Eagle Byzantium

"A brigade? But my husband has already commanded all the main forces in the country and is heading further northwest!" Anna frowned slightly, then she began to think about it, and quickly came up with the answer, "That's good, I After pacifying Rhodes, we gathered 4,000 soldiers and sent them to Crete to help you in your cause.”

"Thank you very much, great imperial Caesar and blood king, true successor of Rome." After receiving such an affirmative and inspiring reply, all the representatives from Crete were overjoyed and collectively bowed in salute.

After they left, Anna continued to lie on the couch for a while, and then looked at the dusty arena construction site below. Suddenly she stretched herself and shouted, "It's time to relax, it's time to relax! Damanzi" Not around anymore, really..."

At this time, Gawain had already commanded the right army from Iconium. With the help of 2,000 Bactrian camels and more than 1,000 modified caravans, he braved the early summer heat and marched through the long The canyon started from Afyon City as a springboard, and after only four days of galloping, it appeared at the node of Bithynia and Anatolia Plateau - Doli Laem City, like a divine soldier descending from the sky.

At this moment, nearly one-third of the horses of the five cavalry regiments were dead and sick. Gawain couldn't help but feel sad. However, the artillery made of copper and iron was not affected by such weather. "Start to attack the fortress and build the fort. Miners dig tunnels!”

The goal of Gawain's attack was just as Taticius had predicted - after his left army captured the center of Laodicea, he took the opportunity to annex the territory that had surrendered to the Brennus couple, and then followed the Sardis River With the Masikatus River (now the Simav River in Turkey, also known as the Susulluk River), it cuts round the way to Prusa, the gateway to the strait of Constantinople. on the flanks of the city, cutting off the passage between it and the city of Doli Laem (now in the Eskişehir area of ​​Turkey), the gateway to the plateau; while Gawain's right army followed Ikonium -Affiyon-Doli Laem advance on the front line (basically the reverse of the First Eastern Expedition), first remove Doli Laem, and then join forces with the left army to besiege and capture Prusa.

If the city of Prusa fails, Gawain can directly cross the sea and rush to Gallipoli. He can also tear Bithynia and Mysia Lydia into two unrelated pieces, and then he can Sweeping the fertile coastal plain of Mysia, The right can encroach on the Bithynia region. As for the latter's fall, the more inland Paphlagonia region under John's rule will be tantamount to completely severing contact with the imperial capital, which can be regarded as "on the chopping block." of fish”.

Why did Gawain go ahead and capture Prusa?

The reason is very simple. This is determined by the geography of Asia Minor: there are many routes from the Anatolian Plateau to the surrounding plains, but most of them are cliff-like, with a drop of basically one thousand meters upward. Only Pulu The area between Sa and Doli Laem is stepped, rising slowly from 300 meters to 500 meters and then to 1,000 meters. This kind of landform is particularly conducive to military operations.

Therefore, driving directly from the plateau to Prusa is to have a springboard to the couch of the Queen of Ten Thousand Cities.

This is also the path to the rise of Osman in the real plane.

Doli Laem is located in the main road to and from the plateau, but it is by no means fertile. It is actually at the intersection of three gorges, with the mountain behind it and a small wilderness facing it.

Although the garrison strength in the city has been strengthened due to Titicius' previous plan, the absolute number is still very small. After all, this is just a small castle. There are only less than 500 imperial troops inside, 200 of which are new soldiers. The army soldiers were equipped with muskets and small bronze cannons, and the remaining three hundred people were hired Turks.

After finding out his opponent's confidence, Gawain even showed no interest in building siege fortifications. He "set up two large camps in the field in front of the city, one to the west for the cavalry, and one to the side for the infantry, and in the gorge. Set up artillery forts and military forts on both sides of the road. After three days, I will leave the defenders’ brigade to attack the city, and the rest of the team will follow me to continue the assault on Prusa City!”

In order for the left army to coordinate with his own pace as soon as possible, Gawain sent an urging letter and gave it to the horse to rush towards Lydia.

At this moment in the city of Prusa, Titicius personally rushed here to supervise the city defense and battles as the Duke of the region. The scout cavalry who arrived told him, "The Tarsus rebels have appeared on the plateau to the east. The main force of the cavalry may arrive within a few days."

His deputy, Meliselos, who was also the original city defense commander of Prusa, asked, "Is Doliraam still coming to the rescue?"

General Xiubi shook his head directly, "Now we can only hope that it can hold on for one more day before falling."

So General Meliselos fell silent, and then asked the second question, "How to resist Gawain's surprise attack now?"

"Select those from the new army who have received firecrackers training and line them up in the ditch outside the city wall. Erect the barracks and let me personally command them. The first thing Gawain rushed over should be his cavalry team, his kind The army of artillery bombarding the city walls is our nightmare. But the march of that kind of team is too slow, and it may take a week to get here. Once Gawain's big guns are bombarded, no one can defend Prusa City, so we have to use this precious time. , change and repair the castle’s defenses.”

John currently has only about 10,000 mobile troops on hand. Except for Mikhail's more than 1,000 outer palace guards who stayed in the imperial capital and 3,000 people building a new-style fortress in Gallipoli, the remaining 6,000 people were all gathered together. At Prusa they were under the unified command of Titicius.

"Open the warehouses in the city, take out all the money to reward the soldiers, and recruit people to repair it!" In front of the Prusa complex gate tower, General Nose Nose waved his hand and ordered hurriedly, "Now we need to renovate the city walls and towers facing the east - choose four or five towers, and build the protruding earthen platforms at the new locations. The earthen platforms are built in the shape of petals, and dog-foot wood (Tatisius imitated Gawain's field fortifications) and branches are erected on them, and then the blue and white ore made in the imperial capital's arsenal is used to build the towers. Copper guns were placed on top, and each earth platform had a cannon position, accompanied by three light cannon positions, and eighty people were left to defend it. The dug soldier caves were taken down, and when the enemy fired, we hid inside, and when the enemy attacked, we came out to fire. In addition, the moat was also widened, and the excavated earth was piled diagonally to the middle of the city wall. "

Just after the order was finished, on the horizon east of Prusa, accompanied by the sound of horns and responses, the Tarsus cavalry team like a black river appeared.

A correct version of the book in 16-9!

"Meliselos, you are responsible for building fortifications according to my plan, and I will go down to command the new army to repel this group of cavalry. Don't panic, they were just sent by Gawain to shake our position. "After saying that, Taitsius rushed down the city gate and began to command the new army to deploy forward.