Eagle Byzantium

"Is there an enemy attack?" Xosa and all the imperial commanders turned their heads in shock, looking at the rolling hills and woods. The footsteps hidden behind the shrubs and tree trunks became more and more regular and rhythmic, and the birds were startled. , finally in the mountains between two woods, Xhosa watched with his own eyes in horror I saw several rows of sergeants forming a long rectangular formation with a small red flag erect. They were collectively holding their iconic huge spears and trotting past. The dust was raised in clouds and dissipated in the wind. They came in the direction where they were, but quickly disappeared into the nearest forest.

Soon, among the hillsides, woods and shrubs on the entire left wing of the Imperial Army, the helmets, epaulettes and spear blades of strange soldiers continued to flash with frightening light spots. They gathered more and more densely, and the smoke became larger and larger. The footsteps became more and more trembling, "We don't know how the group of sergeants under Gawain, who were holding monsters more than ten feet long, gathered into an attacking group from such a rugged and broken mountain forest. ? The mountain roads and divided hills seemed to pose no obstacle to them at all - they were scattered in our eyes at first, but it seemed that during the short period of our astonishment, they came from different directions and paths, forming small groups. Gathered into a large group, and then into a solid group, relying on countless spears, they formed a dense fang in the mouth of the bloodthirsty monster, starting to tear our flesh and blood..."

This was stated in the diary of a Xhosa officer, which later provided valuable first-hand records for the compilation of historical materials.

When the dust on the hill rolled up, and when the reflection of the spear blade could no longer be blocked, Xhosa already knew the fate of his army in advance: Mero, Gawain's subordinate, led all the officers and soldiers of the Red Hand Brigade yesterday night, and everyone lined up. The growing column made a forcible detour from the small town by the Alamein River to the hills here. Elite soldiers looked around for maintenance, and most of the officers and soldiers carried Armed with infantry spears, they pulled each other back and forth, trudged through rapids and dense forests, and arrived at the back of the steep hillside. Then, after Mello grasped the time and direction from the astrolabe, he saw two-thirds of the brigade's sergeants gathered together. At his side, he no longer hesitated, and before all the subsequent teams arrived, he issued the order to "level the spears and charge down from the hillside!"

The woods trembled and shook. Rows of red-handed infantrymen, holding spears, broke through the cover of the branches in a uniform manner. Under the instructions of heart-breaking drumbeats and trumpet sounds, they charged down the hillside in overwhelming numbers.

At the same moment, the red-handed cavalry in front of them galloped with thousands of horses, flying flags, and also launched a swift assault.

The Xhosa army, which was overrun by the infantry spear formation, immediately retreated. The soldiers in the front line were helpless and desperate, watching countless tall horses rushing towards them. In the dust flying behind them, the group of monsters holding large spears could be seen. Rushing down the hillside, they cut off their return; the soldiers in the rear formation wisely discarded any heavy weapons and baggage. When they saw their Xhosa generals starting to flee, they also followed suit.

The entire battle on the seaside came to an end within half an hour: Xosa and most of the fleeing soldiers ran for many miles and fled back to Alanya Castle. In their panic, they even forgot to close the city gate and watched Gawain helplessly. The pursuing cavalry circled around and then returned: more than 500 heads were chopped off, almost all the military servants were captured, and Xhosa lost more than half of its military strength.

On the edge of the soft and silted beach mudflat, Gawain pulled the reins and looked at the piles of corpses of the Imperial Army that had fallen into the mud, floating back and forth under the wash of the sea water. He sighed, "Condensed the corpses of the enemy soldiers and buried them." After being killed in the battle, Gregor was asked to lead the two detachments of the Gimakis Brigade to cooperate with the garrison to guard Alamein Fort. Presumably the frightened General Xhosa would not dare to invade again. "

Gawain, who neatly defeated the Xhosa detachment, then went on non-stop. After the soldiers rested for a day, they broke camp the next day and quickly returned to the Mut Valley and rushed towards the Milio Cephalon camping site.

The current camp was on the Seleucid side, being "pressed down and beaten" by the emperor's horses.

When Alexios's front team saw Gawain's militia and Pauline believers building a camping site on the horizontal boulder and blocking their approach, they went to ask the emperor for instructions. After observing on horseback, the emperor issued an announcement. The order is, "Set up a camp on the mountain ridge opposite the enemy's camp. My imperial ink officer Melais will command one-third of the troops and horses to station on it, and use crossbows every day. Cannons and catapults bombarded them, and used elite soldiers to constantly harass them; I personally led all the elite archers to form a formation on the left wing, waiting for an opportunity to seize the hilltop on their right wing and destroy their defensive wall; Yagfi led my inner and outer palace guards, Set up camps in a chain around the five mountains on the right to protect our supply lines and wait for opportunities to infiltrate and cut off the enemy's return route to the camp. "

"Launch." From the imperial ballista gun position on the mountain, after using the pulley trigger to fully pull the bow string, with a sound, the sharp projectiles roared and hit the boulders under the dog's foot tree of the Gedier camping camp. , gravel mixed with dog feet Mu rushed forward, and several militia soldiers guarding behind him fell down in fear, "Hey, hey." When they pulled their companion who was motionless, they found that his head had been chopped off by flying stones. He lost half his life.

A total of sixteen powerful ballistae, under the command of Melais, took turns to bombard fiercely: the front edge of the camping area was leaning on piles of stones. It was difficult to erect the dog-legged wood, and once the projectiles hit, they would scatter. Gravel can cause serious damage to camping fortifications and personnel, and can also cause considerable torture to camping morale.

At least Cabeamiya's little mind began to loosen up again. She asked the elders Lucios and Philus more than once, "Do you want to select elites to go out to camp and fight with the emperor's horses? Having been bombarded by the opponent for a long time, too It’s unbearable.”

In fact, it was the female consul who was particularly afraid of lethal weapons falling from the sky, such as stones, bows and arrows.

Lucios was noncommittal, while Philus seemed eager to give it a try.

But on the contrary, Birel, the armored wild boar and the commander of the civilian army, insisted on holding on. The chief engineer Gedier thought the same way, "Reinforce the mountain camp on our right to guard against enemy attacks. It also needs to be renovated. Reinforce the defensive wall connecting the two camps ——It would be best to set up a double wall and arrange soldiers to guard it. In addition, if this is not enough, mobilize 20,000 civilians and dig horse-proof wooden fences and ditches around the sides and rear of our camp. Circle us and build a rectangular sub-city.”

In short, this crazy engineer's idea is to dig as many trenches as possible without interruption, reinforce and raise the sub-city and defensive walls as high as possible without interruption, and...

"The civilians have already escaped halfway. They are afraid of this terrifying bombardment. The emperor has set up a wooden platform under the ballistae so that they can easily shoot at our camp behind the rocks." Cabeamiya was a little anxious. disturbed. (To be continued ~^~)