Eagle Byzantium

On the left bank of the Halys River, within the cordon formed by forks and sentry horses, the great emir rested his head on the saddle, bent his feet and rested quietly and comfortably. The scattered blue fireworks around him seemed to cover the stars with a veil. Merrick was different from Giliki who fulfilled his promise on the black felt. Even if he occupied the Sivas Plateau, he always lived a traditional "Ghazi life", riding and shooting, grazing, and spent a lot of time living in tents, instead of the palaces in Amasya and Sivas. Although the Persian craftsmen also built these mansions very luxuriously, Merrick never lived there for a long time. Except for convening important military meetings, he was afraid that city life would make him degenerate.

Therefore, Merrick entrusted all the plateau territories to the tax farmers of Persia and Saracen. He only collected a fixed amount to mobilize the tribes of Danishmond or recruit more barbaric and brutal mercenaries in Greater Armenia, such as the Kurds and Sagitus.

"I am always a Ghazi warrior in the wilderness." Leaders like Merrick draw strength from old traditions.

At dawn, when the Haris River was still shrouded in darkness, the scouts blew their horns one after another. Merrick was startled and quickly got up, put on the saddle, and climbed on the horse's back, "What's wrong!"

"The cavalry on the opposite side has broken camp and moved forward!" Several scouts who rushed to report the news said hurriedly. The surface of the Haris River was shaking. As the scouts said, the Red Hand Cavalry on the opposite bank lined up and ran again.

"Keep up with me. We must cheer up today, block the enemy first, and occupy the Germanic Castle behind us, so that the enemy will be defeated!" The Great Emir raised his whip high, and the slave soldiers and Ghazi around him pulled their horses and responded in unison.

Just as everyone was ready to fight with sabers and bows on their backs, in the misty dawn, a scout from the other side came running in a hurry, shouting with surprise the second enemy movement of the day, "Great Emir, our army, a large number of enemies appeared on the south side of our army, and they are approaching here."

"What!" Merrick almost fell off the saddle. At this moment, Gawain's cavalry on the other side of the river had already rushed towards the river branch ahead, which was only about half a day's journey. At the same time, the scouts in the south actually said that Gawain's large group of troops were coming towards them on this side?

What was going on? Merrick's eyes were black, but he still used the torches and the morning light to clearly see Gawain's red hand flag on the other side. So how did the so-called "large number of troops" here cross over?

When Merick hurriedly rode his horse to the south of the sentry horse, his baggage and horses had already begun to panic and stir across the scattered forks, and Gawain's team, under the cover of the night, had already approached the front line to a thousand feet away. The flashes of countless weapons and armor caught the eyes of the great emir...

This team was Branas's Guard Brigade and Leotius's Fire Throwers. During the race yesterday, they quietly hid in the deep grass and valleys on the shore. When Merick and his army were all paying attention to the huge spears of the Red Hand Brigade infantry and the lightning gallop of the Red Hand Cavalry, Branas commanded the baggage vehicle team to stay. They began to cross the river in the evening: first using the boats, rafts and buoys they carried to ferry hundreds of "German Guards" that Branas relied on the most.

Then, under the leadership of their respective flag officers, the guards set up a temporary riverside position, and while on guard, they used the wooden-handled sickles they carried to clear the weeds and rocks that interfered with their vision on the shore, and then raised a striking scarlet flag. Under such guidance, the second part of the crossing was the Khitan snow, which was sealed in a rectangular wooden box. The wooden box was then matched with the body of the "Glamorgan Carrier", and two light long logs that could float in the water were erected below. Pottery jars and leather bags were tied to the wood. The soldiers used ropes to pull them into the water, and the German Guards on the other side hooked them with hooks and slowly pulled them across the river one by one.

Among these Khitan snow carriages, two-thirds were mixed in advance, filled with paper rockets and iron fireballs, which could be taken out directly, loaded and fired; for the other third, Leotius required them to be transported separately for safety reasons, and then mixed before and after the battle to serve as firepower replenishment and preparation.

The third group of people who crossed the river were the fire throwers carrying light shooting vehicles, and the last were Branus and his other brigade infantry.

After crossing the river, after a short rest of an hour, Branus ordered everyone to start forming a battle array and equip and operate the shooting vehicles, and then they leaned against the river on one side and the mountain on the other (this almost did not require a guide), and marched ten miles along the corridor before dawn, approaching the rear position of Merick.

Under the morning light and flying catkins, at the front was Branas's German Guards in the middle, flanked by two brigade infantrymen from the Banda detachment. The former was covered in armor and carried a long sword with two harpoons. Needless to say, they were very capable elites during the Battle of Tique; the latter formed a dense and deep square formation, and the soldiers in the first two rows were also very distinctive in their uniforms and weapons: everyone wore the Komnenos style The semicircular rimmed iron helmet, the long body armor woven with flax and iron, the weapon held in both hands is a sickle...but not a scythe, but a scythe made by Agnes Plani. The small sickles invented on the farms of Seleucia and Tarsus, originally used to quickly cut fine grass or crops, are now fixed on the five-and-a-half-foot-long wooden handles of the brigade soldiers with sleeves and pins, and are swung Get up and be fierce. The soldiers who continued to the back row were holding relatively traditional axes, spears and halberds, while the three parallel detachments on the second line all had relatively uniform light spears, and some were equipped with Persian machetes - because they were similar to the red-handed ones. The brigades have different uniform weapons. Branas's brigades have always been based on "Hua Za".

Among the first and second lines, hundreds of "logistics", that is, Armenian light cavalry, were deployed, carrying spears and small shields, quietly lining up and waiting.

In Merrick's eyes, rows of long-handled scythes and double-axe swords flashed across the street, making him almost unable to open his eyes. The commanders around him were anxiously asking the emir, "Now our army has enemies on both sides. What should we do?”

Merrick gritted his teeth and looked at the enemy cavalry on the other side who were already running towards Germanico: Gawain's move was very risky and very effective. If he followed Gawain's move and divided his troops, he might not occupy either side. The advantage is that Gao Wen can do it. So Merrick bent the riding whip and said, "Concentrate your strength and destroy the enemy in front of you first!"

He did not believe that if he concentrated his military power, he would not be able to defeat the group of people arrayed in front of him. (To be continued ~^~)