Harold looked left and right, and all the people gathered around him were the first to follow him to fight the world, and the loyal old brothers who would never betray him. He beckoned in, motioning for them to come closer. He lowered his voice again and whispered his plan. This group is all veterans who have been mixed with oil for ten or twenty years. Although most of them don't know a single word. But the war experience is very rich. After hearing what Harold said, he said "oh~", indicating that he understood. After that, he slapped his boss's ass. The mercenaries were lively for a long time, and then Harold assigned another task, and repeatedly emphasized that it must not be leaked.

"But Boss, if you have already thought of such a plan, then why write to the Norman king of the coalition. Say you're willing to sacrifice the city?" asked another Varangian mercenary.

"Cut, it's just a delaying tactic. Harold snorted lightly: "The dead eunuch made an excuse, saying that it was to collect the corpses as a delaying tactic. Who would believe such an idiot's excuse? (At this time, Europeans knew very little about the plague, and they didn't know that corpses gave birth to the plague) The other party agreed, and eighty percent wanted to take advantage of the situation to paralyze those idiot Greeks. After that, he took the opportunity to raid and attack Naples. I can't rest assured. That's why I secretly agreed with him that the city would be dedicated in three days. ”

"I see. The boss is wise. The mercenaries were convinced. I'm glad I have such a cunning boss. At the same time, he was secretly afraid in his heart, hoping that the boss would not use his cunning against his own people, and deduct their commissions in a different way.

Three days went by in a flash. In the end, Narcisse could not get the Eastern Roman soldiers to muster courage. Seeing the outskirts of the city that had been cleared, the dark red earth, and the endless stretch not far away, there were tens of thousands of corpses of Eastern Roman soldiers. Narsis himself muttered in his heart. I thought in my heart: If it doesn't work, I will take my henchmen and flee to Sicily by boat, and Xu Tu will get up again.

On the morning of May 17, 1003, the 84,000 allied troops, dressed up after three days of rest, gradually approached the city of Naples from the east, south, and north under the leadership of His Majesty King Egil. Looking at the well-groomed officers and soldiers of the coalition army, the morale of the Eastern Roman army became more and more low. At this moment, although reluctant, all Narsis could think of was Harold and the unreliable Varangian mercenaries under his command.

But these unreliable guys don't know why, and they haven't appeared until now.

"Damn, what the hell are those bastards Varangians?!Why haven't they come yet?!" Seeing the coalition forces getting closer and closer, Narcis's forehead was sweating. I couldn't help but complain loudly.

"--General, General!!!" "Just as Narsis was in a state of trouble, the herald he had sent to the Varangian army garrison was in no hurry and ran swiftly towards the wall. Immediately after jumping off the horse. Ran up the city wall in one go.

"What's going on?!" asked Narciss, hurrying.

"Well, the Varangians are all gone, but there was a little boy there who said that the Varangians had given him a florin's gold coin, and that he had to give the letter to the Romans - and that we would go to him for the day. I brought the letter with me. The herald breathed a sigh of relief before saying. At the same time, he took out a letter from his pocket and handed it over.

"What the hell did that guy have in mind?!" Narcisse took the letter, and before he could open it. Then he heard again that at this moment, before Narcisse could come to his senses, another fast horse came running from the west side, and the same herald came running.

"What's the matter?!" asked Narciss.

"The docks, the docks - a group of Varangians has stolen dozens of ships, and the crew has gone to sea!"

"Did you escape?!!Those damn mercenaries!, I knew they couldn't be trusted!" Narcisse cursed as he made sure he slipped away quickly. Run to Sicily with the determination of the cat to get up.

"Not only did they flee, but they burned all the boats that were left to go to sea!" said the herald who had come from the direction of the docks. ,

"What?!they—you say they burned the boat?!," shouted Narciss, pulling the herald by the collar.

"Yes, that's ......"

"Damn it, those goddamn Varangians!, are you trying to drive me to your death?!" Narcisse was so dizzy that he nearly collapsed.

By this time, the coalition had advanced far enough, and Egil drew his sword and shouted: "Soldiers!!! In front is the city of Naples, the richest city in all of southern Italy, and inside it are the Greek heretics who have been spurned and will go to hell after death! Look at their cowardice now, and think of their old pride and arrogance—a pile of rubbish!!"

Egil cried out: "I, the Norman King, the leader of the seventeen nations of the whole Catholic world! Egil Skadergrímsson, the guardian of the Catholic world, promises you! After the city is destroyed, you can do whatever you want! You can do whatever you want! I give you ten days to purify the city as much as you like - kill all those who God sees as good as they can do!"

The murderous order to slaughter the city was passed down by the loud heralds on fast horses. At the same time, on the east and south sides, King Philip of France and Duke Charles of Burgundy, gave the same order, slaughtering the city. Naples must be completely removed from the map - and then the whole of southern Italy can be fairly divided.

This was the end result of what Egil talked to Heard that day.

And at this moment, after hearing the clamor of the other party to slaughter the city, and then thinking of the destruction of all the sea ships, Narsis suddenly seemed to think of something crucial. Looking at the dead letter that was still in his hand, Narsis immediately opened the envelope and began to read it as quickly as he could, in order to be sure of what he was thinking.

"To the damned eunuch Narciss, may you live young. ”

This seemingly unfriendly opening was automatically ignored by Narciss.

"I suppose you have already sailed away with my men by the time you read this letter—make no mistake, I am not fleeing, I am swimming against the current, and I am going north, at great risk, to attack my opponent's back by sea. Also, the method I mentioned is also on top of this. I burned all the ships and left no room to escape. At the same time, they spread the news in the city that the enemy should slaughter the city for three days after the city was broken. As the saying goes, in order to survive in such adversity, the soldiers of Eastern Rome will inevitably be able to burst out a hundred times their combat power in order to survive. Fight your way to defend Naples by resisting enemy attacks. That's all I have planned.

And, remember, you owe me a favor - and a hundred thousand florins.

- Harold Hadedallah"

Seeing this letter, Narsis understood all of Harold's so-called "plan", which was to use the 30,000 Eastern Roman soldiers in the city, plus 100,000 inhabitants, as bargaining chips. As long as there is the slightest mistake in this plan - for example, the other side does not keep the agreement and attacks first, or the soldiers are not stimulated as Harold imagined, or the soldiers do not believe the rumors spread by Harold, only the slightest mistake is made. Then the whole of Naples is finished!

None of this was Harold's business, and he could go back to Constantinople with a swagger if he could make a slight gesture and go to the unprepared part of northern Italy to burn and loot. Put the blame for the defeat on your own head. They will even make up some feats of war. Let the Emperor Basil reward him!

The more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and then he crumpled the papyrus and threw it to the ground.

"I owe you a grandmother!! "Narciss?!!!!! then turned to his lieutenants, guards, and heralds, "all right! You see! The ship is fucking gone! The retreat is fucking gone!! The enemy is going to slaughter the city!! so why don't you fight hard, wait for death give me an order to the whole army, and if you don't want to die, give me a desperate resistance!

So these dozens of people immediately ran away, and used fear and despair to force the Eastern Roman soldiers out of their fighting spirit, in exchange for enough combat power to defend the city.

The whole of Naples exuded the atmosphere of mourning little by little. The Eastern Roman soldiers were desperate and could only fight to the death......

At this moment, outside the city, because this incident broke out too suddenly. So much so that the Norman spies did not have time to grasp the situation, let alone send out the information - in order to prevent the enemy from shooting down the carrier pigeon, and then obtaining the information, the intelligence system usually released the carrier pigeon at night, in addition to writing letters in cipher code. Taken together, the intelligence network that Norman had always used was useless at this moment. The coalition forces, who were unaware of the changes in the city, still had great confidence in the breakthrough of the city.

Although there have been objections before. Saying that shouting out such a thing as slaughtering the city before the battle will make the enemy desperate and rise up to resist. But Egil laughed and retorted: "Naples is a port city, and there are hundreds of ships anchored in the western harbor - even if it cannot transport all the people of Naples at once. It's no problem to transport 18,000 at a time. Therefore, it cannot be said that there is no way out, on the contrary, such a threat will deepen the possibility of the other party's escape. I'm afraid it won't take long after the fight to start, and those soldiers will flee in the direction of the port, ahahaha......"

(To be continued.) [