At the bend of the Volga River, further to the north, a fleet had appeared at some unknown time.
This fleet consisted of three large ships and dozens of smaller ones, with arrow-blocking shields set up along their gunwales, fully loaded with armed warriors, presenting a menacing sight.
The moment the Moscow Prince saw it, he immediately understood where the Bulgar river defense fleet, which Adam had been unable to find, was located.
It was right here!
"Meshko, hurry and carry out your mission, and tell Robert to get his ballistas ready, load them with rockets, and fire at that fleet! Gvaran, immediately have the troops line up on the riverbank to guard against any possible landings! Also, also, have my archers go to the bank immediately…"
After the initial panic, Rostislav immediately reacted with countermeasures, issuing commands without pause, mobilizing everyone around him.
And everyone, without any hesitation, quickly went to carry out their tasks, understanding that the situation had reached a critical moment.
However, after doing all this, Rostislav's mood did not improve at all, because he knew the future was still uncertain, and he even began to prepare himself mentally to abandon those thousands of men.
But Adam had to be rescued; without him, he would lose the biggest banner for conquering Bulgar. So Rostislav called for Vasily, his personal guard captain, and gave him a mission…
The appearance of the Bulgar fleet undoubtedly put Rostislav's side in a state of great shock, as if those large ships were to sail downstream and smash the pontoon bridge, their retreat would be cut off, and they would be slaughtered on this sandbar.
This caused many people to instinctively start fleeing, but Rostislav had already prepared for such a situation.
When these people ran to the other side of the riverbank, they found that the Prince's personal guards had arrived at some point, swords in hand.
And once the deserters were completely slaughtered, the crisis of collapse naturally dissipated.
However, this could only last for a while; if a solution to the Bulgar fleet could not be found, defeat was inevitable.
"Bastard! That bastard boy! How could he do this! How could he do this!"
As the Slavs fell into a panic, inside the Bulgar Army's command bunker, Akad Khan was furiously pounding the table, his intense rage radiating, making everyone in the bunker afraid to speak.
"The timing, the current, and the battle situation are all not enough, all not enough! How could he launch an attack on his own!"
Akad had originally wanted to fight a decisive annihilation battle. In his plan, his troops would "retreat" to lure the Slavs deeper and commit more troops, but now that hope was shattered; it was no longer possible!
At most, he could only eliminate the few thousand men who had already crossed the river, but what was the use of eliminating these few thousand men? It wouldn't even reduce the number of the main army on the opposite bank below ten thousand.
Akad's current mood was similar to when he discovered the Kashin Silver Mine flooded back then; just when everything was set in stone, he suddenly found the situation had undergone a drastic change.
"Then, Khan, should we immediately deploy the main force? At least this way, we can eliminate all the Slavs who have already crossed the river."
Akad was silent for a moment regarding Jia Dabi's suggestion, and the answer he gave next stunned Jia Dabi.
"No, let's first see how the battle develops. For now, just deploy a portion of the troops to maintain pressure on the Slavs."
While Akad was angry about his Khans son's unauthorized action, on the Volga River, a Bulgar warship was crushing a Slav small boat.
Seeing the large ship charging, the archers on the small boat immediately jumped into the river, and then the small boat was overturned and crushed into pieces by the Bulgar warship.
However, even jumping into the water did not save them from death, as arrows immediately rained down, killing those who had fallen into the water.
The three attacking Bulgar warships were three galley-sailing ships, typically active in the Mediterranean Sea and very rare in the north, but now they were active on the Volga River.
And here, it could completely dominate the entire battlefield situation, as the best Slav ships were only longships, few in number and without large vessels, making it difficult to contend with such warships.
These galley-sailing ships also had rams, and now the targets of these rams were the pontoon bridges on the Volga River.
On the ship's shields and masts, archers were raining arrows on all sides. The unprotected Slav small boats were helpless against these arrows, as they didn't even have a usable shield, and thus fell into the water with screams.
The fleet's commander, Selim Kolin Dulu, watched all this with satisfaction, his young face filled with contentment and pride, for the Slavs were failing before him.
For years, the young Selim had wanted to prove himself, but unfortunately, his father had never given him the opportunity, and now that he finally had the chance to lead an army independently, he naturally wanted to seize it.
When the battle situation was clearly in Bulgar's favor, he obviously couldn't sit still, fearing the battle would end like this, fearing he wouldn't get a chance to gain glory, so he chose to attack without authorization.
And when the Khans son made such a decision, what else could others say? No one could stop his actions.
Thus, the fleet, which was supposed to deliver a fatal blow to the Slavs in Akad's plan, departed early.
"Faster! Faster! Make the slaves row faster."
Selim wore an extremely ostentatious and flashy armor, inlaid with jewels and interwoven with gold and silver threads, and he was now giving orders to the captain, who had a dark expression.
"Lord Selim, our speed has reached its limit, it's really difficult to…"
The captain's words were cut short by flying fire snakes, which were shot from the ballistas in the Slav positions on the west bank.
However, unluckily yet fortunately, these rockets did not hit the three large ships; most fell into the water, with only one hitting a Bulgar longship, killing a sailor, but the flames were quickly extinguished.
"…we really can't accelerate any further."
The captain finished his sentence, but as he did, a flurry of crossbow bolts shot like wind, and some archers standing by the gunwales fell one after another.
The corpses fell among the rowing slaves, scaring them into instinctively stopping their rowing, but the flying whips immediately made them resume work.
Facing these deaths, Selim's face showed no wavering, which made the captain's impression of this Khans son, who forced him to attack, improve slightly.
However, he also knew that this was mostly because he was sitting in the safe ship's tower, where arrows were unlikely to reach.
"Then wield the whips, make those slaves row desperately. The harder the whip is wielded, the faster the slaves row, right? That's how it's done, Captain, go and execute it now!"
As Selim spoke, his eyes were fixed on the pontoon bridge. His mind was filled with images of him commanding the ships to break through the pontoon bridge, at which point the Slavs' retreat would be cut off, and his father, who had never paid much attention to him, would have to acknowledge his achievements and grant him glory.
Seeing the Khans son's demeanor, the captain knew that anything he said would be meaningless, so he could only obediently carry out the order.
The captain silently sighed, not for the slaves, but because, given the current situation, it was really difficult to determine whether his ram could break the pontoon bridge.
For this, the captain had already discussed it with the most experienced sailors on the ship, and everyone's opinion was that the chance of breaking or not breaking it was exactly fifty-fifty; at that point, they could only rely on Allah's blessing.
Stepping out of the small ship's tower, the captain stood fearlessly in the air where arrows flew wildly. He had not seen such a sight for a long time, but he still felt no fear facing it.
He silently prayed in his heart, praying for Allah to grant them luck.
"Whips up! Make those slaves row desperately, unfurl all sails, everyone prepare for impact, we're going all out!"
The crew let out their war cries, echoing the captain's command. Many of them were old river pirates on this river, possessing their own fanaticism for battle, and they were eager to see the Slavs fall into the water.
And beneath these excited war cries were the wails of the slaves under the lash; facing the whips, they could only exert all their strength, rowing desperately, rowing desperately…
"God, there's no stopping them from advancing at all."
The German Engineer stood beside a ballista. He had just personally operated the ballista to hit the sail of a longship, and soon the entire ship was engulfed in spreading flames, forcing the sailors on board to jump into the river.
Many small boats were also riddled with crossbow bolts, their occupants either dying or jumping into the river, but unfortunately, only these small boats met such a fate.
This did not bring him much joy, because the Bulgar fleet was still advancing, still unstoppable.
In the German Engineer's eyes, the galley-sailing ships, propelled by wind and slave oars, crashed into the pontoon bridge.
And the next scene was precisely what they did not want to see: the leading galley-sailing ship directly broke the pontoon bridge, and those who had not had time to escape were thrown into the water, wailing and fear echoing all around.
Now the German Engineer could only hope that the small tricks he used when designing the pontoon bridge would work.
Rostislav watched the impact on the pontoon bridge, feeling his heart clench. The thing he didn't want to see had still happened.
"Rostislav…"
Poleye's voice sounded from behind, and the Moscow Prince understood what he was hinting at, but the Moscow Prince was unwilling to accept it, and did not want to accept it, so he pretended not to hear at all.
He had never failed, and he could not fail! And he was also waiting for a result.
Seeing this, Poleye could only sigh. He understood the young man's mindset and why he was like this.
But then, the next scene greatly surprised Poleye.
Because after the leading ship passed through, the other two galley-sailing ships also crashed into it, and the pontoon bridge was indeed broken, but then the ships slowly came to a halt in that sea of floating timber.
"Damn it, why can't we move?"
"Floating timber, there's too much floating timber, we can't even row!"
"Why are there fishing nets under this pontoon bridge? They've tangled up the oars!"
Panicked voices rang out from the Bulgar warships, and seeing the galley-sailing ships stop, the longships behind them also stopped one after another.
Because they knew very well that if even the galley-sailing ships couldn't get through, then how could they.
The archers and crossbowmen naturally seized this opportunity, and Robert immediately commanded the ballistas to fire. Such a good opportunity could not be missed! Shooting at stationary targets was much easier than at moving ones!
For a time, the ships forced to stop were suppressed; they could only hide behind their shields to resist the fierce barrage of arrows.
But this was just the beginning of their nightmare.
"Allah, they're climbing onto the ships!"
Even though many people had fallen into the river, it didn't mean they had lost their fighting ability. Those on the pontoon bridge were fierce Nomads, and a few years of peaceful life could not erase their combat effectiveness.
The fierce ones directly bit their weapons and climbed onto the enemy ships. The Bulgars might kill some, but more people climbed up, and soon the fighting began on the ships.
Seeing this scene in the bunker, Akad felt his head was about to explode. The scene he didn't want to see had still happened, and now even the original minimum requirement had not been met; instead, he was caught in a siege!
"Have the trebuchets fire at both sides of that pontoon bridge! Stop the Slavs for me!"
"But Khan, it's hard to say what effect that will have."
Someone immediately spoke up to advise, saying that doing so would really be of little use.
However, the advice only earned him the Khan's roar, "Just do as I say!"
"Yes!"
Hearing this, the man had no more words to say and immediately went to carry out the order.
It was at this moment that Meshko and his subordinates reached the pontoon bridge, and what he saw next was a scene of stones constantly falling, even seeing a person directly crushed by a stone, blood splattering everyone.
Many parts of the pontoon bridge also became more fragmented under such attacks, but it was still passable, at least.
However, there were also friendly fire incidents, as the accuracy of trebuchets was truly difficult to guarantee. So Meshko saw how the trebuchets accidentally hit their own people: a huge stone directly struck the middle of a longship, splitting the entire longship in two.
"This is too exciting, let's go!"
This did not scare the Polish Knight. After a few brief exclamations, he immediately led his subordinates to charge, intending to capture those warships now.
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