"Your Excellency Gawain, don't be too cowardly, and don't be too kind. If the emperor dares to ambush you, he is already waiting for the Holy See to start a war. War can be controlled within limits, but it must be fought, and if it is not fought, a new and fair order will not be created. Godfrey's melancholy and fanatical eyes, with both hands on the hilt of his sword, stared at Gawain, and replied.

Gawain froze, and after his Adam's apple rolled twice rapidly, he approved of the Duke of Lower Lorraine's idea, "But in the capacity of flattering the Holy See's will, I advise you that the operation of this expedition against Constantinople is limited to the final conclusion of peace, not the kind of war of infinite destruction, do you understand?" ”

At the cross in the tent, all the West Francian lords and nobles, including Godfrey, all swords, gathered respectfully in front of Gawain, "Follow the instructions of the priesthood." Then Gawain walked to the sand table, "St. Atkins Gate, not far from the area where I was ambushed yesterday, and to the southwest is the camp of the thirty thousand civilian pilgrims of Gottschalk; To the west was the camp of the Duke Godfrey and his lords, including the Red Hand Brigade; To the southeast was the camp of Brenus, who, though now taken prisoner by me, still had five thousand men, and under the control of the Roman generals Tetisius and Theognes, they had their backs against the barracks of St. Basil's Imperial Mausoleum, just in time to face to face with the St. Atkins Gate; And to the southeast of this gate are the palace of Jukuntina, the city of Varangian camp and the town of Seven Miles, with many tall warehouses and military camps, which were originally Norman camps, and now there should be no men left. Gawain then pulled out the silver horse's head scepter. In the heart of the many areas around which he just quickly introduced, "So follow the strategy of His Excellency Baldwin." This is where the line of fire of the fierce battle lies. A low-lying marsh surrounded by high levees, moats, and shrub hills. ”

After saying that, Gawain raised his pale blue eyes and looked at everyone, Baldwin's eyes were more focused on the top of his horse's head scepter, "And the depression leads to the Juquentina Palace, and there is only this stone bridge through the curved moat"

"That's right, this bridge, I also walked on when I came to the Emperor's capital earlier. It was about seventy Roman feet long and could be passed by four infantry or two cavalrymen side by side. ”

"The line of fire in the line of fire." Godfrey also focused his eyes on the "bridge" on the sand table: "Everyone, beg the Lord for mercy and blessings! In the snowy fields and depressions of the coming day, the emperor of the Greeks will inevitably fight like a beast, and whether we are the true knights or the brave warriors on the other side will be decided by the clash of fire and sword - as long as we occupy the palace of Juquantina, we can force the restless Greek emperor to cease fire. The road to the distant Holy Sepulchre will be a supreme smooth road. ”

Eventually, all the pilgrim camps agreed on a plan of action:

Godfrey of Bouillon led a hundred and fifty knights, and four hundred armoured mounted sergeants under his command. with three infantry regiments to take up the combat mission against St. Atkins Gate;

His brother Baldwin led a hundred knights (including the warriors) and three hundred sergeants under his command. Plus a Swabian infantry regiment that was the first to cross the low-lying terrain. seize the bridge of St. Atkins and march in the direction of Juquantina's Palace;

The Priesthood and Archduke Gawain, the Governor of Bari, commanded two Italian veteran companies, "Sainteau" and "Lepanto". The two cavalry companies of "St. Cyril" and the "New Baptist", the three Greek infantry companies of "Wallachia", "Hell Blood" and "Nemesis", the two companies of sailors and archers of "Corinthian Carpet" and "Holy Sea", and half of the armed Brotherhood personnel and guards, were responsible for the five thousand Byzantine troops facing the Tomb of St. Basil, and were responsible for the advance of Godfrey and Baldwin;

Gottschalk, a pilgrim monk from the Rhine Valley, also had to select 3,000 armed pilgrims, and even shouted and cheered behind Gawain's army, and served on the battlefield;

Then, the camp in Sarabria was entrusted by Godfrey to his relatives Earl Werner and Count Dodo, and Gawain to Vessat. Merlot, lined up under the tall walls west of the Brachna Palace, continued to make siege equipment on standby.

At nightfall, the snowflakes were flying, the fires flowed everywhere, and all the camps were in full gear, and the shouts of wheels sunken in the mud came and went. In the crimson tent, Gawain woke up from a short nap in his chair, rubbed his eyelids a few times with his hand to give himself a little lift, then slapped his cheek twice with his hand, and walked out, in front of him were the soldiers of the Dalian Brigade who were wearing armor and coming and going.

"Muzafi Adin, accompany me to inspect the surrounding area of the camp." With that, Gawain stepped onto Sabina, and the docile mare, following the guidance of the Grand Duke, slowly ran to a hill in the northern part of the camp, and it was almost early in the morning.

Although it was covered with snow everywhere and the stream below had dried up and been buried under the dead branches and leaves, Gawain could easily tell from the only tree on it that he had stood here, looking at the little girl on the towering city wall opposite, and could hear her constantly shouting her name and waving goodbye to her.

It's been two years and I didn't expect to come back in such a form!

In other words, this form of return is not necessarily inevitable.

"A mortal does not have the power to fulfill his wishes, he only has the right to choose his wishes." Gawain patted the mouth of Sabina, who was standing beside him, and said this, in front of him, the blue-gray heavy clouds, shining with a little pitiful sunlight, cast on the walls of the Brachna Palace and the mountains, and the snow seemed to be much lighter, and a new day was coming, a day full of fighting.

In the dormitory in the city, Anna sat on a lonely chair with her eyes closed, her robe closed, and there were only burning lampposts around her, a bed, then the walls and window lattices on all sides, and the icons used for worship, and the rest of the desks and bookcases, there was nothing left, and theoretically she was still under "house arrest" at the moment, but this was not a monastery yet.

The mother is still seeing herself as a child who has escaped, even Irene herself understands that it is just a dream to ask Anna to go to Gawain, but she still can't stand Anna's words, "I can't lose the final pattern, I can't lose the purple clothes on the **, I only like adventure, I don't like to suffer." ”

"It's so lonely, don't you even have a dream, don't you want to be unwilling" Anna whispered these words in a half-dream, tears seemed to ooze from her eyes, and then the silk blanket she covered with her slid down slightly, and the long shadow on the wall moved slowly and unrelentingly with the hours.

In the hidden Agnes dungeon under the Brachner Palace, the hunchbacked veteran held the key, coughed violently, and walked through one dark cavern after another, sealed by iron grates, and the moisture seeping from here destroyed him, the prison guard, and even the prisoners here. And the emperor, the eunuch, and the empress dowager Daracena, each carrying a candle, followed behind the veteran with a blank face, and finally between the two caves next to each other, everyone stopped.

"Macaulinus. Ducasse! The old soldier shouted at the top of his voice, and the creepy voice wandered back and forth in the dungeon with the sound of the wind.

There was no response.

So the veteran shouted a few more times.

"Caesar is next door to me, the hermit Peter." Eventually, in the cave on the right, a hand was stretched out, and Peter's ugly face peeked out of the darkness, and he said to the Emperor that he had been transferred here from the house of Yudosia three days earlier.

Alexios laughed, raised the candle, and said to the monk, "In three days, I will release you, but not now, I will first teach the unrevered pilgrims." ”

"Your Majesty, I believe that my men and horses have been sent by you across the strait, and in the future the massacre of the infidels of the believers, you sent the knife." Peter stared straight at the Emperor.

Why do you say that? In three days' time, I will not only send you out to mediate, but I will also give you five thousand new Imperial Gold Coins, which you can spend as much as you like, and my canonization of Gawain will also be carried out, and you can only pray now that he will not die under my arrows in three days. ”

"I just don't know, when I go out from here, will I clean up Gawain's mess, or Your Majesty's mess?" Peter gripped the grate and giggled.

But Alexios only sneered twice and did not answer. Immediately, the old soldier squeaked open the gate—it was next door to Peter, and behind him, the ghostly Nikedemia stared at him with terrifying eyes, festering eyelashes around him, and said to Peter in a hoarse voice, "In this world, learning to obey His Majesty the Emperor is always the most urgent thing, and you should be glad that this punishment of depriving people of their organs will not be used on you for the time being." ”

And the Queen Mother Daracena, wearing a headscarf, stood behind everyone, calmly watching everything.

Then, from his box, Nikdemia slowly lifted two pieces of glass that were too bright to look at each other, and handed them into the hands of his attendants, followed by two slender pincers, and there he slowly boasted, "Your Merciful Majesty, the punishment is now reformed, and there is no more blood when the light is removed, but the light of the sinner is deprived of it with extreme light." ”

Nick Demia and his retinue entered, and Peter was surprised to hold on to the iron fence to see what was going on in the cave next door, but he and Caesar were separated by a thick wall, and could see nothing but the once-invincible Maculinus. Ducasse's pleas for mercy, crying, and wailing—he seemed to be tied to some chair with his backhand, and then convulsions and heavy painful breathing, Nick Demia must have hung two pieces of glass that shone with incomparable light in front of his pupils that had been torn open by the pincers, and Caesar could not move, could not close his eyes, but could only meet the light of the glass like arrows, until he was completely blinded, and could no longer see anything, no longer feel any light. (To be continued.) )