Eagle Byzantium

The three large Plani cannons were aimed at the city of Castabala, and this "five-rod trebuchet" was a new weapon made by Little Sunfish. It also had five swing arms that could be pulled. The rope is pulled to throw, the range is short, the stone bullets are small, but five of them are thrown together and hit, pursuing It has the effect of "surface killing". There are no wheels at the lower end. It only needs to be temporarily built. The materials and process are not difficult. It is no different from rural water collection equipment. It is especially suitable for large-scale manufacturing, causing Use your strength advantage to deal with the camping fortifications in front of you.

What made Gorpan even more heartbroken was that the five-rod trebuchet in front of him was what Gawain ordered his soldiers and gunners to use to try it out. Because the number of trebuchets was insufficient, Gawain agreed to the small sunfish. Send a large number of additional soldiers, military servants and even Armenian prisoners to control. However, this group of people was not well trained, and their hands and feet were inevitably not aligned when pulling the rope, so after the five stone bullets were thrown into the air, they lost their accuracy and scattered in all directions. Anselm and Gorpan both saw that two bombs hit the trench, one rolled and smashed a section of wooden fence outside the camp, and two flew into the heads of the people in the camp, making a dull sound and blood. As the fog rose, the Armenian soldiers screamed and ran around. About a mule and two civilians were killed. The bodies were hit on the ground by two stone bullets. Red blood seeped out everywhere around the rotten limbs.

After the monks from the Apostolic Church were taken away, Gawain stepped onto the earthen fort where he could see from a distance step by step, so that all the gunners and soldiers could see him. "It doesn't matter. Practice throwing while throwing, and your accuracy will get better and better." . The Armenian prisoners were grinding stone bullets there, and they were rewarded with coins and food for each stone bullet they grinded. Now that the peace talks have broken down, everyone does not need to be soft when throwing. From now on, all five-bar trebuchets must not stop. Grind the stone and pull the rope."

"Grind the stone and pull the rope!" After hearing the Grand Duke's words, the flag officers and gunners were all excited. Everyone knew that during the previous battle in the Allalman Fort, the gunner of a certain large Plani gun fired After killing Cerro Kallegos, he received a generous reward. Even if the honor was insufficient, killing the enemy with stone bullets from a distance was much safer than fighting the enemy with swords and shields on the battlefield.

Soon such shouts were heard throughout the siege. Under the guidance of "Grey-Haired Female Death" Agnes and the other fixed gunners, the Gemmagis Brigade in the north and the Red Hand Brigade in the southwest , a total of twenty five-bar trebuchets were built, and even Richard imitated others and built eight that could shoot.

In the following time, more than thirty stone trebuchets, from several directions, would throw raindrop-like stone bullets into the camping without interruption as soon as the day started. As his "proficiency" increased, Gawain The army's temporary gunners also began to shoot accurately. Under the command of the fixed gunner, they were able to pull the ropes and launch in a tacit understanding. Inside the Ruben camp, there were dead and wounded, and blood flowed all over the trench. Six thousand soldiers, plus thousands of civilians, were trapped in this narrow camp. Once the stone bullets that cover the sky and the earth fall with a roar, there will be no There was no place to hide, and soon the tents were almost completely destroyed. The animals that lacked food began to disobey orders and could not bear the threat of death. They broke free from the reins and began to rush around. The helpless soldiers could only slaughter them one by one. Then he divided the meat and ate it, but Then Agnes and Andodat commanded their men to dig out all the canals leading to the camp, preventing the soldiers of Ruben's army from having water to cook meat. In the end, Ruben's soldiers could only rely on collecting rainwater to quench their thirst, or Drinking animal blood makes the whole situation even more miserable and embarrassing.

Such indiscriminate bombing lasted for more than ten days, and the number of fleeing casualties increased day by day. Reuben's original beautiful and impressive camp was gone. It was gone on the first day of Gawain's concentrated ejection. Now his servants were closely following him. , dig a hole in the camping, put wooden frames and leather inside, and cover it with mud. The earth was used to offset the force of the stone bullets. In short, Prince Reuben returned to the "cave life" to a certain extent. Dozens of other Armenian nobles also followed suit, making the prince's cave surrounded by dense anti-cannon towers. In the cave, everyone is close together, like a group of egg-laying lizards hugging each other for warmth.

In the cave, among the falling dust, Ruben's face was covered with dust and stubble, and he fell on the couch in despair, his eyes rolled back, full of infinite anger and despair, and there were corpses lying next to him. , bloody and bloody, He was killed by a stone bullet that penetrated the leather roof just today. He had not had time to restrain himself, or to put it bluntly, no one was doing this at all. "There are far more people who are dead and collapsed now than those who are alive and awake." many."

Just yesterday, Prince Reuben organized an infrasound attack from the east to the west: he drove and ordered the civilians, wore soldiers' armor, and broke out crazily toward the north. He took the opportunity with four hundred elites to attack Kas on the west side. Tabara City Charge—— But Gawain's red-handed cavalry reacted too quickly. As soon as Ruben captured two earthen fortresses, fifty cavalry appeared on his flanks (they had just been in the surrounding area and returned from the robbery). They saw this group of Armenians and did not hesitate. Hesitantly launch a raid. Reuben fled back alone, and most of the four hundred soldiers were killed. The corpses were beheaded and thrown all over the fence. It was very horrifying.

Then Prince Reuben's spirit became unstable. Sometimes he cursed Gawain and Bohemond, saying that they were despicable and shameless, and actually used his coveting of Samosata to set a trap; sometimes he scolded Gorpan and cursed He was greedy for life and feared death, and most of the time he abandoned his mission and defected to Gawain; he also sometimes complained about the Emperor of Constantinople, who even though he might know the situation, still deceived and acquiesced in allowing him to send troops.

At the same time, he also scolded the Pope, the Patriarch of Antioch, and...

In short, everyone around him understood that the prince had completely collapsed, but he did not allow his nobles and officers to surrender. The prince would bring a guard every day to patrol the camp during the intervals of Gawain's catapult bombardment (usually after the stone bullets were exhausted), and he would find any excuse to kill nobles and soldiers at will to establish his authority.

At this moment, Gawain's artillery bombardment stopped: the prince took his sword again, put on a dirty robe and went out to patrol the camp. It started to rain again, which was common weather in the early winter of Cilicia. The prince did not wear boots, and walked barefoot on the ditch that was constantly filled with mud and rainwater, and walked out of the shelter. Then in front of him, the camp was a huge piece of mud. Under the gloomy clouds, many soldiers sat and lay in the mud in the rain without clothes. The colorful tent felt was torn and scattered all over the ground. Some were wrapped by the soldiers, and some were used to prop up a small tent to make a fire. The trenches were filled with gray and white human and animal corpses, which were swollen. The stone bullets thrown in had pits everywhere. Feces, blood and flesh, and all kinds of strange smells were just smoked into the prince's brain.

"Look, the brave prince is out again."

"Of course, every time the enemy's stone bullets are finished pouring, he will come out on time." A small group of soldiers huddled together, looking at the prince who was holding the scepter and trying to pretend to be arrogant with cold and hateful eyes, and whispered sarcastically. (To be continued ~^~)