"Leylet, villain! How dare you betray Augustus! ”

The people who stood up to shoot arrows at the head of the city were all Roman soldiers, and it was his confidant eunuch Leylet, who was entrusted by Constantine IV to defend the city.

Antioch was not only an important city in Syria, it was also the capital of the Seleucid Empire, and an important port in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Relying on the excellent navy of Eastern Rome for reinforcement at sea, Antioch was the second important line of defense after Edessa by Constantine IV, and now Ancatolia, that is, the later Turkey, has been completely crippled, and it is impossible to defend without soldiers and people, and then retreat to Constantinople on the Bosphorus.

Such a high hopeful city, before the war began, it was inexplicably betrayed, and Constantine's grief and indignation can be imagined.

But with his angry rebuke, the hordes of Antiochus garrisons suddenly slowly gave way to a passage, and the eunuch Leylet, who was gritting his teeth with hatred, wrapped his fat body tightly in a set of traditional Roman robes, and staggered out.

But what made Constantine IV's pupils shrink sharply was the woman in front of him, who was struggling, wearing a purple gorgeous Mediterranean dress, wearing an olive branch and a golden crown made of gold, and her chestnut hair reflected a layer of golden light, like a gorgeous sun.

Despite the distance, Constantine could still make out the two sounds clearly, almost squeezing them out between his teeth.

"Anna!"

Almost at the same time, Anna's rosy lips spat out a word with the same complexity.

"Brother!"

Behind Anna on the other side, with the pride of revenge and the hatred of the usurper, Amulie came out excitedly, and shouted loudly to the bottom: "Prince Constantine, you are not the only smart person in the world!" Now you have tasted the pain and disappointment of Her Majesty Anna! ”

Anna has a small political group of her own, which Li Jie has long known and acquiesced to, and continues to fund Anna, money is undoubtedly a super effective lubricant in the political covenant, there are many Byzantine bureaucrats who come to Damin to defect, and there are more bureaucrats who secretly turn to Anna and report the news.

Romanus, the chief of the guard guarding Antioch City, was once under Anna's command during the Eastern Crusade, but last time, like most generals, Romanus also abandoned Anna and went to greet Constantine, who was more powerful as an emperor in his eyes, which made Constantine trust and distrust him, and deliberately left a eunuch Lyrete to watch him.

From the beginning of Li Jie's house arrest of Anna, it was all carefully designed, on the one hand, the fake drama was really done, and through the spies buried by Constantine in Anna's small group, the false news that Anna had lost power in Damin was spread, so that Constantine IV was paralyzed and reassured.

On the other hand, Amuliel, who had already received the news, sent a message to Antiochus, who had already been dissatisfied with the nobles and generals of Constantine IV, and that night Anna disguised herself and went to Antioch without alarming the spies lurking in the camp of the Great Min, and commanded the mutiny with the help of the general of the forbidden army, Zanpo's nephew Gar Gongren, and Wei Chi Gong's second son, Wei Chi Huan.

This is also the reason why Li Jie ordered Su Dingfang to do his best to delay the return of Constantine IV's army, and give Anna enough time to sort out Antioch.

Listening to Amurel's roar, the Eastern Roman army, which was obviously sleepy and tired under the city, was in a commotion, and Constantine IV, who had suddenly come back to his senses, also shouted angrily at the city.

"Augustus is the heir appointed by the emperor himself! Anna. Heraclius is just a prisoner of the first emperor in Galatacastle, stealing the position of co-emperor, what is the crime of me taking back the empire that belongs to me? ”

Turning around, Constantine roared again at the terrified, tired and sleepy army.

"The way home is at hand, provisions, ships, and warm beds, as long as Antioch is recaptured, it is all yours, in the name of Augustus, for the honor of Rome, attack !!"

The ancient battle horns from the Tiber River whined, and under the orders of the Roman centurions, despite exhaustion and mental confusion, the remaining elite troops of Eastern Rome were still quickly lined up under the constraints, and the remaining catapults, ballistas and ladders were pushed to the front of the formation, and the new tortoiseshell fish scale array composed of kite-shaped shields also advanced heavily towards the city wall.

While commanding his army, Constantine IV grabbed Simon like a wounded male wolf, and the Slav leader, whose chest hair was full of collars, shouted angrily: "The way back has been blocked!" I don't want to be sold by the Min people to Tianzhu for mining, so I hurry up and take the city back! ”

There was also a deep fear in the pupils, and with a roar, Simon and Ivanovsky also anxiously rushed into the foreign mercenary army, and in the roar of the two, the Slavic barbarians with round shields and big axes and the Bolgar cavalry riding Caspian horses also roared and joined the siege sequence.

The attack of nearly 200,000 dogs jumping over the wall was undoubtedly spectacular, but as if she was oblivious to the grandeur of the hordes of shields advancing towards her, Anna only gave her brother Constantine IV one last heavy look, and then turned and walked down the wall.

However, for the first time, the two of them, who had already confirmed the betrayal, and Romanus, the chief of Antioch, cooperated extremely closely, and they were all anxiously shouting for defense, tree shields, and arrows!

The meaning of cocooning is really vividly interpreted in the battle of Antioch, Constantine painstakingly repaired the huge city wall to resist the attack of the Eastern Roman army, Constantine built more than 10 meters of arrow tower, crossbowmen and ballistas continue to pour ammunition on the heads of the Eastern Roman army.

After the Slavs who were not afraid of death with axes and iron-clad shields finally climbed the towering city wall from the ladder, barrels and barrels of Greek fire that were originally intended to be used on the heads of the Fujian army were dumped again, and one fire was thrown down, and the city suddenly became a hell of fire, whether it was the Slavic barbarians from the Russian steppe, the Bolgar cavalry or the civilized Athenian guards, all of them were covered in fire and screamed miserably like ghosts.

The morale was as low as an avalanche, the first round of attacks lasted only more than ten minutes before collapsing, the exhausted Eastern Rome shouted and retreated, and the generals also did not follow the best efforts to restrain them, and the whole army was in a state of defeat.

The fire burned for half an hour before it was extinguished, and Constantine IV, with a black face, once again stood under the city gate, and Anna appeared there as scheduled, shouting angrily at Anna with an indifferent face.

"Anna, you have to think clearly, you are selling the great Rome to the Fujian!"

Now it can be regarded as a big revenge, but Anna didn't seem to be as happy as she expected, but coldly lowered her head and asked: "Why did you murder your father, why did you kill your two elder brothers, when you were a child, brother, you will always be the object of worship of our brothers and sisters, and you are also our biggest protector, is it for the sake of rights, do you not even want the blood of your family?"

Listening to Anna's rhetorical question, which seemed to be a little sad, Constantine still roared like a madman.

"Everything I did was for the sake of Rome, and in a thousand years, people will remember me as much as Caesar, Constantine I the Great! And you, the people of Rome curse you forever! Go ahead and besiege the city! ”

In the last sentence, Constantine turned around and drew his sword and shouted at the regrouped Roman legions, and in his furious roar, the Eastern Roman army was weak to start the second attack sequence.

It seemed that there was no need to communicate again, and Anna indifferently instructed Amuliel beside her that everything was left to him, and went down the tower completely without looking back.

Although there were only more than 6,000 men, relying on the strong city defenses of Antiochus, in one day, the demoralized Eastern Roman army was beaten back one by one for six consecutive attacks, and in the evening, the sun turned to the west slowly set, under the city walls, in the trenches, most of the sunlight was blocked to present a dim frontier battlefield, and all kinds of strange corpses fell under the city in various postures.

Surrounding the city gates, the exhausted Roman army finally came to rest, and groups of three or five were struggling to cook food with the last bit of food.

Everyone chewed carefully and meticulously, as if this was their last supper.

The remnant sun shone like blood on the hills outside the city of Antioch, and in the past few hundred years, on the stage where you sang and I took the stage, facing this tragic sun, there was a black big black sky that was slowly distanced, and the black cavalry was like the cruising wolves, fierce and calm.

Su Dingfang's 20,000 vanguard light cavalry also caught up......