Chapter VII: Sacred and Sacred

The Norman Empire, the full name of which is the sacred Norman Empire of the North. Or the noblest empire. Born with the aspirations of tens of millions of Normans, it was an extremely powerful and terrifying country.

But there's a slight bit of a problem here. That is, Egil is known as the noble Emperor of the North, and his empire is also the noble Empire of the North.

So what exactly is the concept of "north"?

Compared to continental Europe, Scandinavia, England is considered northern. Compared with Italy, Germany, France, Poland and other countries are considered northern. Compared to North Africa, the whole of Europa is also northern—even geographically, the northern hemisphere north of the equator is considered northern......

So "North", that's a really good word to use. It can be constantly adjusted with time, situation, strength and even mood. This may have been one of the reasons why Emperor Frederick was so eager to challenge the Normans. Because he was not sure that the "north" by Egir included the whole of Germany. As a branch of the Germanic people, the Normans have shown strength in recent times, which has also made many Germans happy. While his country grew increasingly embarrassed by division, poverty, and political struggles, the Norman Empire in the north flourished under Egil's rule. The Germanic people in Germany say that they are envious, jealous and hateful, and there is a slight feeling in their hearts: If only it were the emperor of my family. of fantasies.

This is the so-called yearning of the people who live in barbaric countries for the lives of people living in the countries of the Ming Dynasty. The strength of the Norman kingdom, especially the strengthening of agricultural technology, made the country's agriculture developed, and the food reserves were abundant, and the people basically did not endure hunger, and even ate enough most of the time.

Eat one's fill.

In the Middle Ages, where agricultural technology was backward and productivity was low, it was already an extremely rare, extravagant, and extremely tempting condition.

What's more, there is no such thing as overpopulation in this day and age. Population size is largely tied to national strength – each country has a large amount of uncultivated wasteland suitable for farming. As long as it is properly organized and has sufficient material reserves, it is possible to admit displaced people from other countries indefinitely. In this way, we will strengthen the national strength.

In fact, it is not so much that the Holy Roman Empire is attacking because of the encroachment of the other party's title, but rather that the emerging Norman kingdom absorbed too much population from the Holy Roman Empire, causing the Holy Roman Empire's national power to decline sharply. This provoked the displeasure of Frederick and the nobles under his command.

The contradictions between the two sides are irreconcilable. And the monarchs of both sides did not want to reconcile - although they suffered a defeat at the hands of the Eastern Romans, Frederick's solipsistic personality did not change [Baidu]. In other words, the emperor, who was getting older, had exhausted his strength, and the decisiveness and bravery of his youth gradually became self-righteous and brute.

However, although it is said that the opponent chosen by the Holy Roman Empire is not very good. But the timing he chose was pretty good. Frederick was a good ruler, and the opportunity was very accurate - the two Norman armies, the army of Egir, were crowned in the city of Rome, and if they wanted to attack the German mainland, they still needed to cross the Alps. It won't come for a while.

And the Empress Artoria was even further away - at this moment the Queen of Britain was leading a large army to slaughter the former Novgorod homeland. It seems that he will not stop until he chases all the way to Moscow.

As a result, the Normans had an army of 200,000 men, but they could not quickly enter the battlefield. Before the Normans could react, the Holy Roman Empire had enough time to completely reclaim its original territories, Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, the so-called North Saxony, as well as the territories that had been ceded to each other, Pomerania, and Jutland. After that, Frederick decided to concentrate all his efforts and defeat Artoria first, completely annexing all the other party's territories on the continent of Europa. Then go south and pick up Egil.

Frederick's plan was actually quite good. If it can really be carried out, mobilize all the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor and use superior forces to fight against the two Norman armies. This seems to have a great advantage. ,

However, Frederick overlooked one point.

Time difference.

Frederick's plan was based entirely on time differences. That is, the opponent's 200,000 army cannot enter the battlefield quickly. And he suddenly declared war, after which he raided the territory that originally belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. This will accomplish the strategic objective before many enemies know about it and react. And everything that follows is still based on the premise of being able to quickly defeat the Artorian army.

But what if? I mean, the reaction was much quicker than Frederick had imagined, and Egil's army was quickly mobilized, crossed the Alps, and then attacked Bavaria, which was the most important thing for Frederick. and the whole of South Germany. Before Frederick occupied North Saxony, Pomerania and Jutland, he had thrown the whole of South Germany into chaos.

In this way, the Bavarian army, which was Frederick's own direct subordinate force, after receiving the news, would have collapsed in morale because of the raiding of his hometown.

So in the final analysis, it is still a relationship of time, and there is no hand fast and hand slow. The competition is about the speed of assembly, marching speed and offensive ability of both sides. And Frederick dared to declare war because he had such an advantage. I think that after the other side gets the news of his declaration of war, it will be a few weeks, or even more later. By that time, he had most likely stabilized the whole of North Germany. The strategic initiative is in their own hands......

However, things were not as simple as Frederick had imagined. In fact, the news of his declaration of war was sent to Egil's desk the day after it was announced. After being surprised by Egil's "Oh?!", he exclaimed, "What an imagination." Finally, he commented: "It's a pity." ”

Such.

The next day, Egil made this announcement in Rome in front of an army of 80,000 men, and the people in the front row quickly repeated the words of their emperor to those behind them: "We, those of us who shed our blood and fought valiantly for Christendom, have been shamefully betrayed!" Frederick, the so-called Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, has declared war on us, shamefully declared war on us, and declared war on us when we are about to return home!!"

As if he couldn't help it, Egil began to curse: "That scumbag—that thief, that lowly minion! Why is he?!With the great defeat he was made in Hungary, and finally the sad record of the shrunken turtle in his own territory?!The waste! the villain! The fool with an unclear mind! Soldiers, the soldiers of the great Norman Empire—I ask you, will you agree?" Your glory is defiled, your way home is blocked, and the man says, "You are unworthy, and you are going to plunder your money, your land, your wives and children!"

The crowd erupted in an earth-shattering roar: "We don't agree!"

"Kill that old Wangba!"

"Kill him, kill him! Kill all the Germans!!"

The soldiers cursed and vented their frustrations, and their anger and fighting spirit were completely ignited by Egil.

"All right, soldiers, what are we waiting for?! Hurry, hurry, hurry! We stop resting, stop celebrating, enter Germany as fast as we can, punish that bastard! and punish all the Germans who follow him!"

Egil shouted. And it received an enthusiastic response from the soldiers.

"I have reported this situation to the Holy See. Such perverse behavior of the Germans is unpopular and contrary to the teachings of Catholicism. The Holy See will surely excommunicate him!" shouted Egil, and the Norman soldiers cheered even louder......

After this, Egil's Norman army continued to enjoy the food and supplies provided by the city-states of northern Italy - unlike Frederick's forced conscription, Egil's policy towards northern Italy was significantly higher - at a time when the coalition was in name only, Egil stopped letting the Italian city-states supply supplies for free, which seemed convenient, but was actually very dangerous- If the Italians were forced too far to stop their supplies and turn against the Normans, it is inconceivable what would happen to this army, which could no longer be resupplied at all.

Thus, with Venice, Bologna, and the Republic of Genoa, which had been vaguely divided into the city-states of Genoa and Milan, Egil was very close to them. He promised that the Normans had no coveting of the lands and city-states of northern Italy, and that the Normans' geographical location prevented the Normans from effectively governing northern Italy. So there was nothing to be hostile between Norman and Italy, on the contrary, there were many places to cooperate.

Germany, on the other hand, was always hostile to northern Italy. The emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, as long as they had a little spare strength, the first thing they did was definitely to invade the ...... of northern Italy. (Proofreading [Baidu])