Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1139: Thoughts

Chapter 1139: Thoughts

Sigismund's sudden death caused the originally chaotic battlefield to fall into a brief silence.

Xu Zengshou was stunned. His martial arts skills were not very high, but he did not expect that the shot he casually threw would actually pierce the bald enemy general's heart.

Sigismund deserved to die here. In order to escape easily, he did not wear any armor at all, thinking that he would be safe under the protection of the guards. But he did not expect that this time, he became a living target for Xu Zengshou's spear.

The nobles and knights gathered around Sigismund were also stunned. Sigismund was their leader, but he was killed in battle by the Ming army's "ambush", which completely destroyed their last will to fight.

The Crusaders, having lost their leader, immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

Xu Zengshou killed several Crusaders who wanted to seize Sigismund's body, and then cut off Sigismund's head, which gave him time to destroy the stables. He ruthlessly killed all the horses that he could not take away, burned the stables completely, and then went to meet Zhu Di with the head.

On Zhu Di's side, the Crusaders' counterattack had come to an end. They retreated from the city gate tower and confronted the Ming army under the city.

Zhu Di and his men had already gained a foothold at the city gate tower, and were taking advantage of this breathing time to bandage their wounds and sharpen their weapons. Xu Zengshou and his men rode forward, and the Crusaders surrounding the city gate tower did not dare to stop them. Xu Zengshou easily joined forces with Zhu Di.

"Your Highness the Fourth Prince, we have fulfilled our mission. The Western Yi's stables have been set on fire by our brothers!" After killing for a while, Xu Zengshou was in a good mood. After climbing up the city wall, he took off his helmet and came to Zhu Di to report.

Zhu Di caught a glimpse of the head in Xu Zengshou's hand. While bandaging his wound, he asked curiously, "Whose head is this? Why did you carry it all the way and bring it back?"

"This?" Xu Zengshou shook the cloth bag containing the head, and then threw it casually, and Sigismund's head rolled out. "When I went to burn the stable just now, I happened to encounter a few people led by Western barbarian nobles, and I took care of them. This person is the commander of those people."

"They speak in bird language, and I don't understand what they are saying. I don't know who this guy is." Xu Zengshou said. "There are many strange patterns on his clothes. I brought them back." As he said this, he shook the cloth wrapped around the head.

When the cloth was unfolded, it turned out to be a piece of clothing with many totems painted on it. However, most of the Western nobles used totems to represent themselves. To deal with these Westerners, Zhu Di naturally had people who knew these tricks.

Sigismund had many identities, so there were many totems on his clothes. Zhu Di only took a glance and his pupils shrank slightly: he had guessed that this guy must be a big fish.

Western countries frequently intermarry, and the higher-ranking nobles are, the more likely they are to have multiple identities. The fact that Sigismund had multiple heraldic totems on his clothes was enough to show that he was a very high-ranking noble general.

Zhu Di pointed to the side, and a Ming soldier with curly red hair clasped his fists to Zhu Di and walked out. This was a Ming soldier with Se-mu descent, who had been undercover in Europe for a long time at Zhu Di's order to collect the necessary intelligence for Zhu Di's westward expedition.

There were not many Seljuq spies available in the Ming Dynasty, and even fewer who could guarantee absolute loyalty. The Seljuq personal guard beside Zhu Di was not only a personal guard of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, but also a member of the Ming Dynasty's spy team carefully trained by Zhu Di, who had infiltrated European countries to gather intelligence.

The Seljuq guard picked up the shirt and carefully examined Sigismund's head. Then, with a look of surprise on his face, he knelt on one knee and said, "Congratulations, Your Highness. Congratulations, Your Highness. If I am not mistaken, this person should be Sigismund, a great figure in the Crusaders."

"Oh?" Xu Zengshou suddenly became interested. "Are you sure? How extraordinary is this person?"

"General Xu, I can confirm it." The Seljuq guard turned to Xu Zengshou and said, "Among the Crusaders, the only one who could wear so many coats of arms at the same time was Sigismund. He was the king of Hungary and Croatia, and had the right to inherit the throne of Bohemia. He was also the marquis of many countries..." The Seljuq guard listed a lot of titles like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube, making Zhu Di and Xu Zengshou dizzy.

Zhu Di waved his hand to stop him from reciting the title like a mantra, and asked: "No need to say more, just tell me how powerful this person is in the Crusades? How does he compare to the commander-in-chief John?"

There are many small countries in Europe, and the titles of kings in many countries are not worth much. In addition to the chaos of various relationships, Zhu Di has become accustomed to someone having all kinds of scary titles, but in fact he is just a worthless dandy. The Seljuq guard said: "Your Highness, if we only talk about the Crusades, this person's influence in the Crusades is far greater than that of Commander John."

"Commander John is only commander in name only, but this man commands a large number of troops in the Crusades and is one of the most powerful figures in the Crusades."

"John only relies on his father's influence. He can never be compared with this man."

"So, this is indeed a big fish!" Zhu Di stood up. "This man is a powerful figure in the Crusaders. Now that he is dead, there will be chaos in the Crusaders!"

"Hahahaha." Xu Zengshou was also overjoyed. He never thought that he would get such a great achievement just by burning a stable. He suggested to Zhu Di: "Your Highness, if this is the case, why don't we hang up the head of this beast, and then bluff and pretend to attack."

"Perhaps we can drive these people out of the city and seize the food supplies in the city."

The granary in the castle is located in the most central part of the city. Another strategic intention of the Ming army was to seize the food and grass in the castle, which was enough for 100,000 Crusaders to use for several months. According to the original plan, the only way to seize the food and grass was to wait for the main force of the rear team to arrive and completely drive the Crusaders out of the castle, and then they could receive the food and grass stored in the castle.

However, in this case, some of the food and grass would inevitably be taken away by the Crusaders withdrawing from the city, and there was even a risk of all of them being burned.

However, if the Ming army could take advantage of the opportunity of killing the Crusader general and the low morale and disordered command among the Crusaders to drive the chaotic Crusaders directly out of the castle, then there would be a high probability that the Ming army would be able to obtain all the food and grass in the city.

This was a risky move, after all, the gap in military strength between the two sides was huge, but it was enough to make Zhu Di have some ideas.

(End of this chapter)