At the beginning of December, Marin went to the agreed battlefield to investigate again, and found that there was a 3-kilometer-wide flat land 5 kilometers east of the battlefield, which could allow the Saxon army to escape. So, Marin hurriedly organized farmers to dig a wider river in this 3-kilometer-wide area.
A small river doesn't need to be deep, just wide enough. If the Saxon army fled eastward, it had to pass through this small river. It is no problem for infantry to wade across the river, but plate armored knights who wear heavy armor and even horses wear heavy horse armor cannot even think about crossing the river. Because knights and horses that are too heavy are likely to get stuck in the mud of the river. Unless, use a wooden boat to cross the river or build a bridge. However, Marin obviously would not leave such a flaw. Houses near the creek had to confiscate even their planks, let alone leave boats on the river.
It finally came to December 10th, and tomorrow the army will go out. In order to boost morale, Marin decided to "show" a miracle to boost morale...
The so-called manifestation of miracles is naturally a forgery. However, in Europe, to forge miracles is blasphemy, therefore, it is absolutely impossible to leave evidence to be discovered. Therefore, the very classic trick of "100 copper coins facing up" used by Di Qing, a famous general in the Northern Song Dynasty, cannot be used. Because those 100 reformed copper coins are flaws. If any curious subordinate discovers the mystery, he will become a sinner of blasphemy.
Therefore, Marin decided to adopt another method - Kongming Lantern...
For this reason, Marin secretly made four huge Kongming lanterns connected in series in advance, a total of 28 Kongming lanterns, strung together with wire, just spelled four letters - SIEG...
"Sieg" means "victory" in German, and making a Kongming lantern that spelled out the word "victory" is naturally to fool the soldiers. Moreover, Europeans have never seen Kongming lanterns, so it is convenient to fool them. If it were placed in Huaxia at the same time, maybe any knowledgeable scholar would recognize it as a Kongming lantern at a glance...
To this end, on the evening of December 10th, Malinte held a pre-expedition swearing-in and prayer meeting. Marin first delivered an impassioned speech, and shamelessly hinted at his identity as a "God's Blessed One", and believed that this expedition would definitely win a complete victory.
In this regard, the soldiers are actually dubious. In fact, even the optimistic soldiers just think that East Frisia will hold the country this time. Few people have such an idea to defeat Saxony. Because the strength of Saxony has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Germans for hundreds of years. It seems unwise for Marin to compete with Saxony by relying on East Frisia. However, because of the strict military law in the army, everyone dared not say anything depressing, lest they be punished for "shaking the morale of the army". A few days ago, some people were imprisoned in the horrible "little black room" for spreading pessimistic views, and they have not been released yet...
Therefore, the morale before this expedition was actually not high...
Marin led the soldiers, facing the direction of the holy city of Jerusalem in the southeast direction, praying to Jesus...
(In fact, because there are few people in the southeast, there is an uninhabited forest directly under the jurisdiction of Marin, which is convenient for the men sent by Kohler to "show" miracles...)
At first, everyone didn't care. However, at 8 o'clock in the evening, a little bit of "spark" suddenly appeared in the southeast direction... This is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that this "little bit of spark" is spelled into four huge letters—S, I , E, G, together is the German "victory"...
The illiterate soldiers were okay, but the literate officers were stunned...
"Sieg... sieg... Master, even Jesus gave a sign of victory! Master, we are sure to win!" Schwartz did not get an explanation from Marin, so he also mistakenly thought it was true" "miracle"...
"Oh my God! Is the Earl really blessed by God? Otherwise, how could the stars spell the word 'victory'? We are sure to win?" Frunzberg was also very shocked when he saw the "miracle" appearing, with his chest Make the sign of the cross.
Even many devout military officers knelt down to pray when they saw the miracle. Although the soldiers were illiterate, they didn't know what the word was in the sky in the southeast direction. However, being able to spell letters with "stars" must be a "miracle". So, a large piece of kneeling on the ground...
And Marin also took the opportunity to kneel down on the ground and shouted:
"Thank you for the blessing of Jesus, your most loyal believer, Marin, will follow your holy will and defeat the greedy Duke of Saxony!"
On the side, Kohler, who knew the inside story, took the opportunity to raise his arms and shouted:
"By Jesus, we will defeat the Saxons! Defeat the Saxons!"
"Defeat the Saxons!"
"Defeat the Saxons!"
…
All the soldiers shouted with forgetfulness, and in an instant, the morale, which was originally not high, soared to the top, and it was directly full...
Marin looked at the fanatical soldiers with great satisfaction, and felt that the victory this time was more certain...
In fact, since the formation of the army, although Marin has led everyone to fight many battles. However, there has never been a case of defeating the enemy head-on. Even, the only time his men faced the enemy head-on was on Texel Island. But that time, there was no victory, and the army retreated to Den Burg.
And the several big victories under Marin's command were all based on night attacks and sneak attacks. So, very unconvincing. From the perspective of outsiders, even many people in the army themselves only think that Marin's command skills are superb and cunning. However, many people in the army are not optimistic about the specific combat power of Marin's army.
After all, in several big victories, they were unprepared enemies who attacked by surprise, and they did not crush them head-on. Therefore, everyone is actually not very confident in their hearts, and they don't know how powerful they are in a direct confrontation with others.
This is also what Marin is extremely worried about. Naturally, no morale is needed to sneak attack the enemy. Because, our own army naturally has an advantage, and even has a sense of superiority in its heart. Even in the bloody Long Street battle that attacked Emden, the Frisian prisoners of war under the unlucky Sivager served as cannon fodder. Therefore, Marin's men have basically never faced the enemy's army face to face.
And in the first front, morale is very, very important. If morale is low, it is easy to collapse after suffering a certain amount of battle damage. But if the morale is high, that is, if they are more confident, even if there are a lot of losses, the soldiers are confident that they will win in the end, then it is easy to finally defeat the opponent...
On the battlefield, apart from comparing skills, tactics and equipment, the most important thing is morale and confidence. Especially in the era of very cruel face-to-face fighting, it is often easier to win whichever army has the highest morale. And if the morale is low, even if the equipment and techniques and tactics are more advanced, it will be useless.
Therefore, Maring risked the disapproval of the world and forged this "miracle" in order to stimulate the originally low morale and increase the chances of winning for himself.
Sure enough, the power of religion was easy to use in ancient times. All of a sudden, Marin's tens of thousands of horses seemed to have been beaten, and he didn't care about the numerical advantage of the Duke of Saxony's army...
The next day, early in the morning, Marin led an army of tens of thousands "full of blood, full of BUFF and full of morale", and confidently marched towards Lyle County...