Chapter 34

Wolf in sheep's clothing

If possible, why don’t Bai Zhou want to retreat in front, charge in the back, or take the blame, and go to death, watch the show in Silesia honestly, and wait for the other troops in the Crusade to be cannon fodder first.[]

But this is obviously unrealistic, because the reason why Bai Zhou is still here is to help Wolfgang take Jerusalem. Even if he can't take the holy city, he will make his name sing in the mouth of the bard. This will be of great benefit to his future counterattack on Nuremberg, and also for the Western Qin.

In this case, the importance of Cyprus is self-evident. Although Yarman and others still hope to rely on Rhodes Island as the rear base, it was too far away after all, and the route had to pass through Cyprus. Today, the Byzantines dared to seize Leopold and said they would not dare to intercept their own supply fleet another day.

Now our side still has the energy to conquer Cyprus, but after fighting with Saladin, how can we still have the energy and strength to manage the affairs in the rear?

Therefore, in Bai Zhou's opinion, there is no way out for this war. Since there is no way out, we can only fight him happily.

"Okay, I'll send Adolf Lunn to lead two thousand soldiers as the first landing force." Wolfgang's plan was supported by Bai Zhou, so he was naturally willing to invest in troops. Of course, since he needed to be in the middle of command and dispatch, it was impossible for him to go into battle in person, but sent Lunn, the former leader of the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire.

"I'll go in person, too." Yarman hesitated and discussed with Vincent for a while before he decided to take a thousand soldiers to the battlefield. Although he also understood that this would be a foreseeable bloody battle, because of this, if he had not led the team himself, the soldiers under his command would have been defeated very quickly and could not have been able to support the arrival of reinforcements.

The remaining 1,000 places were from Joan of Arc's troops. Of course, she would not go there in person. After all, she still had nearly 10,000 troops under her. Once she left, the remaining dispatch work would be difficult to deal with Wolfgang alone.

"Then when will we set out?" Yarman asked. Maybe he had given up, now he looked like he was seeking a fight.

"Just now, our preparations have been completed these days, so there is no need to delay any further." Wolfgang pondered for a while, feeling that nothing had been left behind, so he ordered.

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Lunn and Vincent were the main forces in the first wave of landing troops, with a total of 3,000 soldiers preparing to attack Limaso, the largest port in Cyprus, located on the southern bank of Cyprus; and the 1,000 soldiers led by Bai Zhou were preparing to land from the north; the 1,000 soldiers under Joan of Arc, led by Giles, landed from the east coast.

Speaking of Giles, when the Crusaders left Nuremberg, he met Bai Zhou again, and he sighed, but he also found that after the sigh, the two really had nothing to talk about. After all, Giles was Joan of Arc's "iron core", and Bai Zhou could not poach. Although Giles was also very grateful to Bai Zhou and admired Bai Zhou's ability very much, that's all.

Later, although the two were in the same army, they had few opportunities to meet. Unexpectedly, in this battle of "succession" they became comrades-in-arms again. Although their landing places were different, they were all the first batch of landing troops after all, and there was no way to say that there would be any help needed.

The ships transporting the Bozhou were led by Berryon himself, and there were only eight small merchant ships.

Speaking of which, Berion should be responsible for the Lunn fleet, but who made Berion know only Bozhou in the entire Crusade, and Bozhou's help to their principality was obvious, so Berion, the nominal "Navy Commander", came to command a squadron.

On the deck, Berryon held a navigation chart and said to Bai Zhou: "According to the current speed, it may take you to arrive in Cyprus until the night away."

"That's right." Bai Zhou smiled, but with a hint of solemnity in his smile: "Our main task is to lay a few nails firmly in Cyprus. At night, the sentry that was not conducive to the other party's discovery, so we would have less trouble seizing the port."

"That's what he said, but..." Bellion was about to say something, but he heard the sound of his watcher: "Sir, there are two ships in the southwest, which should be Byzantine ships. He has discovered us and is heading towards us."

"Oh," Berryon immediately turned around and ran to the position where the lookout hand said, and the shadow of the ship could be vaguely seen.

Although they had eight ships on their side, they were all merchant ships. Several warships from the Principality of Jerusalem were sent to Lun. If they really wanted to fight, Berryon did not have any advantage in terms of speed and ship quality.

"Sir, it seems that we are in trouble. Based on our current speed, we can't get rid of each other at all." Berryon said to Bai Zhou with a serious expression.

But unexpectedly, Bai Zhou, who had a serious expression just now, relaxed his eyebrows: "Don't worry, look at whose flag we are hanging?"

Bai Zhou looked solemn just now, just thinking that if these ships wanted to forcibly attack Cyprus, even if they had some raid advantages at night, it would be a very difficult thing to be discovered. But if there were several Byzantine ships as cover, then it could be imagined that these ships of their troops could be completely covered up as the original merchant ships.

When Berion heard Bai Zhou's words, he remembered that his fleet was still flying the flag of the Principality of Jerusalem. In other words, if the other party cannot observe it at close range, he will consider himself a merchant ship of the Principality of Jerusalem, thereby reducing his vigilance.

At that time, Berryon was quite panicked and forgot about this.

"What do you mean by sir?" Berion didn't expect that Bai Zhou would be so bold. According to his original idea, their troops must have the more hidden their whereabouts, the better. It is best not to encounter the Byzantine navy along the way.

But now it seems that the Duke of Switzerland was fighting the Byzantine Navy from the beginning.

"By the way, Berryon, how many soldiers will be loaded on a brig like this?" Bai Zhou was a complete novices in terms of ships. For example, when he went to Rhodes Island, he saw three masts on the sailboat, and he thought it was the kind of three-mast sailboat that made achievements in discovering the New World. It was actually just a medium-sized Carac sailboat. Strictly speaking, it can only be said to be a brig sailboat with almost no ability to have a long ocean. Of course, even that medium-sized Carac is much better than what Bai Zhou is now riding.

"Each ship is loaded with up to two hundred sailors, but they are not specialized in combat, so there will definitely not be so many," said Berion.

Bai Zhou thought about it and said that even if the maximum number is calculated, the opponent was only 400 people. The Western Qin side could not suffer much. The reason why it was said that it could not suffer a loss instead of being able to defeat it was because the soldiers of the Western Qin clan were indeed extremely weak in naval battles. Although the 600 soldiers of the Western Qin clan selected by Bai Zhou this time would not be seasick at sea, but don’t have too much hope when fighting. Instead, there were 400 Swiss heavy troops led by Winkrid and Tuier. You can look forward to it in the battle on the sidelines.

"Do you want to fight them?" asked Berion.

"Yes, we need these sailboats, not only to provide cover for our operation, but also to allow the subsequent landing troops to send more troops." Bai Zhou's eyes shining and ordered: "All soldiers took off their troops, hide their swords, bows and crossbows."

"Is this OK?" Berryon was a little unsure. After all, he had never done such a thing before.

"It's okay, as long as they get closer." Bai Zhou smiled, then turned his head and stared at the direction where the two Byzantine warships came.

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"Hey, where did you come from?" Two Byzantine soldiers jumped off the deck and came to Berryon. They were dressed in tatters. They didn't look like a regular soldier, but they looked more like a beggar forced by life.

The deck of Byzantine warships is generally more than one meter higher than that of Baizhou and their merchant ships. If they are prepared, then the height of this meter will undoubtedly become a natural barrier. But these two ships seem to be too casual, perhaps because they often do this and do not take these small merchant ships seriously.

Now these two ships are just stopping here so big, as if they want to surround the eight merchant ships in front of them. Perhaps in their eyes, fat sheep cannot escape, and escaping one is an unforgivable sin. However, in God's eyes, these eight merchant ships are eight wolves in sheep's clothing.

"Rodes Island, sell some food." Berryon originally thought that Bai Zhou would do it directly, but he did not expect that Bai Zhou's gesture to him was to delay time.

The other ships were not close enough, so they needed some time to adjust their positions, so they could do it at the same time as soon as possible.

"Rhodes Island..." The officer with a beggar-like look frivolously, looked at Berryon's face and looked again and again: "Did you pay taxes?"

"Sir, we are serious businessmen, how could we not pay taxes?" Berryon hated this gaze very much, but naturally he knew that now is not the time to turn against each other.

"I mean, have you passed by us in Cyprus? Have you paid taxes for us?" The beggar continued his usual slickness.

"Sir, this is not right." Although Berryon was an officer, he knew a little about business. He had never heard of passing by Cyprus and still had to pay taxes.

"What's wrong? Let me tell you that if you don't pay taxes, you have to go back with us. Of course, if you feel comfortable serving me, I will consider pleading with you to reduce some of the taxes." As he said that, the beggar reached out, and seemed to "stroke" Berion's cheek.

Bai Zhou was slightly stunned, and then almost burst out with heartless laughter. Berryon had a gray face and drew out his sword from behind. With just one sword, he stabbed the "beggar" through.

The officer did not expect that such a situation would occur. Until his death, his eyes also showed incredible eyes, staring straight at the sword that was passing through his heart.

"What are you doing?" another "beggar" shouted in surprise, but there was more fear in his tone.

Bai Zhou did not say anything and also killed him.

Berion couldn't bear this situation, but he couldn't blame him. Moreover, it was not the time to calculate this. Although there were still a few ships that were not in good position, there was no time left.

"Observe" Bai Zhou shouted loudly.

Chapter 34

Wolf in sheep's clothing
Chapter completed!