Eagle Byzantium

The Varangian guardsmen who were chopping dog-foot wood looked at the Paulicians who were approaching them in the firelight, wearing black robes and turbans, holding yellow copper tubes, and roared twice in contempt, just like treating the fleeing civilians, and then continued to swing their axes and chop fiercely.

"Fire the Khitan!" Leotius pointed the small flag at the group of imperial guards who were climbing up.

A Paulician named Cincottoas, his name may not be recorded in history. He is just an ordinary and insignificant person in this queue, but in the hourglass of the Creator, he did raise the copper tube in his hand about two seconds earlier than the other comrades next to him. The top of the copper tube was embedded with an exquisite copper lizard head. This "little monster" served as a sight - aimed at the figure waving his arms, about fifteen feet away from Cincottoas.

The weapon in Cincotoyas's hand was the "portable defensive fire shooting device" that Gawain had the Armory make with great effort. However, the formula inside was definitely not the old one. Instead, it was a "Khitan snow paper tube" with the same caliber as the copper tube, which was filled with saltpeter, firecracker charcoal, iron filings and broken pottery. After mixing, they were put into the paper tube, and then into the front chamber of the copper tube.

Seeing Cincotoyas aiming the copper lizard head at the enemy, his comrades beside him picked up the jar with fire, pulled out the red-hot iron cone, half-knelt and mustered up their courage, and inserted it into the opening on the side of the copper tube with a "puff" sound, and the red cone tip pierced into the Khitan snow in the paper tube.

"Ah!" Cincotoyas felt that the wooden support in his hand was shaking violently, but he did not dare to throw it away, because in the blink of an eye, when the iron spike was inserted into the opening, the copper tube shot out white fierce flames, and waves of burning sensation came to his face... Cincotoyas became the first person in all ages to use tube-shaped weapons, but he was frightened at the time... Not far away from him, the same blazing fire dragons flew out one after another, illuminating the surrounding night as bright as day, mixed with the screams of Paul's followers, either terrified or excited.

This was definitely not "ordinary Greek fire" that would disappear after burning. Cincotoyas's eyes widened as he saw clearly that the fierce flames were still pouring out of the copper tube for a long time. Soon the dog-foot wood in front of Cincotoyas was burning, and the group of enemy guards who had been so majestic before also burned up - the poisonous flames swept through the gaps in the wooden fence, burning the first few soldiers into "fire men" dancing in pain: iron filings and broken pottery could be mixed with melting all the Khitan Fire, under the violent spray of the fire tube, penetrated into the gaps of their armor, helmets and clothes. What's more, in this flame formula, there were poison powders such as strychnine, saponin, arsenic, etc., which burned the skin and armor of the warriors being sprayed together, and their hair was gone. Their limbs and faces were terribly scorched. The surrounding air was burned out. Some "fire men" curled up and fell in front of the dog-foot wood, and some "fire men" rolled down the cliff with horrible screams.

Cincotoyas clearly saw that in front of an enemy corpse emitting stench and thick smoke, even the battle axe next to it was burned into a pile of twisted scrap metal! "Too powerful." Although he couldn't shout with his face covered, he felt that his hair stood up because of excitement. This kind of pleasure of wanton fire and killing might be scary for the first time, but it would definitely be addictive after one time.

The assistant next to him pulled the iron spike from the copper tube opening to the other side, and the reed paper tube with residual heat was grabbed and thrown down by his other hand wearing thick gloves. The paper tube flipped and smoked slowly under the feet of Cincotoyas.

"Should I say that this Khitan fire is too powerful, or that the Seleucid paper tube is too tough? The flames were completely extinguished, and the paper tube was actually intact." Cincotoyas was amazed in his heart.

At the back of the queue, Cabe Amiya and Muzafi Adin, who were almost scared to fall off their horses by the previous Khitan fire volley, calmed down and saw that the dog-foot wooden fence was still emitting flying flames, but the enemy soldiers who climbed up earlier were burned and sprayed to death in an instant, "Reload, spray again!" Cabe Amiya's mentality then became excited, and she stretched out her golden hand and shouted this order almost at the same time as the Khitan fire commander Leotius.

"Load!" Xinkotoas also waved his hand excitedly, and the comrade immediately took out another sealed Khitan snow paper tube from the hanging bag beside him and stuffed it into the mouth of the copper tube held by Xinkotoas. Then all the Paulist believers moved forward again and pressed into the wooden fence. Soon, there were white thunder-like flames with a slight downward arc, illuminating the originally dark rocks: the emperor's soldiers who continued to climb up were burned one after another and all rolled down. Soon, the emperor's night attack on the front of the camp was completely declared a failure.

Standing on the opposite mountain, seeing the Khitan fire flying, the imperial ink officer Mai Laisi was so surprised that he was inexplicable, "What kind of weapon is this."

"Sir, it should be an imitation of the defensive fire of our great empire."

"No, it's not... This power is more powerful than the gunpowder of Venice, and it is definitely not a defensive fire." Mai Laisi held his forehead in distress, "Order to stop the attack, anyway, our purpose of containment has been achieved."

Meles was right - Alexius's army, which attacked the other camp by surprise, won a great victory. When the emperor's 600 second-line spearmen attacked the other camp, the Seleucid garrison was defeated. They abandoned the camp and rushed down the hill. Many people were shot and killed by the emperor's archers from behind. Even the guards on the defensive wall fled and rushed to the camp in a mess.

Fortunately, Geddie had urged the civilians to dig a deep trench on the north side of the camp perpendicular to the defensive wall. Although many militia soldiers fell and died here, they finally resisted the emperor's further offensive: otherwise, the entire Miliocephalon camp might have collapsed at this moment.

When the sun rose the next day, Cabeamia and Birelle saw that the remaining civilians in the camp had almost all fled. The small houses where the civilians lived behind them were also occupied by the Agaphi tribe on the emperor's right wing last night. About a thousand civilians were captured. These small houses happened to be located on the road connecting the back of the camp and the Mut River Valley, causing the more than 3,000 civilians and Pauline believers trapped in the camp to be greatly terrified and panicked.

But Geddie was not desperate. He still asked all those who could carry tools to continue to build the sub-city regardless of anything, and the rest of the people defended the trenches and wooden fences. "If the emperor's army launches another fierce attack, try to use Khitan fire." Now, even Cabeamia made up her mind and gritted her teeth, determined to fight Alexius to the death.

But in her heart, the female consul still complained that Gawain had not appeared to save her so far. (End of this volume) (To be continued ~^~)