Eagle Byzantium

Robert of Flanders and Stephen of Blois received the same treatment, and they each received thirty horses; and Raymond, Marquis of Provence, also received such a gift, and even more, a full sixty horses.

This number made Raymond instantly satisfied. He thought that when Gawain gave the gift, he fully considered his status, which was completely different from that of other lords.

Then in the second hour of the night, Gawain came to pay a visit to this person in person in plain clothes, accompanied by a small guard.

"Sit down, please, please sit down." Even though Raymond had a gap with Gawain before, he still showed at least superficial enthusiasm and invited Gawain to discuss matters with him face to face.

But Gawain went straight to the point. After he sat down, he asked the lord a crucial question, "After I became the Grand Duke of the Roman Empire, I have to consider everything for the supreme Majesty. As the closest and most intimate friend of the Majesty in the West, if Antioch falls, will you return it to the Majesty?"

Raymond was silent for a moment. He organized people and horses from Provence and Saint Gilles and came to the East with heavy loans. If he said that he only wanted to recover the Holy Sepulchre and take a handful of soil back to his hometown, it would be absolutely against his will. Of course, he wanted to gain a foothold in this rich and beautiful Levant!

But facing the aggressive Gawain, the one-eyed Raymond could not say these words openly: first, he had a close personal relationship with the emperor of the empire, and the emperor also gave him a lot of favors; second, he didn't know what the position of Gawain, the "octopus spider", was. Was he a member of the Holy See, or an undercover servant of the emperor? It was still far from being close to each other.

"Now, now, you and I are just one of all the lords. Although I agree with some ideas, but if we don't get the approval of others at the meeting of the military cardinals, we will be in an awkward, awkward situation." Gawain waited for a long time before the Marquis finished his well-thought-out speech, which was equivalent to saying nothing.

Gawain lowered his head, looked at the ground for a few seconds, and then raised it, "The current situation is that the emperor is determined to take Antioch, and according to the report from the spies I sent, the emperor's army commander, Taitius, also attempted to occupy Tarsus, on the grounds of mediating the conflict between Baldwin and Tancred. My Seleucia is also within the range of your majesty's fear. Therefore, whoever occupies Antioch will become the target of the emperor's concentrated fire. Your majesty is destined to recover Anatolia and Syria."

Faced with this, Raymond didn't know how to answer for a while, so the two continued to be silent for a while, and then Raymond publicly stated, "You and I, you and I are all loyal to your majesty, but you occupy Seleucia, Seleucia, I also sympathize, because military horses, military horses, and food and fodder must always be considered, and your majesty does not, does not pay." The implication of this is that I should also get a share of Syria.

"Now, who do you want to occupy Antioch?" Gawain went straight in without beating around the bush.

"I dare not, I dare not." Raymond said that his ability needs to be further improved.

"Then how about occupying it in sections and ruling it by division? In this way, no one can completely occupy the city, and your majesty can't blame anyone. In the future, when merchants from Venice and other city-states land at the Port of San Simon (a seaport connected to Antioch through the Orontes River, and Antioch itself is not by the sea), we can rent our respective blocks to them and bid for them, so that we can get at least 20,000 Byzantine gold coins every year." Gawain boldly put forward his plan in an instant.

Raymond's throat rolled sharply a few times. Gawain's plan was not bad. Alexius would not blame him alone, and he could still enjoy the annual tribute from Antioch. However, once he did so, his friendship with the emperor would inevitably be overshadowed, and the emperor would treat him as an equal to other greedy lords.

"How about it? I will propose this plan at the cardinals' meeting and fully support you. After all, the expeditionary army is in great distress, short of money and food. If we don't attack Antioch, there is no way to continue to the Holy Land. I can support you with part of the income from Seleucia and Cilicia." Gawain continued to encourage, "Frankly speaking, do you think the emperor's power can really reach Antioch? No, now the Konya and Danishmond Turks are still rampant in Anatolia. The emperor's ability is limited. We who are close to the emperor are just occupying some of the benefits for his majesty first. We can't let the Normans take it all away." Speaking of the Normans, Raymond excitedly said that Tancred had previously occupied Lesser Armenia, Marash and Edessa. If Bohemond was allowed to occupy Antioch, a powerful Norman country would inevitably be formed. In the future, we will not be able to snatch food from Bohemond's mouth when we go to the Levant and the Holy City. "So we have to suppress Bohemond..."

"Just, just suppress him like this?"

"No, in addition to trying to 'tear apart' Antioch, we should also adopt more sophisticated and careful methods to subdue the Normans." It seems that Gawain has a backup plan, and then he and Raymond secretly discussed for an hour before quietly leaving the tent of the Marquis of Provence.

The next day, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered by the river in the wilderness under the city of Ata. Their team was endless. Countless people used axes to cut down all the trees around the city. A towering altar was built and a huge flame was burning. Admar stood on it, standing side by side with a handsome young church deacon named Adelbero who was highly expected. Adelbero was also a relative of the former Salian Caesar (Henry III) and was now serving as the chief deacon in the Metz Church. His future was promising.

Gawain did not wear a robe and stood under the altar full of flags and holy vessels. Because he was not familiar with the ritual, although he was a high priest, most people only regarded him as a general and a warrior.

Adhmar spoke at the top of his lungs, encouraging all the soldiers to attack the fortress at the mouth of the Orontes River, because only by seizing this stronghold could the Christian army truly begin to besiege Antioch. "If Jerusalem is the great holy place, then Antioch is the cradle of the Catholic Church, it is the second most sacred, and the pagan unbelievers of Saracen and Turks who were previously expelled from various places by us have escaped and gathered in this city, continuing to defile it and resist the banner of the Lord. What do you think should be done?"

A correct version of the book in 16-9!

"Gather together, blow the battle horn, and march!" Everyone responded with their arms raised. (To be continued ~^~.)