As soon as Duke Dietrich died, the entire army of Lorraine collapsed, and despair was like a contagious virus, rapidly eroding every body that wielded the sword.

No matter how powerful the army of the Middle Ages was, it could never jump out of the trap of the inherent model, and the chain reaction brought about by the death of a feudal monarch in battle could often turn the tide of war from victory to defeat and destroy a country.

Perhaps it was the Duke Dietrich's graceful end of life that shocked me too strongly, or perhaps it was the Bible recited by the military priest that swept away the violence and gloom in my heart, but in short, I decided to release all the captured hostages, including nobles, knights, and ordinary squires, and of course to sincerely repent before leaving, and to promise not to be enemies of Nijmegen again, and to leave behind armor and weapons as a necessary procedure, but I was merciful to the nobles and knights, and kept the horses for transportation to maintain dignity.

After all, there are not many people who can save their lives from the Duke of Nijmegen, and it is already God's blessing to go home alive, and there is no need to pay for redemption, and the released Lorraine nobles are grateful for Dade's departure, including my former feudal Count Ardennes, whose shy expression on his face when he bowed and saluted was more uncomfortable than swallowing a fly alive, and it was quite difficult for him to think about it.

The enemy on three fronts failed to realize the ambition of the Nijmegen division, and the fastest Lorrainens were completely routed and withdrew from the rebel camp.

The Duke of Franconia was surrounded by the Emperor himself and the Archduke Mieszko of Poland, led by a coalition of legions, and the two sides began a lengthy and torturous battle of attack and defense of the castle, which would be difficult to see for a while.

Yaroslav, who was guarding the border, turned his mind quickly, took the opportunity to go upstream, and selected a weakly defended small castle to push the tower, and swept the small half of Franconia west of the Main River with a devastating offensive, directly threatening the flank of Luxembourg, forcing the rebels to give up the siege of Cologne, shrink their forces and retreat to Koblenz, an important fortress on the Rhine, posing as a bastard who will not obey to the death, ready to fight to the death with any opponent.

Knowing that Duke Dietrich had been killed in battle, the Swabians had halted their advance, and they encountered the imposing Bavarian army in Augsburg, so they adjusted their plans and turned northward, and by constantly pulling strong men along the way, the size of the army swelled wildly, and frightened many towns and villages in South Franconia.

While trembling and providing food and grass supplies to this group of fierce allies, they prayed that God would let the locust-like greedy guest army leave their homeland quickly, and never set up arson to plunder and kidnap the population, fortunately, the Count of Württemberg, who was temporarily promoted as the leader, was an old-fashioned aristocrat with a straight eye, and he restrained the multinational force that Swath himself had put together temporarily, and the two sides were also allies in the same trench.

So the Earl instructed his knights to take over the city's defenses in a friendly manner and set up the defense on the spot, because the fall of the Lorraine army reminded them that the Duke of Nijmegen, who was in full swing, would clean himself up while the iron was hot.

His Majesty Sylvester II of the Vatican was not idle, and the empire to the north was in a pot of porridge, just in time for the Holy See to reassert its authority in Italy.

He first sent envoys to the cities of the Eastern Romans in the hope of establishing a close friendship with Emperor Basil II of Constantinople, and then met with Richard, Duke of Normandy, who was stationed in the ******, several times, and asked him to heed God's call to join the great holy war to protect the pure faith.

Unfortunately, the effect was not good, and the annoyed Duke Richard simply said that he was ill, which made the papal envoy embarrassed and touched his nose, and the pope, who had summoned many knights and volunteers who volunteered to die, was full of ambition, but before he could be happy, the mujahideen who were crowded in the city of Rome fought because of the uneven distribution of food and salary, and almost caused a cannibalistic fight.

The rebel army composed of Verona, Bologna, Pisa and volunteers set off in a mighty manner, quite a bit of a sweeping momentum, but except for the small city-states with weak strength, the powerful Milan, Modena, Ravenna, and Venice did not take this rabble seriously, and still strictly adhered to the neutrality promise before the war, but did not relax the armament in private, and the increasingly clear situation in the north also made them see the situation clearly, if there was no sufficient force to join the rebels, I'm afraid that the Vatican throne will once again have a supreme with a scepter in his hand.

I escorted the fleeing Count of Hesse back to his castle, and by the way also rested here to recuperate the tired army, and the Count of Minggan Wune naturally hospitably entertained the benefactor who helped him to restore the country, and collected the grain and grass of the territory, and also contributed thirty knights in the few remnants of the army, which was really very righteous, but made me a little embarrassed, and sent several groups of scouts to urge the Duke of Hanover to come to the rendezvous as soon as possible.

July 7th, the Sunday of a certain local saint, but it is said that this shoemaker-turned-martyr has not been recognized and canonized by the Vatican, and there is no influence in the Hesse region, I only remember that today is the anniversary of the full-scale invasion of China by the little devils of the Lugou Bridge Incident, so I have not been in a good mood since I got up in the morning, and the discerning Rollo is afraid of hitting the gun, and the only good news is that the army commanded by the Duke of Hanover himself will arrive at noon, and finally add a happy footnote to this day.

The old duke was still so powerful when he walked, he could make out his footsteps from a distance, and he was tall and large, and he could put the withered Count of Hesse, who had been tormented by the days of escape, into it, no wonder the light dimmed in an instant when he stood in the room, and frightened several maids who served him and broke the plates.

As an independent county, Lord Count Hesse has the status and power equivalent to that of a regional vassal, far more noble than the original counts of Hanover and Nijmegen, but this is not the same time, and it is his turn to bend down and salute the two of us.

"I heard you're so angry that you're about to spit out your lungs, my lord?"

The Duke of Hanover smirked past the people who saluted him on both sides, and nodded to the Count of Hesse, with whom he had a much deeper relationship than I did.

The two wives are cousins from the same family, and they have some friendship.

"God! It must have been quite exciting, I really wanted to see it. The old duke sighed pretendedly.

I pulled my chair to the side and beckoned him to sit down: "If it's what you expect, I'll be the first to let you know." ”

The chamberlain came up with a plate of bread and salt very efficiently, and thoughtfully brought a clean cup full of mellow ale, and the Count of Hesse, who was his brother-in-law, skillfully took the old duke's arm, pressed him to the new chair between us, and turned around and ordered the kitchen to bake another chicken.

"I didn't even look at the shadow of an enemy along the way, and as soon as I entered Thuringia, I heard rumors of the Duke of Nijmegen's great martial arts, and sure enough, I didn't even have a bone residue left!"

The Duke of Hanover unsheathed the saber from his waist and threw it to his attendants, and regardless of whether his palms were clean or not, he wiped two handfuls on his blouse, and then grabbed the only remaining breast of roast chicken on the plate and gnawed it with a big mouth, and the oil stains were all over his beard and face, and his mouth made all kinds of indecent chewing sounds, which was really unappetizing.

"Since I don't have to fight, then I'll be angry with it."

I carefully wiped the meat cutting dagger with the square towel on the table, the sharp blade flashed a little cold light, this beautiful object had just taken a person's life a few days ago, and now it was used as a tableware for eating, and I didn't know whether I was really particular or pretended.

"How could there be no fighting? The rebel leader is the Count of Luxembourg, and he is hiding in the castle and wasting food, waiting for the heroic Duke to establish this immortal feat. ”

I looked at the light to observe the fine textures left on the surface of the dagger, and then contentedly inserted it back into the holster that hung from my belt.

"Eat slowly, we have time, the good news from His Majesty's side has not yet come, wouldn't it be a merit for us to kill the culprit first?"

The Duke of Hanover pinched his fingers, pulled out the chicken from his mouth, poured a sip of ale, burped comfortably, and asked lazily:

"The most capable of fighting in the rebels is the knights of Lorraine, I have long been prepared for a hard battle, day and night for fear that you will not be able to stop their offensive, but I did not expect that as soon as the front foot stepped into the war zone, the news of the annihilation of the enemy came from the back foot, or I underestimated the strength of Nijmegen too much, the most important thing is to underestimate you too much, that is, the wise despicable, how can he not be able to deal with that arrogant Dietrich, speaking of which, God's creation is really unfair, and he actually stuffed all his wisdom into the beloved brain."

The three of us looked at each other and laughed, the old duke was worthy of being a human spirit for half his life, and it was easy to invigorate the strange atmosphere that the Count of Hesse and I respected each other for several days, and in the laughter, the waiters served freshly grilled chicken and pickled black fish one after another, and everyone ate a lot of cups and cups, and finally ended the banquet that lasted for most of the day.

Walking through the drunken knights and nobles lying chaotically in the hall, a few castle-raised hounds in the corner, the **** disgusting vomit and the bones thrown around in the corner, I resisted the spasms in my stomach and leaned on Kohler's shoulder to return to my room.

In the middle of the night, there was a gentle knock on the door outside the room, I opened my eyes suddenly, and the smell of hangover in the air instantly filled my nasal cavity, causing myself to almost vomit again.

"It must be blended with industrial alcohol, otherwise how can my brother's thousand cups not fall......" I rubbed the back of my drowsy head, casually put on a coat and sat up, and by the faint light of the candle, I just saw the Duke of Hanover sliding in with a red face through the crack in the door.

I stared at the old duke mockingly, the wrinkles that had been stretched open by drunkenness, and said to him, half-jokingly, half-seriously: "It is not a decent thing to break into a private room at night, my lord, if you are seen, you will think that there is some ulterior secret between us." ”

"Don't sell it, Randy."

The Duke of Hanover went to the window to observe the dozing guards on the ramparts, and only the mouse-catching cat was still staring at the dead of night.

"The Count of Hesse is a die-hard loyalist of His Majesty, I don't know what we have to talk about today, it will be on the emperor's table tomorrow, I don't believe that you are in a hurry to defeat the Lorraines but have the leisure to wait for the results of the battle in the east, you can deceive the fools who can't hide the old man's sharp eyes, you must know that my nickname was a well-known owl back then!"

I placed the candlestick at the head of the bed on the table, the faint flame trembling as if it would be extinguished at any moment, just right for another person's secret......

(End of chapter)