Battle of the Three Armies Part II
In the fields outside the city of Acre, tens of thousands of soldiers marched towards each other. On one side was the mighty crusader army composed of fifteen thousand men, on the other was the Byzantine-Timurid alliance, which held an equal number of soldiers. While the infantry marched towards one another with killing intent, the artillery had begun to open fire on their adversaries.
The Byzantine Artillery officers were well disciplined, having received their training from German Military Advisors. The individual members of the artillery batteries loaded their weapons from the muzzle, before lighting the linstock and using it to ignite the cannon. With a thunderous echo, the cannonballs rained onto the crusader armies, blasting bodies apart as they burrowed their way through the enemy ranks.