Two Norman lightly armed soldiers besieging Gawain were attacked from behind by Diognis and knocked to the ground with flails. Then, from the tower of the Acropolis, the Venetians pushed out the large crossbow that Gawain had commissioned in advance, and fired a roped iron spear that roared over the heads of the people, piercing the guards of the siege tower.

Everyone, monks, pilgrims, and military servants grabbed the rope with their hands, and suddenly pulled down the guards of the siege tower one by one, and then Amalfi and the Venetian sailors raised the canisters of fire oil in their hands and smashed them into the siege tower without animal skins and door panels.

In the collapsed breach, the fierce Varangian warriors swung their battle axes and greatswords to slash at any enemy who dared to climb up, all clad in double armor and many with arrows on them, but still fighting with their arms crossed. Eventually, the Normans couldn't hold it anymore and began to retreat, and Tancred was pulled up and put on the board, where the Tekopo mercenaries, who had repelled the charge of the pilgrim group, also arrived in small groups and fired fire arrows at the siege tower, and the servants began to push Tancred's siege tower backwards, trying to avoid the pursuit and arson of the Byzantine defenders.

In the smoke and fireworks, Tancred sat back on the door panel, and behind him the Calabrian light soldiers were crouching in the tower with bows and crossbows, struggling to shoot at the Byzantine soldiers at the head of the city, and he saw the figure of his sister Gusyun in the fierce battle, holding a small axe, slashing his own military servant, "a brainless Norman woman." will only stand in a camp with his man unconditionally, and when he meets his brother, he is afraid that he will be against each other. And then. The figure of his sister is getting farther and farther away in his eyes.

Three siege towers. One was burned, one was captured by the defenders of Bari, and the one where Tancred was successfully retreated. Under the city of Bari, the corpses of pilgrim fanatics were piled up, and Gao Wenfang claimed to have killed thousands of enemies.

But Bohemond had gained, and his siege had advanced a step further, and he had broken down a corner of the tower of Bari, "telling the servants not to slack off, and to cause more crashes and siege towers." I'm going to launch a general offensive in three days. ”

But then the intelligence from Moria made the Duke of Apulia furious: Zahaas's fleet would not come, and the Byzantine Emperor had gathered an army of 15,000 soldiers and handed it over to his younger brother His Excellency Sebastoclat, and was storming the base of Zahaas's lair, and the entire Peloponnese became a place where the Turkic soldiers of both sides attacked and defended each other.

In short, this time Alexios was serious, and the ships of Venice and Amalfi in Crete and the islands of the Holy Sea, and the small fleet of Byzantium itself, which originally defended the imperial capital, would be combined. Fighting on land and water, Zahas a feeling that he can't protect himself, so naturally he won't come to Bari City to wade into troubled waters again.

And then, there is no doubt about it. His uncle Roger's Sicilian fleet did not come, and Bohemond was furious, he did not know what kind of excuse Roger was looking for this time. And how to delay, "believing him in the first place was the biggest mistake." This old bastard! "On the sea of spring, coastal city-states such as Ragusa and Venice. Grain was being sent into the city of Bari by boat, and Gawain had taken all of the Amalfi's commissions, and had levied one-sixth of the total property of all the citizens on the "money for the repair of the walls" and "money for the maintenance of the granaries", which he could have paid in cash.

"It's only capable of conquering it." This was Bohemond's judgment, and he once again enlisted the support of all the counts and barons, and pushed the date of the decisive battle to three days later.

In front of the Basilica of St. Nicholas, Gawain knelt on one knee and prayed in front of the standing Idorus, thanking the Emperor, his allies, and Princess Anna, his patron, "I hope that neither the sea nor the land will forget our fight against the violent enemy on this day." ”

Then Gawain turned around, and at the long holy table, in front of the soldiers and citizens after the bloody battle, he spread out a long brocade book, which he himself had asked to make, "Today's hard battle is the merit of all, and the fierce Norman knights have united us before the blade, so I will call my clerk, and on this brocade, the names of the meritorious persons shall be transcribed, and if the city of Bari is preserved, I will then take all my brothers and comrades above it to the cave of Garganus on the Lombard plain, Vows to St. Michael's Archangel. ”

The Cave of Garganus, next to the battlefield where the Christians and the Crescentists fought two hundred years ago, when St. Michael's spear appeared in the clouds, and the army of the Protectors was said to have achieved a great victory: these are the stories that Androdat told Gawain privately.

While the candles flickered, soldiers, Turkopo, sailors, pilgrims, and craftsmen, all of whom were rewarded for their meritorious work in the battle, stepped forward silently but firmly, and wrote their names in the brocade book, and those who could not write let Anderodat write to help. And Gawain stood beside him, handing out the coins and silk one by one, "brother", this is the name they call at the moment of mutual response.

Then Gawain brought in the prisoners of the day's battle, all of them pilgrims, and among them were women, some of them wounded, all of them without the fanaticism of being bewitched, and now their faces were full of scars and despair, and horror, and on the entrance of this church, men of all colors, all kinds of weapons, terrible faces, those who did not care about killing people, the great duke of the enemy, dressed in great armor and splendid armor, holding a terrible sword, sitting on the seat behind the holy table, looking at them.

Should they be dragged to the city and executed in public, as they had done before, or should they be given to the Grand Duke's subordinates as slaves?

But then the Grand Duke's words, which surprised everyone, said, "I think that your pilgrimage to Rome at the moment, under the mobilization of the Holy See in Rome, should have a basic precept, that is, believers must not kill believers. We defend this city because it was originally owned by the Roman Emperor, and was taken by the Norman bandits for treachery, and then presented to the Holy See, and I, Gawain, have only restored it. Soon I could foresee that the Holy See would issue an armistice against Bari, so I would kill only the Norman fighters who came to attack the city, and not the captured pilgrims, and I would let you go now as a sign of leniency. ”

It was hard to believe, but the next morning, the city of Bari did indeed open its gates and let out the dozens of frightened pilgrims who had been captured.

Then the Norman siege camp began to stir, and then not only pilgrims and soldiers, but also several counts came and demanded that Bohemond stop, bypass the city of Bari, or make peace with Gawain and make an expedition to the east. (To be continued......)