open sea

Chapter 1190
On the edge of the unnamed short mountain camp, Marshal Matteon sat on a huge boulder, holding the iron gauntlet and leather glove worn by the right in his left hand, and covered his forehead with his hand in distress.

In the camp behind him, more than [-] knights were taking off their armor, giving the soaked clothes to the soldiers to bake by the bonfire, in order to cross the river urgently, these represent the strongest fighting force of the Valois royal family The gentlemen have suffered too much.

"Sir Charles, it never occurred to you that they would leave an army behind to ambush you when they retreated?"

Count Charles was standing not far from Matthion, and his face was far more bitter than the Marshal's. He still couldn't figure out why an army with [-] troops would be confused in a few days. Lose all combat power.

The enemy didn't even put up a grand formation to fight him, not even once.

Facing Matheon's questioning now, Charles is sure that he can't come up with any plausible excuses.

"I thought they would stay, leaving a force of 200 men, to stop my pursuers. I collected all the gunpowder, sent 170 musketeers and [-] Swiss infantry, and more troops came down later, to Make sure the pursuit is foolproof."

"At night, no one can control all the soldiers at night. Someone will always fall behind and get lost, but they didn't. They assembled all the troops in the dark. More than six hundred muskets pulled out horizontally and shot at me, mixed with many large calibers. The cannon spouted shot, and the gunfire drove all the soldiers back, and the braver my troops, the greater the casualties."

Earl Charles couldn't figure out until the next day why the Ming army was retreating, why did he leave all the troops to fortify the south; why did he lead the troops into the enemy's ambush as if everything had been arranged lock up.

Mattion was much more uncomfortable than him. He led the troops to assemble all the way, and arrived at the agreed assembly point with insufficient supplies. He failed to see Charles' troops arriving as promised, so he could only continue to search westward.

When Spain was at its most powerful, there was only one real reason why the Spanish army failed to attack France. In the relatively impoverished south of France, there was no wealth to supply the army on the spot, no matter whether it was purchased, requisitioned or looted.

His only hope on the march was the Shire's baggage, which contained winter clothing, provisions, and powder that he could use.

As a result, he got the news that Shire-sur-Clan was besieged by the Ming army. Until he reached the east bank of the Crane River, Mattion still had a little hope in his heart, hoping that his gunpowder was still there.

But no, nothing.

Clothing, food, gunpowder, all gone.

They also picked up thousands of wounded soldiers at the Wumingshan camp.

Counting the reinforcements sent by the king, tens of thousands of horses are waiting to eat every day. One can imagine how depressed they are.

Mattion opened his mouth. He really wanted to ask Earl Charles, why he didn't organize a second pursuit immediately after the first pursuit was blocked. The Ming army would not always squat behind to ambush, and the second pursuit would definitely win.

But he didn't say anything in the end. It's meaningless to be behind-the-scenes at this time. It seems that their Earl of Shire has been trained to face vulnerable enemies in the battle against Henry's peasant army in Navarre. , suddenly let him fight against the Ming army beyond his cognition, and he didn't know how to deal with himself.

Take risks when you should be steady, and be as steady as a turtle when you should be adventurous.

He just sent someone to convey an order to the troops waiting on the east bank of the Crane River: "Tell the Duke of Joyez that the Ming army will retreat south along the west bank. Come down and fight."

During the conversation between Matheon and the messenger, Earl Charles already knew what he should do next, but he still asked in disbelief: "The Ming army is marching very fast, should we continue to pursue?"

Continue to chase?

"Why be suspicious, I must get our food back!"

"The two wounded soldiers will be assigned a healthy soldier to escort them to the nearest town. Marshal Biron and the Duke of Joyez will lead the army to the south from the bridge to the west bank. We can no longer divide our troops."

In his heart, Mattion raised the threat of Yuan Zizhang's Ming army again and again. If any thousand-man brigade encountered them, it would obviously be wiped out.

He has to recover the supplies. There is no town around here that can provide supplies for tens of thousands of troops. Both O'Neill in the northwest and Rochefort in the southwest have stagnated production during the religious war. If they can't catch up, the royal family will be fine. A large offensive, easily assembled, would return to Poitiers in rout.

The entire southwest of France will fall into the hands of the Ming army.

Mattion didn't dare to talk about this conjecture with others-they were facing less than 2000 Ming troops.

What was it like to leave two thousand Spaniards in the south of France?There will be no threat at all, they will starve to death and freeze to death here, but the Ming army with less than two brigades has advanced more than [-] miles in a month, and then broke through the predicament of being almost surrounded, and headed south in a leisurely manner ... Mattion really didn't want to call this a retreat.

That was a very normal march. They still maintained an extremely strong fighting spirit and will, and even brought the corpses of the war dead with them when they retreated south.

The calm mood of the Ming army made Mattion suspect that Angoulême, Santes and some nearby lands in the south were already full of Ming soldiers ready to go.

The Earl of Shire was still a good hand in reorganizing the soldiers, and his proficient mathematics ability helped him again. In just over an hour, more than 900 wounded soldiers, escorted by [-] infantry, went to Rochefort and O'Neill respectively. city.

The reason why he was sent to the two cities was that the Earl of Shire was worried that the economic situation in both places was not very good, and the sudden increase of nearly [-] defenders might put too much pressure on the army rations.

Two brigades composed of Swiss and German regiments were mixed. To the surprise of Marshal Matteon, Count Charles also organized a 300-man cavalry squadron led by knights.

Driving the cart horses to the mountains early was probably the most correct choice for the often defeated earl.

On the other side, Marshal Biron and the Duke of Joyez also led their troops out of camp after receiving the news, and rushed south to the planned bridge across the river. Everyone knew that they had to catch up with the Ming army.

No one wants to bear the consequences of running out of food.

However, including the two French marshals, all French generals underestimated the courage of Yuan Zizhang, the leader of the Ming army.

When Marshal Billund ran thirty miles south with the decree knights to reach the bridge, he immediately sent his cavalry to run back north, and ordered the orderlies to swim across the river and send a message to Mattion on the west bank. Enemy report.

"More than a thousand Ming soldiers are stationed on the west bank of the stone bridge. It seems that they have arrived there last night. There are some wooden fortifications on the bridge to guard against horses. They are waiting for us!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)