Soon, fireworks were also lit on the opposite hill, and Croto watched the situation change. After the fireworks were lit in both places, a large number of military servants and escorting soldiers began to appear at the mountain passes, with many mules, horses and vehicles in between, and they marched along the valley in the direction of the Kobuha camp -- everyone knows that today is a crucial day for the decisive battle, so it is extremely important to do a good job in the transportation of logistics.

Seeing all this, Croto left the beacon platform, grabbed the rope ladder, and quickly pulled to the flatter mountain below, facing the side of the mountain slope with a fire sickle, lit the torch in his hand, and waved it continuously, making a "V" trajectory in the black air.

Among the bushes at the foot of the hill, rows of figures rose from their hideouts: Tancred, with his long flaxen hair, which had not been cut since the defeat of Lepanto, rushed up the hill with the rest of the two hundred and fifty Calabrian soldiers and thirty Normans with war horses.

Soon, the fireworks that continued to burn on the beacon flint printed the outline of Tanfred's ambitious face, and he looked at the long baggage procession of Mosul in the valley below, while the Turkic camps around the Iron Gate Fortress left only a few fires, and seemed to be sleeping quietly.

"Croto, look at it, what judgment?" Tanfred put one foot on the battlements of the beacon and pointed to the precipitous valley floor below a connected patch of trees and grass, which was open and the gateway to the ridge where the Turks had hoarded food.

"Their skill, compared to the warriors of Apulia, is like a fledgling fledgling." Croto scoffed loudly, he could easily see that there was a reflection of weapons and hats in the place that Tancred was referring to, "Can this also be called an ambush?" ”

"It seems that the enemy is not worth our fear, Croto. Launch a swift attack! You stay here, watching over the enemy, holding the flag and the instrument. I will personally go down to command the battle, and the martial arts of seizing the enemy's key granary belong to the Tver family. With that, Tanfred quickly turned on his horse, and the forty Norman cavalrymen beside him also mounted one by one, and the rest of the Calabrian light soldiers lined up in a wide formation, standing on foot in front of Tancred, overlooking the slopes and valleys below.

Then, facing the pass where the Acropolis and the Iron Gate Fortress intersected, Tanfred clenched his fists and lowered his arms, and a Calabrian archer stretched out his arrow into the flint, and then a red flame rose from the top of the hill like a meteor, and with a loud cry, it streaked across the dawn sky - and then the roars rang out, and the father and son of Estus and Pakad, with six hundred Armenian soldiers, and a third of them rode horses of all colors, pack horses, mules, and bad horses, and the rest followed quickly on foot, They scrambled sideways towards the baggage convoy of Mosul.

Because the bald head of Pak'ad was very well lurking in advance, and he was only seven or eight hundred feet away from the men and horses of the Mosul side, so soon Pak'ad brandished his saber and rode his inferior horse, and rushed to the front of a grain truck in an instant, and the Mosul soldier escorted above had just raised his spear in his hand and was about to stab down, when he was cut to the calf by Pak'ad, and the soldier with splashed blood raised his foot backwards and planted it on the wheel that was still rolling, crushed the spokes of the wheel, and then rolled to the ground. The flour bag and the rest of the soldiers all poured to the ground, and Parker Ade laughed, and the saber in his hand galloped and slashed like an agile viper, killing the soldiers who were struggling to get up, and blood was spilled everywhere.

The rest of the Armenians were in high spirits, galloping on horseback, accompanied by the whirring arrows of the following procession, which at once broke the heavy baggage of the Mosul into several sections without caring for each other, and the escorts of these vehicles were not elite soldiers at all, but mostly Khorasan peasants who had been forcibly recruited by Kobha, and in the face of the onslaught of the enemy, they would only abandon their vehicles and rush to run in the field.

At this moment, the 500 soldiers of Mosul, including their commander, who had been ambushed there in advance, were also frightened. Many people, armed with weapons and flags, saw the tragic situation of the attack on the baggage team in front of them, gave up their lurk, revealed their positions, and stood up from the grass with their backs to the hill where Tancred was, ready to go to the rescue, but did not receive clear instructions, and could only hesitate in place, not realizing the danger approaching from the hill behind.

"Ambush of fools!" On the hill, Tanfred drew his sword from the plain scabbard from which his belt hung from it, and in the lead, three hundred Calabrian soldiers shouted and divided into several columns, and rushed down unstoppably, and soon broke into the grass behind the Mosul ambushers, and their front ranks ran quickly with hooks and iron forks, and kept whistling with each other—just like the Norman nobles hunted on a daily basis.

The last dozen or so Mosul ambush soldiers, who had just turned around, were instantly stabbed by the fork, and then the Calabrian soldiers stepped directly over their injured bodies and continued to run forward, plowing more and more people, and those who arrived behind carried axes and slashed at the fallen to the ground, reaping their lives. At the end, Tancred was fierce, his flaxen hair fluttering in the wind, with dozens of elite knights, holding swords in battle.

In an instant, the five hundred ambush soldiers were like animals being hunted, and the ambush was instead charged back, and the people on the periphery were quickly cut down and killed, and the rest of the people gathered around their commanders, panicking, and the Norman cavalry skillfully overtook them from both flanks, cutting off the passages everywhere, and then it was a game of hunting: the Normans rode on all sides, and three or five cavalry in a group, repeatedly and briefly assaulted and trampled, waving heavy weapons, which were stained with blood. About a minute later, all 500 ambushers were killed by Tanfred.

Then, Tanfred drove his horse and joined up with Park'ad's troops, who had also achieved great success, "Don't run around, don't chase around. We have only one goal, and that is the enemy's granary on the mountain, rush up, seize and burn it! When all the soldiers were close together, Tanfred did not hesitate, ignoring the abandoned enemy's baggage and supplies, and pointed at the towering mountain on the opposite side.

At this time, the Turkic soldiers in the Iron Gate Fortress as far as the Kobha camp were running noisily, near and far, and they also realized that their granaries might be attacked by the enemy, so they came to reinforce them from every place where they were stationed.

"Your Excellency, there are a large number of enemy reinforcements over there." One of the cavalrymen pointed to the large puffs of smoke and dust rising from the valley on the northwest side, and shouted in some horror, "Shall we divide our forces to defend ourselves?" ”

"I'll repeat it again, everyone has no advance or retreat, don't care about the enemy situation in any direction, give me only to attack the mountain where the enemy's granary is located!" Tancred shouted with his sword, ignoring the enemy situation behind him, and led all the people to move forward and kill fiercely along the mountain road. (To be continued.) )