Chapter 6: Fort North

Monomarcus. Scoleroru comes from a traditional family of military heroes, and although his grasp of military strategy bears some traces of the past, the core essence will never expire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This is the best way to quickly attack the fortification: first annihilate the enemy's main force outside the city, or force it back into an isolated stronghold, and let our side fully grasp the initiative and calmly deploy troops to attack.

So Gawain agreed with General Genat's plan: "The whole army is arrayed from the Marakupies Hill and drives directly to the enemy's northern fort along the diagonal axis. The vanguard consisted of a fire thrower and eight hundred-man border infantry detachments, which were responsible for fighting and pressing the northern fort, and the commander was General Leotius; The Chinese army was commanded by Generals Branas, Orson, and Dorus, and had two main brigades under its command, which were arranged in a large column facing the North Fort; The rear army was under the command of General Monomachus, under the command of four frontier cavalry hundreds, ten frontier infantry hundreds, and two brigades of subordinate engineering divisions were under the command of General Monomachus - I, General Bramson, General Walter, Commander Gottie, Sigmar, commanding four cavalry regiments, including the Oghuz Cavalry Regiment, the St. Cyril Cavalry Regiment, the New Baptized Cavalry Regiment and the Caesar Mounted Cavalry Regiment, acting as a separate army, lurking in the valley and woods on the left side of the Marakupies Mountains; As for the camp on the hill, it was to be guarded by the Count Merlot - between the whole army and the camp, there was to be a gap of five cures. ”

Naturally, this gap was to induce the Grand Chief Merrick.

If he had crossed this gap from Melitene to attack the camp, Gawain's four cavalry regiments would have come out of the ambush and crush him completely.

If Merrick takes advantage of this gap and takes a detour to attack the army in the direction of Northfort, Branas will command all the brigades and regiments and turn back to fight Merrick.

The first two are quick decisions, but there is another situation, that is, Merrick takes a cautious attitude and does not go out, then Gawain orders the whole army, first gather fire to capture the northern fort, and then cut off all the defensive barriers on the periphery of Meritane, completely trap Meritane, and then carry out the attack.

Intelligence now indicates that numerous Turkic and Turkmen tribes from the Erzurum and Armenian plateaus, as well as the Kingdom of Sylvan (Azerbaijan), are gathering on their way to the Sivas Pass, preparing to reinforce the city of Melitene by launching a jihad (or, for the less devout Turks, a massive migration and raid) holy war, all claiming to have been instructed by the Great Seljuk court of Isfahan to annihilate the Christian army that dared to invade the Holy Land, and Gawain's army was called " Tarsus Guards". Thus, now Gawain's army has become a thorn in the hearts of the Crescentists throughout Asia and Khalosan, and almost all the imams of the Khorasan madrasas and mosques are cursing this brown-haired "unbelieving demon" and calling for a rally against him.

Therefore, the strategy of "quick decision" is now more suitable for Gawain.

At the second hour of the morning, at the foot of the hill at the North Fort, there were everywhere the figures of the Pyrinthians with their umbrella crowns and feathers, and they mixed with the archers and grenadiers of the two brigades and regiments to form several horizontal formations, covering the wilderness west of the North Fort, "Lord, help me to work hard! The war song shook the earth, and they were wearing half-body light chain mail, holding fire guns in their hands, and they took turns stacking in formation, violently spraying arrows in the direction of the city gate of the North Fort, and the tails of the arrows were spurting with stinging fire, blowing up the gate tower of the North Fort to the brilliant, and the smoke was heavy.

Soon after the smoke, the Danishmund cavalry, masked and bravery on horseback, stood out in an attempt to drive back the firethrowers. However, the array of pyrinos was filled with archers from the border army, and when the pyrinologists began to reload the cartridges and arrows, they shouted and stepped forward, raised their birch bows, and pressed them closely together to strike at the Turkic cavalry.

The firearms and arrows worked closely together to ensure that the fire frequency of the pyrades and the border army was uninterrupted, and the Danishmund's cavalry, which was originally good at galloping cavalry, clashed several times in a row, but could not defeat the array formed by the firethrowers and the border archers, so they could only return with a feather and raise a warning fire at the north fort, asking the troops of the other fortresses and the city of Meritene to come to the rescue.

The beacon fire flew, and in an instant one barrier after another, it reached the head of the city of Meritane, and in the palace Merrick was dressed in full armor, holding a saber, and was surrounded by all the beys, but his expression was uncertain, and he was also hesitating. Merrick was not a fool, of course he knew that all twenty companies of Gawain's corps of the Grenadier Regiment had appeared at the North Fort, and the two main brigades were behind him, just to lure him out of the city for a decisive battle - at the same time, the scout cavalry also came to report that between Gawain's baggage camp and the North Fort, there were several gaps in the position of the Guardian Army, "Do you want to pass through and surprise attack the enemy's camp?" ”

"Will there be an enemy ambush near the camp?" Merrick was anxious about such questions.

General Kudb, who was beside him, said, "Thousands of warriors will soon arrive from Khorasan, and the governor of Mosul, Kobha, has promised to send an army to help us in our defense, so it is time to be cautious and hold on to Melitene until all the men and horses have gathered before launching a counterattack." ”

Hearing this plan, Merrick nodded, and also expressed his approval in his heart, because the previous fiasco at Fort Germanico had made him have a psychological shadow on the team of Galvan's pyrometers who shot thunder fire, and he really didn't dare to say a duel with the enemy lightly.

"Call the rest of the fortresses to support the North Fort and nail Gawain's men and horses to the ground. As long as I hold out for a few more days, I will wait for an opportunity to launch a major counteroffensive. In the end, Merrick, who had lost his spirit, could only give this cruel order, which was tantamount to putting the 3,000 Turkic and Turkmen defenders in Beibao to fend for themselves.

Beibao, which received the beacon signal, did not dare to fight against the 3,000-odd Gawain avant-garde team, and held it behind closed doors. The rest of the fortresses began to send small teams, climbing over hills and roads, desperately reinforcing the North Fort, and engaged in fierce battles with the outposts of the Gao Cultural Tourism Regiment in various places.

After a long day of fighting at the front, there was a very quiet scene around the Maracupies, and Gawain, who was sitting in the saddle in the valley next to him, touched Sabina's ears and listened to the birdsong around him, "Merrick is still not fooled?" Then let's follow the third plan. ”

In the evening, when Gawain's herald rode to the front of the rearguard of Monomachus, the general of Jinat did not hesitate, that is, he commanded all the border militia in his hand, and the auxiliary engineer division of the brigade, suddenly quickened his pace, carried a hundred wheeled wagons, quickly crossed the line of the Chinese army, interspersed with the eastern passage of the North Fort, and began to build temporary fortifications overnight, and this camp site happened to cut off the North Fort and the rest of the Danishmond fortress!

It was clear that Gawain was now going to concentrate all his efforts on capturing the North Fort first. (To be continued.) )