Chapter 85 Killing Star El (I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year)
Otto didn't expect that Bishop Jason could be so out of control.
Isn't it just to destroy some regional churches, kill some priests, and confiscate some properties? As for sending out all the church knights so early?
Yes, I know you are in a hurry, but don't be so hasty.
The key point is, when you send out the church knights, can you not get involved with the Saxon nobles' army? With all your actions so aboveboard, you are afraid that others will not know that you are colluding, right?
At this level, being a villain in a TV series would probably last only three episodes.
"Count Werner, is the rumored Duke Bach here?"
After taking a look at the messy flags of the opponent's army, Otto didn't recognize them, so he had to ask Werner for help.
After Werner carefully identified it, he shook his head.
"I didn't see his flag, so he must still be fighting against the Duke's army near Kassel."
"The Duke of Bach is not here. Do you want to stop us with this small army?" Otto nodded and snorted coldly. "Then let's attack the person in front of us first."
With that said, Otto gave an order to Bard, asking him to prepare for a bold move with the cavalry.
This time, the counter-rebellion army sent by the Duke of Franconia was divided into two groups. The main force, led by the Duke of Franconia, set out from Malburg to attack Kassel, Fulda and other areas in southern Saxony.
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As partial divisions, Otto and Werner's specific task was to put pressure on the other side, forcing them to divide their forces, and at the same time harass the Saxon rear.
Due to the mission of going deep behind enemy lines, even if it is a partial division, the horse equipment rate in the team is still very high, and nearly half of them are cavalry.
But in front of him, the opponent only had dozens of cavalry and less than a thousand troops, and it was impossible to stop Otto's army.
However, the Saxon army also realized that its numbers were insufficient and did not struggle with Otto's army. It quickly retreated to a nearby castle and relied on the castle for defense, which gave Otto a headache.
Otto did not bring any siege equipment. Now that the opponent has entered the castle, it will be in trouble.
If you attack the castle forcefully, the price you pay will be out of proportion to your gains.
"First capture the nearby monasteries and churches, and then gather the farmers and priests on the spot to attack the city."
Otto made a decision quickly.
It is not impossible to bypass these castles, but the problem is that the locations of many castles are very dangerous. Although there are not many troops inside, they currently do not pose a threat to Otto's army.
But once Otto chose to ignore these castles and continued deep into the Saxony region, once the attack was blocked, these sporadic castles could become nodes for the Saxons to cut off Otto's retreat.
Since Otto's mission is to harass and consume the war potential of the Saxons, what could be simpler and more direct than letting the Saxons fight the Saxons?
A few days later, Otto's army plundered thousands of people and gave these people some crude weapons. The soldiers drove the people to attack castles and fortresses one by one.
There is nothing to say about the process of the battle. The farmers are used to consume the arrows and morale of the soldiers defending the city. When the time is almost up, the soldiers are allowed to launch the final blow.
The Saxon side, which originally had insufficient troops, became even smaller after being dispersed to various castles and strongholds. Faced with Otto's offensive, many castles were actually captured quite quickly.
After all, there are still only a few castles that are truly extremely strong. The walls of most castles, so to speak as city walls, were just higher courtyard walls that exploded in previous lives.
For this high-height city wall, some simple siege facilities can achieve good results.
What's more, many times, the soldiers defending the city are often unable to make a move when faced with familiar faces attacking the city. There are some of their relatives and friends among them.
Otto's march was not very fast, but the Saxons were obviously not prepared for a full war, and even the people did not make arrangements.
Perhaps because the previous wars were all "aristocratic" wars, these Saxons forgot that wars should be cruel and bloody to the death.
In less than a week, almost all the castles and defensive strongholds in the southern area of Osnabrück were completely demolished.
There were only a few fortified castles, and Otto chose not to attack.
Similarly, the casualties paid by Otto's side were not small.
At least two hundred soldiers' lives were dedicated to the captured castles. As for the ordinary people who were plundered to serve as the main force, half of them had already gone to meet the gods.
"It's still a little too slow." Otto frowned as he listened to the knights reporting their progress.
At this rate, it would take nearly a month to completely wipe out the Osnabrück area.
After such a long time, the main force or reinforcements of the Saxons had already arrived.
"Is this still too slow?" Count Werner was dumbfounded. If the Saxons hadn't made preparations in advance, the current progress would have been impossible.
But he also knew what Otto was worried about.
"Otherwise, we can simply go south and attack the main force of the Saxons together with the Duke's troops. As long as we defeat the enemy's main force, everything else will be easy to handle."
"It's not difficult to defeat the enemy. The problem is that it's too difficult to defeat." Otto looked at the map, his brows knitted together.
"The Saxons have built a lot of defense facilities in the south. When we attack each other, we just make the enemy shrink into his own turtle shell. In that case, when will this war end? This is different from what we have done before. The goals you want to achieve are far different.
Besides, since this is all about attacking the enemy, we might as well stay here, at least we can contain the other side and have a chance to fight the enemy's main force."
"Brother, I have an idea." El, who had not spoken much and was even ignored by Otto and Werner, suddenly spoke.
Otto and Werner looked at each other and looked at El.
"If you have any ideas, just tell me!"
"I think the reason why we are in a dilemma now is largely due to the lack of troops. If we have enough troops, we can just advance step by step regardless of whether the enemy sends reinforcements.
So now, we just need to solve the problem of troop strength."
"Baron El, do you mean that we go to the Duke to ask for reinforcements?" Werner took the lead in ending the topic and shook his head to express his opinion.
"Not to mention that the Duke has no reinforcements on hand. By the time the reinforcements arrive through a detour, the Saxon reinforcements will also arrive, so there is no point."
"No, don't we have suitable soldiers now?" El smiled slightly, not angry.
"You mean, those farmers?" Otto came back to his senses, but his brows still did not loosen. "These people have no fighting power. It is enough to attack the city and consume the defenders' arrows. Do you want to rely on these people for field battles?"
"Nothing is impossible." El seemed very confident.
"The biggest problem why these people have poor combat effectiveness is the lack of spiritual support. If we can give them enough benefits and at the same time require them to impose strict military laws, I believe that the combination of the two will increase the combat effectiveness of these farmers."
It will exceed my brother’s imagination.”
At this moment, Otto and Werner's eyes changed when they looked at El, as if they saw a killing star.