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

However, due to the low level of technology, the locals do not know how to refine salt ore and brine salt wells, so they can only sell ready-made salt rocks. There are fewer and fewer salt rocks. Now there are very few people who are mainly engaged in finding salt rocks in caves. Less again.

After greeting the little lord of Kalkberg, Feng Sen took two guides and guards and went up the Kalkberg Mountain.

After walking a few steps, Feng Sen found a cave, but he didn't go in. Instead, he walked to the mountain wall above the cave. There was no grass growing on the bare rock wall.

Feng Sen scratched the rock wall twice with his fingers, opened his palm, looked at the white crystals in his palm, and laughed.

Originally, they were counting on the Cheshire salt in Britain, but they forgot that Lune also had a large salt well. Now, the stoneware plan can finally be put on the agenda.

Chapter 1 Detmold! The decisive battle between Vidukind and Charlemagne! Part [-]

The wind rustled.

Under the gray-white sky, the sparse raindrops on the leaves fell on the chain armor and leather armor, making a tick-tock sound. The heavy rain between Vidukind and Charlemagne finally stopped.

After resting for two days, the Franks' army stepped on the muddy ground and finally began to march towards Detmold.

Previously, there were large tracts of farmland and pastures outside Detmold, where tens of thousands of cattle and sheep were raised, but now, only the scorched and broken fence can be seen that he used to be a farm.

Charlemagne was always close and gentle to his relatives and subordinates, but this gentleness was limited to relatives and subordinates. In the eyes of many Saxon locals, Charlemagne was a despicable devil.

He sent people to burn farmland, pastures, orchards, and houses, fill fish ponds, destroy workshops, and even cut down the forests they depended on to raise pigs, and often looted food at every turn.

This way of destroying the other party's economy is harmful but useful.

Vidukind soon had to send troops under the clamor of the nobles of Detmold, and began to confront Charlemagne head-on.

Charlemagne was wearing armor and holding an iron spear (Charlemagne would not use Joyeuse in battle), standing in the center of the soldiers, surrounded by two thousand armored knights and one thousand unarmed knights. Some of these people are Charlemagne's personal soldiers, and the other part are vassals from all over East Frank.

As for the free folk cavalry, they don't exist at all. Can the free folk still afford cavalry equipment?A set of chain armor had to be affordable by rich peasants with tens of acres of land, let alone a sword.

In addition to these [-] elites, Charlemagne also stood in front of [-] infantrymen. Most of them were freemen and yeoman farmers, or conscripts from the surrounding area, or tribal soldiers from the Mark Commune.

Of the [-] infantry, only about one-tenth, that is, only [-] infantry had chain armor, and the rest were either leather armor or armed clothing, and some even had only a thin layer of civilian clothing.

With Frank hatchets on their waists, spears in their hands, and javelins on their backs, they marched slowly in front of the team.

At the end of the line are soldiers from various East Frankish nobles and priests. There are about 4000 of them, with mixed equipment and slow movements. Among them, there are about [-] archers who are at the forefront of them.

Although Charlemagne is the lord of the Franks in name, in fact Frank is just the name of the tribal alliance, and there are various factions within it, such as the nobles of Thuringia and Bavaria in East Frank.

The ambiguous attitude of these nobles towards Charlemagne added a lot of trouble to Charlemagne's recruitment of soldiers, but fortunately, after a series of games, Charlemagne finally got together 1 soldiers, and [-] of them might not be useful, but at least they would not be at a disadvantage on the front line.

Arriving outside the city of Detmold, Vidukind's chaotic army walked out of the camp in a chaotic manner, and began to straighten out the formation in a chaotic manner.

For this attack, Vidukind dispatched a total of 2 people, of which his headquarters recruited 1 people, Detmold's urban soldiers and peasant soldiers sent 4000 people, Vidukind recruited 2000 Norse warriors, and Albion actually brought back [-] people from Uda.

Riding his horse up a hill, Charlemagne raised his head and looked at Widukind's army: "Their formation is like the shit Eric pulled out on the palace table the day before yesterday."

"Your Highness!"

"Hahahaha." Several close vassals immediately laughed.

Charlemagne also laughed, his curly beard trembling: "Who made you shit in the palace?"

"I, I drank too much..."

"Don't worry, Eric, I apologize to you." With a smile on the corner of his mouth, Charlemagne patted Eric's shoulder. "I just miss the past. Back then, when we were in Aachen, I was still a prince, drinking and having fun together in the palace. I hope we can still be the same as that time."

"Your Highness..." Eric's face was a little moved.

"Boom, boom, boom!" A sound of war drums came from the opposite position. In the Saxon army formation, strange battle flags like spider webs were erected one by one, and the shabby-clothed Saxons waved their battle flags. Ax, and sent a battle cry at Charlemagne.

"Go, bring me victory." Accompanied by Charlemagne's last words, the horns of the charge sounded from the army formations on both sides.

The drum beat sounded, and amidst an unexplained howl, countless Saxon soldiers rushed towards Charlemagne's main line in chaos.

Most of them were clothed in civilian clothes, but a very few had rattan armor and shields, and some were even shirtless and holding wooden sticks. These soldiers rushed to the front in a mess and began to attack the Frankish army formation.

Frank was divided into an army formation of 4000 people and a 5000-person army. The left wing was led by Eric, and the right wing was led by Charlemagne himself. The army formation also used the tactics of the battle box, placing the cavalry in the middle, and the outer layer was layered with infantry.

The Saxon soldiers rushed in like a tide, and suddenly, after a continuous trembling sound, hundreds of bows and arrows were thrown out from the center of the army formation. After more than half a year of training, Charlie's first archer unit was finally formed.

However, compared with the Jingnan Army, the strength of these Frankish archers was still much worse. Only a dozen or so Saxon soldiers fell to the ground, and none of them died.

Immediately following bows and arrows are javelins and throwing axes. For people of this era, the status of javelins and throwing axes is like knives and spears in the Central Plains.

The javelins galloped, the throwing axes spun, and the blood spurted out. This time hundreds of Saxon soldiers fell, and the same number of Saxon deserters appeared together with these fallen soldiers.

"kill!"

"Worden!"

"Damn Frank!"

Inspired by the blood, the Saxon soldiers became even more crazy. Led by a small group of Saxon soldiers with shields, they finally fought the Frankish soldiers.

Stabbing with spears and chopping with tomahawks, almost half of the soldiers in the front row on the Saxon side fell down at the moment of the battle.

The formation of the Saxons was too crowded, and they couldn't use their hands and feet at all. Instead, they were massacred by the Frankish soldiers who were more loosely spaced but staggered.

Both Frank and Saxon are familiar with it. It's normal to fight and run at the same time. Everyone is like this.

Seeing the Saxons rushing up and running away, Eric showed a disdainful smile. He calculated the time and distance, observed the situation on the battlefield for a long time, and finally, he couldn't help it.

"Cavalry, attack!"

The infantry made way for an instant, Eric straightened his helmet, raised the spear in his hand, and let out a battle cry: "Charge!"

Chapter 111 Detmold! The decisive battle between Vidukind and Charlemagne! Part [-]

Eric pulled out the riding spear hanging on the horse's buttocks, clamped the horse's belly, and led a thousand armored cavalry out of the army formation through three gaps with a whistle.

The scenery on both sides receded quickly, and Eric's field of vision shrank sharply, as if only the point in front of him was left. He held the spear with one hand, as if holding a javelin, and moved towards a Saxon warrior who was caught off guard and tried to raise his shield. rush away.

prick!

The spear rubbed against the edge of the rattan plate, and ruthlessly pierced into the chest of the Saxon warrior. Under the impact, the Saxon warrior almost flew up.

In the era of cavalry without saddles and stirrups, riding a spear was a javelin that could control flight.

Pulling out his long sword, Eric slashed at the remaining Saxon soldiers wantonly. These messy Saxon soldiers didn't even have the most common armor, but they dared to go into battle. It's hard to be famous...

Wait, the hairs on the back of Eric's neck stood on end, he sensed something was wrong, and immediately shouted to the knights around him: "Back to the army!"

Under Eric's organization, although the cavalry were puzzled, they still followed him and prepared to return to the army formation.

"Ah!" A scream sounded in Eric's ears, and a crossbow bolt was inserted into the back of a cavalryman's neck, trembling slightly.

When the chaotic soldiers dispersed like waves, a series of solid shield walls appeared before Eric's eyes.

At some point, Vidukind's [-] elite infantry came out, hidden among the chaotic army, disguised as a supervising team, and advanced quietly until they approached the front of the formation.

They stood between Erik and the infantry of the formation.

These Saxon warriors once again used their family skill - the shield formation. The difference from before was that the shield formation formed by these soldiers was much stronger than those of the peasant soldiers. Their shields were tightly packed together, and spears pierced through the gaps.

Moreover, their shields were a kind of large square shields that could be placed on the ground, so the Saxon soldiers in the first row were tall and strong, and most of them wore armor, either chain armor or leather armor, and even armed clothing and rattan armor.

Different from the ordinary shield array, what stood behind the third row was not spears, but a group of weapons with sickles inserted on long wooden sticks.

An infantry squad with everyone wearing armor appeared behind the shield wall at some point. There were about 300 of these people, some of them held a long sickle in their hands, and seven or eight people also held a strange cross-shaped bow and arrow in their hands.

At this time, hidden among the chaotic peasants and soldiers, these elite Saxon soldiers used the blood of their colleagues to pave a long way to victory for themselves. A 600-meter-long shield wall appeared at the battle box formation. before.

Vidukind was wearing a chain mail hoodie, holding a round shield, shouting constantly in the shield wall, behind him was the battle flag representing the Saxon war chief.

Originally, the next link was to push the shields against the wall and stab with spears and spears. However, beyond the expectations of the Frankish infantrymen holding long oval shields, a boy holding a rattan hatchet quickly rolled out from the crotch of the Saxon soldiers. Most of them were fourteen or fifteen years old, and they were still childish, but they had already picked up the battle axe.

The Frankish infantry standing staggered in the rear quickly stepped forward and pushed out their spears in front of the shields, but these teenagers were like nimble monkeys, jumping and moving between the shields and the spears. As long as they caught the opportunity, a hatchet would be chopped on the calf or ankle.

In this era, the infantry rarely had armor to protect their calves, and they could only hear the screams of the Frankish army. Although the damage caused by cutting the calves may not be that great, they can easily be used in the intense and exciting shield-wall pushing session. One's own side finds a flaw and opens up a gap.

Although the inside of the battle box kept sending wounded soldiers from other sides, Eric's formation began to waver as the remaining Vidukind rebels pressed forward and were surrounded by enemy troops in all directions.

Of course, Eric can bypass the infantry shield wall, but that will not help the current situation. He needs to attack this long shield wall from the rear side.

And the infantry in front of them happened to guard the infantry facing the battle box. They could have used herringbone maneuvers to continuously sweep the formation, but now they can only rush forward, otherwise it will be too late.

Eric looked at the Charlemagne army that was moving here on the other side, gritted his teeth, and pointed his long sword at the shield wall ahead: "Charge!"

Under Eric's lead, a thousand cavalrymen divided into three triangles and charged directly towards the shield wall. The Saxon soldiers behind the shield wall put the bracket behind the shield on the ground and stretched out their spears through the gap.

"Woo—" the war horse neighed in pain, "Xi Lulu!"

"Ah—" The spear pierced a soldier's eye socket and knocked him off his horse, but most of the cavalry broke through the square shield and successfully rushed into the enemy's formation.

Eric's face was ferocious, and he swung his long sword fiercely at a peasant soldier holding a small scythe: "It's over!"

Then, he felt the war horse under his crotch stagnate suddenly, and seven or eight sickles stretched out, forming four horse legs. Then, a Danish long ax instantly stuck out, hooked Eric's shoulders, and instantly pulled him off the horse.

According to the style of play of the Central Plains Dynasty, at this time, the cavalry who were hooked down were not far from death, but unfortunately, this is Western Europe.

Due to differences in physical fitness and equipment organization, these dismounted knights are still stronger than ordinary infantry.

Some knights even took the initiative to dismount, stood with Eric, and took up the long swords in their hands to confront the remaining infantry, and the cavalry who rushed in one after another opened up a wider buffer space for them.

These dismounted knights gathered together and formed a formation, waving their long swords, but instead forced the Saxon warriors to retreat again and again.

But this is enough, they have saved enough time for Vidukind, he can already feel that the phalanx in front of him is like a tower made of sand, and it only needs to be pushed one last time before it can collapse.

Vidukind struck a Danish longaxe at the edge of a Frankish soldier's shield and tore it off violently. At his side, a spear shot out, directly piercing the panicked infantryman who had lost his shield.

Although there were quite a few gaps from what we had imagined, the expected Battle of Detmold was basically a success!

After defeating the left-wing phalanx, even if there were ten thousand deserters, that would be ten thousand against four thousand. By then, everyone would have their last breath left, and Widukind and Charlie would finally have a fair contest.

Such a beautiful fantasy didn't last long, and disappeared in a rush of wind. A javelin brushed against Vidukind's cheek and pierced through the soldiers behind him.

Amidst a tremor, Vidukind's eyes widened.

Three thousand cavalry suddenly emerged from the rear of the left-wing phalanx, and the leader with a beard wearing a crown helmet, then, isn't that Charlemagne? !

when?Where did he get so many cavalry, Vidukind looked at the king's flag in the right-wing phalanx, as if falling into an ice cave.

"Retreat! Blow the trumpet, we retreat to the city of Detmold! Withdraw!" The voice of the orderly and the retreating horn sounded on the battlefield. Under the escort of several personal soldiers, Vidukind led the thousands of elites to flee towards Detmold in a panic.

"Don't go there, go to Detmold." Vidukind yelled at the top of his voice, his battle flag was shaking not far away, and he actually ran to the forest further away.

"Who?" Vidukind stretched his neck angrily, "Who is manipulating my battle flag, who..."

Vidukind's roar stopped suddenly, he lowered his head, looked at the throwing ax stuck in his chest, and passed out cleanly.

Chapter 112 The Humpbacked Pepin

Riding on a pony, Pepin raised his head vigorously and looked at his father not far away. Standing among the soldiers, Charlie was still the one who attracted the most attention.

At the front of the team, Charlie was riding a tall horse, holding a long sword at his waist, and wearing a peaked eight-faced helmet on his head. Surrounding the edge of the helmet was a golden pattern inlaid with gold and silver threads, shining in the sun.

In addition to the iron plate armor on the outside, Charlie also wore a layer of chain mail and a silk underwear lining. He held his head high and his chest was very heroic.

The hunched Pepin tried hard to straighten his back, but failed. It seemed that he had noticed Pepin's movements. Charlie glanced back, but deliberately avoided his sight.

Pepin clenched the rein in his hand, took a deep breath through his nose and let it out quickly.

He lowered his head, as if he couldn't hear those mocking voices because he couldn't see those mocking faces, but for him, what he was most afraid of hearing was never ridicule, but the comfort with pity.

The hunchbacked Pepin, Charlemagne's true eldest son, Charlemagne's first wife was Desiderata, and Pepin's mother Himmeltrude was his first love when Charlie was still a prince.

But Charlemagne married Desiderata just to make an alliance with the Lombard king. After marrying Desiderata, Charlemagne directly put her aside and gave birth to his first child with Himmeltrud , and named Pepin.

Charlie's father was Pepin the Dwarf, his grandfather was Charlie the Hammer, and his great-grandfather was Pepin the Palace. The Carolingian nobles liked to name their newborns after their successful ancestors. They used this naming convention to bless their children, hoping that they would take on the historical role of their namesake ancestors.

Judging from this naming rule, this Pepin should be the future king of the reservation.

Humpbacked Pepin was born in 769, Charlie married Desiderata in the second year, quickly abolished it in the third year, and married Hildegard in the fourth year, almost in the same year, Himmeltrude in According to the historical materials, it disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again.

Just the year before last, in 781, Charlemagne conquered the Lombards.

In the same year, he sent his and Hildegard's second son, Carloman, to Pope Hadrian for baptism, and changed his name to Pepin, and at the same time canonized him as King of Lombardy. This is what later became Italy. Pepin.

And the hunchbacked Pepin almost naturally lost his due inheritance right after Carloman changed his name, at least in the eyes of most Frankish nobles, otherwise, since there is already a Pepin, why do we need one? What about the new Pepin?

Especially this old Pepin is still a hunchbacked Pepin.

Riding on a pony, 15-year-old Pepin felt for the first time that the autumn wind could be so cold.

"Tat-tat-tat--" There was a crisp sound of horse hoofs behind the hunchbacked Pepin, and he hastily moved to the right to move away from the road. The pony under his crotch had thrown him off more than once because of fright.

It's not that the pony moves too much, but because of the hunchback, Pepin's arms are very thin, and his legs are turned out of shape. Instead of riding a car, riding a horse is already his minimum dignity.

A messenger came to Charlie with a letter. Charlie pulled out a roll of parchment from the wooden tube. He frowned and recognized it for a long time before throwing it to Alcuin helplessly: "Alcuin, what did my godson say?"