At the end of the Tang Dynasty, it was a feudal town, but in Western Europe

Looking at the leaving crowd, Feng Sen sat in a wheelchair and let Kang Dezhen push him off the wooden platform.

In fact, Feng Sen was able to stand up and walk by himself a long time ago, but he enjoyed the feeling of being in a wheelchair very much, and he had to make it appear that he was seriously injured, so he got into a wheelchair.

Sitting in a wheelchair, Feng Sen began to review the entire two-flag system.

The so-called two-flag system is actually not Feng Sen's bad taste. Of course, there are also a little bit of bad taste in it, but it is actually out of realistic considerations.

Why do you say that?As a loyal minister, it is too difficult to fight against treacherous ministers. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Dun wanted to kill the loyal minister Tao Kan. Why didn't he dare? Wasn't it because Tao Kan had an in-law Zhou Fang who held military power and real power?

During the Su Jun Rebellion, the auxiliary ministers of the central government were able to handle it well. Didn't Tao Kan, who later mastered the military power and almost separatist regime, come to quell the rebellion?

Therefore, as a loyal minister, one must be a minister of power. Loyalty is like traitor, and the two most important sources of power are soldiers and money, or military power and financial power.

There is no rush for financial power, Feng Sen already has a plan, but there are some problems with military power.

You must know that Feng Sen's Jingnan army is strong, but there is also a problem, that is, the number is too small, and it must be used at the most critical moment before it is supplemented by Han people.

Feng Sen needs Tang Xiejun, but if this group of Tang Xiejun has no combat effectiveness, it will not work. It is extremely cost-effective to raise a bunch of cannon fodder without combat effectiveness. What he needs is cannon fodder with certain combat effectiveness.

The number of these cannon fodders must be large, and they must have a certain fighting will. It is best to have some military training after daily production work, and even some self-contained equipment.

Originally, the best members of this group were good families, that is, free people, but there were too few free people. Free people accounted for a quarter of the number of Hamburgers. This was too much, because many free people were moved from the mainland.

In the interior of Frank, there are often [-] households under a church full of slaves.

The number of Hamburg freemen is too small, and it is too expensive to hire them to fight. What Feng Sen wants is the kind of gray livestock with a large amount of dry food and the best photosynthesis.

After much deliberation, Feng Sen looked at the freed slaves again.

One of the biggest problems of slaves is that they are not motivated, there is no room for advancement, and there is no will to fight.

Feng Sen once thought of seducing them by releasing slaves, but in fact it had little effect. Some slaves even cried and asked Feng Sen what he did wrong when they heard that they were about to be released.

Then, Feng Sen learned an explosive fact from Olean, that is, a freed slave is also a slave.

Yes, in the Kingdom of the Franks, the freed slaves were still slaves, and although they were freed, they became the protectors of the nobles, equivalent to slaves without the name of slaves.

The freeing of slaves is a coquettish operation carried out by the nobles and nobles of the Frankish Kingdom, because the church's teaching requirement is to free slaves, and Charlemagne himself often asks his subordinates to release slaves, and even asks some nobles to release slaves in writing and convert them into free folk.

But the nobles, big and small, will not release them honestly. It’s all labor, it’s all money, let them go, what do we eat and drink in the old Frankish flag?

So they came up with this:

OK, I freed the slaves, but freed slaves you can't go, because I set you free on the condition that I be your patron, OK, you are now my protectors, and I command you to continue Work for me.

The only difference between a protege and a eunuch is that one is hanged and the other is not, and the only difference between a freed slave and a slave is that one is freed and the other is not.

Therefore, for the slaves, determining their status was never whether they were freed or not, but the status of their master or patron.

The road from freed slaves to free people is basically blocked, unless you are lucky and can be released as free people in writing by the master, but that is very unlikely. The result of most slaves' efforts is that the master eats meat and soup, and he licks the plate.

As the Archbishop of Trier said: "A slave can never become a nobleman." Similarly, a slave can almost never become a freeman.

In other words, slaves have enthusiasm and will to fight, as long as the ceiling from slaves to free people can be opened.

For the sake of rule, for economic interests, and for the vanity of noble status, the Frankish nobles are unwilling to let go of this ceiling, but Feng Sen is willing—as long as they become Han Chinese with foreign surnames.

Saxon Hans, Viking Hans, and Frankish Hans are all Hans with foreign surnames. As long as they speak Chinese and keep Han dresses and Chinese clothes, they are turning barbarians into summers. Except for their skin color, they are not much different from real Hans.

Feng Sen can give them this promotion channel, so they will be coated - bannermen - Han people with foreign surnames.

This promotion channel is still based on Enbi, but Feng Sen has divided the ranks in the Enbi system, which is equivalent to that armed slaves can be promoted to the Guards, and the identity of the Guards is the level of free citizens.

At the same time, both the armed slaves and the bodyguards belonged to the patronage system, which would neither arouse the sensitive nerves of the nobles, nor bypass the status class stipulated by the law.

Therefore, the Eight Banners system is really suitable for the current situation, because the complicated personal attachment relationship within the Eight Banners is almost equivalent to patronage and slavery.

At present, Feng Sen only has the Frankish flag and the Saxon flag in his hands. In the future, there may be Slavic flags, Ross flags, Norman flags, etc., but that is in the future.

In the process of transforming the barbarians into the Xia from the Banner people to the Han people, it is only necessary to transform their organizational identification with the Eight Banners into their national identification with the Han people.

"Feng! Feng!" Just as Feng Sen was being pushed out by Kang Dezhen, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice came from behind Feng Sen.

Feng Sen turned his head with disbelief in his eyes. In the corner of the conference hall, a smiling little girl leaned on the fence, waving her hands and shouting loudly.

crooked day!How did this little ancestor come to Hamburg!Feng Sen's eyeballs were about to pop out. This is the front line now. According to the news that he had communicated with Vidukind before, today should be the time for Vidukind to raise his troops.

"Hurry up, find someone to protect them and send them to my house."

After a lot of fuss, Lyudmila and Ador finally followed Feng Sen to his mansion.

"Little ancestor, why are you here?" Feng Sen sat helplessly in the wheelchair, looking at the two little girls in front of him, his brain ached.

"Aren't you injured? I'll come and see you."

"I'm fine. Hamburg is very dangerous now. Hurry up and go back to Minden."

"As soon as I come, you're going to drive me away?" Ador said with a puffed face, aggrieved and angry.

Feng Sen ignored her. An 11-year-old girl, Huaichun, was nothing more than the drawbridge effect left by him beheading the enemy at that time. It was no different from a junior high school girl falling in love with a young teacher. No matter what, he would not be interested in her, that would be too beastly.

He looked at Lyudmila beside him.

This Miss Lyudmila is about fourteen or fifteen years old, with long gray hair tied into a long ponytail hanging down her waist, and a pair of black and shiny big eyes inlaid on a pale, soft and fair face.

This is a typical East Slavic face with high brows and deep eyes, but maybe her ancestors have a little Ural blood, so her eyebrows and eyes are not so clear and sharp, but softer.

Her face is the type between a goose egg and a melon seed, neither too pointed nor too round. Two locks of long hair hang down from her temples, covering a little bit of her slightly hot face.

She was wearing a dress made of wool. On the dress, the embroiderer from Byzantium embroidered various patterns with gold thread, and a necklace made of red emerald hung around her neck. Against her white skin, the red became more and more passionate.

"Are you Drozko's sister?" Feng Sen asked her.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Earl." Lyudmila's face was slightly flushed, she lowered her head slightly, her eyes turned around on Feng Sen's body and face, and when she looked closely, she understood why Ador was so obsessed with Feng Sen.

At this time, Feng Sen had lost a lot of blood, and his complexion was a little pale, but instead he had a kind of sickly beauty. On that face that was like a chiseled face, under a pair of thick thick eyebrows, his bright eyes were even more piercing.

And most importantly, he really didn't smell bad, and even had a faint fragrance on his body.

No wonder Ador likes him, he is indeed much handsomer and tidier than ordinary men, Lyudmila faintly understands it in her heart, but what she doesn't know is that when Feng Sen and Ador met a year ago, it was not the way it is now.

Lyudmila thinks he has become handsome, but it's actually the +10 opposite-sex attraction brought by the [Strong] trait.

"What's your name?"

"Lyudmila, Your Excellency the Count."

"What's the matter with her? Did you bring her here?"

"No, no, no." Lyudmila quickly waved her hand, she told Feng Sen the whole incident, Feng Sen finally understood, looking at Ador who was so angry that tears were in his eyes, Feng Sen felt helpless and moved .

This little girl actually insisted on staying in the filthy, smelly and cramped freight carriage for four whole days in fear, just to check whether he was safe.

"Your Excellency, I have already sent a letter to Minden, and His Royal Highness Charlie has sent someone to pick her up, and it is estimated that they will arrive tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. During this period, the safety of His Royal Highness Ador can only be entrusted to you."

"Alas—" Feng Sen sighed a long time. He turned the wheelchair and came to Ador who turned away from him, and stretched out his hand to give her a very impolite hug.

"Thank you for coming to see me, Your Highness Ador. I will stay with you during this time until the envoy sent by His Highness the King arrives."

Chapter 80 Attack of Vidukind

The sea breeze was blowing, and under the clear blue sky, a large army was quietly assembled, including [-] troops from North, [-] local Saxon troops, [-] hired Sorbian cavalry, and [-] Danish warriors from Denmark.

A total of 5000 people, this is the limit of what Vidukind can mobilize at present. After all, he only occupies the later generations of Lübeck and Dietmarschen in the southern Jutland Peninsula, and the road to Friesland is separated by the Elbe River and Stade.

However, thanks to the Vikings, Bremen was destroyed. Now the Stade area in the north of Bremen has basically been abandoned, and you can pass through it at will.

Although there are only 5000 people now, they are all elites, the seeds of the rebel army gathered from all directions. Once they cross Hamburg and Bremen and join the Saxon tribes in East Falia and Anglia, this group of people can easily expand to tens of thousands.

However, Vidukind's planning was too obvious. Although Charlie sometimes acted carelessly, in terms of combat and strategy, Charlie's sensitivity to the situation could definitely be regarded as a first-class strategist.

Charlie set up Bremen, blocking the mouth of the Weser River, and setting up Hamburg, blocking the mouth of the Elbe River. The most convenient mode of transportation in this era is water transportation. A fortress was placed on either side of the two river mouths, directly locking Widukind in Lübeck.

Of course, there is another way for Vidukind, which is to go by land, but the problem is that Charlie has won over the Kingdom of Opalite, which also believes in the Heavenly Father's religion, and blocked it to the east of Vidukind.

Under such circumstances, in order to prevent things from going wrong, Charlie canceled his original plan to visit the south, and stayed directly in Minden's palace for a whole winter. After the spring plowing was completed, he led his troops to strangle the rebel leader to death.

But what Charlie never imagined was that Widukind somehow developed a traitor within Bremen, and directly broke through or even destroyed Bremen. In just seven or eight days, it was too late to repair the city defense.

A loophole in a line of defense means that the entire line of defense is useless. Charlie understands this truth better than the French.

In this way, Vidukind can land from Stade west of Dietmarschen, use the Weser River to transport luggage, bypass Fengsen's Hamburg directly, and then go down the Elbe River to capture Magdeburg.

Once Magdeburg is captured, two-thirds of the Saxon territory will be considered open to Vidukind. As a Martian, Vidukind can even burn [-] to [-] rebels.

And because Feng Sen was "seriously injured", he was basically unable to fight, so what he played at most was to contain the enemy's troops, and he could not interfere with Vidukind at all.

The most terrible consequences are not only that, Widukind has allies, the Frisian rebels east of the Lauworth River, the Sorbs who plunder the border every year, the Villetti who were enraged by Oupolit and want to take revenge, and even the Norse who have long been eyeing the rich territory of Frank.

Charlemagne's enemies joined hands and formed a circle around Frank.

Vidukind himself will light the fuse.

"My warriors, I summoned you here today for only one thing, and that is to take back what we should have!" Riding on his horse, Vidukind roared loudly at the nobles and nobles who surrounded him.

"Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors went south from Dietmarschen and conquered the whole of Saxony. Our blood has soaked the land of Saxony. This place was bestowed by Odin, and it is our Saxon territory. But, Franks, oh, these despicable devils.

They forced us to pay tribute, they forced us to pay taxes, and when we protested they regarded us as rebels and began to purge, but the irony is, when did we ever show the Franks that we were conquered?

They killed my grandfather Theodoric (the same name as the previous count), thinking that they had conquered all of Saxony, but in fact, no!We will never be conquered by them until we all die.

I started several so-called 'rebellions', but it was not a rebellion at all, it was us taking back what was rightfully ours, our homes and our lands.

Most of you are free people who were forcibly taken into slavery by your lords. How did the traitors who surrendered to the Franks treat you?Take away your rights as free folk.

Your power was bestowed upon you by our ancestors hundreds of years ago - and that is freedom!And this promise made by my ancestors to you, I also want to fulfill.

Now, the vicious Franks want to take away this freedom, no, I will never agree, and I believe that you will too!

Many of you have weakly thought that it was just a Saxon chieftain, but in reality?Look at the massacre at Weldon. The blood of the Saxons stained the entire River Allert. Is this how the Franks treat their people?

I want to stand up, not only because I am the grandson of Theodoric, but also because I want to protect you, because I am your real chief and your real master, so I care about your lives, and I am angry at the Saxons who died in Weldon! "

Speaking of this, Vidukind stopped and took a breath, while the various nobles below took the opportunity to applaud and support angrily.

"Listen, my friends, the castle of the Bremen church has been destroyed by the valor of our friends to the north, so that our road to the Weser is clear, and although damned Karl is in Minden, we cannot yet defeat him, because our strength is too weak.

We need to capture the diocese of Bremen first, then quickly go south to gather the militias of Lüneburg, Dannenberg and Brunswick, and then take over the Saxon militia on the north bank through the Elbe River, and then attack Minden together, as long as Charles dies Yes, everything will be fine. "

"My lord, but if we all send troops, what if the Eupolites attack?" A little Saxon nobleman raised his hand and asked.

Vidukind laughed loudly and said: "This is the second point I want to tell you. We have enough allies outside. Friends from Frisia will help us defend the coast of the Weser River, friends from Villetti will help us delay the Eupolites, and Magdeburg will be captured by our Sorbian friends.

The Franks fought everywhere thinking they were invincible, but they angered countless enemies. This year is the end of the Franks! "

"What about Hamburg? Their cavalry come and go like the wind. If they loot our rear, we can't resist it at all." A young nobleman said loudly, "We'd better destroy Hamburg first, and then continue south."

"Stupid!" Widukind yelled loudly, "Our march to Bremen relies on speed, so that Charlie can't react and mobilize the army in time, so that we have a chance to join the other chiefs.

But what do we gain by capturing Hamburg?Now the most important thing for us is time, 5000 people, can you capture Hamburg within three days?Is the burger so easy to attack?

After we capture Hamburg, the army Charlie mobilized will probably reach the Elbe River. What will you do then?

Hamburg is indeed a problem. His problem is not that he will plunder our back road, but that he will hinder our speed going south. Unless he does so, the initiative to attack Hamburg will not be worth the loss.

I heard that the Earl of Hamburg was seriously injured in the fight with the Norse pirates before, and he probably won't be able to fight again, and he won't be able to plunder our back at all.

Of course, if you want to avenge that Avar's looting, it won't be too late after you defeat Charlie! "

The little nobleman who asked the question withdrew his hand embarrassingly.

Looking at the well-equipped and energetic soldiers, Vidukind drew out the armed sword at his waist and pointed to the southwest:

"set off!"

Chapter 81 Worship the Father

Felix woke up in the hut. Unlike the hard board bed in Bremen, the woolen quilt was extremely soft, and he almost fell asleep.

Hastily picked up a wooden basin, soaked the towel with the water in it, Felix put on a black priest robe, and walked out of the small room.

The royal blue forget-me-nots were swaying in the grass by the roadside, and the wind brought a little fragrance of flowers. Felix looked at the golden-red sun in the distance and smiled. Today is another sunny day.

This is his third day in Hamburg. Since that terrible disaster, Bremen has basically been in an undefensible state. Originally, he wanted to go to Minden with the elders, but Priest Kelvin, oh no, now Elder Kelvin changed his mind.

In fact, Kelvin and his retinue had a coterie, or seminar, of their own.

In this era, the Heavenly Father Church is not particularly closed, and its status is not particularly high. It is in the era of "anything that is not allowed to be discussed, you can talk about it".

The rules and laws of later generations were determined in the ecumenical conferences, but now the Heavenly Father teaches that speech is relatively free.