So far, Constantine. Berdin and 15,000 Serbian soldiers were crucified and wrapped up in a narrow area between the two castles of "Boyana-Sofia", unable to advance or retreat. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"At the end of autumn, I will be able to achieve a great victory over the Serbs and return to the imperial capital in triumph to be reunited with you and your children." After sending the message back to Constantinople, Gawain ordered a general assault on the fortress of Lesvorno.

Then the spearheads selected by the three brigades in front of the front, first raised woolen shields, lightly repelled horses, rafts, and board houses to advance in a swarm, braving the rain of guns and arrows at the head of the city to build the first line of blockade, and then all the chariots marched in unison, and when they reached the blockade line, they reinforced their garrisons, and with the guns and light artillery hidden in the bellies of the wagons, they dispersed the Serbian soldiers who attacked from the strongholds outside the city.

In the next step, the emperor concentrated a full twenty-four long perfume bottle cannons, plus eight fire bear cannons, and four large plani stone throwers erected in depth, pushed them under the barrier of the fortress of Lesvono, and formed a single-line artillery barrier under the cover of fortifications and chariots, and bombarded the city wall incessantly.

In addition to ignition, loading, and filling the allotted Khitan snow bags, the gunners of the artillery regiment also carried wooden barrels in an endless stream -- fruit vinegar was filled with fruit vinegar, which was constantly poured on the hot barrels, stirring up bursts of fierce green smoke to cool down and guard against explosions.

Shells rained down on the walls of the Lesvorno Pass, Serbian soldiers were killed in artillery battles, shattered corpses and blood-stained bricks fell, and many soldiers had to risk their lives to repair the crumbling walls on the scaffolding erected behind the walls.

After a long artillery battle, Berdin sadly discovered that the cannons he had purchased from Ragusa were not at all as advanced as Gawain's new artillery unit. Gawain now has a complete set of technical manufacturing, research and development, and external logistics support system, while Ragusa is just a pre-type of imitation of his artillery.

Now the cannon brought by Berdin is still fixed on the gun mount, although it can make pitching, but the angle is severely limited, and his soldiers and laborers did not think much about the problem of cannon and anti-artillery when building the city wall of Lesvorno: the city wall is now high, and the cannon cannot be erected on it, otherwise the wall will have to collapse by itself after a few shots.

Gawain's artillery improved the Khitan snow, using the wet sieve method to obtain more powerful and safer granular gunpowder, and using bronze to make the outer wall of the barrel about the thickness of the muzzle, almost without exploding. In addition, with the new gun wedge and trolley adjustments, the muzzle angle can be pitched well - the high pitch can increase the range and break through the pheasant towers, and the low pitch can even be "upside down", that is, the head of the fortress can be placed down to the enemy approaching the wall.

The emperor, who had invested dozens of cannons in unison, overwhelmed the fortress of Lesvorno in about two days.

At the same time, the emperor's soldiers and horses also spread their wings, and constantly sent elite skirmishers to occupy the hills on the side of the fortress, making a posture to cut off Berdin's retreat to Fort Sophia.

Over there, after Branas joined forces with Merlot, he also set up a ring siege position to attack Fort Boyana day and night.

It was only then that Berdin's fear really came to his heart, and he now knew that his wife had been taken prisoner, and the royal capital Ohrid had fallen into the hands of the enemy. In the camp, there were constantly Zupan nobles who either fled or defected to the enemy, and the situation was getting worse day by day. So the king sent an envoy to the emperor's camp for the first time to beg for peace, saying that he was "willing to give up the crown of the king of the great earth and the Bulgarian tsar, and is willing to give up the whole of Savoy, and only ask for the land of Za'tar, and then he is willing to recognize the Roman Emperor Stephen. Gawain's suzerainty will never dare to rebel. ”

But Gawain's reply to the envoy was: "You don't need to go back to Za'tar to retire, I have ordered someone to sweep away an idle small monastery in the imperial capital, and Bertin can live in it after surrender and never come back." The emperor also generously offered to find a monastery on the Black Sea and in Anatolia where Berdin's wife and children could live separately.

It means that if you don't want to escape, if you escape, your wife and children will be executed.

In fact, Berdin rebelled once before, and after being defeated by Alexios, he personally went to Constantinople to apologize. However, Alexios was not determined to settle the rebellion in Serbia once and for all, and wanted to win over the local nobles to resist the infiltration of the Hungarians and Normans, so he sent Berdin back.

Because in Alexios's heart, he will always look at and solve problems according to the old set of numbers.

But Gawain is different, completely different. He now knew that in Serbia, Za'tar, Dalmatia, and Bolgar, there were great lords who had set up their own corps in imitation of the Eastern Roman court system, and that one Bulgarian clergyman had declared that "our world has three languages, Latin, Greek, and Slavic, and I do not in the least consider the latter to be inferior to the first two, and even consider it an honour to use them." ”

Since they have their own court, their own ruling order, and their own written language, it means that a new nation is rising independently, even if there are many Slavic tribes such as Maijilin who are still eager to be loyal to Constantinople, but the reason why people like Berdin can succeed is because the location has a rich soil for rebellion, and it is necessary to "cut the grass and eradicate the roots".

What Gawain wants to do is to strangle all these groups that may be independent.

He had to do this, just as he could not have forgiven Venice, because now that he was emperor of Rome, thinking about interests had to have its own position.

The envoy returned the Emperor's frightening and frustrating reply to Constantine. Burding.

Burding completely lost the courage to continue resisting, and he fell into a deep despair.

The next day, as Gawain's blockade was extended, the soldiers began to dig heavy trenches and approach the foundations of Lesvorno's walls, preparing to dig new earthen ramparts for the powerful curved mortars to serve. And on the hills behind the blockade line, among the car cities, the emperor personally came to the front line to patrol on horseback, and the double-headed eagle banner of the empire rose in the huge cheers, and the embroidered gold on the side of the flag was brilliant and dazzling.

As a result, Berdin fled that night, and the entire hills around Lesvorno were full of Serbian defeated soldiers rushing to Sofiaburg.

The soldiers of the Red Hand Brigade immediately broke through the barrier and occupied the entire fortress of Lesvorno, and the emperor selected several teams of cavalry to chase and intercept them, killing and capturing countless local Zupan, many local famous families were destroyed in this miserable night, fathers, sons and brothers were killed at the same time, and several valleys were full of once glorious corpses.

Constantine. After Burding fled back to Fort Sophia, he did not dare to stay long, for he was afraid that Gawain's army would trap him completely if he caught up, so he ran like a lost dog in the direction of the city of Niš.

Soon, Gawain captured Sofia, and Branas and Melo captured Boyana.