"Your Excellency, Your Excellency the Commander of the Roman Empire's march in Asia, I am willing to persuade Lord Vizier to offer the city of Nicaea to your Emperor if the Normans return their mistresses and the children of the Sultan." Hajib also sensed the seriousness of the situation, and hurriedly pleaded with Gawain, "It was indeed me and the Imam of Nicaea who rescued you and sent you back by boat!" ”

Gawain stretched out his hand to comfort, "I understand your request, but it is very difficult to negotiate. Bohemond is greedy for merit, and everyone knows that he must have hidden your mistress. And—" As he said this, Gawain withdrew his outstretched hand to his chin, "if nothing else, Bohemond will deceive your mistress into opening the city to him; In addition, in order to ask the emperor for merit, after the fall of Nicaea, he will not hesitate to send your mistress and the children of the sultan to Constantinople. ”

"Isn't it a matter of course to be sent to His Majesty's throne?" Hearing Gawain's words, Branas couldn't help but question, and Tetisius and Mikhail next to him were silent, and after a while, Mikhail quietly said to him, "Of course, it is reasonable to send him to the throne, but in the battle of Nicaea City, we and the Dalian team made the greatest contribution when resisting the Sudanese reinforcements, and Bohemond's move was to steal the credit shamelessly." ”

These words made all the Roman generals present dissatisfied(the only most upright Diognis, who at the moment thought that the wound of the **** was being healed elsewhere and could not come to the meeting) - we fought to the death in Asia Minor, licking blood on the blades, and now there was no reason to give up the merits to the Norman bandits.

"If Gawain can't discern the situation of your struggle, then there is no shame to list this official title!" Gawain also got up angrily and said, "The only most reasonable way now is to stop Bohemond from taking advantage of women and children. In other words, it's a big event, and the bigger the better. ”

The next day, Tetisius, Branas, and Mikhail, with all their cavalry and guard of honor, escorted the captives to Hajib. Blowing the trumpet, he came to the Frankish camp.

"Huh? The slave general, who had no nose, captured alive the general Konya named Hajib, and was going to send Chivit to the Greek emperor, and said that the city of Nicaea was about to surrender? Godfrey, who had just prepared to organize the siege of the city, was puzzled when he received the letter presented in person, and his younger brother Baldwin took it and looked at it, and was also very suspicious, "Could it be this Hajib." So important to Surelman? It is said that he was a slave of the Sultan of Konya, and that the Turks were very fond of young boys without beards. ”

But when Mikhail, the chief of the palace guard, brought Hajib in and let the Duke of Lower Lorraine and his brothers look at it, his beard did not make the brothers believe that the Sultan would hand over the magnificent and beautiful capital for this guy.

At this time, Mikhail. It was only then that Nestas told the truth: because last night, there was a battle on the lake near the Water Gate, and it was said that the Sultan had left his wife and children in the city. He was captured by the Emperor's Commander-in-Chief of Asia, His Excellency Bohemond.

"Your Excellency Gawain can also testify to this matter." After speaking. Mikhail handed Gawain's letter to the duke, and looked very happy, saying that the bitter siege was about to end in great glory.

Baldwin was immediately depressed, and he said to his brother in front of Mikhail. "Why did such a big incident happen, the Duke of Apulia has not communicated to us so far!"

"The Duke of Apulia was here yesterday, fighting with you in command, but he did suddenly disappear after nightfall and returned to his camp. I'm afraid it has something to do with it. Stephen of Blois also added.

Godfrey clenched his fist on the table and slammed it down, "Of course he will run back privately, because he is trying to take the merit for himself!" Baldwin, go and summon Lord Raymond and Hugh. Cape came and everyone witnessed it. If someone goes around asking for merit and favor for personal gain, then the pilgrims naturally don't have to continue to fight together. ”

But before Baldwin sent his envoys, Bohemond had sent men to Raymond's tent in advance, and told Raymond about this "deliberately", "After I have negotiated with the city, I will enter with my lord from the main gate of the city of Constantinetim, and accept the surrender of the Turkic pagans—you, my lord, and the priest of the priesthood, Ademar, may share with the contemptible people this great moment, the glorious triumph of the Christians." I just don't know if I should tell the brother of the King of France about this? ”

"Why, how can Capet, that, such a fellow, know, know" Raymond, who was lustful for profit, also made a quick decision, and immediately found a reason to arrest Admar, and then spread the word to the soldiers of the detachments of Provence, Saint-Gilles, and Toulouse, and immediately pulled out the camp and headed for the west of the city where the Normans were.

Hugh of the neighboring camp. Capet climbed up the high base in surprise, looked at Raymond, who suddenly left the camp in the billowing smoke and dust, and asked Payne, the palace counselor next to him, "What's wrong with this arrogant lord?" ”

The palace counsellor also said that he did not know.

At this moment, Godfrey and Stephen's messengers galloped in and told Hugh about it, and the royal brother was furious, "So Bohemond colluded with Raymond? To be the emperor of Constantinople to be the only one to swallow the merits! ”

Hugh was a man of great wisdom, and the palace counsellor was also a good man, and as soon as the two of them combined, they first erected the royal flag in front of the camp, and then Godfrey, Baldwin, Stephen, Tetisius, etc., all came to rendezvous with a large group of knights and retainers, "Go and reason with Raymond and Bohemond!" ”

When countless knights from Lower Lorraine, Flanders, Verdun, Paris, Poses, and Blois, with their shining armor, arrived in front of the camp trench in the west of the city, many of the Roma soldiers who were defending on the towers were so frightened that they thought that the pilgrim army was about to assemble again and attack the city!

And Ibn in the palace. Mai Meng is also distressed, what is the life of the Sultan's wife and children now? Did the pilgrims really capture them? If the Sultan found out, how would he respond?

At this moment, Imam Ademar, the imam of Le Mans, came to the two lords with some anger and asked Bohemond and Raymond to explain to him clearly in front of the icon of the Lord, "What is happening now?" Why is there an uproar in the whole pilgrim camp, and the armies of Hugh and Godfrey are so hostile to us as they are to the Turkic infidels, that they seem to be eager to come in and put us all to death. In this way, everyone does not have to go to the Holy Sepulchre, and it is estimated that even the Cilician Gate will fall apart if they can't get through. ”

"The contemptible man has captured the Sultan's wife and children, so he called Lord Raymond to come and bear witness, for in the eyes of the contemptible man, the lord and you are the most just and pure people. The contemptible people did so, hoping that the city of Nicaea would surrender to the pilgrims as soon as possible and avoid unnecessary casualties, but the news leaked out, and Hugh, Godfrey, and Gawain were jealous of my merits, and ignored the overall situation, and wanted to do bad things. Bohemond thought that he couldn't hide it, so he simply broke his face.

"Did the Emperor of Constantinople know about this?" After all, Ademar is a papal envoy, and to some extent the global sensitivity is still sufficient.

"I was just about to ask the confidential officer to draft a pleadings to report the matter to Emperor Komnenos."

"This is not feasible, and the pagans in Nicaea are not fools, for them to hand over the keys to the city of Nicaea must be exchanged for the Sultan's wife and children. As for the Greek Emperor, it is enough for us to hand over the city of Nicaea to him, and there is no need to hand over Shahnamy as well. Now the triangular relationship between Greece, the pagans and us, everything is an equivalent transaction, understand? Now whoever wants to break this contract will have to pay the price! ”

"Well, how about we go straight, straight, and get into Nicaea?" Raymond proposes - this would satisfy the terms of the contract with Alexios, and would also highlight the glory of capturing the Sultan's wife and children.

Ademar shook his head and vetoed, "The elite of the pilgrims have lost more than 4,000 men in order to besiege this city, and you don't want to be embarrassed by the presence of no soldiers to fight when you arrive at Antioch and Jerusalem!" Peace talks are paramount. ”

At this moment, the shouting and scolding of the camp in the trench at the edge of the camp disturbed the people in the camp, and at the insistence of Ademar, the lords of Apulia and Provence, as well as the two Robert and Tancred, also mounted their horses and joined the pilgrim lords who had come to demand "justice" on both sides of the trench.

As soon as they met, a fierce quarrel broke out between the two sides, and new and old hatreds were turned out under the city together.

Godfrey accused Bohemond of being too utilitarian, and when he was in front of St. Atkins, he secretly befriended Emperor Komnenos and ignored the pilgrims of West Francia, and later in the Battle of the High Gully of Exero, he fought with Sultan Surelman and refused to save the Forzer camp;

Bohemond emphasized that all of this was due to his ingenious tactics and tactics, and that the Normans were now able to capture the Sultan's wife and children was inseparable from his wise arrangement and great luck, and that "merit is not for envy and framing!" ”

So Baldwin, who was furious, angrily denounced Bohemond for only taking advantage of the fisherman's profits, and only saying high-sounding and beautiful words;

Then Tanfred was also furious, and ridiculed him, saying that the previous battle in the East Valley had relied on the bravery and good fighting of his own Holy Banner Company to achieve decisive results, and that the Franks were just a bunch of reckless men, and they did not understand war;

In response to Tancred's words, Tetisius on the Constantinople side was dissatisfied again, saying that if the Roman Imperial Army did not resist head-on, how could the Holy Banner Company achieve combat success, not to mention that the two cavalry companies of the commander of the march in Asia and the Grand Duke of Armenia, Gawain, were the main force of the raid! (To be continued.) )