Eagle Byzantium

The siege of the brothers Ademar and Godfrey needed a bridge to transport supplies, and the Normans at St. Paul's Gate also needed it, so Gawain on the other side of the river generously undertook the construction of another bridge.

However, after discussing with his adopted brother Peter, he was not prepared to use unstable ships as "bridge piers". Instead, he ordered the engineer Samuel Fa who accompanied the army to design this quick but strong new wooden bridge.

The spectacular and solemn cavalry guard queue had left a deep impression on the city defenders, but when they saw that in the area connecting the "Romanian" camp and the Orontes River, countless soldiers and military servants transported well-cut wood When two rotatable hanging towers with a height of twelve anna feet were erected using the wood, even the Saracen engineer who was the best at mechanics in the city was stunned, "Could this be the science left over from the Roman Empire?"

Also following the experience of the Nicaea siege, according to the water depths of different areas measured in advance by Samuel's method, the craftsmen and military servants marked the felled trees with numbers, and then cut them into pieces according to their different lengths. , uniformly processed into wooden piles two Anna feet thick, and every two pieces were tightly tied together with ropes. After the weights and measures were unified, such a thing became very easy and fast.

Then all the lower ends were sharpened to facilitate insertion into the river bed. As the defenders of Antioch City marveled and watched, the hanging tower skillfully lifted the wooden pile on the vast Orontes River (it carried a visible telescopic boom, controlled by pulleys), hung on the anchor boat at the specified location, and then the craftsman The engineers carried piling hammers and other equipment to pick up the wooden piles, one after another, every three Anna feet, but they were not nailed down vertically, but diagonally along the direction of the river - then they were nailed down. Groups of somewhat turbid sand kept rising, and two days later a row of wooden piles emerged from this end of the river. Go straight to the other end where the Porta Saint Paul is.

Almost at the same time, another hanging tower followed the same pattern, and another row of diagonal wooden piles was laid parallel to the river about fifty-five feet away from the upstream row of wooden piles. But the difference is that this row of wooden piles is The direction is countercurrent.

When this step is completed, the craftsmen boldly stand on it. Looking from a high place, it looks like it is hanging on the raging river. Long wooden beams are driven into the two rows of wooden piles at a gap of three feet, and two supporting poles are used, one mile and one away. Support it at the outer rails, so that the faster the water flows, the stronger the wooden piles of the bridge will be under this force.

On the sixth day, the craftsmen began to lay planks piece by piece on the long beams erected between the feet of two rows of wooden piles.

On the seventh day, when God finished creating the world and rested, the four men were covered in armor. The cavalrymen wearing horse clothes and holding different flags represent Gawain's two infantry brigades and two cavalry companies. With the clanging sound of horse hooves, they ran side by side from one end of the bridge to the other side as if showing off.

"Long live! The Three Saints guide the omnipotent strong man!" The infantry and cavalry in the entire camp on the other side of the river burst into loud cheers, including many pilgrims who came to watch on the battlements of the Acropolis. Seeing this scene, Yaji Xiyang turned around with his hands on his chest, feeling suffocated and melancholy. He kept shaking his head and sighing, and slowly walked back to his hall.

Gawain is holding a helmet decorated with red hands and feathers. Holding one hand on his waist, wearing armor, he stood on the high embankment of the river bank facing the wind. The soldiers around him kept raising their spears and shouting, "Is the city of Antioch doing nothing like this?" Watching our army build two bridges and transport countless siege materials and equipment to the positions below the city? "

"Dear Grand Duke, Yaji Xiyang has run out of energy!" Wesat Melo, who was beside him, replied, pointing to the towering acropolis and mountains surrounded by the river.

"No, maybe the real decisive battle is coming soon!" Gawain touched his rough chin with his fingers and laughed, "Everyone stick to the camp and don't flinch no matter what the situation is - and, Send an order to the Jimmagis brigade to rush here and take charge of guarding the flanks of the camp."

After nightfall, a mutilated corpse was carried from the "altar tent", which almost made Ademar mourn until he fainted. The owner of this corpse was a pious and virtuous church deacon from Thule, named Louis. , who was also a very valued and admired friend of Ademar. Both of his ribs were stabbed deeply, but the fatal part was in his neck, where a strong root was inserted. The blood of the powerful arrow had stagnated, covering the arrow shaft, forming a terrifying and shocking wound. "The chief deacon took three hundred believers, in order to reserve wood for the siege equipment, and went to the mountains south of the city to cut down wood, but they failed. They encountered Turks, probably coming from behind the city." The few people who escaped reported to the priests with tears and fear.

"How many people are there?"

"Maybe dozens, maybe hundreds... They suddenly appeared from behind the mountains, shooting arrows everywhere, taking the lives of our companions. At that time, we could only keep running away, without caring... Several Turks wrapped in black turbans. Their horses were too fast and the deacon could not escape. They were cut by their swords and fell to the ground. At that time, I was hiding behind the bushes and saw the deacon covered in blood and struggling. He still wanted to crawl, but another Turk arrived on horseback and killed him with one arrow..."

"Go tell the noble Hugh, the siege position there is under his jurisdiction, why did Louis, the deacon, only a few miles away from his camp, encountered such a brutal ambush?" Ademar was very angry.

The next day, Hugh's report was stuffed into a leather tube and delivered to the head priest by his fastest horse. Hugh's defense was as follows:

In recent days, the fierce attacks of the Turkish pagans in the south and east of the city have become increasingly fierce. Among them, the blockade fortress guarded by the chief counselor of the palace, Valo, was attacked thirteen times in one day, all night long;

From this, can we judge that the pagans will launch a large-scale raid in the south of the city soon? According to the confession of the enemy soldiers who escaped from the city and surrendered to us, Yaji arranged all four of his most trusted emirs to the tower in the south of the city, which seems to be more in line with my inference.

Anyway, the whole article avoided the tragic death of Deacon Louis and his own responsibility, and downplayed it as "a victim that will inevitably appear in the large-scale offensive that the Turks may launch."

In addition, Hugh reminded that it is possible to withdraw some military forces to strengthen his position to guard against Yaji. Siyan?

A correct version can be found in the 16-9 book forum!

Adhemar, who was not very familiar with military affairs, called Stephen of Blois, but the military chief of the cardinal conference also gave an ambiguous answer, "Ask Hugh to strengthen the alert and not send reinforcements for the time being, but for safety reasons, our grain transportation line will be changed to bypass the iron bridge to Port Saint-Simon, which is safer." (To be continued ~^~)