A drizzle fell from the sky, soaking the world through. Outside the city of Behenopzom, a group of soldiers from the east coast were working hard to build fortifications.

The fortifications were made of wood and soil, not very strong, but there was no better way at present. The stones and bricks had to be pulled from far away, and the cost was also high. Frank Banning, the leader of the militia group, had clearly rejected the request of the East Coast people, asking the East Coast troops to be stationed outside the city and not move at will, which annoyed many people.

"Wu Yiqun, I heard that the French Army had forced to cross the Rhine River, but why did the French Army stationed in Lille still stay away?" In the only decent wooden room, Major Yang Liang's slender claws clasped his fingers on the table, as if practicing piano, and asked with confusion.

"It seems..." Lieutenant Wu Yiqun made a pot of tea for Yang Liang and said carefully: "Maybe the Spanish did not agree to the French army passing through their country's territory, so that Lill's army might have been transferred to another place."

"I think of checking the area upstream of the Scheld River to the south. What do you think?"

"This..." Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, who is currently temporarily serving as the staff of Yang Liang, was stunned at first when he heard this, and then hesitated: "Sir, it is probably not the time. Mr. Frank Banning, the highest commander of Behenopzom's military, has severely banned our army from leaving the existing positions. It is said that because the Swiss mercenaries had disturbed the people and fled after they went out of the woods during the previous trip, they were afraid that our army would do the same, which would affect the morale of the large army."

"It's ridiculous. The Swiss will run away, can our people escape?" Yang Liang smiled disdainfully and said nothing more. For those Swiss who were deserters who were deserters, he could only say that they lacked IQ and needed recharge urgently. Not to mention that the French have not yet fought and they have no need to escape at all, they have already attacked. So in the midst of a chaos, how can they survive if they are not familiar with the place? Of course, they are backing the organization (army) and joining together to keep warm. It's so stupid!

However, when it comes to the escape of these Swiss people, we must mention the current battlefield situation. The French have declared war on the Netherlands for more than a month, but the news that has been reported to the Behenopzom area is still very chaotic. Someone will swear that when they see the French army gathering in Mons and Charleroy (all spoils from the heritage war), the number is as high as "100,000 people". They are ready to cross the entire Southern Netherlands to reach the estuary of the Schelde River and launch a campaign against Zeland and the Netherlands provinces.

Attack; at a moment, some Spain did not agree to the French crossing their territory. King Louis XIV of France was very angry about this, but he did not want to start a war on the other side for the time being; at a moment, some people simply said that while trafficking goods to Antwerp, they had seen a large number of French cavalry driving on the roads in the countryside, and also vividly described how powerful the French army was, how cowardly the Spanish were, etc. This seemed to be one of the reasons why some Swiss mercenaries who were not interested were abandoned.

Such chaotic and inconsistent news naturally caused a headache for Yang Liang, because it meant that he could not plan the plan normally, and this might be the most direct reason why he had the idea of ​​going to the front to investigate in person. As for asking people like Frank Benning, he was not so stupid, because that guy didn't know much more than him, and Yang Liang didn't trust him much.

"Forget it, forget it, I didn't have the heart to go to the south to investigate after you said this. Really, I just earned a few dollars from the Dutch. Is it worth our efforts? They themselves are not as worried as we have." After sighing a long time, Yang Liang said with some excitement: "Go and go out to patrol the camp."

After saying that, Yang Liang put on a big cap, picked up the command knife, and walked out of the door with great strides. Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun quickly put down the kettle in his hand and followed behind him step by step.

The camp was now open and ready to have lunch. Because of the rainy days, the firewood was short of firewood. The bastards of Behenopzom forwarded a total of 20,000 rupees (the employment fee is now settled separately by the Netherlands, Zelan and Li Qing), and other supplies were very pitiful: except for the terrible pickled herring, mixed with water and a little sour wine, and the hard rye bread, the people of the East Coast seemed to have not received any other supplies so far.

As a last resort, Major Yang Liang had to buy fruits, vegetables and some live poultry and livestock in the area of ​​Behenopzom with a bonus of 20,000 ruts, to supplement the nutrition of the officers and soldiers. Moreover, in the early days, due to the shortage of firewood nearby, he had to go out far to pick some firewood as fuel. Therefore, the East Coast people also purchased peat from the Dutch to cook and keep warm. However, due to the war's neighbor, the peat owner and his family fled to Amsterdam, and the workers were missing, so this source was cut off. The East Coast people had eaten cold food for two consecutive days, which was also extremely miserable.

At this moment, when Yang Liang saw that most of the soldiers were eating dry bread with cold water. Occasionally, some soldiers were trying to make fire with wet branches that they got from somewhere, making the smoke shrouded. This made him feel very unhappy: The Dutchman was nothing, and he hid in the city and ate delicious food and drink spicy food. Then, when we were all beggars, Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, as a contact person who knew Dutch, often went to and from Behenopzom City, he saw the Dutch militia bragging and chatting all day long, drinking and playing cards, and there was no sense of tension that should have before the war came. This made him very confused. Could it be that their motherland was invaded by Britain and France?

Yesterday, Lieutenant Wu Yiqun entered the city again and planned to ask for some rain gear with Frank Banning. As a result, he found that dozens of militia officers of all sizes in this guy's headquarters were holding a banquet. These people drank a lot of wine and ate over 300 gulf of food, including ham, beef, mutton, poultry, rabbit, sausage, meat pie, salmon, shrimp, flan, bread, crispy candy, cinnamon bread, butter, Dutch cheese, feta cheese, butter, apple, hazelnut, carrot and lettuce, etc., which almost left a saliva after seeing it. At the same time, he was furious: This dog-day Dutch militia either drank and ate or wore uniforms to find a painter to paint for themselves. How could he look like a soldier? How could he look for a war? Are you going to surrender directly? What else do you want to come to us?

"It won't work!" After walking around the camp, Yang Liang felt very guilty when he saw many soldiers' lips being black and blue. Therefore, he quickly said to Lieutenant Wu Yiqun: "Staff Officer Wu, you are good at Dutch. Now, go to the Third Mixed Battalion to bring two platoons of people, fully armed into the city, and find the dog-dance Frank Banning for me, and say that we don't have enough rain gear, firewood, and food is too bad, so let them find a way quickly. Otherwise,

I can't control the soldiers' trouble. By that time, the discipline of the soldiers who lost their minds may be gone. The abundant food, delicious water and wine, and enthusiastic and beautiful women in Behenopzom may have a fatal attraction to them. You just told Frank Banning, what will he do! Who do these Dutch people treat us as? Are the poor people who live by their charity? It's inexplicable!"

After hearing this, Lieutenant Wu Yiqun nodded blankly, then saluted Yang Liang, and turned to pick up people in the barracks. After he left, Major Yang Liang found the contact staff of the Third Mixed Battalion, and asked him to immediately take his own letter to Amsterdam to meet Mr. Li Qing, the envoy of the plenipotentiary, and asked him to help inquire about some "reliable", "accurate", and "not spread rumors" about the situation on the battlefield on the French and Dutch land. The contact staff immediately followed and set off.

After a few days, when the first ray of sunshine in the morning of May 21, 1673 shone from the east horizon, a large-scale transportation team also came to the military camp of the east coast of Behenopzom. This team came out of the city, transporting many foods, as well as some fine wine, fruits and vegetables, and even a lot of live cattle and sheep, which shocked the morale of the officers and soldiers. Of course, a large amount of dry firewood and peat, as well as some waterproofing equipment were indispensable. In short, Major Yang's intimidation completely played a role, and probably made the Dutch militia hold a grudge, which can be seen from their dark faces.

The contact staff sent by Yang Liang to Amsterdam were also the contact staff sent by Yang Liang to the Third Mixed Battalion. After this Jun rushed back, he immediately handed over the information documents obtained from Li Qing without saying a word. Yang Liang did not delay. He asked his subordinates to carefully count the supplies and distribute them according to the plan. Due to the efforts of the East Coast people, the living conditions of the more than a thousand Swiss mercenaries next door were also improved to a certain extent. Although the size was not as large as that of the East Coast people, it was not bad. This made them full of gratitude to Major Yang and then returned to their headquarters to carefully review the information documents.

The handwriting on the information files given by Li Qing was quite messy, and there were many smears and modifications. It can be seen how chaotic and contradictory the information they collected at the beginning was, which of course also conformed to the usual style of the Dutch. Yang Liang learned from the documents that the French dispatched about more than 100,000 troops, and King Louis XIV personally fought. Along with him were a large number of nobles and military generals, such as Viscount Tirener, Prince Conde, Marshal Vobon, Grand Duke Luxembourg, etc., were all famous generals. The Dutch were probably trembling just by hearing the names. The French also boasted that this was "a powerful military lineup that has never been seen in the world before", which shows this.

What surprised Yang Liang a little was that King Louis XIV of France seemed to have taken a different approach this time and took a route to attack the United Provinces, namely, detouring through the two places of Münster and Cologne on the other side of the Rhine River (these two countries were also allies of France at this time), and attacked the three provinces of Esser, Gelderland and Utrecht. According to common sense, it is unlikely that the French would take this route, and there is no need to say much about the reasons. The long road, thalassin and many strong fortresses are all real difficulties, but the French did indeed march from here, which is also magical.

In early May, 15,000 elite French troops crossed the Rhine. Anyone who is familiar with geography understands that as long as the French successfully crossed the river, the United Provinces would be shackled. Of course, the Dutch were very clear about this, so they deployed heavy troops in the riverside area. However, due to the long river bank line and the relatively insufficient force, these were the defenses in the Rhine River Basin, which quickly allowed the French to break through the defense line.

The French selected the river crossing locations at that time, and due to the drought season, the river surface was narrow, less than 20 meters, and the flow rate was also very low. There were some militias deployed by the Dutch on the other side of the river (the city was gathered here after being brought together). e. The scale was about thousands, without too many artillery, and there were about four hundred professional soldiers. They were cavalrymen from the northern province of Friesland.

Regarding the evaluation of these armies, Li Qing wrote "As timid as a mouse, and as afraid of the enemy as a tiger", because they failed to cause any trouble during the French army crossing the river. As soon as the French successfully crossed the river, these people either fled or knelt down and begged for mercy, which made people speechless.

During this battle of crossing the river, the French lost only a few soldiers and two nobles: Earl of Nojen and Duke Longeville. The former was drowned because he was too far from the crossing the river (unfortunately), while the latter was killed by the desperate surrendered soldiers who had already knelt down on the ground and begged for surrender. This can only be said that if he did not commit suicide, he would not die, and if he did not commit suicide, he would definitely die!

King Louis XIV of France personally commanded the entire cavalry group to complete the crossing of the river, and then joined the infantry to reach the other side of the Rhine through the subsequently set up pontoon bridge. Under the instructions of the king, the imperial writers of the army "Wen Siquan" made up a story overnight when facing the desperate interception of tens of thousands of Dutch troops. When facing the desperate interception of tens of thousands of Dutch troops, the king was calm and commanded the invincible French army to cross the river successfully braved the enemy's artillery fire, and immediately sent it to Paris for publicity.

After crossing the Rhine, there was almost nothing to stop them. The unstoppable Louis XIV's army successively conquered Doesburg, Arnheim, Northumpur, Nijmegen, Bomel, Schenk and other places without bloodshed. Every day from morning to night, Louis XIV could receive news that a certain place was conquered by the French army.

"It's a big trouble now!" Major Yang Liang, who had not expected that the Dutch army was so incompetent, couldn't help but say after reading the news.
Chapter completed!