Early in the morning, at the other end of the bridge, on the other side of the swampy wetland, all the soldiers were gathered around the mule cart, Gawain stood in front of them, and Erikson stood beside him, while Fethias was left in the camp because his hand wound had not yet healed.

They chose a slightly higher raised dirt slope to camp on a forest and a moor, and beyond the forest was a "road" cut off by mountains and valleys, which eventually connected to the Ojas Gorge where the Sultan of Rûm had sent reinforcements and supplies.

In other words, as long as the stone bridge is held, it can ensure that the Sultanate of Rûm will continue to send good things, but if the stone bridge is lost, at least the esophagus from the Sultanate will be cut off. The chief of the Pararogus stables could only get help from Constantinople on the other side of the strait, but it was a pity that the treasury was empty.

Now the area of the tug-of-war in Asia Minor has long been ravaged beyond recognition, and it is very withered, and it can only be a very nihilistic idea to try to eat locally - so George still relied on this stone bridge very much, but because the area of the stone bridge was not adjacent to Prusa, it was not worth sending a large force to garrison the city, and the main force was to besiege the city. Therefore, the final task fell on the shoulders of Gawain's small army "reasonably".

"Will the enemy come?" Gawain said this to everyone.

"Only the Lord knows." Several of Benevento's lightly armed crossbowmen replied in unison, and then their column commander, who was also Gawain's theoretical "deputy", Francisco laughed, and looked at this new army flag officer who was mixed-looking, tall and handsome, but did not know what to do, with an uninhibited and indifferent look, waiting for the other party to show his talents.

"Four mule carts were arranged in a circle on this high ground, with all the mules and horses tied in the middle, and a poop pond was dug out." With Gawain's words, Erickson jumped up and planted the triangular military flag in the center of Gaofu, and then the rest of the military servants led the pack beasts and vehicles up, "Don't divide them equally, concentrate the mule carts on the side with their backs to the bridge, open to the side of the bridge, dig a trench underneath, erect a wooden fence, hurry!" After speaking, Gao Wen stood by the military flag on Gao Fu again and said to everyone,

"Now, our columns are no longer a separate organization, I'm going to take them apart."

Gawain's words were astonishing, this was any soldier, not only the Valangian guards of the Inner Palace, but even the recruited Benevento veterans were dumbfounded, because according to the rules of the Emperor's discipline, a single column was the smallest military unit, and thirty soldiers should strictly follow this point when they were in battle, and they should be close together on a front to resist or attack the enemy.

"Put aside the drill for the time being, because when the enemy attacks, we can't just line up in a separate column to resist the enemy, nor can we hide in the fortifications we have built and be beaten passively, so that once we encounter a superior enemy, we will inevitably lose and be completely annihilated. Our crushing defeat may be a number to a general or an emperor, but," Gawain paused, "don't hope for useless fanaticism and will, and avoid sacrifice in exchange for the best victory." ”

Then, after all, Gawain had managed manpower before, not to mention fifty soldiers plus the same number of military servants, ten times and a hundred times that he had participated.

Soon, a column of guards samurai was divided into four groups, the first three groups of eight people, and the last group of six, all six of whom were the longest-serving veterans.

The Beneventos, out of respect for Francisco command, did not separate, but placed them on the high mons, serving as cover shots.

In the first three groups, Gawain ordered the servants to take out a sufficient amount of weapons and equipment from the mule cart, one of them holding a two-handed iron spear, wearing double chain mail, and a leather lining; The two were covered by large Greek shields, armed with melee weapons, small axes and maces; Two men carry shields and spears, usually used by cavalry, with pennants tied to them; The three were armed with shields and Viking swords, and "no more two-handed axes were allowed" was Gawain's rule, "because there was no efficiency in hand-to-hand combat." ”

The last group of six veterans, divided into six groups of nine or ten men each, armed them with Turkic weapons captured from the Battle of the Meadows (these were the last things in George's army today)—maces, shields, tomahawks, and single-edged machetes, and each group placed a veteran to guide, pacify, and supervise the war.

Then, according to the divided group, Gao Wen called a group of samurai to serve as an outpost in front of Gao Fu, and took turns to monitor with the other two groups; Of the six groups of military servants, three groups dug trenches and erected fences around Gaofu, and the remaining three groups followed the forest and Gaofu, cutting down wood and sharpening it, and then inserting it densely, and the tips of the piles were arranged on the side of the forest.

It didn't take long for Francisco to come with his own people to help with the construction, "If you lose, we won't be able to escape." ”

In the end, Gawain exchanged all the gold coins he had received from him in advance for silver coins of Seriqua, and distributed them to everyone, "Just this once, the emperor will have to reward us with the new 'Trentaron' coins in the future." ”

In the evening, under the fluttering banner in front of the fortifications that had been built with great difficulty, Gawain and Francisco saw a Turkic warrior in black robes, riding a horse, carrying a sword and javelin, and holding a battle flag for writing scriptures, slowly walked to a distance of four or five arrows, and stopped.

The warrior stared at all this, and Gawain and the others also looked at him condescendingly, and then pulled the reins and galloped back and forth a few times, and then held the battle flag again, and quickly disappeared into the gray darkness of dusk, leaving only a faint back.

"They did find it, it should be Zahaas's remaining troops in Nicaea." French whispered, "But I can guess when they're attacking." ”

"I want to hear about it."

"Most of them attack during the morning prayer, so that they will not delay their next prayer - as for the evening prayer, the Crescents are not very good at attacking during the rainy season and at night, so they can basically be ignored."

"That is, at dawn tomorrow?"

"Roughly so." Francisco said, then he looked at Gawain, "After all, I fought them many times in Italy, and you should know that it is a big battlefield and a big corridor, and any enemy can be encountered, like shit on the streets, everywhere." ”

However, out of prudence, Gawain still asked a group of soldiers to stay on the periphery of Gaofu and took on the duty of guard.

When the sky was white, the comrades in the fortifications woke up each other one by one, and then everyone pulled up on the wooden fence, and saw that on the flat wasteland five arrows away, about three hundred Turkic soldiers stood densely, on horseback and on foot.