The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 548: Great Harvest and Rapid Increase of Power
Under Richard's command, everyone started to put out the fire. In fact, at this point in time, if no more firewood was added, the fire would slowly go out in no time.

When the flames died down, there were less than 500 Germanic barbarian soldiers left alive.

It can be said that the Germanic barbarians' southward march this time was basically a complete failure. Although only two thousand people were killed or wounded in this battle, they were the elite of the Germanic barbarians.

The Germanic barbarians promoted the rule of tribes, which were divided into chiefs, priests, warriors and ordinary barbarian soldiers. Chiefs, priests and warriors all had a large number of slaves in the tribe.

Warriors are actually equivalent to the aristocracy in the Germanic tribes, and are the backbone of the Germanic barbarians. These warriors basically have weapons and armor, and are the elite of the tribe. If so many of them are killed in battle at once, the tribe will basically be seriously injured.

Richard surrendered several hundred German soldiers, asked them to hand over their weapons, and then had someone guard them. Then he led the remaining soldiers to deal with the German soldiers who remained in the camp.

At this time, the Germanic soldiers in the camp were already exhausted and in very poor condition. After Richard led his troops to the camp, they easily broke through the camp.

Richard ordered his men to lift Holder's head high with a spear and shouted, "The enemy general is dead, and those who surrender will not be killed!"

The morale of the barbarian soldiers, who were already exhausted from the past few days, plummeted, and many of them began to flee. A large number of soldiers wanted to flee the battlefield, and a few German barbarian warriors actually organized themselves to take back Holder's head.

Richard didn't tolerate them and went straight forward, shooting arrows like rain. In just a few breaths, he shot and killed more than a dozen people, scaring them so much that they dared not resist anymore.

The army's defeat was unstoppable, and a large number of barbarian soldiers began to flee, while some who did not have time to escape were caught up by the army and surrendered.

Unfortunately, Richard had too few soldiers and no cavalry. Otherwise, he would have taken advantage of the army's defeat and sent the cavalry in pursuit. Then, few of the remaining German soldiers would have been able to return alive.

In this era, the only people who could organize large-scale cavalry charges were the Huns and the Romans, not even the Germans.

If the Roman Empire had not been plagued by internal and external troubles, these Germanic barbarians would have had no chance to occupy this place. Unfortunately, there is no if in this world.

Richard did not order his troops to pursue the enemy. In fact, he did not have many soldiers at his disposal, only one thousand regular soldiers (with armor) and one thousand militiamen. After the battle last night, two to three hundred of his armored soldiers were killed or wounded.

Most of them were killed when they were luring the enemy deep into their territory and were chased by the Germanic barbarians. Even Sean was stabbed three times.

But it's worth it.

This time the Germanic tribal army suffered heavy losses. Holder was killed and more than 2,000 warriors of his tribe were wiped out. As long as the news got back, his tribe would basically be finished, and other tribes would not let go of this fat piece of meat.

The Germanic barbarians did not have any concept of country, they were more of a tribal concept, so once other tribes became weak, they would be annexed by other tribes.

Richard had people clean up the battlefield. There were a lot of spoils of war in this battle, not to mention weapons and armor, and a large number of prisoners. Some of these prisoners were slaves obtained by the Germans from looting the manor, and some were surrendered Germans.

The total number exceeds four thousand.

Richard cleaned up the battlefield before dawn and left with rich spoils.

After today's battle, the invasion of the Germanic barbarians is basically over. If the defending Roman garrison can seize the opportunity to launch an attack, it is estimated that there will be a lot of gains.

Just looking at the situation of these garrison corps, nine times out of ten they will not be deployed.

After all, the empire's finances could not support many troops, and the military pay and supplies of these garrison corps were in short supply.

In fact, due to the financial difficulties of the empire, many nobles in the province of Frankfurt spontaneously formed an army for defense. However, the training and equipment of these troops were also poor, and they lost more than they won in battles with the barbarians.

The Province of Frankfurt was now in a mess, with the Visigoths to the west, the Germanic barbarians to the north, and the Huns to the northeast.

The Franks were also barbarians, but they were naturalized barbarians. When the empire collapsed, these Franks established their own kingdom.

After the fall of the empire, the Germanic people occupied part of the Frankish province and established a kingdom. If Richard had not appeared, in the following history, three countries would have been established in the Frankish province and Germania in the north.

All three countries were established by barbarians, and were later unified into the Frankish Kingdom. Finally, under Charlemagne, the Frankish Kingdom reached its peak.

At that time, the Frankish Kingdom occupied almost all of France, Italy, Germany and other regions.

When it was daybreak, the other Germanic tribes who received the news were horrified. Holder, the chief of the tribal alliance, was killed in battle and the army was wiped out. This news almost made the Germanic tribal leaders faint.

Holder is the most powerful among them. Even such a powerful Holder was wiped out, so it is their turn next.

Therefore, the leaders of these Germanic tribes had a brief discussion and decided to retreat. Then the remaining Germanic tribes gathered their troops and retreated in a hurry with the looted supplies.

They were afraid that if they retreated too slowly, they would be caught up and killed by Richard. On the other hand, the Roman garrison legions found that the German army had actually retreated, which made the Roman garrison legion commander a little confused.

He even suspected that the Germanic barbarians were pretending to withdraw so that he would let down his guard, and then suddenly return to attack.

Therefore, the commander of the Roman garrison did not relax his vigilance and still asked the soldiers to be on alert. It was not until the next day when he saw that all the Germanic tribes had withdrawn that he sent cavalry to check.

The Roman garrison breathed a sigh of relief only after the cavalry confirmed that the Germanic tribes had indeed retreated.

Although he did not know why the Germanic tribes retreated, this did not prevent him from taking credit for the achievement. So the commander of the Roman garrison personally wrote a gorgeous battle report and ordered it to be sent back to Rome.

The battle report stated that under his wise and brave command, the German army suffered a bloody defeat on his defense line, suffered heavy losses, and finally had to withdraw in disgrace.

He took the opportunity to send troops and killed a large number of German soldiers.

Richard didn't know that his credit was taken by others, but he wouldn't care even if he knew. In his opinion, the Roman Empire was already on the verge of collapse, and they were just waiting for it to collapse so that they could tear a piece of flesh off of him.

Richard planned to take control of part of the Frankish province after the fall of Rome.

To the east of the Frankish province is the Alps, to the west is the Visigothic Kingdom, and behind is the Germanic barbarians. If this land can occupy the Rhine River and hold the two mountain ranges on the east and west, it will actually be a very good area.

There is a vast expanse of land in the center of the Frankish province that can be used for farming. There are mountains on the east and west sides, so as long as troops are stationed there, the attack of a large army can be stopped. The north is more difficult and requires the support of the Rhine River for defense.

Richard's current strength is not enough to control such a large area of ​​land, so his goal is to go to the mountainous area near Gaul.

He planned to take advantage of the complex geographical environment of the mountainous area, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack, to bring the surrounding area under control. Then, when he had sufficient strength, he would lead his army to sweep across the entire Frankfurt area and take it into his possession.

The army returned to the camp with abundant war supplies. After several expansions, the camp was already very spacious. Four thousand captives and slaves were isolated, and Richard ordered people to prepare food for the captives.

These prisoners must not be allowed to be full, nor can they be allowed to starve.

At the same time, soldiers were sent to keep an eye on the prisoners and suppress them immediately if they tried to resist.

Four thousand prisoners almost equal the population of the camp, and careless handling could lead to serious consequences.

After a day's rest, Richard began to select the captives, including those who were originally slaves, serfs, freemen, or civilians looted by the Germans.

These people will hardly resist, so Richard plans to subdue them first, and then subdue the remaining Germans.

Soon these slaves, serfs, etc. were selected, and their number was about 2,500.

Richard asked these people to gather in the open space, and then he stepped onto the high platform under the watchful eyes of everyone, and he raised the long sword in his hand. The soldiers and civilians in the camp immediately cheered.

"I, Richard is the master of this place and the leader of the exiles here!"

"Now I declare that your status as prisoners of war and slaves will be pardoned, and you will be granted the status of civilians here!"

"You will not become lowly slaves. Here you can have enough food to eat, and you can even join the army and own your own land!"

"From today on, I will be your leader!"

After Richard finished speaking, these people who were originally worried widened their eyes, and after confirming that they were not hallucinating, they immediately cheered.

Next, Richard had people register them and then assign them according to their specialties.

The camp was in a stage of rapid development and every area needed manpower. Soon all these people were allocated. Next, Richard came to the Germanic barbarians.

At this time, the Germanic barbarian captives, who had been hungry for two days, were dejected and their morale was low.

Richard came up to these people and said to them, "You were originally taken as captives and were to be reduced to slaves!"

"But today I will give you a chance to become warriors again!"

"Join my vassal army. If you behead one level of people, you will become a free citizen. If you behead three levels of people, you will become a soldier!"

(End of this chapter)