The old city of Zagora has become a place of vegetarianism, and the families of the deceased have placed two chrysanthemums in front of their homes, and the streets and alleys are full of flowers at a glance.

Ivanko did not react after returning to the city that day, but after a long time, he immediately found that the morale of the army was low, and when the Bulgarian knights were arranging flowers in the camp to mourn the dead soldiers, he immediately understood that something was wrong.

Since ancient times, the most taboo thing after the Great War was to stay with the families of the deceased, and he collected his troops and went directly into the city without restricting the soldiers to return to the camp, which led to the news of the defeat spreading.

And what the soldiers were most afraid of was to meet the family members of the robe, cry one by one, and only half a day the whole city knew that he and Kaloyan led the troops to raid the Roman army, and as a result, most of the soldiers, including the commander-in-chief Kaloyan, died on the battlefield, and now even if he ordered the troops to return to the camp and not to contact the citizens in the city, it was too late.

Ivanko stood at the head of the city and regretted his mistakes, he was not a qualified general, and he could not harden his heart to face the accusations from his father in his hometown in Bulgaria.

A real general must act in the overall situation first, even if it is at the expense of his subordinates in exchange for victory, this is what a great hero does and does not do.

"Pass my order: From today, all soldiers in the city of Staraya Zagora will return to the camp and not go out without an order! A curfew was imposed at night, and everyone who wandered around without my warrant was imprisoned! ”

Ivanko is a general in the end, even if he was only a strong party and lacked a lot of experience in the army before the incident, he also clearly understood what to do to curb this trend and not let people's hearts continue to be chaotic.

The morale of the Bulgarians was weakened by the defeat in this raid, and the generals did not effectively stop it, and the morale of the army and the people fell to a low point at the same time.

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As the fog receded in the early morning, Theodosius' Third Army marched from the east, and the Bulgarians did not attack again after being defeated the previous night, and the Third Army rested for a day.

The eagle flag was flying in order, the Third Army did not attack rashly when it came to Staraya Zagora, Theodosius lacked siege weapons, and did not understand the strength of the Bulgarians, so he took the form of a stubborn battle to overwhelm the people, as long as he forced the Bulgarians to retreat into the city.

"This is the homeland of the Bulgarians, they can't abandon their homeland, and the citizens of the city don't want to move, they are no longer a nomadic horseback people in the steppe.

Since the Bulgarians settled in the city, they began to be constrained by the luxurious life, but we have no baggage, this is not Greece, we just need to kill the Bulgarians to shed blood! ”

The emperor's general, looking at Staraya Zagora from afar, was well aware of his strength, he did not intend to storm the city at all, as long as he dragged the main forces of the Bulgarians and let them stay here he would be victorious.

The Emperor's army will enter the unsuspecting plain of Sophia and easily hold the hearts of the Bulgarians, and a new Bulgarian conqueror, the great Emperor Alexios, Theodosius thinks that he will be ready to lure the enemy and continue to hold the Bulgarians until victory comes.

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On the seventh day of the arrival of the Third Legion, the city was already boiling, and the citizens and soldiers were asking to go out of the city to fight the Romans, and their fathers and brothers had died at the hands of this legion, and the fire of revenge was burning.

Ivanco looked at the Roman camp outside the city, the Romans there were a little too calm, he didn't have the information about Theodosius, he didn't know much about the Roman general who led the army, he could only get some trivial information from the people in Constantinople, such as that this general used to be the Roman emperor's bodyguard, and then he was here.

Ivanko's hand slammed on the battlements, he was a little annoyed in his heart, the leader of this Bulgarian uprising was not himself, but the two brothers of the Asen family, but they both went south to fight Thessaloniki, and they didn't come back for so long, and now I don't know if they know the news of the Roman army's advance!

Suddenly, there was a commotion from the camp of the Romans, and the voices of "Long live" and "Emperor" mixed with the sounds of Ivanko's ears penetrated into Ivanko's ears, and he himself did not realize that his lips had been bitten out of blood, and his hands were clutching the city walls "creaking".

"General, the Romans seem to have received reinforcements!" The soldier next to him trembled with irrepressible nervousness and said, "Have the Romans become stronger again?"

After a while, a group of cavalry with a white flag came towards Staraya Zagora, followed by a carriage with a Bulgarian rose flag, and Ivanko's heart tightened, and an ominous premonition came over him.

In the main city council hall, Ivanko sat there expressionlessly, and the person who walked in made his pupils shrink, although he had a bad premonition in his heart, but when he really saw them, Ivanko was still sour in his heart.

"Ivanko, are you okay? Did the old man hear that Kaloyan was killed in battle? And the kid died for Bulgaria like that? The man who came was Archbishop Fyodor, who walked in with the help of two attendants.

Ivanko opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but when he saw the old man come in, he just cried, what else could he say, to persuade him to surrender? Has Sophia fallen? He lowered his head and didn't want to look at the archbishop again.

"The Roman emperor surrounded Serdica, you know that the city is full of old and weak women and children, all adult men have been taken away by you, cough cough cough, there is no choice but to surrender to the emperor!

His Majesty Alexios is still trustworthy, he didn't let people destroy Serdica, but every family has to send hostages, your son is now in the emperor's camp, what else, Bulgaria still failed......"

Archbishop Fyodor looked bitter, the wrinkles were all huddled together, his gray head trembled, and he wanted to raise his hand to say something, but in the end he just sighed helplessly, the old man has lived for such a long time and has seen a lot of joys and sorrows in the world, if it weren't for the second kingdom dream of the Bulgarians, he probably would have gone to seclusion somewhere.

Ivanko looked up, his eyes were red and bloodshot, and his face was tinged with an abnormal flush, and he stood up sharply, drew his sword, and slashed at himself.

"Impossible, even if my son dies I will not be able to surrender to the Romans, the Bulgarians will never give in! Get out of here! Get lost! Get lost! ”

The archbishop sighed silently: "What are you doing, we have failed!" ”

"No, as long as I continue to hold on, Theodor will definitely come to reinforce when he learns of the situation here!"

Archbishop Fyodor looked at his crazy expression, and he didn't plan to persuade him anymore, how many Bulgarians have a lifelong desire to restore the Bulgarian kingdom, when Emperor Basil stabbed more than 10,000 captives in the eyes and planted hatred, but what use can this hatred do except bring bloodshed?