Eagle Byzantium

At the same time, the follow-up armies of both sides were rapidly mobilizing. Kiposa's large group of troops began to disband the wagons again, arranged the baggage wagons into a column, and rushed towards the river where their cavalry was. And the rest of the troops of Hermes in the rear were also in a disciplined manner, covering the entire wilderness, and rushing towards the place where the battle took place.

Gawain was also riding on the back of the black mare Sabina. All the imperial guards: Saxon, Armenian, and Danish warriors, all raised long axes and iron spears to protect them on all sides, and walked side by side with the Saint Sister. Behind him was a long and orderly infantry column, the Fire Throwing Corps, the Border Army Infantry Centurion, and the Pauline Believers Army, a total of about 8,000 people, divided into four groups: two of them walked in the baggage wagons, and two were separated from them, rushing towards the target hill and river in the northwest.

In this battle, Gawain focused on baggage carts. To put it more bluntly, the previous attack on the North Fort of Melitene was a small-scale preview of cart tactics. Although Gawain did not like soldiers to throw all their equipment on vehicles, under his new military system, each regular brigade was equipped with 200 wheeled boat-shaped covered wagons, and the 400 wheelless skids and back carts that Agnes had previously directed the manufacture of were uniformly distributed to the border troops or the civilian army. At this time, Gawain ordered all the baggage wagons to be used by his soldiers. There were nearly 800 baggage wagons of various colors. The boat-shaped covered wagons were modified, with a push-pull and flip-up carriage reinforcement plate, and a row of four shooting holes were chiseled on it. The carriage on the back side could also be disassembled and placed for soldiers to board. In order to prepare animal power, Gawain used a large number of armed "collection teams" to bring a large number of livestock from the local area before and after the fall of Melitene, including cattle, plow horses, mules, donkeys and even stronger goats (which can pull light pry carts and back carts)...

In this way, after the baggage convoy moved forward for half a day, all the soldiers came to the hill on the sand table map. The river surrounded the west and south along its back, but the wilderness facing the north was a flat area with a very gentle slope. Strictly speaking, it was not suitable to deal with the enemy's offensive.

Gao Wen first ordered the border troops to drive all the vehicles up to form a half-mile barrier along the entire hill.

This process was not too smooth. Although the border troops had qualified officers to whip (really with whips), they were not well-educated and it was difficult for them to skillfully arrange so many carts at once. In particular, the inconsistent regulations of the vehicles made this task more difficult.

According to Gao Wen's ideas and instructions, the boat-style covered wagons, back wagons, and pry wagons should be staggered, but it was far from that when it was busy. Often, covered wagons were close to each other, and back wagons and pry wagons were connected together, with uneven heights. Some border residents pushed the enemy's carriage board backwards - as a result, when it was opened, the boarding wagon board was directly turned outside, with a posture of "opening the door to welcome thieves".

This made Gao Wen stand on the hillside holding the scepter, and he was dissatisfied but difficult to get angry at the sweaty border residents.

General Orson next to him hurriedly asked the patron how to remedy the situation. Gawain also wiped the sweat from his forehead, "It's meaningless to tear it down and rearrange it. Now mobilize everyone to dig the soil, fill the baskets, and pile them on the frames and carriages of the back carts and pry carts."

Leotius, the commander of the fire-throwing corps, was smart. He stood directly on the red hand flag car behind the half-moon chariot barrier, waving the flag and horse whip to quickly command: 400 fire-throwing soldiers dug tunnels on the reverse slope of the hill to put the Khitan snow box barrels in to prevent the enemy from setting fire and destroying; all the other fire-throwing soldiers and all the frontier army infantry took out tools such as T-shaped shovels, pickaxes, baskets, etc., and began to dig a long trench around the outer perimeter of the chariot barrier that was one and a half miles long.

Dust was flying, figures were gathering, and the sound of tinkling echoed throughout the hill. Cabeamia also ordered all 1,800 Paulist believers to be divided into two groups (this was the limit of what the female consul could mobilize now). Half of them were responsible for carrying baskets filled with soil and piling them in front of the carts and pry carts to make the vehicles have a "low wall" and solidify them. The other half of them hammered 300 pointed wooden stakes along both sides of the half-moon-shaped cart fortress, two rows in front and back, and each wooden stake was about two and a half feet apart, thus forming a flank position of about 400 Anna feet long. Many earthen baskets were stuffed between the wooden stakes to form a seven-section "earth basket wall". A "gun position" was reserved every fifty feet to place a flying fire copper clam or rocket barrel. As for the dozens of "Roma light artillery vehicles", they were concentrated at the back and temporarily idle, because they were afraid that the parabolic fire balls would fall into their own team and cause accidental injuries in the melee.

At dusk, the Oghuz cavalry and border cavalry in front retreated several miles because they were "no match" for the Kibosha cavalry, and gathered on both wings of the temporary "Wheel Fortress Mountain", facing the vanguard of Pap Bodani from a distance.

Pap then sent a report to the remaining jihadist armies, "We have driven back the enemy's vanguard and successfully occupied the river flow."

Cassim, Harun and others happily drove the remaining "limbs" of about 60,000 pilgrims to the battlefield, facing Gawain's Wheel Fortress Mountain diagonally. The two armies were separated by a wilderness of about two miles, and confronted each other within a distance that was visible.

"There seems to be another river behind the hill occupied by the enemy's wheel fortress." Cassim asked.

"Yes, so they are fearless." Pap replied.

"How many troops are there on the other side?"

"There should be more than 5,000, most of them are infantry."

At this time, Kasim gestured to ask if he could send troops to bypass the hill to threaten Melitene and the rear of the hill.

On the Chelei Mountain, Gawain waved his hand and ordered, "The guard team boarded the baggage cart, and the rest of the troops set up camp to rest!" His guards began to hang lanterns on the erected flagpoles. In an instant, the entire Chelei Mountain was brightly lit, illuminating the long night shadows of the camp, making the hill seem to have increased a lot, giving the jihadists a strong sense of oppression.

"You can bypass this hill from both sides, but that should be tomorrow. It is very dangerous to bypass it at night. We may be intercepted or ambushed by the enemy." Another jihad leader Harun reminded.

Finally, the whole wilderness calmed down, and both sides began to set up camp. The holy warriors also lit a pile of campfires along the river they occupied. From the hill, it looked like a brilliant Milky Way between the plateaus. Cabe Amiya was boarding a caravan with a box board erected, and she and Gawain looked at it along the shooting holes of the box board.

"This is the momentum of 70,000 people." There was a little awe in the words of the saint sister.

A correct version in 16-9 book forum!

"This is also the reason why I came to take charge in person." Gawain sighed, "I also have to learn from the experience of such a battle formation." The fire throwers and Pauline believers behind the two of them were also gathered behind the vehicles, camps and flank earth basket walls, silently checking various weapons, preparing for the fierce battle that might break out tomorrow. (To be continued ~^~)