"Hehe, count on those Gauls, Gustav's brain is in the water?"

Randy rolled his eyes and expressed a deep doubt about Gustav's IQ, when Scotland helped France in the Hundred Years' War, and as a result, when Scotland was annexed by England, France didn't even let out a fart, Randy didn't think that the French would be morally good, just like Randy never thought that he would help his grandmother cross the street.

But what if it's a benefit?

Although it was June, the night in Scandinavia was still cold, and Randy thought about it, his heart beat violently, the Duchess of Normandy, this interest is big enough, right?

Randy groaned for a few seconds, then got up from the marching bed, put on his cloak and sat down at a low table beside him, and took out a quill pen to deliver a letter to General Louforth of the Normandy garrison and General John of the English garrison.

Lufus was ordered to intensify his patrols and fortify the defenses of the castle in Normandy.

Ordered John to send reinforcements as soon as possible if there was a change in Normandy.

After writing the letters, Randy finds a set of civilian clothes and puts them on, leaves his tent, and rides his horse to the camp of the spies on the outskirts of the barracks, where he delivers the letters to the professional spies.

As soon as the two letters reached the hands of professional spies, they were re-woven into ciphers, split into five parchment rolls, and released by carrier pigeons, so that Randy felt a little more at ease.

During the reform of the central government, Randy once again reorganized his spy network.

Officially appointed Nameless, now officially renamed Nemulis as Director of Intelligence, clearly stipulating the responsibilities of more than 200 spies throughout the country and the entire European continent, compiling a secret service manual, spy code, and improving the carrier pigeon road, so that the efficiency of the kingdom's spies has been greatly improved.

"My king!"

Randy is not like some brain-dead people, he likes to play some dangerous tricks of micro-service private interviews, and he also comes to the spy camp to show his identity openly, and Nemulis, who gets the news, soon comes to see him.

"What's the news in France lately?" Randy watched the pigeon fly away, then turned to Nemulis to ask.

"Nothing special, very calm." Hearing Nemulis's words, Randy was just a little relieved, but the next sentence made Randy's heart skip a beat.

"Not only that, but Scotland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Novgorod, Lithuania, Burgundy, these countries are so calm that my subordinates feel that there must be something hidden in them, I suspect ......"

"Do you have accurate evidence or something else?"

"The subordinates are incompetent, not yet."

"I see, let your men keep an eye on it, whoever can get accurate information first, I will give him a reward of 500 gold coins."

"Understood." Nemulis nodded, and quickly left.

Second......

The air is clear and breezy.

The forward scout professional hussars received information that there was no enemy ambush in front of them, and they could pass safely.

After breakfast, the Randy army marched in batches, and the two thousand four hundred professional hussars scattered around, reconnoitering the situation around the main force, and by the way, they went to various Swedish villages and towns to tell the villagers, a new era has come, and now you are the subjects of the Norman king, and you will have to pay taxes to His Majesty the king in the future.

The Norman army is getting closer and closer to Stockholm......

Because there was no other enemy in this battle except Sweden, there was no need to rush this time, the Norman army was not advancing very fast, on average only thirty or forty miles, and the Norman warriors were also very relaxed about this war, and had absolute confidence in defeating Gustav.

It's a good thing that the morale of the army is high, but it's a bad thing for the army to be too proud.

But Randy doesn't care about this, does he want him to suppress the military and practice civilian politics?

Sixth, after the Norman army had occupied nearly one-third of Sweden, the professional hussars in front finally engaged the enemy.

Finnish hussars vs professional hussars!

In terms of numbers, the professional hussars have an advantage, 2,400 hussars act in squadrons, the formation is very scattered, the coverage is positive, and the range of roundabouts is also quite wide, after encountering the enemy, a whistle can attract hundreds of reinforcements, and the powerful compound bows in their hands are one by one, and the Finnish light cavalry, which is already insufficient in defense, collides with the rain of arrows.

The hussars had a pot of feathered arrows, of which ten standard light arrows were used to kill lightly armed enemies, and five weighted triangular arrows were used against heavily armored targets.

Although it is a light arrow, the lethality of light arrows shot with a short compound bow is also quite good, especially when some light cavalry armed only with leather armor thinks of these feathered arrows charging fiercely.

The Finnish hussars flipped on their backs, but in such a short period of time they were approaching the hussars.

"Knock them down!"

A frenzied sound like a wolf's howl erupted from the hussar captain's throat, and at the same time, the sound of the desolate horn sounded again, and the grassland boys' blood boiled for a moment, and the ferocious wildness appeared.

The hussars roared wildly and threw their compound bows to the ground, drew their sabers and rushed over, and fierce hand-to-hand combat began......

Although the hussars were actually able to use their mobility to shoot two more arrows in a roundabout way, the group of guys seemed to have overheated their brains, so they forgot about it, and rushed over with their swords.

The standard duel between the light cavalry begins......

The two sides raised their sabers high, increasing the speed of the war horses to the fastest, the two war horses thrust through, the sabers fell, and then it was up to the reaction nerves and combat experience, as well as a little luck to decide life and death.

More than someone else's saber, at least don't let him cut at your vital point, and at the same time try to make sure that your own saber can cut off the enemy, if the head is cut off, you deserve it, on the contrary, if you can cut off the enemy's head, it is a great honor!

Don't doubt it, although the cervical vertebrae are indeed very hard, with the help of horsepower and a good steel knife, it is quite easy to cut off the opponent's head.

The two sides looked at each other, and the outcome was most likely different from that of the hoplites.

How are the two sides, life and death are immediately met!

The battle dead fall directly off the horse, the winner or the wounded continue to charge forward, adjust the angle and slash with the opposite cavalry again, so that the possibility of the weak being killed will be greatly increased, but the strong can kill more than a number of enemies in a short time, quite efficient, quite in line with the rules of the jungle, this situation is quite common in light cavalry duels.

The elite light cavalry on both sides hedged, and unless the other side was all dead, the cavalry in the front and back rows had to go back and forth, just like a sieve, to eliminate the tragedy of weak combat power, and then carry out the next round trip.

The two light cavalry units walked back and forth like this, only to see a sword flash, a flash of blood, followed by arms, heads, fingers, thighs, and clicks were cut off, during which someone may have been disemboweled, and all internal organs flowed out of the wound, and the hussars were obviously frightened and stupid, and threw down their sabers to stuff their intestines back into their stomachs, and then they were killed by the next Finnish light cavalry who rushed over.

After a round trip, the survivors of both sides fought their way out of the enemy group, sprinted forward for some distance, and turned their horses' heads again, so that it was possible to see how many men were left on both sides.

The Finnish light cavalry suffered heavy losses, with fewer than forty survivors and wounded.

The Finnish light cavalry was not strong in combat, not because they were not brave enough, but because it was the simplest, most practical, and most brutal problem, and they were not numerous.

The hussars could recruit reinforcements from three or four squadrons with a single whistle, adding up to four or five hundred cavalry, while this Finnish light cavalry had less than a hundred horsemen, and they were inferior in equipment, and Randy introduced Polish horses, Hungarian horses, and even a small number of Arabian horses in Livonia and Prussia this time, so that the horse breeds needed by the horse herding guild were enough.

In Oslo, which was upgraded to a fortress, a horse herder's guild was built.

Horse herding experts are currently researching to breed a perfect war horse with strong endurance, speed, weight, and impact, although it has not yet succeeded, but it is a by-product, and a light war horse with good speed and endurance has been bred, named Norman War Horse No. 1 by Randy, which is the standard war horse used by hussars today.

The number, equipment, and war horses are no match for others.

The Finnish light cavalry was powerless to return, but these soldiers who grew in the ice and snow were fearless, and the boundary between life and death was nothing more than that, after the leader of the light cavalry strictly ordered the three light cavalry to go back to report the news, less than forty people, all of them were wounded, and even a few Finnish light cavalry who had lost too much blood with their broken arms and half a foot into hell roared wildly, launching the last charge of their lives.

Pointless charge......

Under such circumstances, the hussars quickly divided a squadron of nearly 100 men and rushed towards the three retreating enemies, while the remaining hundreds of hussars were directly crushed away.

"Victorious."

After winning a win for his scout team and annihilating all enemy troops, Randy nodded indifferently, but he couldn't stop laughing in his heart, and gave a very positive answer to his unusually wise decision to develop light cavalry.

"The order is given, the whole army stops advancing, and camps are encamped, and the Tomahawk cavalry joins the scout troops, and continues to intensify the search, making sure to find out the location and number of the opponent's main forces."

"Why is it so urgent? Wouldn't it be enough to just rush the army over and deal with them? ”

Artoria felt very strange: "The other side is only 30,000 people, and the number of professional troops is even smaller, we have 50,000 people, all of them are professional troops, but then again, how did you do it?" Where did so many professional troops come from? ”

"We Vikings have been brave for generations, and if we pick up some crooked melons and bad dates and train them, we can become professional warriors who are brave and good at fighting." Randy snorted and prevaricated the matter.

"But these weapons ...... And mining technology, do you have something to hide from me? Artoria wasn't stupid either, and was skeptical of Randy's words.

"Honey, look me in the eye." Randy pressed Artoria's shoulders and stared at Artoria with hot, loving eyes, and Artoria held up for a few seconds before throwing off her armor and crushing without a fight.

"Forget it, you can do whatever you like." Artoria blushed and shook off Randy's hand and ran away with a flick of her horsewhip.

At night, when Artoria was asleep, Randy put on his cloak and got up again.

There's news from France......

"Burgundy and France are gathering heavy troops, with bad intentions, and their subordinates are no more than 5,500 men, and I beg the mercy of our king."

This is Lufus's handwritten letter, and Randy burns it after reading it.

This was followed by a personal letter from John, the commander of the English garrison:

"My subordinates have received a letter for help from Normandy, but Northern Scotland has also had bad intentions recently, and rumors have spread among the nobles in England. What is the scale of the aid? If his subordinates personally lead the army to help, what is the priority between him and Lufus? ”

This was followed by a personal letter from Hans, the commander of the Livonian garrison:

"A few days ago, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stopped its invasion of Poland, and at the same time gathered troops around Riga, and the nomadic light cavalry crossed the border from time to time to harass, and the subordinate hussars stopped, but there was a sense that the storm was coming......"

Seeing this, Randy's brows were already furrowed deeply, and what finally made him explode was Nemulis's report:

"Although the number of Swedish troops is only 30,000, there are 40,000 troops of unknown origin next to the Swedish army, which is suspected to be Rus."

Randy: "........................"

On June 10, 1102, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, first declared war on the Norman kingdom.

The justification, of course, was the ready-made maintenance of French rule and the expulsion of outsiders.

The Duchy of Bogundy was fully mobilized, including the six hundred knights of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, a total of 1,400 knights and their entourage were mobilized, adding up to nearly 4,000 iron horsemen.

The famous Swiss mercenaries from Switzerland totaled 5,000, as well as the strength of the Duchy of Burgundy itself, nearly 50,000 troops gathered and held high the banner of the first half of Burgundy with a red eagle on a white background and the other half a white iris on a blue background, and advanced towards the Norman dukedom like a flash flood.

At the same time, according to unreliable sources, if the Duchy of Burgundy can defeat the Norman kingdom and gain Normandy territory this time, then a certain power will support him to officially become independent and claim the throne, establishing the legendary Kingdom of Burgundy.

On June 11, 1102, after receiving the news, Philip II, the titular king of France, did his best to concentrate all the forces he could, and with the great assistance of Edward IV, Duke of Aquitaine, a total of 3,700 iron horsemen, including 600 military police knights directly under the king, and nearly 60,000 troops, including more than 10,000 Italian mercenaries, also advanced to Normandy.

Philip II was also in a desperate mood to pacify Normandy before Charles, in order to show his ability, assert the authority of the King of France, and put a stop to the separatist forces in the country.

At the same time, Aaron IV, Duke of Brittany, under pressure, also declared war on the Norman kingdom, but did not send troops, but strengthened the guard in his own territory, presumably to prevent a certain king from beating rabbits with grass and serving him.

The entire Kingdom of France was unusually united, with 8,000 iron horsemen and 100,000 troops marching towards the Duchy of Normandy.

Such a terrifying number made General Loufus, who was guarding the castle in Normandy, feel extremely stressed, and the letters for help flew towards Randy's place at a speed of one or twenty letters, until the helpless notification pigeons attached to his spies were exhausted.

In short, unconsciously, through various hints of secret concatenation, the first attack of the loose and continent-wide anti-Norman alliance was very grand, at least in terms of momentum.