It was heard that the enemy had approached the city of Larissa along the plain passage of the Coast, Isaac. Commnos was greatly frightened, and he made another decision in a hurry: "If the enemy invades the plains of Thessaly, it has nothing to do with me, and John is not willing to provide me with support at all, and regards me as an enemy, then this king is not obliged to defend the territory for him—I am the king of Epirus, and I should return to my homeland, so the whole army marches towards the Kastorian Pass!" ”

That is, not to go to Larissa City, but to go back to the place of departure via Kastoria. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

But by this time the whole army of Epirus, which had to pass through the wilderness and mountains, had exhausted its baggage and grain: it had lost more than half of it at the river Valeyards, and then part of it at the city of Pella in Macedonia, and now it was difficult to sustain itself with more than 10,000 men and horses and many cavalry.

In addition, some time ago, Isaac was busy going around here, and he returned to Epirus. The "Dilasium" and the "Occupation of Thessaly" were so infrequent that there was no food to be collected in a hurry, not to mention the fact that it was a well-known barren land, sandwiched between Epirus and Thessaly.

After a day of Isaac's haphazard walk, many of his soldiers were left behind, and nearly half of the cavalry who had come from the Valdar valley were scattered.

And Branas also survived the difficulties at this moment and launched a pursuit of Isaac.

There were almost no cavalry, for all had been scattered by Branas, who was spying on Thessali and Moria, and Branasas gave chase with brigade infantry, with most of the men leaving their spears in the camp, and marching lightly on the barren and rough roads to attack Isaac's rearguard.

The rearguard, which had been left by Isaac as ambush soldiers, either came out as prisoners or were killed as a result of unbearable hunger, and the banks of the Aliakmon River were in a miserable state.

In the end, in desperation, Isaac ordered the horses to be killed to satisfy his hunger.

On the other hand, Branas, who was in a difficult situation in the pursuit, also ordered the whole army to kill all the extremely limited number of pack beasts and give food to the soldiers.

The screams of the horses of the two armies filled the valley and the field could not be lined up during the battle, and the soldiers of small groups fought in groups along the cliffs or gravel slopes, and many fell to the bottom of the valley.

Eventually, Isaac climbed the 7,000-foot pass almost alone, exhausted to death, with all the dead and wounded guards around him, and without a mount, and with the stalks of wild grain grass that hunger had in his mouth, and he lay on his stomach in the clearing in front of the castle of Kastoria, shivering in the cold wind of the night, which was close to freezing.

He looked back and saw that the troops were all finished.

He also knew that he had passed through the heath of Pharsalus as he fled here.

It was the site of Caesar's decisive battle with Pompey.

But he was not in a better position than Pompey, because Pompey had fought after all, and his army had collapsed under a series of erroneous orders.

Isaac closed his eyes in agony, tears streaming down his face, and he lay on his back on the wasteland of the hill, his body covered in pain from rubble.

The next day, Isaac suddenly became so frightened that he did not dare to go back to the city of Durazo, nor to any part of Epirus.

"The cornerstone of a ruler is the army, and when you lose it, what difference do you have between you and a mortal, a few scheming farmers can kill you."

He suddenly thought of his brother who died in a trance, the other party was so powerful, but after the defeat of Philippo Melron, he was ruthlessly plotted, and died as well as a wild dog, and he couldn't help but feel more sad and suspicious, and he no longer trusted his nephew John, and even felt that the future was gloomy and hopeless.

Originally, he wanted to be Gao Wen's lifelong enemy, but before he saw him, everything was over, "Fate doesn't favor me, it's not that I am ineffective in battle!" ”

Although Castoria Castoria was able to hold out for a while, Isaac was not confident. Two days later, he received a generous letter from Branas, who claimed that he had received a decree from His Majesty the Emperor: as long as Isaac could surrender, he would enjoy the rank of "Honorable" and be treated like a Confederate king for the rest of his life.

"You can't beat it, and if you run back, you risk being killed, and if you think about it, this is the only way out." So Isaac walked down the 7,000-foot hill to Camp Branas to surrender his sword, and was greeted with hospitality, just as he had been captured at Fort Sophia.

Branas then sent a detachment to capture Kastoria in the towering mountains.

For a time, Tesuram, Epirus and Thessaly, and even the Moria Peninsula were terrified: the mighty Isaac. The entire army of Komnenos collapsed in ten days of fighting, so who else could withstand the new emperor's soldiers and swords?

Hostios, who refused to provide for Isaac, did not dare to fire even an arrow at this time, and discarded the city of Larissa to the south.

Branass then swept across the entire region of the Pintus Mountains (west) to the Thracian Sea (east, bordering the Gulf of Thessalonica), the whole of the Thessaly Plain and Magnesia, plundering the grain, livestock, wine, and property of the people, and capturing nearly forty thousand peasants and sending them away—the Guardian Brigade and the Nika Brigade, for the previous bitter battle had been reduced to wild beasts.

The rich area known as "Little Thrace", which had been bleakly operated during the reign of Prince John, was completely wiped out.

Branas's army did not stop until it reached Kademia (the site of the Acropolis of Thebes), and it is said that the cities of Corinth and Athens shook almost like an earthquake, and many nobles abandoned their cities and mansions, either fleeing further south to Mistra or by boat to the islands of Naxos or Crete, and even the ships of Venice or Sicily sailed away.

It wasn't until John's closest minister, Axepocos, arrived in Corinth that the situation calmed down somewhat.

When Axepocauth arrived, he executed several officers who had fled from the battle, and whipped Hosiusfan, and then recruited civilian troops from all over the country to renovate the city defenses of Corinth, saying that he would defend the key point of the isthmus to the death.

Then a Sicilian fleet sailed into the Gulf of Corinth, reportedly carrying a large number of Norman soldiers to serve as Axeppokaus' aids.

At this time, Branas really felt that the battle line was too long, so he also withdrew his troops from Kadmia and returned to the north of the plain where the city of Larissa was entrenched.

At this time, Isaac's military group was destroyed, Epirus was reduced to a political vacuum, and the Sicilian fleet did not send troops to help defend Corinth, but turned to the land of Epirus, and began to occupy castles and expand its territory there.

Not to be outdone, the Venetians of Corfu also sent a swaggering fleet into the city of Durazzo, announcing a temporary takeover of the city's defenses.

Six thousand Serbian soldiers, led by Berdin's brother Vladimir, really moved south along the Vardar valley and approached the city of Pera, but they were still a step too late: Isaac had already surrendered and been destroyed, and there was no point in supporting them.