Standing on the huge rock, the Sicilian Pagan Janissaries erected a three-operated ballista, said to have been invented by the Northerners, which combined the advantages of a stone-throwing machine and a crossbow to shoot fists the size of a skull like wheels at incredible speed. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Countless flying stones smashed into the red-handed soldiers lined up between the foot of the mountain and the coast, their feathers and armor were stacked on top of each other, very tight, and the scarlet spears poked out from the front rows carried great shock, but once the foot-operated ballista cannons of the pagan Praetorian Guards flicked their arms in the sound of "all of them", many of the red-handed soldiers screamed and were hit, some of them covered the smashed helmets and wounds and retreated, and the more seriously injured took off their armor and crawled away by themselves, and the rear soldiers filled up again and continued to defend the front line to the death.

In the narrow position, the guns of the shooting corps could not be used in large formations, so the arrow team of the Pagan Praetorian Guard seized this opportunity to constantly shake the bells like a rising tide, and waved their flags, drawing their bows and firing fiercely. The rest of the infantry shouted, and small groups leaped forward, the front holding light shields made of lynx skins and carrying scimitars and swords, and the latter holding spears, and constantly surging under the cover of a rain of arrows.

Rows of spears swirled, and some of the pagan warriors who pounced on them were scattered and fell to the ground in various running postures, while others knelt on the ground and slashed under the spear array.

Most of these warriors were descendants of the Crescent emirates that had occupied Italy, and some were recruited by Roger the Elder from the Maghreb, some of them stood guard in the royal palace of Palermo, others worked in the local carpet guilds, helping each other in the nature of a brotherhood, and on the battlefield they organized themselves to allegiance to Allah and the Norman kings (this is also a strange combination), they were brave and unstoppable, and this group of pagans was characterized by the fact that they all lived in brown tents when they camped, hence the name " The Brown Army", once the enemy sees the brown tents spread all over the ground, they are often angry.

Soon the blue-robed commander of the battle array asked the stragglers to fill in, and they all half-crouched down, holding axes and sickles, to harvest the "gutter rats" that were crouching under the dense barrage of spears, and in the white light of the swords and axes, the bloody limbs and heads rolled between the soldiers' boots.

Although they repelled several attacks by the Brown Army, the spear formations of the Red Hand soldiers could not be deployed in such a space, and the enemy's stone throws and arrows were so fierce that even the Sicilian warships took the opportunity to cruise to the shore and use the ballistas or trebuchets on the deck to flank fiercely. The front line of the Red Hand soldiers took the initiative to avoid this disadvantage, and they slowly retreated like the waves of the ebb tide towards the predetermined rear, where the soldiers in the rear were waiting for their allies.

But soon the bell rang violently again in the direction of the big rocks, and several rows of Norman cavalry in vests and mounted spears and hexagonal hammers rushed forward from among the big rocks, and they took advantage of the enemy's lack of support to launch a fierce pursuit of the killer weapon to achieve the goal of completely defeating the opponent.

The Norman cavalry was followed by Sicilian Brown archers with quivers on their backs, who let out terrifying cries and whirring bowstrings.

At the critical moment, a small artillery detachment of 20 people, carrying artillery tools on their shoulders, climbed on the high rocks of the mountain, set up four shrimp whisker cannons, stuffed with lead bullets, and fired them in turn like lightning, shaking the surrounding leaves and small pebbles to fall, and immediately suppressed the pursuit of the Sicilian infantry cavalry, some Norman cavalry were knocked off their horses, and more Sicilian brown army shooters who were crowded together were bombarded with countless corpses and retreated again and again. This artillery detachment managed to cover the retreat of the line - at noon, Melo personally arrived at the Monastery of Zorglaf with his follow-up team and several long perfume bottle guns, and first bombarded the Sicilian ships, the masts of the two Sicilian ships were broken and wounded, and the rest hurriedly retreated to safety.

The Brown Army approached with pedal ballistas to compete with the artillery of the Roman Empire, but the soldiers of the Shooting Corps who were waiting in the rear returned fire with their long guns, and a group of Brown Artillerymen were killed and wounded, so they also dragged their weapons back to their camp.

At the end of the battle, Merlot decided: "We can no longer camp at the Abbey of Zoglaf, but withdraw to the base camp on the Eularo Plateau." ”

Sure enough, after the two detachments to the west of the peninsula were withdrawn, there were countless temple slaves and natives mobilized by Mastas from the belly of the mountain, if it were not for Merlot's decision in advance, their retreat might be cut off, in that case it would be very embarrassing, not only were these two detachments in a critical situation, but if the enemy attacked the Olaro Plateau, the remaining troops there would be weak, and they might also be lost.

The next day, two detachments on the east coast of the peninsula also set fire to several successful monasteries and retreated, and the attacking Sicilian Brown Army also set fire to the rest of the monasteries, and the whole Ato Peninsula was filled with thick smoke - Maastas mourned when he saw this, and the infidels wrapped in turbans appeared in the sacred place, destroying and trampling it, but the saddest thing was that they were allies......

Merlot, who had reduced his forces back to the Oraro Plateau, quickly reported the news to Gawain.

"Will the enemy increase his troops?" Gawain was very concerned about this issue.

Because of the current mobile military strength, there are only two brigades and part of the Omiya Forbidden Army, and there are three detachments left in Thessaloniki, that is, he has nine detachments besieging the holy mountain of Athos, all six of the Red Hand Brigade are fighting with the enemy on the island, and Philippi is left with only three detachments of the Guardian Brigade and his own forbidden army.

At the same time, the news came, and after learning that Gawain was not well-off, Constantine. Burding directly mobilized 5,000 special troops and drove directly to Fort Phillip. The Bulgarian rebels also suddenly swarmed, and thirty Zupan lords gathered an army of 20,000 and began to approach Adrianople directly.

In this way, you will be attacked on three sides.

Originally, it was to go smoothly and push off the nail of the Holy Mountain of Athos as the original mountain sect did, but I didn't expect that the alliance hostile to him also officially began to work together, and the power was really not small!

Originally, the public trial of the captive Masdas was going to be used to present a "generous gift" to the upcoming Adrianople Believers' Conference, but now this wish is really difficult to fulfill. Because three days later, Asassidus and Zahaas on Rhodes Island also arrived with six ships, and there was a very important person on deck.

That's John. Komnenos.

In order to boost morale, he personally took a boat to the peninsula and entered the Lavra Monastery.

As Maastas stood there, waiting for him with a dignified face, and as John half-knelt before him, the Patriarch put his hand on the top of John's head, and the Holy Spirit, representing "goodness," had been poured into John's body and heart:

"Your sins should be forgiven, protect the traditions and beliefs of this empire, and fight the barbarian tyrant to the end!"