Eric

Honorius bowed and quietly retired, closing the door behind him, and I

A large white tent stood on a hill in the line of sight from the gates of Saint Roman. It hosted a military council of the Crusaders.

" Gentlemen," Eric began, "according to our information, Alexei has the forces of five thousand Bulgarians hired by him. "If not for the prudent act of Prince Eric, then to our approach he would have owned an even larger army, which he was recruiting in northern Greece.

" What is the composition of his army? "Are there many noblemen? Baldwin asked Flanders.

- It is not known, but hardly a lot.

" Gentlemen, I propose to storm several gates at once, to disperse Alexei's troops, which he will undoubtedly divide to reflect all our sorties. "I take on the most difficult - the Golden Gate.

- What is their complexity?

- After the gate itself, a small stone fence inside the perimeter is still organized. No other gate like this is observed.

" Very well, prince. "We have enough strength to attack a couple more gates. I will lead my troops to the Holy Roman, and you count, go to the gate of Vlaheria. Thus, we can simultaneously strike and maximally stretch the troops of the emperor. Especially do not hero, we play for good luck, that is, the unwillingness to quickly move troops along a long wall. We attack tomorrow with the first rays of the sun.

Having reached his camp in front of the Golden Gate, Eric ordered to send a pigeon-mail letter to the courtyard to keep the plans in force. The fact is that even during the commencement of the disorders, Demetra concentrated on the order of the prince at the courtyard to two hundred hired fighters, by easing the marksmen in the crews of the ships of the company. That is, at the courtyard was a group of two hundred shooters, equipped with crossbows, swords, chain mail and helmets. Power is not small. Their task was to capture the Golden Gate at night, to loosen the lock girders and create the appearance of defense. What was done exactly, therefore, with the first rays of the sun on April 3, ballisticists Eric began shelling the gate. Already with the third salvo, the weakened shut-off burst and the gate swung open. In both of them rushed to the attacking colony of both companies of the prince. They were sluggishly fired from bows that had been captured by the defeated gate guards, but the arrows did not cause any damage. And when the troops came two dozen steps to the knocked-out gate, Eric's people simulated the flight. On this first part of the staging was completed - the gates were taken in less than fifteen minutes. Further, joining with the troops of Demeter, the prince began to rapidly occupy the area of Psamatiya, knocking out a few patrols and avoiding looting. By noon he had completely controlled the areas of Pasmatia, Triton, Xerolophos, including the Arcadia forum and the territory of his farmstead, as well as partly the Exoko

Athens met Eric very aggressively and did not even dock at the port of Piraeus, showering ships with arrows from the walls. I had to snap fire at crossbows, but since there was no sense to join the battle now, the squadron of the prince had left more morally. The effect of surprise, which so successfully helped in the noble cause of the looting of Thessalonik, it did not work out here - the prince was waiting. Strange as it may seem, no one prevented the landing at a certain distance from the city, only by the end of the day the envoy arrived with a letter to the camp of the druzhina camp fortified with a palisade. Having given the packet to the guard at the gate, the messenger remained waiting for an answer. Eric was offered a meeting to discuss the current situation. That same evening they met with the parliamentarian from the city. Have communicated. The situation turned out to be quite lousy. The local leader not only did not send his troops to help Alexei, but taxes for the most part remained for the last five years. Therefore, in the city there were about fifty wage warriors from among the German and French poor knights and up to a thousand city guards. While the prince was only two and a half hundred people, it is true, they were all warriors, but this did not become much easier. At the end of the talks, seeing that the parliamentarian had no instructions for discussing the surrender of the city, Eric summed up the conversation with the phrase: "In short. You got me with your prattle. As a result, your city has only two possible options - either you voluntarily surrender and pay me tribute, or I take the city by storm and cut out all people, regardless of gender and age, which I'll find there. So think - the term you - two days, starting tomorrow morning. If on the third day the gates are still closed to me and my soldiers, then I will begin the assault and will not spare anybody, in general, no one. " Then he silently looked the parliamentarian in the eye, forcing him to turn away his gaze, turned around and left. In the morning, leaving the second company in the camp, the prince, led by the first, mounted a horse march to the surrounding villages. It was necessary to look around, to scare the local people, and also to think about how to take the city. It's only easy to say that he will take it by storm, with such a garrison. If to speak in essence, then the goal was two: the first is the port of Piraeus with its valuable port warehouses, the second - actually Athens. In the port, according to the information of the traders of Demetra, there must be up to three hundred militia fighters dressed in quilts and armed with bows and spears. The main problem is the possibility of a strike to the rear of the troops of the Athenian garrison. To kill will not be killed, but the losses will be substantial. Therefore, on the evening of the second day, Eric moved all the troops to the walls of Athena from their northern side, near the gate. There, his soldiers built up a stormy activity in the arrangement of the temporary camp. And as it got dark, they were replaced by two dozen servants, whose task was to create the appearance of activity and wakefulness in the camp. The troops themselves are very quiet, they bypassed Athens in a large arc and approached the city of Piraeus on the west side, where they were already waiting for the ballista with the teams. At 3 o'clock in the morning, in pitch darkness, artillery was driven to the strongest, and therefore worst of all guarded gates at a distance of 30 meters. These gates were a massive mono-bar, which also functions as a lifting bridge through a small but deep ditch. The ascent was carried out by chains. Therefore, all four ballistae pointed at the attachment points of these chains, which were clearly visible from the other side. They gave a volley, and both companies ran to the collapsed gates. In the portal tower there were only a dozen people, who, after typing impudence, slept. The roar of the fallen gate awakened the half-room, the benefit that it was small. Therefore, in ten minutes to the place of the breakthrough, the first disorganized detachments of the garrison fled. They were met by sighted fugitive shooting from crossbows practically at point-blank, which instantly interrupted their vital functions. At four o'clock, after completing street brawls and killing up to two hundred militiamen, the prince's troops controlled almost the entire city, excluding the citadel. A firefight ensued - the soldiers who had settled in the citadel sprinkled openings of suitable streets with arrows, not knowing exactly where their enemies were, the prince's people answered, shooting rather by sight than by sight. At this time, Eric noticed that against the background of a rapidly brightening sky, loopholes began to be seen. In this co