Baron Billon ruined everyone's interest in drinking and having fun at the banquet.

People called him coward Billon in private parties after the banquet prematurely ended, but on the second day after the banquet, before the nickname spread, no one in Paris would think he was exaggerating.

On November 20, 10th year of Wanli, Marshal Matien on the front line sent an urgent report, hoping that the king would send a decree knight to the south as reinforcements. Traces of the Ming army appeared on the north bank of the Dordogne River. Two castles twenty-four miles apart were successively captured in five days, and a team transporting supplies were also attacked.

Due to this urgent report, Billon was reluctant to take charge again.

Billon was happy to be able to lead the army again, he was just dissatisfied with the troops assigned to him by the king.

Together with Billon, they were gathered in Paris to set out with four hundred high-profile knights and their well-equipped entourages. This was the decisive force that France could invest in the land battlefield, but their direct commander was two nobles who were lucky enough to advance by their butts, as if fighting with the Ming army was an easy battle to achieve meritorious deeds.

One of them was Lavalette of Jean Louis Nogale. He was born into a family of warriors in Gasconi. His ancestors led his army to attack Pope Boniface during the era of the handsome Philip. He was a fellow villager with Navara Henry but betrayed him and joined the French palace. Before going to war, the third brother promised him that he would win the battle, and he would be named Duke Epenon; if Chen Jiujing could bring back his head, he would be named Field Marshal.

The other is Duke of Ruwayez, who has a prominent background and his father is Ruwayez, who has been fighting against Protestants in the south. He was named Duke at the age of 20 and married Hun Lao San's distant sister. The luxurious wedding was just held shortly after. For cousin's intimacy, Hun Lao San asked the palace to prepare for two weeks, and attended the wedding in the same clothes as the groom on that day.

After the wedding, seventeen banquets, horse riding competitions, music performances, masquerades and dance parties were held, and extravagant expenses were spent.

Even in the past, when religious wars had not yet begun, France's annual income was only 2.62 million Ducat.

During this even more difficult period when the war lasted for decades, the court estimated that the wedding and gifts given to newlyweds totaled 2 million gold coins. If the proportion of gold and silver in the Ming Dynasty was exchanged, it would be equivalent to 1.96 million taels, which was almost the annual income of France.

Billon's so-called proposal to ask Queen Mother Catherine to go and find Chen Jiujing to buy Bordeaux back was actually aimed at the King Hen Lao San and Duke Juyez. He estimated that two million taels of silver or gold of the same value were placed in front of Chen Jiujing. It is very likely that Chen Jiujing happily led the fleet out of France and would sign a trade treaty.

Even if you are not full, you can at least make a standstill to allow France to recuperate and deal with other challenges.

Anyway, the royal family will not use this money to build an army.

What's the use of the same money hitting Duke Jovayaz?

But the situation is different now. The Ming army has already started operations. In the cold winter, Billon can only bite the bullet and lead the army south... and he also has to take these two guys who he dislikes, refer to their opinions in everything.

Billon had always wanted to have a good talk with them. Before the war started, he needed to make sure that these two men would not act without permission and could fight with him, but he had no chance.

The entire army was cavalry. Although there were supplies to escort Marshal Matien on the front line, he still arrived on the banks of the Loire on the fifth day of sending troops. He went south and entered Marshal Matien's garrison area, which meant that he might encounter the Ming army, so Billon decided to wait for the news that the sentry brought back to the front before continuing to act.

He didn't think about how to communicate with the two, so Duke Jovayaz took Lavalet to him first.

"The Marshal says let me explain the situation of the army. Mr. Lavalet needs Chen Jiujing's head." Duke Ruvayaz said that Chen Jiujing's head seemed to be something that was easy to obtain. He smiled and said, "Don't worry, even if he became a Marshal, he would not steal your military rank."

As for Lavalette, who was following behind, he was carrying a helmet with only one eye slit and pinched his edge with gold, and raised his rough and handsome face, looking like he was bound to win the title of Duke Epenon.

Billon didn't like their attitude, but the conversation was good for the subsequent battle, and he spread his hands and entered the state.

"Chen Jiujing has several troops, four thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry should be the troops deployed by the Ming Dynasty in the New World. The heavy cavalry all wore Milan, Spain and our plate armor. They did not like to use heavy cavalry rifles, and often used powerful bows to close shooting or heavy weapons."

"Their knights never use them to attack the fronts. They often use cavalry as a last resort to chase the collapsed phalanx infantry and rob artillery. In addition, these knights are familiar with robbery places, collecting supplies and cleaning the battlefield. They are better than our team alone."

Duke Jovayaz listened to Billon's Xu's narrative and smiled at Lavalet: "I'm sure they won't have a chance to build a battlefield."

Billon did not refute and continued: "In my battle with them, the infantry phalanx was placed under the city, and only saw from a distance that they were nothing special. They might have been unloading the artillery from the ship, giving them ten times more firepower than us, and ammunition."

Recalling that Chen Jiujing used artillery fire to defeat the troops of three large arrays in one volley under the city of Bordeaux, Billon wondered whether these two guys could understand what it meant to be sufficient ammunition, so he had to add: "It's extremely sufficient."

The two of them had heard of this characteristic of Ming Jun for a long time. They were very cautious and rarely had any stubborn words. I heard Billon continue to talk about it.

"In addition, Chen Jiu passed by two mercenaries, one from the Han pirates from the Atlantic Ocean, composed of two black infantry corps using Spanish muskets. They were low morale, one using light muskets and the other using heavy muskets. They fought independently vulnerable, but were very dangerous under the protection of cavalry and spearmen."

"The other one is a Spanish mercenary, which is very common and difficult to deal with."

Billon said as he changed into a cautious tone and said, "But Marshal Matiweng's letter asking for help mentioned that the mercenaries of the Han pirates had left, and the Spanish mercenary group was only guarding various places due to the cold weather. At this time, the Ming army should not have gone to war, but not only crossed the river, but according to the defeated army, the style of the Ming army was also different from before. He suspected that Chen Jiujing had reinforcements."

"This Ming army is more well-equipped. Unlike Chen Jiujing's soldiers who wear clothes and armor, they all wear a standard blue cotton armor with iron inside. It is difficult to kill them with swords and spears. They can continue to fight if they are hit by muskets at a distance."

“Although the number of people is small and they act in teams, they are well trained without fear of the cold, and most importantly,”
Chapter completed!