Eagle Byzantium

The Pagan Guards of Sicily stood on that huge rock, with three foot-operated crossbows erected. It was said to be invented by the Rus people in the north. It combined the advantages of the catapult and the crossbow, and could shoot fists as big as heads like wheels one by one, with an amazing speed.

Countless flying stones hit the Red Hand soldiers lined up between the foot of the mountain and the coast. Their feathers and armor were stacked layer by layer, very neat, and the rows of vermilion spears protruding from the front were extremely shocking. However, once the Pagan Guards' foot-operated crossbows swung up with a "bang bang bang" sound, many Red Hand soldiers were hit with screams. Some retreated with their broken helmets and wounds, and the more seriously injured took off their armor and crawled away by themselves. The soldiers in the rear team then filled in and continued to defend the front line to the death.

In the narrow position, the firearms of the shooting army could not be deployed in large groups, so the pagan guards took advantage of this opportunity, constantly shaking the fork bells like a rising tide, waving flags, and shooting with bows in twos and threes. The rest of the infantry shouted and jumped forward in small groups. The front ones held light shields made of lynx skins and slashed with scimitars, while the back ones held spears and continued to charge in waves under the cover of the rain of arrows.

Rows of spears gathered, and some pagan warriors who rushed over were stabbed to death and fell to the ground in various running postures, while others knelt on the ground with their waists bent, and slashed fiercely under the spear formation.

Most of these warriors were descendants of the Crescent Cult that originally occupied Italy, and some were recruited by Roger the Elder from the Maghreb. Some of them were on duty at the Palermo Palace, while others worked in the local carpet weaving guild. On weekdays, they helped each other as a brotherhood, lived in poverty and practiced asceticism, and on the battlefield, they organized themselves to be loyal to Allah and the Norman King (this is also a strange combination). They were brave pioneers and unstoppable. The characteristic of this group of pagans was that they all lived in brown tents when they camped, so they were called the "Brown Army". Once the enemy saw the brown tents covering the ground, they were often intimidated.

Soon, the battle commander wearing a blue robe asked the scattered soldiers to fill in, all half-crouched, holding axes and sickles, and specially harvested the "sewer rats" crawling under the dense spears. In the flashing white light of swords, axes and sickles, bloody stumps and heads rolled between the soldiers' boots.

Although they repelled several attacks from the Brown Army, the spear formation of the Red Hand soldiers could not be deployed in such a space. The enemy's stone throwing and arrow shooting were very fierce. Even the Sicilian warships took the opportunity to cruise to the shore and used the crossbows or catapults on the deck to launch a fierce side attack. The front formation of the Red Hand soldiers took the initiative to avoid this disadvantage. They slowly retreated to the predetermined rear like the ebb tide, where the soldiers in the rear formation were waiting in full battle formation to support their friendly comrades.

But soon the bells in the direction of the big rock rang again violently - several rows of Norman cavalry wearing vests and holding lances and hexagonal hammers rushed in from the big rocks. They took advantage of the enemy's weakness to launch a fierce pursuit and achieve the goal of completely defeating the enemy.

Following the Norman cavalry were the Sicilian Brown Army archers carrying quivers on their backs. They shouted terribly and kept popping out the whirring sound of the bowstrings.

At the critical moment, a 20-man artillery detachment, carrying artillery on their shoulders, climbed up the high rocks on the mountain, set up four shrimp-whisker cannons, stuffed them with lead bullets, and fired them in turns like lightning, shaking the surrounding leaves and pebbles to fall, instantly suppressing the pursuit of the Sicilian infantry and cavalry. Some Norman cavalry were knocked off their horses, and more crowded Sicilian brown army archers were bombarded to countless corpses and retreated. This artillery detachment successfully covered the retreat of the front line - at noon, Melo personally led the follow-up team, carrying several long perfume bottle cannons to Zograf Monastery, and first bombarded the Sicilian warships. The masts of two Sicilian warships were broken and damaged, and the rest hurriedly retreated to a safe area.

The Brown Army approached with pedal crossbows to compete with the Roman Empire's artillery. As a result, the shooting soldiers waiting in the rear line fired back with long guns. A group of Brown Army gunners were killed or injured, and they dragged their weapons back to their own camp.

After fighting all day, Melo decided: "We can no longer camp in Zograf Monastery, and retreat to the base camp in Orarro Terrace."

Sure enough, after the two detachments west of the peninsula withdrew, countless temple slaves and natives mobilized by Masdas rushed out from the mountain. If Melo had not made a decision in advance, their retreat might have been cut off, which would have been very embarrassing. Not only would the two detachments be in danger, but if the enemy attacked Orarro Terrace, the remaining troops there were weak and might also be lost.

The next day, the two detachments on the east coast of the peninsula also set fire to several monasteries that they had captured and retreated. The attacking Sicilian Brown Army also set fire to other monasteries, and the entire Ato Peninsula was filled with smoke. Seeing this scene, Masdas was deeply saddened. The pagans wrapped in turbans appeared in the sacred place and destroyed and trampled it, but the most tragic thing was that they were still friendly troops...

Mello, who withdrew his troops back to the Orarro Terrace, quickly reported the news to Gawain.

"Will the enemy increase its troops?" Gawain was very concerned about this issue.

Because the current mobile military force only has two brigades and part of the Grand Palace Guards, and there are three detachments left in Thessaloniki, which means that he has nine detachments besieging the Holy Mountain of Athos, all six of the Red Hand Brigade are fighting with the enemy on the island, and Philippi only has three detachments of the Guard Brigade and his own guards.

At the same time, news came that after learning that Gawain was not well-off, Constantine Bertin directly mobilized five thousand troops and drove directly to Philipsburg. Bulgarian rebels also suddenly emerged. Thirty Zupan lords gathered an army of 20,000 people and began to approach Adrianople directly.

In this way, we are attacked on three sides.

It was originally going to go smoothly, knocking down the nail of the Holy Mountain of Athos like the original mountain sect, but he didn't expect that the alliance that was hostile to him also officially started to coordinate their efforts, and the force they used was really not small!

Originally, the captive Masdars was going to be put on public trial as a "giant gift" to the Adrianople Believers Conference that was about to be held. However, now this wish is probably difficult to realize. Because three days later, Assasidus and Zahas arrived on Rhode Island with six ships, and there was also an important figure on the deck.

That is John Komnenos.

In order to boost morale, he personally boarded a boat to the peninsula and entered the Lavra Monastery.

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Masdas stood there, waiting for him with a majestic face. When John was half-kneeling in front of him, the Patriarch put his hands on John's head, which represented that the "good" Holy Spirit had been injected into John's body and heart. :

"Your sins should be forgiven. Protect the traditions and beliefs of this empire and fight the barbarian tyrants to the end!"