The Saracens first came into the eyes of Europeans more than 300 years ago, and they were like countrymen who had entered the city for the first time, craving prosperity and opulence in front of the windows of rich homes.

In the days of the Eastern Romans and the Persians, the nomads on the other side of the desert were nothing more than merchants who rode camels and sold myrrh and spices in the eyes of the powerful empires, always humble and docile, but they could fight each other for the benefit of their tribes, sometimes just a well in the desert, and live in self-pity on the arid and barren peninsula.

The image of peace and goodwill of the Saracens was shattered in the year 635 of Christ, although before that, from the intermittent news brought back by the merchants, the Eastern Romans already knew that in Mecca, the commercial capital of the Red Sea, there was a merchant named Muhammad who created a monotheistic religion very similar to Christianity, and proclaimed himself the only messenger and prophet of the true God on earth, using demagogic teachings to attract a group of followers, and then clashing with the ruling nobles of Medina, and finally through ten years of bitter civil war, Unify the tribal peninsula and establish a kingdom of ****.

But the sad thing is that the Eastern Romans, who only use it as a talking point to show their knowledge after tea and dinner, and no one in the empire, from the emperor to the commoners, thought that these desert warriors who are slowly gathering under the banner of Allah will burst out with amazing combat power, completely breaking the ** they have carefully weaved.

In the year 631 of Christ, the Persian king Kobad II negotiated peace with the Byzantine emperor, returned the Byzantine territory that had been invaded by the previous dynasties, released the prisoners of war, returned the Holy Cross from the holy city of Jerusalem, returned all the property looted from Byzantium, and repaid the military expenses consumed by several years of imperial wars.

The Byzantines were complacent and intoxicated with the empire of Constantinople, and Emperor Heraclius was held up by the people to the same exalted position as Constantine the Great, and no one cared about the Saracens who showed their hideous murderous intentions under their armpits.

The dream of the Eastern Romans to rebuild the Mediterranean Empire will finally be shattered, everything is predestined, although they still have more than 500 years to survive the stormy national glory, but the nomadic cavalry from the depths of the desert gathered under the banner of jihad,

Towards the beginning of their great conquest of the world, the Eastern Roman Empire bore the brunt.

Led by the famous general Khaled, who was bestowed by Muhammad with the nickname of the Sword of Allah, the Saracen cavalry forced a march through the Syrian desert, known as the Sea of the Devil, where almost no creature could come out alive, and suddenly appeared on the Yarmouk River, a tributary of the Jordan River, and surrounded the vanguard army of nearly 50,000 men commanded by Prince Theodora, the younger brother of Emperor Heraclius.

The day before the battle, Prince Theodora complacently wrote to his emperor's brother to inform the Eastern Roman army of the recovery of all the Levant from Damascus to Acre, but he did not expect that the Saracens, who had always been known for their forbearance, had already prepared a cemetery for him.

In the face of the Arab cavalry that seemed to fall from the sky, the proud Eastern Roman soldiers did not give up their resistance, even if they had been tormented by the long journey and the lack of adaptation, but the sense of honor in the bones of the Romans still inspired them to fight bravely against the pagan enemy they had never fought before.

Allah's power seemed to be stronger than God in the desert, and the hot climate of the Middle East evaporated the remaining moisture from the soldiers, and fighting under conditions that these soldiers recruited from Greece and Asia Minor had never seen before, and as a result, the Romans were almost completely wiped out, and the king Theodora died heroically.

Emperor Heraclius, who had led reinforcements, wept bitterly in the face of the corpses of the valley and the crows flying in the sky, the humiliated corpse of his beloved brother, and the desolate sight of the territory that his ancestors had so hard to conquer, but was about to fall, as an outstanding monarch who had once had the ambition to restore the glory of the Roman Empire, he could not help but cry bitterly, and for the last time looked down at the richest territory of the entire empire in the East and sighed: "Beautiful Syria, farewell!" ”

From then on, the Saracens were like the flame of parchment thrown into the furnace by the greedy ****, spreading their iron hooves and faith to all the worlds known and unknown to mankind, Persia, Armenia, Khorasan, the river, Egypt, Libya, ******, and even as far as Iberia, leaving pillows of corpses everywhere and fanatics chanting to enter the holy war, the crescent banner replaced the cross representing God like a plague, and the Saracens surrounded the last base of the faith in God from three directions:

Europe!

The whole of Europe trembled in the shadow of the Saracens, and the fear came from the ignorance of the unknown, and the devilish interpretation of the Saracens by word of mouth, and the believers, believing that God's final judgment was imminent, sought refuge in churches to pray for the coming of the Messiah.

At this historic juncture, the Franks seemed to be favored by God in a different way, and they rallied around Charles, the Imperial Palace, and with the tall and majestic body and iron will of the Imperial Palace, they encountered the arrogant Saracens in Poitiers, and after seven days of fierce fighting, they finally killed the enemy's commander, dealt a heavy blow to the invading enemy, defended the last happy land of God's faith, and made the Franks the savior of Europe, and the palace minister Charles also gained the reputation of the hammer.

Since then, the world seems to have returned to its normal trajectory, and the Saracens are on the other side of the mountains and seas, staring resentfully at the land they once nearly conquered.

More than two hundred years later, the harsh memories of the Saracen invasion era have long been replaced by the spices and silks they trafficked, everyone believes that God is on the favor of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea has become the natural boundary between the two worlds, and people are gradually accustomed to a life without threat, and they are once again engaged in trivial battles with their neighbors and brothers, and you come and go to squander your lives.

Before this crusade, the Germans had a serious lack of intelligence on the Saracens, only a general understanding of the enemy's total strength and composition, and the pirates along the Apennines knew better than us about the quality of equipment and the strength of their combat effectiveness.

Everyone's minds were still stuck in the old-fashioned field battles of knightly charging and the siege of the infantry, but they did not expect that the enemy, like their ancestors, would once again use the terrain and climate they were more familiar with to use their strengths and avoid weaknesses to drag down the patience and fighting spirit of the coalition army.

From the little information we have obtained, we know that most of the Saracen soldiers are not equipped with armor, but only carry simple spears and shields, and with high fighting spirit and devotion to their faith, they fight bravely in battle, and the cavalry riding tall horses and wielding Damascus scimitars are only a few elite, and even fewer knights can be equipped with expensive fish scale armor.

So when faced with an enemy who was only dressed in single clothes or even shirtless, the bull showed great self-confidence, and when he set out, he confidently stated that his heavy infantry engaged such an opponent was nothing short of a victorious and one-sided slaughter.

The two sides entered the range of the bow and arrow, and the bull commanded the heavy infantry to begin to accelerate, but still maintained the distance between men and people in the phalanx, from the rout of the Swabian infantry he saw a little way, and he kept an eye on himself, this distance can be quickly closed when the enemy suddenly attacks with arrows, forming a strict defensive formation to protect himself.

Kohler ordered the light infantry to spread out from both ends of the heavy infantry phalanx, ready to flank the enemy who came into attack, and Hans's cavalry increased their horsepower and leaned down with their spears in their hands to charge.

The coordination between the various arms of Nijmegen is very tacit, and the whole army is like a sophisticated machine, adjusting the most perfect attack state in a moment, even if the enemy we face is replaced by Saracen's elite cavalry, we are still confident of victory.

Running to the right distance, Kohler raised his right fist and ordered the archers to stop advancing, and then immediately took out the bows and arrows on the spot and prepared to shoot, according to the current speed of both sides, the position of the archers is just within the effective killing distance, and can provide enough long-range fire at any time to cover the enemy with a rain of arrows and kill them.

The light infantry on both flanks of the heavy infantry phalanx had slowly surpassed the heavy infantry because of the light advantage of their equipment, and they were getting closer and closer to the Saracens who rushed over.

Just when we thought everything would go according to the normal rhythm of the battle, something surprising happened......

The Saracens, who had just made a 180-degree turn in front of the formation, perfectly bypassed the direction of the attack, as if they had been rehearsed beforehand, threw away their cumbersome banners and weapons, spread their legs and ran down the hillside, throwing us dusty backs.

This time it was the bull's turn to be dumbfounded, he was still subconsciously running forward, but he was stunned and did not react, Hans's cavalry turned around one by one, using the speed advantage to chase the enemy, hoping to intercept the enemy before they ran to the top of the hill, Kohler ordered the archers to put away their weapons and continue the pursuit, and he took the lead through the heavy infantry phalanx, and came to the bull's side to talk to each other.

I tapped the helmet of the knight next to me with the flagpole, reminded him to follow in the noise of the galloping horses, clamped the belly of the horse to change the established direction, rushed over the other side of the Saracens, and joined Hans's cavalry to complete the encirclement.

"No matter what intrigues you have behind you, the master is very unhappy, you must eat some dessert to cushion your stomach before the main meal!"

I was talking to myself impatiently, I was confident at the beginning of the attack, but I was very annoyed by the sudden change of direction of the enemy, so I simply destroyed a little bit first, and no matter how small the fly was, it was a piece of meat!

(End of chapter)