Eagle Byzantium

On the other side of the river, the remaining troops were all Turkic light infantry. When Hugh discovered Asase and decisively crossed the river to launch a surprise attack on their position, because the original commanders Rosellen and Kazkenuz led all the cavalry to the bridgehead to reinforce the Futuwa spear formation, they lacked enough fast horses and mobility to stop Hugh's attack.

When the Turkish archers shouted and ran to the river bank, a dozen knights from Paris had occupied a dry landing place. When the general counselor of the palace, Valo, saw the flags and arrows of the Crescent Cultists approaching them, he resolutely raised his spear, urged his tired warhorse, and roared up the hillside with his companions. His arm was cut, but his spear tip pierced several Turkish soldiers in succession. The rest of the enemies panicked and fled like ants.

When Hugh's breastplate fluttered with the cape symbolizing the glory of the French Isle, he arrived at the hill captured by Vallo. In front of him, about a thousand Turks were fleeing in the mountains and valleys towards Antioch, and they had no courage to resist his sword.

Then, Hugh personally led 300 cavalrymen to cut off the retreat of the Orontes River Bridge. The three emirs guarding the fortress at the mouth of the river also "made a prompt decision": they took all the cavalry and fled in the direction of the long bridge again, and fled in the direction of Antioch before Hugh completely blocked the retreat. Melo, who commanded the Red Hand Brigade, and Sergeibert, who commanded the Baldwin Sword and Shield Brigade, ordered their followers to blow the deafening horns and launched a selfless pursuit.

Two thousand Futuwa spearmen were caught up by the Italian veterans and Frank swordmen who arrived quickly, and were crowded on the bridge section. They were chopped down miserably, and nearly half of them were killed, and their bones were piled up on both sides of the bridge head.

Seeing the fortress at the river mouth fall, the other emir Kupasiksin stationed on Rose Hill, as Gawain had expected, did not dare to hold out alone, and also fled with all the cavalry - they then followed the dense forests and valleys on the west side of the city (called the Fort of Antioch by the pilgrims), and followed one of the many stone bridges of Antioch, and escaped into the fortress. Raymond encouraged the morale, quickly pursued, seized most of the baggage and equipment, and suddenly became very proud.

Then, Raymond, who was insatiable, of course, after obtaining a secret agreement with Gawain in advance, sent his confidant Pence, led by 300 elite infantry, and suddenly occupied the two towers of the river mouth fortress half by deception and half by robbery.

However, this behavior has not yet caused a lot of noise in the pilgrims' team. Many people still think that this is just an ordinary order taken by the head of the clergy Adhmar and given to Raymond to execute. The most urgent task was to continue to advance. Now the fortress at the mouth of the Orontes River, called "Iron Bridge" by the Turks, had fallen into the hands of the high-spirited pilgrims. The rest of the soldiers, ladies, monks and civilians gathered around Adhmar, who was also very excited, and began to raise flags and drive livestock towards Antioch, which was four miles away!

After hearing that the Iron Bridge had been lost, Agi Siyan in the towering Acropolis ordered his servants to beat Patriarch John even more fiercely, beating him so hard that his soul was scattered and he cried out in pain.

Then he ordered the four emirs to occupy a tower of the Acropolis each to protect themselves. In addition, the cavalry was separated and given to four people, each with 500 cavalrymen and enough fast horses. They were required to rely on the stone bridges extending outward from the city to continuously maneuver and attack the pilgrim camp, because the hero Yaghi Siyan keenly saw the fatal weakness of the pilgrim army:

That is, the elite soldiers subordinate to the lord are actually limited; and more than 70% of the team are women and children without any training. After they surrounded the city wall in a mess, they would only give their own elite cavalry heads and interfere with the battle of the regular army;

The pilgrims came from different territories and their hearts were not in harmony. The walls of Antioch were extremely long, and it was difficult for them to support each other, which would give us the opportunity to defeat them one by one;

Autumn was about to end and winter was coming. The entire Antioch and even the Syrian region, the huge pilgrim team would also find it difficult to obtain sufficient supplies. By the next year, they would inevitably collapse.

The reason why Yaghi Siyan held such an idea was, of course, because he had the indestructible city of Antioch in his hands.

Compared with Nicaea that the pilgrims had seen before, this city was even more superior: the city wall was two Roman miles long and one and a half Roman miles wide. Whether it was the flat streets with dense buildings and shops or the valleys where the Acropolis was located, they were all protected by it without a single gap. Three hundred and sixty towering towers, as many as the days of a year, strengthened the defense of the city wall. In the city, Agy and his son gathered enough grain to eat for three years and took thousands of Orthodox hostages. The outer perimeter was surrounded by the Orontes River and the Farfa River. The external passages were all solid low-arched stone bridges. They were all the crystallization of the engineering wisdom of the ancient Roman era and would never be destroyed by manpower or machinery.

And along the mountains to the east of the city, up to the ridgeline, countless small fortresses and ramparts were scattered, linked by the mountain walls, echoing each other, just like the countless giants around Agy who provided him with protection, "Even if the city and the walls are lost, I can continue to hold on with the valley." Therefore, Agy was full of confidence, and there was a reason for it.

In fact, when the common people and ladies among the pilgrims saw in front of them an epic city that had only appeared in the Bible and mythology before, like Nineveh, the mouth of a bloody lion, they were also stunned. ——Achish abandoned the western city, the barbican, on the other side of the Farfa River, and concentrated his troops to shrink and defend the city.

The civilians and servants of the pilgrim army swarmed into the barbican, demolished the masonry of the city walls, and used them to build blockades or grind stone bullets for trebuchets. The dense forests of the barbarian were also cut down. It was used to build ships and various siege equipment, and the sound of horns was loud. At the meeting of cardinals with the army attended by Ademar, Gawain, Hugh, Bohemond, etc., the deployment of siege attack was made, an "unprecedented" "The Age of Siege" is coming.

In addition, Admar also took out a letter during the meeting, with a solemn look on his face, and seemed to say specifically to Gawain and Baldwin, "His Majesty the Emperor is about to send his servant General Titicius to lead five thousand men. Elite men, come quickly to reinforce us - but at the cost of surrendering Tarsus to him."

But then, contrary to the expectations of the priests, both Gawain and Baldwin generously said, "If the terms of exchange are like this, we can hand over this city to the emperor in exchange for General Taticius' support."

This reply shocked Bohemond and others. Ademar nodded approvingly and said that I can reply to Constantinople in this way. Then he took out the letter and said, "About winter time, Forty thousand pilgrims from Denmark and Germany will come through Minor Asia and rush here to join our pilgrimage expedition. The leaders are His Excellency Prince Sven of Denmark and His Excellency Count Woldsonia 'The Mad' Reinstein. ”(To be continued ~^~. )