It was only after receiving such an answer that Fell was reassured. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

But soon a swift and alarming situation erupted, and the Jerusalem army, which had been besieging Haifa and Acre, suddenly made peace with the defenders of the city, withdrew the siege, and began to rush north, crossing the entire coast of Tripoli into the Tartus region.

Then the commanders of the army, King Baldwin and Duke Bohemond, brazenly issued a declaration of war against Antioch's master, Tancred. In it, several "unforgivable crimes" of Tancred are enumerated:

usurped the castle and power of his uncle Bohemond, and died while he was captured;

secretly colluding with Turkic pagan enemies in an attempt to murder King Baldwin;

After the previous capture of Jerusalem, he took possession of the spoils of war for himself, violating the oath between the previous lords;

Of course, the most important thing is that Sambel's secretary handed over deadly "physical evidence": Sambel accepted a large amount of money bribes from Tancred, promised to support him as the king of Jerusalem, and completely trampled on the law and dignity of the entire holy city and even the Pope, which was really outrageous to people and gods.

His Majesty's Envoy to the Holy Crown, Maurice, fully accepted and approved the accusations of these crimes, and letters of impeachment and conviction were being sent to the city of Rome at a rapid pace.

The weapon of criticism could not replace the weapon of criticism, so without waiting for the Holy See's ruling, Baldwin and Bohemond formed a crusade to rush into the southern border of Antioch and rush towards the Orontes River.

"What should come will come. I'm going to mobilize the entire army of Antioch to give them a head-on attack, and I'm going to tell my men to hold Samosata, and if this place ends up falling, I'm going to retreat to the other side and continue to fight these bastards to the last breath!" Tantarred, who had received the war letter, was furious and issued a deployment to all his subordinates in the hall of the main tower, the "Tower of the Four Sisters", "Don't take any chances with Bohemond, he has brought countless ruins in Apulia and Calabria. If I fail, these will take all your property, women, and lands for themselves. ”

In addition, Tanfred sent distress documents to the surrounding areas - Marash, Aleppo, Mosul, Danishmund, Damascus, Cyprus, Tripoli, and even Sanjar, the "Great Seljuk Sultan" in Isfahan's court. Arslan received a copy, "If Antiochus falls again into the hands of Bohemond the Radical, in less than three years you will lose all barriers, and the armies of Christ will be free to enter and leave Persia and Mesopotamia." ”

In the secret room, Tanrred even confessed to his wife Mesander, "If the Turks want my sincerity, I will accept everything." ”

"Then take me hostage." Mesander said.

"No, I'm not going to send you anywhere I can't see again. In this way, I am willing to convert to the Muhammadites in order to win their support - come and add this to my secret letter! "Tanfred has become completely discruptuous.

Antioch's letters for help first reached Aleppo, and Ridwan. Tutush urgently summoned Vizierdala and the mercenary general Osdu, and the two of them were completely in agreement, "Now is an extremely critical moment, we must reinforce Antioch with all our might, otherwise we will be the next to perish." ”

The second one received it was naturally the Marash side, "Damn, we still counted on Tancred to reinforce us, but I didn't expect him to suffer first." Fell complained at the joint meeting of the nobles, and then he immediately sent the Pak Ade and his son to Tubersena, Saliki to Laverdra, and himself and the rest of the generals to stay in Marlashburg, "to mobilize the nobles and the lords and prepare for battle." ”

After dark, Fell embraced the gentle widow (the widow of the former lord of Ravadra, the widow of Cousinsus) and slept soundly, until the next day the panicked slave stood in front of the bed, "Your Excellency Regent, between Marash and the pass, there is an emergency! ”

Fell hurriedly put on his robes, jumped off the bed, and walked to the watchtower on the aisle of the hillfort, and looked in the direction the servant pointed:

In the fields and on the mountain road, many soldiers wearing gray and black armor suddenly appeared in the four trading fields on the border between Gawain and his side, all of them were the "village community people's army" under Gawain's command, they drove out all the residents and caravans, entered the farm, and then waved all kinds of tools - "Are you building a city?" Fell was shocked, his voice trembling, "It turns out that these fields have long been expected by Gawain to be used as a bridgehead to attack us...... But the question is, where did this group of soldiers Gawain come from? My scouts didn't know about it beforehand, so we weren't prepared or aware of it at all! ”

The answer was that the army was all from Seleucia and Tarsus, with the former drawing 700 men and the latter drawing 900 men to form a mixed task force, which quietly marched to the city of Vanka, and at this moment began to build fortifications at the site of the field.

In this way, the task force was "out of town", which completely caught Fell, who had paid attention to the districts of Vankafensai and Sithshire, by complete surprise.

The construction of the task force and civilians was extremely fast, and the buildings of the field were first excavated and ditched, fences and wooden fences were erected, and then they began to erect earthen walls in the four fields, and gradually a "blockade" that blocked the Marash Fort for three centuries began to form.

Fell hastily dispatched 2,000 soldiers from Marlash Fort and handed them over to General Firuz to swoop down the mountain to crush the task force of the village social and civilian army and prevent them from successfully constructing a blockade.

But at the moment Dorus. Lambert's 1,200 frontier troops in the frontier area had arrived at the battlefield, and the two armies began to fight fiercely across the "blockade line" - Gawain's frontier people were more united and brave, and they were good at spears and bows and arrows; The Armenian mountain hoplites, on the other hand, were even more well-equipped, and for a time the slaughter was inextricably linked, and at this moment the 300 civilian troops in reserve on the Dorus front took the opportunity to attack from the side of the battle line, carrying crossbows and firearms to the high ground, and firing volleys of Armenian arrows and arrows in turn, and the smoke and flames filled the entire valley.

The Armenians were defeated by a volley, but after resting in formation, they came back and forth, and they were very brave.

By dusk, with heavy casualties on both sides and no decision on the outcome, Firuz could only retreat his troops temporarily and watch the situation with their backs to the mountain fort.

Fell, who was overseeing the battle at the castle, hurriedly sent a herald to the troops of the two castles of Tubersena and Laverdra to hurry to reinforcements. But before the reinforcements arrived, Gawain's Red Hand Brigade and Guardian Brigade were shouting and attacking from the direction of Vanka City and Kastabara City respectively.

"Damn, the despicable Gawain has been prepared." Fell scolded, "I can only tell Pak Ade and his son to defend Tubersena, and give me to block the enemy's left army, and I can't let them encircle Marash!" ”