Eagle Byzantium

The next morning, all the defenders of the Tower of David laughed when they saw the pilgrims gathered together again at the battlements and canals, surrounding the new and taller wooden siege tower. They had already mobilize many people , using straw bales and willow baskets to fill the gap damaged by the stone-shooting machine. Prince Sokman also sent additional manpower to strengthen the defense force at the Tower of David, and chiseled out two large tree trunks as backup to destroy Pilgrim's siege tower.

Under the bright sunshine of the Holy City, Sokman and his warriors stood on the tower, looking at the siege tower coming towards the city battlements like a giant beast, "preparing fire poles and twisting the big tree trunks on the crossbows" The gun is on the string waiting to be fired! Everyone, according to the Egyptians' intelligence , the pilgrim bandits in front of them are almost running out of supplies and wood. This siege tower should be built by them gathering all their strength from various valleys. As long as we burn it, this group of bandits will no longer be able to do anything. We are with the city.”

Hearing the prince's words of encouragement, the crescent believers in turbans between the defensive wall and the tower raised their hands and cheered loudly, and then began to carry stone bullets, pile up fire poles, and build fences. Under their busy battlements, the Christians' huge siege tower had been pushed to an area only more than 200 feet away from the Tower of David.

Duke Godfrey was still standing on the top floor, looking at the siege team of pilgrims as dense as ants and insects below, waving his hands and shouting, "Everyone muster up the last fighting spirit, for the birthday of Jesus, and for the sake of this city with numbers." The siege tower was obtained with the sacrifice of hundreds of pilgrims. You must immediately follow the orders of brothers Josselan and Garilan."

At this time, Baldwin held up his shield and wore a helmet, faithfully shielding himself in front of his brother and standing side by side with him. In front of him, he saw row upon row of enemy towers and fortresses, stretching city walls, and enemy guards running around like grains of wheat. , and there were many anti-siege tower shooting tools set up by them. Clouds and sunshine flowed around him, and the wind swept through everyone's cloaks, making the coward spin.

The majestic Solomon's Temple in the great holy city is vividly in mind, located in the southeast of the city. Prayer incense and the smoke of the residents and soldiers in the city are rising everywhere. Accompanied by the loud and pious hymns, Count Adana repeats it silently in his heart. "Gothschild, and my son Gervi, the kiss you gave me on the hilt of my sword in the past will give me great courage and luck today. Neither my brother nor I will lose, never." Will lose!"

When the many wheels under the siege tower rolled over the line marked with white mud, the knight Joceland standing beside it looked up at the sky. There were many crosses on the battlements of the Tower of David. The burning stakes and arrows where the bow began to eject were fired toward the siege tower in a storm. Upon seeing this, Joceland waved the flag in his hand, "Galiland, you and all the heavy crossbowmen charge forward!" "

After receiving the order, his brother Galilan and hundreds of strong warriors wearing overlapping armor followed around the siege tower with heavy and steady steps - Galilan and all the warriors, wearing three layers of armor, one layer of The outermost one is Byzantine-style linen armor, lined with soaked and fireproof linen cloth, and the inner side is lined with flaky interlocking armor plates; the inner layer is the chain mail worn by the Franks, wrapped in Their bodies; the innermost layer is the armor used by the Byzantines and the Turks, which is tightly attached to their jackets and undershirts; the topmost layer wears a strong iron helmet and a nose helmet, and the neck, shoulders, and wrists They were also all wrapped in chains, with only their eyes exposed. In this way, in the still hot weather in the Holy City, they still climbed up the small fence around the siege tower stoically, or followed behind on foot.

Galilan was accompanied by two lightly-armed servants, one holding a kite shield with both hands to protect his left and right sides, and the other carrying three crossbows and crossbow pouches, walking behind Galilan, constantly bending his feet. He mounted the crossbow and handed it to Galliland. The rest of the heavy crossbowmen also have the same personnel configuration.

Galliland took over the crossbow, raised his hand and fired a tailless crossbow arrow. The crossbow arrow deftly stuck to the slightly sloping defensive wall, and hit a defender who had his head stuck out - brains and blood. It burst out and splashed all over the wooden fence, like a blooming blood flower.

Then Galliland continued to move forward and took another crossbow. This time he shot into the shooting hole behind the fence of the city wall. A Saracen who had just raised a stone and was about to throw it down was shot through the abdomen. His intestines circled around the crossbow arrow that was buried in his flesh, and he screamed and fell to the ground dead.

The other crossbowmen followed suit and fired bursts of crossbow arrows in succession. The guards on the Tower of David were hit by arrows and fell to their deaths.

"Call my bravest archers to line up and shoot arrows to suppress them." Following Sokman's order, many Saracen, Turk, and Coptic archers with small bucklers tied to their arms came from the erections of each tower. People poured out of the wall passage and gathered behind the fence. They didn't even need to aim, and they shot the arrows on the recurve bows into the sky at the top of the fence, causing them to fall crazily, exerting a killing effect.

The arrow clusters hit the ground violently, and bursts of dust splashed under Galilan's feet, like raindrops falling. Galilan's body swayed slightly - his linen armor was hit by four or five arrows in an instant, but it was enough. The triple armor gave him protection , these arrow clusters did not even touch his skin - one of the two military servants held up a high kite shield, and the other crouched under him and continued to load and string the crossbow machine. Fearless, he shot the guards on the battlements until they couldn't even lift their heads.

"Throw stones, cover the Duke, and destroy the enemy's defensive walls and towers." About three hundred feet behind, Jocelyn jumped on his horse and continued to wave the battle flag. Six trebuchets were set up, three on the left and three on the right, on both sides of the siege tower. The weak and unarmored pilgrims were gathered here, pulling the ropes on the trebuchets in groups, swinging their arms up and down with huge hoarse sounds, constantly throwing rolling stones, and shaking the defensive walls around David's Tower. Shouts, trumpets, arrows, and flying stones whistled throughout the holy city. Amid the smoke and interweaving fire arrows, Godfrey, Baldwin, and Robert of Flanders all bravely stood on the top floor of the siege tower dozens of feet high, step by step approaching the core tower where Sokman was.

With the exquisite cooperation of brothers Jocelyn and Garrylan, the siege troops suppressed the defenders on the battlements. Seizing this opportunity, the siege tower began to approach the battlements with a sharp creaking sound. The tower body began to collide and rub, and broken bricks and stones kept rolling down.

The choice of the place where the siege tower pressed against was also very clever: there was a section of the tower that had been bombed before. The guards held spears and bows and arrows and built a temporary barrier with wooden boards, straw bags and willow baskets. At this moment, many people looked at the top of the siege tower that was close at hand, howled and ignited the spear tips wrapped with linen strips, grabbed the pots with leaping flames, and prepared to throw them out immediately to burn all the enemies inside! (To be continued ~^~)