And when Gawain's spearhead, riding on a captured horse, dragged the Tekopo soldier with a rope, and pulled it in front of Gawain's eyes, "I won't kill you, tell me, how many men and horses are in the Imperial army in front, and what is the target?" ”

"There are 20,000 men, and the target is Fort Little Antioch!" The half-dead Turkopo had vainly exaggerated their numbers. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Our crossbowmen are facing forward, and the infantry are lined up with their backs to the river. Tell the scout cavalry to continue to force the detective forward! Gawain didn't believe this at all.

Soon, the emperor saw that there was a commotion and confusion in the formation of the soldiers in front of him, "What? Gawain directly sent cavalry to engage in battle, harassing and destroying our front. Alexios took the whip in his hand, and soon several scouts hurried to report, "The two wings of our army are also engaged in a melee with the enemy's cavalry. ”

At this time, in the eyes of the emperor and the rest of his staff and generals, in the fog all around, there were shadows of men and horses shouting to kill the conflict - Gao Wenquan sent red hand cavalry, with squadrons as a unit, everywhere to attack and harass the imperial army's formation, they were armored and masked, no longer holding spears, but holding sabers and chain hammers, dancing like flying, risking the enemy's arrows to take turns to attack, relying on the dense fog The enemy's inaccurate shooting opportunity approached the battle, or resisted and shot heavy arrows to pierce the armor, and then retreated back to the battle after the collision, and changed horses and then went on again.

Throughout the field, the sergeants who had been killed and wounded in the Emperor's front were lying and crawling everywhere, and the formation was difficult to organize, while Gawain's cavalry galloped and struck, like rolling fires, showing their might.

"Your Majesty......" Several of the guards looked quite frightened.

"What are you afraid of!" The Emperor shouted angrily, "The enemy is forcing us to fight, and we must be calm—we must be calm - we will light all the torches on both flanks, and the infantry archers will stand up to resist the shots, and the light cavalry will be arranged in the rear, and the enemy will be driven back and expelled." The forward position should not care about casualties, follow their respective team flags to erect the team, and the rear imperial camp team will ignore it and stick to their posts, otherwise it will be equivalent to playing into the hands of the enemy. ”

When the emperor's army lit all the torches, the fog was greatly transmitted, and the arrows began to shoot like splashing water, and the red hand cavalry was forced back by the frenzied fire several times, and began to retreat and rest at the sound of the horn, and Gawain also groped out the general lineup of the enemy from the reports of the various scouts, "About 10,000 people, and the two wings were full of lightly armed archers and cavalry, many of the cavalry in the formation were dressed in scarlet clothes, and the Cretans used the White Mountain Bow. ”

"It seems that it is definitely the main force of His Majesty the Emperor, and it is also aimed at little Antioch." Gawain judged, and then he looked at the endless fog in front of him, "Prajit, Pragit!" The Armenian general soon approached him, "with all the cavalry of the herald, put all the red hand cavalry in the center, and spread the flanks with large spear infantry." ”

"Huh?" Prajit was a little puzzled, because the formation instructions issued by the chief guarantor were really unconventional, how could there be any reason to list the infantry on both wings?

"Go! After ordering the infantry to line up, they approached the emperor's wings, and then launched a fierce attack at a suitable distance. "Gawain's instructions are beyond doubt.

The cavalry of the herald was at the head of the formation, holding small red flags and galloping back and forth, constantly issuing orders, and the red-handed infantry were very skillful in staring at the flags of their respective detachments, and according to the garrison of Banda, they held their spears densely and lined up in formation, and then the short and rapid trumpets sounded one after another,

"Whole army, march silently!" Dugalius and the flag officers standing on the left side of the array waved their halberds or flags, and then all the red-handed infantrymen stacked their spears on the shoulders of the soldiers in front of them, and marched in rows with gaiters and feathers, forcing them in the direction led by the first column and the elite Italian skirmishers.

"Choose the horse with the most physical strength to sit on and ride with the infantry." After Gawain finished speaking, the black battle flag was raised, and all the red-handed cavalry were close together, neatly draped, and the horses were all dressed in armor and bells, and the cavalry in the front carried their spears or long-handled thistles with ropes, guarding all kinds of battle flags; Carrying sabers, cavalry axes, and chain hammers, they rushed in and followed. All the cavalry formed a phalanx, sandwiched between the two flanks of infantry, and advanced like a wall.

In the fog that still did not disperse, the heavily armed spearmen at the front of the empire also formed a dense horizontal formation, covering the irises and Greek round shields in front of the armor, and wearing the broad-brimmed iron helmets that were popular in the Komnenian dynasty, and their rear and sides were guarded by Cretans with bows, forming a strong defensive line. In the beat of the drums, they saw that a large number of enemy cavalry were pressing on their side, and the sound of trotting horses' hooves shook the dust and mustard under their feet, and some soldiers could not help shouting nervously, and as a result, they were hit with flying whips and scolding from their respective officers, so they turned the tip of their spears more vigorously at the front.

"Your Majesty......" In the midst of the shadows, Brenus couldn't help but be very nervous.

"Brenus you have to believe that you are a good general, and go to command my left flank; The right flank was left to General Marinus to take command - so that you would not have to face the most shocking and violent cavalry battles, and you would not have the idea of timidity. The Emperor understated, and then several Praetorian Guards and cavalrymen, half-invited, half-forced, "escorted" General Brenus to the left flank.

"Gawain, I am a holy apostle sent by God, so the mist should dissipate as soon as possible, and it should also disperse......" The Emperor thought so, and his hand involuntarily pinched the bow and crossbow on his back, it was a combination of the best archers, tanners, and blacksmiths in the Imperial Capital's Ordnance Department, "My arrow cluster is best shot into the chest of your rebellious beast today, yes, it will kill you like a beast hunting a beast, and solve everything." ”

Then a ray of bleak sunlight really shone straight in front of the emperor's pocket, he looked up happily, the fog on it was rapidly dissipating, the outline of the entire battlefield began to be clear, and the hideous faces of the murderers on both sides were enough to see each other, but what shocked the front line of the empire and the winged team was that under the cover of the previous dense fog, Gawain's boundless infantry team had reached a distance of only six or seven hundred feet away from them!

"Shoot!" The "head" of the Imperial Army, a group of Cretan archers, began to step forward and draw their most terrifying White Mountain Bows, made of the finest and toughest wood on the island, and the clusters of arrows were large and heavy, especially suitable for short-range projectiles, and as powerful as javelins.

The ranks of the Red Hand Cavalry watched as countless black dots shot out of the air, Cretan arrows refracting the sunlight, and they made a terrifying whistling sound in flight before falling rapidly. "Raid, Hallelujah!" The hundreds of red-handed cavalry at the forefront hurriedly lowered their bodies, still swept over their heads and shoulders by the clusters of arrows, and did not hesitate to worry about the death and injury of their companions, and directly leveled their cavalry spears and rushed towards the heavy spear array of the empire. (To be continued.) )