Chapter 61: Gawain's Best Friend

The reply was that the two had instructed the believers to assassinate Sokhman, and fearing that the city would retaliate against them, so they took advantage of the chaos to continue running eastward. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Gawain handed the "horseshoe-shaped token" of the commander to his henchman Muzafiadin: "You take two squadrons of Oghuz cavalry and two squadrons of red-handed cavalry, bite this stupid miscellaneous fish dregs, and report your whereabouts to me at any time." ”

After receiving the order to leave, Gawain continued the order: the whole army marched into the city, and sent messengers to take over the rest of the fortress cities in the entire Altuki country.

A few days later, the Turkic emir state of Artuki was completely wiped out, as its prince Sokman was assassinated by the Assasins, and the other two most important fortresses, Mardin and Dunayasr, had no resistance, and sacrificed the keys to the gates to Gawain and begged for submission.

Gawain pacified all the inhabitants and trading posts in the city, announcing that the original Edict of the Maharaja had stipulated that after the Guardians occupied the new territory, all Turkmen (since they had been separated from Oghuz), Persians, and Saracens were faced with three choices: conversion, forced labor, and migration. But now Gawain modified the edict: the Crescentists of the kingdom of Altuki and the newly conquered lands thereafter could not be converted or forced to work, but they had to pay a much heavier "self-reform gold" than the conversion and forced labor to replenish their military expenses. This is much in line with the policy of forcing Christians and Jews to pay additional taxes during the Muhammadic expansion.

Even so, Gawain's army was generally welcomed by the inhabitants of the entire kingdom because of its benevolence and grace, and no more than one in twenty people migrated away. In addition, Gawain imposed a policy of leniency towards the Armenians and Greeks, "the whole of Artuki was sanctified in its fields and canals, but the city retained the right of autonomy and paid an annual tax to Tarsus according to the base." In addition, Gawain also announced that he had changed Diarbakir back to his original name "Amida".

During the week of Gawain's stay, the local population spontaneously launched a vigorous search for Assasin's sleepers, and even the Ismailis (Assasin was the most radical among them) were not spared, and hundreds of those arrested were captured by the old militia and taken to the city of Armida's walls to be executed on the spot, and blood was everywhere.

To the north of Amida is a high hill with many lakes and meadows, which is a good winter sheltered pasture, and it is blessed with Mosul to the southeast, Samosata to the southwest, and water transportation from the upper reaches of the Euphrates River. Gawain was so pleased with this that he left behind some of the officers of the Brotherhood and the Reformist Society, who were responsible for counting the pastures, orchards, and agricultural land as soon as possible, and distributing them as holy slabs to the soldiers of the Yefandouni Brigade in a timely manner.

In the cellar of the dead Sochman's palace, many treasures and fine wines were found, and although many generals advocated giving them all to their subordinates, Gawain refused, "This should be inherited by Sochman's son, and all of them should be sealed up, and in the future, when his son arrives from Isfahan, he will be handed over to him without moving." ”

When a few generals questioned, Gawain replied solemnly, "I am now doing things strictly in accordance with the Roman legal code, and I hope everyone is the same." So no one dared to mention the division of Sochman's property.

Through these few events, Gao Wen won a great reputation, and it spread quickly.

The results of this reputation can even surpass those on the battlefield: the city of Samosata is isolated from the city of Antioch, and they do not want to accept the rule of Bohemond, so they are willing to be loyal to Gawain's banner. So under the secret persuasion of Hercules, the Armenians in the city revolted again, killed the defenders who had driven out Tancred, and declared their defection to the state of Tarsus.

As a result, Tancred became even more desperate.

But on the other hand, Bohemond thought that Gawain had touched the confinement that should belong to him, and began to secretly split with Gawain again.

However, regardless of what Bohemond thought, Gawain made a quick decision, and he quickly united the Samosata with the newly conquered Altuki district, forming a new "Samosata Frontier District", and appointed Walter Kovan Brown. Sanzabal was the head of the district - the former Caesarea was converted into a county, and the pastoral officer Ryan Stein took over the post of county governor.

At the same time, the governor of Mosul, Kobha (who had been defeated in the Battle of Antioch), also sent an envoy to Gawain, advocating non-aggression between the two sides, because Kobha was now mainly focused on the direction of Isfahan: after the assassination of the Great Sultan, the Seljuk warlords were fighting openly and secretly, hoping to support their own people to inherit the throne of the Great Sultan, so Kobuha did not want to be an enemy of Gawain at all.

Gawain also assured Kobha: "The main goal of our army is on the Greater Armenian Plateau, and we will never cross the Euphrates to invade the Mosul region." ”

At the same time, the two "small Kurdish states" of Sylfan and Haddadi also sent secret envoys one after another, hoping to join hands with Gawain to fight against various enemies.

In this way, the five kingdoms of Great Armenia were destroyed by Artuki after a short period of resistance and the "indiscriminate and unjustified assassination" of the Assasins, and Haddadi had already expressed his subservience to Gawain from afar; Danishmond and Sagetus in the northern plateau did not dare to act rashly, so the only thing standing in front of Gawain was the "Kiratpasha Kingdom", which controlled the "Great Fan Lake" area.

Ironically, the state of Kirat Pasha is now showing great inertia to Gawain's sudden appearance, and they have neither sent envoys to mediate diplomatically, nor have they made up their minds to organize a military confrontation, because the country's original sight and energy were also attracted by the assassination that took place in Isfahan's palace.

After the cold of late autumn, Muzafi Addin's scouts reported that the Assasin believers, who had fled from the city of Amida, had fled to an abandoned hill fort in the Sassoon region, where they seemed to have received assistance, and about two hundred Assasin had joined them. The Sassoon region happened to be the western border of the country of Kiratpasha, just across the river from their capital, the city of Kirat.

The group of believers there seemed to be no way to move forward, because the kingdom of Kirat Pasha, who had come to their senses, forbade them to cross the border.

To put it bluntly, the mountain sect Assasin is actually Gawain's best friend, and he has worked hard to kill opponents for him all the way, plus create an excuse for war, Koko.

"All the troops, march into Sassoon! Don't let go of an Assasin dregs. ”

The three brigades selected a total of thirty companies of elite skirmishers, plus 900 cavalry attached to the brigade, plus the red hand cavalry, the Oghuz volunteer cavalry and the border cavalry (about 2,000 elite cavalry) to form a fist-like advance team, and Gawain personally served as the commander and went straight to the target; All the spearmen, convoys, and artillery regiments were formed in the rear, under the command of General Branas, and the rear was also rolled into the plains of the Sassoon region.