Eagle Byzantium

In the fortress of Kartarimon, in the snow and wind, the great Count Melo and hundreds of soldiers of the task force, all wearing jackets filled with linen or Indian cotton, stretched out their black armor and stood in a line on the shore, with the battle flag of the Christ fish whistling and waving, looking at the black ocean until the fleet of Diogenes arrived.

Everyone, whether on the shore or on the deck of the ship, shouted happily.

From a distance, the fortress and iron chain guarding the entrance to the Euxine Sea at the tip of the Bosphorus Strait were vaguely visible, and the buildings everywhere were as majestic as monsters. The soldiers of the task force did not care about the situation in the south, because their goal was not Constantinople, but the vast land of Thrace in the north. Many people endured the severe cold and waded in the black and piercing sea water. White foam kept coming and going. The soldiers' iron helmets were covered with ice and snow and they carried luggage. The spearmen among them placed their spears horizontally in the cabin of the skuas, then boarded the simple deck, looked back at the dim campfire of the Cartarimon Castle, and then did not look back. They began to paddle, following the three commanders of the great earl, the garrison officer and the military judge, and moved forward along the coast to the northwest by north.

This "Thracian Volunteer Army" brought great shock to the local area the next morning.

The landing place was the Medieval Castle not far northwest of Constantinople. There was a gentle beach on one side. More than 30 skuas rushed up with the tide. The shovel mouth on the bow made a rolling furrow-like trace, and the arrow feathers flew and stuck on the single sail.

Amid the shouts, the Maldet sailors or task force shooters holding muskets skillfully jumped out, leaning on the hull, and exchanged fire with the castle garrison cavalry who had rushed over.

After the smoke of several volleys of gunfire dissipated, the group of cavalry driven out from Media saw more and more ships and enemy soldiers coming ashore, and hurriedly retreated into the castle.

Then, the Pronian knight Roxette stationed in the castle suddenly raised the flag, announced an uprising on the battlefield, joined the "Thracian Volunteer Army", and vowed to save the entire Thrace from "John's tyranny". Most of the guards in the castle followed him - one day later, another military town, Vizeburg, fifty miles west of Mediaburg, also rebelled against the emperor's camp and joined the ranks of the volunteers.

As a result, Argili led 800 soldiers and rushed into Vize and Mediaburg, and began to dig and build temporary camps along the southern border to cut off the military passage between this place and Constantinople.

Under the gloomy clouds and drifting snow, the Thracian Pronian landlord class once again had a crack: many people rode horses and wore armor to join the army. Although they all called the Tarsus army that landed "volunteers", they knew in their hearts that they were indeed betraying John and joining Anna and Gawain. However, there were also groups that continued to be loyal to the empire, occupying towns and military forts in various places, preparing to resist stubbornly - in other words, they also made their own choice for the future path of the empire.

Amid the yellow weeds and sandy hills, Argili shook hands with the newly surrendered Roxette in the camp. This time he did not make any "50 years of no change" promises like he had made to Lydia before, but clearly told everyone: those who came to join the army enjoyed generous benefices and gospel fiefs, and could "redeem" their previously occupied prison territories to the new Tarsus government, so that you can get benefits twice in general.

A few days later, the Pronian knights in the fortresses of Vikron and Yabo in northern Thrace gathered together and crossed the Vileka River (a river between Thrace and Constantinople that flows into the Euxin Sea) in the name of loyalty to the empire, and began to attack the camp of Argili's troops, attempting to restore their transportation line with the imperial capital, but they were repelled many times by Argili's troops and the newly surrendered Pronian army using a combination of volley guns, fortifications and light artillery.

But before the knights of the empire made any progress, more frightening news came from their north:

Diogenes and Melo led the remaining 1,500 sailors and task forces, boarded the remaining 70 light boats, including three cannon-equipped chariots, and rushed north to the Antop Fort at the mouth of the Vileka River, and launched a surprise attack on this important place!

The guards of Antoberburg swore to remain loyal to the current emperor and rejected the surrender request of the "volunteers". Then the guards cut down many branches, reeds and shrubs along the shore, built several stakes along the banks of the river, and fiercely shot arrows at the fleet under their cover.

Diogenes bravely rowed against the current with a dozen light boats into the estuary, and ordered the soldiers to line up reeds and shields on both sides of the ship to resist the arrows shot by the guards on the shore. Then three ships followed, one of which was unlucky enough to hit the reef and ran aground on the shore. Some people drowned, some were killed by the guards on the shore, and the rest held on to the broken and tilted cabin to resist. A group of guards came with saltpeter pots and torches, and wanted to throw and burn the ship. At this moment, the other two rushed to drop anchor, concentrated the shrimp cannons on the opposite side and fired a volley, deafening, and fired the cannonballs like raindrops, and the guards fled in defeat.

This continued until nightfall, with fierce fighting both on shore and on the river.

Under nightfall, Merlot directed the rest of the fleet of ships to venture into the river mouth. As a result, he found that the river banks on both sides of Antoba were too steep, which was not conducive to the landing of a large number of soldiers. Merlot asked the soldiers to take off their armor and not carry spears, but wear sabers. Swords and axes are light They loaded up the swimming water and took cover, leaving a small number of sailors (about ten people) on each ship to continue driving forward. Together with Diognis's advance fleet, they gathered on the water surface of Antober Castle, using light cannons and muskets to continuously shoot at Luzhai and the Fortress, false momentum.

Two days later, Diognis arranged the fleet together, hoisted sails and beat drums, luring Antober's defenders to line up on the shore to fight. Then Mero led a hidden elite group and took advantage of the opportunity to attack with short soldiers. A fierce attack from the rear, the defenders immediately fled, and Fort Antober was captured soon after.

Soon, the victorious task force moved rapidly westward along the Weelka River and attacked various strongholds.

On the other hand, there are dozens of Skuas preparing to carry more soldiers and land in the Thracian lands.

In this way, before the task force could advance to Meisembria, almost the entire eastern Thrace was lost, and the imperial capital was in shock.

The streets were full of officials and nobles who were escaping or preparing to escape. After receiving the information, John sat in the river hall in a daze, sweating profusely, "Why did Gawain betray his promise? Why did Gawain send troops to attack Thrace when he had clearly agreed to negotiate!" "

Axepochus replied that Gawain instigated the local lords and knights to rebel and defect, and also sent elites to sneak in under the banner of the so-called "Thrace Volunteers" to cover up the situation.

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John had really never seen this kind of play... He was angry, frightened, and at a loss.

"Tatisius, call Taticius here, I want to ask him about countermeasures!"