"You shouldn't be like this, it's just a trivial matter, if he doesn't want to join, forget it, why hit him? Pugachev is also the head of a country, if you don't give him face like this, he will inevitably be resentful, and in the end there will definitely be trouble, you must know that this crusade, the logistics route of the Norman Empire will be transported to Kherson through Zaporozhye. Norman Empress Artoria leaned in.

"The queen seems to have grown a lot, you must know that the time I first met you, you couldn't say such things."

Artoria blushed: "What are you talking about?" ”

"It's nothing, the reason why Pugachev dared to talk to me like this is probably because of this, he thinks that he has caught my handle, and even can use it to blackmail, which is quite good."

"Listen to you...... Do you want to do something to the Zaporozhye Khanate? ”

"That's right, as you said, this place is very important to the Empire, how can I trust some scheming, greedy and unscrupulous Cossacks to control such an important place? These things must be in your own hands to be safe. ”

"That said, but the Empire's armies are now preparing to march to the Holy Land, how did you come up with the idea? Or has it been planned for a long time? ”

"Of course, after planning for a long time, there is no need to even use the main forces, only two or three hussar corps, plus the Baltic River Guard, the Southwestern Polish Military District can organize about 20,000 professional troops, which is more than enough to deal with the Zaporozhye Khanate."

"When to act?"

"The time of action is naturally after all the main forces of our army have left, most of the other side will suddenly attack Kherson, in an attempt to cut off our logistics supplies, so that our hundreds of thousands of troops outside can not get logistics supplies and collapse, and we can arrange it in advance, leave part of the guard troops, and let the hussar corps ambush on the periphery, waiting for the other side to attack Kherson, and then destroy them from inside and outside, and annex the Zaporozhye Khanate to ensure the interests of the Norman Empire."

"But it shouldn't be good for your prestige to do so, especially since you've been fighting for dominance of this crusade and becoming the leader of the crusade."

"So the Norman Empire needs to play, play the role of being a righteous retaliatory after being shamelessly betrayed."

"You can say this kind of thing yourself, other countries will definitely maliciously slander or insult you in this regard."

"Hehe, as long as they are also involved in this matter, they can be gagged, Kherson is not only transporting the army of the Norman Empire."

"I see!" Artoria nodded, indicating that she understood Randy's intentions, putting aside Iberia, which didn't know if it would really send troops to the war, Venice and Milan, which had good navies, and the Papal States, which also didn't know if they would send troops, the rest of France, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Burgundy, and these countries didn't have much naval power, and if they wanted to enter the Holy Land, they could only use the navies of other countries, or use the Eastern Roman Empire to cross the entire Asia Minor.

Before the rise of the Norman Empire, the Crusaders did just that, either with the help of the Venetian navy or through the Eastern Roman Empire, the former contributing to the capture of Constantinople by Dandoro, and the latter indirectly by the death of Barbarossa the Redbeard.

And now, because of Randy's arrival, a series of butterfly reactions have caused the previous crusades to be similar to the original history, with the help of the Italian city-states, or through the Eastern Roman Empire.

However, both of these options are somewhat inappropriate, and one is very concerned that with the help of the Italian city-states, there will be fierce attacks by pagans, especially Barbary pirates, in the Mediterranean, causing a certain amount of damage. After the previous crusade, the naval forces of the Italian city-states suffered heavy losses against the Eastern Romans, although they are now barely recovering, and do not have the full ability to transport all the crusaders.

The second option was through the Eastern Roman Empire......

Not to mention whether the Eastern Roman Empire would be willing to let a swarm of locusts into its territory, just talking about the distance of the distance, the thousands of kilometers of travel is simply unbearable, and along the way there will be a war with another powerful pagan state, the Seljuk Turks.

So the advent of the Norman Empire gave these people a new choice.

Located in the port of Kherson, a large number of warships and transports have been gathered, completely unafraid of pagan naval pirates, the combat effectiveness is very amazing, and the carrying capacity is much higher than that of the Italian city-states, although the road is also long, but it is closer and safer than the Eastern Roman Empire.

In fact, Randy had already sent invitations to Burgundy, Brandenburg, Hesse, Hungary, and Bavaria, which he had befriended beforehand, and offered to transport their troops with the help of his powerful navy.

In Randy's plan, these countries will be attacked by the Zaporozhye Cossacks after entering Kherson, and later serve as a testimony to Randy's innocence.

September 24, 1105 A.D.......

Although Randy, Artoria, Joan of Arc, and nearly 40,000 Norman regular troops and 10,000 Celtic troops still remained in Kherson, in fact, this holy war has begun, and now Randy can receive a lot of messages about the Fourth Crusade every day, at this moment, the Norman Empire's offshore fleet under the leadership of Marshal Carter, has successfully occupied the island of Cyprus, Randy followed up with a statement, declaring that the Kingdom of Jerusalem has been destroyed, and the island of Cyprus is now free, as the Norman Emperor and the leader of the crusade, he has the right to dispose of the ownership of the island of Cyprus.

Rather than blatantly claiming to include the island of Cyprus in the Norman Empire, Randy cleverly used the concept that the island would serve as a base for the Crusaders, a transit point for supplies, and a bridgehead, just as Randy had claimed.

"The location of this island is so important, like a sharp sword that we Christians stab, so this island must be taken seriously, Christians gain the initiative in this battle, we can attack and retreat, we can defend it, when we are strong, we will use this as a base for advancement, when the forces of justice are weak, this is the first barrier against evil, so this place should be endowed with a sacred, noble sense, not to turn this place into a gathering place of secular aristocracy." Randy's words sounded high-sounding, as the engineers and baggage troops stationed on the island of Cyprus used the materials they carried, including the resources produced by the island itself, to integrate, and began to fortify the island, and reclaimed the land on a large scale, building barracks, warehouses, docks, docks, these military facilities, and the Norman army, most of which were stationed here.

Cyprus is a small land, with more than 90,000 Norman elite garrisons, plus the same large number of fleets, baggage soldiers and engineers, Randy believes that even if Saladin goes out and allies with Serju and Barbary pirates to attack Cyprus, Cyprus can be defended.

Randy relied on his advantage in occupying Cyprus and the advantage of his own navy, and as he said, he was now invincible.

For this behavior of the Norman Empire, the other countries of the Crusaders are a little dissatisfied, but they are helpless, the Norman Empire is powerful, and there is a certain degree of tacit understanding between the Eastern Roman Empire, if you want to participate in the Crusaders, you must look at the face of the Norman Empire, with the help of the port of Kherson and the Norman fleet, otherwise you will have to fight in the Mediterranean, with the same pagan pirates as piranhas, which will make the other countries of the Crusaders have suffered heavy losses before they have reached the Holy Land, Let this crusade turn into a joke, or a one-man show by Emperor Randy, except that this kind of situation has been in the past since the beginning of this war.

The Norman navy, with its half-phoenix sails and large warships with its most scientific soft sails and oars, crisscrossed the waters of the Near East to attack the merchant ships, warships and transports of the Seljuk Turks in Egypt, bringing trade in the Near East to the brink of collapse.

Of course, compared to a certain fool named Renard before, the Norman pirates still seemed very gentlemanly and polite, no matter whether they encountered merchant ships or warships, whether the other party chose to surrender, or fought hard, the Norman navy and pirates would eventually treat every captive well, except for restricting their freedom of life, and not doing more abuse.

When the ship docked, if the captive was a merchant, he was warned to stop trading.

If the captives were soldiers, most of them would have been sent to Cypriot prisons, and only a few lucky ones would have sent back to report the news, and these merchants and soldiers would return to the land of the Near East in special ships, usually small and sparsely populated fishing villages, and then the Arabs and Egyptians would gradually pass on the latest crusade news.

In addition, the Norman Empire sent small numbers of well-armed Norman hussars to land on the Near East, often near Jerusalem and currently in Christian hands, carrying half-phoenix banners and speaking Frankish and half-hung Arabic to preach the imminent arrival of the Norman Empire.

"Hold on, soldiers, warriors, people who believe in Jesus Christ, the Fourth Crusade is coming, we are His Majesty the Norman Emperor Randi, the most pious, brave, powerful, and supreme monarch of the world, the army of the empire is about to set foot on this land, His Majesty the Emperor will lead the most elite army in all of Europe, and lead all the warriors who believe in Christ to come, and the Holy Land belongs to us Christians after all."

These well-trained soldiers in shining armor and impassioned speeches reinvigorated this series of small Christian territories along the coast, and the fall of Jerusalem before it seemed like the end of the world for them, Saladin, the *** army, the demon kings and demons who came out of hell, even the mighty kingdom of Jerusalem failed miserably, so what hope did they have?

Many Christian nobles surrendered to Saladin for this reason, after all, the ostensibly upright and kind monarch had always declared that his country could tolerate any form of religion, whether it was a Christian, a Christian, a Jewish, or a person of any other faith, as long as he obeyed the law.

Therefore, another task of the Randy vanguard is to give the punishment that these traitors who have abandoned the glory of the Lord Christ and thrown into the arms of the infidels.

It is true that the light hussars did not have much means to attack the towns, because their attack was like a whirlwind in the desert, and before the other side could react, they quickly rushed into the other party's fortress or town, killed everyone who dared to resist, and then captured the nobles, tried them, sentenced them to heresy, and then hanged them all.

This group of well-equipped, well-trained, brave and well-aimed hussars soon caught Saladin's attention and became another headache after the Norman fleet.

However, Saladin, the king of the desert, showed very different attitudes towards these two things.

"The Egyptian fleet may not be as good as the Franks, but the Egyptian cavalry must be unparalleled in the world!"

Saladin proudly proclaimed and sent a large number of lightly armed cavalry around Jerusalem, hoping to defeat the Norman lightly armed cavalry with these desert cavalry.

These soldiers dressed in Arabian style clothing, wide white robes, masked heads, riding heat-resistant Arabian horses adapted to desert warfare, armed with scimitars and round shields, and moving like the wind in the land of the Near East, these soldiers are very good, although the light cavalry who specializes in desert warfare does not have much defense, except for the wide robes and large sleeves that can provide effective long-range defense, whether it is long-pole weapons, two-handed weapons, swords and axes, they are extremely powerless. But under the guidance of Allah Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, and under the influence of the atmosphere of fanaticism, these soldiers fought with great courage and bravery.

There is another thing that these cavalry cannot compare with the Christian cavalry, that is, their expertise in desert warfare, and they are very accustomed to the blazing sun and soft sand, unlike the Christian soldiers, especially the Rus' and Normans, who came from the cold regions of the north, who felt very unwell because of the weather, and even suffered from fever or other diseases.

Randy notices this too! Parched...... Perhaps this is the only flaw in his invincible army.

This group of cavalry is the foundation and foundation of Saladin, the king of the desert, and is the best support for him to rule the two river valleys, the vast empire of Upper and Lower Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, Saladin firmly believes that the cavalry under his command may not be as good as other empires in hard-to-face frontal combat, such as the ironclad paladier of the Eastern Roman Empire, but in the vast desert, these cavalry are the deadliest and the best, in the desert, these soldiers are absolutely invincible.

At least in Saladin's opinion, that's the case......

Two armies galloping through the desert, without any protective armor or long-range attack capabilities, fought wildly, numerously, but undisciplined Arab cavalry.

and the well-armoured, short-quartered Norman hussars, well-armed with short compound bows, and high morale, were about to fight a fierce battle.

"I will win, after all, this is the holy land of ***, on our own doorstep."

In the palace in Damascus, Saladin, who was nearly fifty years old, muttered to himself, pressed his hands to the window edges, and looked directly at the distant sunset.

(End of chapter)