- I neglected it, because it can not be true. He is too independent. I serve the holy church, and he - to anyone.
- You did a wonderful job. Return to Bosporus and continue in the same spirit. Work with his wife, maybe she will shed some light on this walking hoax.
Honorius bowed and quietly retired, closing the door behind him, and Innokenty remained sitting in his chair and with a thoughtful look to twist in his hands a knife of strange iron.
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 Exokonnon district and the Eleftherius port. Not having siege machines, Boniface and Baldwin still stormed the gates, there were noticeable losses, especially at the margrave, since almost all the militia and some volunteers were concentrated near the gates of Saint Roman. Demeter people took refuge - a small part of the farmstead, and the rest on the ships, which were specially waiting for them near the bay. Closer to the evening, Eric attacks the gates of St. Roman from the city side and smashes a significant part of the militia. The battered Boniface forces rush into the city along the road leading to the aqueduct, practically losing control. The prince also advances the company to Vlakherni and helps Baldwin, who has already practically taken the gates, and then begins the process of patrolling the territory that he chose for himself to occupy. The whole land on the right hand of the Likus River was sent off to the prince for looting, and since there were only poor quarters there, no one dared to challenge his claims, expecting a rich booty from the central districts of the city. Alas, but in addition to the Imperial Palace, the city center was defeated and robbed long before the start of the assault. That is why, from lunchtime, energetic loading of valuables was actively carried out on the ships of the trading company Demeter, which were delivered in covered wagons from the courtyard, on which they had previously accumulated. Why did Eric occupy the poorest quarters? Everything is simple - this is the most densely populated part of the city, and if he can save these people from massacres, traditional when looting, he will get a good attitude to a significant part of the city's population Yes, almost all, since the rest will survive only in a small number. Having organized the order in the occupied territory, the prince ordered to organize distribution of food to the needy near the Mocion tank. There was no bread, so they handed out dried fish and vegetables, which they brought in advance to the farmstead. In short, until April 4-6, an infernal hell was going on throughout the city - they were robbing, killing, raping, in the zone of the prince's occupation there was silence and peace - checkpoints on all five bridges across the river and all ten gates of the city, along with regular patrols, did their good a business. In the evening of the sixth of April, he dropped Demetra's gunmen back, changed them into cottages of their flowers and replaced them with soldiers in patrol duty. Fortunately, there was no special fighting skills there. In the morning of the seventh of April, the ancient region of Strategion, protected by the oldest fortress wall, was taken and plundered. And already at lunch a meeting of the council for the election of the emperor of the new empire began. The fact that Boniface concluded with the doge Enrico Dondolo deal, according to which the fourth part of the empire was transferred to the elected emperor, it was chosen by six Venetians and Crusaders. Eric was part of an electoral group from the Crusaders, and Teleph, the elder brother of Demeter, was in a group of Venetians. Thus, the prince had two votes, which he used in favor of Baldwin. This caused resentment Boniface, but the explanation was simple: "The count has an heir, but you do not. It is not good to leave an empire without an heir. " Of course, Eric was cunning, because Benno, the son of Mary was his son and he was looking for benefits primarily for him, but none of those gathered knew such things. In general, the guys had to swear for a long time. Therefore, on April 10th, leaving Telef as his representative, he plunged into the ships waiting for him and departed to Attica to engage in business, that is, to continue the looting. Especially worth noting is the fact that Demetra strained all efforts to export the Constantinople prize to Bosporus, where it was easier and faster to export than to Venice. The calculation of the total cost of the trophies was still difficult. As in Thessaloniki, special articles were books, primarily lists of ancient authors, and sculptures. But in Constantinople the picture was the opposite, if more than three thousand were taken out of the books, then there were practically no sculptures, because the Christian leaders managed to either mutilate them or destroy them.
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 connection, he ordered that the bolts should not be wasted and shot only in the loopholes in which the blackout appeared. The effectiveness of the shooting was not very high, but by dawn, an hour after the start of the duel, the firing from the citadel ceased, as well as any stirring along the walls. Taking advantage of the situation, about ten people dragged a decent log from the port and began to knock out the gates that were so unsuccessfully located that it was almost impossible to shell them with ballistics. After another twenty minutes, the guys knocked the gate. And they occupied the inner courtyard of the citadel. The remaining troops numbered up to twenty people retreated to the dungeon and from there fired from the bows. They drove up the ballista and, placing it on the platform of the portal tower, fired at their positions. From a distance of 20 meters the effect from the penetration of the nucleus into the loophole was astonishing - not only the response from the bow was stopped, but mercy was also requested for the fifth shot. The comrades promised that they would open the gates of the donjon themselves, and then they would kill them. Not very nice, but there was no desire to mess with the captives. Already at the stage of the siege of the citadel couriers were sent for the transfer of servants from the distracted and fortified camps. Closer to dinner, Eric gathered the inhabitants of this small town and promised them life and health in the case of support and assistance. More precisely, he put them before the fact - or they with a smile and a song of cheerful are eager to help him, or die. Literally an hour after the meeting, the city magistrate, on its own initiative, allocated three dozen loaders to help the prince's people in the port, where the seized Athenian goods were actively loaded onto ships that had already arrived at the berths.