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

Chapter 590: The Frankish Kingdom is gone.
Richard knew very well what the Franks were thinking. They were like gamblers and would not surrender until they had lost all their chips.

However, this also gave Richard the opportunity to clean up these Franks and completely subdue them. If these Franks surrendered honestly, Richard would still have to find an excuse to deal with them.

Now they choose to fight to the end, which is a good opportunity to get rid of all those troublemakers.

So both sides prepared for three days in this unhurried negotiation.

On the third day, Richard ordered the envoy to issue an ultimatum, saying that if the enemy did not surrender, he would begin to attack the city.

After seeing that he could no longer delay, Merovingian immediately decided to refuse to surrender and sent soldiers whose morale had been restored to defend the city.

During these three days, Merovingian was not idle. On the one hand, he boosted the morale of the soldiers, and on the other hand, he organized the residents of the city.

But these Franks never thought that Richard did it on purpose.

Just when the Franks were organizing their troops to defend themselves against the city walls, Richard ordered the army to attack. The vassal troops pushed the ladders, ramps, and siege vehicles that had been built for three days, and a row of catapults in the rear also began to attack.

Dozens of catapults were fired at the same time, and dozens of stones weighing twenty pounds fell from the sky and hit the city wall.

Some soldiers who failed to dodge were smashed into pulp. These catapults calibrated by Richard had a terrifyingly high accuracy, with an error of no more than five meters in radius.

The walls of Orleans were not very strong, and they kept breaking under the attack of the trebuchets. The Franks on the walls did not dare to approach at all. Dozens of trebuchets rained down bullets, and the walls were simply hell. In just a few moments, a large number of Frank soldiers were smashed into meat paste.

The Franks had seen many ordinary deaths and it didn't affect them at all, but this kind of death where people were turned into meat paste directly made many Franks collapse.

The bloodiness of the battlefield has exceeded their psychological endurance.

Under the cover of the catapults, siege vehicles were pushed to the vicinity of the city wall. On the lintel, archers from high above suppressed the city wall.

The Frankish soldiers were suppressed and could not even raise their heads. They could only hide behind the wall and pray, while the ladders were quickly put up on the top of the city wall.

The vassal troops as the vanguard immediately rushed forward. They had never fought such a smooth siege before. The morale of the Frankish soldiers hiding behind the wall was high, and the morale they had finally recovered was completely reduced to zero under the attack of the catapults.

The siege vehicles rushed to the gate and rammed it frantically. On the entire battlefield, the Orleans defenders were completely suppressed and had no power to fight back at all.

Under the siege of Richard's army, the city of Orleans was breached in less than a morning, and then the army rushed into the city.

However, after entering the city, Richard directly issued an order prohibiting looting, and anyone who dared to loot would be killed without mercy.

After chopping off more than a dozen heads in succession, those hot-blooded vassal soldiers immediately calmed down.

If the city of Orleans was allowed to be looted by the soldiers, there would probably be nothing left. Now that the territory has been occupied by him, Richard would naturally not allow them to loot.

Although they stopped looting, it didn't mean they would let these people go. Ordinary people could be let go, but the tribal leaders and upper-class nobles would not be let go.

This time, because all four gates of the city were blocked, all the soldiers and nobles in the city were captured. Richard directly ordered that all the Frankish tribal leaders be selected and then beheaded in the square in the center of the city.

As for the remaining soldiers, they were either incorporated into death squads or forced into slavery.

The wealth of the nobles and tribal leaders in the city was also searched, and Richard divided half of it and gave it to the soldiers. Not only his own troops, but also the vassal troops of those who were fence-sitters also received some.

With so much money being spent, the vassal troops immediately felt that following Richard was much better than following their tribal leaders.

In the past, when they followed the tribe to fight, they had no share of the loot; all was taken away by the tribal leader.

Now seeing Richard distributing wealth to them, they were all extremely excited.

This time, those Frank tribal leaders who dared to resist were caught in one fell swoop, and Merovingian was also chopped off by some rebellious and surrendered Franks, and his head was sent to Richard.

For these people, Richard directly pardoned their crimes, gave them rewards, and allowed them to join the vassal army.

In this way, Richard quickly took control of Orleans. After a day's rest in the city, the army marched straight to Paris without stopping.

Paris was in chaos at this time, and there were almost no troops in the city. In the last war, Merovingian had withdrawn all his troops, and after two consecutive defeats, the Franks no longer had any troops.

After seeing the Rhine Army, chaos broke out in the city. Some tribal leaders who wanted to surrender directly led their people in rebellion, opened the city gates and led the army into the city.

This city, which had been run by the Franks for hundreds of years, fell easily into Richard's hands.

Next, Richard began to settle accounts with the nobles and the leaders of the Frank tribes in the city. None of those who attacked his caravan could escape. Although the rebellious Frank nobles and leaders escaped, they had to pay a large fine. In addition, their tribes would also be under Richard's jurisdiction.

At the same time, Richard also issued an order, requiring all the Frank tribal leaders who had fled back to Paris within ten days. Those who dared not to arrive in time would have their tribes directly wiped out.

Then Richard's envoys rushed to other Frank tribes. After hearing the order of Richard's envoy, the chieftains of the Frank tribes who suffered heavy losses did not dare to be negligent and immediately took the gold, silver and jewelry and rushed to Paris without stopping.

Next, Richard began to integrate these Franks.

Because the Franks suffered heavy losses in the previous war, and many tribes and even all the men were wiped out. The women and children of these tribes were directly taken in by Richard.

Women and children were distributed to soldiers who had made outstanding contributions in battle. Land was also taken over by the governor.

The tribes that lost a large number of people in the war were directly annexed by Richard, and the tribal leaders were also fined by Richard and sent to the Rhine Province to reclaim wasteland.

Only those tribes with good strength were left. Of course, Richard would not let these people go. Richard asked these tribes to send hundreds or thousands of strong men to become vassal troops.

They were forcibly relocated from their original land.

Richard moved these tribes that still had some strength directly to the vicinity of the Rhine Province, then divided the land among them, registered the people, and broke up the tribes.

Allocate land to them and let them farm and live under their own noses.

Near the Rhine Province, these tribes were basically forced from tribal civilization to urban civilization. With the development of urban civilization, these tribes will soon be completely dispersed.

Eventually becoming an ordinary town dweller.

In this way, Richard broke up the Franks into pieces, and at the same time, Richard announced the abolition of slavery among the Franks. The Franks, like the Romans, also had slavery and owned a large number of slaves.

These slaves were partly Germanic and partly Gaul.

Richard freed these slaves and allocated land to them, making them civilians. At the same time, he ordered the recruitment of exiles.

There are large tracts of land outside the city of Paris, which can be used for farming. There are a large number of exiles, and they can be mixed with the Franks and then used for farming.

At the same time, after capturing Paris, Richard began to ask Alea to help him write a letter to the Emperor of the Empire, telling him what happened here and asking Alea to compliment the Emperor of the Empire.

All kinds of nice words were thrown at him, promising that it would be free. Of course, it was indeed free.

At the same time, he expressed to His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire that he would support him.

After being polished by Alea, the letter was taken by the messenger and sent to Rome.

When Valentinian III saw the letter, he learned that Richard had defeated the Franks and occupied the province of Gaul.

When Valentinian III saw the news, the first thing he thought of was that Aetius' power had been weakened.

Those Franks were basically Aetius's men, and they didn't care about him as the emperor of the empire at all. Now that these Franks were defeated by Richard, Valentinian III could only feel happy.

During this period, the conflict between Valentinian III and Aetius became increasingly serious.

With the support of the Senate, Valentinian III and Aetius also engaged in some political struggles, but he was always at a disadvantage.

The defeat of the Franks by Richard was essentially the same as cutting off one of Aetius' arms, which made Valentinian III very happy.

After reading Richard's letter, Valentinian III immediately sent an envoy to Paris to reward Richard.

The power that Richard now holds is second only to Aetius, making him the most powerful person in the empire. This makes Valentinian III take it very seriously.

With Richard's support, Valentinian III had support in the army, which made him more confident in facing Aetius.

At the same time, the Protector of the Kingdom, Aetius, also received the news at about the same time. Richard also wrote a letter to Aetius, which was written by Aleiya. The general meaning was that he was not involved in the struggle between Aetius and His Majesty the Emperor.

He will support the Emperor with all his support except the army, and he will defend Gaul from further marauding Germans and keep the Visigoths at bay.

When Aetius saw the letter, his expression was very solemn. He understood what Richard meant. Although he was very unhappy about Richard occupying Gaul, he had no other choice since things had come to this point.

(End of this chapter)