king of ros

Chapter 536
After entering the land now called Konya by the Turks, Vasiliko finally breathed a sigh of relief, because this land is obviously different from the previous wilderness.

The barren land where the Crusaders had struggled for several months before was barren mountains except for the bare mountains, it was difficult to find water sources, and the population was extremely sparse. Except for the time when they were attacked by the Turkic army along the way, they only saw To some hunters hunting in the mountains.

The valleys here are obviously more green than those in the wilderness, and the number of rivers has also increased significantly. The Crusaders finally don't have to be troubled by water.

They can often find traces of tribal settlements by the water source, but they have already moved away. These tribes have left in a particularly hasty manner, leaving behind a lot of things that can be used by the Crusaders. Forgotten small herds.

The improvement of the environment naturally means that there are people living together. Not long after the Crusaders marched, they encountered local villages of Greek or Hellenized residents. These villages welcomed the arrival of the Crusaders very much. Their savior from Turkic torment.

With the cooperation of the locals, the crusaders were able to solve the supply problems caused by the temporary difficulty in contacting the empire, and the locals continued to provide supplies for the crusaders.

Vasilico was puzzled by their enthusiasm at first, but after asking, he found out that before the Eastern Empire was destroyed by the upheaval brought by Manchiket, the residents here made a lot of money by receiving pilgrims. Less money - there are always impatient people going straight across Anatolia, and these people must have to go through here.

But since this land fell into the hands of the Turks, everything changed. Although the Turks did not massacre here, the number of pilgrims became less and less until they were cut off directly. The local residents lost a way of making a living. Have to face the exploitation of the Turks.

That's why they were so eager for the arrival of the Crusaders. In the eyes of the locals, with the help of this pious army, the heretics would soon be driven away, and Iconian would restore its former prosperity.

The local Turkic people have not moved all the time, and they are still migrating consciously, which confuses Vasilko, but the locals unravel his doubts. It turns out that the current Roma Sultan Arslan is in the east with his Rurik relative Mono Maher competed for Danishmand, and the absence of the Sultan caused the Turkic tribes to be in a state of disunity. The previous attacks that were gathered together were already at their limit.

Now with the failure of the attack, the various ministries are naturally retreating, retreating to the current capital of Roma, Konya, and some just fled directly, leaving this land that will soon become a battlefield.

After learning this, the morale of the Crusaders increased greatly. The bloody price they paid at the lake is now forgotten by them. The Crusaders only want to reach the city of Konya as soon as possible, take that city, and then continue to the Holy Land .

The Crusaders agreed to do this, so Vasiliko naturally had no choice but to take them to the capital of the Sultanate of Roma.

Since there was no Turkic army that could effectively resist the advance of the Crusaders, Konya soon appeared in front of the Crusaders. This city deep in the interior of Anatolia has a very long history, and it also has a Strong city defense, now there are tens of thousands of Turkic defenders in the city, many of whom are direct descendants of Sultan Roma, they are determined and intend to stick to this tall city wall.

The Crusaders quickly set up a camp under the city of Konya, and then they swept away all the resources left by the Turks near Konya. Robbed.

It is precisely because of his correct operation that the Crusaders have kept their almost only source of food at present, and because of this, Vasilico's reputation in the Crusaders will be reversed later, but he himself doesn't care.

Although the camp was set up, the performance of the civilian crusaders attacking the Konya city wall was simply horrible. These civilians were even defeated by the arrows on the city wall, leaving behind the hard-built siege equipment. The performance can be said to be Rotten to the extreme.

After several failed attacks, most people in this camp lost the will to attack, and after Walter, who led the few professional soldiers in the army, lost his head in the attack, no one came back. Shouting to attack, they planned to besiege the city with hunger while waiting for the arrival of the noble crusaders and the emperor's army.

Now it is the monk Peter who controls the Crusaders. Due to the monk's ignorance of the war and his personality, the power of the Crusaders fell into the hands of Vasilico. This is also their luck in their misfortunes. Know how to besiege the city and how to persevere.

He forced all the armies to build fortifications every day, around the camp and around the city wall, and built the whole camp like a big railroad, because he knew very well that only in this way could this army be able to fight against the main force of the Sultan of Roma. To survive after returning, they had to hold out until the arrival of the main crusaders and the emperor.

And when Vasilko led the civilian crusaders to suffer under the city of Konya, in Constantinople, the crusader lords from all walks of life also arrived one after another.

Redmond, Count of Toulouse, Robert, Count of Flanders, Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert Socks, Hugues, Prince of France and Count of Vimandois, Bohemond, Prince of Taranto... a powerful The lords of the kingdom came to the capital of the Eastern Empire for the holy war, and red crosses were spread all over the fields.

There is also a special character in this Crusade, that is General Edgar Wessex of the Eastern Empire Pecheneg.

Edgar thought that if he stayed in the Eastern Empire, he would be the head of a military region general, so if he wanted to fight for a bigger cause, he could only embark on the road of the Crusades, so he resigned to the emperor, and then gathered supporters Among them, some Pecheneg tribes were willing to follow him, which allowed him to take out a full 7000 people, more than half of whom were combatants.

Alexios was naturally a little annoyed by this behavior, because it was indeed poaching a corner from him, but the emperor could only send blessings in the end, even the emperor of Constantinople would not dare to fight with the "blocking cross" Army" hats are connected.

After Edgar's team joined, a total of 7 to 3 crusaders gathered under the walls of Constantinople, but it is a pity that only [-] of these [-] people were fighting with the lords. The personnel, the others are civilians accompanying the army, just like the civilian crusaders, there are a large number of old and weak women and children.

Such an army gathered in the capital of the empire naturally caused a lot of chaos. Many crusaders had conflicts with the Greeks, but fortunately these conflicts were quickly controlled by both sides and did not continue to develop.

Especially Bohemond, the bad relationship between him and the Eastern Empire goes without saying. Although he declared that he joined the Crusaders for his faith, everyone knew that this man came for wealth and land.

This time the French did not encounter any trouble. They were directly sent to Constantinople by the Ross fleet to avoid possible problems caused by contact along the way.

After many crusaders came to the city, Alexios and the crusader lords reached an agreement under the help of the Ross people. Handed over to the empire, the rest of the land was distributed by the crusaders themselves.

In return, the Empire will provide important supplies to the Crusaders, as well as gold and silver that will satisfy all Crusaders.

Alexios was not stingy about spending money, and the crusader lords were surprised by his generosity, and then they all took money from the emperor, even Bohemond.

After resolving the relationship with the empire, the next thing that needs to be solved is the internal leadership of the Crusaders. Originally, in the Pope's plan, the kings should come to lead the Crusades. As a result, none of these guys came, and they were all busy with their own affairs. affairs.

There is no way, then there will naturally be a frenzied argument. It was not until the Pope's special envoy Adhimar once again emphasized that the civilian crusaders were still struggling in the city of Konya and needed their rescue urgently. Then everyone stopped arguing and started to fight. go ahead.

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(End of this chapter)