At noon on the second day, the city of Antioch fell completely. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

On a pheasant moat in the valley and lake to the east, Bohemond looked distraught, staring in amazement at the two corpses wrapped in shrouds lying across the stone slabs beneath his feet.

The corpse's face was still exposed.

One was Tancred's, his expression seemed to be angry, his mouth was slightly open, his teeth were blackened, and there were blood stains in the corners of his eyes;

The other was his wife, Mesander, the Armenian woman, whose eyelashes were curled and whose expression was much more serene, when an arrow went into her neck, and she fell off her horse and fell on the stone bridge, and probably died without much pain.

Bohemond stood still, looking at Mesander's, then at his nephew, and then at Tancred's body, his eyes never taking his eyes off.

In the midst of the dazed reality and hallucinations, Bohemond seemed to feel that the place where he stood was the lonely cliff of Calabria washed by the sea and foam, which was the funeral of his mother Gaita, and his sister Emma was kneeling on the ground and weeping, and the sea below the cliff, the ship carrying his mother's body was slowly sailing and sailing, and suddenly a flame burst there, and then the whole ship became a burning coffin, tilting and sinking to the cold seabed.

Rising was Bohemond's ambition to venture to the East.

Willing to be with him was his nephew, Tank Red, a young man who did not have a beard at the corner of his mouth, with a simple sword, his eyes full of warm colors, and his hands tightly clasped with him.

Suddenly, Bohemond heard the cry of his sister Emma sharpened:

"You killed my son, you killed my son! The people of our family are a group of cursed butchers and executioners, they will kill even their own relatives, go to hell, go to hell! ”

"Ahh Bohemond screamed, holding his head in his hands, and woke up from his auditory hallucinations, almost kneeling beside his nephew's body.

Several of his relatives hurried to help, but Bohemond pushed him away, and he took two quick steps, reached the mouth of the pheasant moat, and looked with sorrow at the vast hills, valleys, and huge lakes below, and the villages and market towns in the distance.

He now knew in his heart that Antioch had finally recovered, and that what he had gritted his teeth to take back had also returned.

However, Tancred also died, and his own nephew died.

This country, the country he thought about every day, in fact, stood up and thought about it, it was already under the oppression and encirclement of Gawain's huge imperial power. Marash. The "ideals of the Great Empire of Edessa have completely collapsed and can no longer be realized."

So what did you get?

After a lifetime of ambition, pursuit, and conquest, all that is now in front of you is a huge city that has fallen and two cold corpses.

Bohemond felt uncomfortable in his heart, his eyes were drying and aching, and slowly blood and tears were stained with blood, and he lowered his head and sobbed, and then gave the order, "Don't send Tancred back to Aversa, just bury him with his woman next to the Daphne jungle." ”

In the darkness of the night, Tankred's coffin was carried into the dark and eternal pit in the faint glow of the remnant star. In the court of Tarsus, Gawain and Anna are having a major secret meeting before their departure.

The scale of the meeting was small, but all the people involved were Gawain's right-hand men:

Giovanni, the governor of Iconium County;

Commander Merlot, Grand Earl of the Army;

Imperial Mentor Magrundius;

The newly inaugurated Patriarch Gottcharke (while the Patriarch of Bari was handed over to the Patriarch of the Church of the Church, Roland. Bandinelli);

and the joint transcript of Hetomia, the imperial ink officer, and Firactos, the confidential officer;

The barmaid Starulachos and the sleeping officer Wen Ruomina, and the commander of the Praetorian Banner, Muzafiaddin, were in charge of the security outside the court.

Anna and Gawain each sat on their thrones, and the urgent task of discussion was "how to march into Constantinople".

"Many of Thracian's families are secretly writing to call for our liberation." Anna directly threw out the core of the problem, "But now the Western Patriarch of the city of Rome is suppressing Gawain and actually asking us to make peace with the puppet emperor John, and to use the Marimara Sea as the boundary and not invade each other." Whether to advance or retreat, to fight or to make peace, you must make a decision tonight, because tomorrow Gawain and I will leave the palace and go to the city of Prusa for at least three months to coordinate the affairs of the western realm. ”

"Once an arrow has passed through Nicaea, it will not stop at the edge of the sea." Grand Earl Merlot was ambitious, and he longed to be the commander of the army to storm the imperial capital, which would be the glory of his life.

"But our fleet is not yet strong, and the main force is still helping His Excellency the Governor of Andodat to besiege Tripoli. If we marched into Constantinople, we would be fighting on many fronts at the risk of being hostile to Sicily, Venice, the Holy See, Hungary, and all sorts of other powers, and this is not exactly what we had tried to avoid before? Giovanni's attitude was very cautious, "It's better for us to be more steady, first take all the land of Tripoli, and then rest for two to three years, and then wait for the fleet to take shape, slowly encroach on Rhodes and Crete, occupy the springboard, and then enter the Moria region after integrating the entire holy sea." ”

"That's also going to turn against Venice and Sicily, and now I get information that the prince of Sicily is in Crete! In my opinion, it is better to fight late than early, and it is better to fight small than to fight big, and do not be trapped by the problem of the fleet, is it possible that the armies of Venice and Sicily will dare to come ashore and fight me? Gawain seems to have made up his mind to advance resolutely towards Constantinople, "The land of Thrace, where John could last rely on, is already turbulent, and the nobles there have sent as many as 100 secret letters to Anna, not to mention that our Skua clipper can transport a large number of men to the other side at once. ”

At this moment, Merlot walked up to the mercury map table, pointed to the terrain and said, "John's heavy army is in Gallipoli, and we can form a light fleet from the Ukchen Sea, carrying 3,000 to 5,000 elite cavalry, and raid the port of Meisembria (an important port in central Thrace by the Black Sea), and if we succeed, we will be able to enter and occupy the whole territory of Eastern Thrace, and cause consternation to Constantinople." ”

"Use a task force?" Gawain was visibly impressed by the risky plan, and said with a deep groan.

Then he turned to the confidential officer and asked, "Can we gather enough ships?" ”

"Four thousand people, if there are five hundred to eight hundred cavalry, it should not be a big problem." Firactos replied with the dossier in his hand, confirming it.

When everyone heard this, they all gathered around the map table and focused their eyes on the "Land of Thrace".

The military, political, and even internal aspects seem to have the capital to fight, but the biggest problem is still in front of us:

That was the papal mediation of the city of Rome, and for various reasons, Gawain could not completely turn against it now, but wanted to get Constantinople.