"Your Majesty, why don't you take advantage of the victory to pursue and overthrow the Salian Dynasty in one fell swoop, and support a Shinra Emperor who suits your heart?

Henry III of the Salian Dynasty is indeed too strong, and it is impossible to reconcile between you and him, Your Majesty, but if you change to a more cowardly Emperor Shinra, you may be able to achieve your goal. Duke Richard suggested.

Duke Richard's proposal made William almost smile, and exclaimed: "This proposal is awesome, Duke Richard, why didn't I think of it!" ”

William stood up excitedly, put his hands on Duke Richard's shoulders and said excitedly.

Originally, he planned to seize the west bank of the Rhine after the decisive battle, including the Duchy of Upper Lorraine, which is the region of Lorraine in Alsace, the Duchy of Lower Lorraine, which is Verdun and the Belgian region, and Luxembourg.

These territories are connected to William's Kingdom of France, which is easy to control, and also has a vast grain-rich Rhine Plain, the Upper Lorraine region of Alsace, rich in coal and iron, and rich forests and natural resources.

For William, who wanted to develop industry, invent and promote the steam engine, and guide the first industrial revolution, the rich coal and iron resources of the Duchy of Upper Lorraine were extremely important and could not be abandoned.

At the same time, Upper and Lower Lorraine also had extremely important and good political significance for William.

Historically, the Kingdom of Lorraine, which included the Upper and Lower Lorraine region, was the core territory of Charlemagne and the Carolingian monarchs, and its historical significance is also extremely significant.

With the de jure realm of the Kingdom of Lorraine and the Kingdom of France in his possession, William might be able to add two crowns and a dazzling crown to himself—the King of France, the King of Lorraine, and most importantly, the Emperor of Franconia.

Of course, as the monarch of the Normans, William and the Normans under his command had a never-ending greed for territory, how could he temporarily stop the conquest of the HRE Empire because of indigestion?

According to common sense, it is a big deal that William swallows all the territories he occupies, and if he can't digest them, he will first throw them to his noble vassals to govern, and seal him to take time out to recover these territories one by one, which is also a very feasible method.

And the reason why William did not do this was because his army of more than 65,000 people encountered supply difficulties, coupled with financial constraints and tired soldiers, it was impossible for him to fight a war of conquest with the HRE Empire that lasted for ten years.

William sent a total of 80,000 troops to the battlefield of the HRE Empire, and in addition to the 70,000 on the south bank of the Maas River, more than 10,000 troops were stationed in the previously occupied cities of Blat, Breda, Hainaut, and Lorne.

Even after losing more than 4,000 men in the decisive battle, William's army was as high as 65,000 people, and such a large number of troops had made the rich territory on the west bank of the Rhine a scorched earth, and the people in the territory were unable to make a living, and they could no longer get a little food.

Not only in the west bank of the Rhine, Bratt on the north bank of the Maas River, but also in Liège, Verdun, Luxembourg, Haut-Lorraine and other places on the south bank of the Maas River, the people were also poor because of the 80,000 requisitioned food of the HRE Empire, and they could not have much surplus food in their hands.

As many as 150,000 troops from both sides fought here for a long time, which was the end of the world for the people of Lorraine.

Because during the Middle Ages, the countries of Western Europe did not establish a logistical organization of armies, and there were no proper supply methods.

Take the army of the Holy Roman Empire as an example, the food and grass that went out to fight were completely supplied and replenished by plunder, and William's side was similar.

Before William and Emperor Henry III of the HRE went to war, the noble knights of the two countries each made preparations for nearly a year, raising their own materials for war by increasing taxes, raising tax rates, selling property, and plundering and expropriating their own territories.

Despite this, these supplies still could not meet the needs of the war, so the first investment of more than 50,000 troops by both sides of the battle was more than 50,000 men, which was absolutely unprecedented, and no one would have thought that such an army would consume such a huge amount of food and supplies.

Not only did Emperor Henry III of the HRE not expect it, but even William was not mentally prepared, just prepared supplies according to previous needs, so after the war began, the main supply method for both sides was to plunder along the way.

If we look at it from a simple and ideal point of view, it seems that local supply is an obvious failure of the logistics method, and it seems that the ideal logistics situation should be "the soldiers and horses are not moved, and the grain and grass go first", with the help of the domestic material warehouses to store well-prepared grain, grass and materials, and carry and transport them by land and water.

However, it was practically impossible to supply war in this ideal state, and before the advent of railways, the basic logistical support of large armies fighting abroad was to rely on local supplies. When the army is in friendly territory, it is more likely to set up a bazaar and rely on the merchants accompanying the army to buy supplies on the spot, while when the army is in enemy territory, it is often through forced recruitment or simply robbery.

Because the large-scale supply operation is not only fragile, it is easy to be obstructed by the enemy's cavalry, but also with the increasing distance, the supply difficulty will also increase sharply, and the loss of materials will be extremely serious.

If William's army relied solely on baggage to complete its supply, the large baggage team would seriously affect the speed of the army, and would greatly limit the Normans' combat effectiveness, which William would never allow.

However, because the war took place in the territory of the HRE Empire, Henry III and the HRE princes would have a better meal, but there was not much difference, except that after the compulsory expropriation of the property and materials of the territory, some compensation or verbal comfort would be given.

On William's side, of course, the situation is quite the opposite.

Because he was in enemy territory, he did not object to the behavior of his soldiers to obtain supplies on the spot through organized robbery, but he opposed disorderly looting, because it would corrupt military discipline and greatly affect combat effectiveness.

Therefore, whenever an army was sent to collect supplies, William would send another army to supervise it and prevent it from violating military discipline.

William, with a little mercy of later generations, often warned his men that when collecting supplies, they would kill and hurt people, and they would have to give a voucher after collecting supplies.

Regardless of whether the other party can get compensation from William with this certificate, at least he feels a little less guilty.

At the same time, William's move also won him the attention of many people in Lorraine, who had never seen such a benevolent Norman king, and was completely different from their impression of Normans.