and was destroying the faith of Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Pope Eugene of Tuscany directly denounced him as "Satan the devil who was bewitched by heresy and fell into hell", "the enemy of God", "the beast of Babylon, the licentious antichrist", "full of the terrible thoughts of Manichaeism and Mohammed". Venice was also eager to join the war. Under the instructions of Piero and Fellaye, Venice not only provided all the ships for the holy war army to cross the Adriatic Sea for free, but also was willing to provide 3,000 elite mercenaries to participate in the war. Among them, Fellaye had two sons who served as officers. And Matilda, the Duchess of Tuscany, also promised to send 2,000 elite Lombards to help.

As for the Roman Catholic Church, it expressed its criticism and concern towards Gawain cautiously, but its attitude was not as intense as Eugene's.

In response to this, a young monk named Bernard (17 years old) from Minggu Abbey (the predecessor of the Cistercian Order in France) began to give speeches, fiercely criticizing the inaction of the Roman Catholic Church and firmly supporting the Tuscan Pope's claims. He lobbied the lords everywhere, calling on everyone to "pull out the two swords given by Jesus to St. Peter" and cut Christ's enemy Gawain into pieces both spiritually and physically. "If it is a devil, it should be thrown into hell."

"The sky is finally clear." Bourdin, who received such news, trembled with joy all over. He really felt ecstatic. The original Orthodox alliance between him and John has now evolved into a great alliance of the entire Christian world. Now the chances of winning against Gawain are simply great!

Bourdin immediately agreed to the resolution of "surprise attack on the Strymon River after next spring", and then waited for the Catholic brothers to take action.

However, it was Kadam who took action first.

Although he lost in the previous encounter, Kadam's main force, especially the cavalry, was still alive. He took advantage of the opportunity when Gawain's main force was resting in Vikronburg and let the infantry and carts set up camps on the bank of the Denge River, which was also the key pass of Versiginia just north of Adrianople. He also looted and collected a large amount of food and stored it there. Then he led 10,000 light and heavy cavalry again, and recruited thousands of local Roman residents to carry the manufactured equipment. He unexpectedly found an opportunity and suddenly appeared in the northeast of Adrianople and launched a surprise attack!

It can be said that Bulgar warriors like Kadam are honest. Although Berdin did not give him effective reinforcements and containment at other stations, he made a little detour and then came back to catch Gawain off guard.

A correct version can be found in the 16-9 book forum!

Only Birell and 2,000 new border militias stayed in Adrianople.