When Guy and Claret hesitated about the ship, Bohemond laughed and said, "The king of Île-de-France will do everything in his power to help me—yes, my dear, William. Granmenille? ”

Later, in the middle of the Norman knights' bannermen, a middle-aged man in majestic armor walked slowly with his bridle and saluted the Duke of Apulia on horseback, smiling with a smile on his face, "Of course, the French king has promised me, in order to avenge his royal brother Hugh, he has spent a lot of money for the merchant ships of Marseille to reinforce us, and they have a charter issued by the Holy See, and no city-state can stop this fleet in any sea." Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

The people around him, whether it was Guy and Clarey, and even Reinold and Richard, who had always followed Bohemond, were stunned, as if they had seen a man returning from hell, because he had been hidden behind the Duke in the flag team on the battlefield of Focha, and people were more familiar with him, William, who had accompanied him when the brother of the French prince "Venerable Hugh" was inexplicably killed on the plateau of Asia Minor. Granmenelle, also Bohemond's brother-in-law, mysteriously disappeared.

However, when Bohemond was captured, William. Granmenelle miraculously appeared from Italy, traveled through Lombardy and Liguria, and then appeared at the court of the French king, telling all of France to his face, "The one who killed Hugh is undoubtedly the Emperor of Greece." I have survived the arduous trek to your temple to tell you the bloody and hateful news. ”

The courtiers were furious and immediately demanded that the king declare war on Constantinople, but the shrewd king of France stopped the anger of his servants by asking William to do so. Granmeniel went back to contact Bohemond, "Is it possible to organize a coalition of Lombards and Apulia to go on an expedition to the Kingdom of Greece?" France will provide selfless support with money, ships. ”

Soon in the midst of the waves, Bohemond's huge army sailed straight to the military district of Tiracum on dozens of Marseille merchant ships, as well as long ships collected from the Taranto and Bari regions, carrying 3,000 horses, 10,000 infantry, and 800 knights and knightly trained attendants, chanting the battle cry "The legacy of Guiscart", heading straight for the military district of Tiracium, the target of which was naturally its core capital, Razor.

The tragic war of 20 years ago is about to be repeated.

The royal brother Sebastoclat, who was originally being reorganized in the Ragusa area. Isaac hurriedly led the eight thousand elites at hand to the south to rush to the aid of Durazo.

However, it was only a false shot from Bohemond - he and his avenging army landed in the port of Apolonia, and then Duke Redbeard sent a light army to capture the pass to the interior of Thessaly, cut the passage to and from there, and stopped the scurried Sebastoprat in a flat moor.

Soon after the battle began, the Norman cavalry of 800 strong galloped and charged with spears to crush the left flank of the emperor's brother; The frightened Sebastoprat was still holding on to the center, ordering the archers to line up and fire to stop Bohemond's attack - but Bohemond apparently did not want to repeat the mistake of his defeat at Larissa in his youth, and he had recruited more Benevento, Bari, and Calabrian crossbowmen to shoot the Emperor's Chinese army to the ground, and Isaac abandoned his army on horseback in panic and fled to the city of Durazo.

But Bohemond did not hesitate to bypass Durazo, not wishing to waste time under this fortified city, and his army crossed the mountains directly from the south, and began to advance rapidly towards the richest region of Thessalonica, following the "viaegnatia" (a very important and wide road for transporting troops from Constantinople in the east, through the plains of Thrace, Macedonia and Epirus in the east, and the lifeline of the empire in the western region). Let's discard the rigid idea of the knightly class, there is no honor to be won here, all we have to do is attack, kill and plunder! Bohemond howled so much as he swept eastward, and his battle flag made all Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, and even the imperial capital of Constantinople tremble.

By the time word reached the Emperor of Philomeron, the red-bearded bandit chieftain had reached less than fifty centuries west of Thessaloniki.

The Emperor was terrified.

The Emperor was also greatly distressed.

Here he confronted Gawain and played the card of the Zahaas pirates, believing that Gawain was exhausted, and in ten days he would be able to gather all his armies and complete all the preparations for battle and crush Gawain (poor Alexios had not yet had time to know the situation in Seleucia). But Gawain played the card of Bohemond again, leaving him with a back attack, so in ten days, he had to make a decision!

The emperor had nothing more than three choices:

Divided troops to return to Macedonia, and he led the main force to continue the confrontation with Gawain here;

Return to the western part of the empire and kill Bohemond, but the eastern frontiers are clear - Afyon, Philomelon, Angras, and many more will be lost at the hands of Gawain and Theodoro;

The third option is to concentrate on fighting to the death, first crushing the sworn enemy Gawain, at least knocking him back to Tarsus, crippling his army, forcing Gawain to accept a peace treaty that is beneficial to the empire, and then turning back to repel Bohemond, and then slowly dealing with many enemies.

Not only Alexios was faced with these three choices, all the imperial generals and nobles were the same, and a fierce quarrel broke out in the imperial military council for the first time, after all, each choice was really related to the interests of different factions, and it was different from the previous sedan chair carried by the emperor.

The Thracian general Cezes strongly advocated a peace with the opposite side of Gawain, and the main force went back to repel Bohemond, the second option. He quoted the financial documents sent by the Imperial Governor Beriel, "Your Majesty's mobilization of tens of thousands of people to the plateau has depleted the public and private coffers, and the war will not last for three months, if Gawain holds on, we will break his barricades, and his army will be able to retreat to the camp, and the camp will be able to retreat to Iconium." When the money is gone, what is the use of killing and wounding a large number of enemies? At that time, Bohemond had already burned Thessalonica and Thrace, and all the taxes of the empire for the coming year would be finished, and all His Majesty's armies and even the empire would completely collapse! ”

Brenus and his associates cautiously agreed with the third option, after all, he and many of the Pronian nobles were based in the southwestern region of Anatolia, that is, in the area of the Mesia and Lydian plains, which was also a land of abundant manpower and wealth, "After Your Majesty retreats, it will be difficult for us to resist Gawain's offensive, so that the empire's foundation in Asia Minor will be destroyed, and Gawain will be able to gradually encroach and swallow up, and directly approach the imperial capital." ”

In the end, Tetisius, who was extremely experienced and authoritative (of course, for the soldiers, the nobles looked down on him), agreed with the first option, "Please let me bring my 6,000 new troops back to the imperial capital as soon as possible, and I am confident that I will hold Thessaloniki!" (To be continued.) )