Chapter 50: Meadow Warriors (I)
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At the head of the Byzantine Roman army were three detachments of Albanian hoplites, called "Albanians", but in fact they came from various regions along the Adriatic coast, including za'tar, Dalmatia and Epirus, as well as Taranto, their helmets were varied, including towering za'tar helmets like cockscombs, Roman Gallic iron helmets left over from ancient times, and even Viking chain mail masking helmets, but the armor on their bodies was unambiguous, because they followed George Warden, The salaries were very rich, and they fought bravely with excellent shields, long swords, and iron spears, and in the face of the rain of arrows from the Turkic cavalry, they shouted and charged forward intensively and unstoppably.
The meadow area is a natural place for infantry to play a melee battle, it is lush on the surface, but in fact it is full of small streams and swamps below, and it is divided into small battlefields, which is not conducive to the galloping of the Turkic cavalry.
Amid the sound of killing and the smoke, the Emir of Smyrna, who was standing under the banner, raised his arms, and the trumpet sounded, and the Turkic cavalry, which had been stationed in the meadow area, quickly turned around and rushed up the hillside, breaking away from the close combat with the Romans. Taking advantage of their speed, they rejoined the large number of Turkic soldiers who had been on them, dismounted and used their recurve bows, made of tendons and horns, which they were particularly good at, to fire waves of demoralizing and life-damaging arrows at the Byzantine infantry as they rushed towards the meadow.
The Albanian infantry was fearless, but they had fought bloodily with the Normans in southern Italy for many years, and they had never broken up in front of the spears and horses that roared towards the Norman knights, let alone the Turkic arrows that were fired by the hedgehogs. Many of the soldiers' armor were swaying with enemy arrows, but they were still trudging forward, pushing the shield wall towards the hillside.
At every thirty feet of advance, the whole army beat its drums and shouted so loudly that even the Turkic horses swept all over the hillside.
Musetto was visibly alarmed, for he saw that his soldiers were in a mixture of panic and madness, some retreating, while others were still shouting and trying to engage the enemy.
And on the hillside over there, George. Palarogus, however, looked at the entire battlefield coldly, as calm as a frozen warrior, he made a few clean gestures to the trumpeter and the flag-bearer, and soon under the instructions of the voice, the soldiers and horses of the left flank, which were still three arrows away, began to raise various flags, including the emperor's imperial flag, and also moved towards the goal where Musetto was.
Among them, of course, also included Gawain in the Red Hand detachment, "Forward, forward, follow the banner of His Majesty the Emperor." Eriksen, who was beside him, seemed to be a naturally excited child, not only walking forward on his own, but also waving to the others.
"Don't get out of my way, Erikson." As a result, Gawain kept reminding him not to abandon his position indiscriminately, and asked him to follow the banner of the Red Hand.
"The left flank of the Isurians (the Turkic indecent name for the Byzantine Romans, meaning that they came from the mountains of Asia Minor) also came from the slopes." A slave knight beside Musetto shouted as he pointed to the movement of the left flank of the Romans.
At this time, Musetto heard the commotion of the hill, and many Turkic soldiers, wrapped in turbans and felt hats, grabbed their swords and shields, abandoned their original positions, and rushed down bravely, or uncontrollably, to fight with George's Albanian troops on the edge of the meadow. Beads of sweat oozed from Musetto's forehead, and he raised his body in the saddle again, watching the rapidly changing situation of the entire battlefield, and then asked the slave guards beside him without a clue, "Can you now launch a cavalry charge on the enemy's left flank?" ”
As a result, the slaves were "stunned", and they looked at each other in shiny visors, but they could not observe the expressions inside each other's helmets - an emir, the commander of a large army, had to ask if they could attack?
Musetto, who could not get an answer, hurriedly split his hand as if he had no backbone, and the standard-bearer beside him, seeing this action, flattened the black tooth flag and stretched it out, which was a signal for the cavalry to assault.
The elite Zahas cavalry, who had been hiding behind the queue and in the bushes on the slopes of the valley, saw this signal and rushed out like magma lightning, just as the catcher Theognes had predicted, towards the left flank of George's army.
At this time, most of the left flank had crossed the fork of the river, and in front of him was a gentle hillside, which was the best place for the cavalry to raid condescendingly, and behind him was the river, Gawain felt that all around him was like thunder, he looked at the sun, in the dust flying on the hillside, the sabers and long swords of the Turkic cavalry were so dazzling that he could barely open his eyes, "Bow low, bow low!" "There are such commands everywhere.
The warriors of the Varangian Guard were well-trained, and they did not flinch in the face of the raging iron hooves, and they managed to defend the counterattack against the Norman cavalry in the Battle of Durazo. "This time, I will sacrifice the heads of nine enemies to the gods!" Gawain also shouted at the cavalry, following all his comrades with long mouths and elongated cheeks, with the momentum of "I am not afraid of you at all", and then held his two-handed axe high.
The samurai at the front of the Red Hand detachment, all heavily armoured, with large round shields and iron spears in their hands, half-knelt down and inserted the large round shield diagonally into the dirt, and stretched out the iron spears, and behind them were heavy stacks of battle axes and swords, "Our death is the last thunder in the storm!" Farov grabbed the red hand flag and shouted to everyone.
The enemy's elite was right in front - this was also the common idea of all the rushing Turkic cavalry, dancing under the banner of black fangs, black armor, black war horses, rushing down like a tide, "Sword for the scriptures!" They also shouted slogans and scrambled to break into the array of Red Guards.
In just a few seconds, Gawain felt the whole world tremble.
A part of the war horses of the Turkic cavalry immediately galloped at high speed, crashing into the guard's iron spear jungle, countless people's legs and horses' hooves, rolling in the blood and dust, and the ones behind continued to pounce, raising the bow and arrow in their hands, that is, shooting out a deadly cluster of arrows.
"Master!" When Gawain watched as one of the countless arrows swept through the air and flew towards his forehead, Fetyas held a basswood shield and blocked his eyes in front of him at the moment when time froze.
Then, the cluster of arrows tore through the shield, and Fethias's boyish voice cried out, and he fell beside Gawain with his blood-spattered hands.