"This group of damned heretics clearly wants to burn us to death, huddle in the castle like turtles and refuse to show their faces, I really don't know where those legends like tigers, wolves, gods and ghosts come from."

The bull put the chain mail on his shoulder, turned up his underwear to expose his entire belly and fanned the wind to cool off, and was so hot that he was sweating profusely, but he still kept saying to me: "I don't brag to you, Lord Earl, I can kill a dozen enemies on the battlefield alone, and I don't even breathe, but they hide like this, which is really irritating!" ”

Khloe shrugged at me quietly, he was used to the bull's arrogance, and he had to clean up the mess he left behind anyway, what else could he say?

Khloe walked up to the bull, jokingly patted his somewhat sagging belly, and said with a questioning expression: "I am very confident that your ability can definitely strangle ten Saracens, but I am afraid that you yourself will be exhausted to death before you can catch them, this layer of fat is no less than putting on a heavy armor, and the protection is really thorough, Baron." ”

The bull looked at Kohler fiercely, but he couldn't say a word of rebuttal, because he knew that his lip service was not as good as the other party's, and he had to ask others to take care of him on the battlefield, so he could only eat Coptis dumbly and silently, sitting on the side with the wine in the glass to vent.

I picked up a glass of ice cubes from the box held by the attendant, picked up a piece casually and threw it into my mouth to chew, enjoying the hard-won coolness, until this cold breath spread to every capillary in my body, and then I said:

"Having said that, the enemy is indeed more patient, it's like the most cunning fox and the best hunter are in a competition, whoever takes the initiative first will let the other party see the flaw, but as far as the current situation is concerned, it is not clear who is the fox and who is the hunter who is waiting for the rabbit."

"But one thing is certain, the longer the time drags on, the more unfavorable it will be for us, they are taking advantage of the climate to wear down our combat effectiveness, looking for the opportunity for a decisive battle, whether it is a field battle or a defensive city, on the other hand, our hope of victory is lost little by little with time, giving the enemy enough time to deploy troops."

"This dry climate is just right for the Saracen camel cavalry to fight, and we must always be on guard against enemy attacks."

Kohler squinted in the direction of the castle and thoughtfully drank the cold wine from his glass: "I suspect that holding the ground is likely to be a delaying tactic. ”

I nodded approvingly, but shrugged helplessly: "We are all pawns of His Majesty the Emperor, he is now sitting firmly in the military tent to arrange a big chess game, and we have no way to decide the timing of the battle by ourselves, all we can do is to be vigilant at all times." ”

Kohler put down his glass, turned his face to look at the Normandy camp next to Nijmegen's camp, and said casually as if he were at home: "Why haven't you seen the Duke of Normandy appear for a long time, is there any wonderful summer trick in his camp?" ”

When I heard this, I suddenly realized that the Duke Richard, who was as incomprehensible as a mystery, had indeed not appeared for a long time, and even Princess Gianna, who was idle like a tomboy, never came out again, and at first I thought that she had become sensible under her father's education, but now it seems that things are not so simple.

The Normans were either besieged by the boredom of the day, and were not in the mood to wander out, or they were secretly tinkering with some ulterior secret, and the latter was very likely.

The fifth day of the siege......

That is, April 23......

The morning was nothing special as ever, and the sun was still looking down on the land it ruled over from mid-air, and it was even more powerful in its heat wave to bring all beings to their knees.

I sat at the door of the tent, enjoying the rare morning breeze blowing on my chest, the barley porridge on the plate was no longer so hot, but the unknown black particles floating on it still made me lose my appetite, so I could only hand it to the attendant next to me, and concentrate on munching on the beef jerky, which was as hard as an iron bar.

"Look, my lord!"

Just as I was about to take the wine and send the beef down, the waiter knocked over the wine jug in his hand in horror, and the red liquid spilled all over me.

"Bold!"

Seeing this, Rollo rushed up and kicked the hairy little squire, and wiped the stains on my expensive silk underwear with a clean square towel, but I stood up in surprise and stared at the direction of the squire's finger and opened my mouth wide.

On the horizon to our right, there was a sky of yellow dust, and there seemed to be signs of a large number of people passing, but the scouts did not send back intelligence warnings, and they did not rule out the possibility that the weather was too hot to transform into a mirage.

"Send someone to inform the Count of Hanover at once, and ask him to report it to His Majesty the Emperor."

I didn't care to change into clean underwear, grabbed the chain mail on one side and put it on myself, because I was afraid of being attacked by the enemy, and issued a series of orders with the attitude of believing it rather than believing it:

"Alert the soldiers, put down their horses and tighten their bowstrings, the spearmen in front, the heavy infantry behind, the archers in a shooting position, the knights on horseback and on standby, and by the way, inform the Duke of Normandy next door of the news, we need the help of our allies to protect the flanks."

With my order, the entire Nijmegen barracks were put into action, and the surrounding Swabian barracks saw the commotion on our side, and they all looked at it incomprehensibly, and then followed the work in a daze, as if it would be contagious.

On the side facing the possible enemy, the German barracks were all nervous, for the yellow dust had confirmed my suspicion that a large number of unidentified men were approaching.

"Is it finally here?"

I took the reins from my squire, jumped up, rode on horseback, stared at the billowing yellow dust that was getting closer and closer, and muttered to myself.

It wasn't until the enemy on horseback appeared in plain sight that we were finally able to identify them, and the soldiers began to congratulate themselves on their preparations.

The white turbans and the red crescent on a white background indicate that these skilled horsemen are Saracens from the Emir Kingdom of Sicily, who inherited the custom of honoring white from the Umayyad dynasty of Córdoba, which was used to distinguish it from the green color of the Fatimids, who ruled Egypt and Libya, and the black of the Abbasids, who ruled the Middle East and the two rivers.

With the first order from the Emperor's camp, all the archers took out their arrows and drew their bows and were ready to fire, ready to remind these uninvited knights that they should keep a safe distance, and the Saracens seemed to have expected the German military camp to be well defended, and only urged their horses to circle around the camp from a distance, and had no intention of attacking, and the wind and sand raised looked even more blurry in the sunlight.

"Did they just stay in the city for a long time, riding out on horseback to breathe and take a walk?"

Kohler squinted at the enemy knight leading the way, his waist straight, motionless like a marble sculpture, but it didn't take long for him to loosen his bowstring.

"Damn! The enemy is cunning and deliberately out of range of the bow and arrow, and I can't find the target at all. ”

The bull came up and patted him on the shoulder, spat the straw stick he was chewing on the ground, picked up his battle axe and eagerly asked, "My lord, why don't I take a few people to ride up and have a look?" At such a close distance, I guarantee that I can kill several with one axe. ”

As he spoke, he shook his axe in front of me, as if to show his mastery of the weapon, and slashed twice into the air.

"Aren't you afraid that they will lead you to an ambush circle and take advantage of your familiarity with the terrain to kill you poor little creatures?" Kohler rolled his eyes and slung his bow and arrow on his back, deliberately irritating the bull.

I put up a pergola and looked at the number of enemies, and I very much agreed with Kohler: "The enemy's army must be lying in ambush somewhere, waiting for us to send it to the door stupidly, and let me see that not only the enemy in front of me is a decoy, but even there may not be many Saracens in the castle, they have been lying patiently for a long time, maybe just waiting for this moment." ”

"And what shall we do, my lord?" Seeing that he had no chance to attack, the bull asked stupidly.

"Wait here!"

I returned to my tent with my hands behind my back, took a large sip of the less cold wine to quench my thirst:

"If the enemy rashly attacks our camp, believe me, it will also be a dead end, and our chances of victory are greater."

The Saracen knights on the outskirts of the camp were like a swarm of flies circling around the scented fat, hovering around the food, waiting for a chance to land and take a bite.

Before us were about a thousand infidels, riding tall horses, each of them holding a triangular crescent flag, the tip of their spears, which looked like reeds fluttering in the wind under the city of Nijmegen.

"Aren't they going to just go around us in circles until they're sun-dried and grilled?"

The bull hid in the shade of the tent, loosening the neckline of his chain mail and sipping on cold wine to stimulate his lethargic nerves tossed by the heat, and he was eager not to miss the opportunity to slaughter the infidels with his own hands.

"Let me do it, my lord! These 1,000 headscarves are not enough for me to stuff between my teeth. ”

Kohler stood behind the bull, squinting with his marksman-like habits, staring at the Saracen knights who were suddenly gathered together in the distance, and looked at the Saracen knights who scattered like a flock of birds in an obstacle, as if this would make him see more clearly, only to see him subconsciously plucking the bowstring in his hand, and the noise made the bull irritable, and then said slowly:

"Looking at their equipment, the enemy is a knight between heavy cavalry and light cavalry, with armor, speed, and charge, which is also enough for our lightly armed and thin-armored infantry to drink."

"It's bait for fishing!"

I put my glass on the table, walked from inside the tent to the door, and patted Kohler on the shoulder with certainty:

"I don't believe that the enemy is in such a good mood on a hot day, putting himself in iron armor and roasting like a suckling pig, just to show off his might in front of the opponent's camp, if this is the case, it will be too bad taste, the commander of the other party must be a pervert."

(End of chapter)