Eagle Byzantium

The prince's military administration was also modified based on imitating Gawain. He let all the farmers in Moria and Thessaly work on the fields, and then entrusted his slave Axepochus to take charge of business and trade. All the profits were used to recruit soldiers within the empire to form a new army. The prince's recruitment targets can be roughly divided into two groups: one is the tough mountain people in the Epirus area. This group of people has no intention of planting farmland and there is no arable land to make a living there, so they "put on their sabers and lead their horses." Horse, with three wives in shabby clothes and seven lights "Bad-ass kids, followed by an orthodox native priest". Under the invitation of Prince John, groups of people entered the city of Thessaly and entered the camp. The prince placed their family members near the camp and paid them part of the salary and armaments. , the remainder was granted land to compensate; and one This is the river at the junction of Thessaly and Thessaloniki, that is, in the Vadaritai Valley. There has always been a "Persian converted tribe" who converted to Orthodoxy a hundred years ago. Their origins are actually the Magyars, No one cares about the Bulgar Turks anymore. Anyway, the people in the imperial capital The bureaucracy all calls them Persians - the prince reached an agreement with his uncle Isaac Komnenos who manages them (Issac is now stationed near the Holy Mountain of Assos to collect taxes) on the condition of being exempted from taxes. Let this group of people enter the camp with their war horses and take the oath of service.

Then, the prince trained all the Epirus people into light spearmen and archers, while the Vadaritai cavalry were all issued with light linen armor (a mixture of linen and armor pieces to be precise) and recurve bows. In this way, 2,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry were organized in a short period of time, called the "New Army of Moria". The chief instructors were the prince's military advisor Titicius and Dugelius Thessaly of Thessaly. Gurness two.

Later, the prince imitated the armored cavalry of Gawain and Anna, and also formed a heavy cavalry team, with a total of 600 people, 200 of whom were recruited from Norman, Italian, and Frankish wandering mercenaries, wearing armor and holding weapons. Those who mounted lances were called "lancers"; the remaining four hundred were native cavalry. , but they are not played by the landowners of Pulogna. Most of them are herdsmen or petty officials recruited by the prince. They also wear armor and use light short spears and bows to fight with the "lancers". They are called "light cavalry". "Cavalry" - this team is faster and lighter in combat than the mounted cavalry. The prince handed over all cavalry charge or fighting training to the Earl of Blois and the Earl of Normandy. These two were hired by the prince with high salary and chartered fiefdom to serve the prince here. This situation is not the same. Not surprising: Roman emperors and generals had long hired poor and brave Westerners as mercenaries.

Taking advantage of this large-scale conquest of Danish Mond by the Pilgrims, the emperor also deployed various fronts:

The emperor personally allocated five hundred Tecopo soldiers to escort Raymond, the "Grand Count of Laodicea";

Cosa and Brenus each sent out three thousand cavalry, followed Philadophiam and Afyon to the north, and put them all under the command of Harold, assisted by Mikhail, the chief of the palace guard, and the troops originally stationed in Bithynia's troops gathered 8,000 people to "follow" the main group of pilgrims to regain the lost territory, targeting the Paphlagonia area with Kastamonu and Gangala as the core;

Prince John dispatched all the new troops, with Titicius as the general and the Count of Blois and the Count of Normandy as lieutenants, and marched directly from Afillon along the Sakarya River, with the goal of Ankara Castle;

Gawain (one of the emperor's surprise troops, with a funny expression) besieged Kayseri with all his strength, cut off Danishmund's reinforcements in the southwest of the plateau, and ensured the siege of Ankara by Moria's new army.

As for the old general Theodoro of Trabizon, he also dispatched four thousand elite troops from the "New Caesarea Gate" to threaten the city of Amasya.

This deployment is a standard "all sides advance together, each other is a horn". The purpose is to make Merrick stretched and exhausted, and then Danishmund will be crippled and even destroyed with one drum, just like the Sultan of Romu. The emperor really wanted to do this. It took a lot of effort, "I After receiving news that Giliki may have died due to his palace conspiracy, now Konya and Ankara have fallen into the hands of Merik's enemy chiefs, their rule is unstable, and people are eager to return to the Roman Empire. John's new army can make a bold advance, but just be careful. Just the traitor Gawain."

But privately, Prince John also had his own plans and arrangements. He had summoned Titicius, Stephen and Robert before setting off, leaving Diogenes alone. "I and my Turkic slaves are sitting in Corinth. If he does not participate in this expedition, he must obey Taticius in everything. Besides, it is impossible for a new army to be formed. He is Gawain's opponent, so I suggest you - firstly, avoid Gawain's military operations and avoid any conflicts; secondly, the fundamental priority this time is to participate in actual combat training, and it does not necessarily have to capture cities and territories; thirdly, it is worth noting that for Lord Raymond, you don’t have to obey his orders to ensure the independent command of the new army.”

In the Chivit camp, Marshal Conrad also said the same words to his close subordinates, "After our army enters the Paphlagonia mountains, none of the soldiers are allowed to leave your sight, and you are not allowed to leave me and Archbishop Bither's vision is that everyone should unite, stay as far back as possible when fighting, and stay on guard when setting up camp. "

At Nicomedia, the Duke of Aquitaine also summoned the other two counts and all the knights. "We are all warriors from Aquitaine, Toulouse, Soissons and other regions, and we must all be united." Hug together and don’t come in casually under orders from outsiders.”

When the Feast of Pentecost arrived, all the troops except those in Bithynia gathered together. Archbishop Biser of Milan performed a weapon consecration ceremony for the huge army on the field, and then the whole army naturally divided into two teams: the 5,000 troops of Titius raised their flags and went directly to Ankara from the eastern valley of Nicaea; the rest of the army totaled more than 200,000, and the head of the team went to the junction of Brasilon and Bithynia, and the tail remained in the suburbs of Nicaea. The whole army was divided into three arrays, Raymond walked in the front, Conrad in the middle, and Guillaume in the end. The latter two kept changing positions in the middle, as if they were cautiously competing for the "end".

"Completely, completely lacking the integrity of a Christian warrior, how lazy!" Looking into the deep valley, Raymond under the Holy Spear was furious.

When the winding mountain road gradually turned into a wide and smooth road, Raymond could see the vast black sea of ​​Euxin in the distance with his naked eyes. They were going to advance to Sinop Castle and use it as a relay station before turning to the general attack on Paphlagonia. On the wasteland below the seashore, a Roman Empire army was welcoming them with various flags.

The leaders were Harold and Mikhail. (To be continued ~^~)