In the early morning of the next day, a large Venetian merchant ship anchored in the port of San Simon, and the consul and guard sailed into the mouth of the Orontes River in a small centipede-like ship. Rosso went to the tent in the palace district, where an embroidered pergola was erected with spears to shield him from the harsh sun at the turn of spring and summer.

After the pleasantries, Gawain and Molitor soon reached an agreement: to sell two-eighths of Antioch, where the Venetians could set up merchant houses, warehouses and baths, send commercial immigrants, and enjoy the same tax exemptions as in Constantinople, with independent consular jurisdiction; Venice, on the other hand, must deliver grain weighing no less than 120,000 Modi to his army by ships until the end of the year.

Then Tetisius also stood on one side, and the documents of the three parties stepped out separately, among which Gawain was Androdart, who held out the utensils and stamped the seal of approval on the instrument of the entente.

For Gawain, the Emperor used the transportation power of the Venetian fleet and a large quantity of grain to buy the streets of Antioch, which his division had won with blood, and the biggest winner of this deal, at least on the books, was undoubtedly Constantinople.

At this moment, on the road on the other side of the pergola, a group of Norman cavalry walked by everyone with a whistle, and they were going to patrol under the tower of the four sisters today. Molito's eyes were very sharp--he could see that the leader of this group of cavalry was actually two Turkic-looking guys, one was Estus. Borduka, one is Doyakum. Bohemond, the Turkic soldier who had been captured and converted to Christ.

Among them, the two Turks laughed and talked in Turkic with Gawain's military servant Muzafiadin who was standing outside the pergola while they were passing by on horseback.

But Molitto, as a Venetian nobleman, was not at all surprised by this situation, and in the Levant, it was a fool's dream to keep the population pure: the pilgrims were now joined by many Greeks, Armenians, Saracens, and even Turks.

At the same time, Wright, the deputy heraldic officer, who was on guard duty at the junction of the pergola and the road, together with Muzafiadin-din, saw that on the other side of the hill, the Piacenza beauty, Beatrice, was also riding a mule, happily following the Norman cavalry, in the direction of the fruit grove, "Is it to meet her lover as the Grand Duke speaks?" What a beautiful and fertile garden, what bastard's rocker plow is so blessed to be able to turn over the soil and sow seeds in it! Wright was envious, jealous, and hot-blooded.

"Those four towers are enough for you to attack." After signing the agreement and having a banquet for a while, Gawain, Molitto, and Tetisius leaned together, looking at the Acropolis on the ridge where Yaggie was still stubbornly resisting, and the Venice consul sighed.

"It doesn't matter, with the reinforcements and supplies of the Emperor of Constantinople, I think it is possible to concentrate on the Acropolis of Aggie first, and then hold Antioch, and then hold Antioch, and the camp of General Tetisius will be enough to defeat the infidels from Mosul." Gawain was full of confidence.

Suddenly, the screams of men and women came from the side of the fruit forest, very sad and tragic, and they came from afar. Shocked, the soldiers of the Red Hand Brigade and the Guardian Brigade, who were originally resting, stood up one by one with their weapons in hand, for some reason.

Gawain suddenly felt that something was wrong, he remembered the expression of Beatrice with a spring breeze on her face yesterday, and it stands to reason that she would definitely not hold the **** and go to have a tryst with her lover today! But I didn't expect these two guys to die to such an extent that they would do this in the orchard in the cavalry patrol area.

The grove was less than half a mile from the palace district, and the defense of the Normans was today, and it was also designated as the most dangerous area of confrontation, which had been previously demarcated by Ademar and the new General Counselor, Robert, who forbade any pilgrims to go there for any purpose, lest they be killed by surprise attacks by the defenders.

Before the Venice consul and Tetisius could react, Gawain took his sword and slid down the hill where the pergola was located, and jumped to the side of the crowded road, where in front of him, Wright was running towards him, his face extremely terrified.

"What's going on up ahead, isn't it that Beatrice?"

Wright's face was full of worry, and he nodded hurriedly, "Who is in charge of the garrison in our camp ahead?" Gawain continued to ask.

"It's General Temaci Branas."

With that, Gawain and Wright stepped onto their horses, accompanied by several members of the Brotherhood, "All the soldiers keep quiet, all sit down and continue to rest!" Gawain shouted as he pointed to all the soldiers gathered around.

Under the banner, only two hundred feet away from the orchard, Branass also looked puzzled behind the wooden fence, he was surrounded by infantry cavalry who kept a vigilant posture, and the orchard on the other side of the trench was lush, and the green waves were rolling in the wind, and there was no movement since those screams stopped.

Seeing the Grand Duke coming, Branas hurriedly reported, "Today's orchard is a Norman patrol area, I have taken the cavalry there before, and it is very close to the Four Sisters Tower of the Acropolis, and there are several fence passages directly connected to it, which is very dangerous. ”

"What about the Normans!" Gawain also looked at the strange and gloomy fruit forest through the wooden fence, and asked nervously.

Branas shook his head and said that their patrol cavalry was indeed here just now, but soon left.

"There was also a noblewoman, together with Adelbello, the priest of the Council of Cardinals, who said that she would go to the woods and play backgammon and dice." In the ranks of soldiers, one of the standard-bearers added to Gawain, saying that they had been like this for the past few days, but because the Council of Cardinals was now very powerful, and the various camps were too lazy to go or dare to ask, everyone knew that the noble and handsome priest was a character who was not easy to mess with and could not be looked up to.

Gawain lowered his whip in annoyance, turned his head to see Wright's face, and shook his head, meaning that he was probably hopeless.

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, and the Norman cavalry who had just slipped away suddenly turned back in time and stopped outside the wooden fence of Gawain's camp, but even Bohemond and Tanfred came, and they shouted loudly and asked what was happening, and the Turkic Ostu shouted in the same voice in Greek, "I saw His Excellency Adalbello, the priest of the Council of Cardinals, and a beautiful and noble woman entering, and they may have made the screams just now!" ”

"Bastard, go and call the priest to come up here, our Excellency Adalbello may have been poisoned." Bohemond deliberately shouted loudly, as if he were afraid that others would not know about it—and soon the people who had rushed to the other lords' camps in the palace district, including knights, sergeants, soldiers, and civilians, rushed over and talked about the incident just now.

"Wright, come with me now, go in with a few members of the Brotherhood and guard against Bohemond making a fuss." Gawain's blue eyes looked at the ill-intentioned Bohemond, and said to the deputy heraldic officer. (To be continued.) )