December 25, 997 Christ!

Yes, on Christmas Day, I was ordered to lead the avant-garde troops to attack the obstacles in my path, the rebel-garrisoned Castle of Vipitano, and thus missed the first national holiday since my crossing.

It's a pity that there are no statutory public holidays here, and I won't be paid three times my holiday salary, and it is the emperor who is wise to win the war, and he defeats the old society of asking for more blessings and eating people without spitting out bones.

The sky was gray, as if it was going to snow, but the haze did not affect the soldiers who were looking forward to feasting, and the smell of the festival infected everyone, including every dog in the camp, who also lazily stretched their waists and shook their heads everywhere looking for people to eat meat, and also picked fat and soft water, and picked and chose very poorly.

Of course, such a comfortable scene, except for us who were forced to die, everything was very beautiful, when I left the camp, behind me was a lively crowd preparing for the festival, His Majesty the Emperor also announced that the whole army would have a day of carnival, and beer would be served in unlimited quantities, but I could only watch them rejoice, while shouting to defend the motherland and take his subordinates out to die, the fate of cannon fodder at the mercy of others......

On this expedition, I led 2,000 soldiers.

Among them, according to my request, there were 100 cavalrymen with two fast horses, five of whom were knights with knighthoods, relatively better than the others in terms of equipment and combat ability, they wore light cuirass, and were well equipped, to be precise, they were no longer cavalry in the traditional sense, but medieval cuirassier light cavalry that I had modified.

In this cavalry team, speed and discipline are what I demand, rather than the prevailing cavalry tactics of the era, charging with heavy cavalry groups or protecting one's own side and rounding the enemy's flank, I emphasize the suddenness of tactical strikes, running at all costs to win.

All right! Don't say I don't know how to fight, I'll admit it!

But there is such a fast cavalry unit, can't we run, four legs are better than two legs to run, each person has an extra fast horse can also rescue a hundred more soldiers out, look at my idea, kill two birds with one stone, smart!

Of the other 1,900 men, 100 were heavily armored infantrymen.

Surpassing the ultra-luxurious lineup of the cavalry, the bull walked in the ranks as their commander.

Armed with the finest infantry heavy armor assembled by His Majesty Otto, these Iron Warriors were medieval bulldozers. Because the cost of armor manufacturing was too huge, the entire German army turned upside down, and it took me to make up ninety-seven pairs of incomplete heavy armor, barely equipped with a hundred people, and thus made all the big nobles who were forcibly recruited jump and hated me so much that the roots of their teeth itched, but His Majesty Otto tried his best to settle them for me, so that the heavy infantry could be formed, and it was the main striking force and life-saving trump card of the soldiers under my command.

The remaining 1,800 people are all miscellaneous armies cobbled together from various border regions of Germany, and in terms of physique and quality, they all belong to the role of playing soy sauce, but they also constitute the main body and backbone of the army.

They were armed with crossbows and giant axes, most of them wearing half-body cowhide armor, and I divided them into three squads according to their physical fitness.

Those who were relatively poor in physical fitness, and who were still yellow-skinned and thin, were incorporated into my immediate guard as reserves, and were kept to fight a good battle when the situation on the battlefield improved, and how many hundreds of brothers could still be strong and strong, frightening and frightening the defeated enemy, and becoming the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Due to the arduous task to be carried out this time, I forcibly canceled the bow and arrow formations, these archers who are not strong in self-defense ability and need to be assigned infantry protection are chicken ribs, which are not suitable for my combat idea of rapid strikes.

And to compensate for the lack of firepower, I equipped each soldier with a crossbow that didn't require much accuracy. Think about it, the effect of two thousand people firing crossbow arrows instantly, the range strike power of rocket artillery, and the non-killing light shooting chaos or something is also very spectacular.

Although I didn't know how to lead troops into battle, and I rarely even played strategy games before, I was fascinated by "The Biography of Napoleon" for a while in middle school, and I knew how to be blind when fighting.

Therefore, I sent twenty cavalry as scouts to guard all directions within fifteen miles, and by the way to probe the movements of the surrounding enemies, and once I found that the rebels exceeded the strength shown by the intelligence, I had to report to me immediately, so that I could stop the advance and apply for assistance.

The whole army marched slowly according to the marching formation I had arranged, and the miscellaneous army was spread out in their own squads, with the hoplites escorting me at the back of the line, and the cavalry roaming on both flanks to prevent the enemy from attacking the flanks.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied with my arrangement, at least once things are in crisis, the hoplites can stand up for a while, buy me time to run, and there will be no chaotic rear army blocking my escape route.

On the third day of the army's march, the scouts who had gone out sent back news.

With a day to go, the rebels have not yet set up a forward position, gathered their scattered forces along the way to concentrate on the defense of the castle, and have already sought assistance from the rear.

The surrounding towns were cleared of the surrounding villages, the peasants were forcibly relocated to the castles, the main facilities including the wells were destroyed, and we had no way to obtain supplies and levy men there, and the rest of the siege was sustained by the supply of food and grass and artisans from our own army.

"It seems that the rebels are well prepared this time, and they are still playing a strong wall and clearing the wilderness, and they want to engage in a national war." I sat on my horse's back and flapped the scabbard that hung on the other side of the saddle and said to Kohler, who was beside me.

In this combat call-up order, Kohler was my personal bodyguard, and the possession of this human precision-guided missile greatly increased my safety factor and confidence in surviving the battlefield and the confidence to go into danger, and also freed the bull who had been guarding me before.

He was sent to the heavy infantry unit as a commander, at first the bull resolutely did not leave, thinking that he had been abandoned, and then under my serious persuasion, he seemed to understand whether he understood or not to accept my education about the gilding of the lower grassroots, and the education that would be easy to promote in the future, although he still had a question mark on his head when he left, but the biggest advantage of the child is that he is obedient, very obedient, and is a confidant whom I deeply trust.

"For the Italian aristocracy, we are invaders from the north, although Germany, as the heir of the Roman Empire in the West, has ruled Italy for decades, but in the eyes of these local magnates, we are still barbaric Germanic people, who would rather put themselves under Byzantine rule than bow down to Germany."

"But for those ordinary people, whether it is Germans, Byzantines, Saracens, or native nobles, it doesn't matter, because no matter who lives in the palace, they just pay rent and serve day after day with their backs to the loess, and they never get ahead, and they are not enthusiastic about the war for hegemony between empires, and there is no right or wrong in their eyes, and it is the lord who is the lord above his head, whether he is a citizen of God or a believer in the prophet."

Kohler unscrupulously commented on the policies of the empire, and by the way, he was a little disrespectful to God, and he didn't care at all about my feelings as a so-called lord who was a powerful and blessed lord, but his words did hit the point, a little bit of the meaning of the suffering of the people and the suffering of the people, and the germ of simple democratic ideas!