But soon everyone understood that this was the "sound from the east to the west" of the great patron, no, it was accurate to say that it was the strategy of "sound from the north to the east" - his goal was to drive directly to Fort Diarbakir, which was the most important core fortress of the Emirate of Artuki, and the previous daring Assasin assassins also mixed in from there, so the emir of Artuki. Tutush bears unshirkable responsibility, and we will use the flames of war to ask him for his guilt. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Capture Diarbakir!" All brigades and volunteers quickly regained a unified sense of purpose.

"I had seized 50,000 gold coins worth of money in Maras, and then Ridwan of Aleppo compensated me with 40,000 beggars and gold, and now I have all the money in front of me. I will donate a tenth to the church of the Liberated Society, a tenth of it will be given as a gift to my wife Anna in the court, and the rest I will not touch a single of it, and I will distribute it all to you and my soldiers, and if you fight with me, you will be rich. Gawain rode his horse and proudly announced the order to reward him to the fullest, and he promised, "I wish to return with you in triumph during the winter, when the large sums of money paid by the converts (those of the Crescent elite who converted after Gawain took Meritene and Sebastian) will also arrive, and I will distribute them to you in full, and of course you will share in the spoils of the expedition!" ”

The soldiers are going crazy, they have made the coming campaign a adventure for everyone, the veterans are excited, and the recruits are gearing up.

Previously, the confidential officer Firactos had expressed doubts to Gawain, "If all the money of the army is rewarded, how will the military funds and baggage be raised?" ”

"The male lion only hunts for a day's food, and the ants store the food for the year!" Gawain replied so eloquently, but the implication was that "after entering the country of Artuki, our army will plunder the land like a beast of prey, and supply on the spot." ”

There is also a more straightforward explanation for this sentence, grabbing land, grabbing food, and robbing girls.

Then Gawain suddenly demanded that the officers of all brigades, cavalry regiments, and border militia begin to strictly count the soldiers again and again according to the roster.

As a result, by the middle of the day, more than 30 "Assasines" who had been mixed into the waiting army were actually pulled out!

They were all caught off guard and couldn't escape, originally disguised themselves to sneak in and take the opportunity to assassinate again, but they didn't expect Gawain to come to such a hand.

"Tie it up with a rope and escort me all the way to the city of Diarbakir, where I will be executed in public."

The generous remarks of the great lord and the patron were over, and the four majestic and mighty battle flags were erected, and they were fiercely displayed in the military appearance. In addition to the Red Hand Cross Sword Battle Flag and the Lion Flag, there are also the "Reed Scripture Banner" donated by the monks of Armenian Archbishop Gorpan and Tarsus. Antioch. Orthodox Patriarch of Syria John. The "Holy Flag" sent by Oakhill encouraged and guided the soldiers to their goals.

Having quickly entered the territory of Artuki, the Oghuz cavalry and the Red Hand cavalry marched out in squadrons, swarming to uproot the enemy's outposts and fortifications, and to the Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, and Kurds who lived in the vast market towns and villages:

"The Seljuk invasion and killing were all caused by the corruption and ungodliness of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople, which led to the punishment of the Lord. And now the great patron saint of Seleucia, the saint of Lepin, and the new holy apostle Stephen. Gawain has been given the power of the Lord to lead us from the rule of the Seljuks! Therefore, those of you who believe in the Church must provide each of you with XX food and XX wine (wine, pomegranate wine, wine), while those who follow the teachings of Muhammad do not need to provide drinks, but double the amount of food to finance the march of the army! Along the way, Gawain also continued to preach that as long as Chief Artuki and his garrison were annihilated and expelled, all cities in the territory would be granted the right to freedom.

Wherever the army went, no one dared to hide food, oil, and wine, and the people knelt down on both sides of the road to welcome the arrival of Gawain's army. Soon the Tarsus Guardians advanced to camp on the edge of the lake less than fifty giles from the city of Diarbakir.

When Sokman in the city of Diarbakr learned that Gawain had actually come to attack him, he couldn't help but panic and hurriedly summoned two people.

One of them wore Persian-style robes, the other in Roman-style robes.

The former is indeed Gabu Zuk, the confidant and comrade-in-arms of the old man Hassan in the mountains. Umid, and the latter is actually Potrufis, the secret envoy sent to Marlash by the previous emperor Alexios!

It turned out that this Potrufis was the "mysterious Greek" who plotted to infiltrate the Assassins into the Sylvan Legation, who escaped before the fall of Marash and wandered around Greater Armenia, determined to take revenge on Gawain and obstruct any cause of the other party, so he hit it off with Gabzuk of the Mountain Sect.

"Your clumsy assassination has failed, and Gawain's army is approaching here to ask for the guilt, now what should I do?" Sockman angrily questioned the two men.

The two were also a little flustered, but they said that the city of Diarbakir has been particularly strong since ancient times, and Sokman can defend it for as long as he wants as long as he is strong-willed, "If it can't work, he can retreat south to Mardin City." ”

Then Gabuzuk still has a hundred elite Assasin martyrs here, and dozens of people have been mixed into Gawain's military camp (in fact, all of them have been captured), and it is also a high probability to catch Gawain's flaws in the long-term siege war, and really assassinate him.

Sockman hesitated, but he could only order all the staff to be on guard and protect the castle.

The next day, Gawain's cavalry marched through several large and small lakes outside the city, cut off all the canals in the farmland below the city, captured the suburban residents who could not escape, forced them to cut down trees around them, and built a large plani cannon thrown by counterweights on the hillside on the northwest side of the city, while half of the artillery regiment also dragged the caravan and fire bear cannon up the hill to set up siege artillery positions with thousands of oxen, horses and mules.

The remaining half of the artillery regiment carried the same number of wagons and light artillery to dig trenches on the plain in front of the city gate, covering the brigade behind them to lay siege to the city wall.

Sockman had fought in Jerusalem against the Frankish army in the East, and thought he was well-informed, but who would have thought that the mode of operation of the army in front of him was simply unbelievable - the barricades, the big guns, the trenches, the wooden fences, and they were equipped with the miners of the Tranzak and the rivermen of the Komahes River, and the efficiency of their work was simply terrible - three days later, the north, west, and east sides of the castle of Diarbakir, all of which were surrounded by moats, were sealed by the walls and became the place of death, and only the city gate without a river to the south was still open.

But it had been cut off by a thousand Red Hand cavalry and seven hundred Oghuz cavalry.

Gawain then put the choice of battle and escape into the hands of Sockman, and he sent someone to shoot a letter with a letter of persuasion tied to it, and flew into the seventeenth tower of the city wall, "Before it can fly into the east and west, you must reply to me with your decision." ”