Continental Warriors Yoo Ma

Seeing that the Duke was so excited that he was speechless, the adjutant had no choice but to leave.

Chapter 220 Four is not as good as Sun Shiwan

After capturing Pontoise, Joan left behind infantry and artillery, and led the cavalry to leave.

"The Bastard" du Noir will be in charge of defending the fortress.

Back then, he was the one who stood firm in Orleans, facing the tide of the British Allied Forces offensive, until the saint's rescue arrived.In terms of defending the city, there is no more suitable general on Ma Youfu's side than him.

Halfway, after meeting with Ma Youfu's hot air balloon unit, the two returned to the camp together.

However, after arriving at the camp, there was no atmosphere of joy and encouragement after the big victory. Instead, there was a chill, and everyone tensed up.

At this time, Jean Bro came galloping on horseback, stopped in front of Ma Youfu, and bowed: "Master Marquis, congratulations on your victory. But now there is one thing that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible."

"what's up?"

"Just this morning, when Her Majesty departed from Pontoise, the British launched an attack." Jean Bro pointed to the west, where there were several columns of billowing black smoke, covering the originally blue sky. A layer of lead gray.

The British army broke out from the gate of Saint-Louis on the left bank of Paris and advanced along the banks of the Seine.At that time, the Duke of Orleans was attacking the Dongrong Castle in the Vincennes Forest with all his strength, and a large number of troops and supplies were gathered on both sides of the Seine River.

As a result, the whole army was cut into two sections by the British cavalry.

The soldiers who were busy opening roads and transporting heavy siege equipment were defenseless.They collapsed in an instant during the British raid and fled in all directions.For a time, there were countless casualties, and floating corpses filled the Seine River.

Fortunately, the Duke of Orleans has a loyal and heroic guard, escorting the Duke to retreat upstream.On the other hand, Richmond, the adjutant of the Duke of Orleans, is also an excellent commander who has experienced many battles.He quickly organized the French army on standby in the camp and built a line of defense, preventing the British army from attempting to follow the rout and attack the barracks.

On the other hand, Jean Bro also reacted quickly, mobilized artillery to aim at the Seine, and blocked the river with firepower.

In addition, thanks to Ma Youfu's Chinese infrastructure madness gene, the French army built quite a few pontoon bridges on the Seine River, from the village of Evry to Qiaolian Town, which allowed the defeated French army on the right bank to escape a lot aisle.The Duke of Orleans also benefited from this, and finally escaped.

Talbot deserved to be the number one general of the British army. Although the assault in the morning was not exhaustive, it also killed more than [-] French troops, and more than [-] French troops were captured or scattered and fled.Even with the most optimistic estimate, no more than half of this part of the French army will be able to rejoin the team in the end.

In this battle, the strength of the French army was reduced by one-sixth, and the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, so that the adverse effects of the fall of Pontoise were minimized.

After listening to Jean Bro's report, Mayoufu was very speechless.

Although it wasn't his own troops who lost his direct lineage, after all, he had a very bad impression of the battle to regain Paris.

"Although Talbot is not Zhang Babai, the Duke of Orleans is even worse than Sun Shiwan!" Hearing that the Duke of Orleans actually had leisure time to recruit prostitutes for pleasure when he was in command of the battle, Ma Youfu said something that no one could understand emotion.

Fortunately, this setback did not affect the secret plan in Ma Youfu's heart, so he quickly cleared up his mood, still posing in front of everyone as if he was holding the wisdom pearl.

"Master Marquis, the Duke of Orleans is waiting for you." Jean Bro said in a low voice.

"Oh?" Ma Youfu raised his eyebrows.

The other party suffered such a big defeat, instead of going to his own barracks to appease the people, quietly licking his wounds, he ran to find him first, it was really abnormal.

"Teacher, go and deal with that noble lord. I'll go around Paris to see if I can gather as many defeated soldiers as possible," Joan of Arc said.

It's not that she wants to take advantage of the opportunity to expand her military strength, but the girl is very clear about how much harm the civilians will be caused by those unrestrained routs once they spread across the countryside.

"Be careful. I will release hot air balloons in the camp to provide you with information." Ma Youfu nodded.

Joan of Arc held her white battle flag, surrounded by the Germanic dog-licking knights, and roared away.And Ma Youfu returned to Evli Village as the command center.

Entering the temporary residence, he soon found the Duke of Orleans in the garden.

This nobleman who used to be personable, reserved and proud was very embarrassed at this moment.

Only half of the gold-rimmed and blue iris flower cloak on his body was broken, and the shiny armor was blackened and whitened by the smoke and fire, and even the delicately groomed beard around his lips was burnt off a large part .

Seeing Ma Youfu's surprised expression, although the Duke of Orleans felt ashamed that his family name was humiliated, he was secretly relieved.

Because that's what he wanted.

Although the Duke of Orleans is not very talented in politics or military, he still has some cleverness in being able to get along like a fish in water in the aristocratic circle, and even be praised to the sky by the enemy country.

After escaping from the battlefield of life and death and calming down, the Duke of Orleans immediately realized what this defeat meant to him.

Losing the bet to Ma Youfu is a trivial matter.

He admits defeat generously and wins praise for his honesty and generosity.

The most critical thing now is how to resolve the adverse effects of this defeat.

The Duke of Orleans knew very well that he was able to become the commander-in-chief of this French army because of his overwhelming reputation in the French aristocratic circle.

And his fame comes from three parts.

One is the trust of his cousin Charles VII.

The second is the strong strength possessed by the title of Duke of Orleans.

The third is to rely on reciting poems to win a name in the aristocratic circle.

Now that this defeat, if it is not handled well, it will offend Charles VII and lose the trust of His Royal Highness.And the halo over his head - the most talented noble in France, will disappear in an instant.

At that time, the disgraced Duke of Orleans can only stay away from the political arena and display his literary talents at banquets.

He didn't want that kind of ending.

After thinking about it, if you want to whitewash this big defeat as a small defeat, or even a draw, you must at least make up for the troops annihilated by the British.

If you have money, this is not difficult to do.Anyway, there are many mercenaries looking for war opportunities like hounds.

But unfortunately, the Duke of Orleans has no money on hand now.

In order to collect the ransom for him, his wife has already emptied the family property.There are many treasured works of art that have been sold.Now if you want to spend money on mercenaries, you can only borrow.

So compared to the greedy Italian banker who only has money in his eyes, Ma Youfu, who has political and military pursuits and needs his own cooperation, is obviously a more suitable creditor.

The Duke of Orleans came to see Ma Youfu deliberately in embarrassment, just to lower his profile and seek cooperation.

Chapter 220 Five

"Honorable Marquis of La Manche, you and Countess Doris have won the bet with me. According to the agreement, I will accept your command and be responsible for attacking the city wall on the left bank of Paris."

"Your honesty and open-mindedness are admirable." Ma Youfu served two glasses of iced wine and various seasonal fruits to the servant, and sat under the shade of the tree with the Duke of Orleans.

Almost killed by the rocket volley of the English longbowmen, the Duke of Orleans, who was still in fear, grabbed his wine glass and took a sip, finally heaving a sigh of relief.

Immediately, he said with a bitter face: "However, after this disastrous defeat, I am afraid that the title of 'Chief Marshal of the Royal Family' will soon be removed by His Royal Highness. When the next commander takes office, I am afraid that you will have to reconnect with him again." deal."

Ma Youfu immediately understood the meaning of the other party's words: If you don't want to experience another shitty incident because of the command power, you'd better keep yourself who has been subdued.

"Your Excellency, the king's trust in you must not be easily replaced," Ma Youfu comforted.

"That cousin of mine is not so easy to talk to." The Duke of Orleans shook his head helplessly, "Unless..."

"unless?"

"Unless you can provide me with a sum of money to hire enough soldiers to make up for the manpower lost due to the British sneak attack."

It turned out to be borrowing money.

Although the Duke of Orleans was deliberately staged, what he said was true.It is obviously a better choice to keep this incompetent commander who has been subdued than to let Charles VII parachute a newcomer to seize power.

"Your Excellency, of course I am happy to lend money to a famous nobleman. I also believe that with the property of the Orleans family, I have the financial resources to repay the loan. However, collateral is still needed. How much money are you going to borrow and how much are you going to pay?" What's the price?"

As a typical medieval aristocrat, the means of production that the Duke of Orleans could use as collateral was nothing more than land.He couldn't think of anything else that could be used as a loan.

But which piece of land to use as mortgage is something worth thinking about carefully.

The Duke of Orleans is only his main title. In addition, he also serves as the Duke of Valois, Count of Beaumont, Count of Blois and so on.

Among them, the Duke of Valois is just an honorary title.As the "Land of Longxing" of the Valois family, there are a large number of territories directly under the royal family, including Paris, under its name, and it is impossible to use them as mortgages.

And among the remaining territories, those who can mortgage a good price...

The Duke of Orleans examined it in his mind, and finally settled on the Earl of Beaumont.

This land adjoins Normandy, which is now also under British occupation, lacks governance, has no benefits at all, and even if it is lost in the end, there is not much loss.

Moreover, the Earl of Beaumont is next to Ma Youfu's Earl of Rouen, Ma Youfu must be very interested.

"Your Excellency the Marquis, I am willing to mortgage the Earl of Beaumont to you in exchange for a loan of [-] livres."

"The Earl of Beaumont?"

Ma Youfu immediately asked his servant to bring the map, checked it, and said: "This territory is indeed suitable as a mortgage. But how much money can be mortgaged, we need to send someone to carefully examine the population and industry of the territory before we can do it." make a decision."

In this state of war, how do we investigate?

When I really figured out how many people the Earl of Beaumont has and how much it produces every year, I'm afraid the Battle of Paris would have been over long ago.

The Duke of Orleans knew that this was a tactic used by Mayouf to lower the price, and he cursed a few words in his heart, but he had to compromise, saying: "Mr. The development of animal husbandry or planting is a good choice. How about [-] livres in exchange for a loan of [-] livres?"

In the end, after some bargaining, the Duke of Orléans mortgaged the Earl of Beaumont to Mayouf at a price of [-] livres.The interest is a friendly price of [-]% a year, and the repayment period is three years.

Seeing the Duke of Orleans holding the loan contract obtained by mortgaging his ancestral land, he looked very happy, Ma Youfu shook his head, and said inwardly, "I don't feel sorry for selling my father's land..."

Because the money did not go to the accounts of the Northern France Trading Company, but Ma Youfu paid for it himself, so if it is not paid back when it is due, the Earl of Beaumont, together with the land and title, will become Ma Youfu's property.

Although the terms of the loan given by Ma Youfu are not harsh, but after careful calculation, we can see that with the current annual income of the Duke of Orleans and the financial situation where he still owes a redemption, he will not be able to pay [-] miles after three years. Foer's big bucks.

Unless he was lucky enough to capture a certain English nobleman on the battlefield and demand a considerable ransom.

But Ma Youfu, as the commander, would not let the Duke have such a chance to make meritorious deeds.

If he can master the two direct jurisdictions, then Ma Youfu's strength will advance by leaps and bounds, and he will become a truly stable nobleman who can rival the dukes.

After the Duke of Orleans got the loan from Ma Youfu, he immediately handed over the mess under the city of Paris to Richmond to clean up, and went to Reims by himself, "posting hero posts" to all countries, and recruited mercenaries wantonly.

Soon, he gathered a mercenary team of more than 8000 people, the main force of which was composed of Germans.

Coupled with Joan's efforts to gather 4 defeated soldiers, the number of French troops surrounding Paris has not decreased but increased, reaching nearly [-].

Even though there are more and more German-speaking people in the city of Paris, it is not known whether the people in the city will one day wake up the fear sleeping in their genes and directly open the door to surrender.

Although the [-] troops still cannot completely encircle Paris, the "giant city" that is one of the best in Europe today, it is still a formidable force.

After unifying the command, Ma Youfu began to attack Paris.

Although it was only a tentative attack at the beginning, the British army relied on the city wall to defend, and their losses were much smaller than that of the French army, but the disadvantage of numbers still put a lot of pressure on the Duke of Bedford.

Especially the French artillery was a headache for him.

On several occasions the walls on the right bank were knocked down by the giant Burgundian catapults.If it weren't for these two giant cannons that could only be fired once every two hours, giving the British army plenty of time to repair the city walls, Paris would have fallen long ago.

Although the six-pound cavalry gun did not pose a threat to the thick city wall, it did great damage to the defenders at the top of the city by virtue of its extremely outrageous accuracy and range advantage over the British artillery.

In particular, the cannon built by the Duke of Bedford to imitate the six-pound cavalry cannon, which had spent a lot of money, was only of its type, and its performance was weaker after all, and it suffered heavy losses in this artillery battle.

In order to keep the only remaining artillery fire, the Duke of Bedford had to order the artillerymen to withdraw from the city wall and set up artillery positions in the city-in case the city falls in the future, these artillery can still play a role in street fighting.

In Ma Youfu's artillery camp, the 24-pound mortars that had not been used until now were finally put on the battlefield two weeks after the siege began.