Before the other two Roma soldiers could react, the young warrior pounced, drew his Armenian curved saber from his waist, and slashed them to the ground - and then the young warrior gestured to the back, and several Armenians ran in, piled the bodies aside, and then walked towards the other gatehouse, holding the token.

Soon, in front of the gate east of Tarsus, Tanrred and Brad rode their horses and held banners, and the Armenian soldiers led by Pakad also gathered around these two Norman lords, "Dear Lord Tver, the time has come to witness a miracle, and the contemptible will live up to the glory of the royal family of Bagladioni." ”

Then the soldiers let out a cry of amazement: on the other side of the moat of the east gate, at the two stone gatehouses that stood facing each other, the Roma flag was thrown down, and the gate rumbled open. Tancred couldn't help but be overjoyed, "Well done Parkade, how did you do it?" ”

"In this city, there is my internal response, after all, the contemptible people still have a little prestige and means in this land."

"Excellent! After the strategy of Cilicia is completed, my uncle and I will certainly ask His Majesty the Emperor of Constantinople to give you a rich castle to restore the great cause of your Armenian royal family. ”

"The rest of the negotiations and strategies must also be handed over to the contemptible people!" Pacaard was overjoyed, hurriedly stirred up his horses, and called the military musicians around him to blow their trumpets, and all the Normans and Armenians cheered, raised their battle flags, and marched into the city gates, and everywhere there was a shout of "The land of the great St. Paul's Sanzi, which has fallen into the hands of the brave Apulians."

The young samurai knelt on one knee under the gatehouse, surrounded by panicked Roma soldiers and city dwellers. Some of them are already on the side of the street, and some are still hesitating. "Well done Hercules, my proud child!"

"Yes Father. I have taken to heart your exhortation and your secret agreement, and I have finally fulfilled my trust and handed over this rich and magnificent city to the true victor. "It turned out that the young warrior's name was Hercules. Bagladini, who happens to be the eldest son of Pak Ade, previously withheld his real name, as the leader of the mercenaries, assisted Tarsus in the defense of the war, but was actually a trump card hidden in the hands of the cunning Pak Ade.

Originally, Pak Ad had planned to ask his son to dedicate the city before the other pilgrims arrived. However, before the Battle of Water Gate, all the defenses of the city gate and tower were in the hands of the Roman Turkic nobles, and it was not until after the war that Hercules found an opportunity to attack the east gate while the city's air defense was weak.

And in the tower of the city's water gate, Baldwin, who felt that the situation was wrong, widened his eyes in anger and put the blade of his sword on the shoulder of the city representative who knelt down.

Several Frankish lords entered from the outside in a rage, "The east gate of the city is wide open. The Normans marched in and raised the St. George's flag over the city's core towers and warehouses. ”

"That's indeed Tancred's battle flag." Gawain said angrily - and he wondered what kind of tactics Tancred had used. Got into the city first.

"Ahh Baldwin raised his sword.

Gawain's eyes were quick, and he drew his scimitar, and the "bang" was in front of the representative's forehead. The blades of the blades intersected with Baldwin's slashed blades, and they did not give in to each other. "Don't kill him, it's no good."

"Gawain. What should we do? Baldwin put away his sword in dismay, and the lords beside him asked questions.

The huge figure of Gao Wen's shadow was quickly covered by the representative's body, the representative raised his head, only saw the other party's condescending blue eyes, and then his feet left the ground, and he was directly lifted up by Gao Wen, "We want to collect your acropolis, you and the rest of the nobles will stay here as hostages, and this must be done at noon, otherwise I will kill you all, and I will not have any mercy."

Several samurai immediately took their swords and axes, took off the swords and swords of all the delegates and nobles, and forced them to the corner of the tower to take control - and then Gawain touched his chin, walked to the window of the tower, and said to Baldwin, "Take the Acropolis first, and hold off Tancred!" If he leaves Tarsus, I will give you this city; If he stays until the bulk of my Paritora division arrives."

"Just expel Tancred, and if he dares to resist, he will kill all the Normans!" Baldwin immediately answered, and this was by no means a quiet character.

Baldwin. Eustace, out of friendship I must warn you that I don't care if I do this, but what about you? ”

"Let it go, there's nothing to worry about, my brother and I gave up the inheritance of all the territories, and frankly it's not just to recover the Holy City, why should we be afraid of the Normans!" After saying this, Baldwin and Galvan swore by fists to each other, and decided to form an alliance with each other—"Swear before the Lord that all the fortresses, towns, and lands of Cilicia to the west shall belong to Stephen, with the river Sidnus as the boundary, and Cilicia to the west as far as Seleucia. Gawain. Lusail takes what he has; From Tarsus to the east to Adana, it was Baldwin. All owned by Eustace. ”

The two quickly came to an agreement, and at noon there was a great commotion and fighting from the acropolis adjacent to the hills of Tarsus, and Tancred saw that the detachment he had sent to receive the fortress had been disarmed and driven back by Gawain's men, and that his banner on the Acropolis tower had been replaced by the Red Cross Sword battle flag.

Tanfred's hair was about to rise in anger, and he drove his horse to the bottom of the tower, shouting for Gawain to come out and talk.

And Gawain didn't shy away from anything at all, and directly supported the pheasant on the tower, "The capture of this city is entirely the credit of me and the army, and there is no reason for you to take it." ”

"I surrounded and attacked the city first, and you were the one who snatched the credit!"

"Then you go to someone to settle the score, and that person's name is 'Incompetent'." Gawain scoffed loudly.

"Gawain, you bloodthirsty greedy wolf, I will not only take over the city, but I will also tell the Council of Cardinals about all this, and you will be stripped of your priesthood and expelled from the ranks of the pilgrims." Tancred's eyes are going to bleed.

"Now that my two Tema brigades have followed behind and cut off the passage from the Cilician Gate to here, who else can help you Tantarade? What good will happen to your weak troops, if you provoke me—now I give you a chance to get out of the city of Tarsus, and go further east to seize the other cities, and as a sign of fairness, you may take all the storehouse supplies and money you now occupy. Gawain raised his hands, coercing and seducing.

The Norman general gritted his teeth and calmed down and thought: Gawain, this bastard, did not expect to run to Paphragonia, his military strength was not overly damaged, it seems to have become more powerful, and he now has only two or three thousand soldiers on hand, together with armed pilgrims and Armenian mercenaries. However, Gawain is very cunning, could this be another ploy of his lies and deception?

"Where's Baldwin?" Tancred asked, looking up.

"I don't know, isn't he supposed to be with you? Did you go to capture Adana City? Gawain also looked puzzled.

Half an hour later, in the Norman-occupied barracks in the middle of the city, many lords under Tancred broke out into a fierce quarrel, revolving around the crucial choice of whether to retreat from the city, "Gawain only occupies the Water Gate and the Acropolis, and his subordinates are less than a thousand, so we should expel him." Grumpy Braid was the first to speak.

"But after all, he occupies many defensive walls, and our side is in a situation of attacking the fortification, and even if we expel him, we will suffer huge casualties." Tancred was worried.

A Norman Earl named Richard from Salerno, who was also a close relative of the Tver family, immediately could not contain his anger, "My dear friend, because you are still a son of the glorious Duke's family, are you just watching our banner and being left behind and ridiculed by an unknown barbarian?" We should mount our horses and drive them all out with our spears, and drown them all in the river Sidnus. ”

As a result, when Tantarred heard this, Huo Ran stood up, "I am not for my own selfish interests, since Gawain, a greedy wolf, is so attached to the wealth of Tarsus City, then I can start from the overall situation, and after getting the money and supplies that I deserve, I will go to attack the cities of Mamistra and Adana further east, to avoid Gawain's arrogant momentum." ”

"But," cried out many of the Norman lords in dismay, but Tancred closed his eyes as if he had made up his mind—and the father and son of Pakade at this time agreed with him, and could lead all the Armenian soldiers to fight for Tancred, "and go eastward, as far as the land of Edessa and Antioch, where there are fortresses of our people, and I would like to be the vanguard of the lords, and contact most of them to turn to you." Gawain, a shallow person who only covets one city and one place, will surely become the target of public criticism in the future. ”

The next day Tanfred swept away all the goods in the storehouses of the city under his control—wine, silk, preaching, etc.—and with resentment and hatred against Gawain, he organized more than 3,000 men and marched toward the city of Mamistra.

Gawain and Baldwin's men and horses took the opportunity to occupy all the strongholds in the city of Tarsus, and the soldiers sang the praises of the glory of the Lord and the protection of Saint Paul—Gawain ordered, "All the soldiers shall change their shifts and defend the garrison, and the feast shall be held for three days." ”

The cost of the feast was naturally borne by the inhabitants of the city.

When all the revelry reached its climax, the soldiers on the beacon of the Watergate Tower looked:

On the other side of the endless rivers of the Cilician plain, all the rest of the foot knights of the "Bow Division" had crossed the Taurus Mountains, and naturally included Anna, Godchild, and three or four thousand Paulicians, all of whom had come to the city.

"Now you can do a good job according to the agreement between you and me!" Baldwin was drunk, holding his glass, and after receiving the good news, he shouted to Gawain. (To be continued.) )