Eagle Byzantium

Just as Gawain returned to sweep the Roman Plateau west of Cappadocia, the Seleucid militia between Miliocephalon and Antiochus Minor, the Paulicians, and the Roman "beggars" all took action. Under the command of Birel, Hajib, and the Golden Hand Archon, they marched towards Konya in a dignified manner.

Ibn Mamun was in a state of panic and gathered thousands of soldiers to fight outside the city. The two sides fought fiercely in the wilderness forty miles south of Konya: However, the Turkish Bey and Ghazi, who were the main force, failed to defeat the militia that had been strengthened by the Khitan fire and array training. Instead, they lost many soldiers and retreated back to the city in embarrassment.

At this time, in the nearby Ikon military town, Hajib's young son Zengi suddenly raised the flag and gathered hundreds of soldiers to join his father. Then, scattered slaves and ghazis continued to come along the way. The whole army, under the banner of "following the will of Allah and the request of Masood, the son of the Sultan, to punish the traitor who murdered the Sultan", rushed to the city of Konya and surrounded Ibn Mamun.

Over there, the 5,000 new troops led by Titius, Diogenes, Stephen and Robert of Normandy passed along the Sakarya River on the north side of Konya and were less than 60 miles away from Ankara. Similarly, Gawain's army rolled in from the city of Nasa in the southeast corner and also approached the river valley behind Ankara.

There were only 2,000 Danishmonds stationed in the city. Their Bey commander kept asking Maimon of Konya for help, but Maimon received the same request. The whole situation was precarious - once Ankara was lost, the southern front of Merik would collapse completely, because the brave and warlike Great Emir really did not expect that Gawain's fire-throwing troops, catapults and siege weapons would be so powerful that they broke his solid Kayseri fortress within five days...

But the Great Emir, the Lord of the Sivas Plateau, was still gritting his teeth and insisting. He was determined not to care about the gains and losses of a city or a place. Anyway, the Turks only needed tents and sheep to defeat any enemy on this plateau. His plan remained unchanged: to first defeat the huge pilgrim coalition of Raymond and Guillaume, and then use the remaining power of victory to defeat other enemy forces in the direction of Ankara and Konya.

Just as Merick was ready to fight, Raymond of Kastamonu finally convened a joint meeting to discuss the topic of "moving forward".

Because before the meeting, Raymond received praise from the emperor, and in the secret letter Alexios even promised him, "After the recovery of the entire Paphlagonia, you will be the greatest contributor to the empire. I will give you the most glorious title, not only Laodicea, but also Afyon to you to guard, and all the rights and taxes here will be at your disposal, as long as you can cooperate with Brennus to suppress Gawain's vicious expansion. There are also gifts worth 60,000 imperial gold coins, including coins, silk, etc. I have entrusted all of them to the Pisa fleet to be transported to Sinop, and they will be distributed to your camp immediately. As for Conrad, who fled in the face of the enemy, I am very disappointed with him and the friendship between the empire and Salian Caesar, but don't worry about this group of cowardly and short-sighted Alemanni barbarians, continue your great journey, my friend Raymond, pierce your holy spear through the sultanate of Sinop, and then you can go to the sultanate of Sinop. The Great Mosque of Wass.

It is said that the emperor issued such an order despite the opposition of many bureaucrats, elders and privy court officials in the imperial capital: even Meles was no exception. He refuted the emperor fiercely, "Your Majesty, in order to get rid of an eagle that harms your estate, you don't hesitate to raise a greedy snake. The eagle and the snake may fight and both lose, but before that they will eat all the livestock and eggs in the estate. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, the eagle and the snake will unite and turn around to harm the owner of the estate."

"I failed to control Gawain before, which was my mistake, but I am absolutely confident that I can control the Count of Saint Gilles." In this regard, the emperor was not in a position to get angry, and could only sincerely explain his difficulties and determination to his servants before passing the resolution and conveying it to Kastamonu. Afterwards, Alexios began to mobilize the empire's army and crossed the Macedonian border again, first to deter the many Slavic chieftains who were unstable after the Battle of Miliocephalon, and second to "welcome" the last wave of pilgrims crossing the sea from Italy - the tens of thousands of troops of Welf and Lady Hughie, so as to prevent them from burning, killing and looting along the way.

At the Kastamonu Conference, Raymond was excited and kept thanking the emperor for his grace, and then drove everyone on the road.

"If we move forward now, we might be ambushed by the Turks." As soon as Duke Guillaume expressed this concern, he was booed and laughed at by the whole audience. Some people advised him to return to his hometown now, play the piano and write poems, "Otherwise, why would an artist who can only write rhymes run to faraway Asia Minor to suffer this?" "Guillaume, it's really hard to imagine how a guy like you can pacify the rich Aquitaine for so many years! You don't deserve to enjoy more glory and land, because, because that would be like a bad horse pulling a heavy cart." Raymond, standing next to the Holy Spear, also laughed loudly, and then the One-Eyed Marquis clenched his fist and made a firm statement in front of everyone, "I, I swear, Gangara will be occupied by us soon, and then, then it will be Karabi." "Long live, God's will!" Almost all the lords present cheered.

Behind the tent fire, the smell of wine and the crowd of people, the young chief of the palace guards and the commander of the auxiliary army, Mikhail, looked coldly at Raymond, who was speaking impassionedly in the middle of the crowd, and the tip of the holy spear that was shining with light. He frowned and said nothing, and occasionally made the sound of teeth gnashing...

After the sun covered the wilderness and the camp, the dazzling holy spear was erected in the sound of trumpets, and then the drunken pilgrims came in groups, forming a huge team that could not be seen from the beginning to the end, carrying and pulling the looted or rewarded by the emperor. The knights and ladies, farmers and village women teased and joked with each other, and continued to advance into the deeper mountains in a disorderly and chaotic manner.

In this area, Gawain and Grand Duke Theodoro of Trebizond had a desperate battle, but it was soon forgotten by this group of people, or it was not mentioned at all.

Slowly, during the rugged mountain road, the number of attacks by the Turkic light cavalry increased. They would suddenly raid an isolated camp at night, kill all the men, and kidnap all the women and children. When the other pilgrims found out the next day, only corpses were left in the wild.

Terror quickly spread throughout the pilgrim team. Guillaume once again proposed the "be cautious" plan, but Raymond and the other lords could not stop at all. They reached an agreement: every night, all pilgrims rushed to the wilderness to gather in a joint camp, and then a count and all his soldiers and horses served as guards and continued to move towards Gangara. (To be continued ~^~)