Arranging the wounded in the caring hands of Morrigan and taking their victims to the local morgue - that is, the largest church, Eric took up the dismantling of trophies. All Polovtsy stripped naked, packed on carts and exported out of town, where they fell down in regular rows near the huge pit that the local people hired by the city council were digging. The mass grave, so as not to cause problems of hygienic plan, should be about four human growth. Towards evening, when the pit was ready, they began to carefully drop corpses, and some of the workers that remained there, lay them so that the layer was smoother. The darkness was finished. All the armor and weapons loaded on the wagons and went immediately to the building of the arsenal, where they were described and taken to the city balance. All the rest was taken to the building of the magistrate. The next morning Baron ordered to dismantle the barricades and repair the damaged gates. The first half of the case was taken - the city was taken and defeated in an enemy detachment. Now it was necessary to think whether he would be able to take the second key city of the Genoese, or he should advance to Korchev, who would already accept him with open arms. According to the latest information, there were about thirty ships with goods in the port of Sughd and about one thousand slaves in the city itself. True, the troops are about a thousand and the inhabitants are no less than in Feodosia. Difficult task.
- Theodore, I do not see something on the town's plan of the fortress. I heard there must be a fortress there.
Right? The old imperial fortress is in the eastern part of the city, on a cliff. But it is now in ruins.
- It's just wonderful! By the way, and in the baggage we did not have any arrows?
- It was very decent. The Kypchaks were preparing for a long siege of the city, and therefore brought with them a whole ten rifle with arrows.
Perfectly as expected. Rudolf! Are you listening to me?
- Yes, I can hear it perfectly.
" We speak tomorrow morning. "We take the ballista with the staff, all the soldiers who are not injured, as well as all the male servants. How many of them do we have now, by the way?
- I find it difficult to answer, about two hundred.
Ok. Take in the baggage of whole bows according to the number of servants, plus a top of a dozen or two, in order to replace the worthless ones. Well, all the carts of Polovtsian arrows. Take good food with you, as we are going to besiege. You, Theodore, remain an assistant with Morrigan, she will be in charge of everything. Your goal is peace and order in the city. Two days after our departure, send to Sugdeya a food train for a thousand people a week. Is everyone clear? Then obey.
The whole day Eric spent with his servants, who explained what they would do. A lot of them were not required. It was necessary only, guided by the commander's hand, to raise bows with the right elevation and be ready to shoot all together. Neither speed nor accuracy from them was required. Closer to the evening of the following day, Eric's troops approached Sugdeya and blocked it from the land. Now she was in a real siege. The remainder of the day the artillerymen and servants occupied a position on the ruins of the old Byzantine fortress. Beneath it, far below, lay the city. They also put the tent Eric. The main part of the army camped in the valley, blocking the only road that approached the besieged city. Of course, the camp was fortified with a palisade and a moat, although the soldiers fought badly about this, because they had to strengthen themselves. So, everything is ready for the siege, and in the courtyard was the morning of October 8, 1202.
Based on formal courtesy, Eric sent the parliamentarians, so they told the Genoese about who is besieging them and why. It turns out that the villagers, rascals, are not paying taxes to the emperor for many years, so he, his deputy, came to collect from them due. At the same time - to receive a fine as compensation for long delays in payments. The sum was called colossal. Well and further all in absolutely traditional style - the baron suggested them to surrender, all to pay and return to a fold of empire. As expected, the response was a wide variety of flowery expressions on a whole heap of diverse languages. He seriously miscalculated in terms of nationalities - in the city though set the tone of the Genoese merchants, but the bulk of the population was not homogeneous and was a terrible mix. In general, all this staging was needed, first of all, to amuse the baron himself. He had a good mood in the morning and a desire to play a big boy, who condescendingly shows mercy to bad enemies. So, after listening to the mat, Eric slowly, walking pace, returned to the position of the shooters and, having ordered Ostroneg to start shelling the city, he himself took command over the combined artillery battery in order to destroy the water tanks. At that time the city was small and quite compact under the cliff with an ancient fortress, and therefore the ballista and its bows shot through the whole. The first due to the initially large energy shot, the second due to the shape of the projectile, which could use the aerodynamic force. In a normal situation, this is very harmful, because it greatly reduces the accuracy, and now - just right, since no one needs accuracy. Even on the contrary. The shelling began from the furthest tank. They shot themselves quickly. Alas, but at this distance, many hits were needed to destroy this important social structure. I had to spend the whole day, but by the evening the walls collapsed and mixed the water with stones, dust and earth, making it impossible to use it. Next went better, as the second tank was located much closer to the cliff. A couple of hours of shelling and a neat collapse of the structure. The archers also did their job well. They worked slowly, with smoke breaks, warm-ups, lunch on positions and so on. Not war, but raspberry. And in the streets of Sugddei, the mass of corpses increased, because the arrow, even losing speed in a horizontal flight, dived from a height of more than three hundred meters. Although the spread was enormous, but the speed that the projectile picked up with such a dive allowed the roof to be pierced through the houses and any armor - even mail coats, even quilted robes. At night, along the city walls, Erika's people, hired as far back as Feodosia, were running, shouting in different languages that the greedy lords were doomed to die, and other agitational nonsense in order to heat up the situation in the city. The next morning they decided to drive out the slaves from the city, as there was very little water in their personal resources, and they did not dare to kill, since it was not clear where to put the bodies. How long the siege will last is unknown, and if they start to rot, then the city will begin to mourn. Even if they are thrown out into the sea, still most of the surf will return to the shore. Especially since there are enough dead bodies. Let it be better that they are fought with enemies. However, provoking such an act, Eric warned in advance, Theodore, so the convoy with food came up in time. True, he was embarrassed by the thought - but would not they cut them? But the risk is a noble business, and therefore the baron went to this adventure. The slaves were well received and immediately sent to swim in the Suuk-Su river upstream of that blockage with the bodies of dead cows, which the baron people built to deprive the besieged of the opportunity to use this water. The mass of slowly rotting bodies did its job, that is, it consistently maintained a good level of poison in running water. After washing they were given a simple clean clothes, watered and fed. Not very satisfying, but in any way better than they used to eat before. After the people of Theodore began to understand who was brought to their fate. Age, where the child comes from, profession, health status and the presence of relatives among the rest of the released. Arrows killed only a dozen or two people, so practically all came out of the city, that is, one thousand two hundred and forty-three people. The whole third day continued the fascinating shooting range, in which the ballista beat on the buildings, driving out people from there, and the archers gave volleys, covering the rushing crowds. On the night, from the third to the fourth day of the siege, an eerie and utterly irresistible uprising flared up in the city. Poor people have not slept for the fourth day, since even at night there was a shelling of the city. The massacre was terrible, as in the greater part of the population the sensation of horror and panic reached its apogee. Out of more than twenty thousand people, the night survived no more than two. And those - lost their mind. The result was even more spectacular and more terrible than Eric planned. Spiritually weak people were unable to withstand prolonged stress. At dawn, this crowd rushed from the city. Have you ever seen a young woman, completely naked, on the body a few cut wounds, all in the mud, eyes raging madly, and in the hands of a big knife? There were many, but they were waited and met. From a distance of one hundred and fifty paces they began to beat from crossbows. Then these crazy climbed on the palisade, where they died. And many themselves, slipping, ripped their stomachs on pointed stakes. The battle was very fast and became the final of the siege. The city is taken. Although you can call the city what is left of it? The city was destroyed, and it remained to quickly collect all the valuable, until it was no longer possible to breathe from the decaying corpses. Even the merchants, who huddled on their ships, were taken out at night and killed. Surprised that the city did not start a fire. A whole sea of corpses and blood. Yeah, the winner's burden is heavy, but it's much better than the loser's burden.
