As the news gradually came back, Aetius's heart gradually cooled. The other Crusader territories were powerless even if they wanted to come to the rescue—their main forces had already left the Near East and returned to their own countries. And the only Normans who had the ability to rescue themselves were quite cold. The scouts reported that they were building a defensive line on the Euphrates generation, and that they appeared to be preparing to take a defensive stance rather than attack.

"Leave it to fate. Aetius looked up to the sky and sighed, feeling powerless. If the other party is a civilized person of a known country, it cannot be said that he has already ordered surrender at this moment. After that, a ransom was paid, and he could go back to Rome to live. Now, however, his opponents are fierce heretics. Aetius couldn't imagine what would have happened if he had fallen into their hands......

Fortunately, the other side, those "Persians" do not seem to have any plans to attack the city. Although they surrounded Baghdad, gathered timber and useful supplies, and ordered craftsmen to build siege machines day and night, which seemed to Aetius, who had seen the craftsmanship of Norman craftsmen, to be very rudimentary. However, after more than ten days, they are still only besieged, and have no intention of continuing the attack.

"In about a month, the Great Khan's order will arrive. We'll talk about that then. ”

At the same time, the cowardly did not spend time on such a calculation - a fierce battle with Aetius, and the Mongol vanguard army lost nearly 10,000 troops. When those slave infantry died, they died. Forced conscription of prisoners of war and civilians would be able to replenish them. However, the loss of a total of more than 500 Mongolian hoplites and nearly 3,000 light cavalry made the cowardly and unspoiled flesh painful. And capturing slaves and training slave infantry is also a job, and recently, the timid Buhua is ready to pause for a while.

This gives Egil a very good chance. If he can calmly, use one to two months to lay out a strong line of defense.

In Egil's plan, this line of defense included the upper reaches of the Euphrates River, a natural line of water with strong currents and abundant water. It is unlikely that a large crossover will be provided here. So Egil in this generation, only a small number of secondary hussar patrols were arranged. In order to prevent the opponent's small group of troops from smuggling and surprise attacks.

In the lower reaches of the Euphrates, due to the hot weather in the Middle East, the river water evaporated and penetrated below the surface. The Euphrates could be crossed—and in fact, Egil didn't expect much help from it. The Norman line took advantage of the upper reaches of the Euphrates River and then made a turn towards the border between Babylon and Syria.

It is a flat, dry plain area. It was Egil's prediction that the Mongol cavalry was most likely to march - of course, it would have been better if the other side had diverted and ran to Anatolia and the Turks had died.

In this plain area, Egil mobilized a heavy army, and the engineering troops vigorously modified the terrain, digging a large amount of soft ground and creating large horse traps. At the same time, he ordered the craftsmen in the army to make a large number of thistles. This simple and convenient weapon, although expensive, can play a very good role in the face of cavalry and even infantry. As soon as you throw four evenly arranged iron spikes on the ground, one spike will always stand up, and the other three will be supported by a tripod. If a horse or a person steps on it, it will be miserable...... Although death is not going to die, it will definitely hurt.

A total of more than 200,000 thistles terrestris, as well as a few, simple horse-rejecting wooden piles, horse-rejecting fences, and horse pits. In the border areas of Syria and Babylon, a line of defense was formed specifically against cavalry. The main forces of the three newly formed defensive corps were also deployed in the barracks behind this line of defense, a small, makeshift wooden fort. ...,

This defensive line, which is about 350 miles long, has a beacon set up every 50 miles to provide alarms. And the quasi-hussars also patrol here day and night on the scale of a hundred. At the same time, at some key sites, a number of sturdy, stone-built forts were slowly under construction. The large artillery that was too late to pull away, as well as the gunners, were placed here. Emperor Egil ordered. When the soldiers found out that the batteries were about to fall, they had to blow up the artillery. to prevent these sharp new weapons from falling into the hands of the Mongols.

In this way, the crude defensive system, named the Euphrates Line, was built in the space of a month. Fortified with an army of nearly 20,000. Egil believed that such a defensive system would not be impregnable. But if the Mongols wanted to break it, they had to be prepared for heavy losses.

Here, however, came the problem - 20,000 troops, plus such an important line of defense. Isn't there a man who Egil can trust and is capable enough to garrison him?

The most suitable candidate for this is naturally Joan of Arc. Whether it's ability, Egil's level of trust, or reputation. She was the most suitable person - after all, she was the Grand Duchess of Syria appointed by Egil himself. It is our duty to defend the territory......

However, Egil was reluctant.

Although in recent times, more and more cute girls of all kinds have greatly enriched the emperor's harem, but the emperor is still a person who misses the old. Joan of Arc still holds an unshakable place in his heart. And on the other hand, because of Joan of Arc's physical condition. Egil took pity on her and was reluctant to let her work more.

This time, Joan of Arc went on an expedition to Syria, Babylon. Although it was all the work of sweeping up the remnants, it also made Egil's heart ache enough. Especially in war. The fervent crusaders, with their cruelty in the face of the infidels, kept Joan of Arc awake at night. Egil was even more distressed. Saying nothing, he didn't want Joan of Arc to take on such a job again. Therefore, knowing that Joan of Arc was the most suitable person, Egil did not want her to do the job.

With the exception of Joan of Arc, the Norman Empress Artoria, for almost the same reason, Egil did not want to, or would not dare to let her hold the position.

Neither of the two female marshals of the Norman Empire could be used. Then Egil counted: Alpha - the one who wiped his tears has long said, this thing is also the weight of a squad leader. Giving him such a task will definitely cost the whole of Syria.

Robin hood...... Well, this guy didn't show a bit of solo command ability at all. It's quite competent to be a longbow commander. Just on your own......

Basumi ...... Egil couldn't help but feel more stoned when he thought of this sweet female general...... So I don't think about it anymore.

As a result, Emperor Egil sadly discovered that he, the most powerful emperor in the entire continent, did not even have a third person who could take charge of himself. This has to be said to be a kind of sadness......

Or, recruit one again from the system, or exchange it for bonds? Egil thought about it for a moment, and decided that while this was a solution, it wasn't a good idea. Before that, the Norman Empire had never had a garrison commander who had commanded an army of 20,000 - even those of the frontier garrison commanders had no more than 10,000 regular troops at their disposal. Instead, Egil gave them the right to call up local reservists in wartime.

"If I hand over an army of 20,000 to one person at once, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and I can't say that something will happen. ”

Eggier, who was very suspicious, thought so that he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

"Or, recruit a few generals separately and put them in charge of the three legions?"...,

Egil quickly came up with the idea again.

"But that's the case...... Will there be problems without unified command?"

So Egil hesitated again.

"As before, the hussars are divided and used as an independent mobile force, parallel to the rank of the garrison legion?" Although in this way, unified command is no longer possible......

"Or-yes, isn't that guy still there? ”

Eventually, after some thought, Egil finally came up with the most suitable way - to recruit a commander for the garrison and the quasi-hussar regiment. Then there was a commander-in-chief in charge of the three legions. And the candidate for this commander-in-chief, Egil also has a decision. It is what he calls "usable waste", and the former Egyptian general, who shrank at the last moment of the siege of Jerusalem, was annoyed by Egil, and was eventually assigned only a small piece of barren territory to Zhaohaier.

"This person is chosen to be the commander-in-chief. Then send him that messy group of mercenaries to manage. Command the garrison and hussar regiments with his own men to control and supervise this person...... I'm a genius!"

Ignoring what his cheap sister Aurora said, "Doesn't this cause internal friction?" Egil immediately sent someone to get to the Euphrates line as soon as possible. At the same time, he also used the system to recruit two generals with bonds to control his new legion - General Harry, who thought he was a native and converted to Catholicism, was a somewhat flustered but very proficient in defensive warfare, and used his army to form defensive arrays. He was the commander of the new garrison corps.

As for the Quasi-Hussar Legion, Egil recruited a man named Khalid, a native Arab, as the commander of this army - like Harry, Khalid was a converted Catholic. At the same time, he was also an excellent master of light cavalry. A fierce warrior and cunning commander from an Arab tribe......

! @#