Long after the end of the Fourth Crusade, this was the first time that the Norman Empire had gained an advantage on the battlefield in the Near East and expanded its territory. Before this, the empire was in a garrison position in this place.

They lost Mesopotamia, then Syria. In the end, even the holy city of Jerusalem was unable to be saved. The army retreated again and again, and finally withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and hid in the Lower Egypt area. They were attacked on three sides.

Although elsewhere, on the European continent, the Norman Cavalry did not grow any grass and conquered large tracts of territory. But here, the Norman Empire was an absolute loser. Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, Syria and Palestine, and eventually fell into the hands of Ilhan Hulagu.

He had absolute rights in this area and the loyalty of the 200,000 troops under his command. His Khanate became stronger and stronger in the wars of the south and north. He himself converted to the Sunnis of Islam and became a Muslim. This made his rule more stable...

However, all this was completely changed after a landing battle of the Norman Empire. The entire Egyptian region had been controlled and the Norman army, which had secured the stability of the rear, launched a powerful counterattack, and then directly occupied the Sinai Peninsula. The offensive and defensive momentum of the two sides instantly exchanged. Everything seemed so simple.

However, the next battle may increase the difficulty.

Indeed, as the Mongolian Nayan who persuaded Hulagu said. Ilhan Hulagu was a flag. With him, their hope would not disappear. After a defeat in the Sinai Peninsula, Hulagu quickly recovered his strength in Jerusalem.

This city originally replaced Damascus and became the political and cultural center of the Near East in the plan of Emperor Norman Egil. It was only half built and was taken away by the Mongols. The Mongols did not pay so much attention to Egil's plan and built a great city. They just slightly repaired the walls of Jerusalem, making the city's defensive function barely effective. Then they built a lot of messy houses that could barely live in the walls. This was considered complete.

Although it is very different from the magnificent holy city that Egir expected, the city's rich religious significance and the size of its city can still make the city barely exist as a regional administrative center. In the years of war with the Norman Empire, Hulagu used the city as his subordinate capital for the convenience of marching, and rarely returned to the real capital Damascus. This also made the city more prosperous.

After Hulagu fled to the city, he began to gather the defeated troops and organized the people of Jerusalem to defend. The Arabs who believed in Islam were slightly better. But those who believed in Orthodox and Catholicism, when they heard that the Norman army was about to fight again, not only did they not want to help defend, but they became excited.

"The Crusaders are going to fight back again! The era when the pagans occupied Jerusalem is finally over!" Such thoughts made the Christians living in Jerusalem extremely excited. However, before they could do anything, the cruel and ruthless Ilhan took the lead and took these people strictly under the supervision.

Under the Mongols' butcher knife, the originally restless Christians fell silent again. They had to be organized and assigned weapons to "defend their Khan."

The conquered troops, his subordinates, the troops mobilized from other regions, and the people of Jerusalem summoned... These troops were 100,000 in total! As his troops grew stronger, Hulagu's uneasiness gradually dissipated and he even began to take the initiative to attack.

He sent light Arab cavalry to launch a raid on the Normans who were approaching Jerusalem. However, these poorly equipped Arab cavalry were not opponents of the Norman elite Hussars. The Hussars wandering around the main Norman forces were enough to deal with these Arabs.

In fact, ten years ago, during the Fourth Crusade, the two convenient divided the superiority. In that era when the Arabs were in full swing, the Arab cavalry led by the legendary desert king Saladin was also tortured by the Norman Hussars.

During this period, the empire's technological strength was once again enhanced. The Norman Hussars were equipped with better scimitars and armor, better Norman V war horses, and light cavalry that was more conducive to charge. Therefore, such a murder became more obvious.

Of course, these are all external objects, and what is more important is the cavalry practice of the Norman Empire. The Norman Hussars, trained completely according to modern cavalry tactics, have a qualitative difference in combat effectiveness from the Arab cavalry in the feudal era. Hussar commanders boasted that even if they faced more than ten times the Arab thugs, they could defeat their opponents at once.

In fact, this is indeed true. In small-scale encounters, the Norman Hussars often dared to chase the Arab cavalry of seventy or eighty. Although it is a little exaggerated to say that one against ten is a little bit exaggerated, it cannot be absolutely wrong.

Of course, Ilhan Hulagu did not have much expectations for those Arabs whom he conquered. He just wanted to use these cannon fodders to buy himself some time so that he could gather all the 200,000 troops of the entire Ilhanate to fight against the Normans.

The 200,000 army includes the most elite Mongolian cavalry, as well as the elite Gulam, Mamluk heavy cavalry, light cavalry from the Arab region, tribal warriors from various tribes of Bedouin, camel cavalry and cavalry archers...

These troops were fierce and barbaric. In the Middle Ages, they were considered a strong army. However, the opponents they had to face... were the Normans who were stronger than them - 230,000!

The 30,000 Norman regular army, as well as 200,000 elite cavalry, heavy infantry and crossbowmen from the French region, heavy crossbowmen from the Italian region, heavy cavalry and elite shield spearmen. These troops may not be as brave as the barbaric Mongols. However, their equipment, tactics and organizational forms far exceed those of the opponents. Those excellent infantry artillery, continuous crossbows, heavy crossbows and heavy cavalry were all not possessed by the Mongols. This is General Ershi's greatest reliance.

"Is a head-on battle? Very good. If this is what the Khan expects, I will give him it. If he can defeat all the opponent's army at once, then it will probably be much easier to occupy Palestine and Syria next."

At that time, after listening to the information of Norman spies and based on his own analysis, he came up with the news that the other party wanted to fight a head-on battle in Jerusalem. Marshal Ers snorted coldly and said such confident words. Indeed, the Norman army was better than the other party in terms of quantity and quality. Marshal Ers asked himself that he could be considered a famous general. He was definitely not worse than the opposite Ilhan. So it is appropriate to be confident in this situation.

In this way, the Norman army also slowed down and waited for the opponent to concentrate their troops and then killed them all.

On March 4, 1015, in the north, after three or four months of marching and gathering, the Norman Emperor's army gradually approached the Kazan region. The forces of both sides reached one million. As a great war was about to begin, in the south, a smaller scale could be seen as an extension of the battle in the north, or the battle between the two empires of Mongolia and Norman began in advance.

The day before this, Ilhan Hulagu, who had gathered a large army of 200,000, wanted to do his last effort. He sent an envoy to the Norman army and expressed his wishes. He said that he could give up his intention to fight the Norman Empire. He could even turn around and go north and help the Normans fight his brother Kublai.

Of course, all this is conditional. Hulagu claimed that he wanted Emperor Norman to marry his sister Aurora to him. As long as this is the case, he would be willing to form an alliance with the Norman Empire.

At that time, when the messenger of Ilhan said such conditions, Marshal Ers' camp was silent. The Norman generals looked at each other and showed expressions of not knowing whether to cry or laugh. Several idiots who might be very obsessed with the eldest princess had finally forgotten about this matter. At this moment, people had already mentioned it, and they couldn't help but burst into tears...

Seeing General Norman, he could either wink and make a weird expression, or beat his chest and stamp his feet and cry loudly. The messenger of Ilhan was really a little confused. He even wanted to say his conditions again.

"Okay, needless to say. You and I have become as powerful as water and fire. There is no possibility of reconciliation. It is useless to say anything now."

"This... Marshal, can you do this? Don't you need to submit the Norman Emperor to make a decision?" The envoy was a little surprised. According to his idea, such a big thing should not be decided by a Marshal.

"Do you still want to go to the emperor?" Marshal Ers showed a rather sarcastic smile on his ugly and deformed face. He laughed at the idiot for wanting to send a sheep into the tiger's mouth. He waved his hand and said a little impatiently: "Even if you don't want to die, I don't want to be implicated by you - drag him out and throw him out of the military camp."

After saying that, the marshal's guard walked over and threw the messenger out. The messenger did not give up and took out a gem to bribe the guard. He wanted to ask for a little Chou Yin and Mao. The answer he got was that the messenger was very frightened!!!

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