Gawain and Anna could hardly believe the look in their eyes—the sailors' warships from the fortress of Tsarsidon had stopped paddling and beating drums, the Roman firearms had been re-covered, and all the sailors were standing on deck, watching their ships leave.

"Father" Anna turned her head to see, and at the sound of the horn, Alexios's huge ship began to retreat, in the direction of the royal dockyard, where the crimson remnant clouds flew over, reflecting the gray-white woods and water, just like her father's sideburns, and immediately tears flowed down, and she fell gently into Gawain's arms, looking at the outline of the imperial capital of Constantinople, which slowly dissipated into the setting sun, leaving only the sound of the wheels hitting the water.

In the meadow between Civet and Nicaea, the scimitar of the Turkic slave of the Romani kingdom was raised, and the neck of one of the fleeing pilgrims was cut off, and the blood flew several feet, and the wood was scattered and fell to the grass under the troopers' horses, and then the slave pulled down the mask that covered him, put the scimitar back into its sheath, and looked smug, and then turned off his horse, and with a dagger, cut off the head of the pilgrim who had come out to pick wood, and tied it to his saddle, on which were already hung seven or eight bloody heads.

Then the soldier continued to stir the horse's hooves, pulled the reins, stood upright on the saddle, and galloped towards the pilgrims' camp at the foot of the mountain, carrying the strung pilgrim's head in his hand, as if boasting of his horsemanship, to the wooden fence of the camp.

Thousands of pilgrims and men and women behind them covered their faces as if waiting for a cruel verdict as the slave soldiers approached. In a commotion of horror and anger, they all got up. Watch as the slave soldier on horseback gallops wildly, and then shakes the string of heads. After throwing it into the wooden fence, he laughed and ran away again.

Around the string of human heads rolling on the muddy ground, people knelt down one after another, and those who recognized their relatives cried even more, this is the tenth time, or the twentieth time? Throughout today's Christmas, pilgrims, men, women, and children go out to gather supplies. All are gilliqui. The elite slaves sent by Arslan slaughtered everywhere and then threw their heads into the camp like this, which was a demonstration, a provocation, and even more a threat.

"The day has passed, and we must fight!" Forser was furious, "A tooth for a tooth." ”

"Please wait another day, the people from Camp Civet will report. Today, there are dozens of small boats carrying soldiers and horses sent by Grand Duke Gawain to the shore. As a result, Walter could not finish his sentence when he was interrupted impatiently by Reinold, "Tomorrow morning." Forty thousand pilgrims, armed with weapons, marched out to crush the provocations of the vile infidels. Don't wait for that insignificant Gawain, or he'll snatch our merits away. ”

"Please"

"Walter. All five hundred cavalry are handed over to you, and they will stand on the plains leading to Nicaea! "Fourchet was at the same time as Reinold. Without giving the old knight any chance to speak, he said in a commanding tone, and the suspicious and annoyed eyes from all sides turned to Walter, the chief flag officer in the center of the whirlpool, and the gray-haired old knight could only bow his head and no longer defend.

"The rest of the men, divided into six phalanxes, and I and Forche each commanded three of them, marched in a column from the dense forest on the side of the plains, and under the guidance of the Walter knights, fought a decisive battle with Surelman's army in front of the canyon!"

As soon as the Daystar disappeared, 40,000 pilgrims from Germany, West Francia, Denmark and other places, most of them men, all armed with rudimentary weapons, singing hymns loudly, lined up in a dense formation, left the camp, and then, according to the plan of Forchert and Reinold, began to walk towards the woods in front of the pasture, which could cut off the view.

A sharp-eyed falcon, standing alone on the fence of the camp, saw the smoke-filled procession, then flapped its wings and flew up and roared among the mountains and plains, circled, and finally flew higher and higher, until it came to the castle on the hill that changed hands twice, and landed on the shoulders of the Armenian Pakad, who looked at the unconcealed march of the pilgrims below, and grinned, "Go quickly and report to the Sultan that his provocation has succeeded, and he can be in front of the ravine, Defeat this group of bandits who don't know the height of the sky. ”

Meanwhile, in front of the harbor of Civet, many of the sailors of the Dalian Fleet were on the beachhead in the cold morning wind, watching as strange ships approached, and on top of them stood their Grand Duke.

Gawain was the first to jump ashore, and then the door of the cabin opened, and the sailors rowing the boat picked up Anna, Agnes, Muzafiadin, the Slavic hunter, and Sabina.

While Anna was still relieving the emotion in her heart, Gawain was already quickly asking about the situation of Androdart, who came to meet her, "Very bad, your governor Merlot has already led his army to the battlefield at full speed, while His Excellency Andreev has organized ships to return to the other side of the strait and continue to transport troops. Here I am, with only twelve Brotherhoods and about thirty or forty sailors, and the whole camp of Chivet is trying to escape, or to go out and fight the Turks to the death. "The confidential officer is very tired, but he still needs to increase the speed of his speech and report the situation in this area to the Grand Duke as soon as possible.

Now the harbor camp was indeed much like the confidential officer had said, and the mountains were full of crying helpless people and terrified campfires, and they did not know whether the camp ahead was winning or losing the battle against the Turks, some were praying loudly, some were clustered on the seashore and watched, hoping that the Lord or the Greek emperor would come and rescue them.

Anna, on the other hand, stood in the direction of the Imperial Capital, thoughtfully, when Agnes quietly walked behind her, "Please let me follow in your footsteps from now on." ”

"Thank you and your ship." When Anna turned her head and spat out her words, it was obvious that she was not the daughter of a mere hunter at all, but a noble girl who had received an extremely good education. But suddenly, Anna's legs were hot, and it was Agnes's hand that caressed it, and before she could react, the light-eyed girl, with a seductive smile, raised her fingers and followed her neck, and then held Anna's ear, and then closed her eyes, and brought her lips closer.

"Alas," Anna was immediately stunned. Stood still, letting Agnes attack quickly.

"Smack". With a soft sound, Agnes felt that something was wrong. She opened her eyes—and what she kissed was the fingers of a long man, no doubt expressionless, and Gawain between her and Anna. Then, Gawain pushed her back half a step from Anna's face, "Anna doesn't have this hobby, stay away from her." With that, Gawain held up two gold Byzantian coins and stuffed them into Agnes' palms. It's the ship's commission, but I think you can go back, and you must be a woman from a famous family. ”

Annoyed, Agnes glared at Gawain, who had failed her good deeds, and covered her lips with her hair, "Who scarces these riches of yours, but I am a descendant of the famous Roman family of Plani, who has been born in the city of Antioch for nine centuries, and I am a wise and noble family that has been favored by the goddess Minerva. ”

Really. Anna soon associates the Prani family with her impression: a family that was famous in Syria in ancient times, and who later migrated to Asia Minor after the invasion of the Crescents. There were many lands on the islands of Gallipoli and Relespos, and even in the time of the Orthodox faith, Prani claimed to be a family blessed by Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. They are especially known for their ability to make instruments and ships, but their patriarch is now living in seclusion on the island of Respas. I don't really participate in government affairs anymore.

After Anna quickly whispered to Gawain, "This is your coming out of Respos. Reasons to seduce girls of the same sex as you everywhere? No wonder the etymology of 'lace' comes from this island. Gawain said sarcastically.

But Agnes didn't care at all, and openly stated, "That's right, I am a believer in the tenth muse, Sappho (Sappho, an ancient Greek poetess, known as the tenth of the Nine Muses, opened a sect on the island of Lespos and only enrolled female students, and later became the originator of lesbians). I came to Quangu because I had fallen in love with a beautiful nun in my hometown and annoyed my grandfather. ”

"Oh, it's not good for you to see something different, ride your ugly sunfish, back to your island and find your grandfather to be a coquette, and see if he can agree with your affection for the nun. This is not the place where Sappho played the piano and talked poetry with his female disciples before the moon, and the front was full of murderous Turkic pagans. Gawain pointed to the ship moored on the shore and ordered Agnes to be evicted.

"Hmph, that's funny, are you jealous? I didn't expect that a rough and tall Varyag barbarian like you would have such delicate emotions. But it seems that you have no right to accuse me at all. Agnes asked, in turn, pointing to the blonde hair hanging from Gawain's neck.

The two of them were like thunder, and Anderodat and Muzafiadin were constantly directing personnel scheduling, as if they were numb to this situation.

Gawain was not interested in fighting with Agnes any more, he stepped on Sabina's back, pulled the bridle, and glanced at Anna, and the eldest princess was very obediently leaning over, carrying her skirt, and then Gawain took her hand and pulled her on the horse, Agnes was so angry that she was going crazy, but she could only carry her luggage and follow behind on her head mule.

"Hey, wouldn't you be surprised if Anderodat did? The girl brought by the Grand Duke this time is amazing. Looking at this scene, the Turkic servant whispered.

"Ha" The former apprentice friar, with empty eyes and a lazy tone, replied, "The widow of the famous family of the empire, the wife of the emperor's chief of guard, the female consul of the heretics, where else can she go over" Then, Androdat froze, he suddenly thought of some of the letters he had handled, and then twisted his neck, and saw Muzafiadin Adin's face full of "you know" expression, stammering, teeth fighting fiercely, "Is it it, is it the princess in the emperor's purple bedchamber"

Muzafi Addin, in accordance with the custom of the Turks, raised his finger to indicate that this was exactly the case.

The rising sun covered the wilderness outside Nicaea, and the war drums in the distance suddenly sounded, Gawain rode on his horse, and Anna sat in front, galloping towards the place where the sun rose, "Your Royal Highness, there is a battlefield ahead, and I am ashamed to say that I have to face you in such a tragic situation from the beginning." ”

"It's okay big barbarian, our journey has officially begun."

"Well, it's officially started." Gawain said, pulling his arms together, he was afraid that Anna would be blown by the cold wind.

(End of this volume) (To be continued.) )