Melo, who received the order, gave priority to arranging for the Red Hand Brigade, the artillery regiment, and the newly surrendered 4,000 Serbian prisoners of war to build the western base. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

As for the southern base of Merlot, which faced the north wall of Durazo, he did not rush to carry it out, and he obeyed the emperor's instructions: "Give your Excellency Clembaude some time to think about it, and his king Coroman should have secretly sent him a letter." I hope that the Hungarian soldiers will give up resistance and take the initiative to surrender the barricades and towers of the northern wall of Dulazo. ”

The group began the work quickly, following the "Gedtier camping fortification", facing the gray-blue hills and beachheads of the Adriatic Sea, and were soon dug out of the trenches and camps, and then dug up the earth into a semicircular artillery barricade with a sloping jagged formant moat, which was lined with dog's foot wood, and more than a dozen field guns, including the "brigade guns" (four), were pushed into each of them, and the gunners' target was: Venetian and Sicilian ships anchored in the harbor of Durazo.

Some eight Venetian galleys were soon bombarded with heavy and dense shelling, their ships were long and narrow, with golden icons hanging from their sails, and they also had spinnakers that could be steered in the direction, and the largest long-range weapon was a long-armed stone thrower at the bow, like a dragonfly lying down with its tail raised, and the rest of the fire was ballistas, bows and arrows, and gunfire thrown by the sailors on both sides of the ship, but now all of them seemed powerless in the face of artillery. After about a day's shelling, eight ships were sunk, two were heavily damaged, and the rest did not dare to linger and had to risk retreating to Corfu.

Sicilian ships were the next to suffer, and Merlot's besieging artillery on the northern front became more and more intense, and they were able to build a group of artillery fortifications that could not only fire at the sea, but also suppress the semi-circular towers of the Durazzo coast.

Not only that, but the army of the New Roman Empire also used "drifting mines", that is, the fierce Khitan snow was packed in a sealed iron pipe, the muzzle of the gun was wrapped with moisture-proof deerskin or cowhide, and it was fixed on the raft, and a time-delayed burning lead was inserted on it, and the ocean current was measured and then cast towards the port, and once the lead burned out after getting close to the enemy ship, it triggered an explosion.

In the case of shelling and mine-laying, more than a third of the traffic on the sea of Durazo was soon lost, and the Venetian fleet that had returned to Corfu was met with an uprising by the inhabitants of the island, and several ships were burned, and the sailors dared to stay on the decks of the ships or in the forts on the shore, unable to obtain supplies, and they were hungry and panicked, and their morale was very low.

Soon the city of Durazo was in a state of embarrassment, the army was short of food and clothing, and there were too many of them, all of them were confined to a lonely city, and the outlying villages and market towns were all under the control of the emperor or pro-emperor tribes, who were completely unable to get enough supplies, and now the fleet near the castle was threatened by shelling and mines—and a week later, the ships of Bari, Ancona, and Ragusa, with the coats of arms and flags of their respective city-states, appeared on the sea with great swagger, and fought many battles with the ships of Venice and Sicily, There is a rhythm that will completely trap Durazo to death.

The situation on the Italian peninsula was also extremely unfavorable for the Kingdom of Sicily and the city-states of Venice: the former's attempt to take possession of Naples, Calabria, and Apulia aroused the alarm of many Norman nobles, who also rallied against the Roger family of Sicily. The latter, now sandwiched between the German Empire, Hungary and Gawain's New Roman Empire, were not friendly actors, and the Adriatic Sea, the passage of ocean trade, was blockaded and strangled, and its strength was rapidly bleeding.

Therefore, until the threat from the east is resolved, Gawain will not give up his army against the city of Durazo, and he wants to use it to defeat the opponents of Italy and the two Sicilies, and to strive for peace that maximizes benefits.

On the other hand, the defenders of the city could not survive.

The Venetians and Sicilians began to doubt the loyalty of the Hungarian soldiers, after all, rumors of a bloody coup d'état in the Pannonian palace had been more or less heard, and it was said that Coroman had killed his brother and nephew, strengthened his dictatorial power, and moved closer to Constantinople to suppress dissent with the tyrant Gawain as his backer.

So the Venetians and the Sicilians began to meet in secret to divide the three or four thousand Hungarian soldiers who had been left behind by Almosh, but where to divide became a problem, and the Norman commander Count Duane thought that this group of Hungarians should be sent to the front line of the bridgehead, and that this group of insecurity should be consumed when resisting Gawain's army; The two sons of the former Venetian consul Fellayer, Giosophat and Tafur, were more respectful of the Hungarians, and offered to keep each other's barracks and formations, but not to keep them to guard important areas or towers.

"After all, when we fight, we need our Hungarian brothers to take on one wing." Giosoffat said that peace is still precious.

"But now in Yudu Lazo, where is it not bombarded, and where is it not the key point?" The Count of Duane retorted.

When the stalemate was stalemate, encouraging news came: a fleet from Moria, carrying a large amount of food, and 2,000 regrouped elites under Goreto, continued to break through the blockade of the Gawain side in the Strait of Otranto under the banner of the "Razor Brigade", and braved the fire fired from the artillery barracks of the Monastery of San Michael to sail into the port of Durazzo.

The morale of the defenders, including the Hungarian soldiers, repelled an attack by a Red Hand Brigade contingent using ballista guns from the North Wall Tower, which attempted to seize the high hill of the North Wall while the Moria fleet was entering port.

Three days later, the 4,000 volunteers, most of whom were Irish, Scottish, and some Lombards, who had sworn to avenge his shame after Pope Eugene's death, ventured across the Adriatic Sea to reinforce the capital Lazzo.

On the towering tower of St. Michael's Monastery, the observation post was the first to spot the convoy and fired at the western fort using fireworks and mirror fire.

The floating fleet was also spotted on the Coastal Round Tower in Durazo, and they also hurriedly sent out an alarm signal.

But the fleet was mostly a patchwork of merchant ships, and they were still at a loss for danger, and the sailors on deck could only see that the shore was full of low mounds, and they did not know what was hidden behind them......

Soon, the shore artillery took advantage of the unpreparedness of this fleet to suddenly fire their cannons, and for a time the mountains and seas were shaken, and sparks exploded. The nearest flat-bottomed merchant ship immediately broke its mast, and its side and cabin were pierced, and the people on it sank before they could get out of danger, and the two ships behind it were also seriously damaged and stranded, and the beach and shallow water were suddenly full of people and all kinds of luggage.

The rest of the ships panicked, and another unfortunate one ran into a "drifting mine," which was blown open in front of the defenders on the round tower, and all the seawater poured into it, and it was planted crookedly under the waterline "bulgingly", and finally less than 2,000 people entered the city safely.