But no one answered the gentleman's question, and then Bohemond stood there with his hands behind his back, and suddenly shrugged his shoulders and laughed low and happy, "I just made a joke with everyone, a joke. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The rest of the clerical staff, and the Earl Baron present, looked at his back, all with expressions full of "the Lord's retarded", but Bohemond was still confident, "Gawain has not been excommunicated for a day, he can be a banner." And the Orthodox patriarch in the city of Antioch, of course, is also very useful. Komnenos, Raymond, do you think this will keep me at bay? No, I'll trap you two roaring but weak beasts, cut off your claws, and strip you of your seemingly gorgeous furs......"

On the second Sunday after Christmas, the whole East was boiling over - Bohemond of Antioch gathered six hundred Norman knights, together with more than a thousand horsemen who had also been trained in knightly martial arts, two thousand Calabrian light soldiers and archers, and nearly two thousand foot riders supported by Lord Godfrey and Lord Robert. After the traditional consecration of weapons, Okhilt hoisted his flag and arrived at the city of Edessa. Thutusch also sent 700 Turkic light cavalry to cheer up the momentum - in Edessa, Tanfred also gathered soldiers of various nationalities, and together with the previously defeated Earl Richard, formed an army of nearly 7,000 men, waiting for his uncle's arrival.

In this way, Bohemond commanded an army of 14,000 men, and before he set out on the expedition, he knelt before the altar where he served his ancestors, looked at the portrait of his father, and muttered, "I will not be worse than you in my deeds now and in the future." Bohemond then summoned his generals and announced a military plan: without detour, he would first storm Samosata, shake the very foundations of the "Great Armenian Empire", and if the "monkeys of Marash" (Bohemond) came south to save Samosata, he would defeat them in a field battle of reinforcements; If it is not saved, then it will besiege this fortress for a long time, and then "kill all the capricious people inside"; In addition, Gawain moved east from the city of Vanka to storm the castles of Thubacena, Lavodra and Maras, leading to weaken the enemy's position.

In the secret letter sent to the city of Vanka, Bohemond was willing to say that if the "Great Armenian Empire" was destroyed, he would be honored with Gawain as the "Caesar of Cilicia the Great", and in response to Gawain would recognize himself as the "King of Antioch".

In short, the previous killing of Prince Ruben and the alliance of Gawain and Bohemond, and now the independence of this rebellious new country has to make them temporarily put aside and join hands again, because the enemies in front of them are not only the rebellious Armenian nobles, but also the powerful Danishmundan Turks on the plateau, and there may even be more terrible and difficult behind-the-scenes enemies, such as the sinister and cunning Greek emperor.

The flames of war expanded in a whirlwind.

When Gawain received a secret letter from Bohemond, the snow had begun to melt in the city of Vanka, along with the entire Taurus Mountains, and spring ploughing had begun, but it was not going well at all in the newly occupied area: from the Eastern Valley, his former defeated general Saliki had gathered thousands of Armenian cavalry, divided into more than a dozen teams, and almost every day from all places, raided and burned Gawain's territory, and plundered and lured the Armenian peasants in the newly occupied land of Gawain. Inside the castle, Gawain was still very angry, because he had received the statistics from the front: under the locust tactics of Saliki, he had lost or lost dozens of villages on the border, and was taken captive and defrauded of more than 10,000 men, most of them Armenians, and the wave of exodus was still expanding - because Saliki was propagating with his horse's hooves and his sword that the real Armenian nation had arisen and that you had no need to die for the aliens.

"What's the use of going out with Bohemond? My own Northern Task Force is still struggling to make its way forward, and the future is uncertain! Gawain was furious and threw down the letter from Antioch. Then he turned his gaze to the two heraldic officers standing in front of him, and complained angrily, "These stupid Armenians, I have given them the land and granted them valuable private rights to this property, but they actually burned their houses, took away their own cattle, and killed the inspectors of the Brotherhood everywhere, and ran away to be willing slaves for the nobles of the mountains? ”

"You have to know His Royal Highness, there are always many lowly people in this world." Wright couldn't help but laugh.

"Cheap!" Gawain looked at him, poked the paper roll a few times with the reed pen, and then smashed the pen until it almost broke, to vent the anger in his heart.

"If the Ani people could understand the truth of how to behave in the world, then their empire would have risen a long time ago, and they would not have looked up to people for thousands of years." Mushroom-headed Androdat replied, and then proposed a plan, "Your Royal Highness, excessive policy of softness will not work, and besides, the Ani have always feared force, not influence. ”

"Tell me your plan."

"In the mountains east of Vanka City, Wright and I have accurate household registration data in advance, there were originally about 70,000 Ani people, there were no big cities, only some small military towns and small bazaars in mountain passes, most of them lived in villages. Now that 15,000 people have defected, we must act quickly. From now on, all the men and horses of the three brigades have finished resting and recuperated, and all of them have concentrated here to carry out the security strengthening operation. My suggestion is that 40,000 of them be forcibly relocated by force to the hills and plains around the cities of Tranzac and Sith, where they may live and cultivate with the Greeks and Germans, leaving only 15,000 men on the border, and organizing them into 'armed regiments' for every 500 men, a total of 30 armed regiments, each of which is in fact a militarized settlement, and they must dig simple trenches and fences themselves in the designated village market towns to defend them. The armed regiments were separated by ten gulli, each with five horses and a beacon, and handed over hostages to the city of Vanka, which was used only for the surrounding fields to sustain themselves. In addition, the armed regiments implemented the policy of sitting together, and once one of the regiments was attacked, once the beacon fire alarm was raised, the surrounding regiments must come to the rescue from far and near, and those who did not move or hesitated were severely punished. ”

"Isn't that cruel? It's not in line with my policies, and I've never done that to civilians. Gawain was still a little hesitant.

But Anderodart's expression was indifferent, and his tone was firm, "Extraordinary areas, and extraordinary policies must also be implemented." Your Royal Highness, Grand Duke, you are indeed good to the people, but that does not mean that you should be kind to women. In that case, you might as well be as decisive as the princess in purple. (To be continued.) )