Eagle Byzantium

In fact, the title that Gawain gave to Agnes's siege weapon was very descriptive. At least from the perspective of Toulon defended by the city walls and towers, or from the perspective of the large company of infantry surrounding it, it really looked like a "furious" toad. The military servants hiding under it, holding rows of wooden poles, kept howling and squeaking as they pushed the "toad" towards the New Gate of Nicaea.

On the earthen rampart where she supervised the battle, Agnes, under the red umbrella, frowned nervously and stared at the enemy. Although her family has always been known for its mechanical skills, this was the first time that the siege equipment she designed was put into actual combat. Under the clouds and the sun, the "toad" she created seemed to be squatting in front of her eyes, constantly making long whistles due to the movement of the wooden poles and wheels, "climbing" closer to the heavily guarded gatehouse and curtain wall of the new gate. The light was cast on the bundles of branches and countless iron blocks and iron spikes hanging on its tilted "back", emitting colorful colors, exactly the same as the "flowered back" of the big toad.

Fire flickered on the top of the city wall, "Go to hell, monster!" The Roman Turkic soldiers wrapped in turbans and heavy robes raised burning fire pots and fire balls and smashed them madly on the "head" and "back" of the "toad". They hoped to use the fire and wind to burn this terrible siege weapon, but the fire pots could not stand steadily on the steep sloping wall. Most of them rolled down to the ground with flames and were extinguished by the infantry of the Dalian team with water. Even those left on it could not burn the wet branches.

Thick smoke and flames surrounded the "toad", getting bigger and bigger. The soldiers and servants guarding around took water pots from the camp and poured them on it despite the arrows and stones.

"Don't burn it, and don't let it collapse. Come on, Toad..." Now not only Anna and Gawain, but even Agnes clenched their fists. In their hearts, they kept begging the Lord to give the "toad" excellent luck.

After a while, the "Toad" emerged from the smoke unscathed, and continued to roar forward proudly. It continued to reflect the light and fearlessly arrived at the wall of the New Gate. "The Three Saints guide us!" All the Byzantine and Dalian infantry continued to rely on this siege machine, raised their weapons and shields and shouted.

"Long live the Toad. The Toad is invincible, and the Toad is indestructible!" Seeing this scene, Gawain raised his arms and cheered, and Anna and Agnes also jumped excitedly, especially the latter, seeing this spectacular and touching scene. Tears were about to flow, and I couldn't help but forget my previous dissatisfaction with Gawain's name for the siege machine, and I also fell in love with the name "Toad". Its style is: experienced in hundreds of battles, proud and unyielding, talking and laughing, and high-spirited. Always gives people a willful but high-spirited feeling.

And from the battlements, I saw the spikes of the "Toad". Toulon, who was holding up his own city wall, was about to shout out some orders when the soldiers besieging the city below raised their bows and crossbows and shot at him fiercely. "Shoot back. Use heavy javelins to pierce this monster!" Toulon, who had retreated, became anxious. Amid the shouts, the Turkish soldiers on the left and right of the New Gate followed the order to carry various projectile weapons and threw them down at the toad, but the slanted walls, iron nails and reinforced cover plates made their weapons completely ineffective.

At this moment, there were already brave Roma people flying down from the wall. Holding axes, they were ready to chop cracks on the back of the "toad" and then pour torches or boiling oil into it. Some people were directly pierced by iron spikes after falling, and some people finally lay on it. Just as he stood up and swung his axe, "Shoot, shoot!" The Dalian team and Byzantine soldiers below raised their bows and arrows one after another, shooting them off the back of the "toad" from all directions.

Finally, after the huge body of the "toad" inserted the lever and spikes at the front into the wall of the new gate, it trembled a few times. Roma people kept jumping down bravely, trying to destroy it, but they were all shot by the soldiers behind them with bows and arrows. In the passage formed by raising shields, the military servants of the Dalian camp crouched down, dragged various digging tools, and ran into the "belly" of the toad in a line. They called out noisily, hung several lamps with glass covers on the brackets, passed the tools to each other, and then dug hard in the soil under the belly, and kept putting the excavated soil into wicker baskets, and then kept transporting it outside.

"Use wicker baskets to build temporary fortifications." Agnes pointed to the fierce battle ahead and suggested.

All the soldiers who were attacking the city did as they were told. They gathered the wicker baskets and the sharpened wooden frames that had been brought in advance and erected them in front of the team to resist the arrows and stones flying from the top of the city. They began to build a temporary barrier with the "toad" as the core, and fought fiercely with the defenders of the new gate at a long distance.

"What the hell is this..." Finally, even Ibn. Maimon, who was startled, ran to the gate tower and squinted at the mighty "toad" below. "The pagans hid in it and dug the soil. Are they going to destroy the city wall or dig a tunnel?"

Toulon hurriedly shook his head, meaning that he couldn't understand it either. "If they destroy the city wall, they have to build a new wall behind it."

"What if they dig a tunnel? In that case, not only here, but also the new wall will be useless!"

In short, Maimon said that this was a probability problem of choosing one or the other.

While they were hesitating, the Dalian and Titishius's troops acted decisively and quickly. Gawain and Titishius fought hard and gathered all the military servants. Even the private soldiers and followers of the Pronian cavalry were recruited to participate in this work. They first dug a well vertically in the center under the "toad", and then divided into three groups of people and dug inverted "T"-shaped tunnels horizontally along three different directions, supported by wooden brackets, and continued to extend to the foundation of the city wall.

Although Nicaea and even Constantinople claimed that the bottom of their city walls was full of granite that could not be dug, it was just an artistic fabrication: the military servants quickly hollowed out the bottom of the city wall and used more wooden frames to support it. In this way, three empty rooms were quickly dug out of the city wall of the New Gate inside the "toad" and in the area of ​​more than 30 feet on both sides.

When the messenger rode into the camp gate on horseback and reported the situation to Gawain on the earth rampart, Agnes said, "It can be lit!"

"Light it up, light it up!" In the passage behind the toad's butt, many fire balls made of linen, straw rolls and asphalt were passed in one after another, and then sent along the tunnel to the empty room in the wall foundation supported by wooden frames.

A leader raised his hammer and hit it hard on the drum and gong hanging on the bracket. With this signal, three empty rooms threw torches in almost at the same second, and the flames burned loudly, rising violently along the fire balls and wooden frames, and then countless people ran out from both sides of the toad. (To be continued ~^~)