Eagle Byzantium

Wright was at the foot of the city, his hands hanging down, and Gawain was rubbing his cheeks with his hands, and began to shout in fluent Turkish, "Do you want a ransom? Do you want a ransom? I'll give you a large sum of money, stop all this, and release the two of you. I will give you a huge ransom. I swear in the name of God! I am the Grand Duke of the Romanian Empire, and what I say is absolutely true."

Gawain looked at Beatrice, who was lying on the battlements with her head hanging down, and was raped by Turkish soldiers. He couldn't help but have a fantasy in front of his eyes: how his little military servant Phythias was tortured in front of the city of Nicaea in the past, and then was thrown off the city wall in the same posture. So he kept shouting, hoping to solve everything with the ransom. Although he still kept a calm tone on the surface, his eyes gradually began to become bloodshot.

But the Turkish officer continued to curse, pointing the blade at Gawain, who was protruding below, and the two continued to talk fiercely.

Behind the wooden fence, Godfrey, who looked at Gawain's back melancholy, lowered his thick eyebrows and eyes, and said nothing.

Under the awning farther away, Taitsius, who had his nose cut off, also stared at this bloody and tragic farce expressionlessly - over there, Bohemond kept turning back to ask everyone, "The Grand Duke of the Greek Emperor, asks us to pay a ransom to redeem this poor man and woman. Although they have committed a great crime of adultery, they cannot die in the hands of the enemy. I am willing to pay a hundred silver coins." The lords around were talking loudly, ambiguous, and most people's attitudes were not clear at all. Only Gawain was still walking around there, making a promise to the Turks, saying that he would prepare the ransom now, and asked the other party to stop killing the two young captives first and ensure their safety.

At this moment, Yagi came from the stone flying bridge connecting the main tower of the Acropolis and the tower, watching this scene, and then made a thumbs-up gesture to the Turkish officer holding a scimitar.

At the same time, the voice of the Admar priest rang out loudly, "Adelbero, my child, my child! Now I will announce that your cardinal priest and priesthood will be expelled, and I will tell you that there is no ransom." Gawain, who was still holding his hands, became hoarse and his expression froze. Then he heard Adelbero crying. Then, the Turkish officer grabbed his beautiful hair, cut off his beautiful ears amid his screams, threw him off the city wall, smashed a little dust, and then held him down while the priest was twitching violently, cut off his head alive, and cut off his hands, one piece after another, and threw them down from the castle in front of Gawain's eyes. Gawain raised his hands, hugged his head, cursed fiercely, and turned back to the wooden fence of the camp. Wright was still standing there in amazement, because when the priest was brutally executed, the Turks pushed Beatrice to the battlement and tore her hair back. Beatrice looked at the remains of her lover's tragic death, opened her mouth wide, and couldn't even cry. Then her beautiful and tortured body trembled violently, and the Turks raised their arms from behind, stabbed the dagger into her chest, and then dug out the bloody and still beating heart.

Adhmar's tears flowed, he kept making the sign of the cross with his hands, and prayed for the two young men who died tragically before his death.

As almost all the pilgrims and soldiers watched in silence, Lady Beatrice's heart, nose and eyes were dug out and thrown down one after another. Then the Turks cut off her head and asked a man who knew Greek to jump onto the battlements and shouted to everyone below, "Filthy and unbearable unbelievers, your clergy only know how to do this kind of thing all day long, and now they have been executed according to our law. Soon your lives will not last long, many soldiers of Allah will come from that direction, and you will be punished by hellfire and swords!" Just after he finished speaking, the crossbow behind the man suddenly fired, shooting Beatrice's head into the wooden fence of the siege below with an arc.

At this moment, the soldiers slowly retreated to their sentries and tents with uneasiness and resentment. Wright silently picked up the scattered remains of the two victims and buried them. Gawain also stood in front of the scarlet tent with some depression, and Florina was crying for the tragic death of her friend.

When dusk fell, Bohemond called many lords, including Gawain, to the altar tent where the high priest was, and "invited" him to talk about something.

"What happened today has a huge impact on the entire Pilgrim Army. What people see is that on the one hand, the Cardinals' Council is disciplining and lashing out at civilians and soldiers, but on the other hand, some of the priests are having affairs with noble ladies in the army." Bohemond spoke passionately, standing in front of the High Priest, who was curled up in a chair with his mouth drooping, and chattering incessantly. "Now, the prestige of the Cardinals' Council has been completely corrupted and lost, causing widespread distrust among the soldiers. In addition, Adelbero was captured with endless shame and slaughtered in front of everyone, which made us seem helpless. The other side also threatened us with the arrival of Cobha, which was a greater blow to the morale of the team. How can an armed force whose leader has defiled God be blessed with victory? Damn it, damn it!" Bohemond seemed not to have vented his anger yet. He kicked the base of the tent pillars hard with his feet, and gasped hoarsely with his hands on his hips, as if forcing Adhemar to give him a satisfactory answer.

"What delicious human blood bread." Gawain said in a low voice angrily, but he had done this himself, so it was not easy to say it too obviously. He looked around and saw that most of the lords' minds had been brought into the rhythm by Bohemond. "If it weren't for the Cardinals' Conference, the Count of Blois and Normandy would not have left. It's better to say that they were forced to leave than to say that they were sick." Such voices began to be eager to try. Anyway, most of the resentment and spearheads began to point to the Cardinals' Conference itself because of Adelbero's death.

Since ancient times, humans have always hoped to find someone to take the blame and vent when anxiety and frustration come.

And Bohemond guided the goal successfully, and Adhmar could not resist: Raymond also had a grudge against the priest because of the previous incident; Gawain felt that there was no need to continue wading, and Godfrey had the same idea.

In the silent and sharp eyes, Adhemar put his shaking fingers on his nose and rubbed them painfully, as if he was sobbing, and then slowly said, "Then I declare that the meeting of cardinals accompanying the army will be cancelled."

"It is not enough to just cancel it. We need to win a complete victory in Antioch, but before that, we have to cheer up the soldiers!" Bohemond was relentless, waving his fists and commanding fiercely. (To be continued ~^~)