The sun finally came out of the woods lazily, the red color was like a well-fed egg yolk, and reluctantly pulled away the dense branches and leaves, revealing its oval head, the light and heat were not as strong as at noon, as if it was full of waking up, and had not yet fully woken up.

I stroked the chain mail that bathed in the morning sun on my body, and over time they had become custom-made to fit like a custom, and my gestures were close to the curves and muscles.

"I may get you dirty in a while, don't blame me then......" I felt a little dizzy when the sun shone on me, and I held my forehead and wanted to close my eyes and recuperate, but I was shattered in the sudden sound of earth-shaking war drums.

There was a rhythmic percussion sound from the depths of the forest, these war drums made of cooked cowhide, seemed to have a stubborn temper of a wild bull, and even the echo seemed so shocked and angry, my mind was full of the domineering picture of the Minotaur chief carrying the totem pole in the Warcraft War, and my heart couldn't help but tremble, and my hands and feet were numb unconsciously.

The shout is by no means the hysterical voice of ordinary people, but a warrior with absolute self-confidence, proudly conveying his confidence in victory to his opponent.

They gathered under the banner of a great commander, willingly throwing passion and blood, war at this moment not only represents killing and victory, but a person's natural instinct to burn life, immersed in the intersection of swords and soldiers, melting the body into a surging tide, surging against heaven and earth!

And among the Poles, I can find a leader with such charisma, and I can no longer find a powerful name other than that person.

"Grand Duke Mieshko......"

The long dripping of water made my throat hoarse, and my vocal cords were obscure and tug-of-war.

"It turned out to be your ......"

This legendary Grand Duke of Poland created the first hereditary Piast dynasty in Polish history, converted his compatriots who made up tattoos to the arms of God, and led barbarian tribes to the path of civilization, so that for the first time, the vast and wild land of Poland appeared on the stage of history as a new country.

The red-haired Grand Duke Mieszko, the son of the semi-mythical Polish tribal prince Semomisr, was originally named the barbarian Mechsław, his story is very suitable for today, suffering from the hopeless Guang ** silk, vividly showing how a teenager struggled out of the danger surrounded by a vicious stepmother and jealous brothers, and finally mastered the power of the tribe, and then led his own people step by step, integrated all the Poles, and established his own era.

is similar to Genghis Khan's experience of growing up, but it is obviously too different in terms of taste and audience, and it is much more colorful than the steppe field battle.

Like the founding monarch of every dynasty, he was not satisfied with the foundation of the country he had laid, and would always start to invade his weaker neighbors after he had secured his country.

He fought for a long time against the Slavic tribes on the Baltic Sea in the north, including the Lyutich who migrated westward after the defeat, and eventually ruled all the barbarian tribes from the Oder to the Elbe, and to the south he fought with Bolesław I, Grand Duke of Bohemia, for the rich Silesia and the adjacent Viswanslavic tribe to occupy Lublin.

And in order to achieve the goal of defeating different parties as soon as possible, and to concentrate his forces before the increasingly aggressive German Empire opened its minions, Mieszko chose the road of saving the country and married Princess Dobrava, the daughter of Bolesław I, through which he not only successfully ended the ten-year war between the two countries, but also obtained Silesia, which had sacrificed thousands of lives but could not be captured, in the form of dowry, and under the influence of his Christ-believing wife, he chose to abandon heretical beliefs and was baptized as a devout Christian. And with the help of the clergy who came from Italy, he greatly promoted the process of the rise of Poland, and became a powerful force to be reckoned with by any power, and a knight of the apologists on which the Holy See had high hopes, so that more barbarians could convert to Christ.

Years of conquest had corroded Mieszko's once strong body and sharp mind, and he finally inevitably grew old, and the old duke, who had been in his last years, looked back gloomily, only to find that he had no definite heir behind him.

The two adult sons each have a separate line, and there is already a dispute over the inheritance.

Bolesław was his eldest son, young and energetic, like himself in the old days, and his warlike vassals all gathered under his banner to put constant pressure on the old duke.

At first, Mieszko did want to identify Bolesław as his heir, and several back-and-forth marriages proved that he hoped to use marriage to pave the way for his eldest son to the throne.

First, he facilitated the marriage of the eldest son to the daughter of Count Richdag of Meissen, but because the successor Duke of Bohemia, Boleslav II, regarded Meissen as his sphere of influence, so Boleslav II obtained permission from Duke Henry II of Bavaria to occupy Meissen Castle, so that Grand Duke Mieszko's plan to expand his power in the region through the marriage of his eldest son failed, so the Grand Duke broke the marriage of the eldest son and married the daughter of the Hungarian king to besiege Bohemia.

However, since Hungary had no plans for military action against Bohemia, he again annulled the marriage and married the daughter of a powerful Serbian nobleman, thus bringing the eastern borders of the German Empire into the sphere of Polish expansion.

But the eldest son's edge is too strong, he doesn't know how to keep his head up, and his upright and violent personality is too easy to break, so he is more than enough as a commander who charges into battle, but unfortunately he is not suitable to be the leader of a country.

The youngest son, Mieshko, has the same name as himself, and is fair-skinned and handsome, so he is not very popular with the great nobles who worship force, but his greatest advantage is that he is familiar with the world of acquaintances, good at observing words and feelings, and is not ashamed of seeking perfection by compromises, and has all the characteristics of a prince who keeps it, but lacks the character of decisiveness and decision-making, and is inevitably controlled by it after taking the throne.

The exhausted Grand Duke Mieszko is now worried again, his beloved daughter Princess Figura was taken captive by a little-known Count of Nijmegen more than a year ago, and the capital city of Gniezno, which he carefully managed, was tragically burned, and the eldest son, who was ordered to rush to the rescue, was killed without a single piece of armor in the case of superior forces.

Now that the young adversary, who had subdued the Lyutich who had migrated westward, and had begun to run the Baltic territory, the Grand Duke had never encountered such a difficult enemy in decades, and decided to personally meet the Duke of Nijmegen, who had captured his two sons.

Slavs with strange totems tattooed on their faces, carrying battle axes and shields, appeared in the castle's field of vision, and they formed a loose queue, marching in high morale to the first trench, and bursting into high-pitched screams to the beat of drums.

"These cannon fodder ......" Yaroslav spent almost his whole life fighting with the Poles and was very familiar with the other side's troop formation, and the Slavs made up their minds as soon as they came out.

The drums were getting closer and closer, like tigers lurking in the depths of the jungle, ready to jump out of a corner at any moment, and the mixed Polish infantry, with a neat and slightly messy pace, majestically followed the drummers wielding drumsticks on the ox carts, stopped behind the Slavs, most of them had not yet left the forest, only countless flags were blown and fluttered by the fierce winds in the forest.

"Where they are standing, our bows and arrows can't shoot, it's just too good!"

The bull squinted and stretched out his right thumb, measured the distance of the enemy, turned his face sideways and said in annoyance: "Even a crossbow arrow with a winch may not be able to guarantee killing, and they hide in the woods, which is equivalent to invisibly putting a huge shield on themselves." ”

The neighing of the horses interrupted the bull's words, and we followed the sound to the other side of the castle wall, where the Polish cavalry of six phalanxes, holding high their long spears, drove the horses under their hips, and slowly unfolded into fans.

The two Guards cavalry phalanxes in the middle were more rigorous and solemn than when Bolesław was in command, and under the domed helmets with nose guards, the mechanical faces hidden in the dark shadows were expressionless, giving people more and more suffocating oppression, and even the mixed phalanx of the four archers and light cavalry around them became overshadowed.

"The Poles did not invest too much cavalry in this battle, and besieging such a castle still needed to fill the way with the corpses of the infantry." Yaroslav straightened his belt and straightened his chain mail, and did not seem to have taken the Polish cavalry seriously.

"Look at that, my lord!"

Rollo stood behind me and suddenly pointed to the left and reminded loudly: "The handsome flag of the Poles!" ”

On the gentle slope between the infantry and cavalry, a Roman-style battle flag appeared, and a mountain eagle made of gold at the tip glittered in the sun, piercing every eye, and Grand Duke Mieszko appeared surrounded by noble knights, and the inspired Polish soldiers tapped their shields and the ground, and even the horses raised their hooves and neighed excitedly.

A terrible thought popped up in my heart: "This person in front of me is an invincible existence. ”

Even from a long distance, I can still feel the gaze of Grand Duke Mieszko, through the layers of people and falling on me, it is a kind of eyes that cannot be described in words, different from the sharpness of many heroes like falcons, more like the indifference of the ups and downs of the dust and the confidence to grasp the changes of the situation, although there is no fiery burning feeling at the moment of sudden convergence, it gives people an unforgettable shadow.

When the cheers ceased, the Grand Duke waved his hand to give the order to the attendants, and a dozen knights ran out of the crowd, with bloody human heads hanging from the necks of their horses, and the heads of the knights who had long been unable to distinguish their faces were thrown into the trenches from a distance, and the knights led by the knights proudly rushed to the frightened Nijmegen soldiers at the head of the city and declared:

"I'm tired of telling the Duke of Nijmegen, don't bother to pay attention to His Royal Highness's every move, if you have any ability, please compete on the battlefield!"