In the temple of the Acropolis of Antioch, Achi. Siyan also gathered his son and the four emirs, the white stone pillars carved with golden geometric patterns, behind the exquisite birdfeather screen, the incense of the copper furnace, but the tone and attitude of the lord of Antiochus were as awe-inspiring as the cold wind outside, "I have been in Antioch for so many years, and I know in my heart how many gates there are. There are now three gates left in Antioch, and one bridge can be operated, namely the Vaffari Gate (Dog Gate) and the Sage Paul's Gate in the northwest, and the Iron Gate at the back of the ridge. Then Yaji walked to the weapon bar behind the screen, raised the diamond-studded Damascus arc knife, and with a bang, the blade was unsheathed, and the cold light reflected in his aging but shrewd eyes, "The first two gates are the place of confrontation, and the latter gate is the road to victory." The present situation is not for us, and it is enough to resist the fortified city, but now the pagan bandits, with the great and powerful reinforcements of the Romanians, have begun to seal all the other gates and bridges, and have built stone forts and bars to the left and right of the Sage Paul's Gate, so that they can concentrate their forces against us, and if there is any retreat or slip-up, the hearts and minds of the people in the city will collapse completely."

"Father, perhaps we should continue to fortify the walls and wait for the help of His Highness Kobha, the prince of Mosul, who will arrive by late spring at the latest."

"It's too late! On the side of Paul's Gate the Sage, the walls are all straight and the blocks are vast, and if the enemy breaks through, even if we want to build another defensive wall, we have no way to start and we can't simply hope in Kobuha. Now the decisive battle has also come to begin, and the war is like that, it is not completely subject to our will. The only thing we can do is not to run away from it." Aggie turned the scimitar upside down and made the standard Saracen knife technique. Across the left chest.

"At the behest of the master!" Sansadonias and the four emirs fell to their knees at the same time.

"Sansadonias, hand over to you four thousand elite dead men, who, after receiving the black flag that I have hoisted over the tower of the Acropolis, immediately highlight the sages Paul's Gate and Vavali's Gate, and carry the fire-burning equipment, and destroy the enemy's fortifications and siege equipment, where there are many of the enemy's craftsmen and men, and there is nothing to be feared - Kupasiksin, Rosselen, with a small number of soldiers and a large number of banners. Stationed in the west and south of the city, to monitor and confuse the enemy in the other besieging camps, Kazknuz you with eight hundred lightly armed soldiers, after receiving the signal of my little black flag, followed the gable fortress and raided the enemy's stone fort at the altar of the spring; And Adesonius, the most trusted and loyal arm, I have delivered into your hands all the ten thousand foot horses of the camp outside the city, after you have gone out from the iron gate. You don't have to attack the south of the city. ”

"Is it the north of the city?" The scarred chief emir Adsonius understood.

"That's right, round the mountains leading to the Persian region, meet up with Ridwan's reinforcements, and burst to the right bank of the Orontes River. Violently swept the enemy's camp in the flank and rear, striving to restore the estuary fortress 'Iron Bridge'. As for Seongnam, I will have Kupa Suiksin and Rosselon frequently use small teams to attack. interfering with the enemy's decision-making. Peace of mind, the Romanian army I have seen before. They were all a rabble, the weak link in the enemy's line. It is also the preferred breakthrough point for you Adsonius, look at my crimson flag as a signal. As long as we act in a discreet and decisive manner, burn down the enemy's fortifications, and drive some of the enemy back to the Iron Bridge, they will suffer heavy losses, and it will take at least two to three months to recover, and then the reinforcements will arrive in time for the city of Antioch to be saved! ”

"Luck, let's go!" Under the grey sky, in the camp where the flames and smoke of the earthen furnaces burned everywhere, the Marquis of Raymond struggled to cheer up, and in the middle of the camp of the pilgrims, the besieging camps, and the camps of Gawain and Tetitisius, that is, on the flat wilderness adjacent to the bridgehead of the Dog Bridge (a very narrow stone bridge across the Falfa River), it became a centralized place for the manufacture of all instruments, where all the craftsmen of lords and generals gathered, and the various dialects and vernacular were boiling, and the sound of hammering and sawing completely drowned out the dialogue. Several battering rams with wheels have been erected, and many craftsmen are climbing on them, some striking iron ties with small hammers to check their firmness, while others are sewing animal skins nailed to them for fire and arrows—horseskins, cowhides, camels, etc.

Recently, with the blessing of the Lord, the Turks' ambushes and invasions in this area have disappeared, and of course it is also related to the previous bloody battle that sealed most of the city gates.

The ships of the Italian city-states in the port of San Simon, because of Gawain's forced mooring, and the order not to attack each other, made it much more efficient to transport provisions, and the price of supplies was leveled down, and the fighting spirit and spirit of the pilgrims were reheightened, so they gathered together and built their equipment—and in the camp facing the Dog Gate, Admar and Baldwin were recruiting civilian pilgrims in large numbers at the expense of food, and frantically constructing bars facing the walls and towers. to protect battering rams and stone throwers that are about to be completed.

"Although the bridge from the Turks out of the city was sealed, it was also equivalent to blocking the road for our battalion to deliver timber and grain to the besieging small businesses, and the dog bridge was not only easy to attack, but also too narrow." "So we have to build a pontoon bridge along the dog bridge." ”

The whole procession of pilgrims did what they said, and the lords quickly gathered three hundred infantry in armor and shields, and after three days of riding in small boats, pulling other boats with iron cables, and laying planks, they finally built a boat bridge over the wide Falfa River, and the defenders at the head of the city were greatly frightened when they saw such a miracle, and felt that Allah had abandoned them and this magnificent city, while the Lord of Christ was trodden on the boundless sea to the west, carried by thousands of pagan warriors and ships. Came to the land of the Levant.

But this was just a general miracle, and soon the guards on the Acropolis tower, including the long-bearded and resourceful Yagi. Siyan has seen how, in the camp of the Romanians, Grand Duke Gawain of the Empire, built a bridge entirely made of wood at the confluence of a rushing river!

But the first to impress was the Grand Duke's cavalry ranks, with their well-dressed armor, shields on their backs, and spears on their backs, and banners and feathers in the morning breeze, stretching along the protective earthen embankment of the riverbank, monitoring the entire field in front of them and on the flanks, and the sound of the orders shook the earth and was terrifying.

Then, with a wave of his hand, Samuelfa and several engineers rode in a small boat tied to a cable and held a graduated wooden pole for bathymetry, and began to measure the depth of the water in each section. (To be continued.) )