Eagle Flag of Epirus

"The Eagle Flag of Epirus (

In the deep winter of Thessaloniki, the cold sea breeze is blowing on the coast. Above the White Tower, Sir Baptiste, the municipal official, is still obsessed with dealing with the affairs of the city before the book. He is too serious to notice. The charcoal fire in the brazier has all been extinguished.

It wasn't until the knock at the door that Baptiste's attention was drawn from the pile of papers in front of him, only to see Arslan, a sullen Turkic man, pushed in directly. It seemed that he couldn't wait to let him. The attendant under Baptiste's hand led the way.

Sir Baptiste was not surprised by the arrival of the Turks. He calmly ordered the attendants outside the door to go down and stand up.

"Do you need some white wine?" The Latin man asked with a shake of the bottle left last night.

"Do you think I can drink in this mood now?" Arslan shot up, "Epirus and Bolgar are about to fight over. I really don't understand why you still have a leisurely time to stay. Here!"

Sir Baptiste has not been seen since the Battle of Philpopolis, but the situation has not been as they had expected. The Latins in Constantinople have been slow to move, instead The Bulgarian Tsarist State in the north broke the previous agreement and joined Epirus and marched south. At this time, Thessaloniki is already panicking, and even the phenomenon of nobles fleeing, but even more terrible is the fierce sentiment in the city, no longer the Macedonian nobles such as Ioannis, and even the people at the bottom ask for Pakistan. Tist's voice of resignation is also getting louder and louder. However, Baptiste, who was the target of public criticism, didn't seem to care at all, as if all this had nothing to do with him.

The Latin man lifted the cork of the wine bottle, poured himself a glass of wine, looked at the crystal clear liquid in the glass, took a sip, and then said: "Sometimes when dealing with things, irritability does not solve anything. Drinking can soothe the nerves and refresh the brain."

"But it can't help you deal with the impeachment of those Greek nobles." Arslan angrily snatched the glass and bottle from Baptiste to stop him from drinking. He really couldn't figure out why Lord Justinian was leaving. Before he was appointed to take over Thessaloniki, his Latin identity had originally aroused the hatred of the locals, but now facing the massive attack by the Bolgars and Epirus, he has no useful measures.

Seeing Arslan like this, Baptiste also knew that if he didn't give the other party an explanation now, let alone drinking, he couldn't do anything. He stood up calmly, fumbled through the pile of paper on the table behind him, found a pair of drawings and threw it to the Turkic people.

"This kind of thing is fine."

"This is?" Arslan was confused as he watched Baptiste smear the entire papyrus with scribbles.

"Oh, I almost forgot, you don't recognize French." After pulling the drawing back, Baptiste found another drawing with Greek characters from the table and gave it to the other party, explaining:" It’s the layout I designed these days. You only need to bring the army to deploy defenses according to the above."

"this is--"

Looking at the drawing with horizontal strokes on it, Arslan recognized that this is the Latin outline of the city defense layout of Thessaloniki with minimalist brushstrokes, and it is full of imaginative but not indiscriminate designs. , The intention of each arrangement is simple and clear-it turns out that this Latin man has been busy with this for so many days.

Retrieving the wine glass from the shocked Turkic man, leaning on the window sill and sipping to enjoy the afterglow of Thessaloniki's distant seascape, Baptiste said indifferently: "It is very suitable for shooting from here, except for the distance from residents The area is too close, and sometimes the demonstrators’ curses on me interfered with my office. But everything in the entire city can be seen, including the olive grove in the wilderness outside the city. I want to complete this layout. There is a prerequisite that you need to lead your troops to ambush the invading enemy there."

"So you are going to let me fight with Epirus and Bolgar here? You are crazy!" Looking at Baptiste's scribbled painting and raising his head, Arslan's face was incredulous. The expression on the other side’s expression, the other party’s intentions are as crazy as this blueprint. According to the Tan Malay newspaper, the number of coalition forces between Bolgar and Epirus is at least 40,000, but all the defense forces in the city are less than 10,000, so take the initiative. Even if it was an ambush in the field outside of the city, Arslan felt that this was a decision that a foolish person would make.

But the Latin didn’t think so at all. He pointed to the map behind him and said: “The only possibility is that Bulgaria and Mikhail Dukas can besiege Thessaloniki so unscrupulously. Henry of Dinburgh reached a tacit understanding-it seems that I did underestimate the emperor before. If they do secretly reach a secret agreement, who do you think will be the matchmaking behind?"

Awakening the dreamer with a single word, looking at the map of the territory of the Roman Empire divided into different colors on the map, Arslan was startled with a cold sweat and blurted out: "Venetian!"

"Yes, it can only be them." Baptiste calmly placed the wine glass on the edge of the dotted islands in the Aegean Sea on the map, and the sloshing liquor wet the map, soaking it everywhere. These are the maritime strongholds of the Venetian colonial expansion. Perhaps in the past two years, they have been busy opening up Eastern trade routes. These merchants and merchants did not have a high sense of presence on the territory of the Roman Empire, but when they showed their fangs again, they would definitely bite off another piece of meat.

With a slight sneer at the corners of his mouth, the Latin said to Arslan: "We must take the initiative. If we stick to this city, we will only die. The threat of the Venetians at sea and the Macedonian nobles who are not in harmony with us will become our fatal flaws. Those ignorant people, now their anger is not threatening, but if it is accompanied by panic, thessaloniki will not be able to hold it even if it is ten times stronger by then."

"But the current situation is on the cusp..."

"It's just a painless temptation. Those people still don't give up, but as long as the Queen Odosia is still there, they dare not act rashly." As a Latin, Baptiste still knows the gratitude of the Greek nobles. Of the essence.

...

...

...

A few days later, Macedonia, under the city of Thessaloniki.

The rapid sound of horses' hooves broke the tranquility of the wilderness outside the city. The Roman cavalry, led by the red eagle flag, slowly drove their horses to a place where you can see the outline of Thessaloniki and everything in the city. The deployment of city defense. Behind these cavalry, a dense, cloud-like army is marching toward the city. Emperor Mikhail, wearing a purple cloak and golden armor, is bringing his Epirus army with him. Here.

And it was the Bulgarian army who joined forces with them. They also completed the plunder of the cities of North Macedonia and arrived at Thessaloniki city not long ago, fulfilling their alliance with Epirus-capturing this place in front of you. The capital of Macedonia.

It was a few Bulgarian dignitaries who were sent to the alliance. They came forward with a small number of cavalry guards behind them.

But seeing them coming, Emperor Mikhail didn’t see a warm welcome in his eyes, but obvious displeasure. The Bolgars obviously didn’t put him as the emperor of the Roman Empire in their eyes, Bolier. The Tsar did not come, but he was not even seen in the ruling Connaught Palace, and only sent a few innocent nobles. For the sake of face, Mikhail Dukas did not express his dissatisfaction, but said lightly:

"I am very glad that you can join our army against the rebels of Thessaloniki, the Bolgars. The empire will always thank you for your help and extend my sincere gratitude to your czar on my behalf."

But several nobles looked sad and indignant, "We send greetings to the Greek emperor in the name of the tsar. Please allow us to slaughter everyone here after conquering this city, not even the chickens and dogs in the city. ."

"The wealth is all to you, and the people of the city belong to me. Isn't this what I negotiated with the Connaughton Palace before. I can leave the blame for the looting of the villages and towns in North Macedonia, but if you kill Thessaloniki completely Just leave me an empty city, just ask me who else will rule." Unexpectedly, when they met, the brutal Bolgar made such an excessive request, and Mikhail Ducaston was unhappy at the time.

But Bulgaria’s nobles were still full of grief and indignation. One noble explained why they wanted to do so: “Even if your majesty treats me ten times the wealth, it’s hard to vent my hatred. The day before yesterday I waited for the army to come to the city, but I never wanted to meet him. His treacherous trick, in the olive grove outside the city, the Thessaloniki pretended to be your majesty. Suddenly attacked. As a result, all of my leading forward two thousand cavalrymen were annihilated. Did not tell all the true circumstances that day. In fact, the Bulgars who were ambushed and annihilated were greatly humiliated after their deaths. When the follow-up troops came, what the Bulgars saw was that the corpses that had been chopped down to the head were spelled together in a series of letters. To succeed, it means "the enemy of Rome will punish the heavens."

"Your Majesty, this time the czar has publicly announced that the Greeks in the city will not be allowed to shed the last drop of blood, and the Bolgar warriors will never put down their swords." Several other Bulgarian nobles also responded bitterly.

Now Emperor Mikhail understands why the Bulgarian side only sent these indignant nobles to join the alliance. This is not so much to call for grievances, but to come over to put eye drops on himself and take advantage of the fire. These barbarians cannot be satisfied with the bargaining chips given earlier. Although he was unhappy in his heart, Mikhail Dukas ordered someone to appease the few Bolgars in front of him, and ordered them to send a letter of credence.

Now that it is allied with the Bulgarian army, the city of Thessaloniki is bound to win today.

...

At the same time, many army servants and soldiers were busy in the city of Thessaloniki, and on the wall, the black fox hunting banner fluttered. Arslan was there, watching closely the actions of the Bulgarian and Epirus coalition forces outside. They defeated the Bulgarian forward in an ambush in the Olive Grove outside the city and successfully bought precious time for their plan, but the situation they are facing is still not optimistic.

Although it came from a long distance, the logistical skills of the Epirus army were sufficient. The army of tens of thousands of people was neatly formed, and it was quickly deployed to encircle Thessaloniki on three sides. However, the opponent was not in a hurry to besiege the city. Obviously, the Bulgarian army suffered a loss that caused their vigilance. The heavy infantry guarded the Epirus archers in front, and there were mobile fully armed knights on both wings. At the same time, a large number of craftsmen and engineers were there. The city was heavily built and cut down all visible trees, apparently preparing to build siege equipment.

In this way, they still have time. Arslan immediately ordered the Turkic soldiers and Italian mercenaries behind him to step up their hands. “Every section of Thessaloniki’s city wall needs to be divided into small teams and must be spread out. Don’t hug the group because of panic, let alone escape. Every Turkic man cooperates with an archer and two shield spearmen. It should be noted that we serve as the task of defending the front wall and blocking the enemy, as long as we hold this place~www. ltnovel.com~ Enemies outside the city cannot take possession of this city. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice, because we have received money and we have obeyed our vows, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to work. I will order you to retreat in due course. The lower line of defense, and at this time, it’s even less possible to be in disorder. When I command a counterattack, you must not cross my long sword behind your back." The Turkic man stood on the head of the city with flying flags, watching these in Molly. Abian and the soldiers who fought next to Justinian were excited. They come from different places and have different beliefs and languages, but now they are all facing the allied forces of Epirus and Bulgaria that are all over the mountains.

When the city head of Thessaloniki, all defenses are ready. The coalition forces of Mikhail and the Bolgars gathered into a huge battle and finally approached them like a tsunami. The light infantry from the Bulgarian mountains walked fast; behind them were the Bulgarian horsemen and archers advancing side by side with the forward archers, like a pair of wings guarding the advancing infantry; at the very end, they pressed forward. They are the Epirus infantrymen wearing heavy armor and carrying a large shield. They are the main force brought by Emperor Mikhail. These people are the wealthy class of Thracian and Macedonia who fled to Epirus. Erducas is grateful and loyal. In addition to these, the Bulgarians and Epirus have their own elites, such as hired Latin knights and Magyar rangers, and all kinds of ranks are filled with these figures. The common thing is that as one of the coalition forces, they are all ready to kill at any time.

In the center of the army formation, the most noticeable counterweight stone thrower, its tall volume is about to catch up with the city wall from a distance, and its deterrence far exceeds tens of thousands of armor flashes, spears like forests. Bulgarian Epirus coalition forces.

The war is about to start!