"Now we can talk on an equal footing."

I straightened my back, stretched out my hand gracefully, and made a gesture of please, and the old earl was stunned for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully and turned over and dismounted, and withdrew the attendant who wanted to follow, and walked alone in this direction.

"I've been tricked by you again, Lord Duke."

He put his hands behind his back and paced steadily, without the slightest surprise of sudden realization, but only the indifference and calmness of the old man who had experienced the wind and waves.

"No wonder you suddenly made a request for a duel, it turned out that you wanted to buy time for the arrival of reinforcements."

"You guessed it right and you didn't guess it right, I'm just a humble executor, and everything is arranged and controlled by God." Shrugging like a scoundrel, the two of them smiled tacitly.

"Are you showing off your ingenuity?"

The old earl joked with a serious face: "What if my nephew wins before reinforcements arrive in Nijmegen?" ”

"What can I do? Throw in the towel! ”

I grimaced and put on a resigned expression: "But I know I'm going to win, because God has favored me again, just as He has kissed the lucky me countless times, and it's a desperate gamble, and it's a gamble on confidence." ”

Earl Richfield grinned, smiling without making a sound, and he habitually held his belt to hold his belly from overeating.

"Hehe, do you think that if you win the duel and come with reinforcements, you can force me to negotiate?"

The old earl leaned over to my ear with a playful look in his eyes, and said in a voice that only two people could hear, "Don't be too naïve, Lord Duke, you have already lost. ”

"That's right, in terms of the overall situation, Nijmegen is indeed at a disadvantage, and the balance of victory is almost entirely on your side."

I staggered away from him slightly, deliberately keeping a distance that was neither intimate nor distant: "But have you thought about it? At this moment, I am equal in number to you, and I have just won the duel, and I have formed a local advantage, besides, I don't need to remind you that your warriors are mercenaries who will not sell their lives, right? ”

"Huh, threaten me?" The old earl smiled approvingly, and he sensed that I was neither humble nor arrogant, and changed his tone.

"Remember what you said when you negotiated by the river?"

That's what I really care about: "Who became the next Duke of Swabia?" The eldest son of Duke Hermann was fostered in Nijmegen, who else could inherit the bloodline and jurisprudence of the principality? ”

"You lost our heir, and now you're yelling at me?"

The old earl pointed at himself with a smile and a smile, and his emotions slowly became excited.

"None of this would have happened, but you messed it all up! My country is plunged into an endless civil war, the people are bleeding, and this is when someone needs to stand up and end the war, understand! The ancestors of my family swore allegiance to the owner of the Iron Crown, and although I have a deep affection for the Duke's family, I cannot break my oath, and the one who wears the crown is the master to whom I am allegiant, or rather, to this country! ”

The Iron Crown

[The crowns of the four most powerful tribes of the East Franks, the rulers of the forerunners of the later Four Duchies, were made of iron and iron to signify their family's irrefutable divine authority over the tribal principalities, and gradually evolved into a symbol of legal significance, which was worn on the head of the successor on behalf of God by the bishop of the diocese or the envoy of the Archbishop of Aachen at the coronation of successive dukes.] ］

In the face of a loyal patriot, Rao is a clever eloquent debater like me who can't find a flaw in the criticism, there is no trick, the reason can't be talked about feelings, it is said that the older people are, the more emotional they are, and they like to remember the memories of the past, but I hope they can move him.

"Duke Herman's eldest son is still alive."

"What do you say? No way! ”

Earl Lechfeld's eyes were glaring, his saliva was squirting like rain, he grabbed my arm and shook it vigorously, like a horse **** entering the role, shaking so much that I almost fell apart.

"Leo really isn't dead? If you dare to lie, I'll take your mouth out of the mouth that only lies! ”

My back was sweating coldly, and I couldn't imagine that the old earl had a violent maniac hidden in his heart.

The picture of pulling the mouth off is perverted enough just to think about it.

"Is it necessary to make up nonsense to lie to you?"

I quietly brushed aside his iron hand that was holding his arm, the child's name was Leo, and he had not seen several times in Nijmegen for many years, and he often had fun with Serena's boudoir embroiderers, and it was said that he had learned great social etiquette, and his martial arts had been wasted.

"When the accident happened in Nijmegen, my cronies fled along a secret passage with Leo and Martin Jr., my son, and I can't lie about the lives of the heirs of Nijmegen and Swabia."

The old earl stood dumbfounded, as if he could not believe what his ears had heard.

"Since the castle has a secret passage, why did your wife ......?"

He paused, observed my face, quietly exchanged his honorifics, and continued: "As a Christian, why do you end your life in such an extreme way? ”

"I'm explaining to you the facts I know, please don't get involved in Serena's affairs, that's the bottom line." I stretched out my fingers and drew a line between the two of them.

"I'm sorry, Lord Duke, and I hope you'll forgive me for my gaffes."

The old Earl was apologetic, and the news that Leo was still alive made him feel better, and the wary hedgehog finally showed its soft belly.

"That'...... Where is Leo now? I have to see him. ”

"If you don't let me go, you won't see him."

Beautiful counter-attack, Earl Richfield's face changed from time to time, for fear that he would misunderstand, I hurriedly explained:

"Not a threat to you, Count, I really don't know where they are, my son, your master, I don't know anything."

"Shameless lie!"

The old earl scolded angrily, and really misunderstood what I meant: "You have no trust in me, Lord Duke, goodbye on the battlefield!" As he spoke, he turned to leave, when the sharp-eyed attendant immediately ordered the archers to prepare, and the two sides immediately became tense.

Impatient old fellow, I can't wait to rush up and slap the old face full of wrinkles to help him sober up, after living for such a long time, won't he listen to people finish speaking!

"If you don't look back, you'll regret not listening to me." I suppressed my anger and shouted at a higher level.

"The only thing I regret is that I believe your nonsense, and my snake-like forked tongue makes up the nonsense of a bitch."

The old earl waved his hand without looking back: "In order to achieve your goal, what else can't you use to make up?" Dignity, morality, honor...... Hehe! ”

"Old bastard! I swear to God it's all true! Come back! Seeing him return to the formation, I was so anxious that I stomped my feet, and I didn't care about any honorific or disrespectful words between my words.

"God? Hell you! ”

Behind the old count, the heavy infantry put together their shields in turn to form a tight phalanx, and he mounted his warhorse, staring at me with cold eyes, like a soaring falcon looking down on a poor rabbit.

"Trust you again, I'm a fool, despicable Randy."

Who the hell is the fool of us? I stood helplessly, not understanding why my words were no longer believed, and laughed when I thought about it, when a person is always clever and tells lies, in the long run, people will think that everything he says is false.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow burst through the air, plunging deep into the ground on the tip of my foot, and I looked up to meet the old earl with a bow and arrow, his sharp eyes breathing fire, as if tumbling and surging hot magma:

"You have a quarter of an hour to organize the team, take advantage of it, don't waste it."

That's it! The matter has been so much that it is difficult to recover, only to bite the bullet, I looked at the gray feather at the end of the feather arrow, and I couldn't help but feel sad from it:

"O God, if you can hear, answer me, is it my destiny?" The breeze blew, and Ling Yu seemed to nod in reply with a trembling look.

Picking up the long sword on the ground, I took one last look in the direction of Earl Richfield, who was guarded by many knights, only revealing the gray head and the figure visible in the middle of the human slit, I sighed self-deprecatingly, after all, I could not save the broken relationship between the two sides, and hung my head in frustration.

"Your Excellency!"

Owen and the others waded into the water to help me cross the river, with a puzzled expression on their faces, the two adults had just talked about it well, why did they turn their faces in an instant, and even made trouble to the point of having to meet each other?

"My lord, I'm sorry I'm late." Deved pleaded guilty to himself.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, you've done a great job, much more than I expected, like the violets over there."

I said to Nunu on the other side of the river: "They are in a position that can contain a lot of energy from the enemy, but I am a little worried about one thing, we are too far away from each other, and it will be inconvenient to give orders later, so what should I do?" ”

"War?" Owen and Deved looked at each other and asked in unison.

"Oh, the enemy, us, the river ......"

I snapped three fingers and shook them in front of them: "This battle is definitely not easy to fight, are you timid?" ”

"Scared? Look at what I'm here. ”

Owen pulled open his collar and pointed at his neck, and I looked at it for a long time and shook my head suspiciously: "The shackles of death." ”

He let go of his hand and continued solemnly: "This thing has been around my neck for a long time, and sooner or later it will be tightened, what are you afraid of!" ”

It dawned on a few of us that Owen was showing his determination.

"Have you figured out how to fight, my lord?"

Deved's cornflower has been placed in the rear as a reserve of the whole army, and the whole structure has been preserved, and the soldiers' faces are only slightly tired, and their morale is very high.

"Let's take one step at a time, at least now the enemy and us are evenly matched in terms of troops, and whoever attacks first will have to land and fight across the river."

I glanced at the moving enemy formation, and the heralds on horseback galloped back and forth, a busy scene.

"We don't have archers, we lack the ability to suppress from a distance, and our opponents can charge with impunity, especially since they have more than thirty knights, which is a force to be reckoned with."

"Do you think Count Richfield will attack first?" Owen asked, and Deved nodded questioningly, waiting for my answer.

"Not necessarily, the old earl is not so stupid."

I tried my best to guess what the Count was thinking, based on my knowledge of him: "If the identities of the two of us were reversed, I would never act rashly, how good would it be to stay where I am and wait for you to call?" The troops here are fully equipped, if you want archers and archers, you want heavy infantry and heavy infantry, you want pikemen and pikemen, you want knights and knights, fight, keep it so that you have no return! ”

"So you say...... We don't have any advantage at all, do we? Owen furrowed his eyebrows in frustration, and his face changed as quickly as a child.

"Pretty much."

I replied in passing, and when I realized that the atmosphere was not right, I immediately changed my words.

"Not entirely nothing. Clamour! Isn't Violet behind their ass? That's where we come in. ”

To be honest, this nonsense makes me feel weak, can Violet, who has a majority of recruits, withstand a round of charge from the enemy knights? Even if the veterans work hard, but the recruits have poor psychological quality and collapse, what can be done?

Worried about what to come, sometimes the crow's beak was more accurate than predicted, and after about a quarter of an hour as the old earl had agreed, their phalanx changed, and some of the heavy infantry were transferred from the front to the rear, and the pikemen on both sides were replenished, and in the middle of Rulin's halberd, the white feathers of the mercenary crossbowmen adorning their helmets were faintly visible.

"Hehe, I'm going to do something to Violet."

I mounted on horseback and observed the movements of the enemy, whose intention was obvious, to keep all the archers in front and protected by a certain number of pikemen, to keep the fire suppressed and prevent the cornflower from crossing the river, and the more combat-ready heavy infantry to use against the violets in the rear, while the knights were responsible for outflanking the flanks, ready to bite the hard bone that was stuck in the throat.

Deved's lips pursed, his eyes rolling uneasily.

"My soldiers' armor rate is too low, and their shields are few, even if they charge forcibly regardless of casualties, a hundred or so people are not enough for the enemy archers to shoot in two rounds."

He was telling the truth, and our overstretched forces could not afford such attrition.

"Look, my lord!"

Owen kept an eye on Violet's condition, his chin raised high, as if that would allow him to see better.

"The enemy's heavy infantry charges in a dense formation, the shields are in a line, and they can't even insert a needle, and most of our people have spears, and they are helpless in the face of the shield array......"

The knight licked his lips unconsciously as he spoke, and his heart must have been in a hurry.

"What's the use of panicking now that it's come to this? Calm down, the sky can't fall! ”

I cheered up Owen, who stared intently at the battle on the other side of the river, and didn't hear the words of encouragement, so I asked Deved instead.

"How many shields are your cornflowers equipped with?"

"No more than two-thirds of them, all of them are small round shields for cavalry, and the infantry shields are too big to carry and are difficult to move, and it is easy to slow down the march, so many people think they are cumbersome and throw them away."

In his 1510 report, in order to hurry, he did give an order to lighten his outfits, and now the responsibility lies with me.

(End of chapter)