Eagle Byzantium

On the plains in front of Nicaea, 15,000 Roman elite soldiers, under the command of Giliki Arslan, were divided into three wings: left, center and right. The left wing was mostly lightly armed archers and spearmen. After seeing the knight Walter Sansaval on the opposite side with 500 armored or unarmored pilgrim cavalry, holding red flags and occupying the passage, they were under the supervision of Atalberg Hajib, whom the Sultan trusted. , approaching quickly.

"Turks, there are too many Turks, just like in the desert!" Several cavalrymen around Walter shouted in panic, pointing at the rapidly advancing Roma army with black flags fluttering like a forest. And Walter raised his visor and kept shouting to the flag bearers, "Raise your shields, everyone protect the horses behind, hold the line, don't panic, let alone be reckless." But the flag officer's call, There were only a few people responding to the chaotic shouts. Everywhere was the noise of our own side and the war songs of the Turks who were killing them.

"For the glory of Allah, draw your sword and attack." Hajib waved the flag in his hand. About a thousand lightly-armored Roma spearmen without any armor, holding wicker shields, ran faster than horses. They formed a dense formation and stormed towards Walter's cavalry team.

"Call someone to send an order to Fulcher and Reynold, and tell their infantry phalanx to come over and get closer." Walter said hurriedly to the people around him - in the dense forest over there, because of the poor light, the path was blocked , and there was no reconnaissance plan beforehand. In the sequence, six phalanxes of tens of thousands of people were crowded in between. Those in front put down their steps, and those in the rear pushed up without knowing it. It was difficult to move forward. And the two lords were talking madly there, and they could not let this happen again. What a mess to restore normal order.

And here, the left wing of Roma's army is getting closer and closer to Walter's headquarters, and all enemies and friends can see each other's faces. "Come on!" An unknown rich farmer from Liege, who had money to prepare his own horses and weapons before the expedition, served as the flag-bearer of the formation. Unable to hold himself back, he shouted and drew his sword. , raising the horse's hooves. They rushed towards the front line of the Roma army first.

Dust was rising, and the rest of the cavalry imitated this heroic act, shouting "God's will" one after another, regardless of the integrity of the formation and the warnings of the flag officer. Abandoning their respective flags, they all drew their swords and spears, and fought and charged based on their own will. Before the lightly-armed Roma soldiers had time to draw their bows or throw their spears, they were charged by Walter's cavalry team. of mutilated corpses. One or two hundred people fell to the ground under swords, spears and horse hooves, and were killed in an instant. The rest did not dare to resist, so they turned around and fled, dragging their weapons.

The cries of pursuit were endless. More and more cavalry rushed out from both sides of Walter, turning a deaf ear to Walter's gestures, waving flags, or blowing trumpets to stop them. Five hundred cavalry against the fleeing Roma soldiers. In pursuit.

Hajib, who was supervising the battle, ordered the cavalry next to him to raise the tooth flag and the second formation of spearmen. All of them were wearing excellent Saracen armor and poured out from the formation. The soldiers in the front line who were pretending to flee also shouted and turned around and stabbed with their spears. The unsuspecting pilgrim cavalry was in chaos. Among them, the brave rich farmer from the Liège area who was leading the charge was killed on the spot. The horse was pierced violently by more than a dozen spears, and the horse was not even able to fall off. If possible, he lowered his head and died on horseback. The Roma soldiers dragged him off the horse with the tip of a spear, chopped off his head, and threw it to the chaotic pilgrims. At this moment, Roma The archers also quickly occupied both sides, crossing and firing bursts of arrows at the pilgrim cavalry. "It's over!" The cavalry, which had no perseverance at all, suddenly lost the courage to continue fighting. They scrambled to run back, and some people were stabbed to death and shot down.

"Return to the camp." Walter had had enough. He didn't want to accompany the two lunatics to die on the journey, so he turned his horse's head, threw down the flag with the fleeing people, gave up the position, and headed towards the camp. .

Under the crimson eagle flag, Giliki held the riding whip and looked at the situation ahead. Then the slave soldiers shouted: He saw the Armenian general Pakade, riding a horse, with a falcon firmly perched on his shoulder. , came in front of him, "I'll leave the heavy armored cavalry assault to you." After saying that, a slave soldier delivered the tooth flag to Park Ad's hands, "There is no problem, these gangsters will Received the common punishment of Hagar and the children of Abraham.”

Giliki nodded, raised his riding crop, "Tell Hajib's left wing to turn sideways, occupy the internal and external passages, and flank the pilgrim infantry pouring out of the forest. Their rude howls can be heard clearly even in the city of Nicaea." And in Beside the sultan, there were Turkic slave soldiers holding scimitars, Armenian cavalry carrying spears and chain visors, hundreds of them, and their horses neighing, all ready to obey the order and launch a crazy surprise attack on the pilgrims in front of them. and killing.

At the same time, the thousands of pilgrims in front had just struggled to come out of the forest. Before they had time to react, they saw that the wilderness opposite was already filled with queues of Roma Turks, and then the sound of bowstrings began. Like a beehive, screams of "Ahhhhhh" exploded instantly. Various parts of the bodies of countless pilgrims were pierced and torn by arrow clusters, and they fell to the ground in pain before they could make any repentance or apology. Pray and die miserably.

But this was just the beginning of a huge tragedy. A row of light two-wheeled carts were pushed out from the Roma army's formation. This was a common tool used by local Greek farmers. It could be pulled by a donkey or pushed by a single person. A simple crossbow ejection device was set up on it. Then the soldiers used short spears or hand halberds, tied with burning ropes, to ignite the fuses of the jars on them, raised copper hammers and smashed them down. "Woo woo woo", the ejected jars immediately turned into black spots in the air and quickly smashed into the dense and dry woods, breaking into pieces. After the crack, the flames from the fierce burning of kerosene engulfed the bleak and dry branches and weeds in winter without any cover, and then fell on the pilgrims' heads. The whole forest was like a giant red poisonous snake swimming out, rolling and roaring. People were burned all over, holding their heads, screaming and rolling on the rugged and scattered roads, and brought the fire to more people. The air was burned out in an instant, and the suffocating poisonous fog and smoke rolled. Many people almost scratched their throats with their hands and died silently on the spot.

"Leave here." Forche shouted, but many people rushed out of the forest in flames and howling, and were immediately killed by arrows shot from all directions. Then he looked around and found that Reinold had disappeared, either escaping or dying in the chaos.

The phalanx of the rear team, seeing this tragic scene, ignored the scolding and ran towards the camp. Countless people were trampled into meat paste on the way. The wounded screamed in terror, opened their bloody hands, begged for help from their companions, but no one paid attention - they were either trampled to death by their own people or killed by the left-wing cavalry of the Roman army.

On the high ground on the left side of the forest, the horn sounded, and the flags of Bohemond and Tancred were raised. The two leaders of the Normans saw the tragic scene of the pilgrims on the plain, "What should we do?" Tancred asked hurriedly. (To be continued ~^~)