Eagle Byzantium

The answer he got was: these two instructed their followers to assassinate Sokman, and fearing that the city would retaliate against them, they took advantage of the chaos to continue running eastward.

Gawain handed the "horseshoe-shaped token" of the command to his trusted military servant Muzafiadin: "You take two squadrons of Oghuz cavalry and two squadrons of Red Hand cavalry, bite these stupid scums, and report your whereabouts to me at any time."

After Muzafiadin received the order and left, Gawain continued to instruct: the entire army to line up to enter the city, and send messengers to take over the rest of the fortress cities in the entire Artuki Kingdom.

A few days later, the Turkic Emirate of Artuki was completely destroyed, because its prince Sokman was assassinated by Assassin followers, and the other two most important fortresses, Mardin and Dunayasir, did not resist at all, so they were discouraged and handed the city gate keys to Gawain to beg for surrender.

After entering the city, Gawain appeased all the residents and trading posts inside. He announced that the original "Prince's Decree" stipulated that after the Guards occupied the new territory, all Turkmen (because they were completely separated from the Oghuz), Persians and Saracens would face three choices: conversion, forced labor and migration. But at this moment, Gawain modified the decree: the Crescent believers in the Kingdom of Artuki and the newly conquered territories could choose not to convert or to force labor, but they had to pay a "self-renewal gold" that was much heavier than conversion and forced labor to replenish military funds. This was basically consistent with the policy of forcing Christians and Jews to pay additional taxes when the Mohammedans expanded greatly.

Even so, Gawain's army was generally welcomed by the residents of the entire kingdom because of his kindness and grace, and no more than one twentieth of the people migrated away. In addition, Gawain also implemented a lenient policy towards Armenians and Greeks. "The fields and canals of the entire Artuki were consecrated, but the city retained its autonomy and only had to pay taxes to Tarsus according to the base amount every year." In addition, Gawain also announced that Diyarbakir would be changed back to its original name "Amida".

During the week that Gawain was stationed, local residents spontaneously launched a vigorous search for Assassins' lurkers. Even the Ismailis (Assassins were the most radical faction among them) were not spared. Hundreds of arrested people were captured by the old militia and taken to the walls of Amida to be executed on the spot, with blood flowing everywhere.

To the north of Amida are towering hills, with many lakes and grasslands below, which are good winter shelter pastures. In addition, it can be connected to Mosul in the southeast and Samosata in the southwest. It also has water transportation on the upper reaches of the Euphrates River, making it a unique agricultural and pastoral treasure land. Gawain was very satisfied with this, and left some Brotherhood and Self-Reformation Society officers to count the pastures, orchards and farmland as soon as possible, and distribute them to the soldiers of the Yefanduni Brigade as holy benefice in time.

In the cellar of the palace of the deceased Sokman, many treasures and fine wines were found. Although many generals advocated distributing them all to their subordinates, Gawain refused, "This should be inherited by Sokman's son. Seal them all and give them to his son when he arrives from Isfahan in the future."

When a few generals questioned, Gawain replied seriously, "I am now strictly following the Roman code, and I hope everyone will do the same." So no one dared to mention the division of Sokman's property.

Through these things, Gawain won a great reputation, which quickly spread.

The "results" obtained by this reputation can even surpass those gained on the battlefield: Samosata was isolated and helpless because it was separated from Antioch, and they did not want to accept Bohemond's rule, so they were willing to be loyal to Gawain. So under the secret lobbying of Hercules, the Armenians in the city rioted again, killed the garrison that expelled Tancred, and announced their surrender to the Kingdom of Tarsus.

As a result, Tancred was even more isolated and helpless.

But on the other hand, Bohemond thought that Gawain had touched the forbidden fruit that should belong to him, and began to secretly split with Gawain again.

However, no matter what Bohemond thought, Gawain acted decisively. He quickly combined Samosata and the newly conquered Artuki region to form a new "Samosata Fortress District" and appointed Walter Sansavall as the head of this district - the original Caesarea Fortress District was converted into a county district, and the pastoral official Reinstein directly served as the county governor.

At the same time, the prince and governor of Mosul, Kobha (who was defeated in the Battle of Antioch), also sent envoys to Gawain to advocate non-aggression between the two sides, because Kobha's main focus is now on Isfahan: after the assassination of the Great Sultan, the Seljuk warlords are fighting openly and secretly, hoping to support their own people to inherit the throne of the Great Sultan, so Kobha does not want to be an enemy of Gawain at all.

Gawain also assured Kobha: "Our army's main target is on the Greater Armenian Plateau, and we will never cross the Euphrates River to invade the Mosul area."

At the same time, the two "small Kurdish countries" of Shirvan and Hadadi also sent secret envoys one after another, hoping to join hands with Gawain to fight against various enemies.

In this way, of the five original countries of Greater Armenia, Artuki was destroyed after a brief resistance and the "indiscriminate and unreasonable assassination" of the Assassins. Hadadi had already expressed his allegiance to Gawain from afar; Danishmond and Sagittus in the northern plateau did not dare to act rashly, so the only one standing in Gawain's way was the "Kirat Pasha Kingdom" which controlled the "Lake Fan" area.

It is funny that Kirat Pasha is now showing great inertia towards Gawain's sudden appearance. They neither sent envoys for diplomatic mediation nor made up their minds to organize military confrontation, because the country's original sight and energy were also attracted by the assassination in Isfahan Palace.

After the late autumn cold, Muzafiadin's scouts reported that the Assassins who escaped from Amidah City ran to an abandoned mountain fort in the Sasong area, where they seemed to have received assistance, and about 200 Assassins joined in. The Sasong area happened to be the western border of Kirat Pasha, and there was only a river across this place from their capital, Kirat City.

There, this group of believers seemed to have no way to move forward, because the Kirat Pasha country, which had come to its senses, forbade them to cross the border.

To put it bluntly, the Assassins of the mountain sect were actually Gawain's best friends. They worked hard to kill opponents for him all the way, and also created excuses for war, Koko.

A correct version can be found in the 16-9 book forum!

"All troops, march into Sasong! Don't let a single Assassin scum go."

The three brigades selected a total of 30 companies of elite skirmishers, plus 900 brigade-affiliated cavalry, plus the Red Hand Cavalry, Oghuz Volunteer Cavalry and Border Cavalry (about 2,000 elite cavalry) to form a fist-like vanguard. Gawain personally served as the commander and rushed straight to the target; all the spearmen, convoys and artillery regiments were organized into the rear formation, led by General Branas, and also advanced towards the plains of the Sasong area.