A road connects Mainz and Kaiserslautern. This road built in the Roman era witnessed the Frankish expedition, and now it also witnesses the Frankish civil war.

The war of princes fighting for power is undergoing changes, and almost all the foreign tribes who have been conquered by force are taking advantage of this once-in-lifetime opportunity to restore their power.

It is no longer practical to exist as independent small countries as before, but as a great nobleman, continue to swear allegiance to your monarch, and negotiate with the monarch to obtain this fiefdom is a very strong autonomy, which is a very pragmatic choice.

How can you hold on with anger and hatred? What the Principality of Saxony needs is continued interests, not hatred.

Even though his ancestor Vidukind was defeated and surrendered by Charlemagne, Liudov has experienced a lot, and he is still the great vassal of Charlemagne's third grandson.

The 5,000-strong army marched south along Mainz Avenue in various Ross-style flag formations, and the ten "squares" were as neat as possible.

Each flag team guarded its own baggage, and the soldiers walked through the final march on foot.

They sang the songs of their hometown to pass the boredom, and talked and laughed to discuss how much spoils they could get after conquering the city.

In fact, they clearly knew that the information was not good for them. Since Liudov had chosen to block his fate with all the Saxon nobles, he had no way out, let alone reveal his information to anyone.

On the contrary, Liudov now has a strong self-confidence. Could it be possible that a set of tactics learned from the Ross people can still fail?

Five thousand troops, the size of which is already an ancient Roman legion. Soldiers still rely on their feet to advance, and in addition to carrying all their weapons, they also carry dry food and water bags.

There is still more than a month before the autumnal equinox, and the current daylight hours are still extremely long. The most gratifying thing for these northern soldiers is that the weather is extremely pleasant.

The Lainland region is not like the Weser River in the north. Once the latter reaches the end of summer, there will be annoying light rain for a long time, and the climate will become wet and cold, and the people can only endure it.

This year's Lai Yinlan is drier. It is said that the rainy season will begin in autumn. If you are unlucky, you may face drizzle that lasts for two weeks. If the rain is brought forward to the autumn harvest, it will be a disaster of no harvest.

But this year, the Palatinate Plain in Yinlan didn't sow any seeds and the harvest naturally failed.

All the farmland is passively "fallowed", and the wheat grains scattered last year are now bearing fruit. However, the foxtail and rushes are growing wildly, and the weeds grow up to the knees, making it extremely difficult for people to walk in the wilderness.

That's why Lyudov's troops only followed the Roman roads, and ignored the dirt roads of small towns and villages.

The Kaiserslautern war that broke out last year was already the second **** battle in the area. The war directly led to the complete collapse of the towns along the road.

Liudov knew very little about these situations, and he would not have cut his head for the sake of wealth and resolutely sprinted towards the goal.

What should I do if I encounter an ambush? What if there is an obstacle in the way? There are shadows of some villages in the distance of the road, are there Lothair's ambushes there?

Liudov believed that since his army set out, Ludwig's main force would definitely follow up. As for the Thuringian Hou Takulf, this person is fine, unless there is a clear wealth Thakurf will come over to grab it. ....

Liudov had no intention of ordering the scout cavalry to rush into the abandoned farmland where weeds were growing wildly, and there was no need to investigate the villages in the distance.

The scouts explored the road ahead of the formation, especially going deep into the villages and towns that the road passed through.

As far as Liudov knows, some villages and towns along the road became the battlefields of encounters last year, and the high-profile advance of the Saxon army may also fight one or two encounters.

Although there are scout cavalry exploring the way ahead, all infantry are also required to be vigilant. But the infantry is more focused on the vast plain in front of them. Everyone is heading towards the Northern Vosges Mountains. The huge black shadow on the horizon closest to them is the so-called Palatinate Mountains. Big enough to be the envy of those Saxons living in the forest hills of the north.

It would be great if the entire Lai Yinlan was owned by his own Duke! In this way, all clansmen will have better arable land.

The scout cavalry left the team far away, and the ten cavalry rushed into a village, and it was here

Here they saw the terrifying bones of Leilei.

Even those who had experienced the Battle of the Elbe two years ago were shocked at the moment.

"This is where Bavaria (referring to Ludwig) fought last year? Was it all infantry?"

"Maybe! It's probably a southern soldier who was trampled to death."

"Even so, the Bavarians did not take Kaiserslautern."

"Boss, this time... are we really going to win?" The spirit of the scout who said this was suddenly shaken.

"Shut up. We are not Bavarians! Don't forget that we went to win." Captain Shiren continued to lead his men to investigate the deserted village, and the more they checked, the more bones they found.

They found a large number of rusty red-brown helmets and iron swords, and some battle axes that seemed to be polished and usable were confiscated.

"Be brave! Gather up a few skulls and give it to our Duke!" The captain commanded loudly while clutching the reins.

They were never afraid on the blood-soaked battlefield, and now the scouts find a piece of rotten wood and boldly and irreverently insert a skull. They didn't care about the identity of the deceased, and now they just needed these horrific skeletons as real objects to prove something to the Duke.

Of course, a batch of badly rusted axes was also tucked into the sundry leather pocket on the back of the saddle, and it was stuffed to the brim.

Haven't fought yet, and already have a lot of loot in my pocket. The scout suddenly looked like he was holding a white warhammer. You had to look closely to see that it was a terrifying skeleton.

They rushed back to the mighty marching array in this posture.

The captain of the scout met Duke Liudov, and he did not have to dismount as a personal soldier.

This person made a high-profile display of the skeleton in his hand, which really surprised Liudov.

"My lord, there is a large village ahead! After investigation, it is a remnant of a battlefield."

Liudov narrowed his eyes: "Is this why you guys have skeletons?"

"Yes, there are other seizures."

Immediately on display is a rusted axe with a decayed handle, but it is extremely simple to restore a usable axe.

Liudov was indifferent to this basic tool, and his soldiers were taken aback by the news, and then became extremely excited. The news quickly spread throughout the entire marching array! Everyone already knows that there are remnants of the battlefield ahead. Last year's dead were tragically exposed in the wilderness. The large number of weapons they left behind were unclaimed. Isn't this the first spoil of war bestowed by God to the Saxons? ....

Picking up weapons, clothes, and shoes from corpses is considered by the church as "extremely shameful, evil enough to go to hell."

Burying the enemy's corpse is a kind of etiquette and is not an obligation. As for picking up the corpse or something, poor soldiers are in urgent need of supplies, and no one thinks about the priest's warning.

"Does that mean there are no enemies ahead?" Liudov mainly heard this.

"Yes. The old battlefield is very quiet, there is... a little scary. I'm afraid that a large number of innocent souls are still wandering around the battlefield."

"Maybe! Let's continue walking, you continue to explore the way."

Liudov didn't care about the so-called wronged souls. After his army arrived on the battlefield, he acquiesced in the soldiers' plundering of the bones.

All rusted and usable utensils were confiscated, and the bones were passively damaged. That is, although there are dilapidated houses in the scout station that can be used for camping, it would be too scary to sleep around a pile of bones.

Many Saxon soldiers are quite young. They come from remote villages. They have not experienced the great war two years ago.

The army camped directly in the wilderness, the world was dark, there was no fire in the camp, and the stars and the moon were the lights at night.

The temperature at night was not low, and the soldiers went to sleep with their clothes on after eating some dry food.

They did not light a bonfire, and Liudov set an example, and the junior soldiers did not dare to use bow drills to light fires. The dark night completely covered the black-clad Saxon army, and the wind across the plains covered the neighing of the horses. Liudoff didn't do it deliberately, but the Saxon army merged with the night, and the 6,000 defenders of Kaiserslautern existed in the valley, and they knew nothing about the approaching blow!

The army passed through two old battlefields in a row in one day, the same one was full of bones, the same was the remains of barracks and villages.

As the march continued, the small Palatinate was already in the northwest of the whole army, and the whole army was heading straight for the key pass of the North Vosges Mountains, which was the narrowest and most dangerous pass! It is also the place where Ludwig "had no victory".

Considering that the war was about to break out, his orderlies rushed to spread the news of the battle throughout the barracks.

All the men who have the title of graf and are actually the captains of the banner will start to form the team after receiving the order.

They gave up all their luggage for the time being, and put on their limited armor...

"Armored men come first, leather body protectors follow, and civilians last!" The earls used this model to return to their own banner team composed of villagers.

The Saxon Army has indeed turned into a banner team, such as some cross flags raised in the spear array in the forest, and strange symbols or a phrase painted on the white cloth. Understand the main direction of attack.

The so-called entire Saxony army must be a whole, and each spear-holding flag team serves as an offensive unit. They must obey Liudov's own will, and every soldier caught in it does not need their own thoughts at all, they just need to follow along. Just move in the direction of the flag.

However, how could the Lothar army stationed in Kaiserslautern indulge the "dark army" that suddenly appeared to break through the mountain pass?

Adalbert, Earl of Metz, is still on his way through the Barony of Bristol. According to Lothair's special order, Baron Bristol will also actively lead troops to Kaiserslautern. ....

The old baron, who was nearly fifty years old, did not want to intervene in the civil war, but his attitude changed immediately when he learned that Sarabrcken in the lower reaches of the Saar River had been attacked.

The old baron took it for granted that this was a battle of nobles, and he mobilized his elite cavalry unita mere two hundred cavalry had arrived in Kaiserslautern as the vanguard.

The entire territory of Bristol is open to Earl Metz, and he has to hold back if he is not willing, after all, this is an order from Lothair himself. He prayed that the Metz army passing through the border would not commit any crimes. Fortunately, Adalbert himself had no interest in attacking friendly troops. In other words, he didn't look down on Bristol, who was a neighbor of Sargau. What he wanted was the whole of Sargau. The fiefdom of Ergao and Laiyinlan. As long as he gets these, the territory and strength of the Earl of Metz will almost become half of the "Duke of Alemanni".

The desire for power was better than money, so he asked his son Friedbh to guard Kaiserslautern, and the thousand heavy cavalry placed here by Lothair maintained a strong military fortress.

The small river Lauter passes through the city, and Kaiserslautern's palace is now deserted. It is not difficult to restore the palace. Lothair regards it as his own property, and now the local garrison is not allowed to use it, and he has not ordered them to defend an old palace with their lives.

On the old battlefield right at the mountain pass, all the dead bodies were buried. Due to the war, the mountain pass, which was only about 1,500 meters long, was simply turned into a military camp.

A wooden tower was erected on the hill next to it, and the sentry could see the overview of the barracks and the movement of the northern plain.

It should have been an ordinary day. Everyone knew that the king was going to launch an attack in September, and the soldiers maintained a peaceful attitude, because they wanted to believe that King Lothar, who had an army of 100,000, would go all the way north this year. , has occupied Frankfurt and obtained the entire Alemanni.

Since it was a win-win situation, the soldiers were relieved and optimistic.

In Kaiserslautern, the eldest son of Earl Metz, Freibach, had the most support. His younger brother Odobh, with a small number of soldiers, guarded his hometown of Metz.

Four thousand Metz troops, one thousand Lothar's cavalry troops, more than two hundred Bristol troops, and the rest were forced conscripts from Saargau peasants and rout soldiers who fled from Sarabrcken.

Such a large army is already very strong, and this is only a small part of Lothair's strength.

What is a militia? A barefoot farmer with his own farming tools is considered a soldier.

Adalbert's Metz army expanded to a total of 10,000 people, and there were a large number of poorly dressed peasants filling up the number.

In fact, what Lothair claims

The 100,000 army is not only a serious exaggeration, the soldiers recruited on a large scale lack training, and the peasant soldiers lack armor, so they can only fight with their own various weapons. Fortunately, there are many of them. As long as the nobles' elite retinues don't suffer major losses, the nobles can still pull out a large army quickly.

Because Frank's wars so far have at most carried out small-scale mobilization, and the big nobles don't know the limit of their mobilization. Anyway, no matter how they mobilize, there will be a steady stream of peasants joining the army. Perhaps the mobilization can be unlimited. The only limit is whether the monarch has financial resources. Material resources maintain this huge eating mouth. ....

The soldiers standing on the wooden tower saw one after another dark "squares" moving towards the mountain pass. With good eyesight, they saw a large number of cross flags. Are they friendly forces? No! It is impossible for friendly troops to come south from the north.

Are they enemies? It's hard to say. If there was an enemy situation, the defenders should have discovered it long ago, and these dark things popped up suddenly.

Whether it is enemy or friend, those people are indeed forming a team.

The sentinel on the high place alertly blew the crisp horn, which was a combat alarm, and the lazy defenders got up one after another. At first they didn't care, until more and more people realized that a dark army appeared at the mountain pass.

As long as you pass the mountain pass barracks, you can reach Kaiserslautern.

The news quickly reached the ears of the defending general Freibach. He was very surprised at first, but soon this surprise became superfluous.

He heard the roar in the distance, it was like the collective cry of many soldiers.

After all, some Saxons had stayed in Denmark, and the rhythmic Viking battle cries were naturally used by the Saxons.

At this moment, Liudov on horseback decided that the battle would be today.

His pitch-black infantry have completed dense arrays and moved forward in unison~www.mtlnovel.com~ The spears of the five thousand army have been built into a wall. In the narrow mountain pass area, a forward line consisting of 2,000 people from four banner teams was quickly formed, and 3,000 soldiers and horses were behind it to replenish at any time.

Liudov also disregarded noble etiquette at this moment. He was sure that he had appeared suddenly and that the opportunity for a surprise attack was now.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Shouting neatly, a wall of spears steadily advanced towards the defenders' mountain pass camp. From a distance, the black wave was hard to stop.

At this moment, Liudov is supervising the battle with a face like iron, and the cavalry unit he leads can also join the battle at any time.

But the defenders reacted too late, and Freibach, the eldest son of Earl Metz, the general of the defenders, felt a bolt from the blue. He had no time to rectify the whole army, so he could only rely on the sober soldiers to immediately organize a defense line and resolutely block it.

"Damn northerners? How dare you sneak attack? Let's fight! This is where you are buried!" Freibach pulled out his iron sword.

lq.

reborn carambola