Eagle Byzantium

But this was not the end. After Leotius and Nexus waved their flags, the perfume bottle cannons set up behind the chariots continued to flash with fire, and the lead bullets with traces of flames continued to shoot into the formation of the emperor's front-line light archers. The Cretan and Tecopo mercenaries had no idea what kind of weapons the other side was shooting at. They only saw their companions screaming, being hit, pierced, and overturned, while the chariots on the opposite side were still flashing and spraying horizontal rows of death fire.

Soon, the front of the emperor's troops was completely defeated and fled. They ignored the scolding and trampled on each other, and all retreated to their own chariots and even trenches to hide. Many construction workers were so scared after seeing the chaos and tragedy in front that they hid behind the built carriages and barriers and dared not go out.

Some people who dared to go out were suddenly attacked by a small group of Gawain cavalry because they lost their cover, and many people were killed.

As a result, when the emperor received intelligence from the front line, he found that there was no progress in the project for a whole day.

Moreover, in addition to the catapults that could project extremely far, Gawain's army also had a more powerful long musket, "which could shoot deadly projectiles with flames, enough to fly five to six stadia away."

In the camp of Brennus, the emperor asked to present this mysterious projectile in front of him, "This is made of lead, there is no need to make a fuss, Gawain just replaced the arrows in the musket with lead bullets, and used Khitan fire to shoot them farther." The emperor analyzed, looking at a severely deformed lead bullet, which was still stained with the black blood of the dead and wounded soldiers. It should have been made into a round shape by a crucible before it died, and it was it that tore through the flesh and blood of his "descendants".

What made the emperor even more angry was that in the afternoon, Gawain's army also used the large Plane gun to shoot lighter hollow lead bullets, which also flew into his own car fort with the wind and projectile force and were picked up by the soldiers.

Inside the broken shell was a "letter of surrender" written by Gawain on Seleucid paper, which threatened, "The Normans will soon plunder your Dyrrhium, Thessaly, Moria and Thessalonica, destroy and burn your homes, while your emperor has sent most of the innocent soldiers to the plateau to die like cattle and sheep. Soon your food will run out and an epidemic will break out. Leave quickly, or my soldiers will cut off your heads like wheat with sickles and hammers, and pile them in front of the Cathedral of Tarsus for passing merchants and pilgrims to see. They will spread the tragedy of your destruction to every corner of the world."

In the letter of surrender Below, there is also a painting used to attack the heart. It is a huge wheel with a cross inside. Four people are sitting at the four points. They all look the same. The one on the far left is a man climbing up, and next to him is the name "Humble Noble Alexios Komnenos"; then this man wears a crown and sits proudly at the top of the wheel, and the text next to him is "Komnenos who stole the throne"; then when the wheel turns to the far right, "Komnenos" falls down with a panicked face, and the crown is separated from his head; when it is at the bottom of the wheel, "Komnenos" is blind and covered with a torn robe, and the text next to him is "Komnenos who lost the throne and became a beggar".

Finally, there is a line of eye-catching text, "Komnenos' wheel of fate has been on this plateau, turning towards that side".

"Shameless. Interesting, interesting! A man who is almost forty years old is just like a rough country boy. Can he fight me like this?" The emperor tore the picture into pieces casually, but after a few rips, he found that the paper was too tough, so he threw it into the brazier.

Then Alexius convened an emergency imperial meeting to discuss how to deal with Gawain's new weapon.

At this meeting, his son-in-law Brennus performed well and proposed a complete set of plans, which made the emperor very satisfied.

Two days later, the emperor's soldiers once again poured out of the main gate of the fortress and lined up, but this time the front was full of heavily armed spearmen. They stuck the kite shields they brought into the ground, and then used two long wooden sticks to form an "X" shape, tied them with ropes and fixed them to the kite shields, tilted them up, propped up a short wooden stick behind the shield, pierced its tail with a pin and smashed it into the ground, and then extended their spears and placed them on the top of the "X", with linen and cowhide on the spear blades. In this way, hundreds of shields quickly formed a three-sided "iron wall" to block the rows of "perfume bottles" light cannons in Gawain's fortress.

Nexus was not convinced, so he ordered a volley. As a result, following the trajectory of the lead bullets, sparks flew one after another on the shield wall of the emperor's spearmen, and the shields shook and trembled densely. The lead bullets flew around, and some of them lost their strength after penetrating the cloth and leather and fell to the ground. After the smoke dissipated, the emperor's shield wall formation remained motionless.

Now, the initiative was back in the hands of the emperor: their chariots extended half a li eastward in one day. As long as they advanced two more li, they could build a new camp and cut off the road between Gawain's camp and Iconium.

However, Gawain's cavalry could not raid the emperor's construction soldiers because the passage to there was controlled by one side of the emperor's "iron wall": many of the empire's mercenary archers and musketeers were behind the "X"-shaped shields and could shoot terrible arrows from the gaps. If Gawain's cavalry passed through, they would definitely be fiercely shot from the side.

For the time being, Gawain and his generals could not think of a better way to crack it. If they went out for a decisive battle together, they would throw themselves into the killing range of the emperor's chariots.

The current situation is that in a static confrontation, neither side is willing to take the initiative to attack, but the emperor uses the surplus military force to continuously extend the front line and calmly strangle himself.

"Is there no way?" Gawain summoned all the centurions and sergeants in turn to ask for countermeasures.

Later, the sergeant named Colonna, who performed well in the previous Battle of Melitene, proposed a plan that "the height of the emperor's army's shields is limited after all. If we can use perfume bottles to shoot at them, we can break it."

"However, digging up the earth hill takes too much time, and they may have completed the blockade by the time it is completed." Giovanni frowned.

"Don't hesitate, use wood to build a high house on the caravan, and hang the perfume bottle up, and use the pivot to shoot down!" Gawain immediately issued such a decision and promoted Colonna to the company's chief centurion.

A correct version can be seen in the 16-9 book bar!

Soon, Gao Wen's soldiers started to work. They chose the wagons facing the emperor's shield wall, and first imitated the emperor's side on the wagon board, using wood to build an "X"-shaped bracket, and hung shields and leather on it. Then they put a layer of wood on the bracket, and then covered it with sand. Then they built an "X" bracket on top. After building three layers of trapezoidal wagon towers in total, they used small wheels and winches to hoist the barrels, tails and pivots of the light artillery wagons and perfume bottles one after another.

During this process, the large Plane guns continuously fired stone shells to provide cover for the project and counter the dangers of the emperor's catapults. (To be continued ~^~)