"Thank you." In the next trip, Gawain also turned his head to thank Kabeamia, but the other party's face was pale, his teeth were fighting, and he didn't know what he was talking about, as if he had been hit by a big blow, and kept resting the hand on his robe just now and rubbing it, which caused depression and even confusion.

And Peter, beside him, followed the rut prints, all the way, prayed all the way, and did not feel tired at all, and the rut marks became longer and longer, like the black lines on a gray road, and continued them from the coastal mountain road of Smyrna to Abydos on the edge of the Marimara Sea.

The farms and orchards on the outskirts of Abydos were filled with the glamours of the slaughtered corpses of peasants, men, women and children, and a shouting group of soldiers coming in and out of a two-story farmhouse, clay pots being thrown from the windows on the second floor and smashed.

Diognis, who was standing on the side of the road, felt very uncomfortable and embarrassed when he saw this, because it was not Zahaz's cavalry who killed the villagers and looted the town, they were still stationed in Prussa, which had just been captured, but all the Byzantine army, a group of defeated bandits, who were busy scourging the people before they saw the enemy, they cut off the traffic and robbed the refugees everywhere, and openly burned villages and towns, which was difficult to see two hundred years ago - because at that time, the Byzantine Roman army was a well-disciplined peasant frontier army defending the territory. Composed of the emperor's elite field army, they would never turn their swords at the people of their own country, but now the army is full of unemployed ruffians, and foreign lawless mercenaries, no matter whether they win or lose, they will rob, almost instinctively.

"This is even more ruthless than our Normans sacking your Tirasime (the region of Byzantium bordering the Adriatic Sea)." Bohemond in the prison car scoffed. Gawain and Peter, too, kept an eye on the captor, much to the annoyance of Diognis, who sometimes wondered what the point of doing his duty to the country was, but in the end he could only take a few sips of his wine, "Continue to Abydos, where I will ask His Excellency Caesar McAulinus for directions, from the fortress of Gallipoli to the capital, and now the sea is in the middle of winter, and the long voyage is too dangerous." ”

"I advise you not to go to McAulinus." Who would have thought that Bohemond suddenly said such a sentence, and his expression seemed to be provocative.

"You don't behave like a knight, but like an abominable tooth in the market." The warden frowned.

"This is advice, if you go to see Myacollinus, there is only one fate, and that is that the old man with a lust for profit has robbed me of your merits—I have pity on you, and I hope you will be rewarded by the Emperor, but you warriors are not worth even five copper plates in the eyes of men like Myaulinus."

Even though Bohemond spoke very seriously, the captor paid no attention to him, and when they came to the harbor of the city of Abydos, they saw a tide of defeated soldiers and refugees, all pouring onto the beach, calling for the ships on the sea to dock, to carry them across the mouth of the strait, to Gallipoli, and in the inky black rolling waves, the ships sailing offshore were struggling, and the timber of the decks and cabins made an overwhelming crackling sound, like the scene of the end of the world.

"Did Lord Caesar abandon this seaside fortress? In that case, the Turks would be able to build a fortress on the opposite shore and besiege the capital as long as they got their hands on the ships. Diognis was so sad that his heart was broken, "Empire, is it true?"

At this time, Gao Wen, who was sitting next to the prisoner car, actually saw that Kabeamiya saw this scene, and a subtle happy smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

And Bohemond became even more arrogant, and he shouted to the captor that Zahas did not dare to attack the Sultanate of Rûm now, so his goods were safe in Smyrna, as long as the captor could let him go, the amount of ransom reward was negotiable, "Even if it is five thousand gold solides, I can give you one at once, without even blinking an eyelid." ”

In the evening, Diognis stood in the empty city, in front of the official residence where Caesar had been walking, several tax collectors and servants dressed in silk clothes carried boxes out, and saw that the guards did not have any embarrassed expressions, they were all for Mycaulinus, the mountain of treasures of the imperial Caesar (vice-emperor), safely transported to Gallipoli - Myaulinus completely threw away the war zone in Asia Minor, after all, he was still a little embarrassed, it is said that he had written to the emperor, stating that "to defend the fortress of Gallipoli hard, After the coming spring, he resolutely launched a counteroffensive and drove the Zahas army back to Nicaea".

But whether it is a counteroffensive or a recruitment, it takes a lot of money, so it is only reasonable that Caesar is reluctant to throw these boxes and boxes that he has worked so hard to collect to the Turks.

Eventually, Caesar's deacon's butler stood on the steps, and the eunuch told the catcher, "Well, you may go in one of these rowboats, but whether or not you can get to Caesar to meet you at Gallipoli is up to creation." ”

Diognis bowed his head to the eunuch and kept a minimum of courtesy.

When it was almost nightfall, they finally boarded a small rowing boat that rose and fell in the rough seas, and the warden unceremoniously locked them all under the cabin, and the lightning shone brightly on the snow, and the cold, salty water continued to seep through the cracks in the cabin.

The four men, Bohemond, Peter, Gawain, and Cabeamia, were divided into two cabins, standing facing each other, their hands all chained to the beams of the upper deck. At first, Cabeamia begged the guards to stop putting her with Gawain, as it seemed that the previous "untie incident" had stimulated her too much. But the catcher asked her, "Would you like to be with Bohemond?" You are the daughter of a nobleman of our empire, and although I have not been able to confirm your identity yet, are you going to come face to face with a Norman who has repeatedly violated your chastity? ”

Cabeamia was silent, and then agreed with Theognes, and she asked to come face to face with Peter, the hermit. However, the catcher was even more angry, "He is a priest, the most respected by our people and soldiers of the Roman Empire, you face to face, you are going to watch and help each other in the cabin, I don't want you to help the clergy, some people will say that I deliberately let women seduce the monks to fall." ”

The daughter of the nobleman with the sword wanted to cry without tears, so she could only be in the shaking cabin, facing Gawain, and between the two was a wooden commode, dangling around.

"Do you want it to be convenient?" Gao Wen said for a long time, and said very gentlemanly in Aushang.

Kabeamia was on the verge of collapse, she did want to make it easier, but as a result, Gawain thoughtfully stabilized the commode with his legs, and slowly and cautiously pushed it in front of her, "Solve it with your foot on the edge of it, and I'll try to pin my head over." At this moment, Kabeamia really cried, not only crying for her embarrassment and shame, because she also thought that if Gawain came soon, she could only use her jade feet to "help" him

Over there, it is said that Bohemond and Peter quarreled and scolded the whole voyage, but also failed to reach an agreement, and it is not known how the two men resolved it.