Eagle Byzantium

The frightened Burdin gave up all the preset blocking plans and "hurriedly called back the troops sent to Stara Mountain!"

Then the whole sky of Fort Sofia was filled with trumpets, and soldiers from Zupan and Slav communes from Sava, Za'a, Bosnia and other places who rushed to join the war lined up and walked through the road between the camps, stables and wooden sheds on the inner wall of the fortress. Waiting for the battlements were the archers. They carried bow pouches made of animal skins, quivers of long logs tied diagonally, and lit fires for lighting at the top of the city. basin, used to defend this fortress that has been famous since ancient times; and the cavalry that came out of the city like a shower came first, and then the infantry team holding spears and axes. Constantine Burdine wore a golden crown on his head, Wearing light leather armor shaped like fish scales and a Phoenician purple robe, he rode a navy blue horse with white spots. His son, Prince Lalic, also wore a sword and rode a horse to serve beside him.

In addition, the people surrounding Bertin, in addition to the Royal Guards that existed as a military tradition before (this is the model of the Varyag Guards of the Roman Emperor that Bertin's father imitated, and was formed by selecting people from among the descendants of Pan and the palace soldiers) ), and a new "Zha'tar Fire Gun Team" was established. All musketeers wear turned-up three-cornered hats, cloaks, and leather armor. They carry long muskets purchased from Ragusa. A machete and a short halberd are fixed on the wooden support with pins for shooting the fork. He is good at melee combat, and is better at small team shooting operations in the mountains. It is a new and cutting-edge weapon that Bolding relies on recently.

In addition, Bertin also purchased six vehicle cannons and four stone cannons from Ragusa. The former was installed on a four-wheeled carriage, with an arrow shield hanging on the front door frame, and was being pulled by mules, horses and manpower. Go down the road and follow the road. The latter is similar to the Fire Bear Cannon of Gawain's army. It is disassembled and pulled by an ox cart, and then assembled again when firing.

Burdin mobilized and brought a total of 8,000 men, and his subordinates were all elites who could be dragged out to fight in the field. His target was the pass fortress of Lesvorno, which was not too far away from the fallen Iltiman. , is also the throat of the entire Fort Sophia, lying between peaks and rapids: its south side and the west side are mountain barriers that are thousands of meters high and difficult to climb. There are only one or two passes in the middle that can allow small groups of soldiers and horses to pass through, while the east side is the remnants of the Stara Peak and the two crisscrossing rivers Lesvo The Ská and Maraš Hueska rivers are only eighteen miles away from Sofia.

Therefore, if you want to capture Fort Sophia, you must capture Lesvorno.

Lesvorno has city walls and fortresses built with stones. The two rivers come together here, forming a delta area that is exactly where Lesvorno is located. It is really a natural gateway, so Burdine had been stationing two thousand elite soldiers here, and now he personally brought eight thousand men to take charge.

There were only 1,500 people left in Fort Sophia, and another 1,500 people were stationed in Boyana, a "separate city" only three miles west of Sophia, to monitor Gawain's possible detachment.

After arriving at Lesvorno, Bertin and his son climbed onto the city barrier. It was already noon, and the surrounding mountains and farmland were covered with golden sunlight. Gawain's army was approaching in formation on the opposite side. .

Burdine could tell from what he could see visually that Gawain was using three brigade-sized troops on the front.

He analyzed the flags of these three brigades, which were the gold-plated red hand flag, the golden lightning flag (the newly formed Midgard Brigade), and the gold coin flag (General Bramson's Philomelon Brigade, The general put a lot of effort into the design of this flag), and then he knew that there were two other brigades going down the Iska River, heading towards Boyana, hoping to bypass Lesvorno and go back to Attack the west side of Fort Sophia.

Burdine turned around, thought for a while, and determined to "hold on to Lesvorno, and send an elite team across the ridgeline to set up an ambush at the foot of the Rozoska Mountain on the other side, trying to inflict heavy damage on Gawain's way to Boyana." That detachment then occupied a favorable position on the Iska River and counterattacked at the same time as Lesvorno, advancing in two directions to defeat Gawain's expeditionary army! "

In short, we must recreate the glory of Tsar Samuel's defeat of Basil II.

The commanders selected were Prince Lalic, the son of Bertin, and Zaveda Nemanga, another great nobleman from the Zata region.

Zawida had more combat experience, but he had previously resisted Burdin's authority and attempted to become an independent king in his own territory. Therefore, although his prestige and voice were high, Burdin decided to hand over the command to his son after careful consideration. , and warned him repeatedly: "Three thousand of the most elite troops, including I have also decided on the place for you to set up an ambush at the narrow pass where the Iska River passes through the foothills. You can ambush there while the enemy crosses the river. Use the tactic of outflanking them with volleys of fire cannons at random intervals to defeat them..."

When he saw the great earth king earnestly admonishing the son born by Norman's wife, Zaweida and some nobles were furious. They squeezed the riding whip in their hands and thought to themselves, "Everything warns us not to have any existence." Selfishness, don’t delay the defense of Sofia because of the wheat harvest in the territory. But he showed his selfishness in every aspect, first not letting Vladimir. The Grand Duke served as the commander of the Mosia Front, which led to its independent fighting and was completely annihilated in Versigonia; and now he handed over the command of the surprise army to the young boy Lalic, just because he was born of that Norman woman! No matter what if we defeat Gawain, sooner or later the coastal areas of Zatar will become the private property of the Latin Church."

From afternoon to evening, Gawain's front team also began to build camps in the direction of Lesvono. The emperor divided the army into two along the Lesvoska River: the Red Hand Brigade, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, and the newly formed Midgard Brigade were lined up on the right side of the river, while the Philomelon Brigade, whose combat effectiveness had been tested, was lined up on the left side of the river. The emperor's camp could be called a "big cart city". All soldiers, except for the cavalry and shooting troops on the outer perimeter, were all carrying heavy loads to carry out engineering work. They first raised a semicircular earth embankment, and then pushed all the carts captured in Versigenia up and lined them up behind it, like a city wall. Then, various light and heavy artillery were deployed behind the carriage boards, and one hundred feet in front of it, the original baggage carts and chariots of the brigade were used to surround the outer line of defense: cavalry and shooting troops were sent to station in it to form a strict shooting range.

The riverside farmland behind the cart city was covered with soldiers' tents and wooden fences.

The next day, both sides actually fired artillery at each other, and the rumbling of the artillery shook the mountains and valleys. This rhythmic mutual provocation continued all day long.

Soon, some mountain armed forces loyal to Baudin began to attack Gawain's supply line. On the first day of the war, a small team of border residents escorting ten ships was ambushed, all the personnel were killed, and most of the supplies were taken away.

"Ask Fort Philip to send out the small sunfish-designed vehicles and ships to transport supplies." The emperor ordered.