In the distance, the sky was already tingling with a faint layer of gold, and the sunset reflected on the Danube with a golden halo, and a slightly cool wind blew from the river, making the evening wilderness full of coolness.

Standing on a rock, Alexander carefully observed the Ottoman position opposite.

The right flank of Montina's army held out for more than an hour after being attacked fiercely, which was already a very good record for Montina's army, or it was this difficult resistance for more than an hour that gave Alexander the opportunity to plug the central gap.

The Ottomans' attack on the right flank was extremely ferocious and extremely decisive, and even when a huge opportunity appeared on the central front, Sisugu did not waver in his determination to attack.

As a result, the right flank of Montina, mainly Genoese, had to choose to retreat in the face of most of the enemy, the Genoese sword and shield formations were attacked by the Ottomans again and again, and the support of the musketeers did not relieve much pressure on the Genoese under the suppression of groups of Anatolian light cavalry, and a Balkan brigade sent to the rear of the Genoese front as a reserve was almost all killed not long after it had to be sent into battle.

The fierceness of the battle almost frightened the Genoese, they never thought that the infidels would be so cruel and terrible, which made the Genoese formation shake for a while, and some were even ready to turn and flee.

At this time, the bravery of the Balkans played a key role, and the whole brigade of Balkans fearlessly rushed forward against the black and crushing enemy on the opposite side, shouting and roaring frantically, not caring at all about the mortal danger that was about to be faced.

Just when the Ottomans thought they would need only one more charge to defeat the seemingly crumbling Europeans in front of them, the Balkan counter-charge suddenly disrupted their steps.

The Genoese seized this rare opportunity to regain their position, and when the Ottomans finally stepped on the corpses of the Balkans in front of them and attacked the Genoese positions, the Genoese had retreated in an orderly manner to the rear under the command of the officers.

"Pannoni, remember those who died in battle," said Alexander, who had stood aside, after hearing the report on the right-wing front, "and remember that it was these fellow citizens of yours who saved your head, and you killed them." ”

No one could describe the look on Pannoni's face at the time, which was so distorted that everyone who saw it was faintly frightened.

The Genoese retreat allowed the Montina army to avoid the danger of being surrounded by a roundabout right flank, but they completely allowed the Ottoman army to advance along the northern plain, and finally when the Genoese finally stopped forming a new front, the Ottomans had formed a flanking attack on the Montina army from the northwest and northwest.

"We've got to get out of this place, or it's going to be too bad." Alexander looked back, and although he could not see the river behind him through a hill, he could feel from the wind blowing in the river that there was not much area behind them for them to maneuver.

"My lord, it's less than three leagues from here to the river." Busaka whispered a reminder, his eyes glinting with hesitation, as he began to consider whether it was necessary to knock Alexander unconscious and take him away.

Alexander didn't pay attention to Busako's appearance, but he knew that it meant that his army was actually half-surrounded in an area less than 5 miles wide and narrow, and that it was in such a palm-sized area that about 17,000 men had been invested on both sides!

"It's been a tough battle," said Alexander, who still did not consider himself to be in danger, for he found that the enemy's left flank, which should have continued further eastward, and thus completely pressed him against the banks of the Danube, and after passing the positions previously defended by Montina's left flank, he quickly halted his advance.

In this way, a huge gap was opened in the eastern part of the battle line between the enemy, which was semi-surrounded from the north-west, and the Danube River in the south.

"My lord, our troops should be withdrawn from the right side of the battle line as soon as possible, otherwise they may be pushed into the river." An officer said with some anxiety that they did not know why Alexander was reluctant to give the order to retreat, and that before they crossed the Danube to attack the Ottomans, Alexander had told them that the purpose of this battle was not to achieve victory, but now Alexander seemed a little stubborn and refused to retreat, which made the officers feel both helpless and worried, "At least we should shrink the front to the east, and now our army is like this, it is easy for the enemy to flank from both sides." ”

Alexander nodded silently, he knew that what the officer said was right, because the enemy detoured and formed a large angle from west to north, so that his troops formed an obvious salient in the northwest direction, which was actually very dangerous for the Montina army, as long as the Ottomans attacked from the northwest and two directions at the same time, then the troops of this salient would be completely surrounded.

Just looking at the enemy position, which was already gradually shrouded in the falling twilight, Alexander never gave the order to prepare to retreat.

"Wait a minute," Alexander said softly in a barely audible voice, "the Ottomans have stopped, don't you think it's a little strange?" ”

The officers looked at Alexander with some bewilderment, while others looked at the Ottoman position opposite, puzzled.

The Ottoman army did halt its advance in depth on Montina's flank, and they stopped about a third of the fats from the Genoese on the right flank, and the leading group of Muserim infantry began to poke their halberds into the ground to establish an improvised defensive line, while the Anatolian light cavalry galloped over the positions on both sides and on the plains beyond, as if looking for possible opportunities.

"The Ottomans are tired," one of the officers suddenly shouted excitedly, "they must be tired enough after so long to attack, and look at our soldiers who are already so tired from guarding behind the fortifications." ”

The officer's judgment aroused a wave of excitement among the Montina officers, who first whispered and then turned their eyes to Alexander, who seemed to be silent all along.

"Your Excellency......" Busako reminded softly, "do we need to be ready to retreat?" ”

"Perhaps we have a better chance in the evening," pondered one Genoese officer, "the Ottomans are indeed tired, and the Muserim infantry are no longer ready to attack even when they are very close to us, and if it gets darker we may have a chance to withdraw from the battle, or at least establish a more advantageous front." ”

"That's true, but maybe it would be better if the Ottomans could stretch their front longer." Alexander finally spoke, his gaze looking in the direction of the depth of the enemy's battle line, where it had fallen into the hazy twilight, and only some faint shadows were still running and shaking, "There is only one chance for one night, if it comes tomorrow morning, maybe we really have no way to retreat." ”

Speaking of this, Alexander's lips moved slightly, and he whispered in a tone that only he could hear, "Gompati, what are you doing?" ”

Gompati stood anxiously walking around outside the tent, he didn't know what was going on with Alexander, but he wasn't in a good situation right now.

Not far from him, two knights in armor with large armor-piercing swords at their waists were staring at him, and it was clear from the vicious eyes in their eyes staring at him under the brim of their helmets that they had no good opinion of him.

Gompati already knew from their coat of arms that the two men were subordinates of Ladislas II.

Ladislas II expressed his strong displeasure and anger at the fact that Tempest's men had gone out of the city to pick up the foreigners, and he immediately sent his attendant knights to question Tempes, but before the messenger could bring back the news, he sent a second messenger, who was ordered to summon Sophia and Tempes back to the castle.

Ladislas II regretted it now, he didn't expect the girl to be so disobedient.

Now Tzepes was urging her, as a Greek princess, to call on the whole city to join him against the Ottomans, or rather, to Ladislas II himself, and ironically it was he himself who did everything he could to give the girl the title of "Greek Princess".

Ladislas II clearly could not accept such an embarrassing result, and to make matters worse, Cepes's attitude made it difficult for him to make a decision to prepare for negotiations with the Ottomans.

Some of the nobles who had already decided to support him were hesitant because of the obstruction and destruction of Chipes and his supporters, especially the fierce mood of the Bucharestans, who seemed to have had a great impact, and the Greek nobles, who had already regarded Sophia as their savior, took the opportunity to incite the common people to fight to the death against the Ottomans.

There are even people who have openly shouted the terrible slogan: "Execute those who surrender".

This could no longer be tolerated by Ladislas II, who was ready to take extreme measures to resolve the farce if necessary, and although Chipes had an army not to be underestimated, the king believed that if the nobles, whom he regarded as rebels, were unprepared, he could quickly suppress the dissidents.

But Ladislas II never imagined that at this time, the army of the Count of Montina arrived outside the city of Bucharest.

Now he had to deal with not only the disobedient nobles, but also a count from Rome, which made Ladislas II feel a little overwhelmed.

He immediately sent two messengers in succession, hoping that the count's men would convince him before they met Chipes.

Now the king's two messengers were glued to Gompati, as if at any moment they were on the lookout that he might rush into the tent.

Gompati sensed the intense hostility between the two men, and at the same time, he felt that every moment of waiting was so long because he was worried about Alexander's situation.

When Ladislas II was worried about the current situation, Cepes was not so relaxed, and it was even worse to say.

The emotions of the ordinary people of Bucharest have indeed been stirred up, or rather excessively, and now many of them have not only taken up arms spontaneously, but some have even formed urban self-defense forces.

These self-defense forces declared their allegiance to "Princess Sophia Alessandra Vallaiolo", and the backbone of these self-defense forces was the remnants of the Greek aristocracy.

Tzepes began to be overjoyed by the actions of these people, but it didn't take long for him to have some headaches.

Although those people were willing to join him in opposing Ladislas II's negotiations with the Ottomans, they obviously did not want to obey his command, and for a time both the main peace faction led by the king and the main war faction led by Cepes were in constant internal and external troubles.

To the surprise of Cepes even more, Sophia seemed to have an unusual interest in the Count of Montina, as evidenced by her eagerness to meet the officer under Montina.

This gave Chipes a looming crisis.

For Tsépes, Sofia had become the key to his struggle for the right to speak in Bucharest, but at this time, Sofia suddenly showed interest in the Count of Montina, which made Tsépes a little uneasy.

Chipes tried to prevent Sophia from meeting with the officer named Gompati, but to his surprise, Sophia, who had always listened to him, suddenly became irritable.

Tsepes even regretted that he had brought Gompati into the city, but when the king's two envoys arrived, he immediately realized that in addition to the Ottoman army outside the city, they had equally enemies to deal with.

"You can meet that man," Chippes said at last to Sophia, who was losing her temper, "but I'll be on the sidelines, you know the Romans are cunning, and I'm afraid they might lie to you." ”

Sophia tilted her head and looked at Cepes for a moment of silence, then her neck moved slightly to straighten her head, and then nodded.

Because Sophia walked up the walls every day, Tzepes simply had a tent set up under the walls.

In fact, he did this more out of fear that he might be plotted once he returned to the castle, and by this time the relationship between him and Ladislas II was already extremely strained, and neither of them suspected that conflict could break out at any time.

As Gompati entered the tent, he could clearly feel the angry gaze of the two king's messengers, but he soon forgot about their eyes, for he saw a girl who surprised him.

An unusually ornate suit of armor covered the girl's body, and the jewels and enamel ornaments on the armor looked extremely rich, and the beautiful and precious snow-white velvet helmet set on the helmet at her hand swayed gently with the wind blowing in.

And when the girl stepped forward after seeing him, listening to the sound of her armor grinding, Gompati was stunned to realize that this armor, which could be said to be a work of art, was not just for viewing, but for real things.

It's just that somehow, Gompati suddenly felt that this armor seemed to look familiar.

Then it quickly occurred to him that the style of this armor was the same one worn by Josha on the gold coins issued by Alexander.

All of a sudden, Gompati's eyes became strange.