Eagle Byzantium

The Turkic army servant immediately twisted the arrow feathers with his fingers and pulled the bowstring to its full length. Then, with a sharp whistle, the red-painted light arrow shot out, "woo woo woo", like the tail of a red meteor, drawing a striking and unusually beautiful arc in the sky between the enemy and our chariot battle lines, and finally fell down.

About half a minute later, the soldiers of the Emperor's Left Wing Immortal Army, who had already run to the "convex" chariot battle line less than 200 feet away, suddenly saw several carriage boards on the opposite side, which were suddenly pushed up by the push rod, and several powerful copper clams and large iron hoops were pushed out one after another from inside. The "big mouth" was facing their formation, and it was filled with sharp arrows and swaying slightly.

At the same time, the chariot battle line in the center had its panels pushed open at intervals, and the black and slender muzzles of the perfume bottles were pushed out one after another, facing the dismounted cavalry team of Pronia in a brief silence.

"Don't worry about it, get close and shoot, and cover the Varangian soldiers behind you to rush over." Seeing this, Celilaruus waved his sword and shouted.

"Hit hard, warriors of God and the Lord, fire-throwers and grenadiers of the great patron, warriors of Oghuz!" At this moment, behind the boards of the chariots and towers, behind the earthen baskets, boards, and shields where dense arrows had shot into, the fire-throwers wearing umbrella-shaped feather helmets, the Oghuz volunteers wearing white felt hats with emerald feathers, and the border archers wearing semicircular iron helmets, all stood up with their shooting weapons in hand at the shouting, especially on the "convex" chariot. It was even more crowded, with many fire-throwers standing there, holding their iron guns in their hands or against their waists, and a group of people holding up long black guns with curved wooden supports under the iron tubes, and birch or iron forks under them. Their shoulders were hung with pre-assembled Khitan snow paper tubes, and they were all in a hurry. Holding the burning matchlocks at both ends, one section was clamped on the dog-head-shaped iron clamp at the tail of the long gun...

"What? They are still 150 feet away from us, so their muskets can't shoot us!" Celilarus was stunned, but he still couldn't believe it. The soldiers of the Emperor's Immortal Army beside him also began to panic. Some of them continued to carry muskets to the sound of trumpets, and some saw the enemy archers on the opposite chariots, and began to insert the tail of the hook halberd into the ground, set up their own muskets, and raised the medicine pots, ox horns, and wooden barrels to load them, and then pulled out the sticks on the hook halberds to start tamping, and prepared to continue to put fire arrows into the muzzles. For a while, the sound rose and fell.

On the chariots at Gao Wen's place, all the muskets of the fire-throwing soldiers had been pre-loaded.

It turned out that behind the upright carriage board of the covered wagon, a circle of small wooden sheds separated by pins had been built to imitate the fence of the city wall. Soldiers could hide under them and stand up with weapons from the intervals of the small wooden sheds after shooting, so as to avoid the harm of arrows.

In addition, the soldiers stationed by Gawain behind the wagon fort had already dug a rectangular pit four or five feet deep underground, and covered it with a flat shed tent. Soldiers crouched in it, and with the cover of the wagon fort and their own catapults, they could effectively avoid flying stones. In war, they jumped out of the pit and guarded behind each wagon, which was very cheap.

Therefore, even if the emperor climbed the Posta, it was difficult to see the difference between this low semi-underground shed and a normal tent with the naked eye. But in fact, such fortifications were used in the Roman siege position in the Battle of Alesia in the Caesar era.

"Cast!" On a wooden tower in the center of the wagon fort, Leotius, the commander of the fire throwers, cut down a small flag.

"At that time, all the soldiers on both sides felt that Mount Etna in Sicily had erupted." Later, Andeodate Nicetas recorded this in his historical manuscript.

Fire arrows, Persian perfume bottles, flying fire copper clams, double-sided rocket barrels, five-pole cannons, fire balls thrown by light artillery vehicles, and the mysterious long gun with a dog-head copper hook, almost immediately ejected balls of flames of varying sizes, and the sound was really like a volcanic eruption.

The ground between the chariots was shaking. Even Atretis, who was on the rear guard, felt the dirt under his boots shaking violently. His helmet was buzzing. "The whole land seemed to have suddenly moved three feet behind my feet. I stumbled and held on to my spear tightly to prevent myself from falling. My ears were going deaf and my throat was choking with nausea. Large groups of white "Khitan clouds" rose thickly on the two or three li long battle line at the same time. Countless brilliant and fierce "fire wheels", "fire lines" and "fire balls" rushed out of the smoke and flew out for nearly two hundred feet, crushing the enemy. All the grass and trees on the ground exploded in the dense attack front of the imperial soldiers... Then, the wind blew with a pungent and bloody smell, the smell of the devil. I can imagine what kind of blows and pain the comrades there suffered at that time on that day, death, injury, burning..."

The saltpeter cloud quickly twisted from its original shape into a whole like a giant python fire dragon, floating on the battlefield, rolling heavily, up and down, and the thunderous sound could be heard as far as Iconium or Afyon.

The lookout on the Posta, the Meles in the command tower, the emperor and many generals and lords in the imperial camp, could not see clearly what the scene ahead was.

And the "remount" in the imperial camp, that is, the spare war horses, and the horses under everyone's crotch, were all manic and terrified.

But Alexius's face was pale. He stared blankly at Gawain standing on the earthen tower opposite him in the smoke.

And Gawain was also there looking at him. Even if he couldn't see his face clearly, he could clearly see his large royal flag.

The smoke gradually dissipated. In front of the trench and wooden fence under the convex chariot, the Immortal Army commander Celilarus's armor was hit by several unknown things. Blood flowed out and flowed on his chest and abdomen, but he instinctively knew that it was not a fatal injury - the Roman general's excellent armor blocked most of the killing energy. Celilarus lowered his head and didn't see the arrow feathers or crossbow fins that were immersed in his body and armor. He fiddled with his gloves, and several twisted black lead bullets with wisps of hot smoke fell at his feet - what was shot out of the mysterious black iron long gun just now? Three or four bullets can be shot out with one shot. Is it a very small "perfume bottle"?

But the situation of the other immortal soldiers around him was obviously not as lucky as his. The ground was full of wounded soldiers, and the fire guns that had not been fired in time kept spraying sparks aimlessly on the ground. Several hook halberd brackets remained in place. Groans and coughs were heard from far and near. It seemed that a lot of people were injured.

"Don't retreat. Shoot bravely at it when you get close. Throw your fireballs." In the fireworks, Celilaluus raised his hand again and encouraged the immortal soldiers and outer palace guards who continued to bravely move forward. (To be continued ~^~)