It was necessary to do something, because if there was a successful assault, it would be absolutely impossible to repel the city from such an army. For three days an active reconnaissance of the disposition of enemy troops was conducted, as much as the military council. It was necessary to hurry. Since there were too many commanders, they could not come to a common opinion. At lunch on the sixth day, Eric could not stand it.
- Dear, are you, until the end of the centuries will you discuss this simple matter?
"What are you talking about, Baron? "
- Yes, all the same. I have a head all around with all this chatter. After all, we have a simple matter, why complicate it? There is an enemy, we are. The enemy must be prevented from taking the city. This is possible only if it is broken or cut to it supply. It is no use to block the supply, as he will go to the assault tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. There remains only an attack. Why guess?
"But, Baron, he has a considerably larger army. "
So what? If you are shy in the face of your enemy - so tell me. In a few words. Kind allies. Tomorrow, with the first rays of the sun, I will attack the Sultan's camp with my people. Who wants to prove himself as a warrior, and not as a chatterbox - I propose to join me.
With these words, Eric left the tent and went to his troops. They had to be prepared.
He put the children to bed from dinner and picked them up at 1 o'clock in the morning. They were preparing for the most insane fighting, not only in their lives, but in general - in this era. The camp of the Sultan's army was known to the smallest detail, as was the territory adjacent to it. Fortunately, no one was even going to update it with any kind of fence, and therefore it was completely open for an unexpected invasion. For the attack, such a starting point and direction were chosen so that the distance to the camp at the time of their appearance in line of sight was minimal. The task that Eric posed to his fighters was extremely simple and complex at the same time. It was necessary to pass through the camp by hooking the tent of the Sultan, if possible to destroy it and leave from the other end of the camp in order to escape from the battle with greatly superior forces. A kind of improvisation in the spirit of Ushakov's tactical reception, which he turned into a Turkish squadron in the battle of the island of Fidonisi. An hour before dawn, they were ready and waiting for the chosen position. When in the distance, at the horizon, the first rays of the sun began to make their way, Eric led his men into an attack. They walked in a silent expanding wedge, which in its widest place did not exceed six horses. The speed of the move was increasing, so that already before the positions they moved to a gallop and, almost without reducing the tempo, like a red-hot knife enters the oil, burst into the field of tents and the porridge of the rapidly demoralizing enemy soldiers. They went easily, the troops of the Sultan surprisingly did not resist at all, confusing only with cries and senseless fuss under the feet of horses, where they sometimes fell. Literally two dozen steps from the largest tent, which was the target of the attack, our hero saw the Sultan, who jumped to the noise in order to understand what was happening. From the impact of the crossbow bolt in the forehead from such a distance, the lord of Iconium tumbled so that his slippers fell off his feet. The situation in the camp was completely unexpected - instead of trying to organize resistance to the invading squad, valorous fighters moved in a touch of panic. And this had to be used. Therefore, letting the cavalry wedge around the sultan's tent, he ordered a stop and ordered to dismount. His men occupied a circular defense, setting the pavis before him, and began to shoot from the crossbows along the subjects of the deceased ruler running in the growing mess. Shooting was on readiness. Ten minutes passed - at a distance of 60-70 steps around the tent around the tent the land turned into a sort of hell, where two or three layers lay wounded and killed people, drenched in blood, brains and feces. All this porridge was moaning, moving and so terrifying that the panic in the camp reached its limit and the people ran. During these minutes, the core of the army, which an hour ago besieged Edessa, was gone into oblivion. All the best that was in her, died or beat in agony near the sultan's tent. Unfortunately, to pursue the fleeing in order to finish them off, there was no possibility, as the fighters of Eric were at the limit of their capabilities. Therefore, he left the military guard of the strongest guys, in terms of stability of the psyche, and ordered the rest to rest. Poor people - they were not ready for such horrors that suddenly fell on their head - someone laughed nervously, crouched on the ground, someone was crying, someone was praying, someone fell to the ground and without saying a word , looked at one point. When, before your very eyes, the head of a living person flies to pieces from the crossbow bolt caught in it - it's impressive. And when does this happen en masse? If your psyche is not tempered in battle, then it terribly depresses. Therefore, the hardest of all was armed servants, who already did more than their capabilities. After giving them ten minutes to fifteen minutes to rest, our hero went to the tent of the Sultan, to figure out what can be profited there.
The East is an ancient and amazing land. Let's take a quick look, but then, I think, the dear reader does not understand everything in the realities about which he is reading. First, let's turn our attention to the question of power as the most important. On the territory of Syria and the areas adjacent to it, where our hero operates, there were four major political groups that tried to share a delicious pie of this land among themselves. Of course, we are talking about the very end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, that is, about 1190-1210. The first was the most vivid and aggressive group of associations, which are often called the Crusader states. At that time there were only three of them: the Kingdom of Jerusalem (its remains, since Jerusalem had already been beaten back by Muslims in 1187), the principality (duchy) of Antioch and the county of Tripoli. They occupied the entire Middle East coast. Very interesting group, which had two traditional diseases, which eventually destroyed it. The first was that they constantly experienced shortages in the troops, and the second consisted in a strong and bright internecine strife that tore this territory. The internal struggle for power and the traditional disunity, characteristic of feudal society, greatly weakened this group. The second group was the land that was formerly called the Byzantine Empire. In 1195, Alex III Angel ascended the throne of Constantinople. One of his first cases was the dissolution of the army as completely unnecessary. Almost immediately, his possessions are beginning to disturb neighbors who are doing everything they want there. First of all, of course, they rob. His power is in such a deplorable state that in 1204 the crusaders come to visit him, who have strayed off the road to Egypt, and therefore very hungry. Not wanting to drink a glass of tea with absolutely lost "concrete boys", he fled the city, which they later came in, trying to find under the benches and in the baskets of the local master. Alas, but the owner was not there, and therefore, seeing so much unimportant property, they very quickly found an application for him. First of all, of course, in the role of cargo for their pockets, so that those in the wind are not very fluttering. The poor Byzantine Empire did not survive such an accident and collapsed into a lot of small states, the key ones being the Latin Empire with its capital in Constantinople and the Nicene Empire with its capital in Nicaea. You understand that the role played by this group in local, regional affairs was, first and foremost, amusing and entertaining. The third group was represented by Sunni Muslims. First of all, these are the Seljuk Turks and various Arabian emirates, such as Mosul or Homs. The fourth group, you guessed it, is the Shiite Muslims, who were represented by the Egyptian emirates and the lands of Palestine. Between the third and fourth group was an interlayer in the form of monophysites, but they were few and lived mainly in the territory of the first political group - the lands of the Crusaders. A key feature of the last two groups was that they were in a state of profound feudal disunity and could with great difficulty act as a common front in some cases. True, in both groups was on the Sultanate, but those were still too weak. By the way, the sultan is an analogue of the word king or king, that is, the sole ruler, and the emir is a nobleman, and very high-ranking. Thus - in the third group there were two young and fragile kingdoms and many relatively independent feudal lands between them, which could, in principle, formally be subordinated to someone. The first kingdom is the Egyptian sultanate, which most recently founded Salah ad-din, that is, Yusuf, the son of Ayyub, the second is the Iconium Sultanate, which existed for a long time.