Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 377 Small-Scale Battle

With the story of Zoe's family as an example, this Cuman attack became clearer.

It can be said that many people in this world have a hard time living, not because their lives are that difficult, but because there are people who are constantly adding insult to injury.

Since you have decided to move forward with a heavy burden, then there will definitely be someone who will live a peaceful life.

It’s all relative, and it’s all unbearable and extremely infuriating.

Just think of the hundreds of peasants shouting the names of the city's nobles and then hanging the Cumans.

Zoe felt refreshed and also untied her original knot in her heart. After all, Basil's death had always made her feel guilty.

Now that the truth has been revealed and it has been determined who the enemy is and that the Cumans have been executed, she naturally feels that she can go back to Manuil, explain the truth of the matter, and then persuade him to join her in fighting against Ioannis.

As her mentor and guide, Manuil holds a unique position in Zoe's heart.

“Zoe, your village is just ahead. Should we just go straight there with so many of us?”

Alexandros, who was standing by, asked Zoe.

Now, their team of about fifty people was heading towards Zoe's village. According to the plan, they were going to surround the city with the countryside and cut off the connections between the various towns in the Cardia Military Region.

Among them, Zoe’s village is located on a strategic road and is a point that must be occupied and controlled.

Just when Zoe was about to say something, she saw black smoke rising from the direction of her village. It was obviously not good.

……

War is not all about fighting. It is not only when tens of thousands of people gather together to kill each other that it is called war.

In fact, almost all hostile actions involving violence can be considered "war".

For Manuil, war was not something far away. After all, they were in Anatolia, and it was a luxury to live a peaceful life all their lives.

But no matter what, he had never imagined one thing.

One day, without him revealing himself, the nobles in the city would actually send troops to attack his village!

This makes no sense!
You have to know that in the past, even if there were some scattered heresies, according to the customs of the Eastern Empire, they would actually be handed over to monasteries or churches for handling.

Perhaps the Emperor of Constantinople would care more, but the local dignitaries would not care.

But what Manuil didn't know was that this time it was no longer a religious dispute, but a real conflict of interests between the nobles and the peasants in the city.

In this case, it is better to kill someone by mistake than to let him go.

Other villages still had a chance to argue, but their village was located on a strategic road and showed signs of heresy, so it would be treated as the chicken to be killed to scare the monkeys.

Even if he figured it out, so what?

He no longer has the chance to regret.

The Latins, posing as the nobles of the city, entered the village and without a word threw torches and set fire to some houses.

He tried to stop it, but was struck in the neck by the Latin's sword.

Before he died, he seemed to see Zoe and the soldiers behind her.

Everything might still be in time, but Manuel can no longer see it.

…There were not many Latins, only thirty to be exact, and only ten of them were on horseback.

But these thirty people were quite unrestrained when they started fighting.

First, the team was divided into two groups, each with 15 people.

One group, after revealing the banner of the city's nobles, marched directly into the village after the villagers had let down their guard.

The shock cavalry took the lead and rushed into the villagers, causing them to be unable to understand the current situation and then unite to resist.

Then the armored infantry took advantage of the chaos to enter the village, burnt the village wantonly and looted property.

When the villagers tried to flee to the wilderness, two groups of cavalry and infantry stepped forward, knocked them to the ground, tied them up and threw them aside, allowing these people to witness with their own eyes how their village was destroyed.

Even though Manuil and his group had nearly two hundred villagers, they were out of order against order, and unarmored against armored, so these farmers could only wait to die.

When Alexandros and his men arrived here, what they saw was a one-sided massacre.

Faced with this unreasonable looting, Alexandros had no time to make any verbal mobilization. He directly organized a formation and moved closer to the Latins.

Alexandros's side had relatively more people, but their overall quality was worse. After all, most of them were militiamen who had just been recruited.

On the contrary, the only ones who could truly be qualified fighters were Alexandros and a few others like the Gregor brothers.

Fortunately, however, the Latins were busy looting and did not notice their approach.

Under Zoe's leadership, they relied on fields, buildings, and other natural barriers to get within range without alerting the enemy.

Alexandros called out to the other two Paladins beside him, and they each took out their compound bows, drew their bows and arrows, and aimed at one person together.

Then, these three arrows marked the beginning of the fighting.

Alexandros was half Turkic and had been exposed to bows and arrows since childhood. He shot a round from a distance of 30 steps and accurately hit the opponent's neck, causing blood to gush out like a fountain.

As the other party shouted, another arrow hit another Latin man nearby.

Although the second arrow did not hit the vital point, it still caused it to panic, and it is estimated that its combat effectiveness was greatly damaged.

After all, that's how bows and arrows work. No matter how heavy the bow itself is, the kinetic energy of the arrow it fires is relatively limited.

Even if the opponent is not wearing armor, he cannot be immediately incapacitated if the bullet does not hit a vital point.

If you wear armor, then in many cases the arrows will only have a harassing effect.

However, with these two arrows as a foundation, the subsequent battle will be very clear.

After all, this is just a battle involving dozens of people. Every time someone is killed, the combat effectiveness changes by a few percent.

By the time the Latins in the village who were still busy setting fire and looting realized the situation outside the village, the gap in military strength between the two sides had changed from 30 against 50 to 23 against 45.

Even though the Latins still had a lot of cavalry, they did not dare to continue fighting without knowing the exact number of the enemy, and chose to quit while they were ahead.

After gathering the troops, they began to retreat, leaving behind the devastated village.

Zoe was left looking around in confusion.

(End of this chapter)