Eagle Byzantium

Gawain's three groups of soldiers stood in a row, relying on the wasteland in front of Gaofu. After all, these people were veterans of the Varangian Guard. Their flags, armor, shields, and weapons were all well-made and neat.

As for Gawain himself, he wore chain mail all over his body and stood at the front of the queue. Ericson still held the flag, and he held a kite shield. In his right hand, he held a new Byzantine weapon - a "Macedonian halberd" that was 1.2 cubits long (one cubit is about 44 to 55 centimeters). This halberd was decorated with tassels and could be stabbed, chopped, hooked, and blocked. It was the most powerful melee weapon - so Gawain never figured out why this halberd could not become the standard equipment of the Byzantine army.

The wind rolled up the sand, and passed through the space where the two armies were quietly facing each other.

After a while, Gawain took out the sundial, looked at the sun for a few times, and calibrated the approximate time. Then he turned around and gestured to Francesco standing on the hill. The other party nodded. Soon, a Benevento archer lit the arrow wrapped with linen on the fire. Then a meteor-like flaming arrow streaked across the bright sky. In full view of the two armies, it flew a long distance before falling into the canopy of leaves in the woods.

"Blessed by Odin, the eight-legged divine horse Threpnir he rides will lead us to victory or the Hall of Heroes." After all the Varangian warriors finished chanting this sentence, they added sarcastically, "May the Lord's squire, Archangel Saint Michael, bless our swords and shields." Then they stood up one by one from the half-kneeling ground, and in the direction pointed by Gawain's short spear, a full three hundred Turkish infantry and cavalry enemies pressed forward fearlessly.

Soon, the Turkic army began to deploy to meet the enemy. They used the traditional Saracen army fighting style. All archers were in the first line, the second line was cavalry carrying spears and javelins, and then the two wings were rectangular formations composed of various infantry. The advantage of this formation is that it has a large depth, which is particularly conducive to resisting battles. It can take advantage of the exhaustion of the enemy's offensive force to launch a counterattack and encircle.

As a result, after the formation was finally deployed, the black-clad imam in the formation suddenly shouted, excitedly holding up the scriptures in his hands, and was furious at the commander under the military flag.

The commander was also sweating profusely, looking at the heavily armed enemies approaching slowly, their shields, feathers and dazzling weapons from time to time; from time to time he took out the sundial in his arms, facing the sunlight, and muttering to the imam, "At first the enemy was just a group of ants, and soon they would turn into small snakes. When we are not paying attention, they will eventually turn into bloody mouths, enough to swallow anyone."

"But without the blessing of the scriptures, you can't even crush a group of ants to death." The imam who accompanied the army was also very confident.

"Allah is great!" With this slogan, all the cavalry could only turn off their horses, and together with the rest of the archers and infantry, they put down their weapons and knelt down in the direction of the prayer. There was only a black mass of soldiers left, leaving only the first row of soldiers, who were still there in a very anxious look.

Yes, this is the time for their morning prayer.

Even when facing the enemy, they can only do so.

Gawain seized this opportunity, "Let them taste the power of weapons!" Then he quickened his pace, and Ericson also shouted, holding the flag, and quickly rushed to the front of the Turks who were praying in the morning. The other warriors also glared with anger, and they followed Gawain's pace in an instant.

The Turkish archers in the front had no time to take arrows from the quiver or draw the string of the recurve bow, and the first one was cut off half of his head by Gawain's short halberd. Then Gawain pushed the kite shield and knocked over several people beside him, and pierced another one's chest with another halberd.

"Get on the horses!" Seeing that the archers in the front were defeated, the cavalry in the second line hurriedly mounted their horses in the sound of drums, but a group of Varangian warriors rushed over like cutting melons and vegetables, and the one holding a two-handed iron spear ran in the middle and stabbed a cavalryman off his horse in an instant. The rest of the cavalry hastily threw their javelins, but they were all blocked by the shieldmen who came from behind. Then two more spearmen came and stabbed the Turkic horses one after another.

With a "bang", a Turkic rider in the chaos drew out a single-edged knife and chopped it on the iron ring of a two-handed iron spear, sparks flew, but the iron spear remained motionless. After another shake, the rider was immediately swept off the horse. Then the rest of the Varangian warriors who were fighting on foot with swords also broke into the cavalry line and started killing.

One group led the way, and the other two groups also attacked fiercely on the left and right sides, supporting each other, just like the war dance of Pirric in ancient times, mixed with the flying blood and heads of the enemy. The surprise attack force of more than 30 people actually broke through the two lines of defense of the Turks. Among them, Eriksson shouted angrily and rushed to the Turkic commander "atabeg" (meaning Taifu), throwing the spear and the flag in his hand. The atabeg hurriedly dodged, and then rushed and trampled the infantry square behind him with the fleeing cavalry.

The entire 300-man Turkic team retreated a long way because they were attacked during the morning prayer and stopped.

The angry atabeg and the imam ordered all the remaining soldiers to move forward again after the second prayer, forcing Gawain's Gaofu camp.

On Gawain's side, only two soldiers were killed, and everyone carried the stretcher and brought the bodies back, washed them and placed them in the mule cart. After this battle, everyone in the team was motivated.

"Fight again!" In the afternoon, when the Turks regrouped and approached again, Gawain arranged six groups of military servants in the front row, each holding a weapon, and arranged the Benevento crossbowmen behind them, and the three groups of Varangian warriors at the end as a reserve.

As a result, after two hours of "fierce fighting", the Turks were horrified to find that they could not break through the team of military servants in front of them, who were wearing armor and weapons seized from them - even though this group of people came from various villages under the rule of Byzantine Rome and could not afford the expenses required to accompany the army, they could only serve as the most unarmed military servants, but as long as they formed a dense formation, occupied a flat terrain, and learned to overlap weapons and shields, under the supervision of veterans and the cover shooting of crossbowmen, they could actually make it difficult for the Turkic infantry and cavalry to advance.

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

At this time, "Atabang" who commanded the team recalled that of the 300 people he recruited, except for a hundred or so people who were selected from various tribes and had some combat experience, most of the other infantry were temporarily "recruited" from Greeks, Saracens and Armenians by various means. When they went to the battlefield, the fighting spirit of these people was limited to the small Byzantine armed forces composed of military servants in front of them, stabbing each other with non-lethal spears, and killing an afternoon!