Chapter 144 The Army Crosses the Border
Crossing the border with an army is no trivial matter. Leonard's three thousand soldiers can already determine the outcome of a battle involving tens of thousands of people in this era.
A small town with a few hundred people could be slaughtered in an instant without even having a dessert for these three thousand soldiers.
Therefore, after receiving the news that Leonard was sending troops, Garris ordered the mobilization of all military forces in the territory and stood ready.
Then, on this sunny morning, Garris and the others received another message.
Leonard asked his army to cross the main street of Alhadi town.
Of course, this message was apparently sent to Isabella.
When Isabella received this message, Gareth, John, Simon, George and others were all present.
Isabella, who was wearing a simple crown, did not reply directly to the messenger, but instead looked at Garris and the others.
Both John and George looked worried. The risk of such close contact between the two armies was indeed very high.
These days, various feudal lords have very limited restraints on their own armies. If they are not careful, friction and conflicts will not end well.
But if they reject the other party just because of this, it will appear that they are timid and fearful. When the rumors spread, there will be a certain negative impact.
In the end, Garris said softly: "It doesn't matter."
Isabella also nodded, indicating that this was what she meant.
Today, this territory still lacks a systematic central organization, so the meaning of Garris is the meaning of Isabella, and therefore the meaning of Isabella is the meaning of this territory.
……
Leonard's army moved like a long snake. They walked on this plateau like a spear,
As Leonard rode closer to the town, his expression became slightly more solemn.
When he was far away, he couldn't see clearly, but when he got closer, he realized how much of a surprise Isabella and Garris had given him in the past year.
Surrounded by four knights on each side, Leonard rode his horse at the front of the military formation, and was therefore the first to meet Isabella.
The girl is not riding a horse, but is wearing simple men's clothing, with an ordinary crown on her head to highlight her identity.
Therefore, when the two met, Leonard was condescending and had no interest in dismounting, but Isabella had to raise her head and look up.
However, this did not make Isabella so humble, because behind her were a total of 140 armored soldiers and six fully armed knights on horses.
Although most of these armored soldiers wore cotton armor, only a small number of soldiers wore chain mail.
But the armored soldiers in Leonard's army are actually at this level, and the assembly rate of chain armor is even worse.
The cotton armor commonly used in Europe these days is a soft armor made of thick cotton or linen sewn in layers. Sometimes it is filled with cotton, animal hair or other soft materials, such as leather, to increase the cushioning capacity.
In terms of protection, ordinary swords that have not been carefully polished cannot cut through this kind of cotton armor at all. They can also protect against blunt force blows and can effectively reduce the penetration depth of arrows, but when faced with When it comes to spearing, it’s easy to be powerless.
Therefore, the Franks in this period generally regarded soldiers wearing cotton armor as armored soldiers.
A complete armored infantry formation of 140 people is enough to prove the identity of a lord. This is Isabella showing Leonard that she has grown up.
Looking at His Highness, who was wearing men's clothing and had short hair, Leonard snorted coldly.
"Long time no see, Isabella."
"Long time no see, Leonard."
The conversation between the two was brief and boring. They were strangers to each other, and there really was nothing to talk about.
Even the etiquette that should be expected among nobles has been simplified to calling them by their first names.
Isabella moved out of the way, and the armored soldiers behind her immediately changed their formations. They stood on the left and right sides of the road with neat steps, making way for Leonard and the soldiers behind him.
From this, Leonard also saw through Alhadi Town at a glance.
On this main street, every three steps, there is a soldier holding a weapon. The average armor coverage rate of these soldiers is between 30% and 40%, which is roughly the same as Leonard's main force.
At the exit of this street, there was a piece of metal reflecting dazzling light. When Leonard led the vanguard and walked into the town, he could feel the clear hostility. The soldiers around him hated him from the bottom of his heart.
He was certain that if given the chance, those soldiers would charge him without hesitation.
But he doesn't care.
The person he cares about is at the end of this street.
Garris placed the highlight of the welcome ceremony at the other end of the town.
Unlike Isabella, Garris was on a horse, and behind him were nearly a hundred soldiers on horseback.
About 30 of them were all wearing chainmail. They did not wear burqas, but let the metal reflect the sunlight.
It's just that in Leonard's eyes, these people on horseback are not cavalry. Most of them are just mounted infantry, and only a few are unmistakable light cavalry.
"That's right, kid. He's much better than my good-for-nothing stepson. He can start from scratch."
Leonard looked down upon Garris's wealth, but he also knew that compared with his stepson Humphrey, Garris's family had nothing to praise.
If his father had not died in the Battle of Mengisa, and the Leper King felt that he was in debt, it would have been impossible for Garris to be trained as a knight in the palace.
However, Garris had no interest in Leonard's praise. Instead, after a casual courtesy, he motioned to the people on horseback behind him to get out of the way and told Leonard to leave quickly.
As Leonard's army crossed through the town of Alhadi, Garris also made a slight estimate of the opponent's military strength.
There are three infantry brigades of 1,000 people, nearly half of whom are wearing cotton armor, and a smaller number are wearing chainmail armor.
The weapons are mainly spears, halberds, maces, one-handed swords, crossbows, etc., and there are not many longbowmen.
As for Leonard's most elite ones, they are the nearly thirty fully armed knights and corresponding knight attendants.
These people formed a heavy cavalry force of more than 100 people, as well as nearly 200 mercenary light cavalry.
The military appearance was so grand that the young people behind Garris and the Paladin attendants could not help but be moved by it.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem is a country full of martial virtues, although the number of Franks in this country may only be a few hundred thousand, although the total population of this country is only four to five million.
However, during wartime, the number of troops it can mobilize can reach 20,000 people. If mobilized quickly, it can also mobilize 10,000 troops to start with.
Relying on a more efficient mobilization capability than the Muslim warlords in the Middle East during the same period, the Kingdom of Jerusalem could be said to have won many battles before the rise of Saladin.
Even after Saladin's rise, he was hit head-on at the Battle of Mengisa, crushing his 30,000-strong army.
Even if Saladin later regained his place with Baldwin, he still had PTSD and maintained relative peace with the Kingdom of Jerusalem until his strength was accumulated to the limit.
It can be said that it was this army that passed in front of Garris that maintained the Franks' colonial rule over the Middle East.
Let the Franks have the opportunity to try to colonize overseas in this 12th century AD.
Of course, an army like this is not without its flaws.
And the flaw is even more serious.
In Garris's eyes, Leonard's 3,000-man army did not clearly distinguish between auxiliary troops, or in other words, they just used ordinary infantry as auxiliary troops.
To put it bluntly, the logistics of this 3,000-man legion are not generally bad, but very bad.
Some of them were just about twenty army carriages, pulling a lot of supplies and placing some miscellaneous weapons or camp equipment.
Of course, there is actually nothing to say about this. The combat radius of common wars in medieval Europe rarely exceeded three hundred kilometers.
With a combat radius of three hundred kilometers and carrying 10 days of rations, the marching mission can basically be completed without the need for specialized or additional logistics troops.
However, once it fell into a large-scale corps battle, or a true expedition, the Franks' march, before the Third Crusade, would inevitably fall into a messy stalemate and disaster.
In 1095, the Eastern Roman Emperor Alexios I Comnenus asked the Holy See for help, and Pope Urban II responded, thus kicking off another disaster.
(End of chapter)