Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 154 Seizing food from the tiger’s mouth
A big battle.

Duncan had captured 20,000 to 30,000 prisoners. It seemed Merovingian had truly mobilized every possible force, but the disproportionate proportion of his militia and serfs led to their collapse, which in turn weakened the morale of his elite troops. If Merovingian had only mustered a few thousand elite troops to confront Duncan, he might have achieved some success. But with such a small force, Duncan might have been as powerful as a god and confronted him head-on.

No kidding, with a force of about 10,000 people, he really dared to confront the enemy and take the enemy general's head in the midst of thousands of troops.

"Galavan advances along the Rhine River, beware of the Alemanni."

"Severus led the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Legions to attack Normandy and captured the Normandy Plain in one fell swoop."

"The others stayed behind to collect the prisoners."

Duncan stayed for only half a day before returning to Paris with hundreds of elite cavalry. Although the Frankish Sarleon tribes were defeated by him, they had not been completely conquered. They still had tribal communes in Normandy, Champagne, and around the Rhine.

Normandy, in particular, is a piece of fat that must be eaten and digested well.

Let me put it this way, when Duncan conquered Upper and Lower Germania, the land he could develop was not as good as the land around Normandy. The climate here is suitable and the land is fertile. It is a high-quality natural pasture area, and it is also the area where France's war horses were produced in later generations.

To use the game's description of "obtaining a source of high-quality war horses", the cost of recruiting and forming cavalry has been greatly reduced.

This area mainly produces European tall horses and is one of the first-tier horse-producing areas.

There were many factors that contributed to the gradual rise of the Frankish Kingdom. The Franks' bravery and bellicosity was only one of them. Another important factor was that France had fertile land, high grain yields, and high-quality horse-producing areas, which allowed it to form Europe's first-class cavalry.

Taking this place has great strategic significance, similar to the fact that the Song Dynasty never had a strong cavalry unit.

In many strategy games, the Kingdom of Britain has a negative condition: it has no horse-producing land. The land there is not fertile enough to support so many knights, so in the future it will have to focus on developing English longbowmen.

The situation is different with France, which has been the overlord of Europe for a long time.

Duncan led his troops on a rapid march, almost making a big circle in the Frankish territory. When he arrived outside Paris, he immediately saw the army of the Visigothic Kingdom surrounding the city walls.

The Visigothic Kingdom was indeed very strong, and even after the Battle of Chalons it still had so many elite troops.

They occupied the Iberian Peninsula, which was across the sea from North Africa at the Cape of Good Hope. Their territory and population were much larger than those of the Franks. In addition, the Iberian Peninsula produced gold mines and was once an important mining area of the Roman Empire.

Flags were flying, and the soldiers of the Visigothic Kingdom seemed to have launched an attack.

Fortunately, they did not prepare siege equipment in advance. The original plan for this battle was to join forces with Frank's elite troops to strangle the British Kingdom heading south with the advantage of numbers, but they did not expect Duncan to fight so quickly and even capture Paris.

A horn sounded to call back the troops.

When Duncan appeared with his cavalry, cheers immediately rang out in the city of Paris. The army of the Visigothic Kingdom in the distance immediately noticed it and withdrew its troops. At the same time, it mobilized the cavalry to move along the plain to cover the infantry's withdrawal from the battlefield.

The Visigothic heavy cavalry was the best in Europe, and the Battle of Chalons had just ended, so no one dared to confront them head-on.

"Pity."

"Tori Smond reacted quickly, otherwise I could have made another charge."

Duncan saw the location of Prince Thorismund through the strategic map. Now he is the King of the Visigoths, surrounded by many elite feudal knights, many of whom are veterans of the Battle of Chalons.

The last time they met, the two were still partners, and at that time, many Visigothic heavy cavalry followed Duncan's black dragon flag and charged forward.

Duncan's bravery made them admire, respect and fear him. The fearless Visigothic heavy cavalry also left a deep impression on Duncan, allowing him to witness the terrifying suppressive power of the heavy cavalry of this era on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, when they met again this time, they were already opponents on the battlefield.

The cavalry led by Clegane arrived quickly and reached Paris before the army of the Visigothic Kingdom. If he had not arrived in time, the two hundred men left behind by Duncan would not have been able to defend the city.

It didn't take long.

A Visigoth knight who looked somewhat familiar rode up on horseback. Duncan raised his hand slightly, signaling the other cavalry to stop, and then went to meet him surrounded by the general's guards.

"Lord Duncan!"

Even amidst the clash on the battlefield, the Visigoth knight still expressed his respect for Duncan. He bowed his head and said, "His Highness Thorismund hopes to reconcile with you and live in peace."

Political animals only see interests.

There is no doubt that Prince Thorismund grew very fast. After realizing the fall of Paris, he immediately deduced the direction of the entire war.

The Frankish Merovingian was likely attacked from behind by the enemy. If they had been able to capture Paris in time, they would have had a chance to rescue the Frankish allies and even swallow up the land around Paris. However, Duncan returned with his elite cavalry, which likely means that Merovingian had suffered a crushing defeat.

The army of the Visigothic Kingdom was destined to return empty-handed.

Then they can only strive for superficial peace. Torsmond doesn't dare to confront Duncan head-on with the power of a big victory. Moreover, they are not well prepared and may not be able to gain much advantage.

Torsmond is also a tough guy.

Duncan still remembered that he rushed into the Hun army's camp. If his subordinates had not fought to the death to rescue him, he might have died there.

A breeze blew by.

Duncan was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter and said, "Of course."

"Thorismond and I have a close personal relationship, and we will eventually reconcile and live in peace with each other."

He himself didn't believe what he said.

The Franks and Visigoths had been at war for centuries, each seeking to conquer the Gaul region of the empire. Their wars continued unabated until the rise of the Franks, which pushed them into what would become Spain. Duncan conquered the Belgian province of Gaul in one fell swoop, but what he needed most was time to consolidate his territory.

The Visigothic Kingdom had been severely damaged by the Battle of Chalons and had yet to fully recover. They had been forced to fight under pressure from Duncan and had not yet mobilized a sufficient number of troops. Thorismund wanted to confront Duncan head-on, so he had to muster the nation's elite cavalry to have any chance of victory.

They set out in a hurry, bringing only troops from Gaul, and there was no time to mobilize the Spanish side.

Historically, although Thorismund successfully succeeded to the throne after returning to his country with the power of the Battle of Chalons, he only ruled for two years before being assassinated by his younger brother.

This guy died earlier than Aetius, and there were many strange things about his cause of death.

The Visigoth knight bowed his head respectfully and said, "Okay."

"I will convey your intention to His Majesty the King. It won't be long before the envoys from the Visigothic Kingdom arrive in Paris."

Duncan watched the feudal knight leave.

The Visigothic feudal system was created on the basis of the disintegration of Roman slavery and the disintegration of the Germanic clan commune. The king, nobles, bodyguards and Christian Arian clergy became early feudal landowners.

From the perspective of faith, they have been gradually abandoning the faith of the Norse pantheon and converting to the faith of the church.

But Thorismund is still a polytheist.

The Visigothic Kingdom quickly retreated, and Duncan did not pursue them. He led his cavalry back to his loyal Paris.

The people of Paris welcomed the new king.

From Duncan's perspective, he still has some feelings for Paris. After all, when he was studying, he had to study the French Revolution and Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine.

Now the Frankish Kingdom could no longer exist.

After defeating Merovingian's army, the British army advanced along the Rhine, reclaiming the lost military strongholds of the Empire and advancing all the way to what would later become the Netherlands. Duncan spent two weeks completely taking over the Frankish border, but some of the land was still occupied by the Visigothic Kingdom.

The Frankish Sarleon tribe was completely destroyed, and Thorismund could not return empty-handed. Before the envoy arrived in Paris, he captured several important Frankish towns to give an explanation to the nobles in the country.

Although we came to help, Merovice was defeated before we arrived. We are not to blame for this. We captured several towns as part of the reward promised by the alliance.

Merovice is dead and there is no evidence, so no one knows what he promised at that time.

Duncan endured this.

It's ok.

If you eat my food, you will have to spit it out twice as much sooner or later.

In later generations, France had a larger territory, and he was temporarily unable to take over so much land. It took some time to transition. At this time, Torismund snatched a piece of meat from his mouth. It can only be said that his sense of war was extremely sharp.

And he is very brave!

There is no doubt that after returning home, Torismund immediately prepared for war and transferred the elite troops in Spain to Gaul. It can be said that a large number of troops were stationed on the border between the two countries.

The Governor's Palace in Paris.

Duncan looked up when he heard footsteps and saw Severus coming in from outside. He said in a deep voice, "What's the situation?"

Severus said slowly: "The Frankish chieftains near Normandy have surrendered."

"But the Visigothic Kingdom took advantage of the opportunity to occupy Blois and Orleans."

Good guy.

He snatched the territory of two counties from him in one breath, which was really like snatching food from the tiger's mouth.

The army of the Visigothic Kingdom was not idle during its retreat. On the way back, it occupied the Frankish territory and deployed heavy troops to defend the city of Orleans, which was the place that Attila, the Scourge of God, had been attacking for two months but failed to capture.

That's the real tough part.

If the Scourge of God had not wasted too much time in that city, Aetius would have had no chance to unite so many forces to besiege the Huns, and naturally the Battle of Chalons would not have been won.

"This guy wants to rely on high walls and cities to prevent our expansion."

Duncan's finger landed on the map, his brow furrowed slightly as he said, "It's indeed a tough nut to crack."

"But where Attila couldn't conquer, we may also be able to conquer it."

The Huns were never good at sieges.

But Duncan, do you think the mathematicians at the University of London are just there to eat and do nothing? Come here, bring the counterweight slingshot (Huihui cannon) over to me.

This fortified city held off the Huns, who claimed to have an army of 500,000, for two months.

If Duncan wanted to fight, he would break it in three days at most.

………………

(End of this chapter)