"Keep shooting, pursue three nautical miles forward and return home!"

The Royal Navy Victory issued a flag, and the galleons in front of them shot while approaching each other, because the distance was closer, and the hit rate gradually increased, although this would not have hit the target with a crossbow arrow, but the deviation had begun to get smaller and smaller, and the closest ballista flew directly over the deck of the opponent, and the huge force took away a stupid man who was not long-eyed, if it were not for the low hull of the galleys, this might have been hit.

The idiot who had been hit fell into the sea with a swoop, and the screams could no longer be heard from near to far, and the pirates on the deck were suddenly frightened.

"Bastard! Hurry up! Lie here and wait to die? Hurry up and paddle for me, hoist the sails, and retreat."

A few of the beaten pirates came to their senses, got up and followed the captain's orders and began to go their own way, and the other pagan pirate ships next to the ship also began to change direction and began to flee as if they were deadly.

Seeing that their prey dared to escape, the Norman clippers raised their sails and quickly pursued them, and disappeared into the vast sky in a moment.

"Leave those stinky fish and shrimp alone, and continue sailing towards Cyprus."

Randy returned to the bridge and ordered, "Calculate the time, we should be in Cyprus in a few days, I hope nothing happens, be alert at night." ”

Apraksin understood and knew that Randy was worried that the other party would not be able to lure the enemy during the day, so he was likely to risk a night boat and launch a surprise attack on us at night.

"Yes! Lord, from today onwards, night voyages must be extra careful, the sentry posts will be doubled, and the soldiers will be armed with weapons day and night! ”

Miles away......

The Norman clipper was full of joy, and after wasting more than two dozen precious heavenly flame crossbows, the crossbow of the clipper finally hit the target, and with the screams, flying sawdust and smoke, the cries and screams of the infidels, the sound of prayers to Allah, the galleys with a large hole in the hull slowly sank into the sea, and Archimedes' law was on the side of the Normans at this moment.

"God! They, their weapons are so powerful that we can't resist them. ”

Several galleys next to them were even more frightened when they saw this, and while howling miserably, they tried their best to flee in the opposite direction of the Norman battleship, even slaves did not want to drown in the sea like this, and a boatload of people would be desperate without exception.

"Keep the pursuit!"

The sailors who hit the target cheered and hoped to continue the pursuit, but their captain had already given the order to return, and the three nautical miles of the Apraksin pursuit order had already been reached.

"Don't forget that our purpose is to save the Holy Land, not for these filthy sea worms to play games."

The captain shouted and slammed on the railing of the ship's side, and to the murmurs of the sailors, several clippers dropped their prey and turned their bows to chase the main fleet, which they would not get lost.

Seeing that the galleons turned their bows and left, the pagan pirates on the galleys cheered, some holding the damp Qur'an and praying aloud, while others held their scimitars aloft and waved them and shouted, only their captains were a little embarrassed, because their boss had given them the order to lead the opposing fleet, or at least the main force of the fleet, into the trap that had been laid out long ago, and rush up to kill them when they panicked.

However, the difficulty of this task was too high, and the other party only came to pursue a few boats, and after a while, they returned home.

"How do you explain to the boss?" Thinking of his boss's horrific punishment, the captain broke out in a cold sweat on his head, and hesitated in his heart.

From morning to noon......

From noon to late afternoon......

Randy looked around with a telescope and never saw a pirate ship that didn't have long eyes.

"Your Majesty, if our route is correct, we will be able to reach Cyprus in two more days. Moreover, Marshal Carter had sent a message that his fleet, along with the French and Germans, would arrive within five days, and that the island would be able to gather all the armies of Christendom. Nemulis, the chief spy officer, reported.

Randy nodded, took the telescope back, turned around and asked, "What about Basil II of the Eastern Roman Empire?" ”

"Because of the alliance between the two countries, we also provided some help to the Greek army on the island of Cyprus, but the other side did not seem to appreciate it, and many Greek nobles blamed us for this, believing that our country had invaded the territory of other countries."

"What a cocky guy!"

Randy snorted coldly, as he thought, it would not be difficult for the Norman Empire to attack, occupy, and even govern the entire island of Cyprus. What is really difficult is the jurisprudence of the matter.

In order to be able to serve as the leader of this crusade, the Norman Empire must have the upper hand on the moral level, and the occupation of the island of Cyprus, although Randy used this as a base for the crusaders to advance, as an excuse, and did use the island of Cyprus as an advance base to facilitate the crusaders of other countries and even the Greek army, but it did not seem to work as well as Randy imagined.

"If it weren't for the fact that we were outnumbered and so well prepared, they would most likely have forcibly attacked Cyprus and taken it away."

——————————

The king of the Barbary pirates, not the central sultan, is now Chinese New Year's Eve five years old, but has lived a life of nearly twenty-five years of bloody knives, and can pull up tens of thousands of troops and thousands of warships at the same time, the king of pirates across the entire Mediterranean, and at the same time the marshal of the Ottoman Empire, the man named Hayreddin by Suleiman, has sharp eyes, and is a warrior with a thin face like a knife blown by the sea breeze, he is now in a very bad mood.

The original tried and tested tactics of lure, ambush, and surprise attack have lost their effectiveness, which is indeed one of the reasons why Hyreddin is angry, but it is not the main reason, and there is some psychological preparation for these failures, because the purpose of the other party is not to fight them or clear the pirates, but to transport troops to the Holy Land, so it is understandable to ignore their pirate ships, but what makes Hayreddin difficult to accept is the overexaggeration of the enemy's armed forces by the pirate captain.

"The strength of the other party is too strong, there are only three warships chasing us, but their attack is like raindrops, those large steel javelins that are blazing, they shoot them with ballistas, the scene is even more terrifying than the most terrible storm, we fled quickly, so we escaped, but the other ship was hit by them, sank without suspense, that scene is really terrible."

I hate that kind of frightened voice, obscene appearance, and exaggerated descriptions!

So Hyreddin didn't hesitate to draw his scimitar, as fast and accurate as lightning, the huge force and the sharp blade swung down, cutting off the pirate captain's head directly, and the corpse stood upright for a few seconds before slowly falling, blood spilled on the faces of several pirates around.

"Allah hates cowards! Guys, don't believe the lies that guy tells, it's just the words of a coward who wants to evade responsibility, it's not enough to believe nonsense, it's worthless, we've fought with pirates and plundered Norman merchant ships before, but what happened? I must admit that the Normans were different from the other Franks, they were more brave and good at fighting, and they rarely surrendered, and their ships were better than the average Franks, but in the end it was us who won the victory, and the hard work and the compensation we received were the same, and we plundered the Normans several times as much wealth as the other merchants. ”

Hearing Hayreddin's words, the eyes of several other pirate leaders became eager.

Indeed, Norman merchants and Norman pirates, they did deal with these people, although they were very powerful, but as long as they gathered enough men, they could crush each other, they were not invincible.

"Boss Hayreddin, what you say makes sense, but as far as I know, this group of Norman troops is not transporting supplies, but heavily armed Crusader bandits, and even if we can defeat them, we will probably not be rewarded with our losses, right?" A pirate leader asked.

"Good question!"

This will gather around Hayreddin, all of them are big pirate leaders with more than a dozen ships in their hands and hundreds of junior brothers, and they naturally can't deal with them like the little captain before, Hyreddin lowered his voice and pretended to approach him mysteriously, and whispered: "Do you think that if we kidnap the emperor of the Loman Empire, how much benefit will we gain?" ”

Hearing such a bold proclamation by Hayreddin, a bunch of pirate leaders were frightened by his arrogance, and most of them were dumbfounded, these people knew how powerful the Norman Empire was, or knew better than those princes and kings on land, because those kings only needed to close their territories and live on the output of their estates, although they could get some second-hand information from the hands of past merchants or unreliable spies, but these situations were often exaggerated, false, and unconvincing.

So they have a vague idea of what the Norman Empire itself was, most likely the strongest nation on the European continent, perhaps the same as the Greeks, but they don't have an accurate, detailed, and reliable understanding.

Although these pirate leaders were much inferior in status to those kings, even the recognized leader of the industry, Hayreddin, who had the title of Sultan, was regarded as a vassal and a bandit lord for the vast majority of the time, rather than a monarch of an empire.

However, these pirates had a more intuitive understanding of the Norman Empire, which came from the Norman traders, pirates, and Barbary pirates recognized as invincible, the Norman offshore fleet, with the battle with the Normans at sea, fighting, defeat, decline, large numbers of small pirate groups were wiped out, countless Barbary men were killed, stabbed into skewers, and hung on newly made crosses.

In front of the Norman navy with absolute superiority in equipment and tactics, the always arrogant Barbary pirates were beaten and cried out for their mother, and their power was greatly weakened, with the victory of the Norman Empire again and again, in the hearts of the Barbary pirates, the Norman Empire gradually replaced the Romans, replaced the Italians, and became their number one enemy.

"That's the Emperor of the Norman Empire! Boss Hayreddin! ”

An emotional pirate leader's eyes widened: "That's the emperor with the strongest navy, the Norman Empire, and we are not his opponents." ”

"Don't overestimate the enemy too much, underestimate yourself, do you think I'm unprepared to make such a decision with just a lot of blood? Before this, I had already done a good job of intelligence work, and the other side only had 200 ships and 20,000 or 30,000 horses, while we had gathered nearly 500 ships and more than 30,000 heroes, and we may not have the strength to fight. ”

Another pirate leader asked, "Even if you say so, Boss Heledin, and our brothers fight hard to defeat them in a great battle, then where is our interest?" Norman emperors? Such a big meat ticket, it's very hot! ”

"Indeed! This single transaction, if only we Barbary people do it, is indeed very risky, but in fact, we do not need to bargain with the Norman Empire, I have already negotiated a good deal with the Egyptian Sultan Saladin, as long as we sell the Loman Emperor to Saladin, so that the Norman Empire can not blame us, Saladin can easily defeat the crusaders to defend the Holy Land, we have not only contributed to Allah, but also made merits for the holy war, and the soul can definitely enter heaven after death. ”

Hearing what Hayreddin said, all the pirate leaders exclaimed, I don't know when Hyreddin, who has always eaten Turkish barbecue, will be on Saladin's thigh again, many pirate leaders think carefully, and find that what Hyreddin said is true, although this matter sounds very dangerous, but it is not impossible to complete, it is hard to imagine what kind of life the pirates lived? Isn't it just licking blood from the knife every day, wading through the water and fire? Boss Hai will point out a way for everyone to become famous and rich, and everyone naturally yearns for it.

"Boss Hayreddin, how much is the Sultan of Saladin willing to spend to buy his brothers to die?" The pirate leaders discussed for a while, and one of the representatives asked what was most important to them.

"It's up to you, brother, to answer this question!"

Seeing that he had already spoken to the pirate leaders, Khareddin turned to the man beside him who had not spoken, and then loudly announced to the pirate leaders: "This is the messenger of the Sultan of Saladin, General Chaohair-Suikili!" ”

Just now, these pirate leaders thought it was very strange, how could there be a person beside Hyreddin, this will be introduced by him, this person is actually Saladin's messenger, but after a closer look, he feels that something is wrong, this person does not look like an Arab, looking at his complexion, light brown long hair and slightly blue eyes, more like a Frank.

"Warriors who fight for Allah! I am here to bring the promise of the great Saladin, there is no more trustworthy promise in the world than my master Saladin, his promise is absolutely valid, listen, the Sultan is willing to pay you one hundred thousand dinars for this operation, and if you can succeed in killing the infidel devil, the Norman Emperor, the Sultan is willing to pay five hundred thousand dinars, and if you can bring him back to Egypt alive, the Sultan will generously open all five of his vaults in Damascus, Half of the gold stored in these vaults was given to the warriors as a reward. ”

The messenger shouted and pulled out from his bosom a contract with Saladin's coat of arms, fingerprints, and signatures, no more than the one Randy had deceived Pugachev, it was true.

Hearing this man's announcement, all the pirates were dumbfounded, and then they all went crazy.

After hearing such a generous promise from Saladin, the last trace of fear of the Norman Emperor disappeared, and the pirates screamed frantically, frantically brandished their scimitars, various oaths, insults to the Norman Emperor and prayers to Allah, and they were completely determined to capture Randison alive and send him to Saladin in exchange for money that could not be spent for several lifetimes.

This book was first published from 17K, the first time to see the genuine content!