Finally, Conrad returned to his home city.
After not seeing each other for several months, the city of Auxerre has fallen into a state of depression. His count's mansion seems unchanged, and other places are in a mess.
In particular, the west gate of the city was completely gone, with dead bodies piled densely on the collapsed ruins. The defenders defended the city with their flesh and blood, and in the end the besieging enemies were not allowed to enter the city.
He walked through the gravel road and noticed that the roofs of the houses on both sides were riddled with holes.
He walked into the west gate smelling the stench and saw the countless dead who were dejected.
"The city was almost captured. Now, bury these heroes." Conrad motioned to the men around him and asked them to dig a big hole outside the city and imitate the besieging army. Bury the dead.
The Auxerre Army that arrived in the city was stationed outside the city. Many militiamen walked into the west gate out of curiosity. When they saw countless dead bodies, many of them were frightened to death.
Conrad couldn't care too much. The top priority was to bury all the dead bodies that already gave off a foul smell and dignified them.
No matter how scared they are, the militiamen must immediately dig a big pit, immediately drag the corpses with their bare hands, and then pile the dead one by one into a big grave. The local residents suffered heavy losses, but at least the earl family was safe.
Conrad was happily reunited with his family, and he also understood that even if he signed an alliance with the Russians, Auxerre still faced huge challenges. Because the siege army has explained the situation, the Mercian army came from Orleans in a mighty manner. They are the vanguard of the larger "Bald" Charlie's army. Charles may have 20,000 or more combat soldiers under his command, and their destination is to attack Botswana. Gendy
A series of nobles, the first of which is Auxerre.
Conrad really couldn’t imagine why he was being targeted by Aquitaine at this juncture. Fortunately, Regrave also revealed a situation-Charlie did not intend to put away the Burgundian nobles. To death.
Perhaps being loyal to Charles is nothing more than a means of resolving the crisis.
But his son is already the king of Burgundy. Does his son Wilfin want to be loyal to Charles as the king? With Wilfen's temperament, can he deny that he is embarrassed?
One thing is certain, Aquitaine, Toulouse, and a group of nobles further south led by Charles are taking action, even if they are very slow.
What Auxerre has to do now is to calm down and wait, seize the time to sort out the mess in the city, and not show its most vulnerable side to Charlie and the troops.
At this point, Conrad can only continue to tolerate the city being surrounded. Even if the city's soldiers and civilians can come and go freely, there are the Russian army and the Mercian army outside the city, as well as many other noble armies. Countless pairs of eyes were staring at every move in Auxerre City. He was being watched by more powerful people around the clock, and he could only endure this humiliation.
The clean-up of the Ximen ruins has begun. Chain armor, helmets, leather boots, and armed belts have been removed. KangLadd collected cloth from the city to make a shroud and arranged for people to lay the deceased flat in the tomb. Archbishop Hripo of Auxerre made the final confession for all the deceased, and everything was in order regarding the funeral.
While cleaning the battlefield, some special dead people were discovered.
At first, the corpse collectors wanted to clean up the corpses step by step, but the Nantes army attacked and killed them. The cavalry stood in front of the ruins and collected them in shock
The corpse collectors ran away, and soon a group of Europeans The Ser garrison stood out from the ruins.
A few days ago, the two sides fought a bloody battle, and both sides suffered losses. There was no hatred, but now there is hatred.
The two sides immediately started to curse across the ruins, and if they didn't both exercise restraint, they would start fighting again with their swords drawn.
The Nantes army is not here to cause trouble, they are here to get the bodies of their brothers who died in the previous battle.
Welfen has already rushed to the ruins after hearing the news. He listened to the curses and now understands the other party's demands. The young man held his breath, and finally ordered all the corpses of the Nantes soldiers found to be stripped clean of all valuable things, leaving only the fig leaf.
The deceased was rolled down from the rubble, and Bai Huahua's body fell near the hooves of the horse.
A young nobleman with brown and black hair ignored the stench. He stood on the rubble and resolutely scolded the heavy cavalry below.
"Fool! I am the new King of Burgundy. I was not present when you attacked. You should feel lucky. If I was commanding the battle, your heads would have been chopped off long ago. "After that, Wilfen pulled out his sword and waved it several times.
The Nantes cavalry who witnessed the provocation endured the immediate loss, gathered up the corpses of their companions, and withdrew. Finally, they told their master Weibert of Nantes about such a humiliating incident. Known to Graf and Rurik.
Although the two sides ceased fighting, Mercia, Nantes and Saxony, strictly speaking, all parties withdrew their troops unilaterally because of the face of the King of Rus. Wibert remembered this humiliation hard and buried his men. After thinking about it, he always felt that he had been too soft-hearted towards the villages in Auxerre.
At this moment, Rurik is more like a mediator. In fact, the two parties to the truce did not sign any treaty, not even a verbal agreement.
Rurik restrained his son and his son's allies to remain calm. In this way, the army of 13,000 people took the initiative to cease the war, and the garrison of Auxerre also tacitly agreed not to take the initiative under the command of the old Count Conrad. Attack.
The two sides were trapped on the banks of the Yona River. After the Auxerre Army returned, the two sides did not continue to send envoys to communicate.
Both sides are waiting for news about "Bald" Charlie's army, although no one knows how long that guy will linger.
Rurik is not anxious about Charles arriving at the right time, because although the Russian army has intervened intensively in the imperial civil war under the banner of "assisting the Duke of Bavaria in his crusade against Lothair", to this day all actions are for themselves. Benefit.
Now that Lothair only has the title of "Emperor", his actual strength is highly debatable.
The Ross army was stationed under the city of Auxerre, and the army gradually began to enter the left bank (west bank) of the Yona River through the bridge. This move was for the 10,000-strong Ross coalition to finally successfully attack in the north of Auxerre. The Joigny camp was gathered, and by then the coalition forces, which had reached a strength of 13,000, could advance along the river towards Paris.
However, the Russian army temporarily lost almost all its ships technically, and a force that was good at navigation temporarily lost its advantage.
The army is passing the only bridge at a relatively slow speed. Rurik does not want to be fast but only wants stability. Especially the baggage carriage must be careful to cross the bridge.
Part of the army that successfully crossed the bridge began to gather towards the northern camp, and the Joigny camp was getting bigger and bigger. In peacetime
This village is already a large village defined by the current era. A few days after the arrival of the Russian army, the population of the village has reached 5,000 people, and cattle, horses, donkeys, and reindeer are everywhere. .
Only the local villagers died or fled, and the villages further away were also abandoned. The flags of Ross and Mercia were flying in the camp. The colors of the two flags were different, and the stripe structure was surprisingly consistent. This coincided with the fact that the rulers of the two armies were a father and son.
Conrad and Wilfen were able to remain patient and acquiesced in allowing the Ross-Messia coalition to rave the core area of the County of Auxerre to the ground.
Conrad did not hide in the city and be a tortoise. In the past few days, the Russian army has always maintained restraint. He began to train the militia under the city wall in order to train a group of ragtag people into an army. The Russians did not Come over to criticize or interfere.
Some messengers mounted horses and crossed the bridge without any hindrance. They took the letters to Troyes, Tonel, and even Nevers in the south.
Especially the messenger heading to Nevers in the south.
Based on the intelligence provided by Regrave, the so-called "Bald" Charles intends to take his Aquitaine army to Orleans via Tours. By then, the Mercian fleet stranded in Orleans can help Aquitaine The army successfully crossed the Loire River. This is old intelligence. As long as Charles implements it, a huge army will eventually appear from the due west of Auxerre.
The messenger going south asked the Neville garrison to return north, although Conrad did not have many troops stationed there, and the existence of the garrison was to declare his control over the local area. Now that Auxerre is severely weakened, some garrisons in the fringe areas need to return to the main city, and Conrad has to carry out strategic contraction.
Have a good rest
The cavalry quickly rode south as a messenger. Conrad was ready to temporarily give up control of the city of Nevers. The letter asked the garrison to evacuate the city as much as possible. Granary, it would be best to move local residents as far north as possible. It is a fact that there is a depression outside Auxerre. There are probably not many good villages that were deliberately destroyed by the besieging army. Most of the villages were empty because the residents were informed of the disaster and all fled. Villagers in the north ran towards Sens, while residents in the south bore the brunt of the disaster.It must be heading towards Nevers.
As long as the local garrison returns with supplies, he can regain some strength. If all the garrison troops in remote places came back, I wouldn't necessarily be too haggard.
Several messengers went south along the branch line of the ancient Roman road. In theory, the journey should be smooth. However, before they reached the city of Nevers, they collided with foreign cavalry on the way.
The messenger subconsciously ran away, but those foreign cavalry were well rested. They were very powerful and pursued them wildly. In the end, after the messenger paid the price of two people being killed, the remaining three had to abandon him. Arms surrender.
The messengers all belong to the Count of Auxerre, and those who captured these three people are the serious cavalry of the Count of Poitiers.
Those cavalry warriors spoke the language of southern Gaul, and their strong nasal accent was completely different from the Burgundian dialect. It's no joke to hear that nasal sound, because all the foreign cavalry have big noses.
Perhaps that is Count Autun's people? It stands to reason that the Count of Autun also wants to occupy Nevers. Maybe they, Autun, learned that the Burgundian nobles were defeated and took advantage of their illness to kill people?
As a result, the three messengers were tied up with ropes and tied up like prey
Then they were dragged by the victor, and they stumbled all the way back to a huge marching camp. .
There are few flags in the huge camp. At most, there are a few pieces of cloth sewn with the coat of arms of the noble families.
The Russian Army is the outlier in this era. Due to the backwardness of productivity, any cloth is not cheap. It was the Russian Army that set the record for making flags so extravagantly, and then Reglaf also spent a lot of money. Big bucks to make a lot of flags.
There is only one flag in the huge camp that is very special. A bright red suddenly appears in the lush world, and it shines brightly in the sun.
The cinnabar used as a pigment is strongly reflected by the sun, and there are three lying lions painted on it using pigments ground from pyrite.
This is a rather large battle flag of Charlemagne. Its existence means that the commander of the huge army must be a member of the Carolingian royal family. The visitor was none other than "Bald" Charles, who was coming to seize the fiefdom and power he had lost during this expedition.
The three messengers all confessed after a brief interrogation. After hearing this, Bernard, Count of Poitier, even couldn't wait to interrogate the three people who had already confessed.
Because the opponent is a soldier of the County of Auxerre, as an enemy of the war, it doesn’t matter if they lose their use value and be killed directly. If Bernard had been later, all three would have been hanged.
There are more than a dozen high-ranking nobles of all kinds in Poitiers-Auvergne, Toulouse, Agen, Angoulême, Gascogne, Autun, and even some small baronies. Legally, everyone obeyed the command of "Bald" Charles, but in reality, the one who really had the say was Bernard of Poitier.
Bernard holds a large number of troops. He is the dominant force in the coalition.
He also controls the food and grass needed by the coalition.The route was also adjusted by his order.
It took a lot of time to assemble the army in the city of Nevers. Now that the day has quietly entered the month of May in the Julian calendar, all the nobles have begun to complain about the delay in their march.
Because most of the conscripted soldiers need to rush home to harvest wheat around mid-July, a large number of soldiers have made an agreement with the nobles that their service period will end at that time. If the term of service is extended, the nobles must compensate. The soldiers also looked down upon the compensation. What they considered most was their own farmland. Once the autumn harvest was frustrated due to lack of labor, the losses would be too great.
As soon as the coalition forces gathered together, Bernard took the lead in setting an example, and his huge Poitier army advanced toward the city of Auxerre along the existing ancient Roman roads. Also in order to declare to his cousin Count Autun that he has no ambitions for the Autun territory, Bernard must order his mobile cavalry to move north faster.
The Roman town of Teranu (today's Entran-sur-Noan) has declined, leaving the local monastery standing on its grass-covered ruins.
After all, it was a city that was once a trading town. Some ruins of the old buildings can still be found that are not well covered by grass. The open grassland is very suitable for the garrison of a large army.
The army of "Bald" Charles was stationed here, and he also learned some information about Auxerre City from the priests of the local monastery. No matter how chaotic the situation was, Charles and his army upheld their faith. Although their bottom line was very low, the lowest bottom line was that they would never attack the priests.
The abbot of the monastery claimed that Auxerre was being besieged, and subconsciously thought that Charles's army was coming to rescue the city of Auxerre.
The nobles laughed and said nothing about this matter, and the army stayed away from the monastery. The army that arrived first was waiting for the procrastinating successor. After all, it was a 30,000-strong army belonging to more than a dozen nobles. Just gathering the entire army would waste a lot of time.
Not long after Charles arrived at the Teranu monastery camp, he heard that the cavalry had captured the messenger from Auxerre.
Soon, the three beaten messengers were finally turned to Charlie.
The person who personally escorted the messenger was none other than Bernard.
As night fell, the lights were brightly lit in the temporary simple wooden house, where Charlie saw three guys kneeling on the ground, as well as the serious face of his uncle Bernard.
Even though he is a king, Charlie still cautiously asked: "Could these three people be the captured envoys of Auxerre? Could they be the ones who sent me a message?"
Bernard did not answer directly: "Compared to the letters they delivered, now I know the situation that Auxerre City is facing now."
"Oh? What is that?"
"Regrave." Bernard said bluntly.
"He?"
"It's him. Your Majesty, it seems you are very happy?" Bernard continued seriously.
Hear ReglafCharlie did show a hint of smile at the name. The reason why the refugees fled Auxerre was because a large army launched a siege of the city. It seemed that the besieger was most likely Reglaf, who had authorized himself to fight.
Charlie then calmed down and said: "I ordered him to attack first. It seems that the Mercian army has successfully passed Orleans and has reached the city of Auxerre.
It seems that they have already fought with the enemy. The Count of Auxerre fought."
"It's not just that."
"How?" Charlie asked.
"Although we all can't believe it." Bernard calmed down and carefully scanned the other nobles present: "The Russians are coming."
A question that made Charlie a little bit Strange words, but not complete ignorance.
"Let me think about it. Ross? Is it the Ross of his father that Reglaf said?"
"Why don't you ask the messenger yourself!" Bernard's attitude Already very impatient, the old guy subconsciously held his forehead, his serious face quickly turning into sadness.
In order to survive, the three envoys realized that the person sitting in front of them was a more noble noble. They rushed to explain what they knew, and the process was also filled with a lot of embellished content.
The so-called Auxerre City is stationed with a huge army. The Ross Expeditionary Army actually has 10,000 people and is allied with the nobles of Burgundy.
What else? The King of Rus and Reglaf are real father and son, and the huge army will protect the city of Auxerre out of alliance obligations.
The messengers are at least knight followers, not civilians in terms of social status. They have their own bottom line of moral integrity and will definitely not demote themselves. Therefore, he did not talk about the great defeat of the Burgundian nobles, as if there had never been a great defeat. It also hinted that the army of the County of Auxerre was still in its original position. It also hinted that if the sudden appearance of the army was really against Auxerre has a hostile attitude. No matter how large the army is, at worst, both sides will lose if one is killed.
Bernard has already conducted an interrogation. What the messenger said cannot be confirmed or falsified. The parchment letter captured is a request for the garrison in Neville to immediately go north with supplies. , Bernard can only be sure that the Count of Auxerre is shrinking his troops.
Why doesn’t Bernard understand something about Conrad of Auxerre? Since Conrad left the center of power in the empire, he quickly showed excessive aggression. He was afraid that the old guy noticed that Aquitaine was starting to intervene in the war, so he took the initiative to shrink his troops, and even shamelessly formed an alliance with the Normans (Russians). .
Bernard made his own judgment and could not tell how much of it was true or false. The only thing he could be sure of was that there should be a very large army under the city of Auxerre and a friendly attitude with the Auxerre side (otherwise the messenger would not be able to run around openly). It would not be good if Charles's army advanced recklessly, leading to the sudden and unprepared outbreak of some avoidable war.
Especially in the case of Regraf. After all, this person is the legendary King of Rus.son. The son's opposition to his father was probably just a characteristic of the Carolingian royal family, and those Normans were not so crazy.
Regraf's oath of allegiance to Charlie does not mean that he will betray his father. Maybe the boy has betrayed his oath now.
Bernard was embarrassed to speak harshly and just reminded Charlie of some facts and possibilities. Even so, the information was too powerful and was not something "bald" Charlie could understand in a short time.
"What should I say now? What should I think? The Russians? The Auxerre army? And my loyal minister Reglaf? Who is the enemy? Who is the ally? Who betrayed me? "Charlie's thoughts were confused, he held his forehead and muttered.
"This is the situation." Bernard said with a sullen face: "Since you can't make up your mind, let me make the arrangements. These three people are still useful. You can avoid death. Now I will send some envoys to Auxerre, so that I can see Reglaf in person. I suggest you provide some objects as tokens, and I also need you to write a letter announcing your arrival. It’s complicated, and launching a battle is no longer the first choice.”
I have to say that what Bernard said is sensible and pertinent. Several nobles present thought this plan was reasonable, and of course they went to Auxerre. The messenger must also be provided by Bernard.
Charlie couldn't find fault with his uncle's words. He sighed and said, "Just do what you want."
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