Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 365 Brave and fearless!

The fog of war is a problem that anyone dedicated to the military cannot avoid.

Ever since the beginning of military activities, knowing the movements of friendly forces and enemy forces has been a major challenge.

As time went on, it became easier to know the movements of friendly forces.

Whether it was a systematic post station or carrier pigeons, together with scouts and beacon towers, as well as mapping of the terrain, military commanders could have a general idea.

But how do we understand the enemy?
A truly talented general can mobilize the enemy forces through his own movements and make the enemy act according to his own ideas.

Lower-level generals can also predict where the enemy will appear by collecting incomplete information on the battlefield.

Ioannis was clearly neither of these. In fact, he had never led troops in battle and his military knowledge was limited.

He just felt that everything was as he expected, so naturally there would be no more surprises.

Late at night, the city of Trebizond was under curfew, like most medieval cities.

During curfew, people are prohibited from going out, and generally no one will be on the streets except patrolling guards.

The city of Trebizond, in this era, was not considered a small city, but it was certainly not that big either.

It has a great advantage in city defense. In addition to being a port city, two rivers flow from the mountains of Anatolia.

These two rivers became the natural moat of Trebizond. Relying on these two rivers, Trebizond built city walls and enclosed about one hundred hectares of land.

Under normal circumstances, we would want to launch a fierce attack on this city.

Even if there were not many defenders in the city, it would be difficult to deploy due to the terrain.

In the later confrontation between Trebizond and the Ottomans, the city defenses of Trebizond caused the Ottomans a lot of trouble.

They launched three sieges before finally conquering the city.

Of course, these are clearly not normal conditions.

A city with a population of hundreds of thousands can also be breached by a crusaders of more than ten thousand people because of internal struggles.

As a frontier city like Trebizond, it is natural that it has learned many bad habits.

Late at night, during the curfew, Ioannis's servants walked across the street and came to a small gate in the upper town.

This small gate is always closed to the city of Trebizond.

Due to its long-term disuse, the city didn't even arrange guards here. After all, people living in the upper city were either rich or noble, and they all had their own private soldiers to fill the defense gaps, so the city council didn't need to worry about it at all.

This gave Ioannis an opportunity.

His servant came near the small gate and imitated a few bird calls. Not long after, an echo was heard from outside the city wall.

After both parties confirmed their identities, the guy threw a ladder outside the city wall.

They didn't dare to open the city gate directly, after all, opening the city gate would make too much noise. Although there were no guards here, if they were discovered, they would have no way to explain themselves.

In fact, after throwing out the ladder, the fellow ran away without any hesitation, not daring to confront those fierce and bloodthirsty Turks.

But for those who know more than the inner truth.

This whole process was a nightmare.

At first, it was just a small group of Turks who attacked the farm. It was estimated that the other side had no more than a dozen villains.

The nobles in the city forced the governor to send troops to suppress the bandits. Although there was some success, the number of Turks increased. As the suppression continued, a group of 20 to 30 Turks dared to attack the nobles' manors and kidnap their children.

Later, even the governor's mercenaries were wiped out, and for a time there was no army in Trebizond that dared to go out to fight.

I originally thought that relying on the city walls would give me peace of mind.

However, the Turkic bandits who had previously wreaked havoc outside the city were not satisfied with looting the manor, but inexplicably appeared in the upper city like a force descended from the sky.

After breaking through the small gate in the upper city, more than a hundred Turks rushed into the city wall holding torches in the cover of night.

He went straight into the Gabras family's mansion.

The Gabras family is the family that formerly monopolized the general position in the Cardia Military Region for a long time. Although it has lost some power now, it still retains a lot of real estate in the Cardia Military Region.

This was not a deliberate choice, it was simply because the Gabras's house was not well guarded and was close to the small gate.

These hundred or so Turkic bandits did not dare to go deep into the city, so they naturally looked for an easy target to pick on.

Moreover, this group of people were not the regular troops under Garys, but the Turkic bandits contacted by Arsalan.

Because this was a night raid, they could not capture slaves at ease, so in addition to looting property, they also abducted some good-looking women.

The rest, regardless of gender, age or status, whoever was caught were hacked to death with a knife, and then set on fire before leaving.

Since this scene took place in the upper town, both the Governor and Ioannis witnessed the atrocities of the Turks that night.

The governor was so frightened that his legs were wet. As for Ioannis, he felt a little regretful. He had never expected that this group of Cumans would be so bold and presumptuous.

According to his original plan, he just wanted the other party to walk around the city a few times and set some fires at random.

The result turned out to be like this!

But there is no point regretting now, I can only continue with my plan to act.

According to the earlier deployment, Ioannis quickly mobilized the private soldiers in his mansion and gathered the troops from the two surrounding wealthy families.

All together, there are about a hundred people.

This is not a large number of people, but that's how it is in the city. Too many people would make it difficult to carry out the plan.

Because I was confident and had expected it.

Whether he was mobilizing private soldiers from other families, appointing temporary captains, or assigning tasks, Ioannis always seemed calm and composed, and had the self-control to handle things without panic.

"Second team, go here first and block the Turks. Don't let them go any further."

"Team Three, you climb onto the roof of the Governor's house and shoot at the Turks from above."

"What about you?"

"Me? I will naturally take my men to meet these Turks. I want to see if they are as inexhaustible, inexorable, and invincible as the rumors say!"

In this dark night, the people with torches may never forget how heroic Ioannis was at that time.

Seeing this young man who was less than 30 years old being so bold and unrestrained, it seemed as if there was hope for the empire for a moment.

Many people silently wished Ioannis success.

(End of this chapter)