Eagle Byzantium

As a result, that night, Danishmund's cavalry came to storm the camp at night. Count Oude, who was on guard, and 700 elite soldiers directly under him guarded the wooden fence and the entrance. Many armed pilgrims also shouted and shouted. Light torches to cheer. The results proved that once they were in a head-on confrontation, the Franks could easily repel the harassment of the Turkic rangers with their dense infantry and cavalry formations and strong chainmail. Forty Danish Monds The head of the warrior was beheaded, and the camp of pilgrims passed the night without incident.

The next night, the same battle happened again. However, the Turks changed the direction of the night attack based on the scouts' sightings. However, they were still defeated by the Count "Myers of Bray" on duty and the soldiers under Vallott, the General Counselor of the French Palace. Defeated, the cocking of the Latin crossbows and the roar of the crossbow arrows in the hands of the Frank soldiers resounded through the night sky.

In this setback, Merrick's side suffered greater losses than the previous one, with 120 people killed in battle. Merrick was so angry that he arrived at Gangala City and whipped all the Bey and Ghazi who were commanding the front line.

At the same time, Armenian merchants who had mixed up with the pilgrims sent spies to send a secret message:

Raymond, who had won two consecutive nights, was arrogant. He became more and more arrogant, demanding that the teams of the Greek Kingdom and other lords obey him unconditionally. Therefore, the Great Emir should not continue to conflict with him head-on, but instead sent a small number of troops to defend Gangala, with the main force Hidden in In the surrounding valleys, the strong walls were cleared, all the food around Gangala was taken away, and all the water canals and wells were destroyed. When the supplies of the two hundred thousand pilgrims were cut off and they were exhausted, the great emir launched another lightning-like raid. , will definitely annihilate them all.

Merrick adopted the merchant's suggestion, and together with Attenberg and Bey, studied the intelligence of the scouts and the surrounding terrain in detail, and finally decided to send 800 people to hold on to Gangala Fortress, and the remaining infantry would mature around it. All the wheat will be cut off, All the fruit trees were cut down, all the ditches and wells were dug up - and then they were hidden in the valleys leading from Gangala to Karabi, while Merrick and nearly ten thousand horsemen (mostly Sagittus servants) The soldiers) withdrew to the desert outside the valley and waited to attack.

Sure enough, on the rugged mountain road leading to Gangala, the 200,000 pilgrims had great difficulty in providing food. They could not find food to eat because most of the wheat fields had been cleared by the Turks and sent to Gangala. The fortress was fortified, so many poor people The miserable pilgrims can only collect acorns and leaves to feed themselves; what is even more uncomfortable is that there is no water source. Clean ditches and wells have either been filled up and taken away, or they have been poisoned. The horses in the pilgrim team are short of water. And they were infected by the epidemic and died in droves.

Many people began to flee, only to either disappear into the wilderness or be caught and killed by Danishmond's rangers.

"Keep going, hold on." With no end in sight, the people who were walking with arduous steps were like a broken gray river, heading towards Gangala, while the one-eyed Raymond kept raising the holy spear. Inspiring everyone.

In addition, Raymond sent a messenger to send a "request" to the Roman auxiliary army (about 6,000 people) who followed his team twenty kilometers away and also wandered in the canyon, "to provide us with supplies."

Mikhail looked grim after receiving the letter, and passed it directly to another messenger beside him, "Send it to Sinop... The whole army is temporarily stationed here, we have to prepare... ..I will protect His Excellency the Grand Earl of Laodicea at any time.” After finishing speaking, Miha. El's eyes suddenly revealed a fierce light. He looked at the very familiar scene of his hometown in front of him and thought to himself, "It's okay, it's okay, I won't go back to Paphlagonia in vain, I'll give you a thorough treatment right here." Bury it, so that I can gain Eudoxia's forgiveness."

At this moment, on the navy blue hillside, several Danishmend scout soldiers equipped with waist knives and bows and arrows were crawling in the waist-deep grass. The horses in the distance were tied under a tree. With falcon-like eyes, he looked at the vast terrain below:

The mighty and turbid Harris River traverses the undulating mountains. It is located in the center of Gangala Traverse in the strategic area of ​​​​passes and river valleys. There is a sloping valley connected to the Kalabi Hill Fort adjacent to the Harris River; and nearly 20 Thousands of pilgrims have rushed to the outskirts of Gangala;

Among the mountains in the sloping valley, nearly 10,000 elite infantrymen were cleverly hidden, and further away in the Kalabi Mountain Fortress, the Grand Emir commanded 10,000 other assault cavalry to serve as successors;

Meanwhile, the Greek Kingdom's army, which was originally serving as the rear guard, was at least ten miles away from the pilgrims, leaving a big gap in the entire formation...

The Sagittus mercenary at the head of the scout team suddenly patted the shoulders of the two companions around him, then made an extended gesture with his fingers in front of the eyes, and everyone looked further east - below Gangala City. Dots of fire ignited at the same time, and the pilgrims over there began to set fire and loot everywhere.

So a few people climbed back up, quickly jumped on their horses, and went around the familiar road to report the news to their Bey.

Around the entire city of Gangala, the desperate howls of the pilgrims shook the earth, because all the crops and fruit trees here were destroyed. They urgently needed to vent their anger, so they set fire to everything they could see. Then thousands of people were like demons in hell, devouring the grass like ants and locusts, cutting down all the miscellaneous trees, making simple ladders, and attacking the gate of Gangala like a tide.

Several streaks of white gunfire swept out. The Danishmund defenders at the top of the city used this terrifying flame, which immediately burned several ladders into powder. Countless corpses of pilgrims burned to black fell in the air, but The rest of the people didn't care at all, trampling on the corpses of their companions and continuing to climb towards the city wall. Then countless rolling stones tied to fence poles or net bags were chopped down by the defenders. The broken rope was thrown out, and it rolled down the slightly tilted wall unstoppably, crushing the pilgrims who were lying on the wall in front of it one by one, and then fell on the ground unscrupulously. The ground rampaged into the opponent's dense formation, and finally carried countless corpses that could no longer be distinguished on the edge of the city trench, tumbling and falling into the deep ditch...

The attack on the city was unsuccessful. At the meeting held at night, Raymond's face was ashen, while Guillaume's face was pale and shocked. He kept saying that it was going to be over soon. Two hundred thousand people were exhausted here, without food or water, and it would not take more than a few days. It will automatically collapse.

At this time, a businessman accompanying the army proposed a plan, "The emperor's aid will arrive by boat along the Harris River in the near future, and I am familiar with the terrain of this area. There is a sloping valley leading to Calabi Hill Fort. It is a very fertile basin. According to tradition, most of the food in Gangala is grown there, so we cannot be fooled by the Danish Mond Turks - His Highness the Marquis should send an elite army as soon as possible. Go and occupy it, you can not only find supplies, but also ensure the smooth flow of the emperor’s water transportation.”

"Count Oude, tomorrow, tomorrow you will lead a thousand armored infantry, go to the Xie Valley." Raymond ordered immediately without caring about anything. (To be continued ~^~)