Rise of Rurik

Antwerp is not only a densely populated city, it is also an important trade node.

People in distant places had no intention of finding out what "Vikings" were. They only knew that the big city was maliciously burned down, and innocent people who had no time to escape were killed.

It was not just Antwerp that was attacked, but the town of Nijmegen, also located in the Maas River Basin, was also viciously massacred and burned.

It seems that attackers will appear at any time. As long as they appear in a village or even a big city, even poultry will be killed, not to mention innocent people.

If it is just a civil war between nobles, the warring parties may not necessarily affect the common people.

However, it turns out that the Vikings targeted everyone indiscriminately. The Maas River Basin was too close to Antwerp. Two years ago, the local lower-level lords fled with their people on a large scale, causing a chain reaction that scared the residents on both sides of the Maas River to move upstream. Area evacuated.

The village priests also don't understand "Vikings". From their understanding, such barbaric and ugly people are probably the devils described in the scriptures.

Some priests preached to nervous people: "They were attacked by the devil because they were not pious enough. Now, we can only go to the cathedral and use our strength to wash away the impurity."

People took it so seriously that they could only trust the priests now. The same priests who preached in this way also continued to strengthen their ideas during their sermons. Everyone's belief attitude became extremely pious, and then came the large immigrants with their families.

People fleeing the disaster are heading towards Maastricht. This city is not only the seat of the bishop of the region, but also a holy place of pilgrimage.

As early as the fourth century, Saint "The Savior" built a Cathedral of the Assumption in the city. It is a Romanesque church with a large number of bracket structures and a towering bell tower. The gray granite walls tell the story of history, and the moss covering them makes it even more antique. Saints became archbishops and saved people in the big world from barbarian invasions, and this is the origin of pilgrimage.

This cathedral is not the only one in the city. Several monasteries and cathedrals are combined to form a center of faith.

But it's not just that, the Roman-era bridge over the Meuse River has long since collapsed and been replaced by a wooden bridge.

Some of the stone piers were renovated, and those that were completely damaged were replaced with wooden piles.

Made of hard oak piers, the bridge is still strong after half a century, but the only drawback is that it is too narrow.

The 100-meter-wide Maas River still requires barges to connect the two places.

There is only one small bridge in the big city. Nowadays, nearby residents are moving here on a large scale because they heard the horrific legends. Many people come to this cathedral as pilgrims to wash away their sins, making the cathedral, which is already busy with daily official duties, even busier.

What alarmed everyone even more was that in the New Year of 842, a large number of troops crossed the bridge from here to the other side.

The Frankish cavalry needed to cross the river as quickly as possible, and the bridge here was narrow, so some cavalry detoured from the bridge at the Liege Fortress to advance separately.

No one knows where this army is going. In short, the area on the left bank of the river has become unstable.

However, Maastricht is rightly called a big city. What would life be like if a population of 100,000 people flooded into it in a short period of time?

It was originally a holy place for pilgrims. However, a large number of slums sprouted outside the solid stone walls of the Roman era. The people who fled suddenly lost their livelihood and had to become humiliating beggars.

Five hundred years later, are new barbarians invading now?

This time Archbishop Gregory maintained a certain degree of rationality. He did not believe in the so-called "devil", but he knew the meaning of "Viking" very well. As members of the elite, the prelates had always known that there was a group of Danes stationed at the mouth of the Rhine, who were the Vikings themselves. Their behavior was obviously curbed, but now they have become rampant for some reasons.

"Did God give me the mission to be the second savior? Can I...save the people here?"

Saint Savatius saved the people and became rich. His tomb is in the Cathedral of Our Lady. The sarcophagus contains a large amount of gold and silver, with Latin instructions carved and gold cast. There is a dazzling array of gold and silver in the church, and even the largest black wooden cross in the mission hall is decorated with a large amount of gold.

The jewels in the church are proof of the city's greatness, but for the archbishop, if those Vikings were bold enough to enter the interior and attack, Maastricht, with its magnificent church and warehouses stocked with large amounts of food, would certainly be attacked. object.

What else can the Archbishop do? Only God knows if and when the Vikings will come, with hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed! The church set up a porridge shed to distribute thick oatmeal porridge. It was still sticky at first, but after entering 842, the porridge gradually became clear and watery.

There are many reasons for this result. First, before the wheat harvest in the golden autumn, the granary managed by the church was being consumed on a large scale. The priests themselves chose an account and determined that if the rationing was not reduced, the entire city's grain reserves before the autumn harvest would be exhausted. exhausted. Will he still have to go to Aachen to borrow food at that time? If Ru Fei has no choice but to do so, the archbishop will not do this.

Secondly, there is the factor of civil war.

Now the various cavalrymen of King Lothair's four banners have arrived at the Brussels Fortress through the bridge, and other infantry are slowly crossing the river.

If this large army were to attack it would have been in action long ago, and it seemed that they were simply facing off against the rebellious Earl of Flanders.

The confrontation between large armies means that money and food will continue to be consumed. The standing army needs military pay. This can be paid after the war, but if there is a lack of military food, everything will be bad.

The dioceses of Liège and Maastricht were asked by King Lothair to pay some grain. The archbishop complied, at the cost of his already stretched grain stocks.

The Archbishop is trying to maintain the status quo, thinking about the threat of the Vikings. What if they really come? A group of able-bodied refugees were organized. They used farm tools as weapons, and there were nearly a thousand armed men. The existence of these people at this stage is entirely to maintain order, and it is precisely because they can get enough food every day.

"As long as you endure until the autumn harvest, everything will be fine!"

However, many innocent people have been buried in mass graves outside the city, and they all died last winter. Even so, the fear of Viking attacks still drove everyone to stay in the city.

Finally, the Vikings arrived.

The army led by Blue Fox didn't care what the situation was in Maastricht. Killing and looting were the purpose of the operation. Nothing could make the soldiers angry more than the empty villages. The anger generated by the failure to loot was just right. Driving everyone to become more and more violent.

At last the first visibly inhabited town appeared.

The longships fluttered Ross flags in large numbers, and the warriors on the oars were as excited as seeing gold and silver when they saw the smoke-filled towns.

Lan Hu breathed a sigh of relief. Standing on the commanding height of the stern of the towed armed cargo ship, he could see very far.

He informed the bannermen: "Start the operation and sack this town."

How to loot? The rule is that there are no rules.

Although Blue Fox is Rurik's personal commander, what he can firmly control is the Russian army, the Gothenburg army, the Finnish army, and the little Danish army led by the disabled Yinval. The Swedish army and the armed fishermen who followed from all walks of life were like a group of bandits, destined to be unorganized and disorganized.

The horns of the entire army were blown, followed by the dull sound of drums. These fantastic sounds were like ghosts from another world.

The targeted settlement is called Roermond, which is the only way for pilgrims to Maastricht in the north. There are also some refugees living in this city. Since the small city has few supplies and is close to the big city, those refugees pass through here to go to the big city. Most of the locals still rely on the river to live an idyllic life.

Of course they had also heard about the Vikings and mass killings, and now they saw a large number of incredible-looking ships suddenly appearing on the river.

Who are these people? Why are there so many ships rushing here?

Could it be the Vikings? !

The bronze bell of the small church in the city rang, and the people who didn't know what was going on stopped what they were doing. Finally, people who were running out of breath rushed into the town, shouting "Viking", and the prepared people finally panicked.

There was no time to get the goods. Foreigners with blond hair and white robes had already landed. They held huge round shields in one hand and shining swords in the other. Although they were completely different from the Frankish heavy-armed warriors, they gave the people the same majestic temperament. .

Finally, when soldiers with crossbows fired at the fleeing people and saw their relatives and friends being knocked down, anyone who was stunned unless his legs were filled with lead from fear began to run to the east.

The attacking Russian army roared and charged, and the monastery in the city became the main direction of attack.

The undefended town of Roermond, a very important "station" on the pilgrimage route, is now completely occupied by the Ross army.

The disorderly robbery had already begun, and the First Flag Troop of the Russian Army's Standing Army, who rushed forward the most, had experienced hundreds of battles and therefore knew best where the gold and silver was.

While the awakened armed fishermen were busy looting people's houses and rummaging through pots and pans, the First Flag Team of the Standing Army had completely taken control of the monastery. Flag Captain Grund ordered the strong warriors to stand like stone pillars at the main and small gates. This army has its own gold and silver. Even if the young Seventh Flag Team wanted to come in to fight against the autumn wind, they were chased away with smiles by these tough veterans of the same race.

Askard, who was holding a sword, was speechless. He led a group of boys outside the gate and yelled and cursed. The curses were quite unpleasant when they were angry.

The "keeper" at the door just kept his mouth shut. If it hadn't been for the eldest son of "Two Swords" Arik, everyone would have slapped him to silence him.

It was Grund who came out aggressively.

"That kid is cursing us to die early?"

"It's me!" Askard refused to change his name: "You are so greedy, you will definitely die early!"

"Really? Boy, you are so weak that you insult others when you can't steal them? Do we still have to give you some gold and silver? You have not made any meritorious service."

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"you!"

"Listen, your Majesty ordered again that everyone in this expedition will rob based on their ability, and half of the proceeds will be returned to the national treasury afterwards. If you don't have your integrity, don't yell!"

"Damn it!" Askard knocked his buckler hard several times and called on his angry subordinates: "Let's go. Go to the next stronghold and plunder hard."

The town of Roermond only has about 500 permanent residents in peacetime. In other words, there are three types of people who settle here: priests, those who have fields at home but go to the city to do small business, and those who provide daily services to passing pilgrims. .

Most of the people do small business. They are farmers at heart. During their spare time, they sell some woodware, cloth, woolen clothes and other daily necessities they know they have.

These daily necessities that had no time to move were looted, and the industrial owners who resolutely protected their wealth were killed.

The blue fox, who is just a small money man, has no greed at all. He doesn't even bother to enter the city, and he doesn't show weakness in the face of the wails of the captured women.

He ordered his subordinates to inform all the nobles: "Set up camp on the spot and bury the stove to cook. All the prisoners will be executed tomorrow. We don't have time to capture them. After that, continue to march."

The town of Roermond is neither close nor far from Maastricht. In principle, the Ross fleet departs in the morning and will arrive in the evening. However, for the towns fleeing, they do not have the ability to hike in one day. Go to the big city.

The next morning, the soldiers who had slept all night boarded the ship one after another.

Blue Fox reboarded the flagship of the armed cargo ship, and when he saw that his troops had been assembled, he ordered to set off.

"Boss, there are still some people on the shore who have not boarded the boat." The guard asked cautiously: "Wait for them?"

"They are all a group of Danish fishermen who have popped up from various places. They are satisfied with looting small villages. Ignore them and let's go."

Blue Fox did not order arson. This was not a good intention, but because the target could be seen from a distance if the smoke billowed.

The soldiers who had eaten breakfast were full of strength. Each of them had a stomach full of boiled oatmeal stewed with peas, and sprinkled some extra salt.

The warriors on the voyage took off their armor one after another. They didn't know when they would reach the target. They only knew that wearing obviously insignificant burdens was completely useless for paddling.

Even among the young soldiers of the Seventh Flag, some simply moved bare-backed. Their immature shoulders and backs had been deliberately tattooed by their parents, with swords, axes, and runes tattooed on them. Warriors with such tattoos seem to be protected by the gods. They are almost all the new generation of mixed-race Rus people. It is precisely because of this that they need tattoo runes to prove their identity.

The young people rowed hard just like their fathers and grandfathers. Asgard didn't know how much strength they had left to reach their destination. However, after being humiliated in the last town, he urgently needed to take his brothers to Maastricht. Get back the ground.

He rowed hard to keep up with the adults, scolding his brother who caused his oars to collide due to laziness.

He also shouted some inspiring words: "If we see a town with a bridge, that will be our goal. We will definitely make a fortune by robbing gold and silver!"

"Hurrah!" The young warrior responded with this special war cry very carefully.

"Is that kid so angry that he wants to kill someone?" Grund smiled knowingly after hearing Askard's roar. He and the veterans will never let go. If there is an opportunity to plunder gold, the brothers will still take it for themselves.

But long-term paddling has continued to consume the strength of the soldiers. Even if the flow of the Maas River is not fast, any carrying will lead to retreat if not forward. In order to avoid collision with the rear boat, everyone must continue to paddle.

Paddling vigorously is a skill that all northerners must master. It is not the arms that exert the force, but the legs pushing on the bottom of the boat and the whole body moving backwards.

The daylight hours in summer are very long. They set out in the morning. Before evening, a big city suddenly appeared in the distance.

The somewhat sleepy Blue Fox who was staying on the flagship was awakened. Standing on the stern deck of the ship, he saw the tower of the church in the distance, a large area of ​​​​the city, and an obvious wooden bridge.

His fatigue disappeared immediately, and he immediately ordered: "Notify everyone to put on their armor quickly, we have to complete the robbery!"

He then said domineering words in a low tone to the people around him: "Tonight, we will spend the night in Maastricht."