The scene can't be cold like this, but His Majesty the Emperor can't drop his own price and directly name who to speak, this is tantamount to letting the Duke of Swabia play a game, the stubborn young emperor will not admit defeat so easily, in fact, since he came to power, the older generation of German nobles are very dissatisfied with the emperor's domineering and unobedient approach.

"That little kid in Rome!"

This is what the nobles called the emperor in private.

Looking back, I saw the Duke of Franconia, sitting in front of me to the right, with sweat on his forehead, and when the Duke of Swabia remained silent, he was undoubtedly the obvious choice to break the deadlock, but now Franconia had nothing on the table except that he could show off his qualifications as old as Swabia.

Their army has suffered heavy casualties as the mainstay of several wars, and when most of the principality wintered, it encountered a rare snowstorm, and countless people and animals froze to death and frostbite, and they have not recovered so far, so that after the emperor's conscription order was issued, the Duke of Franconia struggled to barely gather two-thirds of the number of the old, weak, sick and disabled, among which the number of knights was greatly reduced, and the axe-throwers were not fully manned. The waist pole is not straight.

The two dukes of Upper and Lower Lorraine, one old and one young, all sat there with dull eyes, but it was a good reflection of the embarrassing position within Germany after the division of the two duchies, the uncle did not love his grandmother, and the surrounding neighbors were singled out, and anyone could bully and bully the orthodox heir of the old Frankish kingdom, and the two principalities that were beaten with blue noses and swollen faces refused to go hand in hand, and dismantled each other so that the end of the stumbling block was more than anyone else, so that Burgundy continued to encroach on Upper Lorraine, and Lower Lorraine was also trembling in the shadow of Flender.

We are really a united empire, and before the war, we were humble to each other, and no one would speak first in front of others, so it is strange that the coalition with each evil spirit can win the battle.

Thinking of this, I refocused my gaze back on His Majesty the Emperor, who was sitting at the top, only to find that he quietly gave the Duke of Carinthia a look, and the Duke, who had always been dumbfounded, pretended to sneeze and covered his face with his hands, knowing that he would rather squirt snot on food than be so polite, in his words:

"That's fake behavior!"

"Judging from the current situation, we can only arrange the siege on the one hand, and on the other hand, step up the transfer of enough craftsmen and timber from the rear to build the weapons needed for the siege overnight, we expected that there would be a siege battle, but it was a follow-up activity after at least one field battle, but we didn't expect the enemy to shrink in the castle and refuse to come out, and our siege weapons are seriously insufficient."

The Duke of Franconia may have figured out that if he didn't open his mouth, the cautious emperor would probably settle accounts after the fall, and it would not be a matter of not being able to eat and walk around at that time, given that the overall strength of Saxony was still above the other countries, it would never be wrong to hold the principle of big things.

"And the port of Reggio Calabria, according to my scouts, along the coastline there are at least two well-equipped military ports, and they are still able to bring in a steady stream of supplies and troops from the sea in the face of a large army besieging the city, and once we lose the confidence and stamina to attack, the Saracens who are waiting for their work will sweep over like a storm in the Atlantic, chasing our ass and harvesting the head."

The Duke of Normandy finally found an opportunity to speak, and without thinking too much, he pointed out the loopholes in the siege plan.

Look at the scene is almost set off, His Majesty the Emperor is satisfied with his speech, every so-called pre-war meeting is like this, everyone has different opinions and can't make up their minds, and then His Majesty the Emperor is the final word, to put it bluntly, it is to use other people to set off their own wisdom, after a long time, everyone understands this model, and naturally cooperates in place.

"Scatter and reorganize all the infantry, and then surround me with Reggio Calabria, and divide the cavalry into small squads and go out to cleanse the Saracen villages, so that the people of Allah can also see the power of the sword of God!" Emperor Otto went back and forth with each duke's expression, like watching a red-butted monkey in a zoo.

As soon as his words fell, all the nobles declared that it was only when this absolute fairness that everyone seemed to be united, of course, the order to reorganize was not beneficial to those principalities with a large number of troops, they had to pay more casualties, but indulged in the free looting of cavalry, which could make up for the losses on the battlefield to the greatest extent, and the principalities with more troops could take out more cavalry and have more advantages in grabbing things, as for how much they could get back in the end, it would depend on whose war horses ran faster.

The large army, which had determined the battle plan, immediately began to act from the top down, reflecting the efficiency of the German army in this era, which was different from other armies.

The knights cheerfully beckoned their squires to prepare their horses, grouped themselves together in units of loyal vassals, and talked aloud to their acquaintances about the places where they might send out to plunder, while riding their horses proudly past the infantrymen who were dragging their spears to the meeting place.

Although these were numerous, their main role was that the infantry of siege cannon fodder came from a lowly background, either tenant farmers and serfs attached to the lord, who responded to the call with weapons handed down from their fathers and ancestors during battle, or semi-professional soldiers who owned a small amount of property, received military training, and were armed by the lord in wartime.

Take the Nijmegen samurai, for example! The rest are basically temporarily recruited mercenaries, stubborn lords who don't want to fight and don't want to die, and who don't have money or sell their lives, but on the whole, due to the Germanic martial tradition, any lord can casually pull up a sizable army of lords with barely up to the standard of combat effectiveness.

The infantrymen stared enviously at the knight lord to go to the rear to make a fortune, but they could only carry spears and wood, close to the range of the enemy's bow and arrow, and painstakingly build siege corners, and then they could enjoy a moment of leisure at dinner, and the food was not even as good as that of the Italian servant army.

I took Hans's reins and carefully instructed my knights to take precautions, nothing more than not to rob things with those greedy noble knights like hungry dogs, there are many opportunities to make a fortune, we are not worse than this time and a half.

Hans tilted his head and didn't know if he understood what I meant, but he hurriedly patted his chest and said that he would definitely not cause trouble to the Earl, and his eyes had already chased the other Saxon knights to the side.

Seeing them out of the camp, Kohler was busy leading the infantry formation to the meeting place, the bull followed behind with an axe, and I was very distressed that my heavy infantry had been pushed to the front, and I stood in the dust of people crossing my waist, not knowing what I should do.

The sun in the sky is not far away and not close to hang there, Italy's unique climate, so that the four seasons of the year are not as distinct as Germany, the rainy winter makes the lush vegetation a little wilted, and now it is grasping the hard-won sunny sky to grow desperately upward, but I did not expect to encounter a man-made war, and was cut down and concentrated by the soldiers, as a material for the subsequent manufacture of siege weapons.

Nestled on the edge of a leafy grove on the edge of the bay, I sighed faintly at the thought of Reggio Calabria's exotic architecture and fluttering crescent flags, and the peaceful sight that I was about to destroy with my own hands.

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The mild sunlight of southern Italy baked the air like bread flour heated and expanded in the fireplace, instantly increasing the energy projected on everyone, and there was not a trace of clouds and birds in the sky, as if even they were frightened by the heat wave and did not dare to show up, and I was very poor in physical fitness, even if I hid in a shady tent, I felt that there was a hazy mirage in front of me, and the water evaporated quickly, like salted dried fish, and the box full of crushed ice sent by the Duke of Normandy had already bottomed out, But the city in front of him is like an immortal magma giant in the flames, standing still in the heat.

This is the case with the lords, and the ordinary soldiers are even more uncomfortable!

These improvised tents were everywhere on the besieged fronts, and they put their spears together haphazardly, and then covered them with rags, curled up and hid in the small shadow cast on the ground, to get a brief coolness, and at the urging of the nobleman, they continued to monitor the enemies in the castle with their spears, which was really miserable.

The days of the knights were not so easy, and the siege of the city for many days had long since worn down their low morale, and now even if the emperor issued another order to sack the village, they could not mention the slightest interest in them, and the boring siege day after day, and the unchanging and unpalatable battlefield food, were not at all comparable to the drunken life in the Italian cities.

The spacious marble house, the chilled wine wine, and the dancing girls with graceful waists and beautiful eyes, the knights and lords, under the service of their attendants, wiped their bodies with wet towels soaked in water, and at the same time in a half-asleep coma, fantasizing about how they were welcomed by the ladies and ladies to chat****** in fact, the most disturbing thing was the emperor who sat in the golden tent in the center, seemed to be calm and calm, and the royal flag planted outside the door was listlessly lying on the flagpole and drowsy, not to mention putting himself in a steel cage, the guards with big shoulders and round waists, they endure sleepiness to ensure that they will not fall to the ground in shame.

In this war of conquest, the emperor more or less had the purpose of washing away the shame of his father's defeat and re-establishing the Saxon dynasty through a victory, and gradually gaining prestige in the principalities, so no one was as eager for victory as Emperor Otto.

It is said that His Majesty would go to the site where the craftsmen were making siege weapons several times a day to personally supervise the progress of the project, and later simply moved his tent directly outside the construction site, and every day when the curtain was opened, the craftsmen could see the busy scene of the craftsmen in full swing.

But he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and the large weapons needed to attack the city and plunder the land were not at all made in a hurry for a day or two of work, so the emperor learned to hold his restless heart and wait for the opportunity calmly.

(End of chapter)