August 29......

Artoria reached an understanding with the Duchy of Burgundy on behalf of the Norman kingdom.

Same......

Artoria also formed an alliance with the Duchy of Burgundy on behalf of the Norman kingdom.

August 31......

The Duchy of Burgundy once again mobilized 27,000 troops, starting from the capital Dijon, and heading straight for Paris from south to north.

September 3......

Artoria's 50,000-strong army completed the reconquest of Normandy, and at the same time, despite the dissuasion of the Norman defender Lufus, he led his army south and marched towards Paris.

Since Philip II fled back to Paris in embarrassment, his prestige has dropped, and no one in the whole of France has responded to his recruitment order, and Philip II has tried his best to empty the royal treasury, and only recruited less than 5,000 soldiers and horses, and he has not even the ability to defend Paris.

September 5......

When the Norman cavalry arrived on the outskirts of Paris, Philip II fled again, fleeing to Orleans with a few cronies. Immediately, Paris surrendered, and the Normans occupied the French capital.

September 9......

The Republic of Genoa, in southwestern France, declares war on France!

The Genoese navy then set out to occupy Corsica, and instead of bypassing the Alps, as others had expected, the Genoese navy transported the land to southern France to land and capture Marseille, an important port city in southern France.

September 15......

The Duchy of Aquitaine in southwestern France declared its independence, and at the same time occupied Toulouse, an important city in southern France, completely severing the connection between France and the southern Iberian region.

September 17......

Artoria accepted the alliance request of the Duchy of Aquitaine on behalf of the Norman kingdom, and was unusually generous in abolishing 1/3 of Edward's remaining debt to the Norman kingdom, so that the vast majority of the territory of the Kingdom of France was either occupied or independent, and the whole kingdom was in turmoil.

At present, the French royal family can only control Orleans and Anjou, the two cities and the territory around the city, accounting for only about 1/7 of the total area of France, and at the same time, the nobles are centrifuged and have no will to fight, and some people have even asserted that the end of the French kingdom has come!

Artoria had even prepared a grand victory celebration, feasting all the French nobles and foreign envoys, and completely considered herself a victor.

"Is that guy going to claim to be the king of France? Or should France be annexed to the Norman kingdom? According to his character, it should be the latter! But the French aristocracy is huge, if you want to appease these guys, it is better to choose the first way, coupled with the separatist tendencies of Burgundy and Aquitaine, if you do not claim the title of King of France, they will definitely split out justifiably, and Marseille has been occupied by Genoa, if you do not declare the King of France, there is no reason to go back to Marseille. ”

The soldiers reveled in Paris, while Artoria lay in France's empty royal vaults, playing with the copper plates she had so hard to find, and pondering what to do after the conquest of France.

Although Artoria knew that Randy's strategic center was in Eastern Europe, Artoria was not a generous person as a territory she had built with her own hands, and she had decided in her heart that she would try to ask Randy to value the land of France, and also value the great achievements she had made for the country.

Meanwhile, Orleans ......

King Philip II of France, who was like a dead face, finally understood what it meant to live like life and death, and what it meant to be sad and white-headed overnight, and he even wondered if he had not fled but chose to fight bravely in Normandy at that time, would the situation have been different?

At least it will be better than the current situation! The elder brother also has a great possibility that he will be hacked to death by the other party at the first time, according to the terrifying combat power of the legendary Norman queen, this possibility is very high!

Thinking of this, Philip II's mood was much better.

It's not that they're incompetent, it's that the enemy is too strong.

However, he has reached an extremely dangerous situation now, and if he continues like this, both France and himself will fall into a situation from which they will never recover, and Philip II finally made up his mind to use his secret weapon.

"Qiang Chang ......"

"Squeak ......"

As the rusty door screeched and the dungeon's stale smell came out, Philip II frowned, pulled out a handkerchief, and covered his nose with his hand.

"Take me to the witch!" Philip II instructed the guards of the dungeon.

"This ...... If you can, please wait a moment and let the little one clean up first. ”

"Not necessarily!"

The dungeon guard's words were interrupted by Philip II in the middle of his words, seeing that the dungeon guard's face was pale and his eyes flickered, Philip II suddenly felt very puzzled, and then an extremely terrifying thought emerged from his heart, and his back immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and he drew his sword with a bang.

"Say! Did you kill the person I want to see? "Philip II naturally knew the terrible scene of the dim and dull dungeons of this era, and the jailers were actually treated like prisoners, and if it was not necessary, they could not get out of here at all, but the space in which they were imprisoned was slightly larger, so do not expect these fellows to have a good temper, in fact, in this place of hellish fantasy, the greatest pleasure of the jailers was to abuse these prisoners, if the thin-skinned and tender Orleans shepherdess was killed by them, Philip II was not surprised either.

Seeing that Philip II's temper suddenly became angry, the knights of the guard beside him drew their swords one after another, and dozens of swords were pointed at this guy's neck, so that this guy was almost frightened and couldn't even say a word.

“MD！” Philip II stomped his foot, put his sword back into its sheath, and walked briskly into the cell.

Although the matter may have been irreparable, Philip II had no choice.

But the next scene is a little different from what Philip II imagined.

"God said there would be light, and the world was closed!"

It was indeed this voice, and hearing this slightly neutral voice, Philip II suddenly calmed down, and his mood fluctuated so much that he almost fell to the ground.

But no, because he still has important things to do.

Philip II barely supported his body, and little by little he went down,

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only son to the lower realm."

The sound grew closer, and Philip II felt more and more drawn to it.

"People are born guilty ......"

Although they are all priests and priests with rotten allusions, it seems to have magic and convincing when they are spoken through this voice.

"It should have occurred a long time ago that she was not such an easy person to die."

Philip II went to the deepest part of the dungeon and saw such a sight......

The cell, which was supposed to be filled with extreme noise, scolding, screaming, and blood, was unusually quiet, no one spoke except for the sound of preaching, all the guards sat on the floor at the same cell door, and all the prisoners looked yearning, reverent, slightly ashamed, and desperate to the same place.

A person with this ability is a demon, if not a saint.

Of course, no matter what the two are, they are the same for the king.

Slay! Because it is too dangerous, it should not be exploited, but destroyed.

Slay! No power other than God and Satan can control saints or demons.

Kill, the one that threatens to rule!

Kill, incite the foolish!

The woman who claimed to be inspired by God, but was arrested by Philip II on charges of witchcraft and heresy, and was ready to be executed publicly, was what he called France's secret weapon.

But what makes it funny is that what I originally wanted to get rid of quickly has actually become my own lifesaver.

Philip II drove all the jailers and prisoners away, as well as his retinue, and took the woman to a slightly cleaner and secluded cell, where he began to negotiate with her.

However, Philip II would never tell the other party that he had been defeated and that France was about to die, so as to beg the other party to help him. Philip II still felt that with his ingenuity, he could convince this woman of strange powers to work for him.

"Woman, in fact, I still can't believe you until now."

Philip II said in a deep voice, staring at the woman's face, hoping to see a slight waver. But unfortunately, there is no expression on the side.

"In the spirit of God's teachings, I don't want to kill innocents indiscriminately, so I decided to give you a chance."

There was still no expression on the other party's face......

"You can think of this as a trial, if you are really God's chosen people, born saints, then it will not be difficult for you, otherwise you will be a liar, a witch, a heretic, as the priests say."

"I'm willing to accept it!"

The woman interrupted Philip II's gushing lies and deceptions, and responded in a categorical tone: "For the liberty and glory of God, the people, and France!" ”

Philip II smiled reluctantly, for there was no king in her reply.

——————————

There was no suspense in the war, and both the nobles and the commoners believed that the defeat of France was imminent, and only in extreme despair and helplessness would France hand over the command of the army to a girl who was born in a peasant family, could not read a word, and had just turned 17 this year.

It's just inexplicable......

After receiving such news, Artoria only felt that Philip II had gone completely insane and did not take this information seriously at all.

In Artoria's mind, even if he takes 10,000 steps back, the other party is really an outstanding talent, an extremely outstanding general, but France is now exhausted, and no nobles have responded to the call, and a group of mercenaries hired with royal property have also fled, and now the total number of soldiers who can fight under Philip II does not exceed 3,000, and what about himself?

Although all the British conscripts were sent back, he still had close to 10,000 Celtic Norman regular troops and 10,000 Breton troops, plus the French aristocratic army that had recently defected, and Artoria's army still numbered about 30,000.

At the same time, the Burgundians also sent 27,000 men......

The Burgundians had not gained enough of the benefits of the Normans having taken the lead in Paris, and this time the Burgundians were gearing up to conquer Orleans first in order to expand their territory.

And then there's Aquitaine!

Edward IV, Duke of Aquitaine, also recovered a lot of strength after the capture of Toulouse, and his men were able to mobilize between 1 and 20,000 troops, and at the same time, Edward IV also extended three feet to the land of Anjou, and it was very likely that he would participate in this war.

In this way, the new combined Norman, Burgundian and Aquitaine armies could mobilize 60,000 to 70,000 troops, twenty times more than the other side, and if they could be defeated in this way, then Artoria would have nothing to say.

However, things were not as simple as Artoria imagined, and although Philip II was still relieved in Orleans, he was helpless.

Eventually, after the maiden assured him that France really needed a king for now, and that you were a good candidate, Philip II pardoned her crimes and appointed her commander-in-chief.

However, the current French army, adding up to only two or three thousand people, although all of them are the most loyal to Philip II, and the vast majority of them are nobles, knights, servants, veterans, this kind of people with combat effectiveness, but the number is still too small after all, just with such an army, it is impossible to fight with an enemy more than twenty times their own, so the girl who cut off her long hair and changed her skirt to armor felt that she needed more soldiers, more people who were willing to fight for France!

As previously described, the girl seemed to possess mysterious powers that would convince her to go to great lengths, and after her persuasion, the prison guards and prisoners who had imprisoned her before volunteered to accompany her in battle, and this was the first soldier she recruited.

After that, the girl traveled around Orleans, gathering all the citizens displaced by the war, followed by bandits, bandits, and mobs in the nearby mountains......

The girl does possess magical powers, and these lawless villains, after meeting them again, completely changed their minds and became the most staunch patriots and warriors.

When some people who have never seen the girl laugh at them and say that they are squirrel, those who are inspired by the girl are surprised to find that they seem to have been insulted in some way.

"It's not like that, even though this girl is beautiful, there is something else that attracts us."

Dramatically, in a matter of days, the maiden had assembled an army of more than 10,000 men, who, though poorly equipped and undisciplined, were all in excellent spirits and high in morale, like ants attracted by honey, and their numbers were increasing, and every day people came to join the maiden's army.

Soon, the girl had 14,000 soldiers, three or four times fewer than the coalition forces, but already had the strength to fight.

The situation at the moment is like this......

Artoria's strategic mind, or bad heart, is still good.

Or maybe it's crooked, another reason is to wait for Randy to take charge of the situation, so the main army remains in Paris, and only the two armies of Aquitaine and Burgundy continue to be maintained.

After analyzing this situation, the French noble generals decided that they should first go south to defeat the weakest Aquitaine, then defeat Burgundy from north to south, and finally have a general decisive battle with the Normans.

But such a suggestion was rejected by the girl!

"If this is the case, even if our army can win one after another, it will suffer heavy losses, and in the end it will inevitably fall to the Normans, after all, we are too few in number to carry out many consecutive battles."

"So what do you say, do you have a better strategic approach?" The French general asked unconvinced.

(End of chapter)