The sun rose, and in front of the corner tower at the junction of the western part of the city and the northern section of the city wall, the soldiers defending the city of Lycium were densely packed, armed with bows and arrows and stones, controlling projectors, looking at the sea of Normans, Franks, and huge 'fox' siege towers below.

The height of the tower was higher than that of all the towers of the city wall, and all the frames and main supports were made of solid oak, which cost Hartmann and Count Emicius a great deal of money, and thirty of the bravest Swabian swordsmen, mostly the two counts' guards, were in chain mail, and stayed in the "head" of the "fox", and through the gaps between the guards and the timber, they could clearly see all the enemies of the entire city wall like ants and insects - once the siege tower was close to the wall, the noose lowered the guard, And they leaped out with great courage, and with one enemy of ten, they went on a killing spree!

Under the white background of Phnom Penh, under the banner of the cross, Godfrey, Bohemond, Baldwin, the two Roberts, Stephen of Blois and other leaders of the entire pilgrim army, riding war horses, lined up, richly dressed, and with clear banners, then everyone pulled out their scepters one by one, and at the target corner tower, various languages sounded one after another, "Break through here, the Almighty Lord is with you, break the city, and kill all the heretics!" ”

"Almighty Lord Blessing!" The Normans then erected the large shields made of wicker at the front, one by one.

At the same time, on the walls of Nicaea, two Atarbergs, Hajib and Gigasadin, wearing turbans and helmets, eye-catching feathers, swords and spears, personally supervised the battle at the front line of the city, "Shoot arrows and fire pots!" With the wave of Hajib's hand. Countless fiery arrows and jars from the direction he pointed. The rain and wind rushed towards the pilgrims' siege formation.

The firing pots smashed against the wicker shields of the tall trees. The flames of the red lotus grew everywhere, and the arrows scrambled to be the first to stick on them, and the Normans and Calabrians roared and pushed the shields with small wooden wheels to rush forward with thick smoke, and the Swabian, Lower Lorraine, and Verdun warriors with shields in their arms followed.

"We shoot, aim at the enemy's fence!" The Norman Earl Geoffrey wielded his sword, followed by the pilgrims' ballistas and crossbows, as well as stone projectiles with fire. With the Venetian spears, whizzing through the wooden cloister "fence" on the city wall, now those supporting inclined wooden frames were to no avail, the fire spears with flames penetrated through, and soon burned inside the fence, one by one the "fire men" wailed out, and the soldiers behind carried the buckets from the cistern to the battle road, poured on the burning people, and jumped down from the city wall when they couldn't wait. Many people fell to their deaths and were disabled.

The fences on both sides of the turret were quickly burned down, a valuable lesson learned by the pilgrims after Robert's previous defeat in Normandy, and the thing had to be destroyed first. Thenceforth. Under the city walls, under the cover of wicker shields, the archers of Calabria. and the crossbowmen of the Franks everywhere, and they also fired at the battlements of the wall. Arrows staggered densely through the air, and the bodies and jackets of the soldiers crowded under the city continued to fall down the walls of the city with clusters of arrows and bent feathers. "Shoot the heavy iron spear and push the battering ram up!" Earl Jeffrey, who was overseeing the battle at the front, continued to shout.

Afterwards, the large crossbows of the pilgrim procession began to be replaced with iron spears, and they fired intensively at the middle of the corner tower.

Count Stephen, the commander-in-chief of the siege under the battle flag, reflected the burning flames everywhere in his eyes, and his palms continued to sweat nervously, and finally he made up his mind, "The time has come, push the 'fox' up!" ”

Dozens of trumpets and trumpets sounded, and a thousand servants and ordinary pilgrims shouted and pushed the towering siege tower, with solid wheels, ropes, and rolling logs in front of it, in the direction of the corner tower.

"The enemy's huge siege tower is coming!" The shouts of the Roma soldiers on the corner tower were heard, and then the stone bullets fired from the ballista focused on the approaching "fox", but the engineer had already placed a fence of wood and iron bars around it, and the stone bullets hit it and could only roll down in vain, and in the continuous sound, the great tower was getting closer and closer to the city walls.

Gigasadin held up the red tooth flag, "Leave it alone, shoot the man who pushes it." "Hearing this signal and command, the brave Turkic soldiers boldly got up from behind the curtain wall, and some even jumped onto the battlements, raised their powerful horned bows in their hands, and the arrows roared down, and the slaves and pilgrims who were responsible for pushing around the 'fox' siege tower fell on their backs with screams, and one person was killed or wounded, and someone else would come to replace them, but soon the number of people pushing the wheels of the 'fox' on both sides began to be uneven, and in the twisting caused by the uneven force,' The fox's stand creaked and dust and debris kept falling, "Tell our soldiers to fill it up!" Godfrey, who was supervising the battle in the rear, seemed to see the signs of inadequacy, and hurriedly ordered.

But the Frankish soldiers were only concerned with raising their shields and swords, storming the walls and towers, stepping on ladders and bravely ascending, and no one heard them, let alone pushed the siege tower.

The Turks at the head of the city continued to shoot fiercely from all directions, and soon all the people on both sides and behind the fox siege tower were shot down or dispersed.

But the people in front didn't know it, about three hundred people, still dutifully bowing their heads and shouting slogans, pulling ropes, and pulling the siege tower towards the city wall, "Low-lying land!" "With this shout, more than 100 people on one side immediately lost their feet, and fell on the edge of the sudden sunken terrain, and the Swabian swordsmen in the "fox head" part fell into a ball, and this huge siege tower made a loud noise about its size, and the eardrums of the thousands of soldiers who were besieging the city and the siege were about to crack, as if something was stopping in the middle of it, and then it fell to one side, and the irregular terrain under the city wall harmed it, and the black shadow whistled and covered the heads of the hundreds of people in front of it——" The "internal organs" and "skeleton" of the fox burst and collapsed one by one, and collapsed in front of the city wall layer by layer, and the dozens of Roma soldiers in the front were unable to dodge, and were all smashed into powder immediately, and then its huge body fell against the city wall, and the smoke rolled in all directions, and the more than 300 slaves and 30 warriors under it, none of them survived, and they were all crushed and buried.

At the same moment, "Lord Cadren!" With this shout, a pike dart thrown from the firing port of the Cornertower pierced between the eyebrows of the owner of the Château of Ronte (who was also the front-line commander of the Cornertower attack), and burst out of the back of the head, and the brave and reputable knight was killed on the spot, his limbs apart, and he fell upside down in the middle of the guard, and the people cried and dragged him to the stretcher, and ran backwards, and the siege soldiers around him, including those under the walls, were all routed.

"My fox, my warrior!" Count Hartmann, under the banner of the Warlord, clenched his fists and shouted with tears of anger and pain. (To be continued.) )