Remember [New] in a second! "I didn't expect their arrows to be so powerful, and I lost some troops." Gilbert, Earl of Ramongao, had to sigh with emotion.

While fighting in the city, his horsemen beheaded a group of Norman soldiers.

The enemy is easy to distinguish. It is midsummer now, and the Normans walking in the streets are mostly shirtless, revealing the very obvious tattoos on their bodies. The enemy made some precautions in the crisis, but the cavalry took the upper hand, and the Ramon Gao army, who had won the first victory, sprinted all the way to the city dock under the sprint of Gilbert's example.

However, at the pier, he, who was confident that he could drive all the Normans down the river and drown, encountered the most outrageous blow he had ever seen in his life.

Floating on the river was the biggest boat he had ever seen in his life!

Those were the Ross armed cargo ships and sail destroyers that accompanied the expedition, especially the latter. The sail destroyers belonged to the second-class combat force in the Ross Navy, and their size was much larger than that of a rowing longboat.

The torsion slingshots are still placed on the side of the ship, and they are usually covered with tarpaulins for protection. In a critical moment, when the Mlaren people were beaten by the sudden Frankish cavalry and fled in a hurry, the wounded on the other side of the river, lying in the sun and healing, got up one after another to help the friendly army. fight back.

The javelins fired by the torsion slingshot shot randomly at the Frankish cavalry troops crowded by the river, and countered with the crossbow.

The sharp javelin pierced through the body of the war horse, and the horse neighed and jumped in panic, only to get more seriously injured, and fell down in the mad vomiting of blood, throwing the rider out together.

The soldiers who were hit by the crossbow at a long distance, the needle-like armor-piercing arrows pierced into the flesh but not deep.

Earl Gilbert was young but not an ordinary person. He hurriedly withdrew from the battlefield with his elite soldiers, ignoring the rescue of the wounded at critical moments.

The wounded cavalrymen still had stubby arrows stuck in them. The excited soldiers couldn't feel the pain for a while, and they had to calm down after returning to the city. The piercing pain forced the dismounted soldiers to groan and twitch while clutching their wounds.

General Tristan had arranged for his cavalry to sweep out the remnants of the enemy in the city, and he naturally captured some prisoners of war, all of whom were bound hand and foot and began to be interrogated.

It's a pity that his people don't understand Norse, even if they hang up the captured Mellaren soldiers and beat them, they can't ask why.

However, in order to vent his anger, Tristan did order all the prisoners of war to be hung upside down.

This general was known for his cruel methods, so he obviously sent such a confidant general. Lothair believed that such a person sitting in Brussels could deter the Flemish people from acting rashly.

Now that he has learned that Maastricht has fallen, he does not have to consider civilian casualties in the battle to retake the city. There are no civilians in this city at all, or they were sold into slavery by the Normans, or were they killed? !

Based on his understanding of the style of the Danes, it is likely that a large number of people have really become slaves to the northerners.

Tit for tat? No! All the more than thirty Normans captured, they will be executed publicly.

In other words, the execution process will be clearly seen by those Normans on the other side of the river.

The dismounted Frankish heavy cavalry warriors temporarily approached the east gate of the city facing the river in the posture of infantry.

There are Norman ships on the Maas River. If the enemy finds a certain opportunity to launch a counterattack, will our side encounter unexpected passiveness?

The Maas River bridge has collapsed, but according to Gilbert's information, the bridge across the river in Liege was also destroyed. In theory, cavalry can be carried across the bridge by small boats, but the Normans will give the Frankish army a chance to cross the river calmly. ? Besides, even the newly occupied Norman ships were taken back by the enemy.

General Tristan ordered the ministries to act calmly, and went to the cathedral first with his own soldiers.

He had already smelled the stench just as he approached the church, and it was self-evident what happened inside.

His heart was beating wildly, and subconsciously covering his mouth and nose, he ordered his subordinates to push open the closed wooden door.

The soldiers didn't want to do this at first, the strong stench when they approached the wooden door, if they hadn't experienced too many battles, they would have vomited.

The double wooden doors were pulled open, and suddenly a group of black shadows spewed out with a strong buzzing sound.

"Ah! Lord of the Flies!" A soldier exclaimed as if being pushed down by a black shadow, and fell to the ground by accident.

On the other hand, the soldiers retreated again and again, but accompanied by the overwhelming flies, there was also a stench, which suffocated all the soldiers present, and the strong feeling of vomiting could no longer be overcome by human subjective willpower.

Even Tristan himself vomited with his hands on the ground.

Even if the so-called city is occupied, Maastricht, whose superficial floating wealth has been robbed, is no longer willing to be occupied by Bjorn's Mlaren army. The inner city is full of dead bodies, especially in the cathedral.

The Norman soldiers were originally ordinary people in the north. Even if they are used to death in killing battles, as long as conditions permit, they will never get together with a pile of dead bodies.

The inner city, in Bjorn's view, is a huge tomb, where there is no gold or silver to loot.

Tristan, who vomited a lot, stood up, and continued to cover his mouth and nose, boldly intending to enter the cathedral to find out.

However, the stinking scene still completely forced him and the soldiers back.

He had to order one: "Damn it! The bishop is dead! Close the door quickly, we will talk about anything later."

This was expected, but he didn't expect the priests and a large number of ordinary people to die so horribly.

Frustrated, he took the well water handed over by his subordinates to rinse his mouth, and approached the hanged Mlaren prisoner aggressively, clutching his horsewhip.

He was arrogant, and his bared teeth seemed to be swallowing it alive. Holding up his horsewhip that was soaked in water, he yelled, "You bandits! You should all be damned! One stabbing you to death with a sword will take advantage of you!"

After all, he himself acted as the executioner, and after selecting a prisoner of war, with great patience, he whipped him to a **** lake with a horsewhip, and finally turned into a mass of scarlet rotten flesh, and the prisoner died of exhaustion.

The dismounted soldiers onlookers have rarely seen a general so ill. As a close colleague, a flag captain approached Tristan and grabbed his arm: "Brother, enough is enough. This is a group of sheep in a sheep pen, If you want to kill it, give it a good time."

Tristan angrily dropped his **** whip: "Damn it! I'm very angry right now."

"But we are not them. When everything is over, let's collect the dead bodies."

"The end?" Tristan turned his head and stared at the faces of his colleagues: "What's the end? The Normans are still entrenched on the other side of the river. How do I report to the king now? Tell him that we have defended Brussels but lost Masters." Richter? I'm going to fight back! I'm going to wipe them out."

That being the case, all three captains of the Frankish heavy cavalry banner including him knew that the cavalry could not directly step across the river, unless the Normans were willing to cross the river and fight the cavalry one after another.

Are the Normans fools? No one thinks they are stupid, on the contrary, everyone thinks that because of their passiveness in this attack, they feel that they are stupid.

The flag captain held back his anger and suggested: "We should really kill them. Our army cannot cross the river directly. We must find a way to anger the Normans and force them to cross the river to challenge us. In this way, our army Iron hooves trampled them all to a pulp."

"What else can I do? I think... those guys will be afraid of our cavalry strength."

What Tristan said was inherently arrogant, but if you think about it a little bit, if all you command are infantry, you will have to go around when you see the enemy's cavalry.

"Provoke them," continued the flag captain. "I've heard that the Danes are aggressive. Some humiliation will surely bring them down."

"How to do?"

"Don't they have blood eagle punishment? We can emulate it. But we don't have to learn it completely. We don't need mercy to kill these bandits who believe in heresy. Since you want to vent your anger, then use another method to vent your anger, at least let them vent their anger. See."

The flag captain seemed to be talking a lot of nonsense, and seemed to have given Tristan some inspiration. He was looking at a group of trembling prisoners of war, pinching his curly beard and couldn't help having some wild thoughts.

However, General Tristan did not give up the possibility of crossing the river to attack.

With his helmet in his hand, he led the guards to the camp of Earl Ramongao.

Gilbert, the courage of this young man is admirable, but bravery and recklessness are often difficult to explain. He definitely didn't dare to sternly abuse this brat for his recklessness face to face. After all, this kid is really the legal son-in-law of the king, and he has become a person who cannot be scolded.

In the end, Maastricht returned to Frank, and the cross flag was flying again on the city wall.

His anger was still there, and this time he approached Gilbert aggressively: "Young man, your bravery impresses me. We almost drove the Normans into the river to feed the fish."

But Gilbert couldn't be happy, "Uncle, do you know?"

"what do you know?"

"I was almost shot! They have big ships and can throw javelins. Is that human-powered throwing? I saw with my own eyes that our army's horses were shot through from the side."

Tristan choked for a moment: "Obviously. The Normans have some secret weapons. No wonder they once took this city, but everything is over, and we regained it."

"Recover? No. The city is empty. I have found some stinking corpses, and I am arranging to bury them on the spot."

"You've done a good job. It's actually worse in the inner city."

"Could it be that there are dead bodies everywhere in the inner city? Where's the bishop?" Gilbert was sure that the bishop was dead. He hoped that the bishop died with dignity, but seeing the gloomy face of the general, it was obvious that the situation was bad.

"You better stop asking."

"Okay. I don't ask. Uncle, what will happen to us now? The Normans are on the other side. However, I lost some soldiers and horses, and my cavalry can't step across the Maas River."

Tristan nodded: "I'm here for this."

"what for?"

"You said it. The bridge in Liege is broken and collapsed, so our army can't use the bridge there to detour, but is there a possibility?"

"What are you implying?"

"Go through your fief. Cross the river through the bridge in Namur City. Or, just cross the river by boat from Xiuyin."

"My fief?" Gilbert had to ponder.

He was very vigilant about this matter. After all, Tristan was a direct subordinate of the king, and the standing army was bound to carry out some necessary supplies when passing through his fiefdom. He was very resistant to this in his heart. If it was the king's request, it would be fine, but it happened to be Tristan's request.

What is this person? Up to now, there is no clear title. In the final analysis, it is just a dog of the king. Respecting him now is actually respecting the king, and secondly because he has thousands of troops under his command.

Taking into account practical factors, the best way to attack the Normans is indeed to launch the Frankish army's specialty-cavalry assault after crossing the river.

But are the Normans fools? If the cavalry attacked them, and the bandits got into the boat and moved into the river, the cavalry would stand on the bank against their arrows and scream? Insulting and scolding these robbers will not kill them.

Of course Gilbert didn't want his fief to be involved in this battle, and suddenly he thought of some ways to prevaricate.

"Uncle." He said deliberately, "I came from Namur, and it took me three days to get here. If the main force of our army withdraws from Maastricht, wouldn't it take a week to get to the other side of the river? I don't have any extravagant hopes for the town of Xiuyin. The locals almost drag their families to live in my fief because they are too scared. I am kind enough to give them food. It is impossible for us to cross the river with the boats of Xiuyin town. Besides, I'm afraid the Normans will have already rowed away in a week."

Young Gilbert did warn Tristan, and felt a definite refusal at the same time.

Indeed, it was an excuse for the king's army to intrude into the territory of another great nobleman, and it was actually a bad rule to forcefully intrude without explaining in advance.

Since Gilbert had thousands of reasons to deny the plan of detouring across the river, Tristan simply gave up on this plan, which was not favored by Tristan, which further strengthened the implementation of his "fishing plan".

He sighed deeply, and said deliberately: "It's true that I shouldn't make a detour. If I were a Norman, I would definitely take the opportunity to escape by boat. Those Norman pirates are like this, unless they are provoked."

Gilbert let out a sigh of relief: "How to provoke them?"

"Go to the riverside area and insult them."

"But, wouldn't they be attacked by arrows? I'm worried. Besides, can they understand our language?"

"It's a problem. It seems that... some cruel methods should be used."

According to Tristan's original plan, he wanted to hang all the prisoners of war and hang their bodies directly on the wall of the inner city to show the public, so as to anger the enemy and cheer up his side.

Thinking about it now, it should be more radical. It doesn't matter if the enemy can shoot arrows, the key is to provoke them.

It should be like slaughtering a cow or a sheep, killing the captive in front of the Normans.

"Should be skinned in public!"

Gilbert was taken aback and stunned: "Uncle, what you did...isn't it cruel?"

"No! It seems to me just right. Young count, you don't know anything about the Normans or the Danes. You don't know about their blood eagle punishment."

"what is that?"

Tristan made gestures, and Gilbert already understood and didn't shudder.

Maastricht has been completely recaptured by the Frankish army. More and more cross flags are flying, and soldiers use ropes and wooden strips to make a large number of simple crosses. They are used as markers or placed on the city walls as a substitute for flags. , or simply as a simple tombstone.

The inner city is the most stinky, and there are still some stinking corpses in the houses in the outer city. These dead bodies were wrapped in rotten coarse cloth and straw mats, and the soldiers dragged them out of the city by horses~www.mtlnovel.com~ They dug a pit and buried them collectively, and finally inserted a wooden cross.

The whole city began to be armed, and the prisoners of war were stripped of their clothes, only a fig leaf was tied around their crotches.

Tristan murmured something in Frankish to the prisoners himself, but the Mlaren prisoners couldn't understand them at all, so they could hear the death threat from his stern tone. The prisoners of war have no thoughts about their future, and the worst thing is to die. Everyone just hopes that they die happily, and after death, the brothers on the other side of the river can cross the river to kill these Frankish troops.

Tristan decided to use the prisoners to set up a trap, which he called a "fishing operation".

The so-called wooden stakes were set up near the old battlefield in the north of the city, and all the prisoners of war were tied to the wooden stakes. It was an open land, which was most suitable for the cavalry to take advantage of their tactics, and the main cavalry was hidden in the houses and streets in the north of the city. As long as the enraged Normans dare to land, what awaits them is a strong cavalry attack!

But the situation changed suddenly, as Norman reinforcements suddenly appeared from the Aachen Avenue.

This... couldn't help but make Tristan and Gilbert terrified.

"Why? They will appear from that road?! Haven't they been to Aachen?!" Tristan didn't dare to think anymore.