Eagle Byzantium

"Holy my Majesty!" All the imperial guards responded in unison, surrounding the emperor with their battle axes raised high, looking at the flags flying in front of them and marching quickly. The armor plates made a roaring sound. They had suffered the shameful accusation of "disobeying orders and breaking the charge" in the previous battle. Not only were nine flag officers executed, but the chief officer, Mr. Mikhail, was also sent back to the imperial capital to reflect. Now the emperor personally drives them as guards and promises everyone, "If you perform well in this battle, the casualties will receive double compensation, and those who have made meritorious deeds will receive special fiefs in places such as Mesenbria." So everyone fought bravely in this battle.

Over there, in the Virsigenia camp, 4,000 Mosiah cavalry rushed down from the front slope and the gap of the cart like a flood that broke through the dam, and then gathered into a terrifying torrent, sweeping towards the central front where Gawain was also advancing.

"Kill the tyrant!" Kadam's horse hooves flew, and the general stood bravely on the saddle. With a sharp metallic sound, he drew out his sword and held it upright between his eyebrows.

The flags fluttered, and the rest of the Mosiah cavalry also drew out their swords and nail hammers, and raised their long-handled caltrop hammers and hexagonal hammers. For a moment, the sound of weapons being unsheathed and ringed pierced through the heavy clouds covering the sky. Then the fighting sound of "Kill the tyrant!" burst out, and the clouds were torn apart. Points of golden sunlight penetrated and shone on the armor of the soldiers on both sides, reflecting thrilling colors.

"Shoot!" Atami on the left wing took the lead in riding on his horse and slashed his sword. The Pauline believers in front of him and on both sides who were half-kneeling put down the spiked light barricades on their backs, and then raised their long guns, with the muzzles slightly upward, and suddenly fired at the commander's command.

At about the same time, the front ranks of the two right-wing brigades also half-knelt down, and together with the upright rear ranks, they stretched out their long guns, then pulled the triggers, and fired a wave of hot bullets.

In the vast land in front of the camp, thousands of lead bullets shot obliquely from both wings, with billowing smoke and dust, whistling and dragging countless meteor-like trajectories, intertwined together, like the twill jacquard on a loom, passing through the bodies and gaps of the four thousand Mosiah cavalry.

Then there were the wailing sounds of people and horses, and the sound of bullets penetrating and mixing armor fragments and flesh and blood. Many cavalrymen fell off their horses, and some spears and broadswords were bent and broken, but more cavalrymen continued to charge forward like crazy.

Over there, the Gawain chariot was rolling forward rapidly, and the muskets and cannons in the carriage also opened fire like thunder. In the middle and behind, there were Pauline believers holding iron forks. They had received training against cavalry under the leadership of Atami, and their combat effectiveness was no longer comparable to before. After the convoy and the Mosiah cavalry collided with each other, some of the cavalrymen who rushed into the gap between the vehicles were hit by the soldiers in the carriage with stones, flails and spears and fell off their horses, while others were blocked by iron forks and hooks and could not move. Then they were stabbed in the ribs by the spears that followed and died.

The entire convoy battle line was a mess, and the shooting teams on the left and right wings of Gawain did not care about the situation at all. They took turns to load and move forward, continuously firing bullets crosswise, killing and blocking the Mosiah cavalry rear team. When the enemy cavalry attacked from front and back, the front-line soldiers would put away their long guns and take out their secondary weapons - short shotguns, wooden-handled iron fireballs, light shrimp cannons, etc., and put all the weapons that could be fired at close range on the ground and fired at them.

When the cavalry came out of the smoke, the shooting soldiers would pull out the long swords and iron sticks on their belt rings and fight with them.

Sixty to seventy percent of the bravest Mosiah cavalrymen were wounded or killed, because they were in the front line and suffered the most serious casualties from the bullets. The second and third line cavalry teams were also disrupted by the casualties and horses running around in front of them. Many Mosiah cavalrymen were crowded in the narrow area of ​​1,500 feet wide and 800 feet long in front of Virsigenia. The slope made them unable to retreat. They could only rely on their unstoppable momentum and the crushing advantage of cavalry over infantry in the era of cold weapons to break through in one go.

However, the chariots, the trained Paulicians and the shooting soldiers, and the firearms that could cause intensive casualties to people and horses, made the Mosiah cavalrymen like boiling food in a hot pot. Countless helmets and flags were crowded together, the horses' hooves were staggering, the corpses were rolling, and the sound of the firing of muskets and artillery mixed with a terrifying and sharp sound. The three fronts bit fiercely like sharp teeth.

Soon Gawain and the Imperial Mausoleum Guards arrived at the battle line. All the Alemanni, Danish, Varangian, and Saxon soldiers were closely together, all holding out their sharp long axes, and marching forward like a wall. They abandoned their original scattered tactics and took advantage of their original formation on the British Isles. In this way, the tall Imperial Mausoleum Guards were fully able to compete with the cavalry.

Long axes were swung, blood shadows were rolling, and the Mosiah cavalry was no match for the Imperial Mausoleum Guards in close combat, especially in this narrow area, so they were chopped down one after another with their horses - but as long as the army trained by Gawain was not overwhelmed by the cavalry in the first place, then they could effectively launch a powerful counterattack against the cavalry, or even massacre them.

Kadam completely lost the war. He originally hoped to use the strategic stronghold of Versiginia to harass and destroy the security of Gawain's defense line in Thrace for a long time. He believed that he could gallop freely and cause great difficulties for Gawain by relying on the speed and combat power of the cavalry. But what he didn't expect was that in the winter environment with a lack of food, Gawain could quickly gather supplies, reorganize the team, and take the initiative to raid and remove the nail of Versiginia.

This is a replica of the tactics used by John I to attack the invading Russians many years ago (the Battle of Silistra Castle, called the Battle of Dorostol by the Russian side), but Gawain is better than John Gimisky because his army can project a large amount of fire rain that causes death and panic, directly defeat the arrogant northern cavalry, and gain a longer-term logistical advantage with more powerful and newer vehicles.

At dusk, the bodies of the Mossia cavalry killed by the Imperial Mausoleum Guards covered the entire battlefield and filled the ditches on the slope of the camp. Then the axe-wielding Imperial Guards and the Paulicians and the brigade shooters stepped on the corpses of the enemy and rushed into the chariot formation of the Versigenia camp. At the same time, the "ox horn" gates at both ends of the camp were also broken and destroyed by the two brigades on the left and right. Under the three heavy hammers, the Versigenia camp collapsed and countless people died.

In the northwest and north, the two Mossia cavalry guerrillas who came back to support were also defeated. The cavalry of Diogenes and Hajib turned around and blocked the roads on both sides of the Dengjie River, searching for fish that had escaped the net.

Kadam and Akrida both died heroically. The former fell on the front line with the bodies of many comrades. Although the latter was a priest, he also held the chariot formation until his last breath until he was killed by three Paulicians who rushed in.