Then, at Raymond's request, all the besieging pilgrims recovered from their terror - they took up their weapons, quickly lined up, marched under the banner through the wilderness beneath the castle of Gangara, filled the vacant western position of the Duke of Guillaume after his escape, and began to line up there. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Even though the total number of pilgrims was as high as 200,000, the number of regular soldiers who were actually armed and experienced in battle was only 10,000 or 20,000.

After Guillaume fled without permission, all the arrays which Raymond had set up at the exit of the valley were about seven thousand soldiers, except for the part that besieged and monitored Gangara: the one-eyed Count Lauritia divided it into five phalanxes, three in front and two in the rear, Raymond in the center of the rear, and Valotus with five hundred Tecopo cavalry and four hundred and fifty Provençal soldiers, and tied the towering spear with a strap and tied it in the center of the position, so that all the soldiers in front and behind him could see it.

All the soldiers of the Pilgrim Legion wore hats and helmets, shielded their bodies, and armed with sharp swords and spears, and formed a tight horizontal formation, facing the mouth of the sloping valley where the flames were flying, and were not allowed to run around or leave their posts without permission.

Raymond then sent a herald to reinforce him from the camp of more than a dozen Mikhail in the Gully Wai.

In fact, the whole situation is very clear at this moment, the 1,000 detachments sent by Raymond to search for grain and grain in the valley can be said to have suffered a complete disaster, but the main force is still there - 7,000 fighting Frank, Lombard, and Flanders warriors have filled the gap and blocked the valley, and even if Merrick's 20,000 men occupy the right of passage in the valley, it will be very difficult to rush out and defeat Raymond face to face.

So as long as Mikhail rushed to Raymond's flank with the emperor's army of 6,000 to protect it, the new Grand Earl would still be invincible (although victory would be difficult), and as long as Raymond was undefeated and held out for two or three days, and the emperor's supplies from Sinop and Castamonu could arrive, Raymond would still be able to hold the battle line smoothly. In other words, once the Emperor's supplies and equipment arrived, Raymond might even use this help to pull out Gangara and Calabi, thus forcing Danishmond to retreat to the east bank of Harris.

In that case, Gawain had already captured Kayseri, and Tetisius's troops had approached Konya and Ankara, and Theodoro's men had crossed the New Caesarea Pass.

But this kind of wishful thinking and perfect strategic plan is completely impossible under the operation of military commanders with evil intentions:

Gawain single-mindedly drove Ankara directly, hoping to block the passage of Merrick's brigade south to reinforce Ankara before the decisive battle between Merrick and Raymond, and take it into his pocket;

Conrad's men captured the fort of Germanico and took a wait-and-see attitude at both ends of the line between Ankara and Gangara;

Tetisius's new army, on the other hand, went straight to Ankara, ignoring the situation in the north, because Prince John had told him beforehand that "no matter what the situation, do not clash with Gawain, and do not give up your command of the troops";

Even the emperor himself has repeatedly used spies to disrupt the entire team's marching plans, and he has no trust in many Western lords.

Finally returning to Raymond's 200,000 men, Guillaume abandoned his position and fled towards Castamonu; And Mikhail, who received the Earl's letter asking for help, was also very ambiguous, "Our army is guarding this position and cannot move at will, but I promise to assist the Earl at the right time." ”

In this way, Raymond's order came back and forth five times, and Mikhail still replied the same, without changing even half a letter.

At the end of the second hour of the morning, Danishmund's army appeared from the heights and paths of the valley, and Merrick himself arrived with his cavalry, "Execute these apocryphal bearers in public!" Merrick commanded cruelly, and then the executioner, armed with an axe, mercilessly beheaded the captured pilgrims who had survived the Ambush at the Valley, including the scarred and burned Count Ode.

Then all the Turks gathered together and began to condescendingly and fired at Raymond's five phalanxes in turn.

Waves of Turkic arrows rained down on the heads and shields of the three phalanx pilgrim soldiers at the front. Many of them were stuck with arrows in their chain mail, shields, and robes, and they were still stoic: fortunately, they flew into their bodies in the last state of their crossbows, so that although they shot into the rings of their armor, they only caused minor damage to their skin.

The firing of arrows continued for a long time, and soon after the drums were beaten, the warriors of Danishmund's army, dressed in heavy armor, shields and sharp weapons, rushed down the hill to the front of the pilgrims, and the two sides then exchanged blades and a great melee ensued.

Inspired by the spear, the pilgrims were so imposing that even though they were suffering from half-starvation, they waved their heavy weapons and chanted hymns, and one after another the attacking enemies were cut to the ground, many were wounded and still fighting, and the long and bloody battle repeated for nine rounds, and Merrick, who was commanding the battle on the opposite hillside, found that he had lost nearly a thousand men, and still failed to break any of Raymond's front phalanx.

"Don't retreat, the women and children who need protection are in the camp behind us, if we cowardly escape, they will all be ravaged and slaughtered by the cruel Turks!" This was the belief of all, and this belief drove them to persevere, repelling the onslaught of the infidels again and again, and keeping the holy spear standing.

At the end of another three rounds of fighting, Merrick, who still had not made the slightest progress, was very annoyed, he felt that such an attack was just a waste of the elite infantry in his hands, and finally he rode his horse and looked at the battle situation in Gangara on the opposite side, remembering the results of the scout's reconnaissance earlier, he pointed his horsewhip at the wide gap between Raymond's line and Mikhail's camp, "Divide four thousand men to occupy it, and then flank and destroy this group of unbelievers holding a long stick and a fake." ”

Soon the brief silence ended, and four thousand Sagitus cavalry came out from the right flank of the Great Emir's army, and burst into the direction of Raymond's left flank like lightning in a whirlwind, and the horses' hooves swirled dust to obscure the sky and the sun—"Where are the auxiliaries of the Greeks, and how have they completely exposed our flanks to the enemy!" Within the five phalanxes, such frightened words and questions spread like electricity to all corners. (To be continued.) )