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

Chapter 587 Battle of Orleans

During the period of development in the Rhine Province, the extraordinary knights under Richard were not idle. They took turns leading elite soldiers to plunder the surrounding Germanic tribes.

Basically, each of them is famous, and the most notorious one is Bloody Butcher Cruz. He got this name because of his violent and brave fighting style, his preference for using a battle axe, and his frequent single-handed charge.

The highest record was that one man defeated a German squadron of 100 people. The bodies of the dead were extremely tragic, like a slaughterhouse, so he was called the Bloody Hand Butcher.

Its name had already spread among the Germanic population, and the Frankish tribe of Carol was very close to the Germanic territory, so they also got the news.

After being spread by German bards, Cruz's name became even more famous, and it could be used to stop children from crying in German tribes.

Cruz was still very disappointed when he saw the Franks surrender, but he obeyed Richard's orders and carried them out meticulously.

So after these people expressed their surrender, Cruise accepted it according to Richard's request, and asked them to send troops and prepare food and fodder.

This time, Richard not only wanted to defeat Merovingian, but also to unify the Franks.

He did not want to engage in a protracted war, but wanted to win a quick victory, force the Frankish chiefs to surrender with a powerful force, kill Merovius, and take control of the province of Gaul.

Then develop in the province of Gaul for a year or two, then move eastward to Italy and occupy Rome, or move westward to the Visigothic Kingdom.

Richard did not intend to kill too many people. If there was too much killing, the development potential of the Gaul province would be reduced, and it would also cause greater hatred between different races.

When Richard was in the Rhine Province, he had already been secretly promoting the weakening of racial differences and promoting intermarriage between different races in various ways.

Soon, Carol selected five hundred warriors from the tribe and asked his son to lead them to follow Richard to attack Merovice.

In addition to these soldiers, Carol also prepared hundreds of sheep and a dozen cattle as food.

Cruz was very satisfied with Carol's respectful attitude, and immediately waved his hand to order someone to take the things back, and then waved again. Several knights nearby drove out a carriage.

Cruz said: "The Governor did not accept your things for nothing. These materials are compensation to you."

As they spoke, the knights moved some things off the carriage, including three bags of snow-white refined salt, thirty jars of fine wine, three bags of sugar and some cloth.

The value of these things converted into dinars was just slightly more than what Carol and his team paid.

Carol was shocked when she saw the supplies on the ground. She didn't dare to take them, for fear that if she took them now, Cruise would come back with his men to kill her at night.

"Take it, this is the order from the Governor. As long as you follow the Governor, he will not let you suffer any loss!" Cruz said.

Seeing that Cruise insisted, Carol put these things away with some doubt.

Richard gave these tribes supplies, which seemed a lot, but in fact were not much, and he made a profit from this exchange. As a result, not only did he make these small tribes return to their hearts, but he also gained a good reputation.

After enjoying these delicacies and wines, how many of the tribal leaders would be able to refuse? By then, these originally brave tribal chiefs would become fat and greedy, which would be more conducive to his rule.

Through this move, Richard not only gained more soldiers and logistical supplies, opened up sales channels for his products, but also controlled these tribes. This is not a win-win-win-win situation, it's just like Qin Shihuang touching the electric switch, he won so much.

Richard forced these tribes to send troops in order to make them break with Merovice. At the same time, during the battle, these vassal troops would be the first wave of cannon fodder.

The 3,000 soldiers under his command are all elite troops. Richard doesn't want them to suffer too much loss, so let these cannon fodder bear the loss.

Paris was not a fortified city. Although Paris and Orleans of this era also had city walls, they were far from the sturdy castles of the Middle Ages.

Moreover, both cities are located in plain areas, which are not easy to defend and difficult to attack. Moreover, Merovingian's military force is stronger now. According to the news he has received, Merovingian has gathered tens of thousands of Frankish soldiers, and there are still a steady stream of soldiers rushing from all over the country.

When Richard's army arrives in Paris, he might have to face a Frank army of more than 20,000 people.

Paris and Orleans were both cities built by the Romans to suppress the Celts. After the Franks entered Gaul, the Empire allowed them to live there and used them to resist the Germanic people who continued to plunder from the south.

The defenses of the two cities were only average, and Richard didn't think that Merovice would give up his military advantage and retreat to the city to defend.

In fact, if he really did this, the tribal leaders under him would think he was cowardly. The 20,000-strong army did not dare to fight a direct battle with Richard's several thousand men, and they did not need such a cowardly person to be the chief.

A red golden eagle flag flies high.

Richard led the governor's cavalry up the hillside and looked into the distance. In this area of ​​Gaul, except for the southern central plateau, the junction of the Visigothic Kingdom and the mountainous areas of the Rhine Province, the rest of the area is basically a vast plain with almost no strategic location to defend. It is precisely because of this that the Germanic looting was so smooth. The defense line of the Gaul Province almost entirely relied on the Rhine River for defense.

Once the Rhine defense line was lost, the land behind it would be almost flat and open to plunder by the enemy.

However, plains also have their advantages. With a little reorganization, the province of Gaul can become the granary of the empire.

This is also the reason why Richard wanted to occupy the province of Gaul first.

With this, he had a logistics base. The plains could produce food and feed a large population, and had great potential for war.

If he were to run this business, he could easily feed millions of people.

After Richard's army defeated some rebellious tribes that dared to resist and killed a large number of men, the remaining wavering tribes surrendered one after another and dared not resist anymore.

Soon, the army reached the vicinity of Orleans, and at this time, Merovingian's army also arrived in Orleans. After gathering a large number of Frankish tribes, Merovingian's army had exceeded 20,000.

This number has reached the total strength of the Franks when Aetius fought against Attila the Scourge of God.

In the last Battle of Chalons, both sides had more than 100,000 troops, which can be said to be the largest war in European history with the largest number of participants.

Merovice commanded the army with high spirits. The 20,000-strong army was divided into four parts: the left, center, right, and rear armies. The rear army was responsible for guarding Orleans, and the other troops were deployed outside the city to confront Richard's army.

After conquering those Frankish tribes, Richard now had an army of more than 6,000 people. Except for 3,000 elite soldiers, the rest were vassal troops sent by the surrendered tribes.

The number of these vassal troops ranged from 500 to as few as 100, and they were arranged in a disorderly manner on the flanks.

Most of these Franks had no armor, and many were even without armor. However, Merovice had also formed an armored cavalry of 200 people, which were his elite troops.

In the central camp of the army at Orleans, Merovingian sat at the head, with his son standing behind him, and on his left and right sides were the chieftains of the Frankish tribes.

This time he robbed Richard's caravan and obtained a large amount of supplies. In order to win over these people, Merovice did not take a single gold coin and distributed all to these chiefs. As a result, he was unanimously praised by these tribal chiefs.

He was not at all worried about Richard leading a large army to attack this time. After all, in his opinion, in the entire Roman Empire, only Aetius was a truly powerful man, and the other Romans were a group of insects.

As for the Count of the Rhine, Richard, the Governor of Gaul, he was nothing but a treacherous villain. He took advantage of the Huns' attack and the Germans were busy with their own affairs to gain some small victories, and then he started to brag wildly.

He gained the favor of the emperor by boasting and flattering him, and thus got an official title. In fact, he is just a shameless person and is not to be feared.

This time he took the opportunity to rob Richard's caravan. He did have the intention of coveting the wealth in it, but more importantly, he wanted to take the opportunity to unify all the Frankish tribes.

As for the money from looting the caravan, he didn't care about it at all. What he really cared about were the craftsmen in the Rhine Province.

"These goods were all made by the craftsmen in the Rhine Province. I heard that these craftsmen were awarded to Richard by some emperor. They are all the top craftsmen in Rome. If we control them, won't we have as many supplies as we want?"

Merovice sneered in his heart. Once he conquered the Rhine Province and took these craftsmen into his possession, those Frankish tribal leaders would completely become his vassals and would no longer have the power to resist.

Thinking of this, Merovey raised his glass to everyone in the hall again and said, "For victory!"

"For victory!"

"For victory!"

Many tribal chiefs raised their glasses and responded loudly.

Merovice planned to gather everyone here. He wanted to use this war to clean up those tribes that did not obey his orders, and at the same time let the remaining tribal chiefs see his strength.

Then he could use this great victory to integrate all the Frankish tribes, and at that time he could even establish a Frankish Kingdom like the Visigoths.

After boosting morale, Merovich led the tribal leaders out of the camp and led the army to confront Richard.

Most of the area near Orleans is plains, basically stretching as far as the eye can see. In such a place, basically all kinds of conspiracies and tricks are difficult to carry out, and the army has to rely entirely on head-on confrontation.

Richard led the army in battle formation, with several extraordinary knights behind him. The army was in battle formation in complete silence, with only the rustling of flags.

(End of this chapter)