"The cause of Ferdinand's death is a mystery!"

"Shocked! Two or three things that the three princes and the viper had to say! ”

"Only Princess Uraka and His Majesty William can receive Castile!"

......

Before the Norman army arrived in Castel, William launched wave after wave of propaganda in Castile in a dizzying way, including various tabloids, small books, picture books, graffiti, skits, etc., as well as various secret correspondence between nobles, and gossip among the market taverns, among which the title was quite appalling, quite a bit of a certain U shocking department.

Naturally, these tactics were not on the table, and William did not expect to use these rumors to turn against some of the Castile nobles, but they did drive a wedge between the Castile nobles' subjects and their king, Sancho. Many people have wondered if the death of the first king Ferdinand the Great was related to the three kings Sancho, Alfonso and Garcia.

In order to quell the rumors that have popped up in the country, Sancho, Alfonso and García have to devote a great deal of energy to extinguishing the rumors, but no matter how they try to cover up the truth, the seeds of suspicion have been planted, and it is impossible for the noble subjects to bow down to their own king as they did before.

As a direct result of these rumors, Sancho had a lot of trouble recruiting troops, and many nobles used this as an excuse to refuse military service for their king, or used it as an excuse to delay, and even many noble knights in his army began to stir up.

In the past few days, King Sancho has been a little worried, and if this situation continues, if one does not handle it well, it is likely that a mutiny will occur.

Originally, to deal with such a situation, he only needed to use thunder methods to kill chickens and monkeys, but at this important juncture, he simply had no time to deal with the aftermath, so it was impossible to use such means to suppress him.

According to the latest intelligence, William and his Norman army had already arrived in Bordeaux, only 200 kilometers away from the Pyrenees Pass, and because of the convenience of the Garonne River system, it would not take the Norman army to reach the Pyrenees Pass in a few days.

"It's a decision, my majesty! Whether to hold on to the Pyrenees and keep the Normans out of Iberia, or to abandon the danger and rely on the hill castles of their own country to deal with them. ”

Gonzalo, a close retainer of King Sancho, opened his mouth and said.

In Gonzalo's view, the ultimate requirement now is to decide the direction of the future strategy, whether to stick to the Pyrenees or give up, and if you hesitate, you will only fail at both ends.

"You're right, Gonzalo." Sancho cheered up, looked at Gonzalo and said: "The Pyrenees must not be abandoned, the strength of my Castile Kingdom and the Norman Empire is very different, once we abandon the natural danger, we will definitely lose." ”

"Gonzalo!" Sancho commanded.

"Your Majesty."

"You quickly go and lead people to suppress the rumors in the army, don't be soft."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

In less than three days, he completed the suppression of his army, and then after converging an army in Burgos, he led a large army into the city of Navarre, where he joined his ally, King Sancho IV of Navarre.

On the other side of the Pyrenees, the Norman army was still marching a little slower than Sancho's Castile army, and it was not until the other side assembled at the Pyrenees Pass in the Kingdom of Navarre that the three legions led by Duke Rodrigo were late.

Of course, this was due to the deliberate slowing down of the march by Duke Rodrigo, who deliberately slowed down the march after confirming the whereabouts of King Sancho and his army.

After all, his main goal is to get the attention of his opponent so that Willian can flank and flank them, rather than compete for that little time.

Born in Castile, Rodrigo knew nothing more about the dangers of the Pyrenees, and even if he was lucky enough to gain a temporary advantage, it would be of little use if he couldn't break through the dangerous castles.

The cautious Rodrigo followed William's strategy and began to launch a tentative attack on the Pyrenees Pass.

Although the attack was purely tentative, there were many artillery, trebuchets, siege towers, and other equipment, and the momentum was so great that at first glance it would seem that Rodrigo had ordered the whole army to attack.

And that's exactly what Rodrigo was trying to achieve, because if it was too small, it would not have achieved the strategic goal that William had envisioned – to draw Sancho and his army firmly to the Pyrenees Pass.

The first tentative attack was not very effective, and it was no surprise that the artillery in his hands was not very different from the counterweight trebuchet, except that it was more mobile than the latter, and it was not very effective against these boulder-built castles.

If you really want to break through these castles built in the steep mountains with artillery, I am afraid that you need to gather a large number of cannon casters and cast several huge siege mortars on the spot, just like the urban cannon known as the "Terminator of Constantine" in later generations, and only by casting such a huge cannon on the spot, there is a slight possibility of breaking through these fortress passes.

After the tentative attack of the number theory, although Rodrigo and his legions were in vain, they also succeeded in detecting the opponent's strength and firepower arrangement, and at the same time firmly attracted the opponent's attention, which can be regarded as a slight gain.

After days of thunder and rain, even the Castile soldiers, who were fearful of the Normans, began to delight them, believing that the Pyrenees and these precipitous fortresses would be enough to withstand the Norman attack.

Under the arrogance of Duke Rodrigo, the people of Castile inevitably became arrogant and contemptuous.

Even their king, Sancho, wondered why the Normans were so weak.

"Earl Russell, Your Majesty has acted?"

Rodrigo asked with some excitement when he saw the visitor.

"Yes, Lord Rodrigo, Your Majesty has led the Guards Regiment to land at the port of Bizcay this morning, and it is expected that the assembly will be completed this afternoon. Please hurry up and prepare for a flanking attack, and tomorrow Your Majesty will launch an attack on the enemy's flank. ”

The Earl of Russell took out William's handwritten letter and handed it to the other party, and said unhurriedly.

"Understood, I'll go and prepare, and I'll launch an onslaught on the Pyrenees Pass at ten o'clock tomorrow morning!"