At the same time, the capital of Brittany, the residence of the Grand Duchy of Brittany, Fort Nantes. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

A great place to live.

It is a good place because it is the last castle of the Loire - the mother river of France - before it reaches the Atlantic, and by virtue of this natural advantage, the inhabitants of Nantes are able to survive almost exclusively by fishing in the sea, without having to face the loess with their backs to the sky, as is the case with the peasants elsewhere.

What's more, there are also maritime merchants passing by here to replenish here.

Although there are not many, the maritime merchants are more generous than the wandering merchants; Most of the maritime merchants who can trade across the sea will not be stingy with that little money for food.

Then it is not suitable for living people.

After all, a city is a city, a castle is a castle, and even if the city is prosperous, it is an unchanging fact that a castle that is gloomy and dark, and does not even have windows for inhabitants.

But since the castle was built, the Duke of Brittany's family has never moved out of the city.

Because of security, control, and influence.

Security is a matter of course, and nothing in the Lost Century gives the nobility a greater sense of security than a well-guarded castle; As for the control, the city of Nantes, where the Fort of Nantes is located, naturally needless to say, from the Fort of Nantes to the south, it only takes three days for the army to go straight, and it only takes one day for the cavalry to march to Saint-Malo, once this important town of Brittany is surrounded, the Duke of Brittany can send troops to rescue at any time.

Finally, Nantesburg is quite close to Paris, Aquitaine, Normandy, and even London. These places are the points of conflict in half of Western Europe, and as long as they are close to them, their influence will naturally radiate out.

However, today's Fort of Nantes is not destined to be peaceful.

The reason was a letter from King Louis VII of France.

"This bastard...... This stupid melon...... I mean, is it possible that this letter was forged by someone else? ”

The gray-haired Duke of Brittany, who was over half a hundred years old, asked incredulously with a parchment in his hand.

None of his vassals spoke.

Well, in fact, the Duke of Brittany also knew that this problem was really unreliable.

Speaking of the family coat of arms engraved on the clay, the three objects arranged in a triangle, resembling both a sword and a flower, the Duke of Brittany knew that it must be Louis's letter.

But it was precisely because of this that the Duke of Brittany could not believe it.

"That stupid melon...... What the hell is he crazy about? Isn't he afraid that I'll go to Raymond and remove him from the king's position? ”

This was the reason why the Duke of Brittany did not believe it.

In terms of land in his hands alone, Raymond and Eleanor of Aquitaine could occupy almost one-sixth of the whole of France after they married, and even if they searched all of France, they could not find a greater prince than him. If it weren't for the fact that the other dukes just wanted to keep the current situation and didn't want to see a more powerful king appear, Raymond would have turned against it long ago.

The Duke of Brittany did not believe that at such a time, Louis, who had been on the throne for thirty years, would push his potential ally into the arms of the enemy.

To say that this letter was forged by Raymond is more convincing than to say that it was written by Louis VII himself!

"Well, I know that now is not the time to say this, so all reasons aside, all impossible, let this letter be written by Louie. Can any of you tell me where Louis's army is? ”

This question is critical.

Whether this letter is true or not, wars always depend on the army, and large-scale troop movements cannot be concealed at all, the last time the Duke of Brittany received news from Louis, Louis was still running on the road from Paris to Orleans!

"This ...... We haven't heard from it yet. ”

Finally, one of the vassals spoke a big fat man, this fat man was white and beardless, and his voice was high-pitched, and it was obvious that he was a eunuch.

The surrounding Wenchen generals all looked at him with disgusted expressions.

But that's what the Duke of Brittany wanted: this fat man was his head of intelligence. To engage in intelligence, two conditions must be met, one is absolute loyalty, and the other is that you can't have too good a relationship with other ministers, so where is there more suitable than a eunuch?

"What do you mean there is no news yet, tell me clearly!"

"Yes, yes, Lord Duke."

His own net worth, glory and wealth all come from the duke, and as soon as the duke gets angry, the fat man can't help but tremble.

"According to our intelligence officers, and from the caravans, Louis's army is still in Orleans."

There weren't any intelligence officers at all, and they all heard about it from the merchants.

In fact, in the Middle Ages, the only way most lords gathered news from afar was through merchants and poets.

No wonder their news is so closed.

"What do you guys think?"

The fat man's words could only be used as a reference, and the Duke of Brittany understood this very well, so he turned his head and asked his other vassals, his knights.

Since the Duke of Brittany was over half a hundred years old, his knights were no longer young - not that he didn't have young knights, but the young knights didn't have enough power or trust to appear on this important occasion.

"Lord Duke, I think the most important thing for us at the moment is to gather soldiers, whether this letter is true or not, as long as we have enough troops, the initiative will still be on our side."

This is quite insightful.

But there is only one problem.

"I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with gathering the army, it's just that, Lord Duke, it's spring ploughing season, and although it is true that the inhabitants of Nantes can survive by fishing alone, the peasants in other places still have to farm. Recruiting farmers at the time of spring ploughing, I'm afraid it will cause a backlash! ”

There is some truth to that.

Don't always think that the nobles are all powerful, they are all ridiculous things that only ignorant children do. At least, in their own territory, their own base camp, the nobles are still good to the people (they will not starve to death), after all, the nobles still count on them to provide soldiers.

And now, the vassals have already expressed their opinions, and they are just waiting for the duke to make a decision.

"Gather all the soldiers of Nantes ......"

The vassals suddenly felt a pang in their hearts, this reaction, is it really still going to war?

"Then, issue an order to the counts to conscript the peasants as little as possible without affecting the spring ploughing, and at the same time ask them to promise the peasants that if one member of the family participates in this conscription, the taxes of their whole family will be reduced by one percent!"

Quite a good policy, a few knights are thinking in their hearts, as long as they join the army, they can reduce the tax by one percent, although there will still not be many people who will actively join the army, but at least, the opposition will not be so loud.

"Finally, I want you to send a messenger to Saint-Malo. If Louis really wants to go to war against us, then Saint-Malo is the first hurdle he must pass; I demand that Saint-Malo call up all the peasants at once, close the gates, and forbid anyone to enter or leave until our reinforcements arrive. ”

……

It's sad how quickly the news spreads.

But thanks to Magnus coming all the way across the Black Forest, completely cutting off information and whereabouts, the Duke of Brittany did not know that they had besieged Saint-Malo.

It won't be long, though.

The scattered caravans, and the frightened fleeing peasants, they would eventually spread the news, and it would only be three or four days before the Duke of Brittany knew about it.

At this moment, Lefèvre had already led his hundred cavalry, ready to take another path through the dense jungle and go straight to Fort Nantes.

The time is wrong, and it is confused.