At the edge of the Wuming Hawkan Camp, Marshal Matiwen sat on a huge round stone, holding the iron armor and leather gloves worn by his right hand in his left hand, and covered his forehead with his hands in distress.

In the camp behind him, more than two hundred knights were untiing their armor, handing over the wet clothes to the soldiers to bake by the campfire, and for urgent crossing the river, these gentlemen who represented the strongest combat power of the Valois royal family suffered too much.

"Sir Charles, you never thought that they would leave a force behind when they retreated and ambush you?"

Earl Charles stood not far from Mathion, his face far more bitter than the marshal. Until now, he still couldn't understand why a unit with four thousand troops would lose all its combat power in a few days.

The enemy did not even set up a dignified formation to fight him, never once.

Now facing Mathion's questioning, Charles is sure that he can't come up with any reasonable words.

"I thought they would stay, leaving a troops of two hundred men to block my pursuers. I gathered all the gunpowder and sent one hundred and seventy musketeers and six hundred Swiss infantry, and more troops went down the mountain later to ensure that the pursuit was foolproof."

"At night, no one can control all the soldiers at night. There will always be people who will fall behind and get lost, but they don't. They gather all the troops in the dark, and more than six hundred muskets pulled out cross-country and shot me. They mixed with many large-caliber short cannons and sprayed shots. The gun fire forced all the soldiers back. The braver my troops, the more severe the casualties."

Earl Charles couldn't understand until the next day that the Ming army was clearly retreating, so why did he leave all the troops to defend in the south? Why did he lead his troops into the enemy's ambush circle like everything had been arranged.

Mathion felt much more uncomfortable than him. He led his troops to assemble all the way and arrived at the agreed assembly site with insufficient supplies. He failed to see Charles' troops arrive as promised, so he could only continue to search westward.

During Spain's strongest period, there was only one real reason why the Western Army failed to attack France. In the relatively poor southern France, no wealth could be provided for the army to replenish on-site, whether it was purchased, requisitioned or plundered.

His only hope during the march was the baggage carried by the Charles tribe, which contained the winter clothes, food and gunpowder he could use.

As a result, he received news that Charles on the Crane was besieged by the Ming army. Until he arrived on the east bank of the Crane River, Matien still had a little hope in his heart, hoping that his gunpowder would still be there.

But no, nothing.

Clothing, food, gunpowder, all disappeared.

He also picked up thousands of wounded soldiers in Wumingshan Camp.

Including the reinforcements sent by the king, tens of thousands of people are waiting for dinner every day. It is easy to imagine how depressed it is.

Matiweng opened his mouth. He wanted to ask Count Shir why he didn't organize a second pursuit immediately after the first pursuit was blocked. The Ming army would not squat behind and ambush all the time, and the second pursuit would definitely win.

But he didn't say anything in the end. It was meaningless to realize it later. It seemed that their Earl of Charles had been trained to face vulnerable enemies in the fight against Navarra Henry's peasant army, and suddenly let him fight against the Ming army that was beyond his knowledge, and did not know how to deal with it.

Take risks when it is time to be steady, and take risks like a turtle when it is time to be steady.

He just sent someone to convey orders to the troops waiting on the east bank of the Cran River: "Tell the Duke of Ruwayez that the Ming army retreated south along the west bank, and the Charles army would take half a day to complete the reorganization, and finally two brigades would be put into the subsequent battle."

During the conversation between Mation and the messenger, Earl Charles knew what he should do next, but he asked in disbelief: "The Ming army marched very quickly, and we will continue to pursue it?"

Continue to pursue?

"Why do I have to get our food back!"

"Two wounded soldiers assigned a healthy soldier to escort them to the nearest town, and Marshal Billon and Duke Jowayez will lead their troops south from the bridge to the west bank, and we can't divide the troops anymore."

In my heart, Matiweng raised the threat of Yuan Zizhang, the Ming army again and again. Any brigade of thousands of people would obviously be annihilated if it met them.

He had to recover supplies. No town around could supply tens of thousands of troops. Whether O'Neal in the northwest or Rocheford in the southwest, production stagnated in religious wars. If it could not catch up, the huge offensive that the royal family had finally formed would return to Povadir in the form of a defeat.

The entire southwestern France would fall into the hands of the Ming army.

Matiweng dared not talk to others about this conjecture - they faced less than two thousand Ming troops.

What does it feel like to throw two thousand Spanish in southern France? There is no threat at all. They will starve to death and freeze to death here. However, less than two brigades of Ming army advanced more than 200 miles in a month, and then broke through the dilemma of almost being surrounded, and went south leisurely... Matiwen really didn't want to call this retreat.

That is a very normal marching. They still maintain extremely strong fighting spirit and will, and even brought the bodies of the dead when they retreated south.

The calmness of the Ming army made Mathion suspect that Angoulem, Sant and some nearby land were already filled with Ming soldiers who were ready to go.

The reorganized soldiers were still good at Earl Charles, and his proficient mathematics helped him again. In just over an hour, more than 900 wounded soldiers were escorted by 500 infantrymen to Rochefort and O'Neal.

The reason why he was sent to the two cities was that Earl Charles was worried that the economic conditions of the two places were not good, and the sudden increase of nearly 1,500 defenders might put too much pressure on military rations.

Two brigades composed of Swiss and German Corps were mixed up. To Marshal Martyon's surprise, Earl Charles also organized a cavalry squadron led by the knights.

The horse that was pulling the cart to the mountain early was probably the most correct choice for the defeated count.

On the other side, Marshal Bilon and Duke Jovayaz also led their troops to rise up after receiving the news and rushed south to the bridge where they planned to cross the river. Everyone knew very well that they had to catch up with the Ming army.

No one is willing to bear the consequences of food shortage.

However, all French generals, including the two French marshals, underestimated the courage of the Ming army commander Yuan Zizhang.

When Marshal Bilon ran south for thirty miles as the front drive with the decree knights, he immediately sent cavalry back north and asked the messengers to swim across the river to convey a report on the enemy situation ahead to Mathion on the west bank.
Chapter completed!