Eagle Byzantium

"The current situation is very delicate. Eight thousand imperial troops are now in Antioch where various forces are intertwined. I personally think that Gawain is willing to unite with us, which is better than being dissociated or even turning against us." Titicius faced the question , explained his reasons.

Then, General Qianbi paused and continued, "The ownership of the city of Antioch is an issue that your Majesty is very concerned about, but he currently cannot spare enough military power to monitor the behavior of the pilgrims."

"You mean, even after the city of Antioch falls, the Normans and Franks will not be willing to hand the city back to the empire... But is Gawain worthy of trust?"

"In any case, although the barbarian spirit and behavior from the west are not in the eyes of the emperor, they are not fools after all. Previously in the Grand Palace, they signed an oath with the emperor, promising to return all the land captured along the way to His Majesty, but Now Gawain, Baldwin, and the Normans are all The emperor began to seal territories in Asia and the Levant, which showed that the essence of the original oath had long since disintegrated. Although the emperor had previously occupied half of Anatolia, next, he verbally demanded the city of Antioch from the barbarians. Impossible." Titicius walked to the weapons rack and touched it. Looking at the raised pattern carvings on the shield, he slowly looked back at Diognis behind him, "So in the current chess game, if Gawain doesn't join forces with us, the imperial army will only have eight thousand people, and more than one hundred thousand people." are at an absolute disadvantage compared to the pilgrims; if Gawain unites with us , the dice we have are like a dose of lead poured into them, they are much safer, they can crowd out the ambitions of many pilgrims to covet the city of Antioch, allowing the emperor to still have room to take action, at least to maintain the situation between the two factions. There is also Lord Raymond of Provence, who is also a candidate.”

"As part of my duties, I still have to report the establishment of this Privy Council to the Imperial Palace and the location of His Majesty's conquest in Adrianople."

Taticius nodded and made an invitation gesture, with an unconcerned attitude.

So the guard gasped, sat on the desk, raised the reed pen in a not very graceful manner, then banged the table and said something. "Now we can only hope that the chess game can evolve in a direction that is beneficial to the empire."

In front of the Syrian gate, gray cliffs and white sea foam are constantly impacting and colliding among the winding mountain roads. About 2,000 combat-ready armed men from the Gemage Brigade, holding silver-tasseled battle flags, and led by Gregor, cheered and formed a circling queue along the road to welcome the arrival of Gawain's army. .

As far as Gawain could see, the Syrian refugee camp in the mountains had been well organized and arranged by Gregor. The herds, crowds, fort camps, and temporary arable crops were all in order. He was right to predict that the Syrian Greeks had been second-class citizens for hundreds of years. But their ancestral skills have not been abandoned - many Syrians are carrying food, cheese and cloth to provide supplies to the passing army.

Many people knelt down and worshiped in front of the horse heads and flags of Gawain and Titicius, with tears in their eyes. They said that after many years, they finally saw the Romanian Empire's army again, and the captors who followed behind were also deeply moved. , and kept wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingers.

Subsequently. Gawain and Titicius were stationed in the Little Alexander Castle to pacify the local military towns and villages, but they did not rush to the siege position of Antioch. And sent the Jimmagis brigade to the port of Saint Simon, where Raymond's 300 soldiers were originally stationed. Securing the road to Antioch.

But the strange thing is that when their flag officer saw the arrival of Gawain's flag, he handed over the port without any reaction. In this way, the place officially fell into the hands of the Privy Council representing the Byzantine Roman Empire and his army. inside.

The representatives of the pizza and hot duck fleet were immediately summoned to the Little Alexander Fort, where they lowered their belts and fearfully passed through the rows of soldiers holding huge and terrifying spears, and then the majestic The Grand Duke, standing with the noseless Imperial Marching Marshal In front of the city gate of the inner wall, he told them, "From this day on, each city-state in the port water area has its own berth and unloading trestle. Private fights and violators are not allowed." This order was signed in a document called "The Roman Empire Expedition" The document issued by the "Privy Council" institution was handed into the hands of the representatives.

The news spread like an arrow to the city of Antioch. In the tent next to the altar, Ademar was shocked and confused, "Stephen Gawain, which camp does he belong to! The highest command authority of the siege is now , it should be in the hands of the Catholic Council of Cardinals, some kind of Roman Empire Privy Council that came out of nowhere.”

The young priest next to him had a different opinion. He listened closely and told Ademar, "His Majesty the Pope keeps sending letters, asking us to 'diplomise far away and attack close by', that is, in Anatolia and Antioch. Try not to fall out with the Greek emperor and the Armenians, and explore the church's ambition to unify the East and the West."

Ademar waved his hand and said that of course he understood what the other party said. All the Holy See Urban could think about now was how the Eastern and Western churches could be reunified in advance in his hands after they excommunicated each other fifty years ago. great cause, and even after Urban’s death, he can be proud of the Lord He said, "I have only done two trivial things in my life. One is to encourage believers to regain the Holy City, and the second is to reunify the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Of course, some other things are okay, but compared with this The two are not big compared to each other, so there’s no need to mention them.”

So the Holy See, on the one hand, tried its best to maintain superficial cooperation with Constantinople in the East, at least not to overturn the table; on the other hand, it kept instigating countries such as Hungary and Zata to rebel against Constantinople, doing one thing in the east and another in the west, and was very busy.

"Should we convene a meeting of cardinals to discuss this matter?" The young priest reminded Adhmar, seeing that he was a little distressed.

The head of the clergy shook his head, "No, we have finally achieved the unity of the siege army. It is time to make persistent efforts and fight a decisive battle with Agi Siyan. If we open the meeting, there will inevitably be another fierce internal quarrel. We don't need to care too much about the reinforcements from the Greek emperor. We can lower our posture and invite them to join the battle as soon as possible."

Facts have proved that Adhmar's decision was wise. Three days after the polite reply, a full 20,000 new forces of the Roman Empire agreed to his request and arrived at the plain beside the "iron bridge" of the Orontes River (including 12,000 Gawain and 8,000 Taitsius), and joined the general attack on Antioch.

And it was after arriving that the Armenian noble Taprunzi immediately led his people across the river, secretly broke his oath, and went to join the Norman Tancred, and told him and Bohemond about the establishment of the "Imperial Privy Council". (To be continued ~^~)