But soon Kobuha changed his face and said, "Give me a beating." ”

As soon as the master's words fell, all the people in the camp rushed up, and their fists fell on Peter's body, and the hermit monk's robe was torn, his crutches were taken away, his face was struck one after another, half of his teeth were knocked out, and he could only whine, and roll sideways in front of the eyes of the prince of Mosul with his head in his hands.

In the presence of all the Bey and Ghazi, Kobha's next words were fierce, "Do not think that if you are lucky enough to break through Amasa, you can utter such evil words that insult the glory of Allah and this prince, filthy pigs - Mosul still has an elite army of 50,000 men, and soon the allies of Damascus will arrive with the same number of soldiers and horses, and if you come to your death in five days, then I will crush all of you lowly ants, for Kobuha has not yet suffered defeat in the land of Great Khorasan and Persia, And never know what it's like to fail. ”

"Your Royal Highness, there will always be a first time." Peter shouted, and then he was kicked in the abdomen, rolling and moaning on the ground in pain. Now Peter is completely on the spot, Gawain previously suggested to him that for an arrogant person like Kobuha, he should say more humble and flattering words to paralyze him, but Peter analyzed that in the current situation, the pilgrims unilaterally have no advantage over Kobuha's main force, and even have the advantage of attacking inside, so it is better to provoke Kobuha, firmly provoke his fighting spirit, and then only need to completely defeat him, so that Antioch's road to the Holy Land will become unimpeded.

Sure enough, Kobuha stood up menacingly and ordered everyone to stop, "This is the end of the pointless argument, Peter the Hermit." I am here to tell you the terms of the peace agreement, that is, to hand over all the beardless and beautiful boys of your camp, and all the unemployed virgins, to be rewarded to my warriors. All the others, including soldiers, the elderly, the weak, the widows, and the ugly, were to be killed or sold into slavery in Khorasan! It seems that you are a hermit who will not be spared, but I will give you five days of life, and if you still cherish it, you will leave the land forever in a small boat. "Otherwise," the servants around Kobha threw on the ground many of the iron-beaten shackles and other instruments of torture that they had brought from Mosul, "and you will be with them forever for the rest of your life." ”

At this time, the crowd dispersed a little, and Peter was beaten like garbage, and then the "garbage" moved a few times, and spliced it together automatically: this dry and ugly old man, miraculously, returned to his normal form, and lost his original arrogance, and begged Kobha directly with tears, "Otherwise, each of our two armies will choose ten of the most prestigious and skilled warriors to fight a fair duel before the battle, and let the will of God do away with the senseless massacre that will come after five days." ”

But Kobha had no intention of continuing with him, but waved his hand impatiently, and then the men dragged Peter out of the prince's tent, beat and kicked, and "sent" him to the little donkey, and then mocked and tied two crosses made of wattles to his back, and told him to get out of here, and in five days he was ready to receive the blade or shackles of the crescent believers.

After Peter's back disappeared into the moor, Kobha sat back on the throne, looked at the sealed hourglass in front of him, and sighed silently.

"Your Highness, there is no need to be angry with such a despicable person." Budakis posted over to persuade him.

"No, this envoy must have made such a move, and the decisive battle we face in five days will be very tragic and dangerous. Since they were able to defeat and kill Amasa in the face of lack of food, it is enough to prove that Budakis your previous assessment is true. Kobha's brow furrowed, and his fingers kept touching the glass of the hourglass, bitter.

Budakis was also a shrewd man, and immediately proposed the key layout for the decisive battle: "Now the pilgrims can attack our camp from two directions, one is the iron bridge, and the other is the gate of Paul the Wise in Antioch. ”

Kobha replied, "Not only are there two fronts of the enemy, I just told Peter that there are 50,000 troops, but there must be at least 10,000 men, and they must transport and carry food from the Tiemen Mountains to the camp here, and they will not be able to participate in the battle. ”

"What about abandoning this place and shrinking back to the Iron Gate Mountains?"

Faced with Budakis's question, Kobuha took him in his arms and shook his head, "No, this is a flat area, which happens to be a suitable place for a decisive battle, and I can resist as many pilgrims as they come." And if we retreat to the mountains east of the city, I am afraid that the pilgrims will backhand us, and they will surround us and cut off the grain route, and then we will completely collapse. ”

"Then we have to concentrate our forces and defeat one of the two enemies first."

"That's right, the general order was given to Boesas, who was in the northern camp, to lay an ambush in the valley with a thousand elite soldiers, and then our army provoked the enemy on the other side of the iron bridge, lured them over, and waited for an opportunity to defeat them; As for the side facing the sage Paul's Gate, I will personally take charge and send them back. Kobuha gradually made up his mind, and Budakis reminded again, "The granary on the other side of the Iron Gate Ridge, the road leading to it is very long, and it is necessary to beware of the enemy's sneak attack, knowing that they occupy the Acropolis of Antioch, as long as they charge"

At this moment, Kobuha pointed his finger at the opponent's ruddy and beardless lips, and said, "Of course I have thought about it, so I will also ambush five hundred elite shooters in the valley and grass on the side of the granary." As long as there are these two ambushes, of course I will win the decisive battle in five days' time. After saying that, Kobuha's concern seemed to have a lot of evacuation, "Defeated the enemy, even if it did not completely annihilate them, but then Durak. After the arrival of the Tutushi army, the victory still belongs to us, there is so much sand, so much! His eyes burned, and he kept touching the hourglass in front of him.

Just as Budakis and the other prostitutes were praising the wisdom of His Royal Highness, Karagdi, the general who had never spoken at the side, gave a loyal admonition, "The ambush is not my master of omnipotent, once the trace is detected by the enemy, and the enemy is attacked, it will be us who will suffer a crushing defeat." And the two ambushes of you, my master, are too few in number, and once the pilgrims' brigade is killed, I don't think it will be of much use. ”

"It's about to be battled, and you are not allowed to say such morale-shaking words!" Kobuha was furious, "Fighting on the battlefield, in addition to relying on the jihad spirit of every soldier, but also taking full account of the course of fate, as long as I remove the soft plug from the waist of this hourglass, and the sand begins to fall, I will be invincible, and the ambush is only a footnote to my mighty force." (To be continued.) )