When Marin's bucket of mixed petrol mixed with red pigment and gelatin from fish skin arrived in Newcastle, Saqqara was in the procession, ready to board the ship for Edinburgh.

Saqqara sniffed it himself, and there was a foul smell coming from the barrel - it was a disturbing smell deliberately added by Marin, just for fear that people would smell gasoline.

Sure enough, Saqqara didn't smell the smell of gasoline, because the stench masked the smell of gasoline......

"What is this? Why does it stink so much? ”

The spy sent by Marin replied:

"This is the 'fire oil' made by the Grand Duke himself, and it is said to have the burning power similar to 'Greek fire'......"

"Greek fire?" Saqara's face changed dramatically. In Europe, there are not many people who don't know about Greek fire right now. Because, the Byzantine Empire has only been around for a few decades. The Byzantine Empire was a modest empire, it lasted for thousands of years, and Greek fire played a great role. It was with the strength of Greek fire that the Byzantine Empire repelled attacks from the sea by the Arabs and Turks, and continued the life of the Byzantine Empire for hundreds of years. If it had not been for the Greek fire that had repeatedly burned the invading enemy fleet, and the Turks would not have been able to capture Constantinople, the Arab Empire, which had flourished hundreds of years ago, would have destroyed the Byzantine Empire.

Because the Greek fire's record was so brilliant that the Greek fire was deified in Europe. Therefore, when he heard that the effect of this barrel of "red oil" was comparable to that of Greek fire, Saqara was shocked. Still, he was a little unconvinced:

"Isn't the Greek fire lost? Does this thing really have the power of Greek fire? ”

The spy doesn't talk nonsense, just says:

"Why don't you try it?" Then, he scooped it out with a wooden spoon and poured it on the surface of the river. Then, shot it with a rocket......

Sure enough, flames suddenly burst out on the surface of the river......

"Burning on the surface of the water does not require firewood or grass to help burn...... Sure enough, it's a Greek fire ......," Saqqara muttered to himself.

"No, Legionnaire, this is the 'fire oil' configured by the Grand Duke, not Greek fire." The Spy corrected.

"Well, I understand, it's fire oil, not Greek fire ......" Obviously, Saqqara misunderstood, thinking that Marin wanted to keep it a secret.

"By the way, how do you use this ...... 'kerosenic oil'?"

The Spy relayed Marin's approach:

"They were sent to carry large wooden shields and carry firewood and grass on their backs, and piled them up under the gates of Edinburgh. Then, pour 'fire oil' on it. and when they left, they fired rockets from afar and set them on fire and burned down the gates of Edinburgh......"

Saqqara was stunned:

"Isn't this 'fire oil' capable of burning on its own without firewood or grass? Why do you need firewood and grass? ”

The messenger explained:

"This oil is liquid, it flows. If it is poured on the gates, it will surely flow down and flow away. If there is firewood and grass, you can fix the oil so that it does not flow everywhere. The Grand Duke said that firewood and grass are the ...... that fixes the oil and prevents it from flowing around."

"I see......" Sakara suddenly realized.

"After the hole is burned, when the flames are extinguished, the demolition team can go up with the powder keg and bury it, and then blow up the pile behind the city gate......"

In general, during the siege, the defender of the city will definitely pile up logs and stones behind the city gate, so that the city gate will not be broken open by the enemy. Therefore, even if the city gate is burned down, there will still be a lot of debris piled up in the city gate hole. However, if you bury the blast with a powder keg, you can still open the passage. The premise is that you have to break the gates and empty the holes where the powder kegs are buried.

Of course, if the other party builds a wall in the city gate hole and blocks the city gate hole, the powder barrel will not be able to explode. But the problem is that this attack on Edinburgh was a sneak attack, and the other side could not have time to slowly build a wall inside the city gate. In a panic, at most, piles of wood and stones were piled up behind the door, and they could be blown up with a powder keg.

……

At the same time that Saqqara's Fourth Army was preparing to sail for Edinburgh, the main force of the English army also marched into Northumberland. In addition to Sivarg's Fifth Army (only half of which was actually real, and the other half was pretended to be militia from Germany), there were 10,000 new recruits after Edward's accession to the throne.

It's just that although the 10,000 soldiers are good, there is a serious shortage of qualified officers. Because, at the beginning, all the capable officers in the era of Henry VII were killed by Edward. Therefore, the remaining officers who defected to Edward were either mediocre or incompetent, and did not have much talent at all.

Just like Henderson, the commander of the new legion, he used to be a wandering knight of England who followed Edward, with average military command ability, but he was better than loyalty. After Edward ascended the throne, he had no one to use, so he had to put the mediocre Henderson on the throne of the captain.

However, Henderson and his officers were mostly mediocre in ability. Although with the help of Sivarg, new training methods were adopted, but compared with the Fifth Army of the Beihai State, the combat effectiveness of the new army was still very average. After all, a soldier will be a nest of bears. Henderson and his officers were very poor at leading troops, and the new legion was naturally inferior to their Fifth Legion. It was also a regiment dominated by English soldiers, but every time the new regiment was exercised, it was pressed and beaten by the Fifth Legion......

In desperation, Edward had no choice but to appoint Sivag as the commander-in-chief of the coalition instead of Henderson.

After these two legions arrived in Northumberland County from the north, from the direction of Newcastle, they also drove a force of 10,000 men and horses - the "Fourth Army of the North Sea State". Of course, this "Fourth Army" is in quotation marks, not a real Fourth Army.

Their real identity is the "Fourth Army" cobbled together after a short training after a short training of 2,000 thugs from the Newcastle Coal Mine Protection Team, with 2,000 thugs as the main body.

The main body of this team, the 2,000 Mine Guards, was formed around the same time as the Fourth Army to protect Newcastle's coal mines from refugees. But now that there are no refugees in the north of England, they don't have much to do. Therefore, Marin simply let them go out and help the English army to grow stronger.

Moreover, on the surface, the 2000 mine protection team is okay in peacetime, at least, the military posture and walking are relatively neat. As for the newly recruited 8,000 people, they have also undergone short-term cohort training, and they also walk decently. If you don't do it, it will be difficult for ordinary people to see the details of this fake "Fourth Army".

In this way, on the surface, England dispatched a total of 30,000 troops with a total of 30,000 troops to the border area of England and Scotland, and the formation was very terrifying.

In order to defend the country, Scotland mobilized seven or eight thousand strong men from the rear and filled the guard troops. However, considering the superiority of the English in strength, these seven or eight thousand Scottish militia were only stationed in some passes in the mountains of southern Scotland, as well as in towns that were easy to defend and difficult to attack. In this way, these Scottish militiamen can also take advantage of their geographical advantages to maneuver with a more powerful English army.

But it is strange that when the 30,000 "great army" of England arrived at the border, they did not immediately launch a fierce offensive, but stopped and repaired. Then, small forces were sent to provoke and abuse in front of the Scottish army fortress from time to time in order to lure the Scottish army out of the city for a decisive battle. Or, simply persuade to surrender. But how could the Scottish army be fooled? but they cowered in the city and refused to come out, nor did they surrender. Then, the border area fell into a strange confrontation, but there was no real fighting......