Eagle Byzantium

"Then come Diognis, my comrade who has fought side by side." Tatisius rushed forward for more than ten feet, and then he was as agile as an old white-haired fox. He seemed to have been prepared for this decisive battle, and he was specially prepared for this decisive battle. The iron helmet was decorated with Turkic bird-wing feathers, and the saddle was covered with crimson flag cloth. He cunningly made the horse change direction just by stepping on the pedals with both feet.

Because there was a snow-covered swamp between him and Diogenes, with uneven wheat field ridges on both sides, Taticius first induced the enemy to rush towards him, and then he wandered away to help John. Delaying time - the two leading Ugus chasing riders were caught off guard and rushed into the mire, trapping their horses' feet. Tatisius deftly took out two long arrows from his quiver, drew his bow from the left side, fired one at a time, and killed the two men quickly.

"Go on both sides, you guys!" Diognis reined in his mount and shouted.

The following Ogus volunteers quickly separated their wings and bypassed the swamp, wielding their shining scimitars in an attempt to outflank and kill Titicius, who was riding alone.

Titicius squinted his eyes in the sunset, calmly judging the uneven speed of the enemies on both sides, and then galloped back and forth, shooting down four approaching enemies.

Then he lowered his body, dodged the arrows that passed by one after another, and walked around towards the avenue, shooting arrows at each other with his pursuers as he walked, obviously delaying the fight.

He turned around and shot arrows as skillfully as he shot from the front. This time he used short arrows in his quiver and shot back like a shower, killing and wounding three more cavalrymen.

"Aren't we warriors of the Ogus Golden Family?" A chasing Ogus fief knight of Tarsus roared at his companions, "How can a hunter be toyed with by this fox?"

As soon as he finished speaking, three short arrows popped out of Tatisius's string and pierced his body. The man fell from his mount in embarrassment and was seriously injured.

"My arrows can sew the eyes of the sky!" Over there, Tatisius threatened in Turkic language.

As a result, in a blink of an eye, Tatisius saw a horse riding directly from the rotten swamp to his side, riding directly on the mud, coming toward him. He looked intently at Diogenes - the captor entangled with his men. After seeing Tatisius, he took him by surprise and trudged directly from the swamp.

Diogenes' armor was covered with splashes of mud, and his left eye was also obscured. Only one eye was left open to aim, and he passed by the bodies of the two subordinates who had previously been sunk in the mud. When the time came, he took out the sword of one of them, inserted it into the spear ring of his saddle, then raised the horn bow and stretched the string, and put his tightened fingers against his cheek.

"Haha!" Tatisius, who thought he was in an advantage, quickly raised his bow and aimed at the guard.

The moment he was about to let go of his fingers, he suddenly felt that the whole world was dazzling, with the sound of the wind whistling, and his eyes suddenly couldn't open, full of red and white - Diogenes' bow was recently introduced into the tower Made of buffalo horns by Ersus, his speed and strength were superior to him. The long arrow pierced into the center of Titicius' eyebrows, and blood burst out - Titicius's mouth and hollow nostrils. He was lying on his back, his body still standing on the saddle without falling.

"It's over...the ridiculous stupidity finally brought about such an ending." Before dying, he mocked himself.

Then he heard Diogenes yelling angrily in his ear, "The fox who turns back and barks at his own burrow will get scabies!"

This was scolding him for betraying the emperor Alexios who trusted him.

A moment later, Diognis drew out the sword, and with the great inertia of the horse's impulse, split Titicius into two pieces from head to abdomen.

The sword blade hit the gold coin purse hanging from Titicius's waist before stopping.

The corpse, carrying many spilled gold coins, fell upside down under Diognis' horse. The guard held a sword dripping with blood in one hand and wiped the mud from the corners of his eyes with the other, breathing heavily. Finally, he spat at the miserable body of Taticius, "You deserve it, let the hyenas feast on your flesh."

As the sun set completely in the west, Diogenes and a group of cavalry surrounded the body of Tatisius. Philippi was filled with the faint sounds of vultures and wild dogs.

The officer in charge felt great joy, and then silence. The only person he was worried about and felt guilty about was Gu Siyun's wife.

John, who successfully escaped to the Gulf of Thessalonica, was surprised and angry to discover that he had been urging Ceces, the garrison general here in the imperial capital, to come to the rescue and sealed a golden edict promising to take half of Thessaloniki. tax It was regarded as "Plonia" given to the general, but Ceces was completely obedient. He took possession of the property unceremoniously, but he walked around with two thousand people. At this time, he was only three days away from the starting point. Camping in the mountains ten miles away.

The reason is to wait for Isaac Komnenos, the emperor of Sebastocrat from Durazzo.

"Both of these are unreliable," Aksepokos reminded.

John became suspicious and did not dare to go any further, let alone reveal his identity. He and his entourage left the road and went to the coast to hide.

On the second day, a ship went to participate in the "Feast Day of St. Dimitri" (he is the patron saint of Thessaloniki. He holds a grand market at the end of October every year. This market is also the center of the entire Corinth and Thessaloniki. The merchant ship from Thessalonica, Macedonia and the Aegean Sea, which was a very prosperous gathering place for goods, was returning to Crete, and the deck was full of individual passengers and appeared in front of John.

The St. Demetrius fair normally starts on October 20th and ends on the first Monday after the festival (St. Demetrius’s Day is October 26th), but the owner of this ship wanted to make a fortune by taking advantage of the war. He took many panicked guests, including merchants, nobles and monks, to Crete, which was relatively safe (or relatively safe in the minds of the guests), so he stayed until after the Feast of the Incarnation. When these people heard that the army of Tarsus was about to capture the imperial capital and the emperor had fled, they boarded the ship with their property to escape.

A correct version in 16-9 Book Bar!

John pretended to be a lord of Pronia who had been defeated in Thrace, pawned all his horses to the ship owner, and boarded the ship.

He did not dare to go to the camp of Ceces.

When the ship left the shore, the cavalry sent by Ceces, who heard the news, just arrived. All the soldiers were armed with swords and bows, looking aggressive, as if they were not coming to welcome the emperor in distress, but to hunt something.

Standing on the deck with a cloak on his face, John looked at all this with a complicated look, feeling both painful and grateful.

Although he had not read many books, he could still remember that after the ancient Emperor Heraclius suffered a disastrous defeat in Muyak, he looked back at the lost land and sighed, "Farewell Syria, my great land!"

Three days later, he landed at the port of Gandia and calmly confessed to the local Venetians and the imperial garrison, "The one standing in front of you is me, the emperor of the empire, John Komnenos."