This was the busy, tired, rigorous, orderly day of the Norman Emperor Randy von Hofmann in Kherson.

Morning to deal with government affairs and study the conquest of the New World......

Morning intelligence analysis and training for relevant government officials......

In the afternoon, there will be a tea party to discuss agrarian reform......

In the evening, it is necessary to conduct ultra-intensive individual combat training......

In the middle of the night, it was difficult to fall asleep because of the high intensity of the training and the muscle strain, and I had to get up and run as far as the infirmary......

In short, it can be seen from the above things that Randy is a good emperor who is responsible, diligent and loves the people, and how hard-working and resentful.

Just as His Majesty the Emperor was working hard for the Norman Empire, the battle between the elite melee cavalry and light archers of the Norman Empire and the Arab light cavalry of the Fatimid Dynasty of Egypt also kicked off in the desert of the Yellow Sands of the Near East.

When the Norman light cavalry of three hundreds, a total of 270 cavalry, raided a Christian town that submitted to Saladin, they were ambushed by thousands of Arab light cavalry in the city, and after a charge, they lost hundreds of men, but finally broke through.

The Arab cavalry was slightly inferior in the previous battle, the Norman fast horse scimitar was superior to the Arab cavalry, and the training and tactics were not comparable to the Arab cavalry's scattered non-professional troops, and the two sides fought against the Arab cavalry just because of the weather, and obtained a little better results than the Eastern European nomadic cavalry, and now it was hard to win a Norman cavalry, the Arab cavalry general was extremely excited, and without thinking much, he urged his subordinates to continue the pursuit, and waited until the chaotic Arab cavalry straddled the horse out of the city, After following the footsteps of the Norman hussars for a long time, he saw that a hussar had already regrouped and was ready for battle.

The lightly armed cavalry were all lined up in front, with bows and arrows.

On both wings, more melee hussars armed with long swords and shields, arranged in a neat array of tofu blocks, and nearly two hundred cavalry of the entire Norman army were arranged in a goose marching formation, stopped retreating under the leadership of three cavalry centurions, and the array was tight, ready to fight to the death with the Arab cavalry army several times their own.

The Arab cavalry who originally shouted and shouted and killed suddenly lost their morale, they had not fought with the Normans before, if it was a knife-to-knife and gun-to-gun melee, even if the Norman hussars were well-trained and strong, the Arab cavalry was not unable to fight with them, but if the Norman Empire was in a strict array and fought against each other, no matter how many Arab cavalry there were, it would not be the opponent of the other party.

But at this moment, the arrow had to be sent, and the Arab commander calculated that his own soldiers still had thousands of soldiers and horses, and the morale was high after a small victory, and the opponent's soldiers and horses were only two hundred, only one-sixth of their own, and they were frustrated for a while.

"Attack! Charge! Allah bless the brave! "The Arab commander, wielding a scimitar and roaring loudly, attacked.

When the believers heard Allah's name, they immediately threw their fear of the Norman cavalry out of the sky and roared wildly and rushed towards the Norman array in a loose formation.

Perhaps Allah is willing to bless them......

But the white robes on their bodies really can't be blessed.

Under the rain of arrows formed by the elaborate composite bow volleys of the archers, the Arab cavalry, wearing only a white robe, suffered heavy losses, and suddenly the screams of men and horses rang out, and the bright red blood soaked the desert.

The Norman light archers weakened the Arab cavalry in front of them a lot with two volleys, and then dropped their bows and arrows and grabbed the crossbow of the light cavalry at their waists, and raised their hands to pull the trigger!

At such a close distance, there was no room for the opposing cavalry to dodge, and the special crossbow arrows used by the light cavalry crossbows were half shorter than ordinary bows and arrows, although the range was shorter, but the speed was faster, and it was not easy to observe, a total of more than eighty crossbow arrows were fired in a volley, and after the buzz, the Arab cavalry was cut off by one layer.

Just when the Arab cavalry lost part of its military strength because of this sudden attack, the melee hussars on both wings of the Norman army also rushed over, like two sharp daggers, slamming into the two wings of the Arab cavalry, the modern style sabers in their hands, texture, specifications, and practicality, are much stronger than the traditional scimitars used by the Arabs, often two long knives collide with each other, and the Norman sabers can leave a or mouth on the blade of the other party, and the Normans wear greased hard leather armor, strong and flexible, Extremely defensive.

Although it was relatively weak in the confrontation of weapons or blunt weapons, and was also weak in the confrontation of spears, crossbows and arrows, and long sword stabbing, it was very effective against light weapons and slashing, and the Arab cavalry was often unable to break through the armor of the Normans.

In the condition of outnumbering the opponent in terms of equipment, formation, and outfit, the Norman hussars steadily gained the upper hand, and the Norman lightly armed archers turned around after the Norman lightly armed archers drove away, killing and wounding many Arab cavalry in a volley, and then turned their horse's head around the Arab flank, and after a round of bows and arrows, they began to charge, followed by another round of crossbow arrows at close range, and at the moment when they were about to engage the Arab cavalry, they turned their horse's head and retreated.

"Damn! Damn it! Damn it! These cunning infidels, divided their troops, divided a part of the cavalry to entangle them. ”

However, the Arabs did not have such a convenient horn as the Normans to give orders, and the organization was not as strict as the Normans, thousands of Arab cavalry came from various Arab tribes and cities, except for a commander-in-chief, the rest of the Arab nobles were not subordinate to each other, and there was no relationship between superiors and subordinates, so this order went down, and the herald finally found a cavalry in the rear of the flank, conveying such an order, but the lightly armed archers went around to the other side, and there was a flurry of arrows.

On the frontal battlefield of the front, the Norman hussars formed a dense cavalry wall, cooperated with each other, and killed the Arabs with a river of blood, the light archers harassed the way of playing with kites, constantly moving back and forth around the opponent's array, shooting a large number of Arab cavalry with compound bows and cavalry crossbows, the Arab cavalry was rarely equipped with bows and arrows, and a small number of cavalry equipped with bows and arrows were also scattered, unable to form a dense firepower like the light archers, and could only be beaten passively.

When the Arab cavalry in front suffered heavy losses, the corpses of the cavalry and horses were spread all over the ground, their morale plummeted, and they were on the verge of collapse, the Arabs, who were loosely organized to a tragic degree, finally divided nearly 200 cavalry and pursued the lightly armed cavalry.

And the lightly armed archers did not engage them either, killing and wounding the enemy with bows and arrows, while retreating, and both sides chased and fled, and soon disappeared into the horizon.

"Damn it, if only it were on the Eastern European Plain!"

The Arabs didn't know that the hussars and archers were also complaining, thinking that if it was now in the cooler steppes of Eastern Europe, then this group of rabble Arab cavalry would have been defeated by them a long time ago.

But this is not the temperate continental climate of the Crimea, nor the subarctic Eastern Europe, not to mention the northern cold of Neo-Scandinavia, the hussars are not adapted, their skin is dry by the sun, a lot of water loss, the number of cavalry lost in these days against the Arabs, even compared to the people who hung up because of heat stroke, dehydration and other symptoms, it can be said that the hot and dry weather is the biggest enemy of the Normans.

The haughty hussars had been fighting the enemy for nearly two hours, and if it was in Eastern Europe, in the Normans' own territory, the endurance-trained cavalry and the Norman horse No. 3 carefully bred by the Norman horse trainers could continue to fight, but this was Jerusalem.

After more than two hours of fighting, the hussars and their mounts were about to reach the limit, and then the Arabs and the Arab horses were different, they still had the physical strength to continue fighting, and the two centurions quickly gave orders with their horns, totally, thinking that although they now had the upper hand, it was impossible to defeat the Arabs in a short time, perhaps before defeating them, the physical strength of their own army would reach the limit, and by that time maybe the three centurians would have to explain here.

After summing up, the two centurions immediately made a decision, blew the horn and began to retreat, and along the way they joined up with the hundred-man team of lightly armed cavalry, killed more than 200 of the pursuing enemy, and calmly retreated.

The first to land were the Norman hussars, there were a total of more than one person before death, respectively from the First Hussar Regiment, the different hundred-man teams of the Hussar Corps directly under the Norman Emperor, they did not belong to each other, and they did not mean to gather together, in fact, the order given to them by Randy did not engage in frontal positional battles with the Arabs, Randy just wanted to let Saladin, Egypt, and everyone who gave way to the Holy Land know that his Norman Emperor, the commander of the Crusaders, had arrived.

It was under these circumstances that Saladin sent several times more Arab light cavalry than the Normans to drive them away.

The Lord of the Desert understood what Randy meant, and he also understood that the Crusader Christian army had not arrived, and that what he was doing now was not to go out with his entire army to expose his true powers.

Therefore, many of his subordinates think so, and they think that they should take advantage of the fact that the opponent's army has not yet been assembled, sweep the entire holy land with superior forces, destroy all the Christian territories that refuse to surrender, and rectify the interior of the holy land.

But Saladin didn't think so, the treacherous and cunning Egyptian caliph had already anticipated the prosperity of the crusade army, even if he fought for the family, the best result was only a defeat for both sides, even if he could win, it would not be good for the country, after all, he did not have a cheating weapon like Enides, and the soldiers of other countries were all adult men in the country, all of whom were valuable productive labor, and now in addition to Mongolia, a huge empire with a huge area and a vast territory, a large empire could draw a large number of troops to fight, or an old power like the Tang State, Except for countries like Marathi, which are located in the densely populated South Asian subcontinent, other countries except for a few county lords who are particularly poor in military deception cherish their soldiers very much and do not want to lose too much in the war.

Although Saladin looks very beautiful on the surface, with the aura and glory of the Holy Land Savior, Allah's Messenger, and the Great Hero, in fact, the situation in Egypt is not good.

In fact, like other feudal states of this era, there were a large number of separatist forces within his country, but fortunately, the elite trading places of the Near East centered on Damascus and Aleppo, as well as the most prosperous and densely populated areas of Egypt such as Cairo and Alexandria, as well as the agriculturally developed areas of the two river valleys such as Baghdad and Mosul, as well as Mecca and the holy city of Medina, these most elite areas of the country, were directly appointed by Saladin to administer the governors.

But the rest of Egypt, the more vast, more barren, and more minor lands, were mostly in the hands of the Arab chieftains and local nobles, who were extremely independent, had their own administrative, judicial, and financial powers, and controlled their own tribal armies, on whom Saladin relied on them for the army and the money they provided, but Saladin did not trust them, believing that if he lost too many of his cronies, or showed a certain weakness, then these Arab chieftains and nobles would leave him, betrayed him without hesitation.

In addition, the empire is not without flaws outside the country!

At that time, Saladin's lord and the heir of the holy king Nur al-Din was still alive, and from a legal point of view, Saladin was even more of a chaotic minister and thief, even if he conquered Jerusalem, this stain could not be washed away.

Although he had made great efforts to find Nur al-Din's heirs and kill him, they seemed to have vanished from the world, and Saladin suspected that perhaps his political enemies and some ill-intentioned nobles had taken refuge in the future, or that he had fled abroad to be co-opted by his neighbors to make a curiose.

Whichever of these two ideas was true, Saladin knew that after his defeat or death, these people would rise up against him and use the banner of Damascus orthodoxy to overthrow his rule.

Internal and external troubles!!!!!

Therefore, Saladin did not want to fight hard, he wanted to keep his army, his family, and defend his rule and imperial power, so he held the city and took a defensive stance against the coming crusade.

Now Jerusalem is like a big construction site, Saladin's army and the Jerusalemites he forcibly recruited, Christians, ***, all of them, are stepping up the defense of Jerusalem day after day.

It's just that Saladin is still not satisfied, if some generals put forward the strategy of taking the initiative to attack, in Saladin's eyes, then the strategy he is now implementing to hold on to Jerusalem can only be regarded as a medium strategy, and Saladin himself should most want to implement the strategy should be to retreat his army into the desert, like the Battle of Hardin in the past to lead the Crusaders into the desert, and when they are on the verge of collapse due to thirst and heat, they will be defeated in one go.

But this is no longer the case, when Saladin attacked Jerusalem.

Saladin is an attacking party, he can fight and leave, but now he still has a Jerusalem in his hand, if he does not fight and flees back to the desert, then the whole *** world will scold him for being a coward, hundreds of millions of followers poke his backbone together, even the king of the desert can't bear it.

"But fortunately, the target of the crusaders is Jerusalem, and it is only Jerusalem, as long as Jerusalem is held, no matter what, the defensive side will have an advantage over the attacking side, Jerusalem is world-renowned, the city is high and deep, our army is strong, morale is high, and the materials are sufficient, the other party has come from afar, the geography and climate are not familiar, and the army will not exceed the Arab elite under my command, in addition, those cunning Franks in the West, will they really give their lives for their faith like the pious ***? I don't think so, Allah willing, victory is ours. ”

In this case, Saladin receives a message that he doesn't know if it should be good or bad.

The reason why it is understood as good news is that the Arab light cavalry won the victory against the Normans, and under the attack of tens of thousands of Arab light cavalry, the Norman hussars were defeated to a certain extent due to the problems of climate and water and soil, and finally had to retreat back into their landing site, which is now the largest crusader city-state in the Holy Land, the Grand Duchy of Anchok.

The reason why it is understood as bad news is because although the battle was won at the strategic level, but in every tactic, the Norman hussars performed quite well, completely compared to the Arab light cavalry, although the Norman hussars were finally successfully forced back, but the Arab army finally paid the price, but it was much more than the Norman hussars, a total of 3,000 light cavalry killed, seriously injured, disabled, had to withdraw from the army There are also thousands of people, which is also thanks to the help of the world's good medical system, On the other hand, the Norman hussars suffered less than 1,000 casualties.

(End of chapter)