"What's the problem?" Seeing that they were still a little hesitant, Guo Kang also asked.

"There's nothing wrong with the whole idea, it's just ...... I think it's enough to let them do the logistics. Pronsky said: "If you go to the front, it is not appropriate. ”

"Why do you say that?" Guo Kang continued to ask.

"The advantage of these people is not that they have high combat effectiveness, but that they are easy to replenish. We fight with people, even if we lose, as long as our own soldiers do not lose, we do not need to be afraid. Pronsky replied: "In the land of Rus, these people are like weeds, everywhere." Whether they are caught or hired, in short, there will be no shortage of people. ”

"But you're on an expedition this time." He reminded: "At that time, Oleg could take tens of thousands of people to Constantinople because even at that time, the longships of the river that the Rus were accustomed to could row directly along the Black Sea coast. However, to get to Egypt, you need to cross the Mediterranean, which is much longer. Whether you can bring so many people, I'm afraid it's hard to say. ”

"I think we still need to plan it well and discuss it with the Ministry of War." "If you don't have enough capacity, you won't be able to carry that much," he suggested. But there aren't many people, so there's no point. And I don't think there should be a need for so many infantry to fill the front line in this kind of war, right? ”

"I'm not going to use them as cannon fodder." Guo Kang explained: "I think that with proper training, everyone can be the main force. And the role of infantry is not so low, the ceiling of this class is very high. I feel like it's a waste to use these people as cannon fodder. ”

"Besides, training is also skillful, and some training methods have the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort." He said seriously: "Back then, when the last crusade was fought, the front-line troops were insufficient, and my uncle Lide Gong urgently transferred a group of reserve soldiers from Henan Province to the front line. His reservists were actually recruits who had not had time to complete all the training of the legion, and most of them had only been trained for a year and a half. ”

At that time, many people expressed doubts, but he said that this batch of recruits were all trained by himself, and the head coach who led everyone to train was his son and nephew. These young people can be counted as his children, so they are very relieved. This time he should be the last time to go to the battlefield in person, so he will definitely get a good result. ”

So in the end, with more than 3,000 people, he crossed the Danube River to the north, saying that he would take the initiative to attack the enemy and buy time for the main force. They had very few cavalry, and some people thought it was too dangerous, but the Duke of Tontoku still said it didn't matter. They marched all the way to the location of the current Third Province, and sure enough, they encountered a large number of Hungarian cavalry. ”

These men had rushed to join the Crusaders, but when they saw their army appearing, they immediately called their companions to catch up. There were four or five thousand people. The Hungarian light cavalry thought they were easy to bully, so they rushed forward first, and the Duke of Tonde ordered the soldiers to keep the marching formation, put on half of their armor, and slowly advance to the commanding heights next to them. ”

"It took them some time, through the woods, to get there, and sure enough, in the ruins of the church on the top of the hill, they found the enemy's command and began to attack. The enemy's command began to retreat, and they rushed down the hill in pursuit. Other enemies came to their aid from all sides, and this was exactly what they hoped for. ”

"Can you catch up with that?" Pronsky asked.

"Generally, yes." Guo Kang said: "The nobles of Hungary and Poland, after so many years of war with us, are no longer like other Europeans, who will go to war with a large number of servants, food and even circuses. However, in the entire command structure, there must still be a large number of other personnel, as well as the flags and drums used by the conductor, the guard of honor, and so on. Therefore, even if the commander-in-chief himself was on horseback, the entire command could not run so fast. ”

"And, even if they do run away, that's a good thing. On a battlefield of this scale, the sudden disappearance or rapid retreat of the military flag can easily cause panic. Even if the enemy is well-trained, sooner or later he will be overwhelmed. On that occasion, the enemy managed to hold out for a while, but the Duke of Tonde and his men pursued closely. The enemy had no choice but to turn back and attack. ”

"Hundreds of horsemen rushed from behind, and my cousin, who was in the rear at the time, led his men out with a roar, and collided with the leading Hungarian knights. Half of their men were killed in one fell swoop, and my cousin was knocked unconscious by the rifles, but the enemy was also crushed by the unexpected return fire and fled the battlefield. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the vanguard also rushed towards the assembled enemy, quickly killing them through and cutting down the banner of the enemy general. The enemy immediately scattered and fled, and many of them were driven into the woods in a panic, where they were caught up and killed. The rest fled quickly and did not dare to come again. ”

"Later, my father asked my uncle how dare he insist on biting the enemy's command. Shuzu said that this is because, according to his experience, most of the enemy's horses will not be able to run at all after chasing for more than half a day, while his men will have no problem with three days of fast foot troops. So he was sure that he could chase these people down before more enemies arrived. ”

My father asked again why he dared to advance with his head in the face of a large number of enemy cavalry on the flanks and behind. Uncle Zu told him that in our Guo family's hometown, everyone has long been experienced in this kind of thing. In fact, as long as the infantry is firm enough, even if Tang Taizong comes in person, it will not be able to break down. ”

"As for his soldiers, although they are not so outrageous, these Mazar Tartars, if they want to defeat them, they still think too much."

"I really didn't know much about this case before." Pronsky admitted: "I didn't expect it to be ...... like this"

"It's really a rule. Judging from the later results, this experience is also very reliable. "During the siege of Visegrad, the Poles finally realized that their lips were cold, and their parliament went against the norm and began to support Hungary, which was also an old enemy," Guo said. A large number of Polish cavalry rushed to the aid and tried to meet the outside of the city and drive us back. ”

"Basil III decided to encircle the area and send reinforcements, and the team responsible for destroying the reinforcements included these 3,000 children, and my cousin volunteered to be the vanguard. The Poles were in a hurry and charged first, and our infantry repeated their previous performance and met the attack. ”

"It is said that at that time, there were five or six thousand people in the forward team, charging in a dense formation. The momentum was so great that the Polish knights' well-trained horses were frightened, and they stopped halfway. Their charge also failed to shake the forward formation at all. Our cavalry of the second line then advanced, passed through the infantry line, and struck forward, crushing the enemy at once. They pursued the fleeing enemy cavalry, and even broke through the second line of cavalry of the Poles. The others immediately followed, and in this way simply and brutally crushed the enemy. ”

After this battle, the last bastion of the Hungarian royalists also fell. Upon discovering that these people were no longer useful, the Alemanni immediately turned around - even after we contracted, they did not choose to re-prop up a Hungarian king, but directly sent troops and annexed most of western Hungary. ”

"After this hard-fought and unsuccessful attempt, no one will be able to organize a crusade. The Poles, too, reacted from their fervent religious sentiment and used the excuse of coming to help to occupy a large area of north-central Hungary that they had previously disputed. In this way, together with us, the land of the former Kingdom of Hungary was divided. ”

"There are also some repercussions that have continued to this day." Guo Kang thought about it again and said, "For example, several crusaders before and after captured a large number of large and small nobles. This time, in particular, because Basil III led a large army and marched quickly along the newly built avenue, and quickly defeated the Crusaders with superior forces before they could react, so the number of people caught was especially large. ”

"Those Crusader knights, many of them paid their money afterwards and were let back. After they returned home, they liked to repeatedly promote the strength of our Rome, so as to prove that they were not captured alive because of their strength. This method has had a good publicity effect, but it has quickly turned our reputation around. ”

"There are also some people who really don't have money, so they follow the custom to give us soldiers in exchange for payment. A number of French knights and Italian mercenaries later participated in a series of battles against the Ottomans, and some even defended the city with my father. Guo Kang recalled and said: "After these wars, they have got a lot of themes that can be bragged about. ”

After that, they called for friends and more peers who wanted to win a future. In the current Roman Khanate, there are still many French. Many of them claim to be fleeing or taking risks, but in fact, they are all introduced in this way. You can still see a lot of it now. ”

"I see......," said Pronsky, unexpectedly, "but not the French side will be upset if it is always so bad?" ”

"No, the French royal family has always been happy with this." Guo Kang explained: "The effect of this cutting of the feudal domain is much better than the efforts of King Wu at that time. ”

"Ah......h

Pronsky was surprised for a moment before he said, "That's really different. It seems that in different places, even if people in the same position are similar, for various reasons, the actual difference is quite large. ”

"In our hometown, the prince's own soldiers are somewhat similar to knights." "Traditionally, the families of these pro-soldiers have served for generations, and they start practicing horseback riding at the age of four. By the age of 10, it is necessary to practice riding a horse without a saddle to familiarize yourself with various kung fu on the horse, and also to develop strength and skill through stone throwing training; From the age of 12, you have to practice archery, and the requirement to meet the standard is to shoot five arrows in a row and hit the target at the same time. Some of the rules, I think are a bit exaggerated. ”

"Moreover, these pro-soldiers are more hard-working than their European counterparts. According to the requirements of custom, not only could they not pursue pleasure in the process of marching and fighting, but they also had to endure hardships. In order to facilitate the march, the soldiers did not carry any pots and kitchen utensils, and when they were hungry, they cut the horse meat and beef into thin slices and roasted them over the fire and ate them. They also did not bring tents or other camping equipment, only a piece of felt. Even on a cold night, I just spread out a felt blanket and slept in the saddle. ”

"These are all to reduce the load, and it can be said that the pursuit of lightness and speed has been brought to the extreme." Although the Europeans have always looked down on us, I feel that our professional samurai there are no less inferior than their counterparts there, and even more suitable for war. He couldn't help but shake his head, obviously dissatisfied with the Europeans: "It's just that we are in the east, and we have to block the more powerful eastern nomads for those pretentious sissies, so we don't have time to beat them." ”

"Of course, the bigger problem is probably that we have never achieved unification there." He thought for a moment and admitted, "The number of such pro-soldiers is too small. Ordinary princes can probably make up a hundred or so around them. The stronger ones can come up with hundreds. It is said that the Grand Duke of Kiev in his heyday could bring out three or five thousand personal soldiers, but I feel that is too exaggerated, and the 'wise' Yaroslav may not be able to do it. ”

"And the reason why there is no reunification is, to put it bluntly, political factors, not people." He looked at the others and said bluntly: "Everyone actually knows that the culture and society there are too primitive, and the political system is far less perfect than that of the Greeks, let alone now." ”

"So, I decided to support you. Because I think that if you just try to figure it out on your own, God knows what kind of mess it will come out of. It's better to follow Rome and do things seriously. Otherwise, I am afraid that I will have to suffer a lot of losses in the future. ”

"That's the truth." Guo Kang nodded in agreement: "But what you meant just now seems to be saying that these people recruited are probably not good at training." Isn't that a paradox? ”

"No, it wasn't the same thing at the time." Pronsky explained: "If you want to recruit Rus', we will definitely support it. But you're recruiting Slavs now. ”

"Although broadly speaking, the Rus' land is full of Rus', in reality, the Rus' are generally just the name of the Rurik family and their followers. As far as the military aspect is concerned, generally speaking, the pro-soldiers are considered Rus'; At the very least, only the city militia recruited in the city can be regarded as this. ”

"Of course, it doesn't matter." He waved his hand: "You can fight so well with the Slavs." If it is a trained Ross person, it will definitely be more stable. ”

"How to arrange it depends on your own meaning. But I always feel ......" He hesitated again, but still suggested: "Some people are not naturally suitable for war, and I don't know how to describe it. However, it always feels like a bit of a waste to spend energy on this kind of person......"

"Don't worry, none of this matters." Guo Kang had already made up his mind, and said directly: "In our long-term plan, we even recruit Egyptians. These things are done sooner or later. ”

"Huh?" Now, even the Great Lama Wang is stupid.

(End of chapter)