After deciding on the plan, Alsace led 5,000 Cossack cavalry south from the east bank of the Elbe to Hamburg. In total, it was the Cossack cavalry who most needed to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river. Because, the Cossack cavalry was often one man with three horses. If you use a boat to transport it, the horses take up a lot of space on the boat, which is very inconvenient. Often, a horse occupies a space that can squeeze several people.

As for the Third Legion, there were also 2,000 black-shirted knights, and 4,000 horses needed to cross the river. Steindorff was the first musket commander of the Beihai ** team, the 2000 Black Shirt Knight, and has always belonged to its leadership. When he was transferred to the commander of the Third Legion, the 2,000 black-shirted knights with carbines were also transferred to the Third Legion.

In total, the 3rd Army and the Cossack Corps, up to 7000 cavalry, had a hard time crossing the river without pontoons. If it's just infantry, just wait for Marin's convoy to pull people. But with 7,000 cavalry, as many as 19,000 horses, it would be very terrifying. No fleet could transport so many horses for long sea maneuvers, and even if there were, they would have to be divided into many batches.

Therefore, this army will not work without pontoon bridges. Otherwise, it will be transported in many batches, and the pontoon bridge will be relatively simple, and the horses will line up to cross the river......

Alsace entered the city of Hamburg with 5,000 Cossack cavalry, guided by Durm, the commander of the black-shirted knights under Steindorff.

In the city of Hamburg at this time, the speaker of the parliament was no longer Heisenberg. Three years ago, Heisenberg had died, and the current speaker was called Bernard, a shrewd middle-aged man.

The Hamburgers had never seen the Cossack cavalry, but they had seen the black shirted knights, and even fought side by side with them. Thus, under the leadership of Durm, Alsace managed to enter Hamburg and negotiate with President Bernard about borrowing a ship.

The people of Hamburg were still very face-saving, and President Bernard quickly approved the inland river vessels of Hamburg itself, and the offshore ships were mainly in Cuxhamn on the west bank of the Elbe estuary, but it was enough to build pontoon bridges for inland river vessels to lend to the North Sea States. Moreover, it was agreed that the ships would be allowed to quietly go south at night and enter the territory of the Duchy of Brunswick Lyneburg before building a pontoon bridge.

In fact, there is a fierce debate within the city of Hamburg about whether or not to support the North Sea Kingdom. But Speaker Bernard was well aware that the North Sea Kingdom was a big customer of Hamburg. Marin had money in his hands and often went to Hamburg to purchase materials such as masonry, beeswax and minerals for domestic construction, which made Hamburg merchants a lot of money.

Moreover, having a strong ally is also very beneficial for Hamburg. Although Hamburg has developed maritime trade and has good maritime strength, it is a weak chicken on land. Protected by Marin's North Sea team, Hamburg's land safety is also guaranteed.

And if the Beihai Kingdom is swallowed by the princes of the Eight Kingdoms, then it may be said. Bernard did not dare to guarantee that if the alliance of the princes of the Eight Kingdoms wiped out the Beihai State, it would swallow Hamburg further. At the very least, Marin's North Sea states had no intention of annexing Hamburg, but were instead very close to the Hanseatic League. And the eight princes, it's hard to say. As far as Speaker Bernard knew, Magnus I, Duke of Saxony-Lauenburg, was very much interested in the wealth of the neighboring Hamburg.

Therefore, Speaker Bernard overrode the crowd and unconditionally cooperated with the army of the North Sea State. Moreover, he believed that if the 15,000 army, which consisted of thousands of cavalry, rushed to the front, it would be difficult for the coalition of the princes of the Eight Nations not to fail......

……

That night, under the starry sky, hundreds of large and small river vessels in Hamburg harbor carefully left the harbor under the guidance of Hamburg sailors and sailed slowly south along the Elbe.

Because it was night, it was difficult to steer the sails. Therefore, Speaker Bernard sent out five thousand slender men to pull the river boats south on the shore with ropes. In this way, there is no need to go through the risk that the sailboat may run aground at night due to the control of the sails. Moreover, because the slender men pull empty boats, it is not so laborious. If the ship is fully loaded, the slender men will suffer. In addition, oarsmen are also arranged on the boat, which further reduces the burden on the slender men.

After daybreak, the flotilla broke away from the part across the river from Bremen and entered the opposite bank of the Duchy of Lüneburg.

Seeing that it was almost over, Alsace and the black-shirted knight commander Durm began arranging for the Hamburg sailors to begin building a pontoon bridge.

Arthas had little experience with this, but Durm was a veteran of the North Sea Country, and he was very experienced in building pontoon bridges. So, under his command, hundreds of Hamburg and large river boats were lined up on the Elbe. The Hamburg sailors then took out the ropes from the boats, tied them further, and laid some of the small boats with spare planks to make the pontoons smoother for the carriages to pass through.

By noon, the pontoon bridge was basically erected. Then the Cossack cavalrymen began to line up to cross the bridge. Alsace feared an enemy attack from the north, so he asked the Cossack cavalry to ignore the changing horses first, but let the two thousand Cossack cavalry cross the pontoon bridge with only their horses. Then, it is responsible for securing the pontoon bridge and avoiding sabotage......

Sure enough, Alsace was right to be worried. When two thousand Cossack cavalry crossed the pontoon bridge, three or four thousand soldiers of the allied army of the princes of the Eight Kingdoms came to the north. It is clear that the other side is here to seize and destroy the pontoon bridge......

In fact, in the morning, the people of the Duchy of Lüneburg discovered the Beihai ** team and the Hamburg fleet that were building pontoon bridges. Then, someone sent someone to the north to report the news.

However, the local horses were forcibly requisitioned by their feudal king, Henry, Duke of Braunschweig. Therefore, the messenger could not report the news on horseback, but could only go on foot.

Although the messenger is a fast runner, comparable to a marathon runner. However, when he arrived at the coalition garrison, it was already about 9 o'clock in the morning.

Then, the generals of the defending army of the alliance of the princes of the Eight Kingdoms began to gather their troops and horses to the south. Unfortunately, they are also infantry and can't run very fast. It was not until after one o'clock in the afternoon that the soldiers of the coalition army of three or four thousand princes of the eight countries arrived near the pontoon bridge. By this time, the two thousand vanguard of the Cossack cavalry had already crossed the river and guarded the pontoon bridge......

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! The Cossack scouts shouted.

The scout was then slapped in the face......

The Cossack commander Jurgen roared:

"What's the panic? That's just three or four thousand infantry, and look at you! The army is crossing the river, and you are shouting so anxiously, it can easily lead to chaos, understand? ”

The new Cossack scout covered his face and nodded aggrievedly, no more nonsense.

In fact, the slap of Commander Jurgen was timely. If this guy is allowed to scream in such a panic, it will really affect the army to cross the river.

If the infantry crosses the pontoon bridge, it's nothing. But the cavalry is all with horses, once the cavalry is flustered, and this emotion is infected to the war horse, something big may happen. Therefore, the slap of Commander Jurgen was very decisive and timely.

"Next, it's up to us!" The commander of the Jurgen regiment turned over his horse, drew the Type 65 cavalry knife, and ordered all the Cossacks guarding the pontoon bridge to mount.

As the commander of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Regiment, the highest commander of the bridge on the West Bank, Jurgen ordered:

"The 4th Cavalry Regiment continued to guard the bridgehead and hold back any enemy who dared to approach. The first, second and third regiments, all come with me! ”

Three Cossack cavalry regiments, a total of 1,500 men, shouted in response, and then they took up their spears......

That's right, not a saber, but a spear......

The Cossack cavalry did not only use swords, but also spears. Of course, the spears they use are not cavalry spears that can charge at high speeds, but the most ordinary infantry spears.

As for the saber, it will only be drawn out after the spear is out of his hand and he will continue to slash......

For the Cossack cavalry, the spear belonged to the weapon of the first charge. And after the spear pierces the enemy's body, it is often too late to pull it out. Therefore, after the first round of the charge stabbed the spear into the enemy, the Cossack cavalry often decisively discarded the spear, and then quickly drew their sabers and continued to slash.

Sometimes, in order to break through the enemy's formation, the spear was often used as a javelin by the Cossack cavalry and thrown into the enemy's formation, inflicting casualties on the enemy......

For example, in this first round of charge, except for the commander, each Cossack cavalryman held in his hand a slender spear of the most ordinary more than three meters long.

Moreover, in this era, the spear corps Cossack cavalry was very important. Because, the European infantry they faced was often good at spear formations. If you rush forward with a saber in hand, you can easily be stabbed into a hornet's nest by the enemy. Therefore, the Cossacks often chose to use spears against infantry phalanxes in the same way......

"Rush!" 1500 Cossack cavalrymen rushed forward brandishing "disposable" inferior spears. And the commander of the coalition army of the princes of the eight countries was also shocked when he saw so many cavalry rushing over. So, he cried out:

"Array! Array! Spearmen rush forward, raise their spears diagonally, and block the enemy cavalry! ”

Then, a group of levies formed a phalanx in a panic. The spearmen in the front row placed their spears at an angle of 45 degrees, with the end of their spears touching the ground, to transmit the impact of the enemy cavalry to the ground......