Eagle Byzantium

As soon as he finished speaking, Gawain suddenly saw that the Mosul Turks under the city began to make loud noises and commotions. Then he looked far away in the direction Giovanni pointed: several thick smoke columns were burning in the remote area between Ata City and San Simeon Port. Then, some of the Turkish soldiers and horses that were besieging the city moved their flags - and rushed towards the direction where the smoke columns rose.

"It seems that Lord Godfrey has taken action!" Giovanni said excitedly.

Next, the scouts who came to report from the beacon tower on Rose Ridge verified the judge's judgment: Lord Godfrey took advantage of the moment when Amasa concentrated his main force and pressed against our camp, and dispatched the mobile forces they had arranged in advance: 800 cavalrymen of Count Werner and Count Hartmann, who rushed to the city of Ata along the passage of the West Fort, destroyed several camps and forts behind the Amasa line, burned and looted many baggage vehicles loaded with food and fodder, and even almost took down the city of Ata.

Raymond on that wing was not to be outdone. He bribed several local Saracens and led small groups to frequently attack the troops and horses that were relocating from Mosul or Aleppo at the river mouth fortress and the edge of the Daphne Forest, and also made considerable gains.

The King of Aleppo, Ridwan, was so angry that he sent out his soldiers and sailed down the river in boats to attack Raymond's estuary fortress and iron bridge - but Raymond had already reinforced the entire bridge with wood and bricks, turning the entire bridge into a bunker. Then the Provencal soldiers fired fire pots at Ridwan's ships from the shooting holes inside (they had fought frequently with the pagans in Spain and were familiar with this powerful weapon), burning many Turkish boats and winning a great victory.

"Good, very good, Godfrey and Raymond are really good at learning war. I used to read the military books that Anna gave me. The previous emperor Leo described the Franks like this, saying that their tactics were brave and stupid, and when they could not gain a tactical advantage, they became meaningless and wasted their lives. Before passing through Asia Minor, Godfrey's team of lords was indeed like this, but now they have made rapid progress - although they are still not as good as the subordinates of this Grand Duke." While admiring, Gawain also praised his own team.

He actually understood that the current situation of Cobha and Ridwan was not much better than his own.

Then Gawain led the guards and hurriedly left the defense wall and entered Antioch along the bridge.

At the intersection of the palace area and St. Peter's Church, the camp manager Melo was rubbing his hands and waiting for him. Gawain, who got off the horse, clearly saw that Melo's face was pale, obviously a symptom of insufficient diet. Recalling the scene he saw along the way, he couldn't help but understand a little more:

The entire Antioch City no longer had the previous prosperous trade. Since the two external ports were lost, there were basically no other people active on the street except the soldiers - most of the pilgrims and residents were forced to repair the fortress defense line, and the women and children hid in the surviving houses in the block, like rats in the daytime, not coming out, in order to save energy in hunger.

Even the front-line troops were like this. Take Gawain for example. He had three brigades plus the Genat soldiers who served as his servants, plus the military servants, a total of more than 10,000 people, but now they could only be divided into three groups. One group was stationed in the Orontes camp to fight, and the other two groups were resting and rotating in the camps inside and outside the city.

They said they were resting, but in fact they were short of food and could only stay in the camp. The food rations were also divided into upper and lower quantities, and most of them were given to the front line.

When they were rotated to this group, the soldiers all cried and dragged their weapons into the camp defenses, because they also knew that they could get enough food by fighting the enemy face to face.

The conditions of Godfrey, Bohemond and Raymond should be roughly the same.

"It's very hard, right?" Gawain said to Melo.

The camp manager nodded, and then in the weather in June, he tied his cloak very tightly, and he did the same. The condition of ordinary grassroots soldiers can be imagined.

Gawain's mood suddenly became heavy, and the joy of victory was diluted a lot, but he had not lost confidence. On the contrary, his fiery fighting spirit burned even more.

Accompanied by the camp manager, he strode into the nave of the church. There, the people who stayed in the city, including Adhmar, Peter, Oxhild, and the honorable Hugh, were standing or lying, but they had lost most of their energy and were listless. Obviously, they were also troubled by the lack of food.

When Bohemond learned that Gawain had arrived, he also came from the Acropolis defense line (he handed over the defense to Tancred) to attend the meeting. Although he looked a little hungry, he still proudly announced his military exploits:

He repeatedly defeated the infiltration attacks of the Turks in the small defense plate and cut off more than 300 heads.

"But if we continue to consume like this, I'm afraid we will collapse before Kobuha. I didn't expect that lack of food would be so unbearable." Admar was worried, making the sign of the cross in front of the image of Jesus in the church, praying to the Almighty God to help the devout believers get through such suffering as soon as possible and continue to advance towards the Holy Land, and never "abandon us sinners."

The rest of the people, whether priests or lords, also hung their heads and looked listless, probably because they were generally not optimistic about the prospects of the war.

But as soon as Gawain and Bohemond appeared in the church, many people inside and outside the nave regained their strength, roared loudly, waved their fists, and unanimously condemned the agreement they reached: that is, to collect the private savings of all pilgrims, whether civilians or soldiers, and concentrate them to buy food from the Pisans.

Among them, the honorable Hugh was angrily holding up a paper roll, which listed the extent to which the prices of the entire Antioch city had soared due to the hoarding of goods by the Pisans:

"Listen, one of you is the general officer of the army, and the other is the Grand Duke of the Roman Empire. How much does an egg laid by a hen in the city cost now?"

A correct version in 16-9-1 book-1 bar!

Gawain was silent, and then Hugh raised his hand and shouted loudly, "It's 6 full-weight Luca silver coins!" With this offer, the people standing and sitting in the courtyard and the hall groaned loudly, and it was obvious that this was their deep pain.

"I thought it was worth 60 silver coins. The situation doesn't seem that serious." Bohemond laughed, but what he got was even more angry looks from everyone.

"It's not that there are eggs worth 60 silver coins, your honorable Duke of Apulia - those are eggs laid by roosters. Today my servant bought us a bag of beans to fill our stomachs." After saying that, Hugh picked up a bag tied with a rope and then untied it. "I counted carefully. There are a total of ten shriveled beans in this bag, but it cost me 1 Luca silver coin." (To be continued ~^~)