Chapter 7

" Eric, I've seen these madmen. "What did you do with them? What god raised the prayer to God?

" Oh, Rudolph, you're already an adult, where are these stupid things from? "Have you ever seen a prayer work in your life?

"I've heard of it. "

- Well, I'm talking about the fact that cows fly, I heard, but I did not have to see.

" Do not talk, tell me. "I do not find a place for myself.

- Yes, everything is simple. After an hour of shelling, I decided to divide the archers into two equal groups. Change of watch for three hours. While one is not in a hurry to give volleys, the second is resting or sleeping. The ballista was also organized. As a result, the bombardment was round the clock and evenly, without stopping for a minute. Just imagine - for four days nowhere in the city was not calm. You want to drink and you are scared, horror as terrible, as these fucking arrows pierce even the roofs. Only you begin to fall asleep - and then again somewhere near the core the wall of a house has been turned, only your eyes are closing, how you hear this terrible whistle and blows, hundreds of blows that surround you and drive you into a corner. These poor devils did not sleep for four days, they hardly drank the last day. In addition, they have been in a strong nervous strain since the advent of the ships of Demeter, that is, a week. They just were not ready for this tension and lost their mind. I spent the whole night watching what they did in the city. Women tore young children to pieces with their bare hands.

"A terrible siege. "Did everyone lose their mind there?

- Of course, no, but that huge crowd of simple and weak inhabitants dared the crumbs of those few that held on.

" It's creepy to think that someone will do something like this against us. "How did you learn about such tricks in the siege business?

- Yes, from nowhere. I improvised.

- What does the word "improvise" mean?

- Well, let's say, "composed". How to compose music. Inspiration came, and I used it. Rudolph's face suddenly turned completely pale.

- So you that, when you told this Greek girl stories about Ares, did not joke?

" And what about the gods? "People create and destroy this world. Can not you really admit that I'm just an ordinary person, just having certain talents?

" It's easier for me to accept that you have not been you for a long time. "Eric, because the changes that touched you that night can not be explained by a blow to the stone. In that crypt, an unintentional boy ran in, and an adult and extremely dangerous man came out. "I'm afraid. " I've been through so much, but I'm scared like a child. For the first time I feel that I have encountered something mysterious, terribly dangerous and completely incomprehensible. Eric, who are you?

- Dear Rudolph, I understand that such a conversation has long been ripe, but it will be long, and therefore it is necessary to finish the case, which does not tolerate urgent. The city is full of corpses, if we want to take a prize from it, we need to act as quickly as possible - many bodies are already over four days old. They have already begun to decompose. I promise, after we talk.

Ok.

This event involved all the forces that could be found. All took off their armor and excess clothing. More than twenty thousand people were to be buried in less than a day. All the liberated slaves were organized into brigades and set off to dig the foundation pits with shock rates. The shovel was not enough for everyone, so many worked with improvised means - who planks, who are helmets. The servants and warriors of the baron entered the city and began hastily to load bodies onto carts and take them closer to digging pits. Of course - previously the bodies were undressed, since Eric needed a lot of old rags to set up a small handicraft paper production, and not write it out for huge money from China. In addition to people on the streets and in the houses of the city, there was a mass of dead creatures, from chickens to horses and cows. One and a half thousand people worked hard not only until the sunset, but also at night. Towards morning the city was liberated from rotting flesh, and the common graves were filled. It remains to make the last jerk and you can relax. All fell asleep together. But it was not the worst thing - the Baron did not let them all fall down and fall asleep right over the loose ground - he drove them all into the river and forced them to strip naked. Women and men from former slaves were unaccustomed to this, but so tired that they did not resist. Those people who had already washed themselves, approached the carts, took a clean piece of cloth and, using it as a sheet, went to sleep in the camp that a week ago they beat Eric's soldiers. It was already cool, but everyone did not care, as it was terribly like to sleep. Going around the camp, the baron smiled, looking at the way these people slept in the field, almost without clothes, and still huddled, like little kittens, to each other to keep warm. It was impossible to remain without protection, but he did not wake up those exhausted people and personally circumvented the perimeter and supported the fire in the bonfires. At nightfall, people slowly began to wake up. To disperse the chilled body, he forced them to jump and run a little. When a man had already accumulated a hundred, he sent them to wash the laundry, which they threw directly on the beach during bathing. The morning of October 14 was quite warm, although it was different. Around the fortified field camp, a whole crowd of naked people of both sexes slowly ran around. Well warmed up, they put on the already dried over the bonfires and began to breakfast.

" You see, Rudolph, there were too many of them involved in this business. When in places where there are so many rotting corpses, crowds gather, then wait for misfortunes. We were lucky that we were alive - they could have provoked some kind of sea. Rotting flesh is very dangerous for all living things. By the way, you need to send people to analyze the dam on the river. Troupes of cows need to be lowered into the sea, and preferably away.

Ok.

In the morning it was reported to the ships of the squadron about the successful end of the assault, and therefore a significant part of them was returned to their trade communications. In the port of Sugdey there were only five large naves that were supposed to provide transportation as part of the continuation of the military campaign of Eric. Demeter also departed with her fleet. She had new instructions - it was necessary to deploy a campaign to seize old antique statues and begin to transfer them to the domain of her master in the Crimea. In parallel, the process of methodical liberation of the taken city from everything valuable began. All the rags that were found in the city, were taken to the river, where they washed and dried. After drying, bales were formed from it, preparing for further transportation. The ships that remained from the Genoese merchants were in a very poor state. Almost all were deprived of a mast and rigging, and some lay at the bottom, pulled out by the crowd on that terrible night. A significant part of the goods on the ships was fur and amber. They could and had to be resold in Europe, because for the life purposes of Eric's possessions, neither of these was absolutely necessary. The city collected everything that represented at least some value - even clay pots and construction timber. To these tasks, he singled out all the servants and a significant part of the freed slaves, as well as military escort in the form of a second company. The case turned out to be quite inexpensive, and it was impossible to pull. Therefore, with the first company, he marched forward to Korchev. Rumors fled ahead of Eric, and therefore, when his people were in direct line of sight from the ancient city, they not only did not begin to obstruct, but also came out to meet. The news of the death of the Genoese Sugdei was the last straw, after which the limit of their cordiality towards the baron became inexhaustible. First of all, the new ruler of the eastern Crimea began to prepare warehouses for taking trophies from the ravaged city - like covered barracks for rags, grains and other, and aligned areas for the stone. He decided to disassemble the city wall and take it to Korchev to get a quick mass of building material. Disassemble is much easier than breaking in the quarries. In parallel, in one of the vacant estates of the city, his temporary residence began to be prepared, that is, everything should be washed and cleaned up. The empty estates were pretty decent, as the old town was in decline for 150 years. The inhabitants were very few - from around the city to the general meeting, which Eric organized, no more than seven thousand people gathered. Including women and children. At the general meeting, he said that the city returns to its ancient name - Bosporus, and made the capital of his vicegerency. While there was work to transport the property of the Genoese from the defeated city, and also created an elementary working atmosphere in the Bosporus, Eric began to draw together local feudal lords and village elders. Unfortunately, local feudal lords, unlike the mountainous part of the Crimea, were not. By the end of November 1202, there were twenty-four villages and three Tymariots. At the same time there are a lot of interesting events. First, the head of the Templar order, Monsieur de Plesier, arrives. Secondly, a delegation from the Kiev Prince Rurik II arrived. Thirdly, they finally finished eviscerating the ruins of Sugdeyi, there is now practically nothing left - even a stone suitable for construction.