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

"Dear Co-Lord of the Franks, Eldest Brother and King of all Heavenly Father believers, Master of the World and the Earth...His Royal Highness Charles:

My injuries are basically healed. I originally wanted to raid the Lübeck base, but I was afraid that Widukind would send troops into Hamburg. Although I could leave and circle with him, I was afraid that they would hurt the lives of the two princesses, so I didn't Can attack.

Therefore, I captured Lune in September, forced the local Gore to be loyal to you, and converted to the heavenly father. Next, I will attack Uelzen and Dannenberg to cut off Widukind's retreat.

Your humble but faithful godson, Antony. "

Charlemagne nodded, showing a satisfied smile, and he galloped his horses back and forth in the team: "My friends and soldiers, I just learned a new piece of good news, our Earl of Hamburg, my The godson captured Lüne half a month ago and is about to attack Dannenberg. The armies of Vidukind and Uda will be separated! The rear of Vidukind's army has been completely cut off!

Our Earl of Burger is a hero!But are you just bears?Do you want the Earl of Hamburg to steal all the limelight?If there are such cowards, please go back!Go underground and not have to suffer the wrath of your enemies, poor wretch!Only brave fighters are welcome in the Frankish army!

Such people are not even considered fighters, tell me, are you cowards? "

"no!"

"Let those poor bastards eat shit, I'll be stronger than the Earl of Hamburg!"

"We are brave warriors! Cowards, go back to farming!"

A wave of roars echoed over the Frankish ranks, and Charlemagne laughed loudly: "Order, tell Anthony that he is doing a good job, and tell him that I want to join him in Lübeck!"

"Everyone!" Charlemagne held up Joyeuse in his hand, "March quickly!"

Soon, the entire army quickened their pace, and the cavalry swung their whips faster, while the infantry took off their heavy chain mail, put them on carts or were carried by slaves, and moved forward quickly .

In the fluctuating crowd, the hunchbacked Pepin was like a small boat in a river, bumping back and forth in the vortex. A light horse protruded from the left and knocked him aside, and two carriages on the right forced his pony to stand up.

He wrapped the reins around his hands, endured the pain in his back, gritted his teeth, and tried to follow behind the large army.

But what made Pepin extremely desperate was that no matter how hard he tried, his docile, low pony and poor equestrian skills could not catch up with his father's back. Surrounded by swords and spears, Charlemagne was like Poseidon guiding the tsunami, while Pepin was just a clownfish that could never catch up.

After a puff of smoke and dust, the hunchbacked Pepin was mixed in with the sluggish line of slave soldiers and baggage slaves, and stopped in the middle of the road in a daze.

The indifferent slaves and slave soldiers walked forward indifferently. The hunchbacked Pepin's mouth trembled, he blinked, and breathed out of his nose intermittently, then he took another deep breath and held it in his mouth.

Poor guy, coward, maybe what Charlie was talking about, Frank didn’t welcome people like him. Riding on a pony, Pepin sniffed slightly, and continued to walk forward in silence.

"His Royal Highness Pepin, His Royal Highness Pepin?" Pepin raised his head with difficulty, but it was Alcuin, the head of Charlie's Paladin scholars, who was sitting in a carriage with a piece of paper in his hand. He seemed to be hesitating, but he still handed the paper to Pepin.

"A part of the letter from the Earl of Hamburg to His Royal Highness, I actually did not read it out in public." Alcuin pointed to the end of the letter, "The Earl of Hamburg said that he heard that His Highness Pepin has a back problem, and he has a good doctor under him, who may be able to relieve your illness.

Your Highness, if you want to go, I can arrange someone to escort you there when the war settles down. "

Pepin took the paper, and he was silent for a full minute: "Can I go now? Now that Widukind's rebels have been driven out of Detmold, the road is much safer than before. There is no need for me to conquer Lübeck this time."

"Your Highness..."

Alcuin opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, and finally he gave Pepin a hug: "As you wish, Your Highness."

Chapter 113 The Arrival of Opolite

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, the tree is going to fall!"

"What about the stakes?"

"Just burn it, we don't have enough hoes and shovels, it's hard to dig."

The forest between Hamburg and Lüne has become a large construction site. The century-old giant trees have been cut down one by one, piled up on the side of the road, and covered with a straw mat to keep out the rain.

Between countless tree stumps and scorched bushes, there was a long shallow pit. Dozens of prisoners of war poured road materials packed in sacks into the shallow pit. These materials were mixed with white ash, clay, gravel, and sand.

In the tunnel, the prisoners of war wielded wooden hammers, tamped the fluffy ash one by one and then sprinkled water. The next layer could not be laid until the ash no longer stuck to the shoes.

In order to keep these prisoners of war from working hard, Feng Sen also resorted to a vicious Helianbo city building method, but Helianbobo killed people because he couldn't drive the stakes in, and he was not allowed to eat dinner if he couldn't break through.

A clear road will be opened within three years, with forest and brush cleared along the way, leaving a road that can accommodate two horse-drawn carriages abreast.

And those captured Saxon prisoners of war started their life of hard labor from here,

It has been half a month since Feng Sen captured Lune, and it is now the first ten days of October.

Sitting on a wide wooden stake, Feng Sen recorded the habits and customs of the local people on a piece of birch bark. In the future, this will become the new local law.

In the case of low road traffic and low cultural level, it is basically impossible to formulate a complete and strict law. Even if there is, the cost of governance and reform will outweigh the gain. Therefore, Feng Sen's plan is the traditional Spring and Autumn Judgment.

Formulate a few simple and general laws and let the villagers handle it themselves. If they can't handle it, then let the priests or Confucian scholars take the "Sun Worshiping" and "Spring and Autumn" and "The Analects" to play freely.

This is also a means of preaching and promotion, which is convenient for management.

During these ten days, Feng Sen took the soldiers to visit all the major nearby villages. Most of them gathered near large settlements, and the farthest was no more than a day away.

When Feng Sen inspected the village, he brought a lot of Denier silver coins and sickles and daggers. Everywhere he went, he first found out the strongest warriors in the village and asked for a single-handed duel. Silver coins and daggers as rewards.

This way of distributing coins, coupled with his own strong force and victorious deeds, soon left a good impression on the hearts of the local villagers.

This is an era of muqiang. In the hearts of these Germanic people, farming is something that cowards do. A truly brave person should take up the sword to plunder and conquer. That is the strong one.

Listening to Feng Sen's deeds, don't you think it's very exciting?As a samurai, they felt that it was too full of martial arts, which fit their imagination of the battlefield and the warrior, brave and generous.

If Feng Sen came to recruit them to participate in the war in the future, they should be very willing to go out with Feng Sen to fight.

This side is dealing with the affairs of Lune, and Feng Sen in Hamburg has been entrusted to Zhenhui to preside over it, and Belvshka's fleet is now only sailing on the Elbe River route.

But Feng Sen has another problem here. Due to the interruption of the British woolen-Saxon beeswax route, he can only take the Scandinavian iron ore fur-Saxon beer fruit route.

However, due to the existence of King Siegfried of Denmark, this route also seems to be showing signs of instability, and due to the obstruction of the Vidukind rebels, Feng Sen's capital chain is at risk of breaking again because he cannot go north to the grass valley.

You know, Feng Sen basically didn’t have much money left in his hands. Either all of it was put into reproduction, or it was used for infrastructure construction, and the payback period for infrastructure construction was too long, basically it was a loss-making business. Where should the money come from?

To attack Uelzen?But Uerzen is not Lune, there is no salt mine, and after Feng Sen captured Lune, the Uerzen tribe was so frightened that they directly defected to Uda. Now Uda's forces are eyeing the south. Before they are ready, He didn't want to start a war rashly.

"My lord, my lord." A Saxon coat trotted humbly from a distance and came to Feng Sen.

"what happened?"

"A group of Slavic caravans came to Badovik. They claimed to be Eupolites and asked to see Her Royal Highness." Saxon Baoyi replied with a bow.

"Oh?" Feng Sen stood up from the stake, "Take me to have a look."

"Here." Saxon Coating said this short Chinese fluently.

…………

Zinovac stood in front of this settlement that had just experienced the flames of war and was still somewhat bloody, and couldn't help feeling a little emotional in his heart.

A year ago, when he came here to trade, everything was calm, the rebels were also cleared, and the Sorbs were honest. Although there were still wars in various parts of Saxony, at the very least, the Kingdom of Eupolit was still prosperous .

Taking advantage of the transportation advantages of the "Little Mediterranean" in the Baltic Sea, the Eupolites made a lot of money in trade, established a series of new settlements along the coast, recruited more Slavs from all over the country, and had more brothers who believed in them.

It's just... Zinovac sighed, the damn Vidukind rebelled again, and they united with the Veleti people. The Veleti people were very dissatisfied with the previous action of Eupolit's capture of Magdeburg, because a large number of people were killed and injured The innocent Veretti people, coupled with the long-standing grievances between the two countries, so a war broke out.

Oupolite does not have as many people as Villetti. After all, they are just a new kingdom, and there are still a large number of tribal alliances that do not listen to the announcement. Suddenly, it is too late to gather the army, and they are caught off guard. The death of the old king is even worse.

At present, many tribes in Oupolite who are dissatisfied with the royal family have already taken refuge in the Villetti. If the Franks do not send reinforcements, I am afraid that Oupolite will soon become a historical term.

But Oupolit counted the surroundings carefully. To the west were the Danish and Widukind rebels who had long had grievances, to the south were the Veleti people, to the north was the sea, and to the east was the cult of Pomerania.

After counting and counting, the only thing that can help them is the Hamburg in front of them. However, due to the Villetti's offensive too fast, the connection between Oupolite and Hamburg was blocked by the Villetti. The only known news is Only, Her Royal Highness is still under Feng Sen's protection, which at least gives them some hope.

Can Feng Sen help?

Zinovac knows the name of this Sirisian, one thousand broke five thousand, went north to Denmark, expelled the Vikings, and while constantly waging wars, he was able to manage the territory in an orderly manner and prosper. He is a capable man. A powerful nobleman capable of martial arts.

However, to match it, Feng Sen's reputation for cruelty, greed and vengeance also spread along with it.

Zinovac thinks that Oupolite did not offend Feng Sen, so if he likes him, can he use money to impress him to help Oupolite?

If not, at least let him meet Her Royal Highness to confirm her safety. In this way, with the help of Charlemagne, there may be hope of rebuilding Eupolite in the future.

"Good morning, messenger from Eupolit." A somewhat hoarse voice interrupted Zinovac's thinking.

A tall and strong boy with a beard came galloping from a distance on a huge horse. Feng Sen held the rein and stopped firmly in front of the Slavic caravan. He dismounted: "I know you What are you here for, there are too many people here, let's go in and talk."

Chapter 114 The Medieval Man Was Misled by Spice Rumors

Badovic has been surrounded by a long wall, and this part will be the inner city of Badovic in the future, while what is exposed in the wilderness will be the outer city of Badovic.

In the inner city, the most important building is undoubtedly Hamburg’s commercial warehouse. The ground floor of this commercial warehouse is made of masonry mixed with cement, while the second and third floors are made of wood. Feng Sen is also poor. He also wants to build an all-masonry building, but one has no qualified architects and the other has no money.

There is no way, Western Europe is almost full of poor people, and Frank is a big village. Due to road problems, Charlie goes on tour every day and does not stay in the capital. It is because the tribute cannot be transported, so he has to go to the place to eat.

That is to say, the tribute does not move.

The once-prosperous urban economy in the Roman era also gradually withered after two consecutive waves of barbarians went south (Frank and Lombard).

In fact, Frank has a lot of good commodities, such as wine, beeswax, wood, etc., but because there is no distribution channel, they are all rotten in the warehouse or used for their own use.

Not only is there no external circulation, but even the internal circulation is not very good. In some parts of Frank, beeswax has piled up into mountains, and in some places, churches can only light oil lamps when praying. Frank's internal potential has not been stimulated at all, and Feng Sen's goal is to stimulate this.

If business is a battlefield, then Feng Sen's tactic is to settle bad debts, but Feng Sen's stronghold is a trading post.

Having pulled down Badovic's original pagan temple, the Badovic Warehouse already has a low wall reaching to the chest, which will soon be closed.

And Feng Sen's temporary residence was the house of a local nobleman.

Leading Zinovac, Feng Sen stepped closer to the hall, and two Saxon coats quickly came up, helped Feng Sen take off his coat, and served drinks.

"Please!" After finishing speaking, Feng Sen picked up the beer on the table and drank it. In this era, water is not easy to preserve and the water quality is easy to rot. Therefore, most of the time, if there is no running water or clean water source, people drink beer.

Zinovac picked up the pottery cup on the table and glanced at it with some novelty. This cup actually has a round handle that can be held, which is much more convenient, and you don't have to worry about burning your hands.

After taking two sips of beer, Zinovac felt extremely refreshed. This kind of wine is not like the mead brewed by the church or the Slavic tribe. It is sweet and bitter, but has a faint fragrance that reconciles the bitter-sweet taste: "What kind of wine is this?"

"Hahaha." Feng Sen raised his glass and laughed, "This is called beer, and it's a specialty of Seris. There is a place called Cyan Island in Seris. The beer produced there is the best. It's similar to malt wine. But it doesn’t have the effect of Cui Qin, and this is medicinal wine, drinking it in moderation can heal the stomach, much better than Groot.”

"I see." Zinovac took another sip, savoring it carefully before saying, "As expected of Siris, the ingredients of this wine are probably guarded by flying monkeys, right?"

"?" A huge question mark almost appeared on Feng Sen's forehead, "Why do you say that?"

Hearing this, Zinovac was even more surprised than Feng Sen: "Aren't all spices protected by alien beasts?"

Feng Sen felt as if he had come to the world of comprehension.

After Zinovac’s explanation, Feng Sen realized that at this time, people in Western Europe highly respected spices, and spices could even be said to be a symbol of nobility. Due to their fascination with spices and unreliable rumors, they always believed that spices were guarded by monsters, such as pepper trees were protected by groups of poisonous snakes, cinnamon trees were guarded by giant bats, and so on.

On a crooked day, a few black lines appeared on Feng Sen's forehead. This group of spice merchants really did anything for money. They abruptly said that the hoarding of goods means that the spices are protected by alien beasts. The raw materials are rare, so they have to sell at higher prices.

"Ahem." Feng Sen coughed, "I have to clarify what you said - these are not rumors! But my beer is different, the recipe it uses is not much different from the church's Groot.

However, the reason why it is not as sweet as malt wine and has healing effects is because after this wine is brewed, it needs to be purified by ten devout monks and the bishop Kelvin who defeated the Viking pagans. I prayed to it day and night for seven days and seven nights to purify the dirty parts of it, which is why it is so delicious.

But even so, ten barrels of ale may not necessarily turn into beer. "

Zinovac suddenly felt that the beer in his hand suddenly became a little heavier. He took a sip carefully and said intoxicatedly: "It is indeed a purified wine. After drinking it, there is a kind of joy of baptism. Do you have any stock here? I am willing to pay for it. The nobles and priests of the Eastern Empire will definitely like it."

"Leave the wine thing aside, let's talk about your reason for coming." Feng Sen straightened his back, "Let's be refreshing, if you are here to ask for help for Ou Porit, before next summer, forgive me Nothing can be done."

"Why?" Zinovac almost lost his grip on the wine glass in his hand.

"North of Hamburg is Widukind. He was forced to Bremen by Charlie's army. If I draw too many troops to help you, then do you think he will suddenly kill and cut off the tumor on the back of Hamburg's neck?

Moreover, I have captured Lune now, and I plan to continue to capture Uelzen before winter, so that the Harburg Mountains in the west will be closed, otherwise the Uda rebels can always help the Uelzen tribe Down, into my hinterland, between Lüne and Hamburg, there is almost no defense. "

Zinovac opened his mouth wide, and after a long silence he said, "I see, can you let me meet Her Royal Highness Princess Lyudmila?"

"Of course, I will send a guide to take you to Hamburg." Feng Sen agreed to his request, scratched his head, and asked again: "I heard you are a wealthy businessman?"

"It's just an ordinary believer of Heavenly Father." Zinovac shook his head a little lonely, "Prince Drozko is my nephew, so I can gain the upper hand in the trade between the Baltic Sea and the Volga River.

If there is no Eupolit, then I am just a lost dog. There are many tribes of Volga and Bulgarians who want to eat my flesh and blood.

I came back with mercenaries this time, not only to save the royal family, but also to save myself. "

"You brought mercenaries? Slavic cavalry?"

"No, they are soldiers from the Eastern Empire. They are all from Anatolia."

"Soldiers from Anatolia of the Eastern Empire? Why did they accept your employment?" Feng Sen's expression moved slightly when he heard the word Eastern Empire.

Zinovac smiled bitterly: "Last year, the Abbasid Empire launched a jihad against the Eastern Empire, and the Queen Mother Irina banned the iconoclasm movement—you know, once a piece of land is enshrined with an icon, it can even be said , has been directly included under the name of the Eastern Church.

The defeat of the Eastern Empire in the battle of Little Armenia caused many Anatolian soldiers to lose their land, and even many scholars and nobles had to engage in the business of mercenaries or scribes. "

"So that's it." Feng Sen pondered for a while: "Well, I will provide you with three hundred soldiers. These soldiers have seen blood, and there are many powerful Viking warriors, including ten reliable Han noble officers and instructors. You know the value of a skilled officer who has fought hundreds of battles.

You only need to be responsible for their supplies. I will be responsible for the salary and rewards. Our Hamburg can form an alliance with Eupolit. If your nobles and families can take refuge in Hamburg, I will send troops to pick them up. This is already the greatest support I can give.

At the same time, if I can capture Uelzen and build a fortress before December, then I may be able to send troops to rescue Eupolit, but at the cost of Eupolit's trade in the Baltic Sea and the Volga River, I will have to participate. "

"Of course." Zinovac stood up in surprise, and bowed respectfully to Feng Sen: "Thank you for your gift and help. The Oppolits will never forget your help."

Chapter 115 Big City Hamburg