Although I was full of complaints about leading such an army of procrastinators, the work still had to be done after all.
First, he counted the supplies provided by the emperor. Vasiliko was a veteran warrior who had fought in the empire for a long time. His hobby of loving books allowed him to gain a lot of knowledge from his ancestors, so he understood better than everyone what this journey was like.
How dangerous.
After leaving the imperial occupation area, they then walked on a land with sparse population and harsh natural conditions. Moreover, this land dominated by mountains and hills can be said to be a stage for ambush battles everywhere. For those walking in this mountainous area,
For the military, it goes without saying that there are dangers involved.
There is also Konya, or Iconium in the Greek population. This city existed before the birth of the Holy Lord. Its city defenses are also very strong and reliable. It will take a lot of time to besiege such a city.
.
However, after taking this place, the road to Syria was smooth. It was precisely for this reason that the emperor allowed the Crusaders to agree to take this road, and Vasiliko had to lament the emperor's shrewdness in dispersing it so easily.
Such a large army was needed to attack that dangerous and important city for the Eastern Empire.
But it is a pity that the emperor originally planned to go with the Crusaders, but the impatience of the Crusaders ruined everything. They were eager to set foot on the road to the Holy Land, so there was no other way. Alexios could only
Send these people across the strait and let Vasiliko be their protector.
The road across the strait to the empire's border is stable. These areas have been recovered by the empire for a while. Although bandits and horse bandits can be seen from time to time, it seems that they can only be honest when such a huge army comes.
Actually hiding.
Along the way, they enjoyed a steady stream of material supplies from the empire, and the densely populated areas they passed made it easier to mobilize resources, so there were no bad jobs like the previous looting of Greek villages, and the relationship between the local residents and the Crusaders was relatively peaceful.
The Crusaders' lax discipline was the biggest obstacle that Vasiliko had to overcome along the way. There were always disobedient guys who did their own thing, and people were joining and leaving the team all the time.
The only good thing is that the two leaders of the Crusaders expressed their willingness to obey Vasiliko's arrangements - but only if the Crusaders are on the path they want to take. If he is delayed because of this, there may be something wrong.
What's going on?
Grigory was responsible for managing discipline. Within a few days, the always good-tempered Russian prince-in-law soon became full of foul language. However, despite the stumbling, the army was still moving forward smoothly without any large-scale irregularities.
Combat attrition.
Along the way, Vasiliko saw countless traces of war, ruins that had been abandoned for who knows how long, bones that were left unburied, and bandits that could be seen everywhere. This land had been constantly tortured in the past.
Now I finally feel at peace.
In the last town on the border of the empire, Vasiliko stayed for half a month. During this month, he did nothing else but to save as much food, grass and water as possible. After entering the next road,
It is difficult to get these things.
This naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction among the Crusaders. They just wanted to quickly conquer the pagan city and then embark on their pilgrimage. Seeing that persuasion was of no use, Vasiliko directly used the materials at his disposal to suppress
Putting down those opposing voices - this is the most useful of the many powers given to Vasiliko by Alexios.
Fortunately, there are sensible people in the Crusaders. After Vasiliko used his ultimate move, they also cooperated to convince others to calm down and wait for a while. The hermit Peter contributed a lot, and a potential threat emerged.
This is how it is resolved.
After Vasiliko accumulated what he thought was enough supplies, the army was able to take action, and then they began an arduous journey.
After setting foot on this sparsely populated land, the Crusaders realized how right Vasilko was. The hot weather was testing their physical strength all the time. There were basically no villages or rivers visible along the way, only extremely few rivers.
Water sources are available, but these available water sources often cannot satisfy the entire army.
This road is still difficult to walk, with rolling mountains and hills everywhere. After climbing one hill, there is another hill. However, the one with the most tortured mentality in the entire army was Vasiliko. He looked at everyone with suspicion and horror.
On a hill, anxiously waiting for news from the Turkic scouts, for fear of being attacked by enemy troops.
Although the entire army looked miserable, if Vasiliko had not prepared enough food and water in advance, the Crusaders would have been reduced in number, so their confidence in Vasiliko increased a lot.
But in Vasiliko's view, this is still not enough. Many crusaders have no awareness of saving water at all.
No matter how many times he ordered, it was useless. They just poured the entire bag of water over their heads just to get a moment of coolness.
Every time when setting up camp, the waste of water is at its peak. He once saw a Frenchman accidentally knocking the entire bucket of water to the ground, and then the people around him just laughed at the man, completely unaware of the water loss.
How precious.
However, Vasiliko also knows what is the root cause of all this. It is difficult for people from areas with abundant water resources to have the awareness of saving water. Only when they experience the horror caused by lack of water, such as almost dying of thirst, etc.
, this problem can be solved.
His father called this situation paying tuition. Vasiliko thought it was very appropriate. This was not the so-called cost of study.
Vasilko also came here in this way, but he did not pay a heavy price for it, and the tuition fee was not too much. After all, he led a well-disciplined army.
As for these crusaders... Vasiliko has set a standard in his heart for forty to fifty thousand people. In his opinion, at least half of them must die.
After realizing that no matter what he said, Vasiliko directly restricted the Crusaders' water use. The Crusaders who suddenly lost their abundant water sources naturally complained. Vasiliko's reputation also became bad in their mouths.
They completely forgot how they praised Vasiliko for accumulating resources before.
The top brass of the Crusaders have no objections to this. Anyway, no matter how much water is restricted, they cannot limit it. Saving resources is also a good thing. However, they were not willing to bear this reputation before. Now that Vasiliko bears it, what will happen to everyone?
Everything is fine too.
And Vasiliko didn't care about the scolding at all. Compared with this, he was more concerned about where the Turkic troops were. Now they are getting closer to Konya, but there are not many conflicts with the Turks.
It was only a small-scale Turkic army.
Instinct told Vasiliko that the Turks must be preparing something, and that Sultan Rom must be planning a raid, but he just didn't know when he would launch the raid.
The closer he got to Konya, the higher Vasiliko's vigilance became, because it was bound to be getting closer and closer to the time when the Turkic army would launch a surprise attack. He continued to double the number of guards and strengthened war preparations.
But the looseness of the Crusaders became the biggest obstacle to his war preparations. The Crusade he led was a civilian Crusade. Civilians made up the absolute majority of this army. In fact, there were only just over 5,000 reliable combatants.
The civilian subject means the laxity of these people and their disregard for discipline. They are like a group of wild boars with their heads pointing outwards. Although they gather under threat, they are likely to flee immediately once they are attacked.
.
In the past, such sloppiness during the march was tolerable. After all, these civilians could only follow the army at that time, but now in wartime, this is unbearable. In many cases, people were finally caught in the last second.
I would go to the place I was supposed to go, and then go do other things, and then when I came back, I would find that everyone was gone.
All this made Vasiliko extremely tired, and the Crusaders became more and more annoyed with this guy who was doing everything. Amidst such stumbling, the real attack came unexpectedly.