At the real night, Mamikonian, who stood on the tower of the gate of Castabara, also looked in astonishment and horror: in the wilderness directly north of the castle, there were figures and cries of people fleeing, and in the light of the fire a group of soldiers was hurrying through with flags, it was Gregor's Gimagis brigade, which had joined Gawain's cavalry that had arrived one step ahead; At the meandering of the river southeast of the castle, the Defender Brigade had sent an infantry detachment to occupy the river bank on it, and began to line up the boats to form a two-way blockade by land and water; What made Ruben even more frightened was that the Red Hand Brigade, which terrified him the most, also lined up with large infantry spears like forests and mountains, and came from the southwest along the mountain range. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Coupled with the 4,000 Norman men who had pounced on him from Thubacena and Lavodra, it meant that when it was time to use the colander (evening), the more than 6,000 Armenian soldiers that Prince Ruben still had by his side, and the city of Castabara, which had come close to him but was blocked by Gawain, had been completely surrounded by an iron wall!

When the frightened nobles questioned the Supreme Commander Reuben, he was sweating profusely, his tongue stiffened, and he sat down in a chair, "The cavalry all rode on horseback, and surrounded the guards and baggage, and then the soldiers and servants began to erect forks, dig trenches, and set up camp, and when they had rested, they concentrated their elite on the road to the city of Castabara." ”

Gao Wen, who learned of the other party's move, laughed, knocked the horse's head scepter on the sand table in front of his leg, and made a clanging sound, "Let him set up camp and dig a trench, our army will surround and move, set up sentry posts and shifts, and draw out elite archers to stand in the direction of Castabara....... Tomorrow, invite Earl Richard, Earl Duoduo, and Earl Burke to come and establish a camp with me as the center of command! ”

In the early hours of the morning, several light troops suddenly appeared at the secret gate of the walls of Castabara, apparently trying to break through Gawain's line and meet Prince Reuben, but they were fired upon by the Gimageis Brigade and Genat's arrows, and many corpses were lost, and they fled back.

An hour later, the lords invited by Gawain rode to his tent, a conspicuous tent on the hillside, with a low wall of stones on three sides, one facing the front, within the reach of the besieged Prince Reuben, as if it were a coercion and a mockery.

Richard was the Earl of the Normans, and Dordo was Godfrey's subordinate, and Burke was Baldwin's loyal lieutenant, and Gawain summoned them, "I declare that the prior treaty shall be fully implemented—the fortress of Castabara, and the plains up to the city of Sith, shall belong to Baldwin, and all the castles of Marash shall belong to Bohemond, and I shall take the plains and hills around the city of Vanka." Several lords nodded their heads one after another, indicating that they also respected this treaty, "Then the siege battle below will last at least three months, or even longer, do you have any difficulties?" ”

"So long?" Count Duoduo was surprised.

"The castle of Castabara is so strong that it is not advisable to storm it. My strategy was to besiege the men and horses of the Ruben camp first, and then use this to deter the castle defenders from surrendering, and in the meantime to repel and destroy the reinforcements of Ruben from the north, eat one, fork one, and watch one. So in this way, I think three months is the minimum. Therefore, I have to tell you that this is by no means the form of warfare in the previous era when a group of knights were mobilized, a group of serfs and freedmen mercenaries, and then disbanded after a month of fighting—we had to mobilize soldiers, prepare equipment, and launch all the people to support the front, and perhaps accompanied by a complicated diplomatic war, and there would be no manners and manners in dealing with the enemy, it was a cruel war of annihilation, and Ruben's men were either killed by us or captured by us, and they had no other way out. It is our wrists that have given this terrible fate. With that, Gawain squinted his eyes and slowly twitched the scepter back and forth in his hand, enhancing his tone.

All the lords present subconsciously looked at their hands, as if they smelled a faint smell of blood......

In the end, everyone was given Gawain as the commander of the camp, and had the right to execute anyone who failed in his duties, not only his own soldiers, but also Richard's group of foreign aids. Each was given a defensive siege area, with Richard in charge of the east; Count Doto and Earl Burke led their men and horses to watch over Castabara's westernmost flank; Merlot's Red Hand Brigade surrounded the southwest side of Ruben Camp, and the Gimagius Brigade and Gawain's Cavalry surrounded the north side; The Guardian Brigade stretched out along the river on either side of the castle and surrounded and monitored the rest of the castle.

In this way, Reuben's camping and the castle of Castabara, were not only separated, but also besieged.

"We also dig trenches and erect forks and dog's foot logs!" At Gawain's notice, all the besieging and besieging encampments, whether Seleucian, Adana, or Norman, were deployed in one place, and they dug deep pits every one hundred and twenty feet of Anna, and lined them with forked logs, ropes, and bells to prevent the enemy from crossing; Then the excavated earth was used to form a tower-shaped earthen platform on its side, on which dog's foot wood or thorn stakes were also inserted, and each earthen platform was guarded by five soldiers, and the tents of the army were all lined up on the battle line behind the earthen platform and the deep pit, and lined up around the camp of Ruben.

"Organize all the cavalry, separate them according to squadrons, and roam all the passes and streets inside and outside, cut off all the external passages of the enemy's camp, capture the enemy's dead men and messengers, and monitor and warn of reinforcements coming from any direction."

"The camp has hounds and patrols the blockade every day to catch any fish that slips through the net!"

As the days passed, Prince Ruben felt that the rope around his neck was tightened more and more, and at the end of the rope was Gawain with a terrible face: in the makeshift camp set up by the Armenians, there were only simple fortifications such as fences and earthen ditches, and all the tents were outward, surrounded by baggage and baggage—which was originally only an expedient measure against the enemy in the field, but now Ruben could not go anywhere but here, not even the nearby fort of Castabara—for the whole perimeter of the camp was full of enemy camps, ramparts, and troops, surrounded by death, dead, even a bird can't get out...... Ruben was convinced of this, and on the first day of the siege he sent ten of his most elite riders to break out in separate ways in an attempt to report to the city of Vanka, but that afternoon, the bloody heads of all ten riders hung over the flagpole of Gawain's camp; On the third day, Ruben sent out several more messengers, who did not ride horses, but some of them swam in the water with their skins, and some climbed along the bushes, but before they had gone half a mile, they were all searched by the hounds of Gawain's camp, and their heads were cut off for public display; Five days later, Reuben, with a depressed beard, felt that he would perish if he continued (for he had only half a month's food reserve with him when he went on the expedition), so he could only find the apostolic monk Gorpin, who was with him in the army, and begged him to be an envoy to make peace with Gawain. (To be continued.) )