At Fort Caltalimon, also in the midst of the wind and snow, Grand Count Merlot and hundreds of Task Force soldiers, cloaked in jackets filled with linen or Indian cotton, with black armor sticking out, stood in a row on the shore, and the banner of the Christfish whizzed and waved, looking at the black sea like that, until the arrival of Theognes' fleet. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Everyone, both on the shore and on the deck of the ship, shouted happily.

From a distance, the fortresses and chains guarding the entrance to the Yukxing Sea at the sharp corners of the Bosphorus are faintly recognizable, and the buildings are like monsters everywhere, and the soldiers of the task force do not care about the situation in the south, because their target is not Constantinople, but the vast land of Thrace to the north. Many people trudged through the bitter black waters, the white foam kept rising and going, the soldiers carried their luggage with ice and snow on their iron helmets, and the spearmen among them lined up their spears horizontally into the skuas's cabins, and then boarded the improvised deck, looked back at the hazy campfire at Fort Kartarimon, and began to paddle their oars, following the three commands of the Earl, the Catcher, and the Military Judge, along the coast in a north-north-northwest direction.

This "Thracian Volunteer Army" brought great terror to the local area after the next morning.

The landing place was Fort Medea, not far northwest of Constantinople, and on one side of the gentle beachhead coast, more than thirty skuas rushed up with the tide, and the spade beaks on the bow of the ships whaled out the rolling furrow-like traces, and the whizzing arrows flew and stuck in the single sail.

The Maldean sailors or task force shooters with their guns in the shouts leaped out skilfully and, leaning against the hull, exchanged fire with the oncoming castle garrison light cavalry.

When the smoke had cleared, the cavalry that had been driven out of Medea saw the increasing number of ships and enemy soldiers ashore, and hurried back to the castle.

Later, the Pronian knight Roxette, who was stationed at the castle, suddenly raised his flag, declared a pre-battle uprising, and joined the "Thracian Volunteer Army", vowing to save all Thrace from "John's tyranny", and most of the castle guards followed him - a day later, another military town of Vizeburg, fifty curles west of Fort Medea, also defected to the emperor's camp and joined the ranks of the volunteers.

As a result, Algilli and 800 soldiers rushed into the castles of Wiezer and Medea, and began to dig and build temporary camps along the southern border, cutting off the military passage between this place and Constantinople.

Under the gloomy clouds and drifting snow, there was a rift again in the Plonian landlord class of Thrace: many came to join the army on horseback and armor, and although they all called the Tarsus army ashore "volunteers", they knew in their hearts that they were indeed turning their back on John and throwing themselves against Anna and Gawain, but there were also groups that remained loyal to the empire, occupying market towns and military forts everywhere, ready to resist stubbornly - in other words, they also made their own choices about the future path of the empire.

Amid the yellow weeds and sandy hills, Algilli shook hands with the newly surrendered Roxette in the camp, and this time he did not make any "fifty years of change" promise to Lydia, but made it clear to everyone that the visitors would enjoy the generous Gospel of the Holy Fortune and that they would be able to "ransom" the prison territory they had previously possessed to the new government of Tarsus, so that you would receive two benefits in total.

A few days later, the Plonian knights in the fortresses of Viklon and Yapo in northern Thrace gathered and crossed the Vilěka River (a river between Thrace and Constantinople that empties into the Yukchen Sea) in the name of allegiance to the Empire, and began to attack Algilli's camp, in an attempt to restore their communication with the imperial capital, but were repelled several times by Algilli's and the newly surrendered Plonian army using a combination of platoons, fortifications, and light artillery.

But before the Imperial knights could make any progress, an even more frightening message came from their north flank:

Theognes and Merlot led the remaining 1,500 sailors and task forces, and rode the remaining seventy light boats, including three cannons, and rushed north to Fort Antober at the mouth of the Villeka River, and launched another surprise attack on this important place!

The defenders of Fort Antober swore allegiance to the current emperor and refused the "volunteers'" demands for surrender, and then the defenders cut down many branches, reeds, and shrubs along the bank, built several deer barrages along the banks of the river, and fired arrows at the fleet behind their cover.

Diognis bravely led a dozen light boats into the estuary of the river, and ordered his soldiers to line up reeds and shields on both sides of the ships to shoot arrows against the influx of the guards on the shore. Three vehicles and ships followed, one unlucky hit the reef and ran aground on the shore, some drowned, some were killed by the shore guards, and the rest held on to the dilapidated and tilted cabin to resist. A group of guards came with canisters and torches to throw and burn the vessel—and at this moment the other two rushed to anchor, concentrated the shrimp whisker cannons on the opposite side of the shore and fired a salvo, deafeningly, and the cannonballs rained down, and the flesh and blood of the guards flew away.

And so on until nightfall, the exchange of fire on the shore and on the river was fierce.

At night, Merlot commanded the rest of the ships to venture into the mouth of the river, but found that the banks on both sides of Antobo were too steep for a large number of soldiers to land, so Merlot asked the soldiers to take off their armor, and instead of carrying spears, they swam lightly with swords and axes to swim ashore and hide, leaving a small number of sailors (about ten people) on each ship to continue to drive forward, and gathered on the water of Fort Antobo with the advance fleet of Theognes, and constantly fired at the deer and the fortress with light guns and firearms, making a false noise.

Two days later, Diognis lined up his fleet and beat the sails and drums to lure the defenders of Antobo to line up on the shore, while Merlot took the opportunity to charge from the flank with a concealed elite brigade of short men, and the defenders immediately broke away, and Fort Antobo was captured soon after.

Soon, the victorious task force marched rapidly westward along the Villeka River, raiding various strongholds.

On the other hand, dozens of skuas were ready to carry more soldiers ashore in the Thracian lands.

Thus, before the task force could advance to Meisembria, almost the entire eastern Thrace was lost, and the imperial capital was terrified.

The streets were full of officials and nobles who had fled and were preparing to escape, and John, who had received the information, sat in the river hall in a daze, in a cold sweat, "Why did Gawain treacherously negotiate and negotiate with him, why did he send an army to attack Thrace!" ”

Axepocaus replied that Gawain had instigated the local lords and knights to rebel and sent elites under the banner of the so-called "Thracian Volunteers" to cover up the public.

This kind of gameplay, John really hasn't seen much...... He was angry, frightened, and helpless.

"Tetisius, call Tetisius, I'm going to ask him what to do!"