The whole of Mainz became a huge barracks, which was supposed to be a city of peace and sacred faith, and she became a battleground for both sides of the civil war.

The city is named after the hill next to it, and to the south of the city is the vast Palatinate Plain.

This place is very rich in water and grass and is very suitable for farming, and it is also suitable for war. When the plain area extends to the North Vosges Mountains, it perfectly connects with the mountain plain. The entire plain is called the Rhineland, and it is now the strategic point of contention between Ludwig and Lothar.

Only the agricultural production in the area near Mainz has not been damaged. The wheat harvest time has arrived, and the farmers have started their harvest, but all the wheat collected must be handed over to the king's army after leaving the grain and rations.

If the peasants do not pay, the powerful army will take it for itself.

Ludwig who is stationed here is implementing unprecedented direct rule in a way that is almost exhausted, and Archbishop Odegar, who should have real power, has not said a word about this.

The Frankish monarchs of all dynasties have regarded Mainz as a holy place to spread their beliefs. Now she can't help but become a military center, gathering 30,000 combat soldiers, and the Norman forces have also penetrated into it unprecedentedly.

Ross forces are present in the city and will join this year's war as Ludwig's allies.

If Charlemagne was alive, he would definitely be angry at the chaotic wars of his unworthy descendants. But what he should regret more is that Aachen, the big city he chose, was looted...

What else can a man who has been dead for thirty years say?

His two grandsons, who hold great military power, refused to negotiate, and the battle of Lai Yinlan was already on the eve of breaking out.

The war alarm was issued throughout Mainz, the army rushed into the city, all the idlers were cleaned up, and some beggars simply disappeared. All the sloppy warriors tensed up, and all the blacksmiths in the city were working hard, making the final preparations for the king's active attack.

The more preparations for military supplies, the better, and the more military food reserves, the better.

Ludwig met the "labor fee" requirements of the nobles of Saxony, Nassau, and Thuringia. It was paid in the form of grain. Due to the urgency of the war, the delivery of wheat had to be postponed.

On the surface, Ludwig suffered a disadvantage. Not only did he have to pay for the army brought by his vassals out of his own pocket, but he also had to pay them a large amount of food after the war.

However, as long as the crazy strategic plan I set this year can be basically successfully completed, all the sacrifices will not be a problem, and the food that I ask to pay the vassals can also be delivered quickly.

The crux of the matter is Strasbourg, and the crux of the crux of the matter is Kaiserslautern.

Kaiserslautern is a city sandwiched between two mountains. The hills have become a natural city wall and a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. But it had to be taken because there was a heavy army stationed there.

Ludwig can't think of any better tactics for the time being. If he wants to take Strasbourg, he must take Kaiserslautern.

Therefore, the first stage of the military operation is to gather almost all the military forces to strike hard, and Kaiserslautern must be captured in one go.

For this reason, he is willing to take military risks. The so-called Mainz will not stay behind with heavy troops. If the elder brother's army sets out from Strasburg to attack Mainz, if the elder brother succeeds, he will succeed, as the saying goes, what he fights, I fight mine.

Ludwig has such a mind. Once a large-scale combat operation is decided, courage becomes the first priority.

He didn't worry about gains and losses. After all, even Mainz and Frankfurt, which he now owns, were the territories of the vassals, not the areas under his direct control. Only when the strongman moved his Bavarian and Austrian fiefdoms would he really move his base.

The warriors from Bavaria were busy polishing their swords and axes, and the cavalry urgently fed their horses with new wheat.

At the last moment of the battle, a group of elite fighters ate wheat twice a day. And the 3,000 cavalry capable of combat that he cobbled together, are now fat and strong.

There are more than 20,000 troops directly controlled by Ludwig, including 3,000 combat cavalry, 20 infantry banners (the number varies), and nearly 10,000 armed militias composed of local farmers.

There are also 5,000 Saxon troops and 1,000 Thuringian troops.

And the Nassau Army whose size and tactical capabilities are unknown. They did carry the banner of Nassau, but in fact, everyone from the king to the soldiers agreed that they were always Norman mercenaries.

But now the Black Fox and his wife Sophia temporarily brought to Mainz only their Hundred Guards.

Of course, the Nassau army can regroup and rush to the Saar River according to the secret agreement.

The black fox intends to do this, and it is necessary to implement this matter in a practical manner, so as not to do it non-stop after the meeting.

The Ross army in Nassau just needed to rest and reorganize. Besides, with the speed of the Ross people, he estimated that even if Ludwig's army marched for many days, he would still have time to start again.

So compared to two years ago, how is the quality of Ludwig's army?

It is not convenient for the black fox to go to the camp of its standing army to find out in person, but it can learn the news from the friendly army of Saxony.

It was a sunny afternoon, less than five days before the expedition.

He swaggered into the Saxon army camp with his wife. A flying Russian flag is like a proof of peace, only for the Saxons.

Liudov mobilized the crowd to gather 5,000 troops and came to Mainz, and he also endured tremendous pressure.

The temporary wooden hut is Liudov's imperial palace. The shabby is really shabby. The specially placed wooden horses, a large number of flagpoles and flying Saxon flags here show the might of the army.

These soldiers who broke into the Saxon barracks carried huge round shields like turtle shells, and butterfly helmets covered half of their faces. Striped Rose robe.

Such heavy infantry guards two gorgeously dressed nobles, one big and one small, a man and a woman. A group of people is enough to attract attention. The Saxon soldiers are busy watching the demeanor of the Ross soldiers, and they don't care whether they belong to Nassau. This is not normal. Soldiers care.

Of course, the native Saxon nobles who led troops from the north to the war, that is, high-ranking nobles with the title of graf (earl), as many as five earls came after hearing the news, and they faced the deliberately ostentatious black fox in the barracks to criticize.

Black Fox and Sophia immediately became Liudov's guests.

Wooden tables bought from the city set Ross-style glass dishes of dried fruit filled with ale from the North.

"It's your first time to my barracks. If you don't have any good treats, I'll treat you with beer from my hamburger." Liudov was easy-going, sitting on a rough wooden chair and opening his mouth, and then motioned for the two to sit casually sit.

"Sit casually? Then sit casually."

The black fox was very relaxed, but Sophia was much more cautious. She looked around uneasily, and the corners of her eyes could not help but glance to the outdoors.

Liudov fully noticed this: "Hehe, it seems that the Earl of Nassau is a little flustered?"

The black fox hastily coughed twice, and clenched his wife's wrist tightly.

"Sophia is a child. Besides, she is a woman."

"Indeed." Liudov shrugged, "But she is an extraordinary woman. It would be great if my Alice had such a noble status."

"Alice? I remember that your daughter married the eldest son of King Ross. She must be the queen of Mercia, noble Alice. How can you regret it?"

"Hehe." Liudov nodded: "It seems that apart from your military ability, you, a young man, also know about my family affairs. You obviously didn't participate in the war two years ago..."

"It doesn't matter. My brother and I have always been sharing information. I know any intersections between my brother and you. Besides..." Heihu had to think about some words before he said, he hesitated for a while and then said: "I am Weiss now. Baron Baden is Ludwig's vassal and the son-in-law of the Nassau family. But all that I can have is not rewarded by Ludwig, who was defeated in the war."

"I understand." Liudov grinned, "It's Rurik. Your victorious soldiers, your initial wealth, and even your coming here from the far north are all arranged by Rurik."

"That's right. We Nassau and Ludwig are just cooperating, and my favorite monarch is still Rurik."

"Very well, you are a young man who values friendship. Of course it's okay for you to tell me this, but it would be bad if you let Ludwig know about it."

"Him? Uncle, your question is ridiculous." The black fox, who is very open-minded, simply said bluntly: "Doesn't Ludwig understand? You, me, and the Marquis of Thuringia, everyone helped him win the civil war What are we trying to maintain a Frank in the East? Isn't it more freedom? You and I can do whatever we want in the future. If he issues a combat request that is not good for us, if he refuses to answer it, it is absolutely wrong. I will send at most a hundred soldiers there. Handle it. How do you feel?"

"One hundred? If it's really bad for me, I'll learn from Marquis Thuringia. One thousand soldiers is enough, besides..."

Feeling that his persuasive words would be effective, the black fox hurriedly asked: "Can't the army of the Marquis of Thuringia work?"

"Him? Thakulf is very smart, and he brought weak soldiers. You are a Norman, so it's not convenient to find out, but my people noticed that those soldiers had white beards and a lot of wrinkles on their faces. This kind of old guy can also fight?"

"And you? In that case, your soldiers are all young people."

"Naturally." Liudov said bluntly with a sullen face, "because it is very beneficial to me."

"How beneficial?"

"Young people, you..." Liudov stood up suddenly, and under the attention of the black fox's surprised eyes, he moved the wooden stool and sat down directly.

He put his mouth close to the black fox's ear: "We are the allies. I can tell you about my secret agreement with Ludwig. This attack on Kaiserslautern, my Saxon army is the main force. I will win Fighting head-on, as a deal, my army has the right to loot the entire city. I will loot it without hesitation."

This was something that Black Fox had never thought of, and it was true that this matter could not be discussed openly in a military meeting.

Now he somewhat understood Liudov's reason for mobilizing his troops. "But, wouldn't you have to pay a heavy price to fight head-on?"

"No! I will win quickly." Liudov pointed directly at his head: "Your Rurik has given me a lot of inspiration. I don't know if you have noticed that my army is very different from the Frankish army?"

"Different?" The black fox thought about it carefully: "I found that your barracks seems... every soldier has a spear. Those spears are really long."

"Yes. All the soldiers in our army hold spears. The militiamen I trained in Hamburg all fight with spears. I don't have the ability to organize a large number of cavalry troops now. I am really poor, but I have poor tactics."

Now it is not up to the black fox to ask, Liudolf has already explained clearly the situation between his army and Ludwig Frank's army.

A wise man learns war in battle. Liudov, who was once defeated by Rurik, was unable to imitate the elite troops of the Russian army to train his own strong army. He could only learn partly based on hard work.

The 5,000 Saxon troops are almost all infantry, and this is all the soldiers that the entire principality can muster. If there is a major loss of personnel, there will be catastrophic consequences. But each graf nobleman decided to take a gamble with his duke, and the whole of Saxony was betting on the country's fortune.

There were as many as eight earls of Graf sending troops, and this part of the army was divided into eight banner teams, each of which imitated the Ross standard of 500 men. The soldiers of each flag team are almost composed of young people from several large villages, and the daily training items are very simple, that is, the whole flag team holds spears and thrusts in one direction.

Each flag team brought a small amount of vehicles and horses, and the soldiers' personal supplies were mainly carried by themselves.

Compared with these aristocratic troops, Liudov had only a thousand soldiers in his own formation, so he put together an army of five thousand.

The armor rate of soldiers is very low. If the battle turns into a gang fight in the mud, the disadvantage of such soldiers is too great. Unless all fighters act in formation, past wars have proved that if the army fights in formation with all spearmen like the Slavic Banner in the Ross Army, its combat capability is extremely terrifying.

A wall of spears that keeps poking around continues to advance, and only enemies with melee weapons can withstand it? The actual combat in the past has proved that it can't stand it.

Therefore, Ludwig's newly recruited army is still based on the Frankish tradition. The infantry still carries a small shield, holds the ancestral broadsword and battle axe, and even a throwable hatchet.

Ludwig's army is strong. Although there are 20,000 infantry, the number of heavily armored heavy infantry is not as large as it was two years ago. He is actually overdrawing his military strength.

They are not equipped with a large number of spears. If it is really an infantry battle, it will definitely become a large-scale hand-to-hand battlefield group fight.

The only thing that stood out was the cavalry, but Liudov didn't think highly of it either.

"He claims that he has assembled five thousand cavalry, but in my opinion, the ones who can really fight are three thousand cavalry."

Black Fox had heard a lot, and despite Liudov's disdainful attitude, now claimed that about two thousand cavalry did not exist at all.

"There are two thousand cavalry who cannot fight?" he asked.

"Yes! No. They are all horses that pull carts, transport soldiers' stomachs and food, and of course they can ride on them when necessary. It's just that kind of horse..." Liudov shook his head contemptuously: "Forget it .

Liudolf has no reason to sing a war song to Ludwig, and it is impossible to completely deny it. It is not optimistic about Ludwig's direct control army of more than 20,000 people. The biggest obsession for this year's war is to plunder and make a fortune in Kaiserslautern.

"The Saxon army has turned into a plundering group. From the duke to the soldiers are robbers. They are very similar to us. You... the deeper you communicate with us Ross, the more you resemble us." These emotional words Heihu definitely won't say it.

What he didn't know was that many soldiers of the Saxon Army had migrated back to their hometowns from the Jutland peninsula. The Saxons who fled to the Danish world to avoid the persecution of Charlemagne back then returned home. Many people and the Danes were completely indistinguishable from each other after living together for half a century. Only the Saxon dialect can prove itself.

Looting is bad. This is not a moral issue. It is about the awareness of being killed by the other party when launching a looting, unless it is a legal looting.

During the period when the Saxon army was stationed in Mainz, there were many incidents of soldiers attacking villages on the spot. Liudolf didn't care about it at all, and Ludwig didn't see it either. Only the locals suffered.

They would never rob their own people in their hometown in Saxony, and they would not dare to harass the Archdiocese of Cologne and the territory of the Marquis of Thuringia during the march. After arriving in Mainz, military discipline continued to deteriorate.

As the saying goes, it is a huge army that came for the actual purpose of robbery, and the corruption of military discipline is a kind of hymn instead.

Liudov hoped that the army would make a fortune through plundering. The richer the Saxons became, the more they would support themselves as the duke, so why not.

So with this group of guys, the black fox has found a bosom friend. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the two continued to discuss the experience of looting.

Some things are still deeply hidden in the black fox's heart, such as his plot for the entire Saar region.

He finally understood that Ludwig probably made secret agreements with all the great nobles while holding the military meeting. Will Ludwig make a secret agreement with the Marquis of Thuringia? who knows...

"You decided to do this next? I thought you hurried back to Nassau to dispatch troops." Liudov finally asked.

"I do plan to go to the Saar River again. As for the deployment of troops, you can wait."

"It's okay to wait. Ludwig gave the whole army a week of preparation time. I have relatively enough time, and his time is barely enough."

"He..." The black fox is young and energetic, and he is not optimistic about the so-called seven days: "Ludwig is too slow. I thought he would set off in two days at most after ordering the final preparations."

"You thought he was a Russian who could move quickly?" Liudov said helplessly, "The larger the army, the slower the movement. Please be considerate."

"Who cares about him? I don't care anyway. As you said, my army can move quickly, and I will stay in Mainz for a few more days to observe."

"Alright, as long as you want."

So the black fox obtained critical information in the Saxon military camp, which was not convenient for public military meetings. He felt that the Saxon people would suffer huge losses, but these five thousand "men in black" were originally rushing to rob to make a fortune. Come, presumably already have the awareness of being killed.

For myself, the task of the Nassau Army is to go to the Saar River to stop the enemy's possible routs. Can the enemy really have routs? How much oil and water can I get from the broken soldiers?

What the black fox covets is the future of the wine industry in the entire Saar region, and he is not interested in those defeated soldiers, nor is he really interested in the next battle.

However, the situation reversed the next day.

It was by no means that he had figured out something, but that the camp he set up by the river had distinguished guestsa small fleet of long ships that also flew the Ross flag.

Isn't that man standing at the bow~www.mtlnovel.com~ the second brother Lanhu?

The appearance of the blue fox in Mainz really puzzled the black fox. As the boat deliberately rushed to the beach in line with its own riverside camp, they jumped off the side of the boat in the style of old Ross. The black fox watched helplessly as his second brother stood in the shallow water on the muddy floor touching his knees, and opened his arms to hug a girl with long curly hair.

The girl appeared to be about the same age as his unmarried wife, Sophia Nassau.

The black fox's doubts quickly turned into surprise. After some pleasantries between the brothers, the blue fox put his hands on Gisla's immature shoulders, and announced in a loud voice: "This is Lothair's daughter, and Ludwig is her daughter." Uncle. I found this girl in Aachen, which is a surprise for Ludwig!"

Surprise... a surprise indeed. Especially at this good time when the Dongwang** team is about to go south.

The black fox realized in an instant that when Ludwig held his elder brother's daughter and his own niece, wouldn't he immediately have a card that could blackmail Lothar?

Obviously, Blue Fox's visit to Mainz is a "gift" comer, and it is also worthless. He will definitely get some benefits.

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