The infantry companies brought from the ships were two Italian veteran companies "Lepanto" and "Sainteau", and two Greek infantry companies "Archduke Dead" and "Fury".

In addition, the Schiavone sailor Andreev. Gawain ordered ten chainmail-clad cavalrymen to escort him, surveyed the topography of the Stony Valley facing Za'tar in detail, and finally Andreev suggested that a high gang should be placed at a high hill that would shield the passage to Za'tar and turn to the sea in an L-shape.

"What is that place?" Gawain asked.

"According to the people of the same tribe who came to serve, it is called Borage Mountain." Andreev replied.

"Then as soon as possible." Without further ado, Gawain quickly ordered the construction of fortifications that stretched the entire street at the foot of Borage Mountain: the timber unloaded from the ships was sharpened, lined up in double wooden fences, and a large number of bows and arrows were stockpiled, and two "porcupines" were pushed, and then the "Fury" company was brought in to hold it. Then another company of the "Grand Duke's Dead" followed the ridge on the left side of the road and extended to the seashore; Gawain himself then led two Italian companies and lined up in a narrow line on the right side of the road.

Finally, Gawain ordered the Brotherhood and the cavalry company to stand behind the two Italian companies in a line on the reverse slope of Borage Hill, so that the enemy could not see them.

"Bramson, Giovanni, neither of you has the title of knight now, so you should be able to accept the arrangement of the Grand Duke without complaint—Bramson is to take command of the Italian company at the front, and Giovanni is on the left side of the array, ready to take command of the two dishonorable infantry companies (referring to the Greek companies) over there." Gawain made such an arrangement. Because Bramson is a quick fighter, standing at the head of the battle is conducive to morale; Giovanni, on the other hand, was a squire with a strong sense of responsibility. It is more conducive to consolidating the group of Greek companies that are lacking in fighting spirit and experience at any time.

Then the Grand Duke in the scarlet cloak turned around in the saddle and raised his hands. In front of the cavalry formation on the hillside below, Muzafi Adin also raised the banner of the cavalry assault in response, indicating that he could accept orders at any time.

"The immediate battle is to defeat this enemy with lightning speed."

Soon, the winding streets and flatlands below the hillside ahead were filled with smoke and dust, and hundreds of Pecheneg cavalry, hired by Berdin, rolled in, and the unbelieving Savoy walking thugs were armed with woodcutters' axes and rudimentary bows and arrows, and the tips of their weapons were hung with fowl that had been brought in by their hands. The haphazard procession followed behind the cavalry procession, which had not been expected of Berding beforehand, but gave a vague order to kill the pilgrim procession.

And this order is not new to these two groups: it is no accident that they have robbed and killed passing pilgrims in previous years, and many of the Sava tribes still use captured pilgrim women as domestic slaves. The heads of the slain were hung from the trunks of tall trees, and of course their belongings had been looted.

So, whether it's the Pechenegs or the Sava bandits. It is believed that the main body of the pilgrims' ranks is just a group of civilians with no training and experience in battle formations, even if there are a small number of down-and-out knights. It is also a lone tiger that is difficult to defeat a pack of wolves.

But this time was different, when they saw the hillside four arrows away. Fluttering large and small neat flags, Gawain's Italian soldiers. Although they were all infantrymen, they held narrow irises shields, sharp swords and scythes, sturdy armor, and uniformly wore red cross-sword robes, and lined up in a line along the ridge, with columns of crossbows in front of the infantry arrays, and Benevento's light crossbowmen stood scattered beside them, armed with lever crossbows, ready to shoot at them.

There were also a number of chainmail cavalrymen, with banners in their hands, back and forth, loudly supervising this group of very elite looking infantry.

The Pecheneg cavalry, who had taken the lead, panicked, and did not have the fool to go up the hill to attack the fortified enemy's position, so they whipped back their horses and withdrew to safety in one breath, while the Savoyard bandits also stopped, and instinctively set up a position along the valley facing the Borage Mountain.

Under the whirring banner of the red-handed cross-sword, Gawain kept stroking Sabina's smooth mane, "Send a message to Bramson in front of him, telling him not to act rashly, the enemy in front of us is not worth our full attack--wait for Constantine. Berdin's coming. ”

And Constantine. Berdin's regular brigade, two curls behind Pecheneg, in addition to the fixed Slavs and Bolgars, there was also Berdin's carefully organized Za'tar Guard, mostly composed of young nobles from the Rasnia region, with elaborate Persian-style nose guards, scaly iron armor, round shields decorated with tassels, armed with heavy battle axes, and also equipped with hunting bows, Berding often boasted, "These five hundred personal guards can be regarded as the elite who can compete with the emperor's Varangian guards." ”

When the news of the enemy situation came from the front, Berding hurriedly asked the soldiers from the front line, "Damn, I was deceived by the enemy's letters, but I didn't expect them to seize this place in three days, where is the enemy arranged?" How many soldiers and horses are there? ”

"They occupy the valley of the Stone River, as well as the Borage Mountain at the front, and because the troops are deployed horizontally against us, it is difficult to estimate clearly, about two or three thousand people." The soldier who came to report lowered his head and said.

The sophisticated Burding and his henchman Radomir went out side by side, climbed the high post in the middle of the ranks, looked at the headquarters of Gawain opposite, and saw the location of his cross-sword banner very conspicuously, "The elite of the enemy is over there, and the street leading to Stone is folded under the Borage Mountain, and they can use their bows and arrows to make us impassable or detoured." Then Radomir looked at the end of the street, "My lord, it seems that there are flags on the flat ground of the street, and the enemy must have laid a defense on the road. ”

Then the two of them looked at the other side of the street, almost at the same time, on the hill against the sea, "There are also enemy formations. ”

"But I can't tell the truth of the enemy over there." Radomir muttered.

"Have the consumables attack the mountains on both sides of the street at the same time." Berdeen is obviously going to use his first line of cannon fodder to find a way to defeat Gawain.

This is also the military strategy he is good at, that is, to use the undisciplined bandits from the Sava River forest to launch a brainless charge first, which can not only consume the enemy's bow and arrows and physical strength, but also take the opportunity to detect the flaws in the enemy's formation.

Under the reprimand of several mounted judges sent by Berdin, about a thousand Savoyard bandits, armed with crude spears and axes, formed three broad columns: the latter two marched towards Gawain's Borage Mountain, and the other reversed course and attacked the dishonorable company of the "Grand Duke's Dead" by the sea, behind which the Pecheneg light cavalry was guarded, armed with scimitars and bows and arrows.

Another stone's throw was the main force of the Za'a army, which was also lined up in two battle lines, about 5,000 people, with equipment and style imitating the Byzantine army, coming along the first line of cannon fodder, ready to wait for the opportunity to relay the assault charge.

Finally, he stood with Berding at the high place, surrounded the "Guards of the Princes of Za'tar", a total of 500 elite infantry.

At the foot of Borage Mountain, the Savoyard cannon fodder on the front line began to hit the axes and rough wooden shields in their hands, constantly approaching, insulting and provoking, but Gawain's two Italian veteran companies stood side by side, condescending and unmoved, and the edge of the sword and hook sickle illuminated the armor on their bodies like a wall of solid ice.

The horn in the hand of the Judge Za'tar, who was supervising the battle behind, had already sounded, and the group of lightly robbed Sava bandits could not hold back, and began to howl and rush towards the hillside. Gawain raised his Macedonian halberd, and then swiped it down - the light crossbowman in front of the formation, raised the crossbow, and quickly shot a wave of arrows, and then quickly retreated. The Sava bandits were shot one after another, and a group of them fell in confusion, but the men and horses that followed quickly jumped over the corpses of their comrades in front of them and rushed forward to pounce on them.

The armor sword and shield men in the Italian veteran company, brushed out one by one, trotted forward about fifteen to twenty paces, and after receiving the light crossbowmen to retreat into battle, they immediately "bitten" each other fiercely with the Savoyard bandits who arrived over, and in the sound of "whoosh", rushed into the Savaslav barbarians within the distance, threw the axes in their hands one by one, and the sound suddenly rose, and the long irises of the Italian veterans' long irises on the axe blades that flew messily, and then the group of bandits held clubs and iron spears with long handles, Wildly stabbing at the veteran's array.

At this moment, Gawain raised the halberd in his hand, and the members of the Brotherhood around him blew their horns and trumpets - the Italian veterans in the back column, dressed in armor and bowed down, holding long hooked sickles with curved blades, came up, "poof, puff", many hooks and sickles crossed the shield wall, pierced into the shoulders, waists, abdomen, and even thighs of the Sava bandits, they screamed and blood flew, and threw down their weapons in pain, and then they were dragged to the veteran's shield wall by their hands and feet, and their swords were compared horizontally and vertically, and their heads and limbs were also cut off, and their intestines were cut out, flowing everywhere.

The perseverance and perseverance of the Sava bandits fell into the earth like a torrential rain in June, and instantly dissipated invisibly, and they quickly turned around and ran, but the Bolgar archers in the Zaha army behind them shot arrows in shouts, and "executed" a group of those who fled from the battle, "Do not escape, fight to the death for the honor of the prince!" "The military judge is like a fierce god.

So the cannon fodder could only lie down, pick up their weapons again in shock, pout their butts and dodge for half a minute, and then continue to turn their heads, down the hillside, against the shield wall of the Red Hand Dalian team to launch another onslaught.

"The rest of the phalanx queue, press over, press over!" The Judge Za'tar kept waving his hand to give orders, and the Slavic infantry on the second and third lines also began to move rapidly, holding up the spears in their hands, and densely attacked the situation. (To be continued.) )