King of German Mercenaries

The Duke of Saxony's campaign continues, and Marin is training the army while instilling the New Year's "we will win" in the soldiers.

A lie told a thousand times became the truth, and of course Marin was confident in fighting the Saxons. So it's not a lie about the New Year's inculcating "we will win" in the soldiers. When Marin sent officers every day to say "We will win" dozens of times, most of the soldiers believed that they would be able to defeat the Saxons. Even the officer in charge of the propaganda, who emphasized this every day, believed it.

Marin's army has a total of 8 phalanxes, 4 of which are veterans. Marin customized three-quarter breastplates and iron helmets with active masks for the soldiers in the first three rows of these phalanx veterans. In this way, when the front row and the enemy "harm each other", a sufficiently high survival rate can also be guaranteed.

As for the warriors in the back, Marin didn't have custom armor. First, it is a cost issue, and second, it is not necessary. After all, the possibility of being hit by the soldiers in the back row is much smaller than that in the front row. Moreover, wearing breastplates and helmets in the first three rows is actually to reassure the soldiers. Sometimes, wearing armor may not guarantee that you will not die. However, with and without armor, self-confidence is completely different. And a confident army is not easy to collapse, conversely, an army lacks self-confidence, it is easy to collapse.

Speaking of which, only the first phalanx of Marin's soldiers had a head-to-head encounter with the Frisian army on Texel Island. Of course, these people's psychological quality is the best. The other veterans have only fought street battles, and only a small number of warriors can calmly confront the enemy because they have this experience.

In addition, Marin played more with less. Therefore, the confidence of the army is more important. The first three rows have armor, and naturally they are more confident in resisting the attack of the Saxons. With confidence, the fight will be a lot easier.

After a long period of training, Marin's army's combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, and it can be considered to be able to compete with the Saxons.

However, there is still a problem. Because Marin's army is basically infantry and has poor mobility. If the Saxons get on their horses and run away, Marin can't chase them. Only the 800 black knights can chase them, but they can't completely wipe out the thousands of knights on the other side, because there is no time to kill them...

However, the core of Saxony is the thousands of plate knights. Because these knights were the educated elite and the core of the Saxon army. For example, those infantrymen, if you recruit them casually, there will be thousands of them. They can be replenished completely when they die. It is not a pity to die any more.

Marin's purpose was to hurt the Duke of Saxony once and make it difficult for him to recover. Therefore, the large-scale killing of the Saxons' plate knights is the focus. As for infantry, it doesn't make much sense to kill more. Even if the Duke of Saxony escapes, he can recruit a lot more next time.

Speaking of which, it was also very irritating. Marin himself, after spending a lot of effort, only recruited more than 20 knights, and all of them were like treasures, and they were all used as elite officers. And the Duke of Saxony, casually, can make up a few thousand, almost catching up with the appeal of the king of France. In the Marin army, wandering knights were trained as the core, while in the Saxon army, many wandering knights acted as heavy cavalry to charge...

Thinking of this, Marin burst into tears - you have so many plate armor knights, it would be good to send a few hundred to me as officers, but use them as cannon fodder to charge...

This is the gap in the background. In any case, the Duke of Saxony is a big nobleman who wants to be a veteran in Germany. The appeal of such aristocrats is much stronger than that of upstarts like Marin. Every year, a large number of young wandering knights rush to Saxony to ask for shelter, even if they are heavy cavalry...

And Marin won East Frisland at the end of last year, and there were no wandering knights defecting. The largest one to obtain a wandering knight was "borrowed" from Duke Cliff.

Originally, there were wandering knights who planned to defect to Marin. However, as soon as Albrecht, Duke of Saxony expressed his hostility, no knights came to join Marin, and instead he waited and watched the situation first.

Therefore, Marin has the heart to strangle the Duke of Saxony - you have so many knights working for you, it is rare that a wandering knight wants to defect to me, you old thing is bad for me...

Moreover, Marin could not be sure where the Saxon army invaded and where it met Marin's army.

If the Saxon army is allowed to enter and exit freely, it will certainly cause great damage to the territory. Because the army of this era is no different from robbers.

However, Marin could not control the marching lines of the Saxon army and restrain the behavior of the other side. Therefore, after thinking about it, Marin felt that there was only one way to control the line of action of the Saxon army, and that was - to fight...

The nobility of the Middle Ages was still very polite. If the opponent submits a gauntlet, you will be ridiculed if you do not fight. Of course, this is mainly if the other party is no stronger than you. If a very strong person challenges a weak person, the opponent should not fight, but no one will say anything. However, if a strong man is publicly challenged by a weak man, he will be ridiculed if he does not fight.

Just like Marin, such a "weak" noble, if he refuses the challenge of the Duke of Saxony, no one will say anything. However, on the other hand, if Marin challenges the Duke of Saxony, the Duke of Saxony will be ridiculed if he does not fight. This is absolutely unbearable in the face-to-face Middle Ages.

So, Marin decided to take the initiative to provoke the Saxon tools, make an appointment with the opponent on the location of the battle, and control the marching route of the Saxon army...

After careful study of the map, Marin thought it would be very advantageous to fight under Lyle County. Although, fighting here, the Saxon army will inevitably pass through many villages in Lys County, leading to looting. However, under Lyle County, there are many benefits.

Because, west of Lyle County is the Ames River, the river is very wide, and it is also convenient for Marin's ships to transport supplies. In addition, not far south of Lyle County, is the Leda River. Although the river is not big, it is not small either. Marin's choice is in the middle of the two rivers.

The reason for choosing this terrain is to fear the escape of the Saxon army. If the Saxon army wanted to fight Marin, it had to cross the river first. Most of them came from the mainland of Saxony from the southeast, and to reach the city of Lyell, they had to cross the Leda River.

However, crossing the river is easy for infantry, but not easy for cavalry. Because the war horse is very heavy, it is very inconvenient and troublesome to cross the river. If the Saxon army was defeated, the Marin would certainly not be able to catch up with their main cavalry force in the open fields. But if they crossed the river to fight Marin, it would be different. Because the cavalry who crossed the river wanted to cross the river back again, there was not enough time. Marin's men, even if they were mainly infantry, were organically motivated. When the opposing cavalry lined up to cross the river to escape, they had time to catch up, leaving a large part of the cavalry behind.

After thinking about it, Marin wrote a letter to the Duke of Saxony, who was still spreading rumors and campaigning. The content of the letter is very simple, the main meaning is-

"Old man, don't spread rumors. If you don't accept it, let's fight! At the beginning of December, I'll be waiting for you outside Lier County, see you soon..."

In this way, this challenge letter was sent to the Duke of Saxony, and it was deliberately spread by Marin...

Such content, for Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, is definitely a super slap in the face. Because the person who provoked him was an unknown person in the noble world, and when he told him "not accepting to fight", he was completely looking down on him...

However, when the cunning Duke of Saxony saw the letter, he was very angry at first, but turned to be happy...

Because, he saw Marin said in the letter, the duel outside Lyle City...

Before, the Duke of Saxony had been worried that Marlin was huddled in the city to defend. In this case, the Saxon army will also spend a lot of energy to attack, which is very troublesome and the loss will be huge. However, Marin, an "impulsive young man", actually wanted to give up the advantage of the city wall and decided to go out of the city for a decisive battle, which was exactly what he wanted. Therefore, the Duke of Saxony quickly agreed to the battle, for fear that Marin would go back on it...

Since then, Marin's deeds of provoking the Duke of Saxony quickly spread throughout Germany and across Europe. And Marin's phrase "come to fight" later became a special mantra that many knights like to pretend to be...