"How's it going?" In a secret room in the backyard of the royal palace of Cleaver, John II, Duke of Cleaver, who was supposed to be "seriously ill and comatose", eagerly inquired about the envoy who had just returned from an envoy from the capital of the Duchy of Godes. And standing next to John II were the palace ministers Mason and Schwartz.

The messenger replied respectfully:

"Lord Duke, as Lord Schwartz said, the people of Geddes are extremely arrogant, and they don't look down on the Duchy of Cleaver at all. When they heard that we were going to send 30,000 troops to intervene, they were not only not afraid, but laughed. This was true not only of the princes of the Duchy of God, but also of the citizens of the city of Gelden. In short, the Guedes do not believe that we are capable of defeating them......"

The three people who listened to the report were all relieved, and John II turned to Schwartz and said:

"General Schwartz, everything is going well. Now, you're ready to lead your army! ”

"Yes, Lord Duke, I'll go back to the front!" With that, Schwartz pulled off the visor of his helmet and, surrounded by the guards, quietly left through the back door of the Cleaver City Palace......

At the same time as Schwartz returned to the front, the old Mason, the minister of Clifford Palace, also sent a request to the surrounding countries at the behest of John II, hoping to borrow troops to raise an army of 30,000 to intervene in the Parsons concentration camp......

However, no one paid attention to him. Even the Duchy of Hulich and the Duchy of Berg, which had very good relations with the Duchy of Clive (the two duchies were a confederation and both were ruled by William IV. William IV had a good relationship with John II, and later, William IV's only daughter, Maria of Hulich-Berg, also married John III, the son of John II. The Lamarck family then took charge of the four powerful vassal states of the Duchy of Cleave, the Duchy of Macbeth, the Duchy of Hulich, and the Duchy of Berg. Moreover, these four vassal states are close together) Duke William IV, none of whom promised to send troops. Because William IV thought that Mason Sr's behavior was trespassing, he refused to send troops to help.

Hearing these rumors, the whole Duchy of Gedes was even more relieved - it turned out that Old Mason wanted to borrow troops from other countries to gather 30,000 people...... It's a pity that other countries ignore Old Mason...... Therefore, the people of Guedes are less vigilant......

At this time, Schwartz led a large army, taking advantage of the night, quietly crossed the Maas River and entered the territory of the Duchy of Brabant......

……

In contrast to the optimism in the Duchy of Godes, Field Marshal Bonitz, the commander of the army of Gods, was very uneasy during this time. Because, half of the 300 scouts and spies he sent were killed.

In order to ensure the safety of the scouts, Bonitz no longer used the scouts in a scattered manner, but ordered these scouts to go out on patrol. As a result, Sauer's scout troops were much more difficult to intercept.

With the difficulty of intercepting greatly increased, Sauer came up with a way to distract the scouts of the Geddes army......

To this end, Sauer sent hundreds of scouts and deliberately fled westward with the main force of the remaining 150 scouts of the regiment's Gedse army.

Dressed in Habsburg garbs, carrying the banner of the Habsburgs, and riding Arab horses purchased from Egypt by Marin, they lured the scout troops of the Duchy of Guedes to chase them west, in the direction of Ghent......

The Arabian horse is far superior to the average European horse in terms of speed and endurance. At a time when Europe was not yet paying attention to the cultivation of horse breeds, the horses of the Geddes army scouts were obviously inferior to the horses' farts of the North Sea State scouts. Those horses in Europe, although explosive are good, they still can't catch up with the faster Arabian horses. Then, running and running, there was little strength to chase. After all, European native horses have far less endurance than Arabian horses. Therefore, the scouts of the Geddes army failed to catch up with the North Sea State scout troops who acted as bait. So, they had to go back and report that the Habsburgs had hundreds of hussars in the west threatening the safety of the scouts. However, they couldn't catch up......

Can you catch up? You know, Marin only introduced a few hundred Arabian horses. Except for those used for breeding, the rest were allocated to the Scout Corps. Why? Because for a scout to survive, the horses must be of good quality. Otherwise, if you are caught up, you will die. Moreover, the Arabian horse was a medium-sized horse, which could not be used as a war horse for heavy knights, and was only suitable for light cavalry and scouts. But now Marin did not form a large number of light cavalry, moreover, the responsibility of the scouts was very great. Therefore, Marin equipped the scouts with Arabian horses with strong speed and endurance to facilitate scouts' reconnaissance. The horses ridden by the Gedes scouts are all local European breeds with good explosiveness but poor endurance, so they naturally can't catch up with Arabian horses with strong explosiveness and endurance.

After listening to the report of the scout troops, Marshal Bonitz was greatly relieved. Because, he thought he had found the force that had intercepted the Gedus scouts...... It is no wonder that hundreds of scouts on the other side acted together in a group, and the horses were fast, so it was naturally easy to intercept and kill the scouts of the Gedes army. In order to prevent the other side from intercepting and killing his own scouts again, Field Marshal Bonitz formed a scout group of 150 surviving scouts, which were specially placed in the direction of the west to monitor the "scout troops" sent by the hundreds of "Habsburg troops". In addition, Sauer had intercepted and killed all the scouts in the north before, which led to Sauer's 100 scouts completely attracting the scouts of the Gedes army. Thus, when Schwartz led a large army into the territory of the Duchy of Brabant, the army of Geddes did not even notice it......

It's just that Schwartz was depressed - as soon as he entered the territory of the Duchy of Brabant with his army, it began to rain heavily in the sky and the roads began to become muddy......

Schwartz's main army of 27,000 not only brought a lot of artillery, grain and grass, but also 15,000 people accompanied him. The people were accompanied by wheelbarrows, but when it came to muddy roads on rainy days, the wheelbarrows could not be pushed. In desperation, Schwartz had to camp first and wait.

And at the Geddes army camp outside the Parson concentration camp, Field Marshal Bonitz was very excited:

"Finally got to the rainy day! In this way, the enemy musketeers are useless! Just right, it is convenient for our army to attack the city! ”

Therefore, the excited Field Marshal Bonitz, despite the heavy rain, ordered the whole army, except for the musketeers, to prepare for the siege of the city in the rain...... In the rainy weather, Marshal Bonitz concluded that the enemy musketeers defending the city must have lost their combat effectiveness......

And in the camp in the remote border area of the north-east of the Duchy of Brabant, Schwartz was also discussing things with Sauer:

"Sauer, you said your scouts spotted the enemy army busy attacking the city? With such heavy rain, they also attacked the city? ”

"Of course, Schwartz, my scout can't be mistaken. As for their rainy day siege, isn't that clear? They are afraid of the musket power of the defenders on a sunny day! ”

Schwartz nodded, but immediately smiled:

"It's a pity, Bonitz didn't know that the 1,000 musketeers who defended the city were using clockwork muskets that were not afraid of rainy days. Wait a while, and he'll know what the clockwork musket has to offer them! ”

Sauer also nodded, expressing his approval of Schwartz's words. However, he reminded Schwartz:

"Schwartz, it's raining, I think the arquebuses of the Duchy of Geds army should all be ineffective, right? It is better for us to take this opportunity to attack, so that we will not be afraid that the opponent's arquebus troops will inflict huge casualties on our army! ”

"Great idea! Well, as soon as the rain becomes lighter tomorrow morning, I will order the army to immediately pull out the camp and advance, and strive to rush to the battlefield as soon as possible. Taking advantage of the inability of the opposing army's arquebusiers to fight off, we can take the opportunity to launch an attack and crush the Gedse army in one fell swoop! ”

……