Eagle Byzantium

As a result, at noon on the second day, a young servant walked up the spiral staircase of the tower, and then stood quietly in front of Sam Bell, "I am Bishop Morris' personal butler."

"Well, since you are here, you can bring me the final news." Sambel sat on the steps tiredly, spread his hands and asked the young man.

"Yes, I obey!" The child's face was immediately filled with joy, "It was a huge and fierce battle, and it was also a great victory that cannot be forgotten. It is said that yesterday afternoon, the sandstorm that rolled up from the sky was going to engulf the world. Five thousand pagan soldiers used the yellow sand to cover He crossed the seaside plateau and appeared on the left side of the Christian army, trying to defeat the Christian warriors with a sudden momentum. However, His Highness Gawain, Prince of Tarsus, used his vehicles and warriors to form an insurmountable ring. 'The wall of thorns', which in turn was driven back and defeated They forced them to retreat to the castle of Arzu on the promontory. Then, on the front line, countless enemies and ourselves also lined up and fought together. Gawain and Baldwin's cavalry sergeants were all wearing armor, dismounted and standing with swords and shields. On the barren hillside where the position was reached, sandstorms rolled up everywhere. Thick sand buried their boots up to their knees, and countless arrows shot into their armor rings. However, they still built up a defense line like an iron wall, killing and defeating waves of enemy troops who were rushing in frantically. Before. It is said that almost all the mercenaries hired by the enemy from Axum were defeated by Cilicia's bows and arrows. Hands and muskets were shot at the foot of the hillside. At dawn, the war on the sea continued. Almost all the small light ships of the Italians and Egyptians were destroyed and sunk, but the large ships were still drifting on their own, fighting each other to the death. Eyewitnesses said that the rising sun in the sky seemed to be burned Cracked egg yolks. In the yellow sand on the land, Bohemond and Robert's cavalry suddenly rushed out from the border of the Ramla region. They all tied veils on their helmets to block the sand and dust, standing tall. Armed with sharp spears and spears, holding battle axes and sharp swords, they slashed at the enemy like lightning and thunder. Half of a man's waist, they collided, trampled and destroyed the Egyptian defensive line composed of seven honorary infantry companies. No one dared to hold weapons in front of their galloping horses. At this time, the sky suddenly became quiet and the wind stopped. now, the enemies are like the sand being unearthed from their caves. The rats were all exposed and fled. Gawain, Bohemond, Baldwin, Robert and other noble princes and lords encouraged the soldiers to occupy various favorable positions to pursue and slaughter the Egyptian pagans. They were like ripe wheat. Cut down and killed on the sandbank..."

"It's really humiliating for you not to write a chronicle and biography." The Patriarch raised his hand to signal the young boy to stop talking. "Very well, you go tell your bishop and ask him to go to the Ramla area to express his condolences. Tell me what I have done for you. I am really happy about this victory, but I have really worked hard on the previous defensive operations, so I need to rest and rest. "

So the young servant immediately bent down and bowed, turned around and left the tower with long footsteps.

Sambel let out a long sigh and touched his bloodshot eyes with his hands covered with gemstone rings, and then his forehead. Suddenly he jumped up like a thrown stone and rushed down the tower to his official residence. Moving around hysterically, he gritted his teeth and held up a bunch of keys. After waiting for a long time (because his hands were shaking so much), he opened the door of the secret room. Several Lombard accountants inside stared at the Patriarch who broke in. On the table where they sat around, there were piles of Bags of shiny gold and silver coins, and many account books stacked like mounds.

"Burn it, burn it!" Sambel's teeth were chattering, his hair was exploding, and he howled with fear on his face as he raised the shaking candle and pounced on the account book like a tiger.

Several financial officials thought that the Patriarch wanted to burn the account books and put the blame on them, so they stood up bravely and struggled with Sambel. They rolled on the floor, cursing, tearing their hair and picking their nostrils and eyes. Sambel was knocked down against the gold cabinet leaning against the wall with a "grumping" sound. "Clattering" many gold coins poured down like water, submerging the patriarch's head, shoulders and chest, leaving only the underside of his robe. A pair of legs were still exposed, hanging in the air and constantly kicking and kicking fiercely. The whirlwind and watertight blocks blocked the besieging Lombard financers from a safe distance.

"Burn it, burn it!" A financer with a bruised nose and face picked up the account book on the table, wiped the nosebleed, placed it just an inch above the candlelight, and looked at the person lying on the ground against the wall with a look of horror on his face. The sad patriarch roared, "This secret room in the official residence , and there are no less than 25,000 gold coins hidden in the two secret rooms of the Mount Zion Temple. When Count Adana returns home in triumph, he will definitely see these. Now I follow your wishes and burn all the account books. , how will you explain it then?"

Only then did Sam Bell wake up. He knelt on the ground again and begged the financial staff in a low voice to bring out the fake account books they had created in advance. It doesn’t matter if Baldwin becomes suspicious, as long as it can be delayed for half a month to a month, I can think of a way!”

In fact, Sambel sounded stern, but his "method" was actually to take the money and escape, and went to Tancred in Antioch City.

Now I have to grab any life-saving straw.

Beside the circular sea cliff and beach next to the city of Arsu, the bodies of Egyptian soldiers were spread all over the sandbar wilderness seven miles away in the southwest. "Everywhere you look, there are white robes mixed with dried blood on the bodies. From the other side of the sand dunes, it looks like an endless garden, a sea of ​​flowers supported by tragic bones." The Fatimid soldiers have always been famous for their religious fanaticism and light-armed raids, but in this battle they ran into the Christians' solid heavy-armored dismounted infantry defense line, which was considered to be the end.

The sea water over there was also like this. Large groups of blood were scattered, and piles of dead bodies were washed up on the coast, and no one collected them.

Egypt's 40,000 troops lost 7,000 in the battle and suffered a devastating blow. Grand Vizier Afudler, under the protection of the Armenian Guard, fled back to Ashkelon with the defeated army. His fleet also weighed anchor and fled. Three giant "cat" warships were captured by the Italians. The first thing Afdre did when he fled back was to severely whip all the officers who had advocated the war. Then he asked everyone to defend the gate fortress and the port, and began to consider the "words" in the report to the Cairo court, how to cover up this tragic defeat.

The isolated city of Arsu, the people and guards on its gate tower and the top of the city were fortunate to witness the "gun showdown" of Gawain's army: more than a hundred Egyptian Armenian mercenaries who were still unwilling to surrender were trapped on a raised high ground, and below them were lined up on all sides with muskets raised. Under the instructions of the waving flags, they rumbled and shot out terrifying centripetal blue-gray smoke and fire rain. After several rounds of reciprocating shooting, the entire battlefield was completely silent.