In Lepanto's camp, Gawain was stabbing the barbecue meat with a short sword, listening to the clerk next to him read the hundreds of years old Frankish Empire's "Rip Alpha Code" and the newly written Norman military service decree.

"Helmet, six silver coins of sous;

cuirass or knee-high chain mail, twelve su;

shin guards, six su;

scabbard, seven su;

a long sword without a sheath, three su;

spears, two sues;

shields, two sues;

basswood small round shield, half a su;

War horses, twelve Su;

Pack horses, three Sues. ”

"Okay, you look for the corresponding intuitive price, let me have the same intuitive impression." Gawain shoved a piece of meat into his mouth and asked.

The clerk stuck it in the scroll and flipped through it with his rough calloused fingers, "Is it okay to compare it with a cow?" ”

"Yes."

"Two sue for a strong bull with horns, one su for a sturdy cow with horns, four su for a sturdy mare who can plow the fields." The clerk said.

Then Gawain quickly gave the answer, "That is to say, the Norman knights we have captured are each worth the price of twenty-five bulls." While speaking, the clerk was busy for a long time before he kept up with Gawain's calculations, and couldn't help but be dumbfounded, and asked the Earl Commander why his calculation ability was so good because he was illiterate.

"I'll do the ninety-nine multiplication formula." Gawain replied without hesitation, and the people in one of the tents were stunned, not knowing what the "ninety-nine multiplication formula" was.

But then the Earl Commander sighed, "Perhaps, the ransom price I have offered, one hundred and fifty suels per person, is a little too low."

The lighthouse on the rock of Lepanto lit the flames, "This fleet is coming from Corinth?" Gawain, who came over, asked Theognes, who was looking out from the tower, and the other man nodded, "Yes, the rich widow did send you a reward in order to please you." ”

"Then take the money, don't hesitate, and set sail from Lepanto tomorrow to Italy." Gawain looked stunned and didn't care about Ingridina's mood.

"Alas, won't you return to Corinth, and take part in the feast of triumph?" Although Diognis knew it in his heart, he still spoke up and asked.

Gawain slapped the battlements and said lightly, "Time is running out, the Chamber of Commerce is urging us very tightly, Bohemond is stepping up the siege of Amalfi, as for the news that our army has defeated his Einsatzgruppen army, I have written a letter and immediately rushed to hand it over to Bohemond, I am curious about what the red-bearded bandit leader will look like after learning that his partial army has been defeated, I think he will ask for a ransom of thousands of silver coins, and the three news that Gawain has landed on his lair, it is funny to think about." ”

"But what if Bohemond followed the example of the Turks and conquered Amalfi to the death?" The warden's missteps at the head of George's stables are still vividly remembered.

After hearing this inquiry, Gawain pulled out his fire sickle and gently wiped it into the stone crevices of the battlements, and the flames burst out, illuminating his side face, "He will not be able to stand it, we can also learn the tactics of the Turks to deal with the Norman strongholds and villages in the Calabrian region." ”

"Squeak!" An ancient Roman-style stone thrower, the lever slammed into the leather cushion at the front end, pushing the front of the stack to move forward for half a minute, the stone whistled in the air to make a parabolic action, smashed on the edge and corner of a stone castle on the ridge of the mountain, smashed down a little debris, and fell one after another, and the craftsmen under the stone thrower, now the siege engineers, all let out a regretful sigh.

Bohemond sat beside him, listlessly with his sword, looking at the villages and wheat fields that had been completely burned by his army, and then the steep and tall verdant peaks, on which the towers and pillboxes of Amalfi were scattered, skillfully blended with the forests and rocks, and behind the barrier of this mountain was a narrow promontory with long tentacles, on the other side of which was the besieging fleet of the city of Pisa, and the city of Amalfi was located between the mountains and the sea, with its back to the besieging army of Bohemond.

But it was the barrier of this mountain, and Bohemond, Duke of Apulia, gnawed for two months, but still did not make much progress, and finally he made an agreement with the Pisans to "trap Amalfi to death." ”

Then, Pope Peter sent a batch of messengers, and the words became more and more fierce and harsh, demanding that the red-bearded prince withdraw the siege of the city as soon as possible, and go to the northern Placentia to attend the synod to try the scandal caused by the excommunicated emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV, and prepare to reorganize the people, take over the long-cherished wish of the previous pope, and cooperate with the hermit Peter to go to the Holy Land. Bohemond was also constantly engaged in a lawsuit with the Holy See Messenger, and in any case he was taking the Cho, the main purpose of which was to hope that the Pope would entrust him with the appointment of the patriarchs of Calabria and Lucania.

The main thing is that Bohemond is now shy in his pocket, he has been out of the army until now, and the funds are burning to the bottom, once he can obtain the right to appoint the patriarch, all the rings and scepters of the patriarchs and priests in these two provinces and regions will be given by him, then in the "clerical trade", he can obtain much higher income than the normal tax, and he can really rely on his reputation and huge money to organize a strong army comparable to his deceased father, and then march to the holy land, and wait for the opportunity to establish the Norman Empire in Anatolia or Syria, It is also far stronger than in this constrained area.

In this regard, Urban, who was born as a Cluny monk on the Holy See, commented, "Dear Duke of Apulia, you are now engaged in the same dangerous deeds as the traitor Henry, and this Holy See will do three things in the past year that will honor my Lord through the ages, the first of which is to destroy the traitor Henry and the false pope he has fostered; The second was Philip, the king of Île-de-France, who had committed the most shameful crimes, adultery, incest, and murder; The last one is to call on all believers, regardless of origin, to go to the East to restore the Holy Sepulchre. I don't want you to be the fourth person of this Holy See's concern. ”

Bohemond tore the letter to pieces and threw it on a cliff between the mountains and the sea, "In another month, the city of Amalfi will fall, and the Norman knights and I will be able to plunder as much as we want." Should I accept the mediation of the Holy See, or should I seek greater interests? Dead mother, Gaita, I don't know how to grasp the scale of the instructions you gave me before you died. You must be too busy in hell to remind your son in your dreams that you deserve it. ”

At this moment, a messenger in charge of the herald passed through the besieged camp and delivered the letter into his hands, and then Bohemond found that many lords and knights who had come to join the army with solemn faces were also surrounding him.