mtl008 Chapter 1138: Fierce Battle in the Stable
Chapter 1138: Fierce Battle in the Stable
Chapter 1138: Fierce Battle in the Stable
It must be said that in some respects our Sir John's senses were very keen.
As he expected, the other Crusaders soon thought of escaping after realizing that they could not drive the Ming army out of the city.
While urging the mercenaries and auxiliary troops to suppress the Ming army, the nobles ordered their own guards and knights to quietly go to the stables and prepare to escape with their horses.
Sigismund reacted just as quickly as John. This nobleman was a great man. He was the king of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and also the Elector of Brandenburg. Later, he would be elected emperor of the Roman Empire. Although the title of emperor was just a title at that time and did not have much real power to command the countries, it was enough to prove that he was indeed a great man.
At this time, Sigismund was one of the most influential people in the Crusades. Although John was the nominal commander, in fact, it was only because his father was the initiator and the initial provider of military funds for the Crusades. In terms of reputation, Sigismund was much higher than John, and more Crusaders were willing to obey Sigismund's orders than John.
After realizing that he could no longer seize the castle gate from the Ming army, Sigismund called his nobles and several other nobles from other countries who were close to him during the Crusades and said to them: "The elite of the Ming country have occupied the gate. The castle can no longer be defended."
"After breaking through the Danube, these terrible Eastern demons will surely continue to march into Europe and plunder God's sacred territory."
"We can't fight them to death here... We must preserve the strength of the Crusaders and bring back the horrors of these demons to more people."
"Only in this way can we truly resist these terrible Eastern demons. We cannot die here."
"Is this terrible Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, the whip sent by God to whip Europe again..." someone lamented in despair.
Sigismund's expression changed several times, and then he said: "The glory of God will eventually be continued. Even the arrogant Attila turned into dust in the end, didn't he?"
"What we need to do now is to survive before Prince Yan Zhu Di turns into dust."
These words were recognized by many nobles, and they decided to follow Sigismund's advice and flee far away from this fortress that was about to become a meat grinder.
"Where is Sir John? Should we call John?" Just as they were about to put it into practice, one of them suddenly remembered something and asked.
"No need. Anyway, those French people are eager for glory, so let them fight for the glory of defeating the Ming people." Sigismund waved his hand gracefully, with a hint of disdain in his tone.
The Crusaders were never united, and the conflict between Sigismund and John was long-standing. They had clashed in previous campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.
At that time, the Crusaders encountered several fortresses that were easy to defend and difficult to attack on their way to attack the Ottoman Empire, and Orekhovo was one of them. After the Crusaders surrounded Orekhovo, the residents of Orekhovo surrendered after Sigismund guaranteed that their lives and property would be protected.
However, the French immediately forgot Sigismund's assurances after entering the city. They looted and massacred people in Orekhovo. They claimed that they had occupied the city walls the night before entering the city and that Orekhovo was conquered by them. About a thousand Turks and Bulgarians in the city became hostages, and Orekhovo was burned down. The Hungarians believed that the French actions were an insult to their King Sigismund, while the French believed that the Hungarians were trying to deprive them of the glorious victory in the war.
The credit that originally belonged to Sigismund was snatched away by the French.
There were many other bad things like this. The Crusaders were filled with all kinds of scrambles for credit and benefits, and the French often relied on the fact that they were the initiators of the Crusades to take for granted the majority of the credit and treasures. The Crusaders from other countries had long been fed up with them.
Moreover, Sigismund had another unspoken reason... They needed some people to cover the rear. They could not stop the ferocious Ming people with just a group of scattered mercenaries and auxiliary soldiers with shabby equipment... But the well-equipped, barbaric and brainless French knights were very suitable.
I believe they are also willing to actively embrace this heroic honor.
Sigismund, who had made up his mind, began to lead his men towards the stables. They had already made up their minds to take away all the horses in the castle so that the French would stay here to cover their retreat. At this time, John was about to escape with the French knights, but was stopped by Engeron VII. Because of this time difference, Sigismund arrived at the northeast corner of the stables earlier.
This was probably fortunate, because John's original plan was to take all the horses with him, forcing the others to stay behind to cover the French rear. But Sigismund was one step ahead of John.
But this was also unfortunate, because... because of this, they encountered Xu Zengshou's troops who came to burn the stables.
Although the Ming army made a great show of strength, in fact, Zhu Di only brought a few hundred people. In addition, Zhu Di was injured, but he still had to go to the front line in person and try to guard the castle gate with such a small force until the arrival of the Ming army tomorrow... This was still a very difficult task for the Ming army. Xu Zengshou came from a family of generals, so he naturally knew that their current advantage was only because they had the upper hand, and the Crusaders did not know the specific strengths and weaknesses of these Ming troops.
He believed that once the Crusaders reacted, they would launch an even more frantic counterattack against the Ming army... That would be the most dangerous moment of the situation.
At this time, Prince of Yan Zhu Di took the initiative to divide his troops and let himself burn the stables, instead of gathering the already small number of troops together. Xu Zengshou was actually quite unwilling to do so. Who knew that after he brought two hundred people to burn the stables, would these Western barbarians directly launch a counterattack against the main army the next moment?
Without the strength of these two hundred people, if King Yan dies in this castle, everything will be lost!
Therefore, Xu Zengshou put all his energy into it, and his mind was full of thoughts about how to quickly resolve the issue of the stables, return to Zhu Di, and fight side by side with his other comrades.
They had just occupied the stables, defeated the few defenders there, and started burning the stables and killing the horses, when they saw a group of people rushing outside the stables. The group led by them were dressed in brightly colored clothes and had strange looks, some wearing tall hats, some wearing strange long boots, and some even had strange neat curly hair and curly beards...
Xu Zengshou himself is also a young man. Although their appearance is different, just looking at their temperament, how can one not tell that these people are high-ranking aristocrats of noble status?
"Damn it, a bunch of big meat buns fell from the sky!" Xu Zengshou's eyes lit up. If all these nobles were chopped up, wouldn't it be more useful than burning a stable?
With the death of so many high-ranking nobles, the command system of the Crusaders might even be paralyzed!
"Brothers, kill them!" Xu Zengshou stopped burning the stable, threw away the torch in his hand, picked up a knife and rushed forward with his men. The two hundred Ming soldiers he brought with him also had red eyes. They didn't think as much as Xu Zengshou, but the boastful appearance of those people was cooked military merit in the eyes of the Ming army... Now these military merits came to their mouths, could they still let them go?
"Quick...quickly retreat!" Sigismund was also confused. The reason why they were in the front line was because the rear was the main battlefield where the Ming army, mercenaries, and auxiliary soldiers were fighting for the city gate. They didn't want to get too close to the front line, and they didn't think there would be Ming troops in the relatively remote stables... How could they have imagined that there was actually a team of Ming troops waiting here, and they bumped into their arms?
Several Ming soldiers immediately pulled out their crossbows and shot dead several nobles from unknown countries. Sigismund was so scared that he kept commanding the knights and other nobles to retreat. Unexpectedly, his actions caught the attention of Xu Zengshou. Xu Zengshou determined that he was the biggest fish among these people, pointed at him and shouted: "Chase! Catch up with the guy wearing the golden crown!"
"That guy is the commander of the Western Barbarians!"
Sigismund dodged left and right and was nearly shot to death by the Ming army's crossbows several times. Finally, he learned the content of the Ming army's shouting from the reminder of an attendant who knew Chinese. He quickly took off the golden crown on his head, threw it far away, then asked someone to block his body and continued to retreat in a hurry.
He was not tall, and Xu Zengshou had originally locked onto him through the cool golden crown. Now that the golden crown was taken off, Xu Zengshou could not find him. As he was in a hurry, a beam of morning sunlight hit him, and the reflection of something caught Xu Zengshou's eyes. Xu Zengshou's eyes lit up, and he said:
"Chase! It's the bald one!"
"That bald guy is the commander of the Western Barbarians!"
Sigismund did not think he was bald, but there was not much hair in the middle of the back of his head. This problem is also a common problem among Westerners. As long as they get older, they will have this problem more or less. It's just that everyone else wore a hat and helmet, but he took off the golden crown, and his bare back of the head was exposed, and in the reflection of the morning light, it became even more eye-catching. The Ming army had a target again, and hundreds of warriors with bloodshot eyes rushed towards Sigismund without caring about their lives.
Before Sigismund had time to catch his breath, he found that the crossbow arrows shot at him by the Ming army became more frequent. Frightened, he quickly bent down and ran for his life. The hired servant beside him who could understand Chinese quickly put his helmet on his head.
In the quick glance just now, Xu Zengshou had actually memorized Sigismund's face and figure, but now Sigismund bent down and without the bald head to guide him, he could not see where this guy had escaped to for a moment.
Just as he was getting anxious, a Ming soldier came over with a Crusader's warhorse and shouted to him, "General, horse!"
"Yes!" Xu Zengshou suddenly reacted. They were now occupying the Crusaders' stables. Why did they have to fight these guys on foot? By riding on war horses, infantrymen could become cavalrymen. Could these people with two legs outrun four legs?
What's more, many of these Western Yi war horses are tall and strong...
Xu Zengshou immediately rode on the warhorse brought by the soldiers. Sure enough, after getting on the horse, he quickly locked onto Sigismund who was quietly fleeing in the crowd. He immediately called out to the others:
"Hurry! If you can find a warhorse, ride it and follow me!"
Xu Zengshou shouted. When he was in the grassland, he often led the Xu family cavalry to patrol everywhere and make friends with heroes. He had already mastered superb horsemanship and had also been somewhat influenced by the hot temper of the heroes. At this time, he got on the warhorse and didn't even wait. He directly kicked the horse's belly and rushed towards Sigismund alone.
Sigismund was so frightened that he didn't realize that this was a good opportunity to kill Xu Zengshou, but subconsciously ran away. Xu Zengshou rode his warhorse straight into the city and soon trampled the group of nobles and the chaotic Crusaders.
Soon, the Ming army behind caught up with Xu Zengshou. These Ming soldiers changed from infantry to cavalry, and their fighting power soared on the spot. They quickly killed through the chaotic Crusaders. In front of them, Sigismund was still fleeing, and people kept swarming over him, blocking his way with their bodies. Xu Zengshou couldn't help but get angry. He simply raised his spear high, turned over and stepped on the saddle, and threw it with all his might from a high position...
"Ah!" Sigismund, who was trying to escape, felt a chill in his chest. He looked down and saw a piece of the gun tip sticking out of his chest...
This king who was well versed in judging the situation, the noble elector of Europe, and the future glorious emperor of the Roman Empire, died here by accident.
(End of this chapter)