readx;

Sure enough, when the envoy went back to report the situation in Caesarea City to Theodoro, the old general frowned, and paced back and forth a few times on the floor of the Emir's Palace in Amasia City under the gaze of his staff generals, "How come? I still remember how Gawain was chased by my cavalry regiment in Paphragonia three years ago and was embarrassed. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info the initials of the new domain name of the website, K1XSW, the largest free romance Chinese site, hurry up. How is it that now he has such a large and powerful army? ”

Legend has it that his army could also shoot thunderbolts, accompanied by large clouds of rain clouds, which scorched the enemy and killed them. The elite cavalry of the Great Chief of Danishmond was destroyed a moment after encountering him. The envoy hurriedly added fuel to himself.

Several priests and monks also nervously held their canes, listening to the rumors, and said to the old general, "Thirty years ago, in the Far North in the state of Kiev, there were shamans who prophesied that after the hundredth year of the new millennium, the Dnieper would flow backwards completely, the position of the earth would change, and the land of the Kievan Rus' would be occupied by the Romans. And then there were many anti-Christian devilish instigations in the land of Kiev, and now the prince of the Rus' Monomakh is constantly threatening to burn his city and come south to our kingdom in order to turn this prophecy in favor of the Rus'. ”

Hearing this, the old general, who had always been superstitious, couldn't help but laugh secretly, in fact, he had heard such a prophecy when he was young, and now he was also promising himself - "I am the Romans who will occupy Kievan Rus' in the prophecy, no, I still desire to occupy the entire Roman Empire, which means that I will make an alliance with Monomakh, like the former Emperor Vasily, with the help of fierce Rus' warriors, with the help of Kherson (a military district and trading city set up by Byzantium in the Crimea), Chardia, Trabzon, Georgia, Alania is the base of power, and I will also win the throne of the imperial capital in the future, so it seems that I can fight with Gawain now, so I can't fall into it. ”

Thinking of this, Theodoro touched his ornate breastplate and commanded the herald in a loud voice, "Send me a message, refuse the request of Potrufis, the entire Trabzon peasant division will not join forces with the Armenians of Marash, and the target city I will capture soon is Bayburt." ”

Bayburt, located on the main routes of Trabzon, Chaldia and Armenia, was also a very rich trading stronghold, where a large quantity of raw silk from the East could be obtained, so that the whole wealth of the old general would be revitalized.

So Potrufis, who had been waiting outside, was cruelly refused, and then he was "gifted" out of the city of Amasya, "as for going back to Constantinople to report to the emperor, or going to Marash to report to the Armenian consul Fell, whatever you want."

After thinking about it, Potrufis could only return to Marash again and report the news to many Armenian nobles.

At that time, a large number of troops had been gathered in the entire Marashburg Castle, and all the merchants in the country (regardless of inside and outside) were being forbidden, and they were preparing to raise the flag and set out on the expedition, so after hearing the failure of the Potrufis mission, Fell and Pacaard were dumbfounded, and they couldn't make up their minds for a while - after all, Marash was a small country surrounded by many powerful countries, and without the support of Theodoro, they realized that it was difficult for them to defeat Gawain alone, and there was no need to accompany Danishmond to die.

"Temporarily dismiss the conscripted team and wait for a better time." In the end, Fair could only reluctantly get everyone's consent and give this order.

As a result, the Armenian army, which numbered nearly 10,000, gave up its original ambition and completely shrank back.

On the other hand, on the second day of the expedition from Caesarea, Gawain's army arrived at the estuary station.

This military station was designed and constructed by Gedier, backed by the bend of the Sanus River, the main fort is surrounded by wooden fences and moats, and is constantly lifted up in steps, and there is a separate fort against the mountain in the south, between the two forts there is an earthen embankment about eight feet wide, which is connected by a long wall of defense, and there is a gate in the past, and in the inner wall of the fortress at the highest point of the main fort, a small sealed small square platform is built to store Khitan snow, and the bottom surface of this square platform is about 30 feet wide, and there is a wattle fence as a fence outside, and it is smeared with wool and mud. The outside is coated with tung oil and lime to fill the plug, all kinds of Khitan snow barrels are stored in the warehouse, and the iron is hooped on the wooden board, covered with copper mesh, the zigzag wall holes are dug on all sides for ventilation and fire prevention, and there are also buckets mixed with fruit vinegar and stone alkali ready to extinguish the fire at any time, and there are twelve guarded warriors holding halberds to patrol the guard.

"Now the Khitan snow has to be purified repeatedly and proportioned according to a fixed formula, except for the iron fire that is specially used to burn the enemy's fortifications." This is Gawain's current request, and finally, after continuous experiments by the armorers of Seleucia and the land of Tarsus, the formula ratio is set as the most suitable formula for the dry environment of Anatolia, that is, the Khitan snow formula used in the Arrow Fire Gate is 60/8 of the nitrate, and the ratio of sulfur and charcoal to the rest is 3 to 2.

However, under Gao Wen's instructions, the formula with a higher proportion of saltpeter is still being experimentally planned, which can make the Khitan snow burn faster and more explosive.

The next day, when the army had departed from the camp, Gawain ordered that "from this moment onwards the forced march shall begin, with all the soldiers carrying three days' worth of rations and carrying them behind them with their pickaxes, and the large infantry spears resting on their wagons to accompany them, and then use them when they come into contact with the enemy." In addition, some of the baggage wagons carried Khitan fire, some of which carried enough food for the whole army for five days, and the cavalry regiment surrounded the front and rear flanks of the infantry column to take on the task of searching and guarding. Destination, Bishop Meadow! ”

Sandwiched between the tail of the Pontus Mountains and the tail of the Taurus Mountains, the Bishop's Meadow is a vast grassland with undulating hills, also to the west of the city of Mélitane, and has always been a suitable place for grazing and warfare. Since ancient times, it has been a bloody contest between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian and Saracen empires - now Gawain's march has completely abandoned surprise attacks or parted ways, and he has left only a small number of armed regiments and border troops under the command of Decius along the way in Corquison, as well as a group of reinforcements sent by Adanab, which is just wandering around the local area.

And the most powerful fist was concentrated on the path from Caesarea, and Gawain wanted it to smash straight and unstoppably on Melitane, and beat the Turks to the defense system built around it!

The logistics of the military station were more important to Gawain, and he specially ordered Reinstein, the civil governor of the Cappadocia Great Frontier District, and his privy adviser Sven to be stationed here to be responsible for the overall arrangement.

Therefore, he demanded that the soldiers carry three days' worth of food with them, and the baggage team with them should carry five days' worth of food, and that they should not eat at will along the way, but should be "recruited on the spot" (that is, looted or expropriated from the entire inhabitants of the area) to solve the problem. And when the estuary military station received the order, it was to be ready to transport six days' worth of military rations and the corresponding pack horses and vehicles at any time to arrive at the front-line camp for supplies (in fact, six days, three days could be delivered in the end, and the remaining half had to be consumed during the transportation journey) - in short, everything was carefully calculated, and there was no room for sloppiness. (To be continued.) )