It can be said that such a "worst and most stalemate" situation was also expected by the emperor in the careful planning and deduction of the previous months, so he thought that in order to defeat Gao Wen, it was not enough to rely on a frontal confrontation, at least there must be a hidden "killer feature" to make Gao Wen chaotic. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Now is the best seaworthiness season, and now Gawain does not have to consider the land threat of Marash, Danishmund, and Trabzon for the time being, but all his mobile forces have been pinned, and the core of his territory is completely empty, and the coastline is all open. And the island of Cyprus has been annexed to me, and it happens to form a convenient and quick springboard with Crete, Rhodes and the Gulf of Atalya. After the emperor finished speaking, he laughed in front of his henchmen and guards,

Ten days later, the Viceroy of the island of Cyprus, Archduke Apusomatus, stood on the tower of the port of Kyrenia in the north of the island, and watched in horror as countless black ships cleaving the waves and coming like locusts, as if they had suddenly emerged from the fog of the "sea-eye maelstrom" of Crete or Rhodes in the west, the sound of the conch horn was terrifying, and the flags on the masts were whirring.

"The emperor's killer weapon is actually ......" Apsomatus was terrified, but the officials installed by the emperor around him kept reminding him that he had the responsibility to cooperate with this huge fleet on the expedition, and also to provide it with lighthouses, supplies and anchoring bases.

Cold sweat flowed down his cheeks, and he asked the Qin official abruptly, "Where is the target of the expedition?" ”

"Seleucia, of course, is Gawain's old nest, with many of Gawain's weapons workshops and trade fairs, and not as many reed swamps as the coast of Cilicia, which is good for going ashore to fight." Without thinking, the official pointed to the ocean and said.

Kyrenia, if you take a boat from Seleucia, it's only a half-day trip!

Anna, her daughter Helena, and almost all the female officers were in the old palace of the Seleucian Acropolis, accompanied by three 100-strong Seleucian militia troops, plus forty "Anatolian Guards" belonging to Anna alone.

Almost the next morning, the Imperial Ink Officer Hetomia's face was shocked, and she hurriedly said something to disturb, and then went directly into the old palace dormitory, where Pianna was playing with Helena, but at this moment the terrible sound of the horn outside the window had made the female Caesar's nerves tense, and she preemptively asked the Imperial Ink Officer who walked in, "Is there an enemy?" ”

"Yes, Your Highness Caesar, please go to the small tower in the east of the city to watch." Hetomia held out her hand.

At the towering tower in the east of the city, the warriors of the Anatolian Guard stood anxiously with bows and arrows on their backs, and when they saw Anna coming, they all knelt down and saluted.

On the sea of Cyprus, there were an extremely large number of ships, including schooners, spinnakers, and several relatively large three-deck warships, which formed two lines of battle and dropped anchor, blocking the military port dock on the west side of the castle.

And in the east of the city where Anna was, on the sandbar at the mouth of the river, several ships with sail ropes docked there, and many ships quickly approached here, and on the deck stood bandits wrapped in turbans and barefoot, who were making rough noises, constantly shooting arrows at the shore and the head of the city, and the rest of the pirates, about a few hundred, had jumped out of the cabin and went ashore, divided into several columns, and headed in the direction of the river bridge, along the way they burned and plundered several holy farms, paper mills and sawmills, among which one of the leaders was wrapped in a white felt hat, Wrapped in a red robe, riding on a horse, behind him is a wolf-headed battle flag, which stands out in the blazing firelight.

"Yes...... Zahas ...... "Holding Anna, who was protruding from her pregnant belly, she looked at the hideous fluttering wolf-headed battle flag, and said in surprise.

Then, a few arrows flew over the stone wall of the battlement, and the warriors of the guard hurriedly raised their shields and lifted Caesar down from the pheasant platform, "What about the fleet of Seleucia?" Anna asked eagerly, and then she answered herself, "Most of them are in the port of Malrus, under the leadership of Andreev and Jalguba, and joined with the Adana fleet, originally to guard against the breaking of the battle of Apsomatius. There are also two ships in Alarmanburg, and to no avail, the enemy fleet is five or ten times larger than ours, not only Zahas's, but also Apsomatus's - Father, have even the former enemies joined forces against the kingdom of Tarsus? ”

This is Alexios' killer feature.

Originally, after the Emir of Nicaea, Zahaas was broken by the Imperial Warden, he plundered everywhere along the Holy Sea, and was later defeated by Gawain in Gallipoli, so he fled to the Cape Peloponnese, and was expelled by the imperial brother Sebastoclat and the Venetians, all the way to Kairouan in North Africa, and continued to play the role of "sea nomad".

Until before the battle, the emperor sent secret envoys to infiltrate the caravan, and actually made a wish to Zahaas, saying, "You have more than 30 warships and more than 2,000 elite pirates, as long as you are willing to submit to me, help me deal with Gawain." I may command the Archduke of Crete to set aside a large tract of land on the island for you, and all your subordinates will be treated as sailors of the Imperial fleet, entitled to land and wages. In the future, after the kingdom of Tarsus is conquered by me, I will give you additional fields and harbor fortresses of Rhodes, and allow you to freely plunder the merchant ships of the Levant in this sea. ”

Zahas, who had long been dreaming about the bright scenery and fertile fields of Minor, gave up being a wolf on the sea and was willing to be the evil dog of Emperor Komnenos.

At this moment, this person was sitting on the wooden tower at the bow of the largest warship, wearing chain mail and squinting fox-like eyes, standing between the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy, Asasidus, and the ruler of Cyprus, Apsomates, looking at the Seleucian city surrounded by a rain of arrows, and said triumphantly, "Sure enough, as His Majesty the Emperor expected, there is no defense here, and our army is no less than four thousand five hundred people here, this fortress of Gawain is going to be completely finished, and this is also the enemy of the battle of Gallipoli!" ”

"It is said that Her Royal Highness the princess and her son born to Gawain are also in the city, it is really ......" Asassidus sighed a little sadly, and Aptsomates also frowned and bowed his head silently.

"You need not worry at all, if Her Highness the Princess surrenders and deigns to board my ship, I will send her and the child to His Majesty the Emperor in safety. If Her Royal Highness is obsessed and has committed some act of rebellion against the Lord (suicide), then there is nothing we can do, right? Zahas squeezed his pale gray eyes, and then loudly announced that the banner had been raised on the mast and that a general attack on Seleucia had been launched! (To be continued.) )