So after a day's rest, Alexios took the advice of the Turkic slaves, and divided the 20,000 horses and all the servants and men into four parts, one for the earth, one for the harvesting of reeds or seaweed, one for drainage with screws and tanks, and the other for the camp. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Gawain ordered all the besieging troops to dig two trenches around the walls of Fort Alamanburg, ten feet deep and eight feet wide, with forks, thistles and thorns in between, and to work in shifts day and night, and all the infantry lay down their arms, took up shovels and dug up against the sun and moon, and the cavalry formed a battle line to supervise and protect them in the rear.

Seeing this, Alexios' staff and generals ridiculed Gawain's army: "The construction of the trench is extremely time-consuming and laborious, and it is a tactic used for a long siege of the castle. By then, we have already drained the swamp, the dikes have been paved, and the army will pour in to attack, and Gawain will definitely not be able to resist it. ”

"Be prepared for Gawain to transfer back the two brigades at Syria Gate. It's time for diplomacy to sign a temporary armistice with Chief Danishmund, recognizing their occupation of eastern Paphragonia, and then reinforcing it with 10,000 troops from Bithynia. In addition, he told Little Bird to send a note to all the consuls of the Italian city states in the imperial capital, strictly forbidding them to provide Gawain with any ships, whether for transportation or for warfare, and to destroy all their warehouses and workshops in the imperial capital and to execute all the merchants and employees if they were found to be secretly assisting the thieves. "In the purple royal tent, the emperor placed his sword, which was studded with diamonds, in front of him, constantly issuing orders from all sides.

Soon after, a small boat floated in the swamp pond with a small flag on it, indicating that it had come to negotiate peace, and the leader reported to the emperor that he was the acting heraldic officer of the Grand Duke.

"What kind of grand duke, I have completely stripped Gawain of the title of a traitor, and I am not ready to make peace with him!" The Emperor was furious, but in the end he invited the heraldic officer in, because Prince John had met with the so-called Seleucian heraldic officer Androdat in the land of Milio Sephalon, and hated the monk with the mushroom head, so he wanted to humiliate him, so he asked his father to allow him to be seen.

But when he saw Alexios, who was sitting on the purple cloth throne, and Prince John beside him, as well as the honor guard beside the emperor, his face was full of exaggerated expressions, and he knelt deeply on the ground, making it difficult to distinguish whether this was false affection or true meaning, "Great, supreme, wise, Your Majesty the thirteenth Holy Apostle Emperor in the world, I, I can finally see your dignity today, This kind of worship is simply insincere! ”

"It's supposed to be 'beyond words'!" Maupoulos, who was beside John, and many of the Imperial staff, with disgust and disdain, corrected the Sicilian hillbilly's incompetence.

"Yes, it's beyond words." Wright didn't show the slightest sign of anger, Tuan Tuan expressed his gratitude, and the flattering smile continued on his face, and then the emperor sat on the throne, raised his hand, and made a majestic voice, "Say what your master thinks as soon as possible, while he can still speak before destruction." ”

"Yes, yes!" Wright's head was like a chicken pecking rice, and then he crawled forward, holding the letter of his master Gawain, and presented it to a sword-wielding palace guard beside the emperor, and after carefully examining it for toxicity, it was handed over to Alexios.

Christ's agent on earth, the true holy apostle, His Majesty the Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Grand Duke of Anatolia, your servant Stephen. With trepidation and humility for the Lord and the Holy Apostles, and with such trepidation that he could scarcely hold a pen, Gawain trembled and wrote down a text that could be read by His Majesty's royal eyes. The unprovoked murder of Capet caused a small conflict between the entire camp of pilgrims and His Majesty, and the contemptible man was in charge of the army's commander-in-chief, Bohemond Murphy. Morality. Tver meant to attack His Majesty's territory and urge His Majesty to resume his attitude of support for the pilgrims as soon as possible. Because of the previous rebellion in Cilicia and the war of Antioch, many pilgrim lords were filled with disgust and hatred for the names Callegos and Tetisius, and the rift between His Majesty and the Pilgrims would be difficult to repair without the removal of such traitors. This is also the reason why the servants used troops against Alalman, and now I did not expect that the small punishment war actually alarmed His Majesty to personally lead the army, and here the servants sincerely admonished that His Majesty had better not risk the arrows and stones, and openly support the traitors such as Callegos and Tetisius, so that the suspicion of the Empire by pilgrims everywhere was provoked by the 'Hugh Murder Incident'. Now that the military revolution has lasted for more than ten days, and both sides have suffered their own injuries, the servants are willing to withdraw from the army to take the lead in expressing the sincerity of the peace negotiation, and implore His Majesty to return to the imperial capital of Luang, and strike the war twice, and Alalmanburg will continue to exist as a middle ground. In addition, I hope that Your Majesty will face up to the Five Resolutions of Antioch, and if Your Majesty can understand the general nature of the pilgrimage, his servants will do the work of dogs and horses, and use their good offices to bring Seleucia, Cilicia, and Antioch back to His Majesty as soon as possible.

In the name of Christ, your servant, the faithful and unrivaled Grand Duke of Anatolia, Stephen. Respectfully"

The core content of Gawain's seemingly humble but arrogant letter is: I am not anti-empire or anti-emperor, but in order to maintain the overall situation of cooperation between His Majesty and the pilgrims, I resolutely launched a just war against Panphilia and Alarman, that is, to "clear the king's side", and now if Your Majesty does not understand my good intentions, then Bohemond will not return Antioch, this situation is not what you and I want to see.

When the emperor finished reading it, his face was expressionless, and he passed it back to John, who then handed it back to his father, and then Alexios beckoned to Wright, who was kneeling on the carpet and smiling, and "Whip him thirty times." ”

At first, Wright was holding his knees, curling up, and shouting "Don't hit me, I've just recovered from my injury"; Later, he could only hold his head and dodge, shouting "Don't hit your face, don't hit your face, that's my capital".

However, the emperor did not seem to really mean to cripple this messenger, after all, it represented the supreme Roman Empire, Alexios just threw the letter on the ground, stepped on it with his boot a few times, and then kicked it in front of Wright, "Go back and tell your dying master, the donkey tied in front of the Imperial Capital Arena and the saddle with thorns on it are waiting for him, and those who will accompany him on the street in the future are Bohemond, Godfrey, Gillick, and Baldwin." (To be continued.) )