Wishes are always good, reality is always cruel.

His Majesty the Emperor expected a swift capture of Engels Castle and a victorious victory for himself to Rome, but he ignored the lessons of his previous successes.

When the enemy occupies the right place at the right time and cannot fully deploy your own forces, the tactic of adding fuel will only give the enemy archers a chance to practice for free, sacrificing their precious lives in vain.

Of course, from a logistical point of view, this kind of thing is not so difficult to accept, because at least you don't have to face hundreds of thousands of mouths that can't be fed, no matter whether you win or lose the war, at least your head can be saved.

The knights who attacked the castle quickly approached the city wall with the sprint of their horses, but the horses that rushed up the steep slope were not good at attacking back, and slowly slowed down, exposing the knights on their backs to the rain of arrows of the rebels, and instantly suffered from the enemy's key shots, but because the knights generally wore precision chain mail and chain mail, at a long distance, the arrows were like tickling, and could not cause effective damage to the knights.

Comparatively speaking, the servants who carried ladders under their hands were much more miserable, and the heavy siege ladders made them unable to flexibly dodge bows and arrows, and the armor on their bodies was not as sophisticated as that of the knights, and it was already a luxury to have a well-fitting hard leather armor to wear, and many of the exposed arms and thighs were shot, and they fell to the ground groaning and groaning, widening the distance between them and the knights.

The knights who thought that the horses were cumbersome and abandoned the horses on foot, and became the live targets of the crossbow bows, such a close distance, it was the best killing radius of the crossbow arrows, even if it was a fine chain mail, it was difficult to prevent the condescending crossbow arrows, and the knights who had to reach the city with great effort turned on their backs, it was difficult to have a standing posture, basically all of them became cacti, and the whole body was covered with white feather thorns.

"Damn it!"

His Majesty Otto saw that the attack was unfavorable from afar, and his brows were tightly locked, and his palms were pounded, and his mustache shook excitedly, looking very funny.

Henry, the Grand Duke of Bavaria on the side, also pursed his lips with an ugly face and bowed his head silently, probably scolding the eighteenth generation of the commander in charge of the attack in his heart, and losing his face.

The rest of the dukes were also silent, but there must be many people who were secretly happy in their hearts, these big nobles who couldn't do anything, what they didn't eat enough, the favorite thing was to laugh at each other, and they were very happy to see their opponents deflated, in their eyes, the interests of the clan and family were far greater than the country, and even His Majesty the Emperor, who was now stooping to flattery, was just the leader of the powerful Saxon family.

Once the Saxon royal family is fatally attacked, they are happy to pounce on them and step on a few feet, so that they will never turn over, and then re-elect an emperor, or compete for the position themselves, anyway, it is just a false title of a co-master, glamorous and noble at the same time, and the law of the jungle is strictly enforced.

"Old Duke, let your axemen rush up and find a way to raise the ladder to the top of the city while the enemy is tired."

His Majesty the Emperor said to the Grand Duke of Swabia, who was on horseback and following him to his left, while observing the battlefield situation with full attention.

The tomahawkers under Swabia are the most elite warriors in the whole of Germany, good at using huge two-handed tomahawks to fight, maintaining the bloodthirsty and martial characteristics of early Germanic warriors, fighting dare to fight and perseverance, simple equipment but also easy to replenish, such warriors, almost a large handful in the German principality, can be armed with hundreds of people at any time, has always been the main combat arm of the Swabian principality and cheap soldiers.

"Your Majesty, the hillside is full of wounded soldiers and dead people, it is difficult for our forces to deploy, and it is inconvenient to erect heavy siege equipment such as ladders, and the soldiers who carry them will be consumed in the long uphill slope, even if they barely approach the city wall, they will not pose a threat to the enemy."

The old duke said tremblingly, he saw that His Majesty was going to press his troops up at the moment, which somewhat consumed his strength, this young emperor has been committed to dispersing the power in the hands of the dukes, concentrating it in the center, and being a centralized emperor in the true sense similar to the monarchs of the East.

As the most powerful of the dukes, the Duchy of Swabia and the Duchy of Bavaria naturally bore the brunt of the young emperor's reforms, and could weaken his political enemies with the help of his enemies.

In the face of absolute power, all loyalty and friendship are useless garbage and waste, either obey or perish, there is no other way to go, so the old duke also began to play Tai Chi to protect himself, leaving more foundation for the family, so that the emperor did not dare to do too much to himself, and first picked up the soft persimmon and pinched it.

"Huh?"

His Majesty the Emperor turned his head sideways, looking at the Grand Duke of Swabia who had the courage to put forward his opinions, and somewhat heard the overtones in his words, these great nobles who only cared about the small interests of their own families would never be able to understand the emperor's ambition to swallow heaven and earth.

However, His Majesty seems to have forgotten how the family of the Duke of Saxony, from whom he was born, had fought openly and secretly with Conrad I of Franconia, the king of East Francia, and played a very dishonorable role in his war with the Magyars, which led to the king's crushing defeat, and finally forced him to persuade his brother to abdicate the throne in favor of Duke Henry of the Duchy of Saxony before his death, thus beginning the reign of the Saxony dynasty.

Speaking of which, His Majesty's great-grandfather does not seem to be much more noble than the duke, who is good at fighting, and Swabia and Bavaria, which are also the four major principalities, have the power to touch the throne.

His Majesty Otto's gaze swept coldly over everyone's faces, and the people he was looking at suddenly became interested in a certain ornament on their bodies, and lowered their heads to play with it.

His Majesty paused for a long time, and finally waved his hand to signal the herald to give the order to stop the attack, but there were not many people on the battlefield to carry out the order, many people had already been sleeping on the grassy slopes of a foreign land, and the corpses full of arrows were lonely in the cold wind, like wordless sculptures, telling the unspeakable defeat of the past.

When the defenders returned to the camp, His Majesty the Emperor summoned all the nobles to discuss the big tent, and I deliberately stayed behind and hid in the corner, for fear that he would find out again and be entrusted with a heavy task.

Several Grand Dukes sat silently on both sides of the conference table, pretending to be dumb with big eyes, forcing Duke Henry to review his command mistakes first, and did not take the castle in one go, resulting in another day delay in the army's journey, which greatly disappointed His Majesty the Emperor, but the discerning people could hear that his words were more or less referring to Sang scolding Huai, complaining that His Majesty only let the Bavarians drain their blood and let the other principalities go, perhaps at that time, the Swabian army was strongly required to rush forward, and the situation of the war may change.

The old Duke of Swabia on the side, his face was red and white for a while, but he could not stand up and accuse Duke Henry, and His Majesty the Emperor was also happy to see the dukes dislike each other, so that their energy was consumed in infighting, and there was no way to threaten the imperial power.

I watched coldly, and couldn't help but sigh at the complicated relationship between the nobles who were co-opted and excluded, and glad that I didn't join any of them, and now I was able to stay out of it easily.