All the Germans, escorted by Conrad and two thousand five hundred soldiers, finally crossed the sea a few days later and camped in the area of Chivet, where the last crusade was, and the traces of fierce fighting still remained—in the deep chasm where Gawain and the Konya Turks had sent, the pilgrims exhumed the bones of hundreds of Turkic soldiers, most of them completely decomposed, and only piles of skeletons draped in rags remained. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this moment, the group of pilgrims faintly felt that the road ahead was not at all like the group of papal monks who said that there was no danger and was full of wealth, as evidenced by the dense graves and white bones in front of them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have received a letter from Godfrey suggesting that we should go from Cilicia to Antioch instead of the Paphragonia plateau, and then take a boat to the Holy Land, which is the area of Gawain, Baldwin and Bohemond, which is very safe and convenient." In a covert setting, Conrad whispered an agreement with several henchmen.

At the same time, as soon as Conrad walked on the front foot, Guillaume, Duke of Aquitaine, arrived.

The Emperor once again received the elegant duke in the River Hall, and the two sides had in-depth friendly talks on poetry and music, and although no agreement was reached, it was a solid step forward in bilateral relations.

"Allow me to refuse your Majesty's arbitration, for Provence and Toulouse are like two sides of a gold coin, and no one can continue to maintain its value if it is removed, and it will be worthless." When the Emperor expressed the idea of mediating his relationship with Robert, Guillaume rejected it.

His Majesty the shrewd Emperor sidestepped the subject, hoping that Guillaume would accept Raymond's temperance in his attack on the Paphragonia region, "My forces will protect you, and you will not have to worry about anyone's constraints." Once you succeed, Raymond will be blessed by the city of Laudisia, and perhaps he will be tired of distant Toulouse. ”

This is not a solution, Guillaume muttered in his heart, because he had also received a secret letter from Gawain before, "Dear Prince, Raymond has completely lost all his power in the Levant, and what he has done in the court of Asia Minor and the Emperor is nothing more than political speculation and military adventure, so no matter what happens, His Royal Highness must not trust Raymond or Emperor Comunen, and do his best to preserve his strength while marching in Minor Asia, and his contemptible people are waiting for your presence and transit in Tarsus." "In order to cover people's eyes, this secret letter was sent from the direction of Bari City, disguised as a letter from the Duke's hometown wife, to avoid the investigation of the emperor's postman agents.

So Guillaume made up his mind, and also pretended to agree to the emperor's request, recognizing Raymond as the legitimate president.

Privately, the emperor used a back-up trick to bribe Ode, Count of Naville, and Alban, Count of Bourges, who were the right-hand men of the Duke of Guillaume, and the emperor gave Oude several beautiful maikos, and Alban ten Alanian horses, and promised that if the crusade against the Danishmunds was successful, he would grant these two rich fiefdoms in Paphragonia and the Sivas plateau, so these two were so enchanted that they regarded the emperor as their master.

Also a few days later, Guillaume's army crossed the sea and disembarked in Nicomidea.

Now there were almost 200,000 pilgrim groups in Germany, Gaul and Lombardy, and their tents were obscured, and the scene was back to the past:

The emperor's officials and merchants constantly used ships to bring all kinds of pleasures to the camp, such as wine, food, money, and even prostitutes (both men and women);

And the spies and envoys of the Brachna Palace are like mosquitoes spreading the plague, filling all corners of the unguarded camp, spying on the inside, bribing people, etc.;

At the same time, 200,000 pilgrims were indulged in the abyss of depravity, gluttony, fornication, no marching order, no reverence or vigilance.

Soon Raymond also came from Panphellia with great pomp and fright—five hundred Tricopo cavalry in scarlet armor stood by his side, and four hundred Provençal warriors in colored cloaks guarded the procession with holy spears raised—"I, by the orders of the Emperor, Your Majesty, and Your Majesty, lead all, all of you, to drive the heretics out of the plateau. Raymond said to the leaders of Guillaume, Conrad, and Bither, "Wait, when the feast of the Holy Spirit (June 19) comes, we will march!" ”

"Your Excellency, you should be at ease, after all, there are still two weeks before the Whenring, and our warriors are only about fifteen thousand, so we will wait for the arrival of Thessaly, the Earl of Blois, and the Count of Normandy, and they will also bring with them the army of Prince John, a total of five thousand men, including eight hundred elite cavalry, which can greatly increase our strength." Standing on the grass in front of Raymond's guard of honour, the Duke of Guillaume stood gracefully under his brightly colored banner, and said to Raymond half-mockingly.

"You, when you passed through Thessaly, did you not come with them, one, and with them, and you were too blind to no one, too, too lazy!" Raymond was indignant at the idleness of the two.

What Raymond didn't know, however, was that at this moment on the plains of Thessaly, Stephen, Count of Blois, and Robert, Count of Normandy, were each holding battle flags and spears, and behind them four hundred armored cavalrymen were divided into two columns, neighing and morale.

Behind these two cavalry formations, in the leveled wilderness, there were orderly bands of spearmen, archers, and light cavalry, all of whom were the elite new army under the command of Prince John, who were to go to the plateau on the opposite bank under the command of the general Tetisius to help the pilgrims in their attack on Danishmund.

This new army was created by Prince John himself, who was commissioned by the Emperor to serve as Moria. After the Archduke Thessaly, who was also the supreme commander of the two military regions, he learned the bitter lesson of the defeat he had suffered by Gawain when he was the Grand Duke of Panphelia (the Battle of Alamanburg, to some extent, it was indeed his black spot), and began to implement the new policy and train the new army in the new place.

First of all, the prince lobbied for an investment from the imperial treasury, and then with the help of his adoptive mother Malena, he borrowed a large amount of money from many noble senators in the imperial capital (Marlena, as the empress of the previous dynasty, still has considerable connections in the senate and the imperial court), and reorganized the local official team, established a lean and honest atmosphere, and then took Corinth City as the central capital, engaged in two maritime trades, sold silk, carmine, small raisins, pottery, etc., and fought a trade war with Bari, Venice, Ragusa, etc., For the Adriatic Sea, with the port of Modon, and for the Holy Sea, with Eupya or Thessaloniki as a stronghold, they made a lot of money and attracted more wealthy people from the empire. Then, following Gawain's example, the prince invested a lot of money in the vast plains of Thessaly, reviving water conservancy and village communities, recruiting a large number of peasants, signing contracts with them for the profits of farming, and replenishing his material reserves. (To be continued.) )