Chapter 43: Lesvorno Fortress

Panicked, Burding abandoned all preset blocking plans and "hurriedly summoned the guerrillas sent to Stara Mountain!" ”

Then the whole Sofia Fort was full of horns, and the soldiers of the Zupan and Slavic communes who had rushed to the battle from all over Sava, Za'tar, Bosnia, etc., marched through the road between the barracks, stables, and wooden huts in the inner walls of the fortress, and the archers, who carried bows made of animal skins and quivers tied diagonally to long logs, lit the braziers at the head of the city, and used to defend this fortress, which had been famous since ancient times; And the rain came out of the city first the cavalry, then the infantry with spears and axes, Constantine. Wearing a golden crown and light leather armor like fish scales, and a Phoenician purple robe, Berding rode a navy blue and white-spotted horse, and his son, Prince Lalic, rode beside him with a sword. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to the royal guards, which had existed as a military tradition (which were formed by Berdin's father after the Roman emperor's Varyag guards, selected from the sons of Zupan and the court's own soldiers), a new "Zatar Torch Corps" was also set up. Wearing turned-up tricorne hats, cloaks, and leather armor, all of them carried long guns purchased from the city of Ragusa, and machetes and halberds were pinned with pins on wooden supports, which were used for shooting forks and melee combat, and were more adept at squad shooting in the mountains.

In addition, Berdin purchased six cannons from Ragusa and four stone shooters, the former of which was mounted on a four-wheeled carriage with an arrow plate hanging from the front gantry, and was rumbling along the road under the pull of mules, horses, and manpower. The latter, similar to the Gawain Army's Fire Bear Cannon, was disassembled and pulled by an ox cart to be assembled when it was time to fire.

Berding maneuvered with a full 8,000 men, all of whom were elites who could be pulled out in the field, and his goal was the pass fort of Lesvorno, which was not too far from the lost Iltiman and the choke point of the entire Fort Sophia, between the peaks and the rapids: on the south and west sides were the barrier of mountains up to a thousand meters of difficulty in climbing, and there were only one or two passes in the middle that could be crossed by small groups of soldiers and horses, and on the east side were the remnants of the Stara peak, and the two rivers that crisscrossed it, the Lesvoska River and the Marashweska River, It is only 18 guli away from Sofia.

So if you want to capture Fort Sofia, you must capture Lesvorno.

Leswono, on the other hand, has a stone barrier and a fortress, where the two rivers are close together, forming a delta that happens to be where Leswonor is located, and it is really a natural gateway location, so Berdin has been stationed here with 2,000 elite soldiers, and at this time he personally brought 8,000 people to sit in the town.

No more than 1,500 men remained in Fort Sofia, and another 1,500 were stationed in Boyana, the "other city" only three guli west of Sofia, to monitor Gawain's possible detachment.

After arriving at Lesvorno, Berding and his son climbed up the barricade with his son, and it was already noon, and the surrounding peaks and farmlands were covered with golden sunlight, and Gawain's army was approaching in formation.

Burning, who could see from the sight, could conclude that Gawain had used three brigade-sized troops on the front.

From his analysis of the three brigades, namely the gilded Red Hand Banner, the Golden Lightning Banner (the newly formed Midgard Brigade), and the Gold Coin Banner (General Bramson's Philo Melellon Brigade, the design of which was designed with great effort by the General), he knew that the other two brigades were about the lower reaches of the Iskar River, heading for Bojana, hoping to bypass Leswono and return to the west side of Fort Sofia to attack.

Berdin turned around, pondered for a moment, and resolved to "hold on to Leswono, and send an elite force across the ridgeline to set up an ambush at the foot of Mount Rozoska on the other side, and try to inflict heavy damage on Gawain's detachment to Boyana, and then take advantage of the Isca River, and counterattack at the same time as Lesvorno, and defeat Gawain's expeditionary army on both sides!" ”

In short, it is necessary to reproduce the glory of Tsar Samuel's defeat of Vasily II.

The commanders were chosen, Prince Lalić, the son of Berdin, and Zavida, another great nobleman from the Za'tar region. Naimanga.

Zavida was more experienced in warfare, but he had previously rebelled against Berdin's authority and attempted to claim the throne of his own territory, so despite his high prestige and popularity, Berdin was determined to hand over the command to his son, and repeatedly admonished him: "Three thousand of the best troops, including the royal infantry guards and the musketeers guards, will be handed over to you." I have also decided for you the place of the ambush, where you lie in ambush at the narrow pass where the Iskar River crosses the foothills, and crush the enemy with a volley of fire on both sides while they are still crossing the river......"

When the king of the earth admonished the son of Norman's wife, Zavida and some of the nobles were angry, and clenched the horsewhip in his hand, thinking to himself, "Everywhere warn us not to be selfish, not to delay the defense of Sophia because of the wheat harvest in the territory." But he showed selfishness everywhere, first he did not let the Grand Duke Vladimir be the commander of the Moses Front, so that he could fight independently and was completely annihilated in Versigenia; Now he has handed over the command of the surprise army to the milky little Lalic, just because he is from the Norman woman! I think that even if Gawain is defeated, sooner or later the coastal areas of Za'tar will become the private property of the Latin Church. ”

In the afternoon and evening, Gawain's front team also began to build a camp in the direction of Lesvono, and the emperor divided his army into two along the Lesvoska River: the Red Hand Brigade, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, lined up with the newly formed Midgard Brigade on the right side of the river, and the Philomeron Brigade, which had already been tested in combat, lined up on the left side of the river - the Emperor's camp could be called the "big cart city", and all the soldiers, except for the cavalry and shooting corps guarded on the perimeter, were all carrying heavy loads for engineering work, and they first raised a semicircular earthen embankment, Then all the carts of the previous prisoners in Versigenia were pushed up and lined up behind them, like a city wall, and then all kinds of light and heavy artillery were placed behind the carriages, and a hundred feet in front of it, the original wagons and chariots of the brigade were used to surround the outer line of the Chengdao garrison: cavalry and archery corps were stationed in it, forming a tight firing boundary.

The farmland of Hewon, behind Checheng, was covered with soldiers' tents and wooden fences.

The next day, the two sides actually used artillery to fire at each other, and the rumbling sound of artillery shook the peaks and river valleys, and this rhythmic mutual provocation was carried out all day.

Soon some of the mountain tribesmen loyal to Berdin began to attack Gawain's supply lines, and on the day of the battle, a border tribe escorting ten ships was ambushed, all the personnel were killed, and most of the supplies were taken away.

"Tell Fort Philip to send out a boat designed by a little sunfish to deliver supplies." The emperor ordered.