Fighting with the Duke of Swabia is obviously much more comfortable.

I don't know if it was because of the previous strong record, or the effect of Otto's money offensive, all the way to the march, he was not arranged by the Duke of Swabia to do any dirty work.

In this way, we arrived in East Friesland without any problems.

In the northeastern part of the Kingdom of Lotharingia, although there was an army to defend it, it was not many in number and its combat effectiveness was not strong, and in the face of the fifteen-thousand-strong army led by the Duke of Swabia, there was basically no decent resistance.

When the Duke of Swabia's army advanced to the vicinity of Arnhem and was already approaching the Dutch county, it was sniped by the 20,000 troops of the Kingdom of Lotharingia led by Count Arnhem.

After all, there is the Duchess of the Netherlands, and there is no way to retreat.

This time, both sides of the opponent were the main force, even the Duke of Swabia did not dare to be careless.

Otto saw many familiar flags from the army of Count Arnhem, such as the banner of the Count of Neuchâtel, the banner of the Count of Sundegaard, and so on.

Perhaps, this is one of the few mobile forces in the hands of the Dutch duke.

After all, the strength of the Kingdom of Lotharingia itself is not as strong as that of the Kingdom of East and West Francia, and there are many nobles at both ends of the line, and there are not many troops that can be gathered by themselves, and they still have to defend several important towns, and it is not certain whether the Duchess Duke still has 50,000 available troops in his hands.

This is still based on the fact that the Duchy of the Netherlands itself is strong and extremely wealthy, and it is full of use, otherwise, it is not surprising to say that the 20,000 people in front of him are the last main force of the Duke.

After several tentative attacks by the Duke of Swabia, at the end of April, the main forces of the two sides fought fiercely in the forest east of Arnhem.

The battle lasted from noon to afternoon, and when the sun set and the sunset appeared, and the two sides would lead their troops to retreat regardless of victory or defeat, the Duke of Holland personally led 10,000 fresh troops to arrive, breaking the balance of the battlefield.

When he saw the other party's reinforcements, Wade, who had already killed the red-eyed, instantly calmed down.

"Young master, our army has been defeated, let's withdraw quickly."

When Otto saw the Duke of Holland, he also understood that the general situation had turned, and immediately did not delay any longer, and hurriedly gathered his army, becoming one of the first nobles to run away from the battlefield.

It was not Otto who ran the fastest, but the Duke of Swabia, after all, he was in command of the whole situation from the rear.

Seeing the Duchess Duke personally leading his troops, he knew that the battle was lost, and after decisively giving the order to withdraw his troops, he took the lead in running away.

On the battlefield of fierce fighting, what does the retreat of the commander mean and it means that the morale of the whole army is shaken.

When they saw the banner representing the Duke of Swabia retreating first, the soldiers of the East Frankish Kingdom quickly panicked and turned from retreat to rout.

Soon, the situation on the battlefield was completely out of control, and even if the nobles wanted to control the army, they found that they could not do it at all.

The nobles sadly found that now they could only run away.

And the price of the nobles running away was that the army of the East Frankish Kingdom on the battlefield no longer had the slightest resistance and completely turned into a massacre.

From the appearance of the Dutch Duke with his troops to the defeat of the army of the East Frankish Kingdom, it was a matter of moments.

That's how things are on the battlefield, and no one knows what will happen in the next second.

Otto glanced back at the purgatory-like battlefield, shook his head with a wry smile, and clamped his horse's belly with his legs, so that the horse under his ass could run faster.

In war, there are victories and defeats, and no one can guarantee victory all the time.

It's just that this time the losses are a bit bigger, even if Wade reacts quickly, but Otto's soldiers from the territory have lost more than half.

Fortunately, his command is all cavalry, otherwise it is not impossible for the whole army to be wiped out. When defeated, the power of the rout is no joke.

Defeated the army of the East Frankish Kingdom, the Duchess Duke did not accept it when he saw it, but led the army to chase and kill a distance of nearly 100 miles, making Otto and a group of nobles of the East Frankish Kingdom miserable.

After running for a few days, the Duke of Holland determined that the Duke of Swabia could no longer assemble his army, so he was still reluctant to withdraw his troops.

At this time, the troops following Otto were less than two hundred horsemen, most of them were "quasi-knights", and few ordinary soldiers were alive.

Otto was so tired and hungry that he hadn't even eaten properly because he had escaped, and when he heard that his pursuers had gone, he breathed a sigh of relief and took the soldiers to find a wooded place to rest.

Just as the attendants brought water and food from a nearby village, they found Otto asleep against a tree.

Everyone looked at each other, looking at their embarrassed appearances, relatively speechless.

Otto was awakened by the aroma of roasted meat and a hungry stomach, and when he awoke, he found several nobles gathered near the woodland who had also fled.

After a pleasant exchange and sharing some food, Otto asked the key question.

"How is the Duke, where is he now?"

In Otto's memory, he did not know the exact course of the war, only that the East and West Frankish kingdoms finally divided the territory of the kingdom of Lotharingia.

Therefore, Otto naively thought that there was no danger in participating in this war, just to brush up on his military merits and prestige.

It wasn't until this defeat that Otto woke up to the fact that this is not a game, this is not history, this is the real world, and no one can guarantee what will happen in the next second.

Even if the Duke of Swabia later reunited the Carolingian Kingdom, even if the protagonist's aura deepened, he would also fail, and he would also die on the battlefield.

When a man is killed, he dies!

At this moment, Otto no longer has the idea of playing life in his heart, and has become much more cautious.

His main concern is the safety of the Duke of Swabia, which is his biggest thigh in the future, and it will be interesting if he hangs up like this.

Unfortunately, from the mouths of several other nobles, Otto did not hear the answers he wanted.

They, like Otto, were only concerned with escaping, and they could not care where the Duke of Swabia went.

Now that it's safe, it's time to find the Duke.

A few people walked together, barely enough to gather a team of five hundred people, and along the northeast direction, all the way to find the traces of the Duke of Swabia.

Soon, several people knew where the Duke of Swabia was and joined him.

Compared with the tragic situation of other nobles, the situation of the Duke of Swabia is much better, as the first duke to escape, and escaped with elite guards, his escape process can be said to have been smooth all the way.

Not only did he eat and drink well along the way, but many nobles in the rear helped him block the pursuers.

In this way, he ran all the way to a castle in Groningen, where he left a garrison of a thousand.

After entering the castle and having an army in his hands, the Duke of Swabia was also a lot more relieved and began to send cavalry to collect the remnants.

By the time Otto and the others arrived, the Duke of Swabia had gathered an army of about two thousand in the castle, almost all of them nobles and their guards.

When he saw Otto, the Duke of Swabia, who was enjoying a sumptuous lunch, seemed delighted.

"Ah, Baron Otto, God willing, it's great that you're still alive, but you don't look good, it seems that you have suffered a lot along the way, it's okay, the days of fear are over.

I have informed my brother and the Duchy of Swabia that reinforcements will soon arrive, and I will take you and you to defeat the Duchess duke and wash away the shame of this defeat! ”